3 Gods (Part 1)

Picking up the sky blue pillow and cushioning it behind his back, Tang Hong clicked on the loneliness rating scale.

"Level 1: Go to the supermarket alone."

"Level 2: Go to the restaurant alone."

"Level 3: Drink coffee alone."

"Level 4: Watch a movie alone."

"Level 5: Eat hotpot alone."

"Level 6: Sing karaoke alone."

"Level 7: Go to see the sea alone."

"Level 8: Go to the amusement park alone."

"Level 9: Move house alone."

"Level 10: Undergo surgery alone."

…

'It's so simple!'

Tang Hong was thrilled.

He got out of bed, dressed up, washed his face and hair, and then brushed his teeth before he rushed out of the dormitory building with his campus card.

He went to the nearest supermarket within the campus and strolled inside.

There was no system prompt.

Tang Hong was reluctant to give up. He walked around once more.

A full five minutes passed, and there were even two girls that passed by him at least three times, but there was still no system prompt.

"I deduced wrongly?"

"This is unscientific!" Tang Hong could only conclude after thinking about it.

It was too easy to go to the supermarket alone, so it was far from enough to trigger the minimum standard necessary for increasing his Individual Value.

Of course, it might also be because he still hadn't stayed long enough in the supermarket to trigger the increase.

Tang Hong was troubled.

He couldn't stroll inside the supermarket for an hour or two, right?

This was an on-campus supermarket, there were only a few rows of shelves in total.

He could go and try to stir his own emotions by whispering to himself that he was feeling lonely and empty. Perhaps the intense emotions of being alone would increase the likelihood of triggering the increase of his Individual Value.

He focused on his experiment, but from the surface, he looked like he was undecided on what he should buy and was in a dilemma.

He vaguely heard the people playing around behind the shelves close to him. "Coconut, you are so charming… It's so frightening."

"Don't play around…"

"I looked at you one more time, and I can never forget your face ever again…"

The sounds of two girls whispering to each other entered Tang Hong's ears. Their voices were automatically filtered by him.

What was the use of a girlfriend?

Being single was the most supreme and noble thing in the world!

'If this really doesn't work…'

Tang Hong thought—when all of a sudden—a crisp sound echoed from his mind.

'Ding Dong!'

'The nerve signals responsible for physiological needs have been triggered. [One hand cannot clap] has been activated and your hormones are frozen!'

"…"

'What's going on with this sudden illogical weakness?'

Tang Hong gulped.

It was as if he had become a sage from ancient times. Everything became dull, only a touch of loneliness remained, haunting his mind.

Fortunately, he had a determined and strong mentality. With his head lowered, Tang Hong continued to stroll inside for 20 more minutes.

His Individual Value didn't increase.

He then went to the cafeteria.

He ordered a spicy and fragrant pot of dishes and he ate it for more than 40 minutes.

The rice had even turned cold after staying in the restaurant for so long.

He hung his head low, but his eyes that were distinct in black and white didn't look miserable.

Whenever there was a monumental event, one should remain calm like the sages in ancient times. The more earth-shattering the encounter was, the calmer one should be and respond accordingly.

With his thoughts stirred, Tang Hong summoned the system interface.

Mortal: Extremely small and weak creature.

Willpower: 33%

Strength: 29%

Realm: 0.00

Individual value: 2

Tang Hong fiddled with his chopsticks, gently inserting them into the grains of white rice.

"Increasing my Individual Value is definitely not as simple as just sitting on a train alone."

He recalled those words…

'Experiencing a train journey for the first time, Individual Value has increased by 1.'

Obviously…

It would only work for the first time, the next time he sat on a train by himself…

It would probably be useless.

First-time experiences were priceless.

Thinking of this, Tang Hong was amused.

Then, he looked at the loneliness rating scale that he had set as his phone's lock screen wallpaper. Looking down from the highest level, the highest level of loneliness that he could achieve today was…

'Go to the amusement park alone.'

"Amusement park?"

Tang Hong couldn't help but frown. He vaguely remembered that the last time he went to the amusement park was when he was still in primary school.

An amusement park…

If he didn't remember wrongly… only children would go there, right?

Tang Hong thought about it.

Since going to the amusement park alone could make it into the list, it showed that many adults also often visited the amusement park.

After all, children didn't have the right to speak online.

He clicked on the Meituan app and clicked on the icon representing leisure and entertainment.

As he flipped through it casually, he saw the unusually popular Disneyland in Yunhai City.

Tang Hong focused his eyes on it again.

