Chapter 626 Playing the Lottery Draw again!
A few professionals and industry insiders had very high praises as well.
These few math problems were widely discussed among the netizens.
A few forums even stickied a post that included Zhang Ye’s elementary math problems onto their front page, letting forum participants who did not know about the Weibo “class” that Zhang Ye had held earlier to try it out for themselves as well. All of them also fell for the trap of the questions and were complaining in frustration, sending mentions to @ZhangYe and denouncing him for the nth time today!
“I’m so angry right now that I could cry!”
“These problems are really too frustrating!”
“It’s not the questions that are frustrating, it is Teacher Zhang!”
“Teacher Zhang, show yourself. We promise that we won’t beat you to death!”
“You can’t cheat us like this!”
Zhang Ye had enraged the masses, and his crimes were too numerous to mention.
However, when Zhang Ye saw this, he was already laughing and getting off Weibo. It was time to go. He looked at his watch and saw that it was already 9:50 PM. Having had some fun with the netizens, he did not know that it was already this late, so he turned back and had a look at Chenchen, only to see her sitting on the sofa and still watching the cartoon, not blinking at all.
“Switch it off, now,” Zhang Ye got out of bed and said.
Chenchen did not move but just said, “Let me watch a little more.”
Zhang Ye said with a straight face, “We already agreed that you’d go to bed at 10 PM. Don’t think that just because your aunt is not around, no one will make sure of that. Quickly, go wash your face and then go to bed.”
Chenchen continued staring at the television screen and said, “OK.”
Zhang Ye simply turned off the TV and then carried her, saying, “Let’s go.”
Chenchen’s little face showed her unhappiness.
Zhang Ye carried her and walked casually to the bathroom. Chenchen was too short, so Zhang Ye turned on the tap for warm water for her to wash her face and got a new toothbrush and put on some toothpaste for her to brush her teeth. He told her, “There, brush your teeth. Heh, look at me, do you think I have it easy taking care of you? When your aunt gets back, I’m going to make sure she gives me a year of rental for free.”
Chenchen, who was brushing her teeth, gave a faint ‘hur hur’ to that.
Zhang Ye rolled his eyes and said, “Do you want to go back to your aunt’s place to sleep or do you want to sleep here?”
Chenchen spat out the toothpaste and said, “Sleep here.”
“Alright then, I’ll let you have the bed temporarily while I’ll sleep on the sofa.” Zhang Ye was still very considerate like an adult should be and did not make Chenchen sleep on the sofa.
When she was done washing up, Zhang Ye also washed his own face. When he came out, Chenchen had already crept into bed, pulling the blanket over herself with both hands and lying down, looking rather cute while doing that.
“Do you feel comfortable with that pillow?”
“Yes.”
“Is it cold?”
“Not cold.”
“OK, go the sleep then, good night.”
“—OK.”
Zhang Ye conveniently turned off the lights and only left a desk lamp on since he was not intending to rest so early anyway. In recent days, as he did not have any work, the time he went to sleep was also getting later and later, so he was still feeling quite awake at the moment as he lay on the sofa.
What should he do?
Without landing a job first, it felt quite meaningless to do anything else!
What Zhang Ye needed urgently right now was a stable television program that could let him shine on stage. His initial goal of turning into a B-list celebrity this year had already been achieved before the middle of the year, so needless to say, his next goal was definitely to aim for the A-list rankings. To this end, he definitely needed a stable program that could let him achieve a large increase in popularity. However, a good job would be great to have but unable to be sought. Zhang Ye knew that this was not a matter that could be rushed; all he could do was increase his capability to compete and raise his level. When that happened, even if his potential employer felt that his character had shortcomings, his flaws would not belittle his potential.
