BXBX NOVEL Chapter 31: Game Hall
“That isn’t the most powerful thing. Didn’t you notice that he has collected all of the monster book? Many great gods can’t collect the monster book when clearing the true ending!”
“I have purchased his video to watch it. I think it must be very good-looking!”
“Me too! I’m really shocked. Such a long list of rewards and more than 10,000 charged points. How did he do it?”
“I’m more curious about where the 1,000 people stepping on him came from. It stands to reason that his clearance data is very good. How can anyone step on it?”
The purchase of Bai Liu’s Siren Town game video climbed straight up and hundreds of copies were sold in an instant.
This was the reason why everyone wanted to come to the core area. The audience here was very generous and their thinking was relatively rational. Bai Liu had already cleared the instance and showed up here. Some were willing to spend dozens of points to buy the video to see what type of monster or potential newcomer he was. Someone once calculated that the number of charged points that could be obtained from a promotion position in the core area was in the thousands.
Wang Shun reluctantly looked at Bai Liu’s dark screen. “God Mu, when do you think Bai Liu will enter the game next? Do you think he will choose single player games? I kind of want to wait in front of his small TV.”
“Why ask me? How should I know?” Mu Sicheng narrowed his eyes. “Bai Liu should’ve logged out in the newcomer area. You can go to the newcomer area to catch him and ask him directly. Currently, Bai Liu’s mental value hasn’t recovered and his mind shouldn’t be clear. If you take advantage of this to increase your good impression then he might be willing to take you to play games in the future.”
“God Mu, you are really…” Wang Shun’s expression was very complicated. “So shameless…”
“Aren’t you going?” Mu Sicheng didn’t care about Wang Shun’s accusation. He shrugged and smiled wickedly but this image was destroyed by his cheek that was bulging on one side due to the lollipop. “I’m very curious about his newcomer skill.”
“The first player in a group of newcomers to clear the instance will get a newcomer skill. The system will conceal the player’s newcomer skill and this skill is said to be linked to the player’s real desires. I would like to know what Bai Liu’s desires are.”
Wang Shun was actually very curious but he also felt doubts. “Under normal circumstances, everyone knows that this type of thing should be kept secret, right? Bai Liu shouldn’t tell us.”
“Bai Liu’s mental value is only 0.1 right now. Do you think he is normal? It is a miracle if he isn’t crazy when he comes out.” Mu Sicheng looked at Wang Shun innocently. “I think that Bai Liu might be unstable when he comes out of the game and his mind definitely isn’t sober. Why can’t we pretend to be the system staff to find it out?”
Wang Shun, “……”
God Mu, you are such a gangster.
Bai Liu came out covered in water. He was all soaked and his eyes were dazzled, like they were covered with a layer of frosted glass. He felt like the sky was spinning as he stood and he had to hold onto the wall, gasping to recover his strength. He felt like he was low in blood sugar so he squatted down. The moment he squatted, his legs softened and he directly sat on the ground. After sitting down, Bai Liu tried a few times but couldn’t stand up. In the end, he slumped down on the ground.
“I’m really weak,” Bai Liu inwardly sighed.
There was no one here at the entrance of the newcomer area. After all, none of the other players had cleared the game except Bai Liu. Bai Liu took advantage of this to rest and organize the rewards and items he got.
He guessed correctly that the rewards from collecting the monster book were indeed the ‘biggest’. This type of ‘bigness’ didn’t mean that all the items from collecting the monster book were awesome. For example, Stealth in the Sea and Statue’s Shell were very normal items that increased the panel attribute points. As a game designer, these types of items couldn’t be more ordinary for Bai Liu.
Nevertheless, Bai Liu thought these things were the biggest rewards. It was because they couldn’t be purchased using points in the game store.
Bai Liu had searched several times but couldn’t find any items in the store that corresponded to his item rewards. This showed that the reward items gained from the monster book were non-marketable and were considered limited items. In other words, these items couldn’t be obtained from the game store. They could only be obtained by the player when clearing the game or through a transaction between players outside the system.
However, the monster book obviously wasn’t easy to collect and this meant it was difficult to obtain these items through the game. Thus some players would obtain these limited items through the second method: transactions between players. These people probably weren’t few.
In other words, Bai Liu felt that he would be able to get an incredible price if he sold the items he got. Even so, he wouldn’t sell them. At least not now when he needed to increase his basic attributes. Bai Liu wouldn’t easily see the monster book items he got.
