Chapter 108 - Real-life In-game Purchase
Translator: Dragon Boat Translation Editor: Dragon Boat Translation
“Luo”, level 4 researcher: “Point 1, how did he know the Information of Monsters in such detail?
Most of the information had not appeared in ‘Over My Dead Body’, so there is no way that he could have deduced the information from the videos. It must be then that he could foresee the future and know beforehand about the monsters that would appear, which allowed him to get hold of the Information of Monsters.”
—That was because all of the Information of Monsters was what Ren Suo had known from playing the other game saves of “Over My Dead Body”!
“Point 2, in the second stage of the training, Zhao Zili was clearly much stronger in combat than the other trainees. But the fact is that no matter how well Zhao Zili performed in the first stage, she would only receive a maximum of three Talents, which would not have allowed him to have such a drastic advantage over his opponents then.
Furthermore, Zhao Zili was a social idler and not a worker specialized in any field, which means that: either Zhao Zili had ‘special abilities’;
Or otherwise, he had gotten hold of certain secret tricks which enabled him to receive more Talents during the Talent Exchange process.
Based on the eyewitness reports, there is a greater possibility that it is the latter.”
—He was quite right, Ren Suo had been able to pass stage two of the training because of the unorthodox transactions he made with the Golden Ranger.
“Point 3, in the third stage of the training, in addition to Chen’s account, we can also see from the video which ‘Naisser_Ren’ posted that in general, Zhao Zili’s movements were swift and decisive, almost without any hesitation. All of his actions only seemed to be possible with a top-down, eagle’s eye view.
The vast majority of trainees who encountered him would be sent to the skies in one shot. Zhao Zili’s firing accuracy was perfect even at an extremely large distance away, taking aim at trainees who were in hiding even beforehand and instantly disqualifying them from the training.
He even attempted thrice to suddenly take aim into the distance over 400 meters away, without any reason and shot dead a trainee, who was squatting in hiding.
That is no longer possible to be explained by ‘Talents’ or ‘special abilities’. There are two possibilities:
One, he was chosen by the three gods from the beginning and was given stronger, more powerful Talents.
Or two, he had been through the training before and successfully proceeded to the last stage, or perhaps, he had already won the training at least once prior.
Based on the fact that he had died once but was revived, I am more inclined to believe that he is a Reborn who can time travel.”
The reply by “Luo” received 888 likes, and there was a large red stamp on the top right corner of his reply: “Verified”.
It signified that the analysis by “Luo” had been verified as an accurate conjecture and was accepted and reported to a higher authority. Based on the appraisal of the higher-ups, “Luo” would then receive higher access privileges or monetary rewards.
Consequently, those who liked the reply would be seen as “well-informed” and would also receive forum points (only applicable to those who liked the reply before it was verified and accepted).
Since the entire thread limited users to only one like, posts that had a high number of likes would be truly deserving posts.
That was actually the true method of discussion in the internal forum. Researchers would evoke discussion and likes and replies could be given. In that way, the information revealed could be analyzed to the finest detail.
If a post that had not been accepted and verified was later found to be true, the intranet system would re-evaluate the post and compensate the user, who posted, with double the rewards.
Yu Kuangtu, getting Ren Suo to look through the information in the intranet forum and write theses for the Countermeasure Division to report to a higher authority, was actually equivalent to indicating that the theses were done by the Countermeasure Division and essentially, raise the achievements made by the Countermeasure Division.
What Ren Suo was supposed to do was essentially “feeding” reports, with the benefit being that he would receive a base pay and only be required to submit analysis reports to the Countermeasure Division when required; the disadvantage was that, if he submitted an erroneous analysis, his appraisal would drop, unlike in the forum where such users would merely be downvoted.
Ren Suo looked back at the analysis on the screen written by “Luo”. He felt slightly sour.
The main reason why people thought that Zhao Zili was a Reborn was because “Naisser_Ren” had not released the video of the first two stages of the training. Only the highlights of those two stages were chosen to be shown, and the process where Zhao Zili had only managed to pass the first two stages with luck was not shown to the world.
On the other hand, the third stage of the training was shown in full, but the biggest difference between the third stage and the first two stages was that the third stage was not random when Ren Suo played it.
For the first stage, there were a hundred thousand different training sites taking place at the same time, while for the second stage, there were a hundred different training sites. Every time Zhao Zili entered the first two stages again, the training site was different.
