3: Beat the electronic wooden fish and gain cyber merit

Good news: the ability is real! It spawned!

Bad news: It spawned a Wooden Fish.

Cheng Zhen never imagined that instead of pulling out an immortal, he'd pull out a Wooden Fish.

But after confirming the ability, he didn't dwell on it. He just needed to try again.

So Cheng Zhen, like playing a claw machine, reached out his claw again towards the spherical immortal in the advertisement.

But he pulled for a long time, and that spherical immortal remained rooted to the spot like a Sea-Pacifying Needle.

Well, not exactly rooted to the spot. That guy was still searching the whole room for his Wooden Fish.

Cheng Zhen stroked his chin. The skill description mentioned that the ability's activation was related to weight and strength. It must be that his attributes weren't up to par, which led to the failure of pulling the person.

After all, looking at that physique… he wouldn't reach that state without at least 300 catties.

And while Cheng Zhen was thinking, the spherical immortal in the advertisement page was having a terrible time.

Several equally plump zombies spawned outside the room and rushed over to give the spherical immortal a good beating.

The fierce immortal typed 'GG' amidst cheerful laughter.

Cheng Zhen: “…”

Killed by a few zombies? Is this immortal even any good?

A giant 'GAME OVER' appeared on the screen, but it wasn't over.

Two seconds later, the advertisement page refreshed, and the spherical immortal revived on the spot, bringing a new Wooden Fish with him.

This time, the spherical immortal no longer cared if anyone was pulling him and immediately began frantically striking the Wooden Fish.

With his actions, his merit points continuously increased. Then, the spherical immortal clicked on the door, and as a large amount of merit points were deducted, the words 'Summoned Buddha Successfully' appeared on the page.

Immediately after, a golden flash at the door revealed a Fat Buddha, clad in a kasaya, helping the spherical immortal beat up the zombies outside the door.

Cheng Zhen, who had witnessed the whole process, felt a bit like complaining about why a person dressed as a Daoist would strike a Wooden Fish to summon a Great Buddha.

But now he had no time for such trivialities; he only focused on the Wooden Fish.

Seeing that the spherical immortal could only stare helplessly when he didn't have a Wooden Fish, but could brutally beat zombies when he did… So this Wooden Fish was the real treasure?

Cheng Zhen raised his hand and struck the Wooden Fish once.

Dong!

A crisp sound rang out, and Cheng Zhen watched as the words 'Merit +1' appeared before him.

He was stunned, then struck it again.

'Merit +1'

'Merit +1'

The special effect was quite simple.

Compared to Wang Dachui's ice and fire effects, it wasn't that they were exactly the same, only that they were completely identical.

However, while the special effect was a bit speechless, the effect was real. Cheng Zhen felt a faint warmth flowing into his body every time the text appeared.

It was like being buried in a fluffy blanket after sunbathing, warm, light, and very comfortable.

Was this the feeling of accumulating merit? It was quite pleasant.

Cheng Zhen swung the small mallet, rapidly striking. As the text '+1 +1 +1' appeared, he transformed into a boundless merit machine.

The efficiency of gaining merit was much better than releasing bottled water!

After striking for a while, several translucent squares suddenly appeared on the floor in his eyes. When he focused on a particular square, a prompt box displayed, 'Do you wish to summon a Buddha?'

It was exactly like in the advertisement, wasn't it?

Cheng Zhen clicked confirm, then felt an emptiness in his body as the merit he had just accumulated was instantly deducted (-100).

A golden flash appeared at that square, and a Fat Buddha, round and plump like in the advertisement and clad in a kasaya, appeared at that spot.

“Uh, hello?” Cheng Zhen tried to greet him.

The Fat Buddha remained motionless, his eyes (⊙ ˍ ⊙) looking at Cheng Zhen with a somewhat vacant expression, seemingly full of 'wisdom'.

No response? Can't speak?

Cheng Zhen made several more attempts and found that the summoned Fat Buddha indeed couldn't speak and had no independent thought. However, he would perform some basic attack actions according to Cheng Zhen's commands.

But just like in the advertisement, the Fat Buddha could only change positions within the dashed square on the ground and could not go out of bounds.

And the attack command taught Cheng Zhen a painful lesson—that already flimsy small broken bed was gently patted by the Fat Buddha and turned into furniture fragments, leaving Cheng Zhen to sleep on the floor.

