AWACS - An American With A Chinese System
Copyright© 2025 by PT Brainum
Chapter 16
The third installment of the Tremors marathon ended, poor Burt blew up his house. I checked my stats:
0/130,000 (53) Level
48,000/1,300,000 positive points
47,000 neutral points
128,493/1,300,000 negative points
12 Active Skills
16 Passive Skills
47,605 Bonus Neutral Points
I upgraded to level 54:
0/140,000 (54) Level
0/1,400,000 positive points
0 neutral points
93,493/1,400,000 negative points
12 Active Skills
16/17 Passive Skills
47,605 Bonus Neutral Points
I ordered room service and checked my new Passive skill picks:
Pick a New Passive Skill:
~幸灾乐祸 lucky disaster laughing at misfortune (0/4)
~脚踏实地 feet on solid ground (0/4)
~一无所有 one nothing possess (0/3)
~以小人之心度君子之腹 use nasty person’s heart to measure nobleman’s stomach (0/4)
~瑕不掩瑜 a flaw in jade does not conceal luster (0/4)
Scribe was back on duty, so I asked him which of these would produce points if upgraded. A flaw in jade, use nasty persons heart, and lucky disaster all blinked. I asked him which would give additional points after a single upgrade, and use nasty persons heart and lucky disaster both blinked. Finally I asked his recommendation, and he made a flaw in jade blink.
“Is it because I’ll need it soon?” I asked him, and it blinked once.
“Is it because it synergizes with other skills?” and it blinked twice.
So I picked it:
瑕不掩瑜 a flaw in jade does not conceal luster (1/4)
- nukular, your minor flaws don’t irritate the people around you, people always give you a pass when you do something minorly irritating
I was getting into my favorite Tremors movie, number 4, when my dinner arrived. I didn’t make small talk, but instead waved him in, and gave a perfunctory thank you. I checked online to see when number 6 would finish. Then I saw an advertisement for Tremors 7 on Netflix. When did Tremors 7 get released?
I looked it up, I guess I had somehow missed it when it was released. My excuse was I had been in the Middle East working. I’d have to figure out how to watch that, and soon. I had a copy of the short lived tremors tv series I had faithfully recorded to vhs somewhere in storage, this had been my favorite movie series as a kid, and I’d always stuck with it, until now. I remember when I saw Tremors 2 for the first time, I asked my Mexican friends in school if that’s what Mexico looked like, because I thought it was a really pretty area. They didn’t know of course, either because they’d never actually lived in Mexico, or hadn’t seen the movie.
Still number 4 was my favorite, I got to see it the day it came out, as my Dad had rented it for me from Blockbuster, as a late christmas gift. It was the first one I got to see on DVD, the others had all been on TV. It was also the last movie we watched together, so it was special in a lot of ways.
Numbers 5 and 6 were ok. The special effects were fine, the story was fine, the acting was fine. I’m just not much of a Jamie Kennedy fan, the guy plays one person, himself, and comes across as an unfunny ass.
I looked at the time, and my stats:
0/140,000 (54) Level
4,800/1,400,000 positive points
49,000 neutral points
140,893/1,400,000 negative points
12 Active Skills
17 Passive Skills
47,605 Bonus Neutral Points
At my slowest speed I had just under an hour of fight time using just my negative points. I made sure the doors were locked, and started to leisurely fly across the room. As my negative points came to zero, I dropped into the bed I had been hovering slightly over, having discovered that I could go even slower than the base speed.
I had a bit more than ten minutes till midnight, so I rested my eyes.
I jerked awake, my stats still showing:
0/140,000 (54) Level
110,000/1,400,000 positive points
1,600,000 neutral points
50,000/1,400,000 negative points
12 Active Skills
17 Passive Skills
47,605 Bonus Neutral Points
I pushed them away and looked at the time, nearly 6 am. The round up feature of containers pour big rain was really making itself felt. I hadn’t calculated the doubling effect of scenic spot historic site either. I also was generating points from more people, perhaps Su Li and her husband, or people who hate me, I couldn’t really tell. I was now earning 800, sometimes 900, points a minute. I had so many points to spend!
I leveled up six times to level 60.
0/300,000 (60) Level
111,800/3,000,000 positive points
610,900 neutral points
50,800/3,000,000 negative points
12/15 Active Skills
17/20 Passive Skills
47,605 Bonus Neutral Points
1 Free Spin
Plenty of time before I needed breakfast or to be ready for Gloria. I hit the free spin.
Free Spin: Pick two Active Skills not previously chosen from a random category:
~罄竹难书 to use up bamboo disaster document (0/1)
~热锅上的蚂蚁 on hot pan is an ant (0/3)
~讨价还价 ask price, make counter offer (0/3)
~所向无前 anyplace any direction only forward (0/4)
~囫囵吞枣 wholly swallow dates (0/1)
I recognized these as all being category four picks. I had only crouching tiger hidden dragon from that category as an Active Skill, plus a couple that were passives. They gave me information on things, primarily people so far.
I asked Scribe which would suit me best, and he suggested ask price and anyplace any direction.
I asked which was the most expensive to use, and he flashed use up bamboo and wholly swallow dates. That made me think that wholly swallowed dates must be powerful if it was expensive, and only a single level Skill. I was glad to have his help, especially when I asked if any of them could earn me points, and they all blinked once for no. I asked him if his suggestions were because the initial level was what I needed, or if I needed the skill fully upgraded. Any place any direction blinked four times, ask price blinked twice.
I choose my first pick, but nothing happened, so I choose my second:
讨价还价 ask price, make counter offer (1/3)
- no negotiation necessary, immediately find the ideal mutually happy price between buyer and seller, cost 10000 points per negotiation
所向无前 anyplace any direction only forward (1/4)
- know the best path to wherever you are going, even if you’ve never been there before, cost 5000 points per destination, ends if you leave the suggested route, not resumable, only applies to travel
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