Chapter 17: Is It Really That Hard To Enter The Game?
“What should we do? All of you hang in there, I’ll head over right now!”
After hanging up the call, Zhao Hu looked very unwillingly at the now greyed-out High Martial Arts Descend icon, and directly chose to enter the Tianlong Dynasty.
The second phase of the assessment boss was simply inhuman in difficulty, absolutely impossible to crack in a short time. As a senior elder of the Heavenly Might Guild, preserving Heavenly Might’s advantage in the Tianlong Dynasty was his top priority; everything else had to be set aside for now.
While the High Martial Arts Descend test assessment was in full swing, in the lounge of the Obsidian Martial Arts Hall, Lin Qi also stretched lazily, completely unaware of what was happening back on Blue Star.
“An entire day, and I finally finished copying a set of Crushing Stone Fist and Leopard Shadow Steps. This really is not something a human should be doing.”
Lin Qi looked at the two handwritten martial skill manuals on the table, feeling very satisfied.
With these two martial skills, his game finally had a rudimentary combat system, so newcomers coming to the martial arts hall would not be limited to only learning the fitness breathing technique to improve physical fitness with very little combat power.
Moreover, as long as players could learn Crushing Stone Fist and Leopard Shadow Steps, even if their physical fitness was only at kindergarten level, they would still be able to have a fighting chance against quasi-apprentices.
A quasi-apprentice’s strength was 100 to 200 kilograms.
Speed ranged from 10 meters per second to 12 meters per second.
In the City of Light Chasing, it could be said that the vast majority of people were at quasi-apprentice level.
As for martial skills, for formal residents of the City of Light Chasing, they were luxury goods that ordinary people simply could not afford to learn.
And any player who was not a quasi-apprentice, as long as they mastered apprentice-level Crushing Stone Fist, could burst out with more than double their normal strength. If they mastered apprentice-level Leopard Shadow Steps, their speed could be increased by more than twenty percent. As long as they mastered both, they could completely raise their strength and speed up to quasi-apprentice level.
“Next is the pricing problem. If it’s too cheap, then I won’t have anything good to redeem on my side. But if it’s too expensive, players’ strength will grow too slowly. It’s really a dilemma.”
Lin Qi suddenly felt that balance truly was an art.
He worried that players would consume their game lifespan too much, and at the same time worried they would have no motivation.
This leek was really hard to harvest.
Just as Lin Qi was struggling over the pricing, a tall figure walked into the martial arts hall from outside. With one mechanical prosthetic arm carrying a metal box and the other hand carrying two large cardboard boxes, their steps were steady and powerful, far beyond those of an ordinary quasi-apprentice.
“Lin, I brought all the goods you wanted.” Luo Qi put the boxes directly in the corner of the lounge, then looked at Lin Qi with a curious face and asked, “Why did you order so many blood essence rice seeds, and food and water? You’re not planning to live out in the wilderness long-term, are you?”
“I’m just stocking up more in case of emergencies. After all, the entire City of Light Chasing hasn’t been very stable lately.” Lin Qi directly took out 6,000 Bit and handed it to Luo Qi. His remaining Bit instantly dropped to just over 2,400, already not enough to pay next month’s hospital debt.
This time he had Luo Qi purchase 100 jin of blood essence rice seeds, plus one month’s food and drink for ten players including himself. Whether it would work all depended on this bet.
“It really hasn’t been very stable lately.” After hearing this, Luo Qi also nodded. “Just yesterday, several gangs in the suburbs were wiped out. With all the brutal turf wars, weapon consumption has also been enormous. If I weren’t delivering this stuff to you, I’d probably still be busy forging weapons right now.”
“They’re fighting that hard?” Lin Qi was very surprised. “Wasn’t it just that the Half-Scale Race gangs expanded their territory in the suburbs a bit?”
“I’m not exactly sure about the details.” Luo Qi shook her head slightly, then looked Lin Qi up and down with interest and said with a smile, “Recently our shop has a pretty good part-time job available. Want to do it?”
“Your shop is hiring unregistered nomads for part-time work?” Lin Qi could not help feeling curious.
As a well-known weapon shop in the suburbs, Azure Crystal Weapon Shop usually had plenty of residents with formal identities wanting to work there. As for unregistered nomads, getting in even as part-time staff was a fantasy.
“Yeah, a very good part-time job, and very suitable for you.” Luo Qi nodded, no longer keeping him in suspense. “Aren’t you going to farm? Since you’re heading into the wilderness, you can conveniently do transport work on the way. Our shop is insanely busy recently, and all kinds of materials for making weapons are being consumed at a terrifying rate, so we’ve arranged cooperation with several gangs.”
“Those gangs have each opened up mines near the Abandoned Area and extracted a lot of ore. Our shop plans to use their materials to exchange for weapons, but because the transaction volume is huge, our staff can’t keep up. Those gangs are also busy fighting and have no extra manpower.”
