Chapter 53

A number of my skills worked just fine, even if the person was dead. To use up bamboo disaster document wasn’t one of them, for example it gave me a full picture of all the bad things that John Salzman had ever committed. One of them was just last week.

I found a picture of him from a newspaper online, and using it, was able to identify that he was hiding out somewhere in Corsica, and it definitely wasn’t in a graveyard in Spain. I had the address he was at written down, and would check it again later in the evening to see if that was where he spent the night. For now, I had, thanks to copious amounts of pomegranate, the solid bones of an idea to get the FBI off me, and make some of these useful skills available to people who could really use them. The whole ‘I work for the UN’ had been a lame attempt on my part to explain my UN passport. Who knew it would turn out to be such a good idea after inspirational fruit?

I checked my stats:

0/170,000,000 (117) Level
62,034,000/1,700,000,000 positive points
1,944,063,964 neutral points
31,575,994/1,700,000,000 negative points
34/35 Active Skills
32 Passive Skills
47,605 Bonus Neutral Points
Active Skill Upgrades: 5/10
Passive Skill Upgrades: 4/10

It was 9 pm now, and I’d finished an ok room service dinner, and was relaxing thinking about what to do with my points. My new friends, family, an enemies bonus had come in earlier that morning, still aligned with Pitcairn midnight. It had been less than I hoped for, not quite 5 million positive points. I hoped that was because I hadn’t had a full day to collect.

I could safely upgrade now, and have enough points left to remain balanced even if I got another news report on flowergate. The apology from the hospital director had come in a couple hours earlier, but no new points meant that it had only been carried by news sources that had already covered the event. I had watched it while eating, pleased at the points, but slightly disgruntled with the apology for having ‘accidentally implied that he had been the sole provider of the flowers’, and he had in fact been ‘instrumental in making the arrangements for the event’, and was ‘happy that our hospital continues to produce so many very satisfied patients.’

At least he left my name out of it, and the news channel hadn’t reported again on me or my other fame.

Instead of upgrading, I decided to use my remaining active point:

Pick a New Active Skill:
~一字之师 one character makes expert (0/1)
~学无止境 learning has no end (0/1)
~步步高升 step by step to get a promotion (0/1)
~害群之马 the horse causes trouble to the herd (0/1)
~请君入瓮 please sir go into the pot (0/1)

Scribe was blinking one of them at me, but I was mostly disappointed in what I was seeing. Five single level skills.

“Scribe, are you suggesting the skill you are because of the plan I have?” I asked him.