Chapter 71

The space in front of his eyes was narrower than the storage as it was just slightly bigger than the elevator booth . Mild light shone over the room from the white ceiling . The floor had square patterns in black and white, just like a chess board . The strangest feature about this room was that the whole four walls of the room were formed by twisted mirrors .

There were so many reflections of Feng Bujue in the mirrors, which looked pretty odd . Not only the twisted body, but also his aura and his countenances were all modified . In those mirrors, people could see joy, anger, sadness, cheering, greed, hatred, passion, insanity, etc . It seemed each face here represented a feeling or different desire .

“I thought it would be a public space just like the Mall,” Feng Bujue spoke to himself as his eyes glued on the only object in the room .

Stood amidst the room was a big box—a colorful present box around one square meter .

“Maybe if I open it, a spring clown will jump out and freak me out . ” Feng Bujue shrugged, smiled and moved towards the box .

The system’s voice arose at this moment, [When you stand in front of the Box of Fear, you can open a special menu to browse the items . ]

“Tsk, turns out it’s just for posing . ” Feng Bujue felt disappointed a little bit as he opened the menu .

The items inside it were so many, which went beyond his estimation . There were around 4,000 items, and they were all excellent items .

Within the short period of the Close Beta, which was only two days converted to 48 hours of real time, Sleep Mode Server had provided 480 hours of game time, and the Non-sleep Mode Server had brought 96 hours correspondingly . Thus, the total time of both servers was around 24 days .

During this period, each scenario had randomly generated one or two items that players couldn’t bring out of the scenario . Besides, there were numerous items of ‘Perfect Quality Grade’ that existed in those scenarios, which hadn’t been discovered even when the scenario was completed .

Those items, after a certain adjustment of attributes, could all be found in the Box of Fear .

Open Beta had been launched at 8:00 AM . From that point of time, all the items in the Box of Fear started to countdown for destruction . Six hours had passed by, and all items generated in Close Beta Version displayed [Remaining time: 6 days, 17 hours, 38 minutes] . Also, there was an increasing number of items generated in Open Beta constantly being put in this place . Those items had the countdown time starting from the end time of the scenarios .

It was his curiosity as Feng Bujue wanted to search for [The Bloody Corpse Must Die], which he had used before . Indeed, he found it, but the equipment conditions had been changed .

[Name: Bloody Corpse Must Die]

[Type: Weapon]

[Quality: Excellent]

[Attack Power: Quite strong]

[Attributes: None]

[Special Effects: can dissolve the Bloody Corpses when hit . ]

[Equipment Conditions: Fighting Specialty Grade D, Level 18]

[Remarks: This sword is an early work of the legendary dwarf blacksmith Aure in his collections, the ‘All Must Die’ . One day, a cunning Goblin businessman had used some bottles of ‘Erguotou’ to exchange for this sword . Half a month later, Aure cast the ‘Goblin Must Die’ . ]

As a weapon with a special and powerful ability, not to mention its attack power was quite fair, its equipment conditions were reasonable . A player at level 18 and has Fighting Specialty Grade D, not to mention his equipment, fighting one-on-one with a Bloody Corpse shouldn’t be a big problem, but it wouldn’t be too easy . Anyway, with this sword, everything became simpler as players could kill the mobs without shedding a drop of blood .

The price of this weapon, which was 300 points of Skill Value, was much suitable with Feng Bujue’s expectation of low-grade items . Thus, this slightly narcissistic bastard couldn’t help but secretly admire the item for seconds .

However, Feng Bujue didn’t intend to buy it . This item had a special restraint feature, and the chance that players could meet the Bloody Corpse in a scenario, which had various types of monsters, wasn’t high . It could be around 1/10 . If he put this item in the Auction House, no one would probably buy it either .

He adjusted the menu in chronological order and started to check the first page . After which, he couldn’t control his excitement as he saw that the items there were much better than the ones at the Auction House . However, good quality items came with a good price; he was afraid that he could miss some good items .

The more he saw items, the more excited and surprised he was . Although he hadn’t seen any ‘Legendary grade’ items yet, there were some items which were Perfect grade . Of course, he could only watch them with desire since the prices were thousands of Skill Value . In the scenarios, those items only appeared in the introduction or in the hands of the final BOSS, like the case of the [Bloody Corpse Must Die], which players could only touch for a second and then the scenario would be completed . But at the end, all would go to the ‘Recycling Station’—the Box of Fear—and wait for their destiny, which was to be destroyed .