For example, Zhang Ye’s recent hard work was all for that moment. Filming a movie, selling a program, throwing out wondrous math problems and rising into the B-list rankings—all of these made him feel that a job wasn’t that far away anymore and a lot of television stations were probably already assessing and measuring his worth. It’s not that he was blindly confident about himself. In fact he was being very objective in his own assessment, knowing that a B-list professional host like him with a large and stable fan base would surely move a lot of television stations. You should know that in the current industry the number of hosts able to reach the level of a B-list celebrity were readily countable with the fingers of both hands, probably numbering at around eight or nine only. Anyone in this group of hosts could easily be considered in the class of being pillars for their employers.
Well, it was time for a lottery draw then.
He was going to try his luck and also do it in preparation for his new job.
As no one but him could see the game ring’s virtual screen, he wasn’t afraid that Chenchen would discover it, so he brought it up directly there to check how many reputation points he had available to use.
—31 million reputation points.
Just some days ago when he was trying to look for some work, Zhang Ye had activated his upgraded Lucky Halo and spent all of his reputation points, so these 31 million points were all gained after that. Come to think of it, his reputation points had gone up really quickly. As Zhang Ye was not the host for Do You Remember and also did not make an appearance on that show, the reputation points he would gain from it were definitely quite limited. Most of these 31 million reputation points were probably gained from the movie Grandmasters. As a supporting cast member and taking on the antagonist role, Zhang Ye felt quite satisfied that he was able to gain so many reputation points from the job. If he ever took on a lead role some day in a movie that could surpass 300 million in box office earnings, wouldn’t he be able to gain a crazy amount of reputation points??
Hai, I guess there’s no point in thinking that far. Just concentrate on what’s in front of my eyes.
Zhang Ye knew that he should not bite off more than he could chew. Whatever was in the future, he could talk about that later. What mattered most was what was before him.
Come on!
He opened up the Lottery Draw (Two) interface.
This was the lottery draw that was unlocked after the system update, with each attempt at the slot machine costing 10 million reputation points. Zhang Ye did not hesitate at all here and just went ahead to purchase a pull.
It began!
The icons on the slot machine window spun at a very fast speed!
Stats Category…
Empty…
Empty…
Consumption Category…
Empty…
Skills Category…
The icons kept changing as it rolled by in a dazzling blur!
In the past, it was possible to predict the where the needle would land as the needle spin was coming to a stop in Lottery Draw (One). But Lottery Draw (Two) was not the same, as it employed the sliding icon movement encased in a window and was much more precise, thus not allowing the player to predict where it would land. As he saw that the slot machine was slowing down, Zhang Ye did not blink at all and just kept staring hard for the outcome.
Ba da.
Ba da.
The icons slid past one at a time.
Suddenly, one of the icons looked as though it still had some momentum and was about to continue sliding downwards, but without a warning, it seemingly lost all that energy. With a da, it came to a stop!
Zhang Ye’s eyes went blank!
The final icon indicated was: Empty!
The 10 million reputation points were flushed down the drain! He did not receive any prizes!
Zhang Ye felt a great pain and clenched his teeth disgruntled. He ran to the bathroom to wash his hands and then came back immediately to spend another 10 million to play the Lottery Draw (Two) again!
Again!
I won’t believe this!
The slot machine began rolling again, spinning as the icons slid down very quickly, looking like a blur at first, before slowing down after a while.
Ba da—Consumption Category.
Ba da—Special Category.
Zhang Ye was calling out repeatedly in his mind, asking for it to stop right there!
Ultimately, the slot machine did not follow his will as it went ba da again and slid down once more and stopped!
Empty!
It was “empty” again!
Zhang Ye’s face turned green. F**k, what’s with this bro’s luck today? It was 20 million! And he had just thrown it out like that? Without getting anything in return? He hated this to the core and was already cursing the Lottery Draw (Two) all the way to its 18 generations of ancestors! What a scam! A big fat scam! The update system’s new Lottery Draw (Two) was different from Lottery Draw (One). For Lottery Draw (One), although there were chances that he would receive empty treasure chests, but in the one year of playing Lottery Draw (One), he had only received those treasure chests once or twice. However, for Lottery Draw (Two), it could be seen just from the previous draws that the “empty” icon would appear once after every consumption and stats category icons. There were even some cases where two “empty” icons appeared twice in a row. Based on what was observed, the chances of getting an “empty” reward was really too large. Just like today, with his luck, he had done everything in vain. A good 20 million worth of reputation points were gone just like that!
