Chapter 7: Potential Threshold

In the desolate and tranquil ancient town, deep in the wilderness.

Three distinctive skeletal frames with unique characteristics of age faced each other at the crossroads in the town center that hadn't been used for many years.

"Wait a minute, I remember there was a beginner skill called 'Identify.'" Skeleton No. 2, who had a sweet voice, slapped her forehead and checked the character panel that only she could see. Then, she raised her right boy claw and snapped her fingers at Qin Guan and Skeleton No. 3.

"There it is!" Skeleton No. 2's jaws clacked in excitement. "I can see your IDs now!"

Qin Guan was completely befuddled. "Huh? What are you saying? What beginner skill?"

"Ah, oh right, there's the 'Identify' skill." Skeleton No. 3, who had a rough hoarse voice, also seemed to have recalled something.

After doing a certain action, he also snapped his fingers at No. 2 and Qin Guan. "Eh? Vanilla Pudding? You're clearly a guy.. Wait, your voice! Aren't you the famous Bilibili 'transvestite bro' Vanilla Boss?"

Qin Guan couldn't care less about being recognized at this moment. He anxiously jumped on the spot. "Wait, wait! Why do the both of you have beginner skills and I don't? How does this work?"

Now, No. 2 and No. 3 were the ones puzzled.

"Isn't it right beneath the character panel?"

"Yeah, it's there. You can see it when you bring up the panel."

Qin Guan quickly brought up the character panel he had obtained after selecting his game character.

Displayed on the left of the panel was Qin Guan's character information:

ID: Vanilla Pudding

Race: Undead

Gender: Female

Level: 0

Potential: 37

On the right side of the panel was an inactive quest log that couldn't be opened, inactive achievement information, and personal log.

And that was it.

"No, it's not there! There's only my character information, taskbar, achievement information, and personal log on my panel. There's no beginner skill like you guys mentioned!" Qin Guan was getting anxious and started sweating profusely. "Could it be because I chose a female character? Can't a man play as a female?!"

"That's impossible. If that were the case, male players who like playing as females wouldn't play at all," Skeleton No. 2 said. "Are you certain you don't have the beginner skill panel? It should be right below Potential Value. There's a usable option called 'Identify' there."

A dumbfounded Qin Guan stood on the spot in a blank daze. After confirming his character panel once more, a vague sense of unease came over Qin Guan. "Wait a minute.. Everything up to Potential Value is the same, but beneath it, there's nothing.. What are your Potential values?"

"48," replied Skeleton No. 2.

Skeleton No. 3 looked at No. 2 in surprise and said, "Isn't Potential determined by race? There's also a difference for each individual? Mine is 42."

Qin Guan's jaw nearly dropped to his chest. "The f*ck.. M-mine is 37! So, you're telling me that if the character's Potential is too low, I can't even use skills? Damn it, I'll delete my character and start over!"

In the server room on Earth, Yang Qiu, who was observing the three players, shook his head. "Deleting your character and starting over won't help, bro.. It's not a problem with the character, it's your mental strength that doesn't meet standards."

In order to provide players with an experience close to a "real game," Yang Qiu, after numerous attempts, chose to mimic the concept of alchemical golems to provide players with the "game characters."

Of course, there was still a significant difference between these game characters and real alchemical golems. The latter were self-moving combat auxiliary tools that only alchemists could afford. Creating one required a large investment of magical materials to build a sturdy and durable body and the engraving of more than 50 magic runes to create a variety of combat systems. On top of that, a magic crystal had to be embedded as its core driver.

Game characters, on the other hand, didn't need to be as robust and durable. A player's soul operating the character meant that the most expensive embedded core could be omitted. In other words, Yang Qiu only needed to focus on the supporting runes.

It might sound simple, but researching this set of supporting runes gave Yang Qiu a massive headache. He could use his full might to stack the runes and could quantitatively replicate it once he created a set. However, the most important factor was whether the player's mental prowess could withstand and operate them! historical

It was just like how a car engine, when put into a tank, would surely break down!

Therefore, Yang Qiu had to carefully select the runes to be used and weaken them into a manageable version before painstakingly putting them together as a set that wouldn't be too demanding on the engine.

In the end, the rune array engraved within the game characters had the fundamental runes of "Spell Detection," "Basic Meditation," "Basic Battle Roar," and "Basic Wind Manipulation" besides the essential runes of "Mind Imprint" and "Resurrection Summon."

The player's personal panel (including character information, quest log, achievement information, and personal log) was the manifestation of personal information loaded into the Mind Imprint rune, which could be displayed when the player's soul activated it. This was just a simple manifestation of information and didn't put much strain on the player.

The true main consumption sources came from runes like "Magic Detection," "Basic Meditation," etc. Players with the Potential value (mental strength) of less than 40 couldn't activate them.

Players who met the condition of the Potential value of 40 and higher could activate "Magic Detection" and use the basic rune "Identify," though there were limitations on the usages, which, in other words, was like an internal cooldown.

Of course, the purpose of setting these thresholds was to prolong the players' time spent online and not to drive them away.

