Chapter 31: Game Lobby

After a long list of awards and titles, the system politely bids farewell before Bai Liu's TV goes off with a "pop", but by this time a large audience has gathered in front of Bai Liu's TV and they are discussing in awe.

"Newcomer?! Pure newbie? Shocker for my whole neighborhood, now the newbies are too good, the pass reward was broadcast for 10 minutes ......"

"And that's not the best part, didn't you notice this guy collected the monster book! A lot of gods can't even collect the monster book by the time they pass true end!"

"I've bought his video and watched it, I think it's going to be really good!"

"Me too, I was really blown away, a long list of rewards and over 10,000 recharge points, how did that happen ......"

"I'm curious to see how he got those thousand stomps, he's got some pretty impressive numbers, why would anyone stomp on him?"

Bai Liu's 'Siren Town' video game has gone through the roof, selling hundreds of copies in no time.

This is why everyone wants to come to the core, the audience here is very generous and relatively sensible, whether it's a reward for recharging, or Bai Liu, who has already passed the level and is finally stuck here to show his face, most of them are willing to pay you a few dozen points for your video, to see what kind of demon you are, or a potential newcomer.

Some people have calculated that the guaranteed number of charge points for a core promotion is in the thousands.

Wang Shun looked at Bai Liu's blacked out screen with a bit of reluctance: " God Mu, when do you think Bai Liu will enter the game next? Do you think he'll pick single player again? I kind of want to squat on his little TV."

"How do I know if you ask me." Mu Sicheng narrowed his eyes, " Bai Liu should have logged out of the newbie area, you'd better go to the newbie area and catch him directly, ask him directly, Bai Liu is still not recovered, he should not be very clear, if you can sell him a good deal now, maybe he will be willing to take you to the game in the future. "

" God Mu, you really ......" Wang Shun's expression was complicated, "so shameless ah ...... "

"Aren't you going?" Mu Sicheng was unfazed by Wang Shun's accusation, he shrugged his shoulders and smiled a wicked smile, but the wickedness was ruined by the lollipop puffing out one cheek, "I'm curious about his [newbie skills]."

"The first player in a batch of newcomers will get [Newcomer Skills], and the system will conceal the newcomer skills of the players, the skills are said to be tied to the player's inner most desires, I'd like to know what the inner desires of someone like Bai Liu are."

Wang Shun was actually curious, but he was puzzled: "But this kind of thing is normally known to be kept secret, right? Bai Liu shouldn't have told us."

"But Bai Liu has a mental value of 0.1 right now, do you think that's normal? It's a miracle he's not out of his mind." Mu Sicheng looked at Wang Shun innocently, "I think Bai Liu probably couldn't even stand up when he logged out of the game, he was definitely not in his right mind, so wouldn't we be able to get everything out by pretending to be a member of the system staff?"

Wang Shun: "......"

Mu Sicheng, you are such an outlaw.

------

Bai Liu came out covered in water, he was soaked to the skin, his eyes were dazed and he felt like he was covered in a layer of frosted glass, he felt like he was spinning. Bai Liu tried to sit down several times, but could not get up again, so he just sat down and settled down.

"I'm really weak." Bai Liu exclaims from the bottom of his heart.

Bai Liu took a break to sort through the rewards and props he had received, and gave a tsk as he did so.

He was right in guessing that the rewards in the Monster Book were indeed the "biggest".

This big doesn't mean that the props that come out of these monster book sets are awesome. For example, [Sea Sneak] and [Sculpted Shell] are both very normal props that add attribute panel points, and as a game designer, such props couldn't be more ordinary for Bai Liu.

But Bai Liu still finds them to be the greatest reward of all.

This is because these are things that points cannot be bought in the game shop.

Bai Liu searched the shop several times, but could not find any kind of item in the shop that could correspond with his prop reward.

This means that [Monster Book] drops are [non-marketable] and are considered [limited props], which means that such props cannot be obtained by players through purchases in the game shop; such props can only be obtained through both player drops from passing the game, and player-to-player transactions outside the system.

But monster books are obviously not good to collect, which means that these props are hard to obtain by passing the game, so some players will obtain these [limited props for monster books] through the second way - trading between players, and these people are probably not few.

In other words, Bai Liu felt that if he sold the props he had acquired, he would be able to sell them for a ridiculously good price.