“So our shop plans to recruit a batch of people to do part-time transport for those gangs. The more ore you haul back, the more you earn. Since you’re going into the wilderness, on your way back you can stop by. Even though a hundred kilograms of ore only earns 30 Bit, even a mosquito’s leg is still meat.”
“Will those gangs allow me to approach?” After hearing this, Lin Qi was also a bit tempted, though what tempted him was not the money.
The mines occupied by the major gangs were places that, if ordinary people dared to approach, the gangs would kill them on sight without hesitation.
And avoiding detection was almost impossible. Those gangs all had monitoring equipment set up near the mines. Ordinary people trying not to be discovered was pure fantasy.
Besides producing large amounts of ore, there were also many trees on the mountain.
Those trees were generally as thick as a person, just the right materials to repair the martial arts hall.
If he was allowed to approach the mines, he could legitimately gather wood, then have players repair the martial arts hall. Compared to hiring people himself to repair it, that would be far more cost-effective.
“You can rest assured on that. We have identification from those gangs. As long as you carry the identification, they won’t do anything to you,” Luo Qi explained. “Plenty of employees in the shop are scrambling for this part-time job. The shop owner set a rule of one recommendation quota per person, and now you get to benefit.”
“Alright, I’ll take it!” Lin Qi agreed without hesitation.
“Good, here is the identification for you.” Luo Qi nodded and took out a metal bracelet. “But let me be clear first, this part-time job has a minimum requirement. You need to transport at least one ton of ore per week. Otherwise, the part-time qualification will be revoked.”
Lin Qi took the metal bracelet, very happily saying, “Don’t worry, I guarantee I’ll only haul more, not less. You’ll be satisfied.”
Now he could finally set a good price for his two martial skills, and when new players arrived, he could even give them a new gameplay option. It was simply a win-win where he won twice.
…
Blue Star, as the sun was setting, Tianya Pavilion High-end Residential Area.
In a villa courtyard with four full floors, lights were blazing. Lying in his virtual game pod, Zhao Hu let out a deep breath and glanced once more at the dim High Martial Arts Descend icon.
“Finally dealt with that group from Mythical Paradise. Now I can think about how to handle that boss.” Zhao Hu checked the time on the screen; there were still several hours left in the night. He did not believe he would fail to see Luo Wu Shang tonight.
Just as Zhao Hu finished paying 198 for resurrection and was preparing to enter the High Martial Arts Descend test assessment, High Martial Arts Descend suddenly popped up a system message.
System: At present, seven pre-purchase players have obtained all connection qualifications. Thank you to all pre-purchase players for your participation.
“How is this possible!” Zhao Hu stared at the system popup, completely dumbfounded.
Zhao Hu knew better than anyone how strong the second phase of Qin Mu as a boss was. He even doubted whether anyone could clear such an inhuman assessment at all.
Yet now he was being told that, in the time it took him to fight one battle, all seven quotas were gone. How was he supposed to believe that?
“Could it be the old guys from the other four giant guilds?”
Once he recovered from the shock, Zhao Hu kept guessing in his mind who could have cleared such a terrifying assessment, and in one go no less than seven people.
“I still underestimated the experts of the world.” Looking at the now fully occupied connection quotas, Zhao Hu could not help feeling some regret. If he had not gone to deal with Mythical Paradise, he might have had a chance to pass the assessment. He immediately picked up his phone and directly dialed Zhang Qing Wei. “Qing Wei, please inform Vice President Luo that I can’t go to meet her tonight, but next time there are quotas, I will definitely enter High Martial Arts Descend!”
After saying this, Zhao Hu had already made up his mind that before High Martial Arts Descend increased the number of quotas again, he would clear the assessment no matter what.
“Enter High Martial Arts Descend?” Zhang Qing Wei asked in some surprise. “Is it very hard to enter that game?”
“Very hard, very hard.” Zhao Hu did not understand why Zhang Qing Wei was asking this, but he answered honestly, “At least right now I still don’t have confidence.”
“It’s that difficult?” After hearing this, Zhang Qing Wei said slowly, “Alright, I’ll be entering High Martial Arts Descend later. I’ll let Wu Shang know.”
“Enter High Martial Arts Descend?” Zhao Hu could not help looking at the phone in his hand, wondering if he had misheard. Trying to suppress his restless heart, he confirmed again, “Qing Wei, you’re saying you will enter the High Martial Arts Descend game to inform Vice President Luo?”
“Mm.” Zhang Qing Wei nodded, not understanding why Zhao Hu was so agitated.
“Qing Wei! No, Secretary Zhang!” Hearing her confirmation, Zhao Hu’s tone carried a hint of reverence. “I wonder if you could tell me how you managed to endure for 20 seconds? Of course, if it’s inconvenient, I won’t insist. I just want a bit of strategy guidance.”
In Zhao Hu’s view, Qin Mu’s last ten seconds in the second phase was like a god descending, impossible to dodge or block. Yet Zhang Qing Wei had actually cleared it; her strength was terrifying.
“Endure 20 seconds? Strategy guide?” Zhang Qing Wei was stunned. “Isn’t it something you can enter directly just by purchasing the game?”
