<h4>Chapter 25: Starter Value</h4>


    An invigtor can also be considered a person?


    At least this wasn’t the case in the eyes of the examinees.


    But when Qin Jiu said this, Old Yu didn’t dare protest.


    They were all afraid of him.


    In fact, until now this invigtor 001 had not done anything terrible in this exam.


    He hasn’t exercised his authority, hasn’t caught any rule vitors and hasn’t confiscated any items or tools but the examinees were still scared of him.


    This was because everyone assumed that invigtors were part of the system and are the systems eyes and ws.


    The examination system was scary, so invigtors are scary as well. Unless they had no other choice, no one dared to mess with him.


    Oh.......except for You Huo.


    As soon as Old Yu thought of You Huo, he could feel a headache forming. Just the thought of the “rebellious” You Huo being alone with the “dreadful” invigtor made him feel sick.


    “Then I also won’t go to the woods tonight.” He said.


    “It was all because of you that I was able to live until now. Leaving you behind and taking refuge on our own is just........I can’t do it.” Yu Yao whispered, “What if we can be of help?”


    The others also agreed but their offers were all rejected.


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    You Huo threw out a sentence, “Too noisy with too many people” and no longer spoke.


    The others couldn’t persuade him. They were also afraid of ruining things if they didn’t listen to him so they could only give up.


    ·


    The sky gradually darkened, and several vigers came out from the other side of the river. As usual, they were digging at the ice.


    “Looks like it’s the same people?” Yu Wen counted the heads from the window, “That one with the huge coat should be that big sister from yesterday? And there’s that crazy man.......Those two with the leather hats look like the two who dragged the crazy man away yesterday?”


    This ssmate yed plenty of phone andputer games, but his eyesight was very good.


    The others couldn’t see that far and could only vaguely make out the figures in the distance.


    You Huo looked on for a while before looking back down at the wooden frame.


    When the ck widow counted the heads, he had also counted with her.


    There were a total of sixteenpleted dolls. He roughly could still remember the distribution of the dolls.


    But when he looked at it again, the dolls appeared to have........quietly moved?


    If he remembered correctly, the doll on the far left of the first row was lying horizontally this afternoon but it was now sitting upright........


    Just as You Huo moved over to take a closer look, the ck widow returned.


    The first thing she did when she entered was to check their progress.


    What made her unhappy was that all the guests were empty handed. None of them had listened to her!


    The ck widow stared at them silently for a while. She then suddenly cackled. She staggered over to the wall where the “judgement” card drawn by Yu Yao was pinned. As she giggled, she turned the upright “judgement” card upside down.


    “..........”


    The group was stunned by this act of hers.


    You can still move the card even after it was drawn?!


    They didn’t know what the meaning behind that card was, but they could intuitively sense that it probably wasn’t something good.


    Yu Yao muttered: “If it is upside down......then it means the opposite.”


    The opposite of resurrection and hope........wasn’t that death and despair?


    The ck widow then pulled out a sack.


    She ced all the dolls inside the sack and also threw in four unfinished dolls from the bamboo basket. She then stuffed the sack to You Huo who stood closest to her.


    The four iplete products were very old and one of it was very dirty. It was as if it had been lying on the ground for a long time, or had been identally burnt by fire.........


    ·


    When they received the dolls, they were all ushered out by the ck widow.


    The hourss todaysted longer thanst time so by the time they were out, the vigers had already finished digging at the ice and had returned to their own homes.


    As soon as these vigers closed their doors, they wouldn’t open the door no matter how much they knocked so they didn’t waste time doing that.


    They split into two groups. You Huo and Qin Jiu moved to their ce of residence while the others crossed the river and headed for the woods.


    “I still don’t understand why the vigers are so afraid of the woods.” Yu Wen mulled, “Although they are all graves, very few of them are exposed. It’s scary but it’s at least better than staying inside?”


    Old You: “Who knows.”


    Yu Yao said: “There probably is a reason why they’re afraid........”


    Although they went there to hide from danger, they were worried about You Huo so they didn’t’ venture too deep and just stayed on the edge.


    “Let’s wait here.” Yu Wen looked around, “There’s nothing in the way here so we can see my brother’s ce from here.”


    Everyone naturally had no objections. They sat down and chewed on dry, hard bread as they waited for the night to pass.


    ·


    Inside the house, the lights were on.


    You Huo went through the cabs one by one as Qin Jiu sat on the sofa. He broke a baguette in half.


    “Half for you?” He said.


    “No need.” You Huo didn’t even look back.


    He was standing pretty far from the sofa, but he could clearly hear the terrible cracking sound when he broke the bread. You could tell based on that alone how dry it was.


    Qin Jiu’s voice sounded again: “Not satisfied? Then I’ll give you the bigger half.”


    You Huo was hungry for the whole day so he naturally wasn’t in a good mood.


    He mmed a cab door shut and walked over to the sofa menacingly: “Don’t involve me if you want to choke to death.”


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    Cab, stove, drawers, tin cans..............


    From the living room to the kitchen and then to the bedroom, he searched every ce he could get his hands onto and really couldn’t find anything else to eat.


    Why won’t this damned testing centre blow up?


    You Huo unhappily stood back up. His face was touched by something.


    He nced down. The broken off half of the baguette was brought before his face and held to his neck like a threatening knife.


    Qin Jiu said behind him: “Don’t bother. I’ve already searched and there really aren’t anything else to eat.”


    You Huo remained expressionless. He refused topromise.


    The diligent invigtor again used the corner of the bread to nudge You Huo’s lips. He said: “I suggest you try it. It’s not as bad as you think. I haven’t had an examinee starve to death under my supervision so don’t make this the first case.”


    You Huo stubbornly stared at him for a moment before snatching it from him roughly.


    “There were clearly three invigtors so why is the one doing fulltime on-site surveince you?” You Huo broke off a piece of the bread and asked coldly.


    Qin Jiu returned to the sofa and ced some tea leaves inside a pot that he had cleaned earlier.


    He ced the crooked pot onto the brazier and then asked back: “ording to the rules of the test centre, something as boring as fulltime on-site monitoring is usually done by the chief invigtor. Unfortunately, I just happened to be that unlucky person. Why, who do you want toe?”


    You Huo: “922, 154. Anyone.”


    At least they would know to bring along meat.


    The fire in the brazier was very strong and the pot soon made a loud whistling noise.


    Qin Jiu squinted amidst the steam and said: “I’ll help you pass on the message. They will surely be very happy to hear that they are remembered by an examinee.”


    Those words were normal, but it sounded like he was mocking him when it was spoken by him.


    You Huo ignored thatment.


    As the tea boiled, the room fell into silence for a while.


    You Huo ate a few mouthfuls of the dry bread and lost his appetite. He patted off the bread crumbs and nced at Qin Jiu: “You’re the chief invigtor?”


    Qin Jiu: “I don’t look like one?”


    You Huo: “Who gave you those ranks?”


    “Ability? Combat power? It is said that they take into consideration many things.”


    Qin Jiu acted like he didn’t care much about it. Even when talking about himself, he would always use the words “it is said”.


    You Huo: “So 001 is first?”


    Qin Jiuughed. He stretched his long legs and changed his posture: “Not necessarily. It is said that there once was also a starter value. I guess........that person’s my senior?”