However, for the third stage, there was only one training site, and even the trainees in that round were the same in every attempt. Their actions, thoughts, and combat movements were all the same when Zhao Zili acted the same as she did previously.
As such, Ren Suo could attempt the stage as many times as he wanted. Even if the trainees were of similar capabilities as Zhao Zili, Ren Suo could reattempt the stage an unlimited number of times, remembering the position of the trainees he encountered, as well as their reactions.
What eyewitness “Chen” had mentioned, as written in the information report, made Ren Suo recall the encounter as well.
Ren Suo had controlled Zhao Zili to ride the Great Ravenous Dragon in order to cross the cliff. The first time he did that, she was shot dead.
The second time, Zhao Zili came down the Dragon but was still shot dead; however, Ren Suo managed to find out “Chen’s” position.
The third time, Zhao Zili took aim at the opponent’s position and shot accurately. However, the opponent was not immediately dead and by the time Zhao Zili rushed over, he had managed to recover after finishing a fried chicken. Zhao Zili was once again shot dead.
The fourth time, Zhao Zili threw a Holy Grenade at the opponent’s position as she was rushing over, and the opponent finally died.
As such, there was no particular technique, Ren Suo merely tried the stage again and again until he finally managed a perfect strategy.
However, in the eyes of others, it was no longer just cheating, but simply “foreknowledge”.
It appeared to them that, either Zhao Zili could foresee the events of the future, or she was from the future—and yet, Zhao Zili could provide the Information of Monsters, which led researchers to think that she was more likely to be a Reborn.
Ren Suo thought, “If Zhao Zili was still alive, all the different organizations would be trying all possible ways to contact her. Even if they cannot catch her, they would want to communicate with her, at the least.. After all, she is a time traveler who knows the future, albeit a suspect who is illegally reborn..”
“But there is no way Zhao Zili would appear, unless..”
Ren Suo rolled his eyes as he thought of a brilliant idea. In response to the analysis report, he replied:
“Rather than thinking that Zhao Zili traveled through time, why not consider the presence of other variable forces. The same effect could be achieved if there was someone, or some particular force, that already knew about the entire process of the Survival Battle Training and so revived Zhao Zili to take part in the training, while providing her with intelligence about the training, the Information of Monsters, as well as granting her special abilities..”
Ren Suo wrote continuously and submitted a reply hundreds of words long. It might not be of much use, but it could also quickly become one of his achievements.
Suddenly, his mobile phone screen lit up. There was a new text message from Huo He, the Dean of the Heavenly Institution of Lianjiang.
Ren Suo naturally had to keep in contact with the Dean of the Institution while working in the school, although most of the affairs were unrelated to him.
But that night, the principal would be holding a dialogue session before school began. All teaching staff had to attend, and the emergency doctor Ren Suo was one of them.
That night, Ren Suo proceeded to the hall of the Heavenly Institution of Lianjiang to listen to the principal’s speech. However, what the principal talked about did not concern him, since he was not involved in teaching, so he started looking around.
The Heavenly Institution of Lianjiang seemed to be like the Countermeasure Division: Yu Kuangtu, the Deputy Director of the Countermeasure Division, was a powerful Practitioner, and the Deputy Principal of the Heavenly Institution of Lianjiang who was standing at the side was also a strong Practitioner—one who had a key too and appeared to be a strong Awakened Practitioner.
The teaching faculty was separated into two groups. One group of teachers was responsible for teaching cultural lessons. It consisted of trained teachers who were mostly middle-aged and appeared to be highly-acclaimed teachers who had been transferred from other schools.
The other group only consisted of ten teachers, and they were responsible for teaching students how to Practice. However, amongst the ten of them, four were holders of keys!
It was indeed the right decision to come to the school! There are both teachers and students, and the chances of keys appearing have greatly increased!
That meant that Ren Suo was halfway there in retrieving keys—he had found them.
But the problem which followed was, ‘How he was going to actually retrieve the keys?’
Ren Suo saw a familiar face amongst the Practitioner teaching faculty. He waited until the dialogue session finally ended and walked over to greet him, saying, “Zhao Huo!”
Indeed, it was the Zhao Huo whom Ren Suo had trained and slept together with, under the same roof, during the mass training session.
Zhao Huo was also surprised to meet Ren Suo, and they agreed to catch up over some food and drinks.
