Chapter 90
Chapter 90
Not bad. He had triggered two attribute increases at once.
But…
How was he supposed to deal with the drowsiness now?
Extreme Drowsiness acted directly on the mind rather than merely tiring the body, making it extremely difficult to resist.
Qin Lan himself would probably be fine.
His Spirit was already high. If he fought with everything he had, enduring until the end of the period might be possible.
But Xue Chuan…
“To activate Verbal Condemnation, I have to speak. That might count as breaking discipline…”
Qin Lan kept his head lowered and sank into thought.
He had planned to use a mild mental attack to stimulate Xue Chuan and keep him awake, only to realize the idea would be difficult to execute.
Verbal Condemnation required the user to address a specific target.
Meaningless sounds like coughs and sneezes could not activate it.
That made it all too easy to disrupt the discipline of self-study and be instantly killed by the Student Council Monitor.
Tilting his head slightly, Qin Lan saw from the corner of his eye that Xue Chuan had already begun swaying and twitching with fatigue.
His heart rose into his throat.
“He still has a Death-Substitution Doll. At least it can block one attack…”
“I wonder if he has any other way to deal with this.”
Meanwhile, the Student Council Monitor continued killing the student ghosts seated around them. Almost every one had succumbed to the drowsiness.
Even ghosts could not endure it, much less an ordinary human like Xue Chuan.
Time passed.
Xue Chuan gritted his teeth and reached into his pocket.
“What is that?”
Qin Lan paused when he saw Xue Chuan pull out a tube of… green toothpaste?
Before he could think further, Xue Chuan twisted off the cap, squeezed out a small dollop of unknown paste, and gave it a savage lick.
The next second, Xue Chuan’s face contorted. Every feature scrunched together as two streams of tears ran from his reddening eyes.
Only then did Qin Lan catch the scent of the “green toothpaste.”
It was mustard.
He had produced a tube of mustard.
Qin Lan’s expression turned solemn, his admiration mixed with awe.
Watching Xue Chuan hunch over and convulse, he could already imagine the man’s despair.
The searing taste certainly provided stimulation, but it could only solve the immediate crisis.
Seven or eight minutes later, the exhaustion swept over Xue Chuan again, dragging him back toward sleep not long after he had awakened.
“How will you handle it this time?”
Qin Lan silently observed.
Xue Chuan raised the mustard under his nose and inhaled sharply.
Ruthless.
Qin Lan gave him a mental thumbs-up.
Using mustard as smelling salts was a method Qin Lan had never seen or heard of before.
The effect of drawing it deep into his lungs was astonishing. Moments ago, Xue Chuan had been half asleep, his body turning limp and weak. Now he was brimming with energy.
He only trembled nonstop and stamped his feet, looking almost deliriously happy.
Perhaps he had thought of something wonderful.
Even as Qin Lan admired him, he could clearly feel the power of Extreme Drowsiness steadily increasing.
Sure enough, after only another ten minutes, the effect rose to an entirely new level.
This wave of drowsiness was difficult even for Qin Lan to endure.
For Xue Chuan, it was a desperate situation.
As the drowsiness battered his sanity, Xue Chuan clenched his fists, seemingly caught in a fierce internal struggle.
Seeing his expression change, Qin Lan’s heart shook.
“Xue Chuan, you lunatic. Are you really going to defeat a 4-Star anomaly with one tube of mustard?”
Under Qin Lan’s complicated gaze, Xue Chuan stopped hesitating. He opened the tube, squeezed two dollops onto his fingertips…
Then smeared them straight into his eyes.
“What?!”
Qin Lan was thunderstruck.
Desks and chairs rattled.
Xue Chuan convulsed in his seat, both hands clamped over his mouth to keep himself from screaming in agony.
Even so, his violently twitching body and muffled groans made the torment he was enduring abundantly clear.
As Qin Lan watched, nothing but awe remained in his heart.
“This is nothing less than a hymn to human courage…”
“A true warrior dares to face blood and bleak reality–and even dares to stare straight into mustard.”
No matter how unreliable Xue Chuan usually was, and no matter how many idiotic things he had said, he now ranked first on Qin Lan’s list of the strongest-willed people alive.
“I remember when I was a child, I could stare into the sun with my eyes wide open and discern the finest details. Whenever I saw something tiny, I studied its patterns, and thus often found delights beyond the object itself…”
Recalling an old classical essay about childhood amusements, Qin Lan could not help murmuring, “Even the ancients only dared to stare into the sun. My brother Xue can stare straight into mustard.”
“No one before him, and none shall ever follow!”
Indeed.
Xue Chuan had already done remarkably well. With a mortal body, he had resisted an abnormal effect within a 4-Star instance through sheer willpower and endured until now.
But…
The self-study period was not over.
Ten minutes remained before the bell.
Despite his red, swollen eyes bulging like a frog’s, Xue Chuan still could not withstand the surging drowsiness.
The effect attacked the mind directly.
Ordinary physical stimulation could no longer resist it.
Even the strongest will had its limits. Qin Lan himself had to gather every scrap of mental strength to fight the drowsiness. The fact that Xue Chuan had lasted this long was already a miracle.
Qin Lan could not imagine what method he might use to survive the final ten minutes.
At that moment, Xue Chuan slowly turned toward Qin Lan.
Qin Lan’s heart tightened.
There was neither fear nor determination in Xue Chuan’s gaze. There was only acceptance.
It was the gaze of a dying man watching the last moments of his life run out, a final flare before the lamp exhausted its oil.
Qin Lan’s heart skipped a beat. He did not know what Xue Chuan intended, but it could not be anything good.
“That look… What is he trying to tell me?”
Qin Lan tried to understand, but could not grasp the emotion hidden behind that acceptance.
Under his worried and confused gaze, Xue Chuan used the last of his awareness to squeeze out the remaining mustard.
The tube was already empty, yet Xue Chuan wound it around a pen and rolled it tighter, extracting the final traces bit by bit.
His expression was intensely focused, like a stonemason carving a work of art.
“What are you planning to…”
As Qin Lan fought the drowsiness, he watched Xue Chuan from the corner of his eye.
Xue Chuan scraped the final large dollop of mustard onto his right hand.
He held it before his eyes for several seconds.
Then he smiled.
It was the smile of a man who had run out of options. It carried helplessness, bitterness, mockery toward fate, and contempt for the anomaly.
At last, Qin Lan understood what Xue Chuan intended.
Horror spread across his face.
It was the first time Qin Lan had displayed such an expression inside this instance.
“No! Stop!”
Tears welled in Qin Lan’s eyes as he screamed inwardly. “Don’t do it!”
“You’ll disappear, Brother Chuan! No!”
At the final second, Xue Chuan looked at Qin Lan once more.
His gaze was gentle yet resolute. Every emotion in his eyes converged into one simple, unmistakable message.
“Yes. But we’ll win.”
Without the slightest hesitation, Xue Chuan thrust his mustard-covered right hand straight down his pants.
All men must die.
Some deaths are lighter than a feather. Others carry the weight of Mount Tai.