Moreover, Potential wasn't fixed and could be increased; a player's soul was akin to "running and exercising" while in the "game" with varying rates of growth according to the individual.

This also meant that as long as one was willing to grind, they would definitely be able to use skills one day..

"Judging from this situation, differences in the manifestation of Potential values can still affect one's enthusiasm.. Should a rough explanation of 'character aptitude' salvage such players' self-esteem?

"Hmm.. How about stating that game characters cannot be changed, so they would mistakenly assume that their weak characters are due to bad luck," Yang Qiu mused while rubbing his chin.

Meanwhile, back at the Undead spawn point, Qin Guan couldn't find an option to delete his character despite searching for quite a while and slumped to the ground, hands over his face.

"Don't be disheartened, Boss Vanilla. It might just be a bug. How can there be that you can't use skills because you chose the wrong character. Try sending the developer an email after you log off later," Skeleton No. 3 consoled Qin Guan.

Skeleton No. 3, ID "Give Me Medicine," real name Yao Hengyi, was a construction engineer in real life and a casual gamer. Though he wasn't a fan of Qin Guan's, he had watched some of his videos before.

"That's right. Besides, it hasn't been mentioned whether there will be a data wipe after the closed beta. If there's a wipe, we can just choose a different character for the next beta," the female Skeleton No. 2 also offered words of comfort.

"Speaking of which, have you guys noticed that while today is supposedly the first day of 'OtherWorld' game's launch, only the three of us are online so far? Perhaps the game will be shut down after the closed beta ends.."

"Oh, damn!" Yao Hengyi and Qin Guan both jumped up at the same time.

On Earth, inside the server room, Yang Qiu clutched his chest. Aren't you a little too merciless, No. 2..

"It would be such a shame if this game shuts down!" said Give Me Medicine. "Even though there's a bug, this game is too impressive and the details are exceptional! It's mind-blowing how a VR game can reach such a level! Boss Vanilla, how about you promote the game with a video and attract more players?"

"I started recording a video from the moment I selected my character and it's still running," said Qin Guan. "The personal log in the character panel is used to store screenshots and videos. I reckon that the developers hope to have players help promote the game."

"Hey, does this mean I can be featured in the video?" asked an excited Skeleton No. 2. She then made a peace sign in Qin Guan's direction, and her lower jaw moved slightly lower, as if she was trying her hardest to smile..

Qin Guan and Give Me Medicine: ".."

"Never mind.. How about we figure out how to play this game first.. Um, it's rare for the three of us to have such affinity on the launch's first day. How about we form a party and work together?"

"Definitely," Give Me Medicine responded immediately.

"Sure, I'm in. I wouldn't dare wander too far from this starting point if I had to play alone. I'm not too good with horror games," Skeleton No. 2 chimed in.

A party invite function was a must, and after forming a party, players could see their teammate's IDs and health bars.

It was just that these health bars didn't display any numerical values; after all, this wasn't a real MMORPG, and resistance to damage couldn't be determined according to a health bar.

Therefore, after much mulling, Yang Qiu had decided to manifest battle damage as a bar display. Once damage reached a certain extent, it would count as a death and trigger a forced resurrection summon.. mainly to prevent players from going wild and turning these centuries-old skeletons into powder. It was a precautionary measure.

The three-man party headed out of the spawn point and curiously surveyed the desolate town.

"This place is really run-down!" Skeleton No. 2 sighed with lament. "The places in ruin exploration videos I've watched are like paradise compared to this place. Where did the art department find this scenery from?"

"Well, this is the Undead spawn point and it ought to have this sort of atmosphere." Give Me Medicine rather appreciated this desolate town. "Compared to here, the Undercity is way too clean and tidy. It doesn't feel like a place where Forsaken should be squatting.." [T/L note: A reference to World of Warcraft]

As they talked, the three bypassed a dilapidated wooden house.

Regardless of whether it was Qin Guan, who was recording a video from the first-person perspective of his character, or Skeleton No. 2, who was appreciating the novelty, or Give Me Medicine, who was pleasantly surprised, the jaws on all three of their skeletal faces dropped in perfect unison.

Squatting beside the wooden house was a zombie.

A zombie that was half-rotted and half-waxed.

Only half of its head had flesh, and most of its body was wrapped in a gray mottled skin, with exposed bones protruding at certain points. It wore tattered overalls and pants with one leg torn off, hugging its knees and swaying in its spot before the crumbling wooden house.

The three were just ordinary young people, and the only corpses they had seen were in horror games or movies. Caught off guard, the trio were instantly petrified at the sight of this peculiarly rotten, half-waxed zombie.

The zombie with hands clasped around its knees slowly lifted its head and gazed at the three players with lifeless eyes devoid of any luster.

At that moment, Qin Guan felt as if a massive red "danger" sign was flashing in his head.

"Hello, compatriots," the zombie spoke in a raspy and sinister voice, taking its time to mouth every single syllable. "Looks like you all have just awakened from eternal slumber. Would you be willing to help me with something? I can offer you clothing as a token of gratitude."

The three players: "....(° △°(° △° (° △° )"