When Zhao Huo first returned from the mass training, he had been further trained as his talent score was extremely high. He had then learned many other types of abilities and was sent to be a teacher at the Heavenly Institution of Lianjiang, responsible for teaching while training.
“So, you will really teach the students abilities?” Ren Suo asked as he was peeling a prawn.
Zhao Huo replied, “Of course. However, after the students learn the abilities, they have to sign an agreement stating that they would only work in government units upon graduation.”
Ren Suo said, “That’s still great. I also want to learn more abilities, how do you teach them?”
“Of course, we are still using the Knowledge Web to impart the knowledge directly. We would then further guide them based on their aptitude. If you want to learn them, you can just buy them directly on the Knowledge Web, can’t you?” Zhao Huo said.
“Buy them on the Knowledge Web?” a slightly stunned Ren Suo said. He asked, “I have the Knowledge Web in my room.. But how do I buy the abilities?”
“The Knowledge Web is still in the trial stage, so abilities can only be purchased between 18:00 and 24:00 every night. You can buy them upon logging in,” Zhao Huo replied.
He continued, “The purchases are made using Reiki Stones. Yes, they are the mystical Reiki Stones from fantasy tales, but they are essentially just virtual currency. Us Practitioner teachers are given Reiki Stones as part of our pay every month, so I suppose you would receive them too. After all, you are also a Practitioner in the school, although you are not a teacher.”
After parting ways with Zhao Huo, Ren Suo hurriedly called Yu Kuangtu to ask about the Reiki Stones. Yu Kuangtu explained—
“I forgot to tell you about that, you can just log in to the Knowledge Web directly. Your Knowledge Web account is tied to your researcher account. If I am not wrong, you should be given 50 Reiki Stones at the start and an additional 50 Reiki Stones for being a researcher. The reward for your report would only be given to you next month.”
What a scam, if I did not have a connection with someone here, I would have wasted such a great benefit.
Ren Suo returned home hurriedly. It was not yet 24:00, so he picked up the Knowledge Web in the living room in his hands and activated his breathing current. Then, he naturally entered the dark universe of the Knowledge Web.
In an instant, tens of different colored stars appeared in front of his eyes, although they were slightly dimmed.
“Welcome, Suo.”
“This is your first time entering the Knowledge Web Universe Ver. 1.25. There will now be a brief introduction. Currently, there is only the ‘Abilities Universe’ service available.”
“Every star in the Universe represents one type of Reiki ability. You may receive the detailed information and cost of them by looking at the individual stars. You are advised to carefully read the information about its ability level, its required affinity type, its effect, and its cost.”
“If you wish to purchase the ability, activate ‘Willpower’ and swipe forcefully over the price tag of the corresponding star, and your purchase would be completed.”
“Some of the abilities are related by progression or inclusion. After purchasing an ability, the cost of its related abilities will be changed accordingly.”
“For safety reasons, every person is only allowed to purchase one ability per day.”
Ren Suo thought, “There are already so many abilities in the Knowledge Web?”
He widened his eyes to browse through the tens of ability stars in the Knowledge Universe. Amongst the stars, only three of them were lit brightly, of which two were white and one was green. They were “Clothes”, “Armor”, and “Heal”!
Ren Suo looked through the abilities in the Knowledge Universe like a hungry soul scavenging for food. He was like a hardcore gamer who chanced upon a discount for many 3A games and the only thought that arose was that he wanted all of them!
However, Ren Suo only had 100 Reiki Stones. The cost of the abilities being sold ranged from 50 to 250 Reiki Stones. Just like playing with the Mini Worlds Gaming Console, he still could not afford the abilities sold in the Knowledge Universe, and neither was spending real cash to buy Reiki Stones an option.
Why do I feel like this is a real-life in-game purchase..
“Eh?”
Ren Suo suddenly saw an interesting ability.
It was an ability that might make up for the insufficient capability of his game controller.
But, it could turn out that the purchased ability was useless..
As Ren Suo was hesitating, a voice was heard in the Knowledge Universe saying, “There are 5 minutes left before the closure of the Knowledge Web, please make your purchase as soon as possible..”
Ren Suo was shocked momentarily. The next second, a thought emerged in his head, “There are only 5 minutes left? I’m just going to buy it!”
Impulse is truly a devil.
After Ren Suo regained his full senses, he had already emerged from the Knowledge Web with a new ability in his mind.
Great, I just have to give it a try now.historical