Forced into a romantic relationship.

Chapter 42 Official Certification

The monthly shop is now open; refresh time remaining: 717 hours.

【Product 1: Temporary Status Fixer (Basic Level), a one-time use item. After use, it can lock any current status, temporarily fixing it for 30 days. Note that the status cannot exceed the critical limit, and it cannot be modified again during the locked period. Price: 20 points】

【Product 2: Unlockable Person Detector, a one-time use item. After use, it will automatically screen unlockable persons within a 10-kilometer radius and obtain their names. If the distance between you and any unlockable person is less than one kilometer, the detector will issue a warning. Price: 15 points】

【Item 3: Detection Radar, a one-time use item, requires the use of the unlockable character detector. Once activated, it will continuously display the real-time location of all unlockable characters within a 10-kilometer radius for 10 minutes. Price: 15 points】

【Item 4: Status Bar Slot Expander, permanent item. After use, it expands the status bar slot by one and increases the number of random statuses that can be selected. Price: 50 points. Price doubles for the second purchase】

【Item 5: Strength Pill, single-use item. After consumption, it can effectively promote wound healing, quickly replenish energy, improve the body's immunity to a certain extent, slightly enhance physical attributes, and greatly increase endurance! The effect lasts for twelve hours. One pill at a time. Multiple doses during the duration of the effect do not stack. Long-term use can permanently improve health attributes. Price: 2 points】

Han Zhou was sitting on the subway. He clearly had speed reading skills, but he still managed to read all the text information word by word in a minute.

After reviewing all the product information, he breathed a sigh of relief, clenched his fist tightly, and almost couldn't contain his excitement. If he hadn't remembered that he was on the subway, he might have shouted out in excitement.

"As expected, there really is a way to cure terminal illness... It wasn't for nothing that I went to all that trouble to upgrade my status bar to level three."

Han Zhou muttered to himself, his gaze behind his sunglasses fixed on the temporary status solidifier, one of the most attractive items among the five products in the store.

The function of this thing is not hard to understand: it can lock any state, making it unchangeable for thirty days. Obviously, it is specifically designed to fix the modified state.

In other words, with this thing, Han Zhou will no longer need to precisely change the status every day. He only needs to spend 20 points to buy a solidifier and then spend 2 points to modify it once, which will fix the "on the verge of death" status to "on the verge of death" and maintain it for a full 30 days.

During these thirty days, he will no longer have to worry about the threat of terminal illness.

Although it's still just a temporary status, it's so much better than having to change the status every day for thirty days. It saves a full forty points, which alone makes it worthwhile.

He could even go beyond being "on the verge of death" and spend more points to solidify his state into "on the verge of death" or even a more powerful state, becoming a "superman" for thirty days.

This approach would undoubtedly offer the best cost-effectiveness, but it's probably impossible to achieve. Han Zhou hadn't forgotten the "cannot exceed the critical limit" notice in the product information, which meant that there were limits to the modification of the status. He just didn't know where that critical point was.

However, even if he could only be in a state of barely maintaining health, like being on the verge of death, it would be enough for Han Zhou. He could forget about his terminal illness during these thirty days and use the points he saved for other things.

While there are some downsides, namely that the fixed state cannot be changed at any time, overall the advantages outweigh the disadvantages.

If that were all, it wouldn't have made Han Zhou so excited. After all, thirty days is only temporary. What really excited him was product number five: the Power Pill.

It's not because the "power pill" can significantly increase stamina, but because of the claim that "long-term use can permanently improve health attributes."

This effect was what truly caught Han Zhou's eye.

Although the health attribute has never appeared in the status bar, as the name suggests, it must be related to health value, which is a numerical value used to reflect a person's health level. The higher the value, the healthier the person.

One thing is certain: without any changes to his stats, Han Zhou's current health attributes are extremely low, because he suffers from a terminal illness that could kill him at any moment.

Is it possible that...?

If he takes the Power Pill continuously, and his health attribute keeps increasing, will his terminal illness disappear once his health attribute reaches a certain value?

