Chapter 77: The Difference in Award Distribution

"Ding-dong!"
The phone chimed. Jiang Zheng picked it up and saw a WeChat notification.
Noticing that the message was from Yang Bo, Jiang Zheng felt a bit puzzled. Why would Yang Bo be messaging him?
He opened it to check.
"Fourth Bro, do you have two thousand yuan? I’m in urgent need—help me out!"
Jiang Zheng was slightly taken aback by the message. Yang Bo was asking to borrow money, and not just a little—two thousand?
Yang Bo had asked to borrow money before, since he had a girlfriend and there were always expenses, but he’d never borrowed this much in one go. Usually, it was a hundred or two, at most five hundred.
Two thousand yuan... that was equivalent to two months of Jiang Zheng’s living expenses.
"Second Bro, why do you need so much money?" Jiang Zheng replied, asking him.
He could come up with two thousand, but money didn’t grow on trees. He was willing to lend it, but he needed to know what it was for.
Soon, Yang Bo replied: "Bro, if you have it, just lend it to me first. I’ll explain later."
Jiang Zheng frowned slightly at that, but still decided to lend Yang Bo the money.
What if something urgent had really happened? If he kept pressing for details and delayed things, it might only make things worse.
He transferred two thousand yuan to Yang Bo via WeChat. Yang Bo replied with a quick thank you, then went silent.
Jiang Zheng didn’t think much of it; he was sure Yang Bo would pay him back.
He knew Yang Bo’s character well enough to trust him—he wasn’t the type to borrow and not return it.
The matter of Yang Bo borrowing money quickly faded from Jiang Zheng’s mind. Lying in bed, he started pondering the question of what reward to choose.
Today’s task was complete, and he could claim a skill as a reward.
Jiang Zheng was already quite familiar with this process.
Faced with two skill options, he didn’t hesitate long before choosing "Wrestling."
Fishing didn’t interest him much, and besides, "Wrestling" could increase arm strength and had much broader applications.
Skills with broad applications were always his first choice.
What worried him, though, were the side effects that might come with "Wrestling."
To be honest, he had more or less figured out the system’s quirks by now.

Every time he claimed a reward, something unexpected would happen.
For example, when he took "Gifted Voice," he couldn’t utter a sound for the whole day. When he chose "Focus," he spent the entire day lost in thought. When he picked "Never Fall," he tripped even on flat ground.
Of all the rewards he’d claimed, only "Robust Physique" had no side effects. But that one was tricky, since it wasn’t granted all at once—it required daily exercise to gradually take effect.
Jiang Zheng had summed it up: rewards granted instantly always came with a day of side effects, while those distributed over time didn’t.
Both types had their pros and cons.
What concerned Jiang Zheng now was how "Wrestling" would be dispensed.
If it was given instantly, would his arms be weak tomorrow? And if so, how would he keep up with his writing updates?
After thinking for a while, Jiang Zheng got up to write more, just in case.
At the very least, he wanted to finish tomorrow’s update in advance, so that even if he couldn’t write the next day, he’d be covered.
He wrote over ten thousand words before finally stopping.
He simply couldn’t go on.
He’d already spent the day camping outside and squeezed in over sixty thousand words for the day. Even with his above-average stamina, he couldn’t push any further.
Lying in bed, he was almost asleep when he silently muttered, "Claim reward."
[Reward granted. Please do daily arm exercises; the reward will be distributed gradually.]
Jiang Zheng heard the notification but fell asleep before he could think much about it.

The next morning, Jiang Zheng got up and tested his arms—no weakness at all.
Thinking back to the system’s words the night before, he secretly nodded; just as expected.
"Wrestling" was a gradually dispensed reward, requiring daily training for his arms—it was specific about which part to exercise.
There were countless ways to train arms: simple ones like push-ups and pull-ups, or using equipment like dumbbells and power twisters.
He felt a bit regretful that there were no side effects but also relieved—after all, weak arms would be a serious problem.
Eating, studying, daily life—all would be affected. Just imagining not being able to wipe after using the bathroom sent a shiver down his spine.

That morning, Jiang Zheng didn’t write. Instead, he spent time reading to recharge.
Intensive writing sessions had drained his inspiration.
Even with the system’s "Inspiration Fountain" skill, ideas didn’t appear out of thin air—they were still his own.
The skill just drew them out explosively.
The real resource being used up was Jiang Zheng’s own foundation.
If he wrote at a steady pace, a book wouldn’t exhaust his inspiration too quickly, since he’d accumulate more ideas as he worked.
But he wrote so quickly that most people couldn’t even read as fast as he could write, which meant his rate of accumulation couldn’t keep up with his rate of consumption.
That’s why Jiang Zheng planned to slow his updates for a while—to give himself a chance to recharge.
His reading was eclectic, always books that interested him, and with the "Focus" skill, he could achieve in a single read what others might need several or even ten readings to grasp.
By noon, he’d learned a lot and felt a deep sense of satisfaction at his growing knowledge.
For lunch, Jiang Zheng reheated leftovers from the night before.
While eating, he didn’t continue reading; instead, he watched short videos to relax.
Lately, he’d barely played any games—if he wasn’t writing, he was reading reviews for inspiration.
After a while, Zhou Quanyi suddenly messaged him.
"Did Second Bro borrow money from you yesterday?"
Jiang Zheng replied, "Yeah, two thousand."
Soon, Zhou Quanyi sent another message.
"He borrowed two thousand from you, five thousand from me, and three thousand combined from Third Bro, Fifth Bro, and Little Six. Why does he need so much money?"
"I don’t know. I asked him yesterday and he just said it was urgent and he’d explain later," Jiang Zheng replied.
At the same time, he was a bit shocked—Yang Bo had borrowed a total of ten thousand from them. What for?
"You don’t know either? I’m going to ask him. We need to find out what happened and whether he needs more," Zhou Quanyi messaged.
"Alright," Jiang Zheng replied.