Chapter 223: Unlucky Time (Part 2)
Zhou Ning thought for a moment, then forcibly resisted the tempting idea of going out to avoid danger. He chose instead to stay home and see how things developed. He felt uneasy—according to the principle of equivalent exchange, spending some money might help him get through a streak of bad luck.
To avoid affecting others, he had Jacqueline take the odd-jobs maid and the coachman away in advance.
Time ticked away second by second. When the countdown finally reached zero, Zhou Ning suddenly felt a chill rush through him, as if the very laws of the world were rejecting his existence.
The fireplace, statues, tables, curtains—everything in the room suddenly seemed capable of becoming a deadly threat.
Suddenly, the room began to sway, and the entire floor started shaking. With a sharp crack, a statue toppled toward Zhou Ning. He dodged quickly and watched it shatter into pieces with a loud bang.
"An earthquake…"
Zhou Ning calmly made his judgment. In just a brief moment, all the statues and paintings in the room had crashed to the ground, shattering with a cacophony of noise. A conservative estimate put the losses at no less than 500 Vecktas.
Then, he "saw" the massive chandelier in the hall above could no longer bear its weight—it came crashing down, smashing into a pile of broken glass. Before he could react, a violent gust of wind swept through, lifting the shattered glass from the floor and sending it shooting toward him like a hailstorm. The distance was far too close—his left leg and abdomen were instantly sliced open, blood welling up and dripping onto the floor.
During all this, his Observation Haki had surprisingly little effect!
Next, the chandelier's weight—nearly 300 catties—caused the ceiling to collapse. Large amounts of dirt and dust poured down, and moments later, the roof itself began to sway dangerously. Zhou Ning "saw" the roof coming down, quickly sidestepped, clutched his wounded abdomen, and without hesitation, smashed through a window and leapt outside.
But the bad luck didn't stop. The moment he landed, a gust of wind knocked a metal bucket off a shelf at the shop across the street. It just so happened to land squarely over the head of a horned horse galloping toward him while pulling a cart full of gas canisters.
Blinded and panicked, the horned horse charged through the fence, dragging the heavy cart straight toward Zhou Ning.
Even injured, with his current strength, Zhou Ning could easily avoid the collision.
Without thinking further, he quickly donned the Phoenix Battle Suit and fired a grappling line toward a distant pillar.
But just then, the gas-filled cart slammed into his house, the sparks igniting the gas.
Boom!
With a deafening explosion, the already unstable roof collapsed completely, reducing half the house to rubble in an instant.
Clinging to the distant pillar, Zhou Ning's heart nearly stopped.
He had seen the roof collapse coming earlier—but never expected it to happen this way. Without a doubt, in that single moment he had lost at least 3,000 Vecktas. Damn that Lucky Clover!
The sheer intensity of this bad luck left him completely stunned. One misfortune after another struck as swiftly and relentlessly as the Grim Reaper's scythe, leaving him no time to prepare.
Barely half an hour into the bad luck period, he was already injured and his house was gone.
What followed was just as absurd—over the next two-plus hours, Zhou Ning fully experienced what it meant to feel a thorn in one's back, a bone in one's throat, and pins under one's seat. Both body and mind were put through severe torment.
His earlier abundance of good luck truly did have to be repaid with even greater bad luck. Disasters clung to him like a shadow—earthquakes, hurricanes, lightning strikes, misfired guns, and more than once, near misses from falling objects. If not for his extraordinary physique, his near-future-predicting Observation Haki, and his speed, the unending misfortunes might have killed him outright.
Three hours later, as the bad luck timer finally hit zero, Zhou Ning let out a long sigh of relief, feeling as if half his life had been drained away. It was clear he would have to use the Lucky Clover with extreme caution in the future. Even during times of good fortune, restraint was essential—careless use could easily lead to both financial and physical ruin, just like this time.
Although he hadn't tallied up the total loss, he estimated it to be no less than 4,000 Vecktas.
Thinking it over, this use of the Lucky Clover hadn't really been worth it.
Sigh…
A wave of frustration hit Zhou Ning.
The next step was to head to the Darkland Fair City Housing Association and have them contact the Darkland Insurers to help him recover as much of the loss as possible.
After a round of busy arrangements, Darkland Insurers determined he could be compensated for roughly one-quarter of his losses—better than nothing.
Exhaling slowly, Zhou Ning decided to return to his alchemy shop. From here on, the only way to recover the rest of his losses would be to get the money from players.
He had originally planned to test whether his Stand ability could affect Yu-Gi-Oh! cards today, but that would have to wait for now.
...
Thus, for the entire day, Darkland's players noticed that Wayne Sturwell's business hours had been noticeably extended.
Originally from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., they now stretched an extra four hours—dedicated as if he had just suffered a major loss.
Players began speculating—this unusual behavior could mean another big story event was coming.
As everyone knew, the name "Wayne Sturwell" was a barometer for the main storyline.
Thus, players were working tirelessly to improve their strength.
With the open beta approaching two months, the top players' average level was now close to 20, and more new players were pouring into the game. While new player nationality was entirely random, the number of players in the Bryston Kingdom continued to climb.
Zhou Ning was experiencing both pain and joy. After losing a large sum, he had no choice but to squeeze it back from the players, which meant extending his shop hours.
That day, two more "main storyline quests"—[Mansion Mystery] and [Origin of the Undead]—were bought up by several large guilds working together, giving him a huge boost.
The quest [Hidden Truth], long ago taken by Jinse and XB, was already at 79% progress and about to be completed. As expected of professional players! Zhou Ning couldn't help giving them a mental thumbs-up.
Two "main storyline quests" still remained unclaimed, but Zhou Ning wasn't worried—these quests had no time limit, so there was no rush.
"Qingbai Wild Sake and Haicheng have completed the tasks you assigned. Would you like to issue the quest rewards?"
"Oh?" Zhou Ning was slightly surprised. He remembered assigning them to track down the whereabouts of players kidnapped by the Cursed God Cult. He hadn't expected them to be so efficient—finishing in just two or three days.
Sure enough, the two of them came hurrying over in high spirits.
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