"Hiss…"

Such an expensive ticket…

400 Hua dollars!

Tang Hong gritted his teeth. His monthly living expenses only amounted to 2,500 Hua dollars.

From the beginning of March this year when he broke up with his ex-girlfriend, he was able to save about 900 Hua dollars every month.

"It's indeed a little expensive, but I have never been to Disneyland. This will be my first time going there and combined with my emotional state, I can say that my success rate is a hundred percent. I might even get two or more Individual Value points."

In an instant, he made the decision.

"It's too expensive, too expensive." Tang Hong placed an order while mumbling to himself.

The purchase order was soon generated, and he was about to pay using WeChat.

But for some inexplicable reason…

He moved out of Meituan and clicked on Taobao.

He looked for Disneyland tickets there and then sorted the ticket's price in descending order.

As expected!

There was a half-day ticket!

Only 218 Hua dollars!

Meituan really knows how to trick their customers!

Tang Hong curled his lips. "The half-day ticket is good, I can just go there after the professional classes. The round-trip distance adds up to about three hours including the time needed to take the subway. There should be no problem getting back to the dormitory building before 11 PM."

…

Tang Hong finally reached Yunhai Disneyland by 4 PM.

Walking out of the subway station, the amusement park was filled with greeneries. There were even small lakes and water fountains. Even the air inside the park was fresher than the outside.

At first glance, the park looked very clean.

Following the signs, he walked across a long bridge. There were many people on the bridge, most of them children. They were also heading towards the entrance of Disneyland.

Tang Hong looked around and only saw a few tourists leaving the park.

Arriving at the ticket gate, there was a queue.

Tang Hong surveyed the area and noticed that the tourists here were mostly couples and families.

"Despite being so late in the afternoon, there are still so many people here?"

He was quite surprised. But he was not to blame for not knowing an amusement park's peak times for he was usually used to being alone. Although he decided to study in Yunhai City, he seldom went out to play. He was also too lazy to move around and explore.

In addition, he was poor.

But to be honest, being poor was the main reason for all of these.

"Sigh…"

The cool breeze blew across his face.

Tang Hong suddenly remembered his first love that gradually ended two months ago.

There was no particular reason for the break-up.

It was just that in the second semester of the third uni-year, both of them began their internships, and started to drift apart bit by bit until they broke up.

The other party then went to the Imperial Capital.

At first, Tang Hong was even very happy, like a bird that had escaped its cage and could finally fly into the blue sky. Without the burden of a relationship, he felt light.

He could smell the fragrance of freedom and the boundless world that was waiting for him to explore.

But after a week, he became a little sad.

After a month, he started to gradually miss the relationship that he had with her.

And today…

.

When he passed through the ticket gate alone, wandered around alone, and queued up for an attraction all alone. Tang Hong felt joyous and depressed at the same time. But to be honest, he really couldn't tell just what his feelings were.

'Just stand properly in the line, don't just casually stick your mouths into each other so openly!'

'This can't do!'

'There are too many people waiting for this attraction.'

'Are there any attractions with fewer people?'

'Where did these so many people come from?'

Tang Hong's expression remained unchanged as usual, but his mind was in a disarray. The loneliness rating scale on the Internet sounded like a joke at first glance, but when he was experiencing it personally, he had no other choice but to say that it made sense.

It truly was too cruel!

Why was there no increase in the Individual Value yet?!

Tang Hong saw a building that seemed technologically advanced in the distance.

He walked up to it and it read.

'Tron Lightcycle Power Run—Tomorrowland."

This attraction seemed quite interesting.

The 218 Hua dollars must not be spent in vain. Since he had already come in, he had to at least try one attraction.

But when Tang Hong looked at the fence of the Tron Lightcycle Power Run, it had a queue that looped round and round. It was akin to that of the old mobile game Snake.

The queue was insane.

"Insane…"

"All of you are insane…" Tang Hong felt a little intimidated.

Then, from the corner of his eyes, he glanced at the workbench near the entrance which was marked with a few words…

'Single-person passage ticket collection point.'

Nice!

Tang Hong hurried over to get a ticket.

He came here not just to verify his theories, but to also reward himself!

Who said that a person couldn't go to the amusement park alone?

Who said that someone couldn't eat hotpot alone?

And couldn't have fun anywhere alone?

A person could also live properly alone.

Being lonely wasn't being sad; it was tranquility and peace.

This change of mindset also changed Tang Hong's expression.

He now looked relaxed and comfortable in his current situation.

