Here"s part 3/3! Again, thank you Olga ❤
Sorry for the late update, couple of emergency cases tonight…
Chapter 14: Reality (1)
At this very moment, Cheng Zhi Chu was sitting on his bed in his bedroom at home leaning against the back of his bedframe. He carefully edited his "Midnight Mansion" strategy guide and planned to post it up onto the Infinite Escape forum when he was done.
Two days ago, he and Bai Yi cleared the "Midnight Mansion" instance and had returned to the real world. Although he had already cleared two instances, the time between the two was too short and he still had a rather surreal feeling.
After returning to the real world the first thing he did was to spend 1000 survival points to buy the countdown service. Although he only had a total of 2350 survival points and spending almost half of it in one go was quite a painful endeavour, but with this service he would at least know when the next instance would start so that he could prepare himself in advance.
Before he placed the order, he was a little hesitant. It was like an exam; seeing that the deadline is approaching he couldn"t help but feel anxious but surprisingly this service also gave him the additional benefit of emotional relief. For example, despite knowing that the next instance would start in a day"s time, he was calm and wasn"t worried at all.
He then spent another 150 survival points to buy burial services for his dead teammates. Like this the system would modify the memories of their close friends and families so that they would think that they had pa.s.sed away many years ago. Like this, even if they had died, their friends and family wouldn"t have a hard time accepting reality.
If he was to die one day, he hoped that someone could also help him arrange for that service too…….
After mourning for his three teammates, Cheng Zhi Chu"s mood was somewhat low but he is naturally an optimist, so he soon cheered up and moved to the forum to search for Bai Yi"s ID to add him as a friend.
If he could, he naturally didn"t want to die! So in order to be able to live for a long time, he would hold tightly onto this big thigh of Bai Yi"s.
With such shameless thoughts, Cheng Zhi Chu searched for the ID "One Thought" and then sent over a friend request.
The forum ID"s are unique to all players so he wouldn"t make the mistake of messaging the wrong person but out of habit he opened One Thought"s personal details and double checked. After seeing his information, he was stunned and began to suspect that he had searched for the wrong person.
After the name One Thought, he clearly saw the symbol of a red skull which indicates that a player had initiated the "Death Mode".
Unlike the Reality Mode that he had selected, once a player chooses the Death Mode it would mean that they cannot return to the real world. Until they have managed to save 1 million survival points, they would continuously go through instance after instance. Although players who select this mode would also be rewarded with 30% more survival points, there are still very few players who are willing to take this risk.
On one hand, not a lot of people can withstand so much mental strain and on the other hand, most players cannot use the forum service while they"re in an instance. There were only a few exceptions and they"re usually the great G.o.ds in the games like Winter Branch. Despite selecting the Death Mode, he could still use the forum while he is in an instance.
If Bai Yi selected the death mode and had no way of using the forum, he would have said something about it but since he didn"t say anything and even offered to add him as friends himself, he guessed that he had probably added the wrong person……..
Cheng Zhi Chu quietly mumbled to himself and planned to try typing in One Thought again but with different a different spelling when a notification sound was heard from his phone indicating that the other party had accepted his friend request. His new friend immediately sent over a smiley face and greeted him.
Cheng Zhi Chu: "?!" f.u.c.k, who"s this? Why can they use the forum even while in Death Mode??
[Freshly Squeezed Orange Juice: ??]
[Freshly Squeezed Orange Juice: ……Bai Yi?]
[One Thought: Yes, I"m Bai Yi. Why are you so surprised?]
Seeing One Thought"s response and after confirming that the other party is indeed Bai Yi, Cheng Zhi Chu almost spat out the water in his mouth. With his eyes wide with surprise he quickly typed into his phone.
[Freshly Squeezed Orange Juice: ?? Wait?? Why did you choose Death Mode??]
[Freshly Squeezed Orange Juice: And how can you still use the forum while you"re in an instance?? How did you get the ability to do it??]
[One Thought: You can"t use the forum while in Death Mode?]
[One Thought: ……….]
[One Thought: Oh, I remember now. Seems like you really can"t use it. I can use it because I received an unexpected privilege.]
[Freshly Squeezed Orange Juice: What privilege? There"s such a good thing?]
Cheng Zhi Chu was envious to tears. He also want"s this kind of unexpected surprise! If he could use the forum while he"s in an instance, he could check on the strategy guides and trade items with other players whenever he needed to. It was on par to having a cheat that would greatly reduce the games difficulty.
[One Thought: You guess.]
[Freshly Squeezed Orange Juice: Is it because of the beginner"s gift package or did you get it through a lottery?]
"Infinite Escape" calls itself a game so it naturally had many game-like features. You could spend some of your survival points to join in the lottery to win prizes. Cheng Zhi Chu still hasn"t given it a try firstly because he didn"t have time and secondly because he didn"t believe in his luck. No matter what game he played, his luck was down in the pits.
[One Thought: Very smart. I got it through the lottery.]
[Freshly Squeezed Orange Juice: Daddy! Emperor! Master! Please accept this disciples" bow!]
[Freshly Squeezed Orange Juice: But wait. I"m very curious. You chose Death Mode so that means that you can"t return to reality so how do you charge your phone? Won"t it run out of power very quickly?]
From the other end he received another a cute emoticon.
[One Thought: Nuclear phone. It would always have electricity.]
[One Thought: So, you can send me messages any time. I should see it very quickly.]
[Freshly Squeezed Orange Juice: But won"t this interfere with you clearing the instance? What if a ghost appears and the phone goes off……um…..Am I bothering you right now?]
[One Thought: You"re not, don"t worry. I"m currently in a solo instance and it"s very simple. If something happens, I"ll just reply a little late. Don"t worry about me.]
