080 Scrolling Until Nausea

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Skill Targeted Sniping, Category 2, Mode 3, experience maxed out, now fully merging with the Dreamer.

At last—finally, the understanding Yang Tang had long awaited dawned upon him. Standing atop the small mound, his archery stance froze abruptly. He dropped to his knees, mouth agape, utterly unrestrained as he vomited violently.

The Scarred Hands technique and the three shooting modes of Targeted Sniping had finally reached full experience. Yang Tang felt an immense weight lifted from his shoulders, as if he had finally glimpsed daylight after a long darkness.

Once fully merged, Scarred Hands had become a fifty-fold enhanced skill: no casting time, instantaneous activation, zero mana consumption, with a maximum attack range of thirty zhang—about one hundred meters. In other words, Yang Tang could teleport across sixty zhang in a straight line—see Chapter 015 for details—and would incidentally eliminate any target standing at the midpoint of that line.

Accordingly, with all three shooting modes of Targeted Sniping maxed out, not only did the attack range increase, but each mode now came with two desired properties: “Powerful Penetration” and “Bone-Clinging Decay.”

What does “at will” mean? It means that with each arrow, Yang Tang could choose to add either or both of these attributes, or none at all, as he pleased.

One must understand—even homing missiles can be dodged. Never underestimate “Powerful Penetration” and “Bone-Clinging Decay”—they reduce the chance of an arrow being evaded from one in a hundred to one in ten thousand.

More importantly, now that Scarred Hands and Targeted Sniping had reached full experience and fully merged with Yang Tang, both skills became instinctual, as natural as breathing.

But the price for mastering these instincts was heavy. Afterward, Yang Tang lay sprawled on the mound, retching for more than ten minutes before he finally began to recover. Upon returning to the Rogue Encampment, even seeing someone like Kashya, who was humanoid, triggered a predatory urge in him, as if she were just another monster to be slaughtered.

Kashya had given Yang Tang three tasks. The first was to hunt down Nightmare-level Fallen Shamans. At the time, Yang Tang hadn’t understood the meaning of “Fallen Shamans trapped in a nightmare,” but after accidentally one-shotting a Nightmare-level shaman and completing the quest, realization dawned.

Next, Kashya ordered him to kill Hell-level Flesh Hunters and the Blood King. If this had been before his skills were maxed, Yang Tang might have struggled with these foes. But now, armed with his bow and attacking from extreme distances, he easily destroyed both the Flesh Hunters and the Blood King.

After completing Kashya’s quests, things became straightforward. Yang Tang idly chatted with her for about half an hour before his Insight notified him that the skill Evasion had finished duplicating.

Would the Dreamer now leave the dream?

“Yes,” Yang Tang answered slyly. Although he regretted that his newly acquired Evasion skill could no longer be merged through monster grinding, his mind was occupied by another concern—whether the two pieces of top-tier equipment he’d secretly stashed in his Nameless Ring could be taken out of the dream.

Attention, Dreamer: upon leaving the dream, non-stackable items in your storage will be automatically erased. Stackable items will have only a one ten-thousandth chance of being retained!

Well, there went Yang Tang’s hopes.

In Diablo II, even healing and mana potions can’t be stacked. Only throwing items like gas and venom potions can be stacked, but according to the rules, out of ten thousand bottles, only one could be brought out. Why bother? Upon reflection, the most feasible thing Yang Tang could bring out was gold.

Since Yang Tang himself had no “level” limit, he wasn’t constrained like “game characters” when it came to carrying gold. He’d slaughtered tens of millions of monsters grinding his skills, and the gold slot in his Nameless Ring had counted into the hundreds of millions without any issue. But following the one-in-ten-thousand rule, he could only bring out at most ten thousand gold coins—not exactly life-changing in the real world.

Regretful that his hundreds of millions in gold would go to waste, Yang Tang paid one more visit to Gheed before leaving. The gambling window, filled with unidentified gear—especially rings and belts—made his mouth water with envy.

Despite knowing he couldn’t take anything out of the dream, Yang Tang couldn’t resist gambling on two rings. Both turned out to be minor rare items, worth at most a thousand coins each if sold back to Gheed.

“Hey, Gheed, my friend, this isn’t right! I only spent two hundred or so for a belt before, but now you’ve taken nearly four hundred thousand gold for just two rings?”

“Heh, my dear friend, my gambling odds always depend on the size of your wallet. I could have taken four million from you, you should be grateful for the discount!”

Yang Tang was momentarily stunned, realizing that Gheed had indeed given him a huge break on the belt earlier. “Oh, Gheed, to thank you for your generosity, I’ve decided to gamble fifty million gold worth of gear at your stall!”

At these words, Gheed’s eyes gleamed with greed.