The mindset of trying to genuinely enjoy the amusement park was vastly different from his previous mindset of trying to experience loneliness.

Even though Tang Hong couldn't change the fact that he had to wait for half an hour no matter how relaxed he was at this moment, he was still thrilled seeing the long queue that was akin to a dragon's body moving ever so slightly.

When he finally came close to the entrance, Tang Hong still couldn't see the benefit of having a single-person passage ticket.

However…

In the very next moment.

After he entered the door and went beyond the fence, he saw what a real long queue looked like!

The queue behind the fence already made him frown, yet the wide and winding passages beyond the fence were also crowded with people.

The scene truly was terrifying as Tang Hong's expression changed.

"Are there thousands of people here!?"

Tang Hong was dumbfounded by the number of people within the dim passageway.

Fortunately, there was a special passageway for those that had a single-person passage ticket.

It allowed Tang Hong to bypass the crowd, and he directly arrived in the preparation area.

The Tron Lightcycle Power Run could only accumulate a fixed number of people each run.

Because most of the tourists were in groups, and they wanted to enjoy the attractions in their very own groups. The fixed number of people on the Tron Lightcycle Power Run made it so that it couldn't properly keep up with the influx of people wanting to have fun.

"So that's the case."

After waiting for two minutes, Tang Hong's turn finally arrived.

In an instant, beams of eyes with different expressions focused on Tang Hong. There was envy, sympathy, and indifference. It couldn't be helped since these people have been in line for more than two hours.

Their faces were already shining from the oil extracted by the sun from their faces.

'Ding Dong!'

'You tasted the benefit of being a maverick and felt slightly lonely. Individual Value has increased by 1.'

Tang Hong exhaled. He was looking forward to gaining more Individual Value points as he continued to stroll around for a few laps. According to his speculation, his first experience of visiting an amusement park should increase his Individual Value by a few points

But the problem was…

Was it stackable?

Tang Hong couldn't help but feel as if he was frantically probing for the limits of loneliness…

The sky was starting to darken, but there were still a lot of people in the amusement park. Tang Hong felt hungry, but he wasn't willing to buy food inside the park due to its price. As a result, he only bought a bottle of Coca-Cola and took a few mouthfuls of it.

Tang Hong's eyes widened when the cold liquid entered his throat.

'Ding Dong!'

'Experience going to an amusement park alone for the first time. Individual Value has increased by 1.'

…

The night breeze was cold. Tang Hong left the scenic spot where he was on and looked at his mobile phone. It was now 7:50 PM.

Should he now take the subway and return?

He felt a little unwilling.

After obtaining four Individual Value points and confirming his theories regarding the support system, the desire to obtain more points burned fiercely in his heart.

He was young, energetic, courageous, and meticulous. Considering all of these, he thought hard and long before deciding that returning to the school on foot was a good idea.

Traveling on foot in the middle of the night, alone…

Unfettered and free…

How wonderful.

But after checking the map and seeing that the journey would take seven hours, he decided to look for more options. Then, he found that the journey would take an hour and a half through the subway, while it would take a bit more than two hours through cycling.

Tang Hong put away his phone. "Let's just choose cycling then."

It was in the middle of the night, but since Yunhai was an international financial metropolis with excellent public security management. Tang Hong wasn't worried about being under the receiving end of a crime or any other stuff like that.

Those were all just plots in those movies for him.

Ordinary people living their normal life in peace might never be involved in a crime throughout their entire life.

What's more, this city had the lowest crime rates compared to other cities in the entire world!

Of course, if he was a girl, then he should indeed be cautious.

Tang Hong looked at the route. Then, he found a small yellow bicycle and started to leisurely travel to his destination.

Passing by the scenic spot…

Passing by the magnetic levitation attraction…

The outer ring of the high-speed road…

Slowly, the landscapes on both sides of the road started to become a little desolate.

But the road Tang Hong was on still had a lot of traffic.

After riding for about ten minutes, the cool May breeze blew past him sending his sportswear jacket fluttering in the wind. The street lights were dim, and both sides of the road started to look indistinguishable to him.

He was probably close to an abandoned factory.

At this moment…

While cycling leisurely and slowly, the corner of Tang Hong's eyes seemed to have noticed a brilliant light.

"What is that?!"

Startled, his heart pounded wildly.

The color of the light indicated that it was something sacred.

'Come…'

'Come…'

'Dedicate everything you have to me.'

Soon afterwards, a majestic unknown whisper boomed and penetrated the air in all directions. It created an irresistible and absolute order, and it directly assaulted Tang Hong's mind!