Of course it's possible!

Health stats can also be seen as a state, and the status bar has the ability to modify the state and thus affect reality!

Han Zhou became more and more excited as he thought about it; this method should be feasible.

Then the next step is clear—

First, use a temporary status fixer to lock the status and maintain health for one month. During this period, save the points that were originally used to modify the status and exchange them for a powerful pill.

He takes one pill every twelve hours, two pills a day, gradually improving his health. Over time, he will eventually be able to overcome his terminal illness.

Even if you can't get rid of the terminal illness, it doesn't matter. Just treat it as recuperation. You can continue to upgrade the status bar later. This time it's a temporary status solidifier. Will it be far away to upgrade to a permanent status solidifier?

However, the points required to upgrade the status bar to level four are ridiculously high, requiring a full 500 points, so it's definitely not something I can count on for now.

Temporary solidification device and "power pills" are the two items Han Zhou needs most right now, and they are also his hope for getting rid of his terminal illness. As for other items, he doesn't need them for the time being.

The detector and radar actually need to be used together. Isn't this just a way to rack up points? The expansion slots seem pretty good, but fifty points is really daunting. He didn't even dare to look at them for long.

These things aren't useless, it's just that he doesn't need them right now, and he doesn't have any extra points to redeem them.

Han Zhou currently has 21 points, which is enough to exchange for a temporary status solidifier, but he is not in a hurry to exchange for it, otherwise he will only have 1 point left and will be unable to do anything.

In case of unforeseen circumstances, or if the effect of the hardener is not as he expected, things could get bad. Therefore, he decided to accumulate some points in advance to avoid the embarrassing situation of not having enough points to modify the status.

Since we're talking about points, the next thing to focus on is the new section added to the third-level status bar – the task acceptance channel.

[New quest acquisition channels: Increased probability of triggering temporary quests for unlockable characters; Daily event quests have a certain probability of triggering, and event quests are no longer limited to unlockable characters. The probability of triggering event quests will be increased when interacting with characters with high affinity.]

Temporary tasks, event tasks...

Han Zhou smiled. His biggest headache before was not having a quick way to gain points. The daily tasks gave too few points, and the side tasks were too difficult, monotonous, and took too long to complete.

I did see temporary tasks once with Mo Yixia, but only once. This made Han Zhou too passive in the past. He could only get so many points every day, so he had to collect them all like he was checking in every day.

With more ways to obtain tasks, it means he might be more free in the future and won't have to be so fixated on daily tasks. Of course, every little bit counts, and he'll still try to get the points he can.

It seems that the content updated in the three-level status bar meets his current needs quite well...

The last new addition is the inclusion of job status and random status.

[Added selection of job status and random status]

[Job Status: The job section is now available. You can add any job to the status bar as a status. Cooldown period: 10 days]

[Random Status: Three temporary statuses will be randomly refreshed every three calendar days. You can choose to add one of them to the status bar to fill it or change it, or you can choose not to change it.]

Han Zhou thoughtfully opened his status bar.

【Name: Han Zhou】

【Intelligence: 7】

【Charm: 7】

Stamina: 3 (Weak)

[Skills: Efficient learning, culinary expertise, speed reading, practical medical knowledge gained through experience, powerful throwing ability, photographic memory]

[Occupations: Prospective college student, temporary tutor, home cook, elite simp]

Item: None

[Current Status: On the verge of death (modified) → On the verge of death: Ten breaths remaining, can survive for one day, will enter a near-death state after twenty-four hours]

[Note that the random status will be refreshed in 21 hours.]

[Status bar level: 3, current points remaining: 21]

Compared to the two-level status bar, the three-level status bar has two more sections: [Occupation] and [Inventory]. The inventory is probably used to store purchased items. Han Zhou currently has nothing, so it is empty.

But his profession was somewhat unexpected for Han Zhou.