Finally, Yang Tang returned to the golden haze. It felt as though countless ages had passed in that dream—he exhaled deeply in relief.

“I want to exchange for a skill!”

Currently, only one skill is available for exchange, which will cost 161 merit-sin points. Please confirm whether to proceed.

“Proceed.”

As dream level 6 is not a multiple of five, skill enhancement is unavailable during exchange. Please confirm.

“Confirm.”

Deducting 161 sin points—exchanging for Evasion!

You now have 2.9 merit points and 325.5 sin points remaining.

In the seventh dream, exchanging a single skill will cost 177.1 merit-sin points!

Would you like to solidify the Evasion skill?

“Solidify.”

Skill solidification will take two hours and six minutes.

Skills cannot be used until solidification is complete.

One skill solidification slot used!

Solidification in progress.

Currently, 34 skill solidification slots remain!

On June 7th, just before 5 a.m., after having exited the sixth dream long before, Yang Tang’s brain, thoroughly rested for five or six hours, finally shifted from “deep sleep” to “light rest.” He began to awaken.

In his drowsiness, Yang Tang seemed to hear his mother’s sobs and murmurs.

“Xiao Hong, Xiao Hong, the college entrance exam isn’t important. All I want is for you to get better, to bounce around full of life, that’s all I wish for.”

“Xiao Hong, the doctor says if you don’t wake up in another day, you might become a vegetable.”

“Well, if you do, then so be it. Even if you’re bedridden, I can take care of you for another ten or twenty years. That’s still better than having a white-haired mother bury her black-haired son.”

At first, Yang Tang thought he was hallucinating, but his mother’s voice grew ever clearer until he suddenly understood what was happening. A wave of sorrow flooded his chest. He snapped his eyes open and, seeing his mother at his bedside, tears burst forth. “Mom!”

His mother trembled, and in the dim light from the hallway, looked at Yang Tang in disbelief. “Xiao Hong, you—you’re awake?!”

“Yes!”

Soon after, Yang Jixue rushed in, leading to a scene of tearful joy.

By seven in the morning, after much commotion, Yang’s father brought breakfast, and the family of three shared the meal. Yang Tang said, “Mom, Dad, there are only a few hours left before the college entrance exam. I want to be discharged.”

“No way!” His mother was the first to object. “Xiao Hong, you were just in a coma. The hospital hasn’t found anything concrete yet. You need to stay for observation! As for the exam—”

“As for the exam—” Yang Jixue picked up the thread, “Xiao Hong, I know your mock exam scores have improved a lot. If you really want to get into a top university, you can always repeat the year. Your health is more important right now!”

“Mom, Dad, I know you mean well, but I’m awake now and feel perfectly fine. With the exam so close, you can’t really ask me not to give it my best shot, can you?” Yang Tang reasoned with them gently, not taking matters into his own hands. “If I can get into a top university this year, why waste another year repeating?”

Hearing this, his parents hesitated. “But what if your health fails again and you pass out during the exam?”

Yang Tang knew that was impossible but couldn’t make such a promise. He said, “How about I apply for special exam accommodations through the school?”

Yang Jixue brightened. “That could work, but honestly, your teachers were never especially fond of you. They may not agree to make special arrangements. Maybe I should find someone to help.”

Had his father not mentioned finding connections, Yang Tang might not have thought of Education Director Song Chushi. “I’ll try to find someone, too!” he said, picking up his mother’s phone from the bedside table.

His father scoffed, saying nothing more. His mother, however, couldn’t help but pinch Yang Tang’s arm, scolding, “You rascal, who do you know that could arrange for your college entrance exam?”

Yang Tang didn’t bother to explain. If nothing came of it, words were pointless. He dialed Song Chushi’s number, but the line was busy. After some hesitation, he called Old Man Yan.

Yan Yunsong was surprised to get Yang Tang’s call, and joked, “You rascal, today’s the college entrance exam. What brings you to call this old man?”

“I wouldn’t be calling if it weren’t urgent,” Yang Tang replied, feigning weakness and explaining the situation.

“What?!” Old Yan was shocked after hearing the whole story. “You’ve been asleep for over thirty hours, nearly dead? For real?”

“I’m literally in the hospital right now, what do you think?” Yang Tang said, annoyed.

“Which hospital?”

“Second Workers’.”

“You mean the tumor hospital?”

“Obviously.”

“All right, I’ll look into it right away. If it’s really as you say, I’ll take care of the exam arrangements for you, all right?”

“Thank you, Old Yan, thank you so much!”

In the sixth dream, the number of skill solidification slots was 616143, and the skills Yang Tang currently possessed were: Scarred Hands, Targeted Sniping, Super Memory, Eagle Eye, Immortal Melody, Cleansing, Qinglong’s Lyric, King of Hackers, Inner Vision, and Evasion—a total of nine skills.

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