The item that Bai Liu considered valuable was naturally the Merfolk Amulet, which was equivalent to an escape item.
For the Siren King’s Reverse Scale, the system had directly given him an explanation that the effect was unknown. The Siren’s Fishbone also gave a specious explanation that it could tear through space and time but Bai Liu had to explore the specific function by himself. These two items weren’t rated by the system and stated it was unclear. Bai Liu clicked on the supplementary explanation after ‘unclear’ and it told him directly that the system couldn’t rate it.
“The system can’t evaluate it?” Bai Liu sighed. “This system doesn’t work.”
The thing Bai Liu didn’t know was that these two items came from the god-level NPC and this NPC was originally a string of bug data that couldn’t be calculated by the system. It was a bit difficult for it to judge the bone and scale from the bug data.
Bai Liu checked his rewards all the way to the end and found a very magical ‘personal skill reward’ with the word ‘unlocked’ displayed after it. Bai Liu curiously clicked on the ‘unlocked’ twice. The interface slowly faded away and a new page appeared. [Please close your eyes and imagine what you want.]
Bai Liu closed his eyes, clasped his hands together and muttered piously three times, ‘Money, money, money.’
[The player can now open your eyes to receive the skill.]
Bai Liu opened his eyes and found a very worn-out leather wallet floating in front of him. It looked like a leather wallet that had been used for more than 10 years. The edges of the wallet were white, the leather was damaged and the braided thread inside was exposed. Bai Liu looked at this wallet that he hadn’t been willing to throw away even after using it for a long time.
This was his new skill?
[Player Bai Liu’s skill item: Empty Old Wallet (it seems to have been used for a long time but the owner is still reluctant to throw it away. It is enough to see that the owner is stingy with money.)]
[Player Bai Liu’s skill identity: Poor wanderer (unemployed, no money, your rent is about to expire soon. You seem to have no way other than wandering the streets.)]
Bai Liu, “……”
Was this skill used to attack the poverty of others (such as himself)?
[System: Of course not.]
[Player Bai Liu’s skill: You can use anything in your hand to exchange with other people. As long as the other party promises to give you something, you can put it in your wallet.]
[The other party’s skills, points, items, life and even soul and beliefs can be turned into coins and put in your wallet, becoming tools in your hand. You are the devil’s trader, the seemingly poor tramp. However, the person who trades with you can sell everything they own.]
[You might have nothing now but you will have everything in the future. It is because your desire for money is endless. Sooner or later, you will have the wealthiest wallet in the world, even if it is full of the souls of the helpless.]
[Skill Usage: A transaction. After two parties agree to the transaction, they can’t go back on it. They can’t sell things obtained from a person to the same person. If one of the parties dies during the transaction, the soul of the person who hasn’t performed the transaction duties will be detained in the wallet.]
“Wow.” Bai Liu was a bit interested. “This skill sounds inhumane.”
[System: Do you hate this skill?]
“No.” Bai Liu smiled. “On the contrary, I really like it. It suits me. I would like to ask, if the other party doesn’t know I have this skill, is the transaction still valid?”
[System: If there is a coin relationship between the two parties and a coin enters the item wallet at least once, the transaction is established.]
“A money relationship?” Bai Liu touched his chin. “For example?”
[System: For example, you want to get someone’s item. You can use the coin in your wallet to buy it from him. It doesn’t matter if he knows you have this skill or if he really means to agree. The moment he takes your coin, the transaction is established and his item is yours.]
“Even if I suggest buying an expensive item from the other person for 1 point in a joking tone, it will be established as long as the other party agrees?” Bai Liu’s smile became brighter.
[System: Yes.]
“Tsk tsk, this skill is really shameless.” Bai Liu commented sincerely. “Still, I can’t wait to try it.”
[System: Your current points balance is 15,781. Do you want to fully load it into your wallet?]
Bai Liu nodded. “Put it in.”
After organizing his items, Bai Liu checked his panel attributes. Almost all his attributes were red and miserable because Bai Liu had overworked them in the game.
[Player name: Bai Liu]
[Health: 20 (a 120 kg man can kill you by sitting on you but you are slowly recovering.)]
[Physical strength: 7 (unsteady when standing, automatically recovering.)]
[Agility: 7 (stiff and sore muscles all over the body, automatically recovering.)]
[Attack power: 1 (your full blow is like a two month old kitten’s paws patting, automatically recovering.)]
