This Text Adventure Game is definitely poisonous
Chapter 251 - 203 1.0 Era_1

Chapter 251: Chapter 203 1.0 Era_1

[In the pitch-black night, you step out of a thorn bush and onto a small path in the forest.]

[Thanks to your night vision ability, you can clearly see the path ahead in the night.]

[Within your field of vision, there are shadowy figures everywhere. Each figure represents a player.]

[A meter ahead of you is a player with the ID ’Heartbeat’. Do you wish to greet her?]

"No."

[Three meters to your left is a player with the ID ’Lucky Bun Shop’. Do you wish to greet him?]

"No."

[Five meters behind you is a player with the ID...]

...

The first thing Mu You felt after logging on was: There are so many people!

Immediately after logging in, he was bombarded with a long string of friend-making prompts.

There were people within a one-meter radius of him, and within a five-meter radius, there were at least ten people. This density was quite frightening; it was nearly shoulder-to-shoulder.

The game log-in is supposed to bring you to the corresponding location in the Star Spirit World, but it doesn’t seem to be very accurate. For instance, Little Ya and Lin Xue should be right next to him, but he doesn’t see either of them. Instead, there are more than a dozen people within a four or five-meter radius – even including the bun shop owner from the next street over.

Going by this, it looks like the log-in location is randomly generated within a relative range.

That makes sense. Otherwise, high-rise apartments that house hundreds of players would end up being piled up with people at the same location upon logging in.

Anyway, when there are too many people around, friend-making options keep popping up and make it hard to find the movement option. Basically, it’s so crowded that it’s hard to move.

Mu You hurriedly went through his ’settings’ and finally found the ’do not automatically greet` option hidden away. He promptly enabled it, and the world quieted down.

Regaining his bearings, Mu You quickly realised that he hadn’t activated the Omniscient Crystal yet, but he could already see the players’ IDs appearing above their heads.

During the beta, IDs were practically useless – they would only display when you killed someone, revealing their ID and level. Other than that, it would just display the skin name.

Because Mu You possessed the Omniscient Crystal, he could see other people’s IDs and levels in real-time.

Now, however, it seemed like all players gained the ability to view others’ IDs at any time.

Of course, this only extended to the ID. Other details, like level and specific attributes, were still unviewable.

Mu You activated the Omniscient Crystal in his interface and looked around him again. He instantly found that the Omniscient Crystal had been upgraded and could now display even more information.

[Level 1 Player (Heartbeat), Attributes: Strength 0.6, Agility 0.7, Intelligence 1.2, Constitution 1.1, HP: 110, Intellect Value: 120, Luck: 3, Remaining Lifespan: 36 years, 22 days, 15 hours, 03 minutes. Physical Defense: None. Elemental Defense: None. Current Skin: None. Current Equipment: None.]

The Omniscient Crystal now had five additional pieces of information: ’Luck’, ’Remaining Lifespan’, ’Physical Defense’, ’Elemental Defense’, and ’Current Equipment’.

While other bits of information were quite self-explanatory, the Luck attribute was a new concept.

Of course, the term ’Luck’ was mentioned in the description of the Lucky Dice before, indicating it as a hidden attribute. However, it doesn’t usually display and now appears as a numerical figure.

Mu You then took a look at his own character interface.

[Character Interface:

ID: Lantern Lighter.

Status: Peripheral member of the Ranger Corps.

Title: None.

Current Level: Level 12 (Experience: 9010/10240)

Attributes –

Strength: 18 points.

Agility: 36 points.

Intelligence: 54 points.

Constitution: 27 points.

HP: 4700 points.

Magic: 6400 points.

Today’s Luck: 2. (Luck value randomly changes every day between -3 and 3.)

Remaining Lifespan: 942 years, 45 days, 2 hours, 1 minute, 35 seconds.

Physical Defense: 27+99 points.

Elemental Defense: 296 points of Lightning Defense, 100 points of Fire Defense, 100 points of Frost Defense.

Acquired Spells: ...

Current Dark Magic Loaded: Rejection of Spells, Dark World, Life Barrier, Water Prison Technique, Fire Giant, Netherworld Demon Child.

Current Equipment: ...

Owned Skins: Watchman, Vampire Earl, Fisherman, Medicinal Plant Gatherer, Grave Digger, Mysterious Man.

Bound Items: Time Pocket Watch (1/6).

Owned Items: ...]

As expected, his character interface was much more detailed than before.

It turns out that the Luck value is variable and randomized each day between -3 and 3.

Mu You tried rolling the dice a few times. After rolling a six, he noticed that his luck had changed to ’2+10’... In other words, the Lucky Dice did not multiply the original luck value by 10 but instead directly added 10 points.

Aside from this, if one were to speak of the most striking change in this game update, it would be the colors of the text.

Yes, in this formal version of the game, the text finally has colors!

The words showing the gear and items on the panel would directly use corresponding colors to display the quality of the gear. For instance, the phrase ’Berserker’s Howl’ appeared directly in golden font, while ’Phantom Wand’ was purple, and ’Pumpkin Lantern’ was blue, and so on.

