BXBX NOVEL Chapter 54 - Fearsome Aunty
Chapter 54: Fearsome Aunty
“Task requires 100 photographs to be taken with different kinds of people.”
“Upon completion, you will receive achievement title [Group Photo Guru] (Photogenic +1, Smile Appeal +1).”
He looked down, but there was only one task with no phases.
Presently, he had completed 10/100.
In other words, this was another task that was triggered after reaching a certain degree of accumulation, similar to the previous [Travelling Deity] task that was triggered after he had tallied 1000 meters.
That being the case, Meng Fan sighed in relief. He thought it had been the action of the aunty that had triggered the task, but it turns out she had just been the tenth in line.
If this aunty was really his “Task NPC”… He had difficulty just thinking about it.
Although there was only one process, there were still rewards, but only +100 achievement points, with no additional attributes.
It made sense if you think about it. The title attribute was already +1, so it made sense that phase rewards didn’t exist.
As for the attributes that came with the title… Meng Fan was baffled.
The photogenic attribute was understandable; as regardless of how he went about it, the task would have to be done in front of a camera. But what kind of metaphysical attribute is ‘smile appeal’…? Besides, he didn’t smile while they had taken the pictures before!
And most importantly, it had no equipment.
He looked back again and decided all the rewards came down to photogenic attribute +1, Smile appeal +1, and +100 achievement points. It was definitely the most underwhelming and stingy task the system had provided so far.
Although [Wealth Distribution Cherub] only rewarded +1 for an attribute, at least it was for “Luck +1″—It even sounded more advanced than the metaphysical attributes of validation and smile appeal.
Sigh. As he pondered it over, Meng Fan suddenly remembered something. It was when he had spent 1200 HXB treating Chen Da Qiang to dinner and the transfer counted towards his task process. Later, when Chen Da Qiang returned the money to him… He took a closer look at the progress bar. Meng Fan confirmed, the system would not deduct the existing progress.
“Is it because I genuinely wanted to treat them at the time, so the system judged it as wealth distribution, and left it alone?”
He held onto the thought for a moment without too much hesitation. After all, based on previous situations, Meng Fan didn’t have much need to analyze this task thoroughly.
As of now, the newly unlocked [Group Photo Guru] task was poor in terms of rewards, but no matter how he looked at it, it was by far the easiest task to accomplish. Like hunting rabbits while cutting grass, it could be done smoothly alongside other tasks. Meng Fan had to complete it.
The confident aunty saw Meng Fan’s strange expression, immediately dimming her mood. “Aiyo! When you were taking a picture with that other pretty girl you weren’t like this, but that’s not the case with me, why is your expression so ugly when it comes to me? This sort of different treatment is not a good look!”
Meng Fan yanked his thoughts back to reality, dumbfounded by the comment. He didn’t smile during the last photo either… was there really such a big difference between smiling and not smiling?
But what could he say, his environment growing up all cultivated him to never argue with a woman. It’s best if you can muddle your way through it, if not, playing cute works. If those don’t work, then avoiding them is the last resort.
The hardships of life had given Meng Fan wisdom. Weakly, he said, “You stepped on my foot.”
“Oh? Oh, I’m sorry, I’m sorry!” The confident aunty’s change in tone was quite fierce. “You’re such a nice young man, you wouldn’t judge someone by their appearance. Even so, I’m still passable! Even though I’m a bit older, but I’m still very good looking! Look at my daughter, you should be able to guess how pretty I was when I was younger!”
Meng Fan zealously nodded his head, feeling the flexibility in his neck evidently increase from his running task progress.
“Your stream is called…” The confident aunty thought hard for a moment. ” Meng fatty breaking a watermelon, right? When I get back I’ll get my daughter to send you some fan gifts! I’m very trendy too, so I’m aware of what streams and stuff are.”
The confident aunty covered her awkwardness with forced laughter and stood to the side, murmuring Meng Fan’s stream title the whole time. She couldn’t figure out where this name came from. Meng fatty eating melons made more sense… Maybe not; eating watermelons won’t make you fat.
“Young people nowadays don’t pay attention to it, but back in our days, every QQ name was well thought at the time. My name was ‘Crystal Romance’, so full of western flavor. The kid’s father’s name was called ‘Cool Boy’, even now he’s still so cool!”
The confident aunty rambled on, feeling particularly beautiful. She had long forgotten that she never actually did step on Meng Fan’s foot.
The aunty stood to the side and turned to leave. Meng Fan let out a breath. Regarding his stream name, is it a good thing that she forgot?
Although her rendition of it made Meng Fan very uneasy.
He disregarded the sea of rowdiness in the stream channel and continued to draw.
Because of the [Group Photo Guru] achievement task, from Meng Fan’s perspective; now is the best opportunity to collect group photo experience, and he didn’t need to find people specifically to take pictures with. Hence, he had to increase his rate of production and drawing speed.
The best method that Meng Fan had thought of was to not add color, or add simple color, limiting it to three at max. He’d try to maximize areas he could use black to replace, and if there were blank spaces, that would be even better.
Additionally, there was another reason that the number of people in line had been increasing—Maybe it was due to the confidence the aunty had portrayed, for some average looking onlookers had joined the line—Although there was shade, it was still blazing hot outside. He would try his best to minimize their time in line.
He was wearing his headband so he didn’t feel the heat, but he couldn’t stand to see others burn under the sun.
After adjusting his strategy, Meng Fan managed to keep his caricature time below 3 minutes, becoming highly efficient.
Although the colors were simple, the quality of the drawings did not decrease. The following two people had no complaints, delightfully taking their pictures with Meng Fan before leaving.
Of course, there were some picky customers. For example, the thirteenth pretty girl who’s lipstick was particularly prominent. After all, there wasn’t just one confident aunty in the world, only she wasn’t as fierce in her language. She couldn’t help but mention, “You paid more attention during the ones you drew before.”
Meng Fan finally understood the concept of nothing good comes for free. If he had set the cost to 2-300 per portrait, nobody would say anything.
Following the principle of ‘earning a small amount rather than no amount’, Meng Fan prepared to explain that there were too many people, then try to muddle through. Suddenly, a bottle of ice cola appeared in between the lipstick girl and Meng Fan.
“Aiyo, you really like to compare huh?! You have to understand this young man, can’t you see? There are so many people in line, the young man evidently just wants the queue to go faster and give everyone a drawing so they don’t have to wait so long, so he increased his speed.”
The aunty had left and came back with a bottle of ice cola for Meng Fan. When she opened her mouth it was like a turret, putting into play her method of ‘changing the tide’. She then turned to the people in line and reiterated again, “It’s better than not having any, don’t you think? The young man is a kind person, let’s applaud his efforts!”
“I didn’t say anything!”
The lipstick girl was no match for the confident aunty. She smiled awkwardly and left.
The aunty placed the ice cola on the edge of his easel and gave him a look that said ‘I’m not only pretty but I can also finish a fight’, and turned ornately to walk away.
Meng Fan was speechless. This aunty was really fierce.
But this was good; the remaining customers won’t be complaining about the simplicity of the colors.
Initially, he felt that the matter was more difficult to explain. After all, there was a distinct difference in treatment in the first half and the second. He didn’t think that the aunty had actually solved the issue in one breath.
Of course, even if the color was simple, with Meng Fan’s drawing skills, each portrait was still a masterpiece.