“The scenario has been completed. Calculating the reward.
“Obtained EXP: 80,000. Game Coins: 100,000.
“Obtained Equipment: None
“Completed/Accepted Quests: 1/1
“Completed Special/Hidden Quests: 0. Unlocked Worldbuilding: None
“Time of Terror Points Increase: 0. Highest Terror Points: 0%. Average Terror Points: 0%.
“Terror Rating: Embodiment of Valor. Extra reward obtained, can be selected later.
“Obtained Skill Points: 2,650
“Additional Reward from Skill Points Gained: EXP: 26,500, Game Coins: 100,000
“Scenario Cleared Reward: Random, useable perfect-quality equipment
“Calculation complete. Please continue.”
There was a limit to the game coins awarded from clearing a mission and additional skill point rewards. The upper limit was 100,000. In other words, after a player cleared the scenario, aside from any extra rewards and hidden quests, the most game coins they could obtain was 200,000. This kind of design was the company’s way of controlling the currency rate inside the game. This was because controlling access to items like outfits and consumables on the market was not enough to stabilize the market, so they had to do something on the ’printing’ of the game coins. This was a complicated problem, related to the number of players, their standard, their gaming hours, and so on. These factors were all closely related to the production of Game Coins.
From the data gathered from this month, the success rate of players clearing the scenario was around sixty percent. Since the open beta, there had been more than ten million players who had logged into the game, and at the highest traffic hours of the day, there were around four million concurrent players online. The number of top players was less than one ten-thousandth of those players.
In other words, if ten scenarios had been played, four of them would not be cleared, and the players would only gain skill points and items. In the remaining six that were cleared, their reward depended on their contribution to clearing the scenario. Therefore, basically… only those fixed teams from guilds or individual experts would often get 200,000 game coins during the rating review. Most players, with that sixty percent premise, would depend on their effort contributed to see how much they got. Of course, this had nothing to do with paying players. For them, gaining game coins from scenario were a good thing, but if they did not have enough… they would buy some.
However, there were not many players who were willing to buy more than ten thousand or a hundred thousand Game Coins. A responsible gaming company with standard had to consider the majority. They would not let the players have so much money that the currency would be worth nothing, but they would not have the currency be so weak that nothing could be purchased. Only by having a stable market would the price and exchange rate in-game be stabilized, and more people would be willing to open their wallet.
Many online game agents or producers would often make mistakes here. Once the early stage was over, they would hike up the prices so much that the player base could not stand it anymore unless they poured in real money. That was a suicidal move.
“Your title has been updated to ’Pioneer of Darkness’.”
When the rating review finished, the system announced that the title ’Unpredictable Zealot’ had reached its time to retire. When Feng Bujue heard the news, he was half happy and half sad. It was a good thing to have a new title, but losing the skill Kyaaa! meant that he had no useable summoning skill anymore, and his character mission was stalled.
“Using summoning skills, successfully summon creatures for fifty times. Current progress: 14/50”
He had completed less than a third of it. Regardless, the new would not come unless the old went. Feng Bujue did not bother himself too much with this. After all, eventually, the character quest would be completed. It was only a matter of time. He opened the game menu and observed the skill of his new title.
———
Name: Descent of the War Demon
Special Power Property: Active
Consumption: All your Life Points, Stamina Points, and Sorcery Points
Effect: Demonize yourself to gain the power of the war god (Transformative skill, can be maintained for three minutes and can only be activated once in the scenario)
Remark: The moment the skill is activated, the Life Points will increase by three hundred percent of the player’s original max limit, and Stamina Points and Sorcery Points will be seen as limitless. During the demonic period, the player cannot used any weapon except their sorcery weapon and consumables. All the buff effects from equipment will disappear, and the game menu will be barred until the demonic possession is over. When the Life Points are depleted or the maximum time is reached, the possession will end, and the player will have one percent of their Life Points, zero Stamina Point, and zero Sorcery Points. For the following five minutes, the player will be immune to healing effects and buffs.
———
“What the hell is this?” Feng Bujue mocked. “For once, I used my fist to win a scenario, and you give me a title skill like this… Is this not forcing someone down a certain path?”
When he went to get the additional reward and perfect equipment, he glanced at the time. It was late at night. The time spent in this Killing Game was longer than he expected.
“Eh?” When Feng Bujue dealt with his control panel, he noticed that there were new friend requests and an unread mail. He looked at the people who had sent him friend requests. They were Shiva, Seven Kills, and King of Shadows.
“Ha… I should crop this picture and upload it on the forums…” Feng Bujue smiled wickedly. “Fine… people will probably say it’s photoshopped.”
Feng Bujue accepted all of them, and the next second, he went offline. That way, he could effectively prevent his new friends from requesting a communication to disturb him.
He got up to use the toilet, and after some cleaning up, Feng Bujue lay back in the gaming hub and switched to sleeping mode to log in. The set up logged him in instantly, so the brain entered sleeping mode immediately, and the nervous system was connected. When he returned to the lobby, Feng Bujue looked at the time. It was 1:15 am. After switching log-in mode, Seven Kills and Shiva could not contact him anymore. King of Shadows was in this channel, but his status was in-game.
“Xiao Tan, Brother Long, Jin Fugui…” Feng Bujue scanned his friend list, and almost everyone was in-game. “Strange… are Passing Rain and Laughing Soul not online today?”
He opened the mailbox. The only message was from Xiao Tan.
“Brother Jue, I didn’t see you online, and you didn’t answer your phone, so I assume you’re stuck in non-sleeping mode. I wrote this to tell you, at around 9 pm, Xiao Ling called me to say that Sister Rain suddenly felt uncomfortable. Xiao Ling is now at her place looking after her. She wanted me to tell you not to worry. It’s just a sudden flu, nothing serious. That’s all. I don’t know when you’ll come online, so I’ll go queue up for a game first.”
“Hmm…” Feng Bujue repeated to himself. “Don’t worry, huh…”
At that moment, Passing Rain’s face appeared in Feng Bujue’s mind. He lightly said, “It seems… she has become someone I worry about, hasn’t she? When did that happen?”