[You have received two pending friend requests.]

Just as Mu You was curiously examining the changes in the new version, the game sprung up a prompt.

He clicked to check.

[Pea Breeder is requesting to add you as a friend. Do you accept?]

[Rhododendron is requesting to add you as a friend. Do you accept?]

"Rhododendron?"

Of course, Pea Breeder was Little Ya, but the other one... Mu You turned to look at Lin Xue next to him.

"It’s me."

Lin Xue nodded. She doesn’t have a skin yet. So when she logged into the game earlier, she had one more step than each one of them to select an ID.

Mu You naturally agreed, and the three promptly formed a group.

Once they became friends, they could check each other’s levels and title information, and also freely chat with each other at any moment in the game.

Besides that, there’s also the team function.

[You, Pea Breeder, and Rhododendron have formed a temporary team. Group experience gain increased by 30%.]

While in party mode, the members cannot attack each other, their respective magic will also be exempted from one another, to prevent accidental injuries. Each person’s acquired experience will be divided evenly among the team members.

At the same time, when teamed up, the amount of gained experience bonus is based on the number of people in the team. For example, two people in a team yield a 20% bonus, four people yield a 40% bonus, and each team can accommodate up to five people, providing an additional bonus of up to 50% XP gain, which is quite notable.

After teaming up, the three of them regrouped and then attempted to move out of the forest, which immediately prompted a flurry of messages.

[Your team was attacked by player ’Flip-Flop’. You casually counter-killed ’Flip-Flop’...]

[Your team was attacked by player ’Unrivalled’, you killed them working together ...]

...

"So many people are attacking us!" Little Ya said.

"Normal."

Mu You was not surprised at all. When the massive in-house test took place back then, a player brawl was started as soon as the server went online. Not to mention the now where billions of people were rushing in, it’s so crowded that even though most players are able to restrain themselves, there are always one or two who can’t resist the urge to ’attack’ others as they test out things in the game.

And once they did that, they couldn’t stop. If they could win, they would be lucky to kill someone and steal some experience points and life. After all, a year of life is valued at nearly ten thousand dollars, few people can resist the temptation at the beginning of the game.

But the price they pay is that their ID gets a bright red mark added to it, which encourages other players to attack. A few irrational people grouping together can easily cause a chain reaction.

It wasn’t long before Mu You noticed the text showing the player tags around him, about half of them had turned red.

Mu You was already hearing occasional screams and wails from the streets nearby. Without thinking about it, only those people who were killed for various reasons were certainly experiencing the ’Pain Sharing’ feature of the official version. Even though it’s only a tenth, the initial discomfort is enough to leave many people in despair.

Luckily, the initial relics are automatically bound, so regardless of how these newbies are at odds with each other, they don’t have to worry about losing their relics from the get-go.

"All of you should bind your gear first."

Mu You told them, then he opened his panel and set the gear binding himself.

After gear is bound, the binding can be removed and reassigned at any time, with a maximum of six items at once. Of course, this number can be extended by spending Life. The first extension requires five years, after which it is ten, twenty, forty... and so forth, doubling each time.

Mu You directly opened up to 160 years, a total cost of 315 years of life, and opened six additional binding slots.

This feature will need to be unlocked sooner or later, it belongs to the type that you begin to enjoy as soon as you open it. Taking advantage of the fact that he currently has abundant life years, he opens as many as possible.

But after 160 years, to go even further would require 320 years, which seemed a bit tight, so he had to stop there.

As for what should be bound in particular, the three of them had already thought about it beforehand.

From the 12 total binding slots, Mu You separately bound the Time Pocket Watch, Phantom Wand, Berserk Axe, Master of Disguise, Omniscient Crystal, three pieces of arcane equipment, Vampire Claws, Ghost Cloak, Retractable Claw Chain, and Pumpkin Lantern.

As for the Elf Horn and Synthesis Furnace, they were mostly left in the real world, so there’s no rush to bind them.

In fact, other than the pocket watch, even if he dies and drops other items, he doesn’t have to worry too much, as he can refresh the drops from death at any time through time rewinding. The drops from other people’s death are random, but his own drops can be selected by him.

[You have a new pending request.]

Just as he finished binding the gear, Mu You received another friend request. He opened it and saw it was from someone named ’King of the Tenth Generation’.

King of the Tenth Generation? Who?

Mu You was a bit puzzled, but didn’t pay much attention, thinking it was just a random request from a neighbor, so he casually declined it.

Unexpectedly, the moment he declined it, another request immediately popped up. It was again from this King of the Tenth Generation.

Declined again, and there comes another request, declined once more, and another one...

After declining five or six times in a row, Mu You concluded that it should not just be a prank, but the person had a genuine need to contact him. So, he clicked accept to see what the other party wanted.

[You accepted the friend request from ’King of the Tenth Generation’.]

[You received a private message from friend ’King of the Tenth Generation’.]

[King of the Tenth Generation: Was it you who took the stuff Grey Pupil found in the tomb?]