[Freshly Squeezed Orange Juice: That"s good then!]
[Freshly Squeezed Orange Juice: Can I ask you why you chose the Death Mode? Is if because you wanted to earn points faster to clear the game?]
[One Thought: That"s not it. It"s just that because of some circ.u.mstances, I cannot leave the game and cannot return to the real world, so I decided to choose the Death Mode.]
[One Thought: It"s a little complicated to explain. I"ll tell you about it when we have the chance to later.]
[Freshly Squeezed Orange Juice: Okay! Let"s not talk now. You should quickly go and clear the instance. I won"t bother you anymore. Talk to you later!]
After Bai Yi responded with a smiley face, Cheng Zhi Chu closed the chat box. He was still very surprised about Bai Yi selecting the Death Mode and was a little worried about Bai Yi levelling up too fast. If the difference between the two is too big, they probably would not be able to join an instance together.
But in the end, the most reliable person will still be yourself. In any case, he must work hard to increase his own strength. Even if he wants to hold onto a big thigh, he still shouldn"t become a burden to him.
Cheng Zhi Chu quietly made up his mind and decided that he should do what he can and focus on training his body and making the most of his time while he is in the real world to go though various strategy guides and instance introductions.
At the same time, he also left school and decided to head back home for the weekend to spend some more time with his family.
He is a local student and his place is about two hours away from school so he would usually go back ever two or so months. He had already gone back last month but he feared that he may not be able to live until the next time so he wanted to spend some more time with his family to avoid regrets.
Sitting on the bus, Cheng Zhi Chu opened the forum and browsed through various posts while working out how he should spend the remaining 1200 survival points. He also tried to search for posts a.s.sociated with the instances written in his Boss Photobook.
He had not had the chance to finish reading the beginners guide written by Winter Branch when he saw new content discussing the different uses of survival points.
One use was that it could be used as a temporary blood booster. When the player"s blood reaches zero and is about to die, they can choose to use the survival points to be converted into survival time. One survival point can maintain a survival time of two seconds but if the survival points also reach zero, the player would die.
The second use was that it could be used as money. They specifically mentioned that survival points can be used to buy everything apart from weapons. Things like cursed items were also tradable.
However, almost no one would buy or sell cursed items. Firstly, if it is a useful cursed item, no one would want to give it away. Secondly, the dangers of trading for cursed items is too great. Who would know if that item that they bought would end up leading them to their deaths?
As for weapons, they are non-tradable items. Players can only use their own weapon fragments to synthesis weapons but unless you use up a large number of weapon fragments, the created weapon would generally be weaker than cursed items, so most people still preferred cursed items.
Reading until here, Cheng Zhi Chu suddenly remembered that he also had a cursed item; the emerald necklace given to him by Joshua. After putting it into his backpack and bringing it out of the instance, by default it had become his and had been stored in his bag.
He opened his system panel and once again checked the properties of the necklace only to see an additional note next to it, "Bounded item. The holder cannot discard, trade or transfer it to others."
So to say, this necklace cannot be sold and can only be used by him…………Cheng Zhi Chu"s face went bitter. The psychological aftermath left behind by Joshua"s necklace was not small and he felt very scared having it in his possession.
But he also couldn"t sell it as it wouldn"t be considered a gift from Joshua so the necklace"s curse would lead to the death of the new owner. He can"t go around harming others.
Seeing that he had no way of earning more survival points by selling cursed items, Cheng Zhi Chu"s line of sight once again fell onto his phone screen and he continued to read through the post with slightly bright eyes.
The last use for survival points is the lottery system. In the prize pool are many levels of prizes; ranging from 100-point to 10,000-point prize pools. First time players are given a discount and they can just use 100 points to have ten attempts at which ever prize pool they select.
Then of course he is going to give it a try! They even wrote that you are guaranteed a prize. Even if you don"t draw anything in all ten attempts, you will still be given a consolation prize. You may get some survival points back, or it may be a weapon, cursed item, card etc…..In short, it is simply too good to be true and extremely enticing to an unlucky person like him!
Cheng Zhi Chu immediately spent 100 survival points and selected highest tiered prize pool. The result however almost made him vomit blood ——- His luck was extremely poor to the point that all ten attempts were unsuccessful!
………Can he be anymore unlucky?!
Thinking back to Bai Yi"s ability to easily obtain such a high levelled ability that allowed him to access the forum, Cheng Zhi Chu wanted to cry. If he can, he really wanted to get Bai Yi to help him do the lottery, but he also knows that this is an impossible request.
All he could do now is see what consolation prize he had received…….Please be a weapon, please be a weapon. Even if it"s a kitchen knife, I"m happy……………..
Cheng Zhi Chu squeezed his eyes shut and prayed silently in his heart. He selected the icon to open the prize but the next thing that he heard from the system made his heart suddenly stop beating and his face turn pale.
【[A cursed item appeared. Danger. Please be careful.】
Bai Yi"s Diary (Part 14)
(Continuing from the previous part)
I didn"t explicitly tell Zhi Chu whether or not I have someone I liked. If I said that I did, I was worried that he would misunderstand and think that I like someone else, but I also can"t lie to him. With him standing in front of me, how can I say that I don"t have someone that I like?
Just thinking of the fact that I would be seeing Zhi Chu kissing my other selves, I wanted to immediately kill them all. I wanted to destroy myself so that I can bring them down with me, but I can"t do it. I must endure.
If they are all dead, Zhi Chu would not be able to collect the photos and he would be forever trapped in this game. This is something that I cannot accept.
I really want to get out of this game together with him, let him fall in love with me and be willing to spend the rest of his life with me. So………if he really only likes women, should I start considering s.e.x…..change……..
(Hand once again starts trembling)
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KK has something to say:
HAHAHAHA BAI YI PLS