But he won't sell it, at least not now when he himself still needs certain basic attributes. Bai Liu won't sell the [Monster Book Prop] he got easily.

The item that Bai Liu found valuable was of course the Mermaid's Amulet, which is the equivalent of a life preserver.

The system gave him a direct explanation of [Effectiveness Buming] for [Siren's Reverse Scale], and [Siren's Fish Bone] gave a plausible and very middle-class explanation that it could rip through space and time, but the specific function was still for Bai Liu to explore on his own, and the system didn't even give a rating for these two props, it directly said Buming. Bai Liu clicked on this [ Buming ] after the additional explanation, directly told him that the system can not be rated.

"The system can't be rated?" Bai Liu sighed, "The system doesn't work."

But what Bai Liu didn't know was that both of these items came from a god-level npc, and a god-level npc is a complex string of uncalculable bug data to the system, so asking it to explain a string of bones and a scale from a bug data was a bit of a forced unification.

Bai Liu checked his rewards to the end and found an amazing [Personal Skill Reward], followed by the word [Unlocked], Bai Liu clicked [Unlocked] twice in curiosity, the interface slowly faded away and a new page popped up - [Please close your eyes now and imagine what you want most].

Bai Liu closed his eyes, folded his hands and said three silent chants in his heart with great devotion - money, money, money.

[Players can now open their eyes to receive skills]

Bai Liu opened his eyes and in front of him hovered a very worn cowhide wallet that looked like it had been used for more than ten years, the edges of the wallet were white and in some places the cowhide was damaged revealing the woven threads inside.

That's his new skill?

[Player Bai Liu Skill: An old purse with nothing in it (seems to have been used for a long time, but the owner still doesn't want to throw it away, which shows how little money he has)]

[Player Bai Liu Skill: Poor vagabond (unemployed, no money, your rent is due soon, you seem to have no other way out but to wander the streets)]

Bai Liu: "......"

Is this skill used to attack the poverty of others (like him)?

[System: Of course not]

[Player Bai Liu's skill: You can use anything you have to trade with other people, and you can put anything they promise you in your wallet].

[The other person's skills, points, props, lives, even souls and beliefs can be turned into coins in your wallet and become tools in your hands; you are the devil's trader, the vagabond who looks poor, but the person you trade with can sell everything he has.

[Though you have nothing now, you will have everything in the future, for your desire for money is endless, and sooner or later you will have the richest purse in the world, though it is full of the souls of the helpless].

[Skill used: Trading, after both parties agree that a deal has been made both parties may not renege on the deal, may not re-sell something obtained from the same person to the same person, if one of the parties dies while the deal is in progress, the soul of the party who did not perform the duties of the deal will be held in the purse]

"Wow." Bai Liu was a little intrigued, "That skill doesn't sound very human."

[System: Do you hate this skill?]

"No." Bai Liu smiled, "On the contrary, I really like it, it suits me, and I would like to enquire if a deal is struck with me without the other party knowing I have this skill, does the deal stand?"

[System: A transaction is established when there is a (coin) relationship between the two parties and (coin) enters the prop wallet at least once]

"A monetary relationship?" Bai Liu rubbed his chin, "Like? "

[System: For example, if you want to get someone's item, and you use the points (coins) in your wallet to buy it from him, and he allows it, whether he knows you have the skill or not, and whether he is sincere in saying yes or not, the moment he takes your points and coins, the transaction is established, and his item is yours]

"Even if I only use one point to buy very expensive props from the other side, in a joking tone, as long as the other side agrees to it, right? " Bai Liu smiled wider and wider.

[System: Yes]

"Gee, that's a cheeky skill." Bai Liu commented genuinely, "but I kind of can't wait to try it out."

[System: You currently have a balance of 15,781 points, are they all loaded into your wallet?

Bai Liu nodded: "Fake it."

After clearing his props, Bai Liu checked his panel attributes and almost all of them were red, as Bai Liu had been particularly overspent during the game.

[Player name: Bai Liu].

[Life Value: 20 (A two hundred pound man can sit on your ass and kill you, slowly recovering)]

[Stamina Value: 7 (unsteady standing, automatic recovery in progress)]

[Agility: 7 (stiffness and muscle soreness throughout the body, automatic recovery in progress)]

[Attack: 1 (Your full power strike is like a two-month-old cat pawing at a paw, auto-reply in progress)]

[Intelligence: 45 (original value 89, halved due to endangered spirit value, restored to original value when spirit value is restored)

[Luck: 0 (You've been surprisingly unlucky all your life. If there's one person in the game who meets a godlike NPC, it's going to be you)]

[Skill: Empty old purse]

[Identity: poor vagrant].