Thus, it was possible that you could see Xuanyuan Sword (1) or even the Twin Blades of Azzinoth there (2) . As long as players had enough Skill Value, they could buy them all, but it was unsure, however, if they could use them at all . However, Skill Value was something that players couldn’t buy with money . The only way to gain it was to use their fighting techniques or intelligence to earn it in the scenario . Players who had more Skill Value certainly weren’t weak at all .

Feng Bujue had been checking every item for an entire hour, and finally, he completely washed away the thought of selling the items from here for money . He thought about how the exchange rate of the Box of Fear was crazy as it was only 1:10 and only a one-way exchange! Deceitful! 1000 Skill Value could only be exchanged for 10,000 coins, which was around 5 RMB, but could you buy 1000 Skill Value with just 5 RMB? Just consider a player at level 50, who had equipped himself with all perfect items and skills—he would never exchange his Skill Value for coins even if he got abundant points as he could totally use them to buy items and put them into the Auction House . What kind of idiots would exchange the precious Skill Value for coins?

Not only Feng Bujue had noticed that, during the morning on the same day, there were many players who had ridiculed about this on the forum . Of course, it was not a big deal because the system didn’t force players to do this exchange . If you don’t feel it’s right, then don’t do it .

At present, Dream Inc . didn’t have any reaction and just ignored it . Moreover, it went straight on the way until May 12th, one month afterwards, after updating the exchange rates for several times, and the community of players got used to the market prices and the auction items prices . Dream Inc . then adjusted the exchange rate between Skill Value and game coins .

At that time, the community in Thriller Paradise had been divided into three groups, namely, upper structure—intimidating players like drifting clouds; middle class—biggest number of players; and the bottom echelon which was ruled by ordinary players and newbies .

The group of superstructure players had the average level of 30, and their Specialties had been cleared . At the same time, their equipment and combination of skills had also been advanced . Each of them had a different strategy in playing (how to train and level up, do quests, etc . ), and they all had a title that matched their actual competencies . With their abilities and experience, they could be the leader of any team in the middle-level . Having such a member in the party, even if they didn’t give their opinions and just carried out their assignments, they would still be a big advantage .

Talking about the middle-level players—the main community of the game, which included professional worker players and stable ordinary players—there were other players who were strong enough to enter the superstructure level, but their understanding of the game was slightly less than the other players in the superstructure level; thus, it affected their character’s competences, the chance that they could finish the scenario, etc .

Those players were the ones holding the true meaning of the word ‘player’ . They could be famous all of a sudden, but they could also make mistakes, blame their teammates, or got blamed . Most of them thought that they were hotshots, but they couldn’t figure out what was the difference between them and the top hotshots . A long time afterwards, other players had gradually formed a feeling that the strongest in the game is the one who’s richer than them or has more time to play .

This sort of thought was somehow reasonable, but it was just a part of the causes .

Feng Bujue had already analyzed this before to know what requirements a player must have in order to become a hotshot in a game, which had considerable technical contents . Finally, he came up with seven requirements .

Knowledge, strategy, fortune, fighting spirit, will, valor, and competence .

Of course, there were innate factors or uncontrollable factors . In fact, playing games and sports are the same somehow . Only gifted talent combined with efforts could become a legend .

At the bottom level, there were players that could be included within three sentences . One, newbies who had just participated; two, normal players who weren’t online regularly; three, people whose fighting capacity was just only five .

As they had formed the bottom echelon, it was not necessary to mention their capacity . The first and second types of bottom players could enter the higher realm after a while; meanwhile, it was really reluctant to the players of the third type to level up . Everybody has something they had mastered and something they have no clue about . This principle is also applied in games .

It was how Thriller Paradise would be after one month . The reason why I mentioned this was because I have two things to announce ahead .

First thing, the game is going to hold a competition around the midst of May . Due to a massive number of players, those contestants must have a certain level of ability to achieve the qualification required . So, perhaps the players of that third type would never have a chance .

Second, after having heard of these, you would assume that Feng Bujue was certainly a player of the superstructure level . But… it’s not true .

He belonged to the fourth type of players, whose number wasn’t big enough to be addressed as a ‘community’ . Among millions of players registered in this game, there were roughly over 10 players like him . Although their levels weren’t the top ones, they were ‘loyal customers’ on the combat list .

Afterwards, in that competition, Dream Inc . would simply decide to cancel the qualifications required for this group of people and advance them directly to the final round . Also, they don’t need to confront the opponents of the very first rounds . Although many players feel that this is too unfair, in a larger vision, Dream Inc . is trying to protect the majority of players indeed . If we let you fight with them in the preliminary or the semi-final, that will be truly unfair .

