“The scenario has been completed. Calculating the reward.
“Obtained EXP: 1,500, Game Coins: 1,5000.
“Obtained Equipment: Eye of Hostility, M1911A1 Pistol, Chef’s Knife, Baseball Bat, Flashlight x2
“Completed/Accepted Quests: 5/5
“Reward for achieving Special Ending: The Blessing of the Ruler of Time
“Completed Special/Hidden Quests: 0. Unlocked World-building: The Circle of Time
“Time of Terror Points Increase: 0. Highest Terror Points: 0%. Average Terror Points: 0%.
“Your Terror Rating is: Embodiment of Valor. Extra reward obtained, can be selected later.
“Obtained Skill Points: 300
“Additional Rewards from Good Terror Rating, EXP: 3,000, Game Coins: 30,000
“Scenario Cleared Reward: 80% increase to Base EXP: 1,200
“Calculation complete. Please continue.”
As the batteries inside the flashlight and the bullets inside the pistol were consumables below excellent quality, they would not take up space when equipped inside their corresponding item or placed inside the backpack. The wrench was not obtained during this scenario, so it was not counted. Thus, such items did not appear in the rating review.
The reward for mastering the world-building sure is something else, Feng Bujue uttered internally. Not counting the 240 Skill Points, I would originally only have gained 60 Skill Points from the scenario.
“Brother Jue! We’re rich!” Wang Tanzhi exclaimed joyfully in the team chat. “I rose directly to level ten! And got around 20,000 Game Coins!”
When Feng Bujue heard that, he instinctually calculated that Xiao Tan had gained around 60 to 150 Skill Points from the scenario. He replied, “There’s no need to shout; I can see that just fine from the team member list.”
He noticed the friend request from Long Aomin. As he pressed the accept button, he said, “Don’t forget to accept the friend request from Brother Long.”
“I’ve already accepted it,” Wang Tanzhi replied. “You should ask him to join our group.”
After some simple process, Long Aomin’s voice also appeared in the team chat. “Hey, both of your levels basically doubled. Ah, Brother Feng, you’re level eleven now.”
Currently, his level was the same as Feng Bujue’s. How could that be? To find the answer, peruse Feng Bujue’s current character status.
———
IGN: Feng Bujue, Level: 11, EXP: 1,350/11,000
Skill Points: 430, Game Coins: 51,500
Mastery: General Ability F, Workmanship F, Sleuthing F, Fighting F, Marksmanship F
Inventory 8/10: Mario’s Wrench, Eye of Hostility, Chef’s Knife, Baseball Bat, Flashlight x2, M1911A1 Pistol
Log-in Lobby 1/30: Puzzle Card: Monkey.
———
Levelling up from eleven to twelve required 11,000, not 1,100. Every ten levels, Thriller Paradise’s levelling system would undergo a drastic change. Going from level one to two required 100, then from two to three required 200, finally from ten to eleven required 1,000. Then, after players reached level eleven, they would see a shocking change.
Other than the 1,500 EXP and 1,200 Game Coins reward, he also gained over 170 Skill Points. With the additional reward, he had earned around 4,500 EXP. But when he examined his level bar, he was shocked to realize that he needed another eight thousand EXP before he could reach level twelve.
The two communicated for a while and then explained to Wang Tanzhi what would happen after he reached level eleven. In the end, it was Long Aomin who was the first to remember this detail and asked, “By the way, what are your titles?”
“Cold-blooded Skull Cracker,” Feng Bujue answered.
“Erm…” The other two were speechless, causing a temporary silence. Several seconds later, Wang Tanzhi chuckled drily and said, “It looks like this system is quite logical. After all, during the scenario, most of your attacks landed on the head… and you do appear quite cold-blooded.”
“Then what about your title? The wailing young master?” Feng Bujue shot back.
“How could there possible be a young master title in the game‽”
“You’re right. Young master is a type of person, not a career,” Feng Bujue replied.
“My title is The Panicked Hidden Assailant…” Wang Tanzhi was not going down that rabbit hole with Feng Bujue, so he quickly tossed out his title.
“Hmm… That is due to the panicked reaction and the battle style of refusing to face the enemy head-on,” Feng Bujue said. “Well, I can’t say the system is wrong.”
“The system is definitely wrong! How can it give me a title like that? It’ll make other players look down on me, I’m sure of it!” Wang Tanzhi complained.
“What difference does it make? Other players will look down on you when they see your title or after they hear your helpless, high-pitched scream…” Feng Bujue did not hold back.
“Ha ha ha…” Long Aomin laughed and tried to be the mediator. “Actually, Brother Wang, you don’t need to worry so much. The title might change after completing each scenario. For example, my title has changed to Team Defender.”