[Intelligence: 45 (the original value is 89. It is halved due to the low mental value. The original value will be restored once the mental value recovers.)]
[Luck: 0 (you have been surprisingly unlucky all your life. If there is a person in the game to meet a god-level NPC, that person must be you.)]
[Skill: Empty Old Wallet]
[Identity: Poor Wanderer]
[Mental Value: 3 (it is reasonable to say that you should be crazy to the extreme and become a monster. It is shocking that you can still maintain your sanity. Thinking about it, maybe you are already a monster with sanity. No matter if you are crazy or not, keeping your sanity and calmness is the way for you as a monster. What a terrible player! This value is being automatically recovered.)]
Bai Liu didn’t seem to see the long comment about him being a monster after mental value and he asked calmly, “How long will it take these values to recover?”
[System: According to your current recovery rate, you can fully recover within three to five days after leaving the game.]
Bai Liu wasn’t a character who liked to procrastinate. “Then leave the—” game.
Before he could finish his words, he saw two men making their way to the entrance.
Mu Sicheng and Wang Shun saw Bai Liu sitting on the ground and leaning back against the wall of the exit. They were speechless and a bit amused. It was obvious that Bai Liu was unconscious and rested in such a posture. It seemed that the lowering of mental value had a serious impact on Bai Liu.
Yet when they walked over, Bai Liu raised his head to look at Mu Sicheng and Wang Shun. The first words he spoke when he saw them caused their expressions to change.
Bai Liu asked, “Are you here to spy on my personal skill?”
There was a smile on Mu Sicheng’s face. He crouched down and put his hands on his knees to look at Bai Liu. Then he asked with interest, “How can you be sure that we are here to spy on your personal skill? What if we are here to kill you or rob you? After all, you should be rich now and have a lot of items.”
Wang Shun wanted to say it was impossible to kill people in the system hall but once he saw Bai Liu looking like he was really thinking about it, Wang Shun realized that Bai Liu had just come out of the game and didn’t know about it.
“You shouldn’t be able to kill people in this hall.” Bai Liu came to this conclusion after a few seconds of thinking.
Wang Shun was startled and blurted out, “How do you know?”
Mu Sicheng’s eyes became more and more interested. He was sure that Bai Liu didn’t know ‘you can’t kill people here in this hall’ because when he was talking about killing, Bai Liu had instinctively retracted his legs and avoided Mu Sicheng. This was the automatic response of humans to things that could harm them.
Then only a few seconds later, Bai Liu came to the correct conclusion.
“The reason?” Mu Sicheng raised an eyebrow.
“It is because there will be many people waiting here if a game player can be robbed or killed after they log out.”
Bai Liu shrugged. “I have been out for 10 minutes. Apart from you, I haven’t seen anyone else. If you can kill here then there will definitely be a lot of people coming to rob from me. However, no one has come so I guess that killing should be forbidden here. There is a high probability that robbery is also prohibited.”
Bai Liu could make this guess because from the perspective of a game designer, the balance would be greatly distorted if a player was allowed to be killed at the exit. It was like allowing players to wait and kill people next to the resurrection spots in large-scale online games. This would make the gaming experience very poor. If a player could be robbed or killed the moment they logged out then the game would soon have no players and it wouldn’t run so well.
Mu Sicheng whistled, his eyes full of appreciation. “Bingo, you guessed correctly.”
Wang Shun’s eyes were very complicated. Previously, Mu Sicheng said to bluff Bai Liu and coax this person to reveal his skill. Now it seemed that Mu Sicheng couldn’t even lie to Bai Liu. Wang Shun and Mu Sicheng’s combined IQ basically bid farewell to tricking Bai Liu…
“I’m very curious about what your current mental value is.” Mu Sicheng was amazed when he saw Bai Liu’s clear expression and calm eyes. “You don’t look like a player whose mental value was 0.1 just now. Did you buy yourself mental bleach to restore your mental value?”
Bai Liu seemed to have a clear mind like someone with a normal mental value. Mu Sicheng couldn’t think of a reasonable explanation apart from buying mental bleach.
“My current mental value is only 3,” Bai Liu replied calmly. “I am still recovering.”
Mu Sicheng, “……”
Wang Shun, “……”
Mu Sicheng and Wang Shun’s eyes filled with sluggishness and stupefaction for a moment. Then Wang Shun stepped forward and asked in disbelief, “How much did you say your mental value is now?”