. . .

Back to our story, back to our story . After Feng Bujue had checked the items for over an hour, he finally felt satisfied .

In the Box of Fear’s menu, each page would display 100 items; each item would only have three kinds of information including name, type, and price . When players chose them to take a better look, they could see the items’ properties .

Of course, Feng Bujue wouldn’t check every item one by one as he just looked at the one he was interested in and skimmed over the rest . Although some pages only took him 10 seconds to check, with the number of items, it still took him a lot of time to check them all . This meant that there were so many interesting items in this place .

After he checking them all, he took a deep breath, closed his eyes and filtered his thought . After that, he used the search option to find an item that he remembered .

[Name: Casey Jones’ Mask] (3)

[Type: Defensive Item]

[Quality: Excellent]

[Defensive power: Medium]

[Attributes: None]

[Special Effects: When equipped, user’s Fighting Specialty will be one level higher than his real level, but it will not exceed Grade C . ]

[Equipment Conditions: Male player, Level 15 . This item will be locked after equipped . ]

[Remarks: The owner of this mask likes to be with the four mutant turtles living in the sewer, who loves eating pizza a lot . As a guy who doesn’t have any kind of supernatural powers, he is still very keen on fighting against street crimes . This mask has gradually become his symbol . ]

This mask was priced at 500 points of Skill Value . The best features of this mask were the low equipment conditions and the strengthening effect for all players .

Before level 20, players’ Specialties were almost impossible to reach Grade C, and this mask could help them break through that limit . From the item’s usage point of view, players at level 15–20 could achieve big advantages using this mask . And when they had passed level 20, if their Fighting Specialty hasn’t been upgraded to C, this item would still be effective .

Currently, Feng Bujue’s Specialties were Common E, Weapon E, Investigating E, Shooting D, Fighting E, and Curing F . In addition, after Open Beta was launched, the Specialty Tab in his menu had been changed—the font size was slightly reduced, and new grey areas had appeared, which were his two new Specialties . At this time, however, they were still locked .

No matter what, this cost-effective mask would bring tremendous benefits . Thus, he didn’t hesitate to buy this item . Even though he was at level 13 now, it wasn’t a big deal for him to leap to level 15 . In papers, it would take him four scenarios max to do that .

After Feng Bujue had purchased the mask, he put it in his storage . Then, he visited the Mall one more time to put [Kenny’s Parka] in the Auction House with the starting price of 110,000 coins and the reserve price of 140,000 coins . The registration fee for putting in auction was 4,000 coins . This ‘procedure fee’ was set by the system . Since there were so many items, the price would be based on the properties of the items to be sold . Basically, this fee implied the item’s price evaluation by the system .

After 24 hours in real time, if there was no bid made, the items would be removed from the Auction House and then be packed and delivered to the owner via mails . If the items were sold, the system would send money to the owners .

After Feng Bujue was done with these things, he got back to his login space . It was 3:00 PM in real time now, so he got half a day and a whole night left to play . Feng Bujue set for himself a super short-term goal, which was to reach level 15 before dawn . Moreover, he must upgrade his Weapon Specialty to D . After which, he could equip the [Casey Jones’ Mask] and the [Echo Armor], then he could experience ‘The Killing Game’ .

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[1] Xuan-Yuan Sword (Chinese: 軒轅劍, literally “Sword of the Yellow Emperor”) . In time immemorial, the “Xuan-Yuan Sword” was wielded by Yellow Emperor of ancient China to defend the ancient Chinese against the warlord Chi You and his aggressive subjects . After Chi You’s defeat, the future for the five-thousand-year-old history of China was secured, and the Sword was passed on from Yellow Emperor to future generations to continue to defend the world against evil . Due to its great power, the sword was often sought by treacherous individuals to further their own ends .

[2] The Twin Blades of Azzinoth are a set of weapons wielded by the Lord of Outland, Illidan Stormrage . Azzinoth was a doom guard commander whom Illidan slew during the War of the Ancients 10,000 years ago . Illidan “looted” Azzinoth’s twin warglaives and trained to use them himself . He has become exceedingly efficient with the weapons . They can be connected to each other to form a single weapon, and then split apart to form separate weapons .

[3] Arnold Bernid “Casey” Jones is a fictional character from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comics and all related media . Like the turtles, Casey Jones is a vigilante, and was created as a parody of vigilante characters that were in comics . Casey usually has long dark hair, wears an ice hockey mask, cut-off biking gloves, and carries his weapons in a golf bag over his shoulder .