Chapter 219: New Trait: Fifty-Fifty
The night was pitch black. The power supply to Little Flower Red Red Building had been cut off, leaving no lighting. The people hiding in the offices were afraid of provoking the mutant animals, so they didn't dare use their phones for light either. Everyone simply stared into the darkness, waiting for the game to end.
"It's almost four o'clock," Jiang Yihua said in a low voice, a hint of excitement in her tone.
"Can you see the energy value of the poison powder?" Xu Huo suddenly asked.
"No, at least it has to be a living thing." Jiang Yihua paused. "You want to go back to the thirteenth floor to get that flower?"
Xu Huo didn't say anything. He got up and left the room.
The xenomorphs outside had long since gone silent. He covered his mouth and nose with a piece of cloth, opened the elevator door, and jumped inside.
The floor of the thirteenth story was covered in a thin layer of golden powder. The ventilation ducts had been punctured, replaced by over a dozen twisted plant roots. The overturned potted plants around were almost all withered.
The purple flower he had wrapped in a plastic bag and placed in the corner had its petals stained with quite a bit of poison powder, but it hadn't died.
Brushing off the poison powder, he picked up the plastic bag just as a game notification arrived:
Congratulations to player Passerby A for successfully clearing the "Little Flower Red Red Building" instance. Based on your performance in this instance, you will receive the new trait "Fifty-Fifty," the item "Nutritious Little Red Pot," and six doses of potions.
Please note: This instance is a random instance and cannot be used for player ranking.
Do you wish to exit the instance?
Yes
No
After choosing to exit the instance, the world before his eyes abruptly returned to that foggy road. Not far away were police tape and flashing red police car lights. He could vaguely see many figures. His phone, which he had left on the roadside, was still there.
People were gradually returning from the instance, and the environment became noisy. Just as he was about to leave, someone gently tapped his shoulder from behind.
The Painting Woman tilted her head as she came around from the side and quickly typed a line of text: "Your stepfather is over by the car."
Xu Huo nodded, put his phone in his pocket, and used the cover of the fog to slip away.
Back home, he first drank two bottles of self-healing agent to ease the pain before taking off his clothes to check his injuries.
He had been kicked twice by that xenomorph. Although his ribs weren't broken, his chest and abdomen were covered in large bruises, which were now somewhat swollen.
The Painting Woman went to get a bag of ice and brought it over. She made him lie down, placed the ice on his chest, and typed on her phone: "You look so miserable."
Xu Huo pointed to the flower in the plastic bag. "Do you recognize it?"
The Painting Woman shook her head, then typed: "But I've seen a similar one before. However, the leaves of that other person's flower were all red."
"What about the size?"
"About the same size."
"Where did you see it?"
"I don't remember that either." The Painting Woman shook her head again. "I'm asleep most of the time."
From the bits and pieces of daily conversation, Xu Huo knew that the Painting Woman had followed many people and been to many places. But her mobile form was a painting. During her travels, she was mostly stored in an item slot or carried in the form of paper. She didn't pay attention to things and didn't remember events. It didn't matter who she followed or where she went.
Seeing that he couldn't get any more information, he set the matter aside for now and said, "Get me something to eat. No snacks."
The Painting Woman happily went off and returned with a bowl of porridge and a large bag of snacks. She gave him the plain porridge, then sat beside him, hugging the snacks and eating them herself.
Xu Huo glanced at her, poured the remaining ice into the trash can, and only after eating did he check the rewards from this instance.
"Fifty-Fifty" was an extended trait of "Informed Perspective":
Sharp insight and observation are indispensable hard requirements for being an informed person, but wild intuition is also essential.
Science shows that intuition is the implicit feedback given by the human brain based on all the information it has obtained. For humans, it has no basis, but for the brain, it is the result of precise calculations.
However, any calculation can be wrong, and intuition certainly can be. Therefore, when encountering dangerous situations, the "Fifty-Fifty" intuition will have a fifty percent accuracy rate.
Note: The accuracy rate of an ordinary person's intuition is less than twenty percent.
Comparing the two figures, the "Fifty-Fifty" trait seemed quite good.
He also agreed that intuition is the brain's filtered feedback on information. If the accuracy rate of "Fifty-Fifty" could reach as high as it claimed, this trait was more like a form of brain evolution.
However, fifty-fifty also meant a fifty percent error rate. In actual situations, choosing correctly or incorrectly was absolute.
After reviewing the trait, he took out the "Nutritious Little Red Pot."
This item was just a flowerpot. However, it could supply the nutrients needed for plant growth without needing fertilizer. It only needed occasional watering.
Xu Huo took the purple flower out of the plastic bag and planted it.
This flower had been mixed in with other plants and couldn't be killed by the man-eating flower's poison powder. Although there was no record of it in the glass greenhouse, it probably wasn't planted there by accident.
Because the game introduction mentioned that the first mutated plant cultivated by Professor Hao produced flowers that weren't red, he also thought Professor Hao might be colorblind, and that the man-eating flower was the source of the building's name. But in reality, this guess might not be correct.
If Professor Hao were colorblind, there would be no need to paint the two doors connecting the glass greenhouse to the building in different colors.
Of course, just having two painted doors wasn't enough to conclude he wasn't colorblind.
But adding this purple flower, the game's introduction seemed to have a different meaning.
The roots of the purple flower were red, but the flowers it produced were purple. The Painting Woman said she had seen the same flower with all red leaves. And when he was cleaning the soil just now, he noticed that the red part on the flower's roots had shrunk by a section compared to in the instance, and the color had clearly changed.
This matched the naming origin of Little Flower Red Red Building.
This purple flower was at least a special type of mutated plant. So, even though the game labeled it as an "Unknown Plant," he still brought the flower out.
After potting the flower, he poured a dose of nutrient supplement into the pot.
Besides the trait and item, the potions in the game rewards included P1 evolution agent, D-grade self-healing agent, cleaning agent, and a few doses of plant nutrient supplement.
He had only brought out a flower, but the game had provided both the pot and the nutrients.
Just as he placed the flowerpot on the balcony, Team Leader Wu called. "You sure got away fast. We specifically waited near the instance entrance to block you, but we couldn't catch you."
"I had something to take care of and left first." Xu Huo paused. "Is there something you need?"
"I know the general situation of this instance. Everyone who came out, whether players or non-players, needs psychological counseling. How about you..."
"No need," Xu Huo replied.
"Actually, Tang Guangbo is quite capable. If you have any problems, you can talk to him." Team Leader Wu paused again. "This time, two players who should have come out are missing. The other players don't know what happened. I wanted to ask you."