Surviving In My Novel - Chapter 117
“Grey, why do you look so tired?”
An ashen expression thickened over Simon’s countenance, paired with his slouching posture and slow walking.
“I don’t know.” Simon went to bed.
Next day:
Simon woke up a little more energetic than the day before. He had essentially abandoned all hope for that Gun Art, labelling it a piece of trash that should never see the light of day. If his daughter is his pride, then the gun art is his shame. Such a terrible technique shouldn’t be allowed to be associated with Simon.
It was simply too embarrassing.
If Simon could turn back time, he would definitely have taken a break for the day and created a technique the next day. Instead, he ended up wasting most of his energy and producing a claiming pile of sh*t.
For now, he would have to bear with it. He didn’t have enough time to create another technique when he knew that Blue would probably break through to Nascent Soul within the next day or so. At that point, they would leave this nice place and venture out to the Divine Tempest Sect.
‘Hopefully the accommodation is as good as here… I am getting very used to the massage chair and coffee machine.’
Bzzzt
A flying insect entered Simon’s field of vision, buzzing about on top of him.
Simon kept a calm expression and pointed his gun at the TV.
BANG
A low powered bolt of energy flew forwards and curved right back at Simon’s direction, destroying the flying insect into burnt out particles.
“Never hits the target. This gun art is a game of luck.”
“How do I get more luck?”
Simon pondered this as he sat on the couch, drinking coffee. What if he could make this technique useful by becoming so lucky that every shot hit something that needed to be hit? What if he just shot straight into the middle of nowhere and collapsed a cave, killing a powerful beast? What if every bullet that was shot at the sky returns and kills a bandit?
So many ideas and so little to work with. As far as Simon was concerned, old folklore and pop culture told that flipping coins and rabbit feet are lucky charms. So he could only think of a few things to do.
“Blue, I will be in the backyard for the rest of the day. Please don’t disturb me.” Simon went out of the house and was greeted by a large space in a fenced cube.
‘Now I am going to place a dummy here and leave.’ Simon places an anime body pillow of himself on the ground with a pole strapped to it, making it appear that he was standing in the backyard.
Simon disappeared and reappeared 20 minutes later in the forest that he had been just a week and a half ago.
Simon already had more than enough coins, so he decided to start flipping them and wishing for heads over tails. Assuming that more heads give more luck, he would take it.
While flipping his coins, he would also keep an eye out for rabbits. If he found any, he would kill them and take their feet so he can feast on their intrinsic luck values.
An ingenious plan. Only a complete bullsh***er could think of this.
“Heads.”
“Tails.”
“Heads.”
“Heads.”
“Tails.”
“Heads.”
“Heads.”
“Heads.”
“Heads.”
“Heads.”
…
“Heads.”
After a while, Simon began to see ‘tails’ much less, suddenly it became so rare that he would gasp at the sight of tails. It was almost as if the more heads he scored, the less tails he could get.
“Now then, I need some rabbits.” Simon pondered on the strategy he was currently implementing.
At the current point in time, he could easily hunt any normal animal without much effort, but he knew that the animals of his new novel did not bear to much mundanity. All of them are Spirit Beasts. As such, even a rabbit could hide using their spiritual aura.
While Simon would consider this task tedious, he knew of the rewards. Luck may be intangible, but in his novel, all things can be upgraded through understanding. As such, playing darts can somehow make you faster and reading h.e.n.t.a.i can make you smarter. The idea of stats was still a thing even if they did not really exist in words.
Luck just so happened to be something that people could train. But Simon never digged deep into this topic when he wrote the novel, he only explained that intangible metaphysical substances can be trained through common sense and occasional BS.
If you can justify it, it just might work.
“Let’s try my luck.” BANG
FLOP
A creature fell from the sky and landed right in front of him.
“A rabbit with wings? Lucky.” Simon immediately summoned forth fire and cooked the rabbit until it became well done. He then proceeded to cut off the feet and eat it with the fur remaining.
“People think that just the meat is fine. No, eat everything or you’re a f**king casual. You get rewarded for doing it tough, not lazing around.” Simon was talking to himself since he had no one else he could entertain himself with. He really missed his family and disciples.
NOM NOM NOM
BANG
Simon shot up again with his eyes closed.
FLOP FLOP FLOP…
Four winged rabbits that looked identical to the one from before suddenly dropped down to the ground in front of Simon, dead. All of them had been pierced by a single projectile through their skulls.
‘So four feet makes my luck four times better? Math is iffy, but I can deal with this for now.’ Simon sighed and cooked the rest of the rabbits until they appeared to be well done also.
NOM NOM NOM…
After another period of eating, Simon got up and patted his still smooth tummy, feeling even more rejuvenated than before. This time he felt like he was ready for anything, just out of instinct.
‘Let’s try this again.’ Simon raised his arms and pointed his gun to the sky.
BANG
A huge mass came falling down from the heavens, dropping right in front of Simon.
[Title acquired: Cherry Picker]
[Killed an already wounded Immortal Master stage cultivator]
“…”
‘Let’s try this again…’ Simon raised his arm again and shot towards the sky.
BANG
Another huge mass came falling down, appearing to be a troll with wings.
BANG
A winged rabbit with a unicorn horn landed right in front of Simon.
Of course Simon was happy about this, but he was too busy with trying his luck to give too much of his attention to his latest prize.
BANG BANG BANG…
After roughly an hour of shooting, Simon had amassed a gigantic treasure trove inside his spatial storage. Along with these treasures, Simon gained so many rabbit feet that he struggled to finish them all within the hour. He felt as if he would vomit at any moment, clearly noticing the strange feeling emanating from his entire body.
Perhaps it was luck that stopped him from fainting because of his overeating, maybe it was also luck that he did not get attacked by a bunch of spirit beasts while he was shooting. Who knew? probably the author.
As time went by, Simon realised that he had gained more than enough from his first day of hunting and decided to go back to his condo. It had been a fun day out without a certain someone, and he felt like he could do it again with a smile.
“So long.” Simon disappeared from the scene.
Barely a second later:
“Shu! I heard something… OH WHAT THE F**KLY F**K IS THIS!?!?” Lu jumped backwards and landed right on his b.u.t.t.
“What is- WHAT IN THE WORLD!?!?” Shu walked up and did the exact same thing upon noticing a horrifying scene before him.
“What are you guys-” Yu fainted.
FLOP
“Why…are…there…so many… legless rabbit…s?”
Before them was a pile of legless rabbit corpses that had managed to reach a stunning 10 metres in height, becoming so tall that each layer had become increasingly saturated in blood from the top layers. This scene looked like something out of a blood sacrifice ritual, even completed with a pair of troll-like corpses placed on separate stone benches.
“What in the world…?”
“Shu, I think we should head in the exact opposite direction and head back. This might be a warning to intruders not to come any closer.” Lu dragged Yu’s unconscious body back where they came from and started leaving.
If only they knew that Simon was only a mere hour’s walk away.