The status bar's definition of occupation seems rather vague. Strictly speaking, Han Zhou's only legitimate occupation right now is college student. The occupation of temporary tutor is also acceptable. As for home chef, it's probably an extension of the "cooking skills" skill, which is also acceptable.

The broad job classification is actually a good thing for him, since these can all be modified as statuses, and the more jobs he has, the more statuses he can choose from.

However, there was one thing Han Zhou couldn't understand: something strange seemed to have snuck into the profession section...

Can anyone tell me when being a "simp" became a profession?

and also……

When did I become an elite sycophant?

Chapter 43: Maybe it's because I don't look like the female lead.

The elevators in Huadu residential area were working fine today.

When Han Zhou arrived at Gu Zheng's house, the class monitor was wearing a bear apron and making soup in the kitchen. The rich aroma wafted into the living room.

Why did you suddenly start cooking?

Han Zhou wiped his sweat with a tissue, went under the air conditioner to cool off for a while, and finally went into the kitchen to observe. The more he looked, the more curious he became.

It's quite rare to see a guzheng player wearing an apron.

Although he knew this guy could cook, he rarely saw him cook. Usually, Guzheng's mother was in charge of cooking, and Guzheng was only responsible for washing the dishes.

"What do you mean by suddenly starting to cook? I just rarely cook well, it's not like I can't."

The soup pot was bubbling and steaming. Gu Zheng felt underestimated. While chopping carrots, she said, "My mom actually said before she left home today that my cooking is definitely not as good as hers, so I specially bought some vegetables to let her taste them and face reality."

As she said this, a cold smile appeared on her face.

If I'm not mistaken, your auntie was simply too lazy to cook today, which is why she said those things on purpose to provoke you...

Gu Zheng herself probably knew that this was a provocation tactic, but it still worked on her time and time again.

Han Zhou shook his head inwardly, looked around, and asked in confusion, "Aren't your parents home today?"

It's 4:30 now. Usually, if Guzheng isn't away on a business trip, one of her parents should be home at this time. For example, yesterday Guzheng's mother was chopping ribs in the kitchen right now.

"They said they were busy today and couldn't leave. They probably won't be back until six or seven o'clock."

Gu Zheng glanced at him. "By the way, my mom specifically instructed that you must stay at my house for dinner today and judge whose cooking skills are better, mine or hers."

Han Zhou observed her chopping vegetables and found that her knife skills were quite superb. She chopped vegetables cleanly and neatly, which meant she must have practiced a lot. He figured the food she made wouldn't be bad either.

But he wasn't interested in being a referee. Neither of the mother and daughter were easy to deal with, so he declined, saying, "Uncle Gu is enough as a referee, I won't get involved."

"no!"

Gu Zheng scoffed and said with a pout, "My dad, that coward, will definitely side with my mom unconditionally. That kind of judge is useless. You're much more impartial than him. You'll definitely praise my cooking as being better."

Han Zhou smirked: "So, the so-called fairness in your mind is unconditionally favoring you, is that it...?"

Gu Zheng rolled her eyes: "Anyway, you have to stay. I rarely cook, and this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Don't regret it later."

"Alright, alright, I didn't say I wouldn't stay. But I'm a very impartial person and I will never deliberately favor anyone. You should be prepared."

Han Zhou didn't stand on ceremony; after all, he often ate at Gu Zheng's house, so there was no reason for him to feel embarrassed.

He boasted for a few moments with righteous indignation, then, seeing an apron in the kitchen, eagerly offered, "Need any help? My cooking skills may not be as good as yours, but I'm sure I can manage."

"You're very self-aware."

Gu Zheng smiled, her eyes crinkling, and divided the chopped vegetables into different plates. She took off her bear apron and said while washing her hands, "But no need. The soup takes a long time to make, so we need to prepare it in advance. There's no need to rush the other dishes. We can prepare them when my parents are almost back. Let's rest for a bit first."

Han Zhou had no choice but to give up.

The two walked out of the kitchen. Gu Zheng looked up at him for a while, then suddenly said with a look of disgust, "Could you take off those ugly sunglasses?"