Rebirth 08: Equipment God

Chapter 130 New Equipment and New Features

"Come on, boys, do the carrying, girls, do the arranging. Everyone go to Wu Yue's place and get your gloves. No gloves, no work."

"There are two different sizes of tables and chairs. Just make sure they are consistent in every classroom. There are no other rules."

"Move everything except the tables and chairs to the side storage room. Fan Junwei, we'll take the refrigerator together."

The truck driver didn't wait for everything to be packed up before driving off immediately after the teenagers had placed their things in the yard.

Zhai Da set a basic rule for arranging the tables and chairs, and then handed it over to Chu Xiang to direct. At a previous class reunion, Zhai Da discovered that Chu Xiang had a talent for organization and coordination, after all, he had been a class leader who had been acting as a figurehead for several years.

Half an hour later, while the outside was still bustling with activity, the storage room was now filled with all sorts of things that seemed unrelated to the “educational institution”—hundreds of items of all sizes.

The others went outside to continue helping, leaving only Zhai Da and Lu Wei behind.

Lu Wei squatted in front of a square, old wooden dressing table, her expression complicated as she ran her fingers over the edges. There was a noticeable chip on one of the edges, and the wood was broken a few centimeters apart.

Her face remained expressionless, but there was a hint of heartache in her eyes.

Zhai Da sighed and said, "I asked Wu Yue, and it wasn't them who did it. It was already there when they took it out of the court's warehouse. They even asked us if we wanted it or not, and offered a refund if we didn't. I said of course we wanted it."

Lu Wei said softly, "It's already very good that you can come back."

Zhai Da said, "The truck didn't want to go to the second location, so I had Wu Yue contact a van to transport it home later. You can pick and choose which ones to take back."

Lu Wei nodded. That day, she selected more than 40 items, all of which could be considered her mother's belongings, including some old clothes.

After the family has completely disappeared, it is already a stroke of luck to be able to find some traces.

No. Perhaps it wasn't just good fortune, but rather something Zhai Da brought her.

Lu Wei turned to look at Zhai Da and said very seriously, "Thank you."

Zhai Da chuckled and said, "Just talk."

Before she could finish speaking, Lu Wei hugged Zhai Da.

It was brief, but intense.

Zhai Da froze for a moment, then relaxed.
There was also a touch of warmth in his eyes:
"No need for thanks. Didn't I already say that you used your own hard-earned money to mend your own wounds? It was all earned with your tutoring salary."

Lu Wei simply shook her head.

Money isn't what fills the cracks.

are people.

Everything has cracks, that's how the light gets in.

Every broken person is probably waiting for their own little sun.

Zhai Da patted Lu Wei on the shoulder: "Go and pack your things, see what you need to take home."

Lu Wei nodded and began arranging her things, with Zhai Da having reserved a special corner for her.

Zhai Da himself also needs to sort things out, such as picking out "special items" from his eighty auctioned items of various sizes.

Zhai Da opened a combination cabinet made of "redwood" in the physical sense, which is red wood. This was the most expensive and largest item in his auctioned items, and it took four people to move it.

Unfortunately, this is not a special item.

But what he casually put into the drawer was...

I opened the drawer, and there lay a thread-bound antique-style book.

The silk cover is fairly clean, somewhat like the "Forty-Two Chapters Sutra" from a TV series, but the edges of the paper pages are already damaged, indicating that it has been frequently read and has a long history.

The front has four characters written on it: "Yang House, Yin Tomb".

"Congratulations, host, you have discovered a special white item [Yang House Yin Tomb]: Feng Shui masters have been studying books for twenty years, and finally found that fraud is the fastest way to make money."

Ownership: Owned, activated.

"Equipment effect: Holding a living person in your arms slightly improves sleep quality; holding a dead person in your arms greatly slows down the rate of decay."

"Note: It's actually working now, but the content inside is still complete rubbish. Don't believe a word of it."

The book, described by the court as an "antique-style book of unknown origin," is not wrong in itself. Twenty years is far from being an antique, and its contents cannot be verified.

The auction price is 5 yuan.

Zhai Da initially adopted a broad-based strategy, taking the photo simply because the name sounded odd.

Upon inspection today, the results are indeed quite strange.
First, let's talk about the "living person sleeps soundly" rule. Unless you have insomnia, you don't really need to use it. The trigger mechanism requires holding someone, which is complicated to explain. You can only use it yourself.

Zhai Da now goes to bed early and gets up early, exercises regularly, and sleeps as well as if he were in a coma every night.

The saying "dead people decompose slowly" is not only useless for chicken necks, but also considered unlucky.

But this effect on the dead reminded him of something.

[Old Yu was executed by firing squad].
That "strange equipment" that's still sitting by the roadside, with no idea how to get it and seemingly no need to get it.

The corpse under the tree decomposes 300% faster, and the probability of accidents within the area increases by 50%. Also, because it is a special blue item, it is not possible to see all the information directly.

I wonder if these two can be combined.
The second piece of equipment among the auctioned items was a "loudspeaker".

It's one of those handheld megaphones that can record and repeat audio, and play four different electronic songs: "Für Elise," "Orchid Grass," "Happy Birthday to You," and "Only Mother is Good in the World."

Same model as the water sprinkler truck.

The megaphone is white, while the handheld handle is red, very traditional. The starting bid is four yuan. "Congratulations, host, a special white item has been discovered [Intimidation Microphone]: The leader of a telecom fraud gang successfully amassed a fortune that he could never spend in a lifetime through coercion, suppression, and PUA."