Fortunately, he didn't let the Fat Buddha hit the wall, otherwise he would have to live in a dangerous building or sleep in the wilderness.

Of course, the good news was that Cheng Zhen took this opportunity to understand the strength of this big brother; he was very powerful and reliable.

Summoning just one is already so awesome, if I get a few more, won't I be soaring!

Cheng Zhen's eyes lit up as he frantically began striking again; the '+1 +1 +1' five-cent special effects made him very happy.

However, he felt that this efficiency was still a bit slow. It took him a while to accumulate enough merit to summon one Buddha. He didn't know how much longer he would have to strike to fill a room.

So he once again turned his gaze to the advertisement page on the APP.

The spherical immortal from before had already refreshed and was setting up his Wooden Fish, ready to go on another rampage.

“Jie jie jie, give it to me!”

With a gentle tug, the Wooden Fish easily grabbed from the page and landed in Cheng Zhen's hand.

Spherical immortal: ?!

It was another round of being beaten black and blue.

Meanwhile, Cheng Zhen held a Wooden Fish mallet in each hand, striking wildly with both, left and right.

+2 +2 +2…

Double experience, double the joy!

Cheng Zhen looked at his busy hands, then glanced at his idle feet.

Foot: ?

Cheng Zhen: My body doesn't tolerate idle feet!

Hand: What, I can strike this Wooden Fish, and you can't?

Foot: …MD, this guy is so ruthless he even exploits himself.

And so…

The plump spherical immortal was beaten again and again.

The new Wooden Fish mallet he contributed was tied to Cheng Zhen's foot, and he struck the Wooden Fish while shaking his leg, which was quite efficient.

The high efficiency pleased Cheng Zhen greatly, and continuous 'dong dong dong' sounds echoed cheerfully from the small room.

At the same time, Jacket Uncle also returned to their residence with his teammates. It seemed they had also gathered some information in the village earlier.

“In 'survival type' instances with a large number of NPCs, information is very important.”

Jacket Uncle warned the two students, “NPCs are highly likely to have key clues for clearing the instance. If you hear them say any special information, you must remember it firmly and not get it wrong.”

The two students nodded like pecking chicks, obediently following instructions.

As they walked towards their rooms, they all heard continuous knocking sounds coming from Cheng Zhen's room, and their faces showed curiosity.

“It sounds like he's hitting something.”

The Bald Man glanced in the direction of Cheng Zhen's room, then looked away. “He's probably trying to reinforce the indoor defenses to cope with the threat.”

“That's also a good idea.” Jacket Uncle nodded. “Although it's still unclear whether that 'Mountain Child' is a physical or spiritual type, adding some defensive measures is a good thing.”

The others nodded and followed Jacket Uncle, picking up some stones and wooden boards to carry back to their rooms.

In the remaining room, Green Hair covered his face, pacing anxiously.

He had wanted to go to the village to find a solution earlier, but the villagers' gazes were too terrifying, scaring him back into his room.

Just now, he had heard the 'dong dong dong' sounds and initially thought it was some kind of attack, but after hearing what Jacket Uncle said, Green Hair realized that Cheng Zhen was preparing defensive facilities in his room.

“*!” Green Hair cursed, both blaming Cheng Zhen for making noise and scaring him, and resenting Jacket Uncle and the others for not helping, jumping around in the room and grumbling.

Regardless of others, Cheng Zhen continued to strike his small Wooden Fish until the room was filled with sturdy bodyguards.

The amount of merit was reassuring.

Moreover, after successfully summoning a Buddha, he could continue to consume merit to strengthen them, further enhancing the big brothers' combat power.

Cheng Zhen looked at the 8 Fat Buddhas around him, feeling completely safe. He planned to arrange these Fat Buddhas in the north, south, east, west, and four corners of the room, protecting his safety from all angles with no blind spots, ensuring that surviving to the end meant winning.

He glanced at the bed on the ground that had been shattered by a single slap; since it was already broken and unusable, he might as well clear the space for bodyguards.

The Fat Buddha couldn't move out of the square, so he couldn't move things either; he could only stand there, looking at Cheng Zhen with wise eyes (⊙.⊙).

Cheng Zhen had no choice but to do it himself, picking up the pile of broken wooden boards, ready to throw them out.

But when he lifted the broken bed frame, he saw a striking crimson color underneath…