[Mental Value: 3 (By rights you should be mad to the extreme to become a monster, very shocked you can still maintain your sanity, but now that I think about it, maybe having sanity would have made you a monster long ago, whether you're mad or not, keeping your sanity and calm is one way you can be a monster, terrible player! (The count is on auto-recovery)]

Bai Liu, as if not seeing the long list of comments about him being a monster behind his mental values, calmly inquired, "How long will it take for these values to return?"

[System: Depending on your current recovery rate, you will recover completely in three to five days after leaving the game]

Bai Liu is not a character that likes to procrastinate: "Then leave the game--" play.

Before he could finish his sentence, he saw two men approaching the boarding entrance tentatively.

Mu Sicheng and Wang Shun were a little bemused and amused to see Bai Liu sitting on the floor with his head back against the exit wall, obviously unconscious, resting in such a dishevelled position.

It does seem that the lowered mental value has had a heavy impact on Bai Liu.

But when they walked over, Bai Liu lifted his tilted back head to look levelly at Mu Sicheng and Wang Shun and said the first thing he said to them, the two men's faces changed.

Bai Liu asked, "Are you here to pry information about my personal skills?"

Mu Sicheng's face gave a smirk as he crouched down and put his hands on his knees to survey Bai Liu, asking amusedly, "How can you be sure we must be here to spy on your personal skills, what if we are here to kill you or rob you, after all you should be rich and have plenty of props on you now."

Wang Shun was about to say that he couldn't kill anyone in the system lobby, but when he looked at Bai Liu as if he was really thinking about it, he realized that Bai Liu had just come out of the game and didn't know about it.

"It shouldn't be possible to kill anyone in this hall." Bai Liu came to this conclusion after only a few seconds of thought.

Wang Shun was shocked and blurted out, "How did you know?"

The interest in Mu Sicheng's eyes was growing, and he was sure that Bai Liu did not know about the [no killing here in the hall], because when he said [to kill Bai Liu], Bai Liu subconsciously retracted his legs and avoided himself, which was an automatic human reaction to objects that could hurt him.

But after just a few seconds, Bai Liu came to the right conclusion.

"Reason?" Mu Sicheng raised an eyebrow.

"Because if gamers can be killed by robbery if they log out, there's bound to be a lot of people casing this opening here."

Bai Liu shrugged, "But I've been out for ten minutes and I haven't seen a second creature other than you guys, and if killing was allowed in this game then there would have to be a lot of people here to rob, but there aren't, so I'm guessing that killing would be forbidden here, and odds are that robbing would be forbidden as well."

Bai Liu can actually make this guess for another reason, from the game designer's point of view, this kind of place where the player is very weak to log out would be greatly damaged if killing is allowed.

It's like allowing players to crouch next to [resurrection points] to kill people in general, which would be a very poor gaming experience in a non-massively multiplayer online game designed this way.

If the player who passes is killed by a robbery as soon as he logs out, the game will soon be devoid of players and will not be run so well.

Mu Sicheng whistled, his eyes appreciative: "Bingo, guessed it."

Wang Shun has a complicated look in his eyes, before Mu Sicheng even said that he was trying to trick Bai Liu into telling him his skills, but now it seems that Mu Sicheng has not even managed to get a single lie in front of Bai Liu... ...

"I'm curious what your spirit level is now?" Mu Sicheng looked at Bai Liu who had a clear mind and a calm gaze and tsked, "You don't look like a player who just had a 0.1 spirit level, did you buy yourself a spirit bleach to restore your spirit level?"

Bai Liu seems to have a clear mind, exactly like a player with a normal mental value, and Mu Sicheng cannot think of a reasonable explanation other than that he has bought bleach to bleach his mental value.

"I'm currently only at 3 spirit," Bai Liu said calmly, "and I'm still recovering."

Mu Sicheng: "......"

Wang Shun: "......"

Both Mu Sicheng and Wang Shun's eyes fell into a brief daze of dumbness and blankness before Wang Shun spoke up first and asked incredulously, "How much did you say your spirit was worth now?

"Three." Bai Liu asks naturally, "What's wrong?"