“It is 3 points.” Bai Liu asked naturally, “What’s wrong?”
“3 points…” Wang Shun’s words couldn’t properly come out. He looked at Bai Liu like he was seeing a weird creature who shouldn’t exist in the world. “Bai Liu, do you know the concept of a mental value of 3? You should have many overlapping illusions right now and your consciousness and body should be in a state of being tortured…”
“My mental value hasn’t fallen below 60 but when I fell to 60, I was already very uncomfortable and couldn’t even speak. The players who fell to 20 points were basically crazy after exiting the game. Your mental value is 3 yet you are like this…”
Wang Shun gestured to Bai Liu’s entire body with his hands, his expression difficult to describe. He didn’t know what words to use to evaluate Bai Liu. However, Bai Liu became a bit interested. He leaned against the wall and asked Wang Shun lazily, “What’s wrong with me? I think I’m quite normal.”
Yes, he was normal but Bai Liu’s current normal state was an extreme abnormality! No one could maintain normality when their mental value was 3!
“How can you still be answering our questions? You should be in a mess and your intelligence should be halved!” Wang Shun was a bit incoherent.
“Yes, my mind is confused.” Bai Liu nodded in agreement. “My intelligence has been halved but how to say it… this doesn’t prevent me from thinking about your questions with an intelligence of 45. These questions aren’t difficult.”
Wang Shun was speechless.
Bai Liu was indeed suffering from a distorted consciousness. This consciousness seemed to be a type of inward desire, constantly urging him and tempting him, as if to turn him into an evil monster. However, Bai Liu had been like this since he became unemployed.
There had been a voice in Bai Liu’s ears telling him ‘go and beat up your boss’ or ‘go and beat up the young master Mu Ke’ and so on. Bai Liu’s high IQ meant he could beat up these two people without being discovered.
However, Bai Liu was used to restraining himself using the laws. He had a large book on laws at home and he could almost recite it from memory. Bai Liu’s bottom line for himself was ‘I can’t violate the recognized rules of the group’. He was a member of the ‘human group’ and he couldn’t violate the laws and regulations established by the ‘human group’.
Bai Liu had become accustomed to restraining his abnormal desire for money so being tortured by this level of desire wasn’t painful for him.
By the way, what was mental bleach? Bai Liu squinted as he thought about the name of the item uttered by Mu Sicheng. It sounded a bit like the ‘blue medicine’ that restored a player’s state.
Bai Liu didn’t directly ask Wang Shun what mental value bleach was. The two people had already lied to him once. Thus, Bai Liu turned to look thoughtfully at Mu Sicheng. This person obviously seemed more playful…
Wang Shun wondered, “Bai Liu, how did you guess that we came to ask about your personal skill?”
“Since you didn’t come to kill me, you must’ve come to me to ask me for cooperation or you are curious about me and want to spy on my information.”
Bai Liu’s words weren’t hurried and they were clear. “As a newcomer, I shouldn’t have much valuable information for you. My attribute values and item rewards are open to you. The only thing hidden is my personal skill.”
He raised his eyes and stared straight at Mu Sicheng and Wang Shun. “So I guessed that you are here to ask me about my personal skill. Under normal circumstances, I wouldn’t tell you but you still came. I think it is because my current mental value is abnormal and you think I am delirious. It is more likely that I will talk about it, right?”
Wang Shun couldn’t say a word and just sighed. Bai Liu guessed correctly! They had been preparing to take advantage of this loophole!
Mu Sicheng stared closely at Bai Liu. “I now feel a lot of doubt about your mental value. It seems like I can’t get information on your personal skill today.”
“Not necessarily.” Bai Liu slowly spoke as he smiled and glanced at Mu Sicheng. “How about we make a deal? I will show you my skill and you will help restore my mental value with mental bleach.”
“…Are you serious?” Mu Sicheng stared at Bai Liu suspiciously. “Don’t lie to me. I have items to judge if you are honest or not.”
Bai Liu smiled. “You are welcome to judge it.”
“Why should I help cleanse your mental value for free?” Mu Sicheng thought about it and suddenly regretted it. He smiled maliciously, “Mental bleach isn’t cheap. I can wait to see your skill when you play the game next time. You will definitely use it, right?”
Bai Liu took out a point from the wallet hidden in his pocket. This point turned into a silver coin that was pinched by Bai Liu’s fingers. “It isn’t for nothing. I will give you one point.”
Proofreader: Purichan