Ownership: Owned, activated.

"Equipment effect: When speaking through this megaphone, the more offensive the insults you use, the more obedient the other party will be."

"Note: Be careful, swearing isn't just about using vulgar language; it's time to show off your literary skills."

Zhai Da picked it up and looked at it. There were even batteries inside. He opened it and tried it: "HELLO~"

Lu Wei turned around.

Zhai Da gave a thumbs-up into the microphone: "I noticed you've gained weight earlier. Your weight gain is showing initial results. Keep up the good work!"

Moreover, it grew in the place it should have grown.

Lu Wei:
Hmm. The voice is very loud.

This is a good thing; the students of Utopia will be blessed in the future.

The third piece of equipment was an unexpected surprise, because it didn't come from the auctioned items, but from a set of old tables and chairs that Wu Yue bought back. Strictly speaking, only three of the eighty auctioned items were actually sold.

Zhai Da just pulled it out separately and put it in the storage room; we haven't figured out how to use it yet.

"Congratulations, host. A special white item has been discovered: [Students' Seats]: When this set of desks and chairs was still in school, it was always placed next to the teacher's podium and was sat on by more than a dozen of the worst students in the class."

Ownership: Owned, activated.

"Equipment effect: It must be used in combination to take effect. The table or chair alone will not work. It slightly increases the probability of unruly students repenting and greatly increases the probability of unruly students getting acne."

"Note: Even if you fart, the teacher smells it first. I'm asking you if you're under a lot of pressure."

This equipment is somewhat compatible with "Utopia," but its effectiveness is limited. He runs a summer intensive education base, not the Thunder King Internet Addiction Treatment Center, so he can do without particularly unruly students.
It's not compulsory education, so there's no time to help people reform themselves.

So he decided to leave it in the storage room for the time being.

As for the last piece of equipment, unfortunately, it wasn't the long-awaited "(refrigerator) tool for committing the crime".

He instructed Wu Yue to inquire about the refrigerator when picking it up, and the reply from the Intermediate People's Court was that the refrigerator was the subject of an execution in a case involving the hunting and trading of protected animals.

It used to contain the carcasses of many wild animals.

The reason it's being sold for one dollar is because it has a problem: it makes a loud noise when starting up, and the cooling effect is almost nonexistent. The case is from three years ago, and it has already been auctioned four times but failed to sell. In the end, the price was gradually reduced to one dollar, just to go through the motions.

It is said that the suspect was arrested because the refrigeration system malfunctioned, causing the animal carcasses inside to decompose severely. He had gone out hunting and had not returned, so his neighbors thought he had died at home because of the stench, which led to the police calling the police.

So Zhai Da didn't want to open it at all. Even if it had been cleaned, it would probably still smell bad inside. He would see if Xu Xuejun wanted it later, or maybe he would just dispose of it as scrap metal.

Getting back to the main point, the fourth piece of equipment is a key.

Made of pure metal, it looks extremely strange, with not only serrations on the front but also horizontal grooves on the sides, and even indentations on the grooves.

It's like combining the features of a regular key and a security key, and it's also narrower, thinner, and longer than a regular key.

It wasn't a standalone auction item, but rather included in a "toolbox" and was quite inconspicuous.

During the transport back to Dongyang County, the toolbox was jostled and scattered, which is why Zhai Da saw it as soon as the carriage door was opened.

He had never seen a key like this before; it had a “handmade” feel to it and must have been specially made.

The information provided by the system confirmed his guess.

"Congratulations, host. We have discovered a special white item called 'Master Key': the unique skill passed down by a legendary thief who later retired from the life of thieves and started a security door factory. He was eventually executed for tax evasion."

Ownership: Owned, activated.

"Equipment effect: After a few tries, as long as you can insert it, you can open most mechanical locks."

"Note: Although he has been arrested, the police still do not know how much he has stolen."

This is a good thing; you may not need it, but you can't live without it.

It might save a life if needed.

As Zhai Da picked up the equipment, a new notification popped up from the system.

“A new set component has been detected in the host. The information for the set ‘Mystic Code’ (4/6) has been updated.”

"The new component enhances the [Master Key]: It's so small that it will always be overlooked during body searches, security checks, or even if you actively turn it out of your pocket, giving you a chance to escape."

"New Set Effect → 'Thrilling but No Danger': As long as you stay within the reasonable flow of your designed magic trick, you will not encounter any danger. Whether you are thrown underwater with your hands locked or jumped from a hundred-meter-high building, you will always escape in a thrilling way. The only ones who will be scared are the audience."

"Note: You're one step closer to becoming the Phantom Thief Kid. Now you can start making your own hang glider and playing card pistol. Be brave, and you'll escape unscathed!"

"The system has detected that the host has more than 15 pieces of equipment. New system function: On/Off."

"Now you can not only view the location of all equipment in the equipment list, but also manually turn the effects of any equipment on or off, whether they are with you or not."

"The on/off function applies to all effects of the equipment. Equipment with multiple effects cannot have a specific ability to be on/off."

"Collect more equipment, increase its rarity, and find sets to unlock more system features."

　I'll revise Chapter Two a little later, on a whim.

　　Also, brother~ brother~
　　Being handsome must mean getting lots of votes.

　　My sister won't be angry, so give them all to me~
　　
　
(End of this chapter)