The three chatted for a while. Long Aomin said that he planned to go offline to rest for a few hours because he had been online for quite some time already. When it was dawn, he would return in sleeping mode. Wang Tanzhi claimed that he was tired for the day already and would not continue the game until tomorrow. Including the beginner’s tutorial, he had just completed four consecutive scenarios. That was his limit. Feng Bujue also said that he would go offline after getting the reward. It was not that he was tired; he was consciously monitoring his level.
The maximum level for the closed beta was twenty. For non-professional players, there was no need to rush it. When more than ten percent of players reached that level, the closed beta would end, and the server would be closed until the game was upgraded and ready for the open beta.
Thriller Paradise had already attracted the attention of many game studios. As previously mentioned, during the afternoon on the first day of the close beta, Feng Bujue could already find guides written by top players on the forums. It was clear that most of these guides and articles came from workers at gaming studios. These people were professionals, and they had a clear plan when playing games. After all, it was work for them. For this kind of game, they had to have two shifts. One worked in sleep mode starting from 8 am while the other fought in non-sleep mode in the afternoon, and the shift changed again at night…
Based on the law that was passed in the year 2055, the connection time players had to a gaming hub was severely limited. The maximum hours in real life one could be connected to non-sleeping mode was ten hours. Due to the 1:10 ratio of time conversion for sleep mode, the connectivity period could not be longer than eight hours in real life, but the recommended time was actually less than four hours. If someone reached the maximum threshold for those two modes within a day, they would be forcibly kicked out of the game and would need to wait twenty-four hours before they could reconnect.
In other words, a person could play up to eighteen hours on a psychologically-connected game in a day, ten hours of it in non-sleep mode and the other eight in sleep mode; that was the maximum. Changing the gaming hub would not cheat the system because the server would not accept the citizen’s ID again. This was the law, and it was to consider the general health of the players. At the initial stage of such games, there were people who stayed connected when they were on the toilet, and most of them died from exhaustion or suffered permanent brain damage. Of course, this was not the fault of the gaming hub or the game. In the previous century, when the fourth-generation photon computer first came to the world, there were many who had died at the internet café, so who could be blamed?
After bidding farewell to each other, Xiao Tan and Brother Long ended the communication and cancelled the group. Feng Bujue walked out of the elevator and entered the space to collect his items.
There were still two glass tubes in the room. Inside the tube on the left, something was already floating within. That appeared to be the item given by the Ruler of Time. If they did not get the ending that they did, this reward would not have been there.
Feng Bujue first removed one of the flashlights from his backpack and stored it at the log-in lobby, dropping his inventory number down to 7/10. Then, he glanced at the special power that his title awarded him. This power was placed above the skill bar, so it did not take up a space.
———
Skill Name: Brain Concussion
Skill Type: Passive
Effect: Blunt force trauma to a target’s skull has a twenty percent chance of stunning the target.
Remark: Go ahead and crack the skull. Add more grease behind the shoulder. After all, it’s only a head.
———
The effect of this title was not bad. After all, it was passive and would not consume Stamina Points. It should be highly effective against common monsters combined with the effect of Mario’s Wrench, but when facing strong monsters, non-humanoid monsters, or shapeless monsters… Feng Bujue probably would not have the chance to aim at people’s head.
Feng Bujue soon walked to the first glass tube, floating inside a small glass bottle half-filled with sand.
———
Item Name: Slowing Sand
Item: Consumable
Quality: Excellent
Effect: Breaking the container will cause the speed of all the monsters within one hundred meters’ radius to slow by a factor of ten. Effect lasts for a minute.
Remark: There is some low-quality Time Dust inside this bottle. When you’re surrounded by a large group of monsters, it might help you escape.
———
“This is a very tactical and valuable consumable, Xiao Tan and Brother Long should have a bottle each,” Feng Bujue muttered as he walked to the second tube.
“Please select your additional reward. One, a randomized piece of equipment that matches your level; two, 50,000 Game Coins (Maximum Limit); three, 4,400EXP.”
The value of a good terror rating showed itself when one was level eleven. From the reward, the Game Coins, and equipment aside, the fact that the system was willing to award forty percent of the EXP level up requirement was a bit much.
Theoretically speaking, as long as Feng Bujue was not cured, no matter which level he was, by surviving two scenarios, he would basically gain a level up.
But precisely because of that, Feng Bujue did not choose the EXP. He was worried that his curious Terror Points would attract the game company’s attention, making them suspect that he was using some kind of cheat. Therefore, he wanted to stay as low a profile as he could. After all, he was not attempting to rush his level.
Therefore, he chose equipment again. Even though he was not lacking weapons, with both close-ranged and long-ranged weapons, he lacked armor, so he hoped to win some trusty armor.