"3......" Wang Shun couldn't even speak smoothly, he looked at Bai Liu with a weird creature that shouldn't exist in the world, " Bai Liu, do you know the concept of a mental value of 3? Do you know what a mental value of 3 is? You should be in a state of overlapping hallucinations and being tortured both consciously and physically ......"

"I haven't fallen below sixty spirit, but I've had a very hard time falling below sixty, I can't even talk properly, a lot of players who fall below 20 spirit basically go crazy as soon as they get out of the game, you only have a spirit of 3 and then you do this ......"

Wang Shun gestures to Bai Liu's whole body with his hands, his expression is incomplete, as if he doesn't know what words to use to comment on Bai Liu, but Bai Liu is a little more interested, leaning against the wall and asking Wang Shun lazily, "What's wrong with me? I think I'm quite normal."

Yeah, it's normal, but Bai Liu's [normal] right now is an extreme abnormality! No one can maintain a [normal human] form at a mental value of 3!

"You, how can you even think to answer our questions, you should be so confused that your intelligence value should be halved! " Wang Shun was a bit incoherent.

"Indeed, I am rather confused." Bai Liu nodded approvingly, "It's true that my intelligence value has been halved, but what the hell, that doesn't stop me from thinking about your questions with 45 intelligence value, and it's not a difficult question."

Wang Shun is speechless.

Bai Liu is indeed tormented by a twisted consciousness, as if it were a desire from within, constantly urging him on, tempting him, as if to turn him into a monster of evil, but Bai Liu has wanted money pretty much all the time since he lost his job.

A voice would whisper in Bai Liu's ear, "Go and beat up the boss who fired you" [Go and beat up the young master Muke who was parachuted in to take your place], and so on, and Bai Liu's intelligence would be able to beat up these two people without being noticed.

But Bai Liu is used to being bound by the law. He keeps many large volumes of jurisprudence at home, which he can recite almost backwards, and Bai Liu's bottom line for himself is [not to break the accepted rules of the group he is in].

Bai Liu is used to restraining his perverse desire for money, so being tormented by this level of uncontrolled desire is not painful for him.

...... But what is Spiritual Value Bleach ...... Bai Liu narrowed his eyes to ponder the name of this prop that came out of Mu Sicheng's mouth, which sounded a bit like something like [Blue Pill] that restored the player's status.

But Bai Liu didn't ask Wang Shun directly what the mental bleach was, the two had already fooled him once, so Bai Liu turned to Mu Sicheng, pondering - the man clearly seemed to be having more fun... ...

Wang Shun asked, " Bai Liu, how did you guess that we were here to ask you about [personal skills]?"

"If you are not here to kill me, you have come to me specifically mostly to ask for my help, to seek my cooperation, or just to be curious about me and to spy on my information."

Bai Liu spoke unhurriedly and the regulations were clear: "But as a newcomer, I should not have much valuable information for you, all my values and prop rewards are open to you, the only thing hidden is my [personal skill]."

He looked straight at Mu Sicheng and Wang Shun: "So I guess you came to ask me what my [personal skill] is, normally I wouldn't have told you, but you came anyway, I think it's because my current mental value is abnormal and you think I'm delirious and likely to be trapped by you, am I right? "

Wang Shun was completely speechless as he let out a long sigh.

Bai Liu guessed it all! Even they were ready to exploit the loophole!

Mu Sicheng leaned in for a closer look at Bai Liu: "I'm now very suspicious of what your spirit value really is? I don't feel like I'm going to be able to get your personal skills today."

"Not necessarily." Bai Liu slowly lifted the corner of his mouth as he looked at Mu Sicheng good-naturedly, "How about we make a deal? I show you my skills, and you help me restore my spirit value with spirit bleach."

"...... are you serious?" Mu Sicheng looked at Bai Liu with a few moments of suspicion, "Don't you try to fool me, I have props to judge whether you are honest or not."

Bai Liu spreads his hands and smiles, "You're welcome to judge."

"But why should I bleach your spirit for free?" Mu Sicheng thought for a moment and recoiled, he smiled wistfully, "Mental bleach isn't cheap, your skills I can wait until the next time you play the game, you're bound to use them aren't you?"

Bai Liu took a point from his wallet hidden in his pocket, which turned into a silver coin that Bai Liu cupped in his fingers: "I don't bleach for nothing, I give you a point."