In the past, whenever Zhang Ye played the lottery draw, even though there were cases when he had failed to get anything, overall, his luck was still on the better side. For example, he had gotten the rarer Special Category items which allowed him to purchase items from the merchant shop quite a few times. The chances of landing on the Special Category was only a few percentage points. On top of that, even though he had not received any good prizes at the beginning, it would usually end up with him getting something that wasn’t too bad. But today, Zhang Ye had finally made a huge loss, as luck did not seem to be with him at all.
It was time to stop! This experience left him with too much apprehension!
Zhang Ye clicked on the screen and went to Lottery Draw (One)’s menu instead. Although the prizes here were not as good as Lottery Draw (Two)’s items and were miles apart in quality, Lottery Draw (One) was much safer. The chances of not getting a prize was very low, so he could still get something from here and not just waste his reputation points. In times of poor luck, Zhang Ye did not hesitate and chose the lower grade Lottery Draw instead!
It cost 100,000 per play.
Soon, the needle on the wheel started spinning!
One round…
Five rounds…
Ten rounds…
It started slowing down and the likely outcome was also getting clearer.
When Zhang Ye saw the needle was slowing down at the Stats Category which was quite a large area, he considered for a moment, thinking about how he had hardly ever increased stakes for this category of prizes. His reputation points were mainly spent on the Skills Category of prizes and he had neglected the Stats Category all this while. Wanting to balance out his stats with the previous items like the Fruit of Charm or Fruit of Growth which weren’t bad items, he decided and immediately put in the additional stakes!
How much should he add?
Why not a hundred stakes!
He confirmed his additional stakes and spent another 10 million reputation points!
Finally, the needle continued spinning at a very slow pace and eventually stopped in the Stats Category area. A rush of 101 Treasure Chests (Small) spilled out from the interface for him!
Zhang Ye was not too interested to know what he had received as he felt that anything would be good enough for him, as long as it wasn’t empty!
Open!
Opening up the treasure chest, a glow emitted out from within!
[Fruit of Agility] x 101: Takes effect after consumption, increases agility of user.
It was this again?
The Fruit of Agility again?
Zhang Ye remembered that he had received this item previously just before he had decided to do the system upgrade. He had gotten 20 of it at that time, so if he “ate” the ones he got today, he would have increased his agility by 121 fruits? This item was not exactly useless, but it didn’t seem to mean much either?
Zhang Ye’s nearly cried. How terrible! Today’s lottery draws were all really terrible, but what could he do about it? It’s not like he could ask for a refund after playing it, so he just held back his tears and “ate” all of the Fruits of Agility one by one. He had tested this item before after eating it the last time. To be clear, this item did not really increase agility in the traditional sense of the word, but mainly increased a person’s reaction speed instead. As it turned out, after eating these 101 Fruits of Agility, Zhang Ye moved his arm and felt that he was much more agile than before. His movements seemed lighter as his body completed a move almost immediately after the brain had issued the command. Compared to a normal person, he was really much quicker, though the increase in speed was so minute that it wouldn’t be noticeable to the naked eye.
Hai, forget it.
Every little thing mattered. Besides, who knew if this agility would help him some time in the future. Based on his experience and real world situations, every time after he had received an item in the lottery draw, no matter how trashy an item it was, it would always turn out to be helpful and practical for him. It was only a matter of knowing when to use it or whether it was used in the right situation or not.
Zhang Ye consoled himself and ended the lottery draw. Right now, he was only left with a miserable 1 million reputation points, so he decided he would probably keep it just in case of an emergency.