Chapter 142 Derivative

"This is bad..." Pan Feng whispered.

"Did he hear that..." Hua Xiong also whispered.

"I'm only a few meters away from you guys, what's the point of lowering your voices?" Feng Bujue said.

"Well... Hehe... That's right..." Pan Feng was about to reply.

Feng Bujue interrupted him, "Before you start laughing and making up nonsense, let me state this: I don't think you're cheating players, because your behavior doesn't look like it at all. You're clearly people from within Dream Inc. I don't know if you're GMs, but I think your work isn't suitable to be exposed." He quickly scanned Pan Feng and Hua Xiong, implying that what he was about to say was important, "Tell us the truth, and we can cooperate with your work and keep everything secret after the scenario ends. Otherwise... I might just concoct a story about today's events, embellish it, divide it into a dozen parts, and serialize it on various forums in the form of a chaptered novel, blowing the whole thing wide open."

"Uh... Just wait a minute..." Hua Xiong replied, "Let us discuss this."

"Suit yourselves," Feng Bujue said, turning around and moving away from them.

The two men left the broken exterior wall glass and went to a corner of the office, whispering to each other. About five minutes later, they returned.

Pan Feng said to Feng Bujue and Xiao Tan, "Alright, what do you want to know?"

"What are your identities, what work are you doing, and what is the plot of this scenario?" Feng Bujue asked quickly, having already thought about these questions.

"You guessed right, we're game administrators," Hua Xiong said, "We're here in this scenario to deal with a type of data trash called 'Derivatives.'" He paused, "As for the plot of this scenario... you've already seen it. The thing we were chasing just now was the mutated form of Dr. Ashford. The general plot is this... This Ashford has some anti-human sentiments. He stole the Z-virus from the research institute and added it to another special solution he had prepared in advance. He then used a device on the roof of this building to launch it, infecting the entire city."

"So the zombies in the research institute are just ordinary zombies, while the ones outside have become those strange blood wolf zombies?" Feng Bujue continued.

"Actually, blood wolf zombies, as mutated virus transformations, are stronger than ordinary zombies in the settings. Although they seem weak now, it will be difficult for players of your level to fight these monsters at night without garlic," Hua Xiong said.

"Then what about those zombie werewolves we encountered earlier?" Xiao Tan asked.

"According to the scenario flow, the system always has to arrange a few mini-bosses inside and outside this building," Pan Feng replied, "The zombie werewolf's related settings state that 'mutated virus carriers have a 0.003% chance of becoming even more powerful and stable mutations.'"

Feng Bujue said, "You can see a lot of things... Monster data, how many clearance routes there are, when flags are triggered, and the scenario map, you can see all of that, right?"

"More than that. We can check the players' coordinates, real-time status, skills in their skill bar, title abilities, etc., at any time in the menu," Pan Feng said, "I remember you were infected just now, right? You managed to find the serum in the research institute and detoxify yourself on your own, that's quite something."

Feng Bujue said, "Thank you, but... I think there's one thing you can't check." He paused, "That's the information about the 'Derivatives' you mentioned, right?"

Hua Xiong sighed, "If we could check that, we wouldn't have to go to so much trouble to clear the scenario first."

Feng Bujue said, "After the clearance conditions are met, we ordinary players will be teleported out, but you should be able to ignore the teleportation time. So... when we leave the scenario and get our settlement rewards, your work has only just begun. Without the interference of players, you can let go and search for Derivatives in the completed scenario world and dispose of them."

"Oh... impressive, you can deduce that much from just a few words," Hua Xiong said.

"I'm no longer interested in your situation or this scenario," Feng Bujue reached out and touched the back of his neck, tilting his head back to relax his cervical vertebrae, "Please tell me in detail about the Derivatives."

"Even if you know, it won't mean anything, because you can't help in any way," Pan Feng said, "If it were me, I'd be dying for the GM to quickly find that escaped mutated Ashford, kill it, and easily clear the scenario to get the rewards."

"Please explain the origin and development of the Derivatives to me in detail," Feng Bujue said with a smile, "Otherwise, I might not be able to resist writing two sharp and highly煽动性 emails to Atobe-shao and Mingzi Zhen Nan Qu, telling them... that due to some technical errors by the game company, you were killed by a powerful monster that shouldn't exist in this scenario."

"Hey... how do you know they were killed by Derivatives?" Pan Feng asked.

"Just simply connecting the answers and questions," Feng Bujue said.

Pan and Hua were simply bewildered by this answer...

"Well... cough, cough, alright," Hua Xiong said, "It doesn't matter if we tell you, the existence of Derivatives will be noticed by players sooner or later anyway. Although the probability of players encountering them is very small, the company is still preparing to issue a relevant document during the public beta phase, explaining it with more appropriate wording." He looked around, then said, "Come with me." He then took a step and led the three towards a coffee machine.

He came to a cubicle closest to the machine, picked up a very conspicuous can of coffee on the desk, and opened the lid, pointing to the coffee grounds inside, which were about three-quarters full, and said, "Suppose these coffee grounds are all data." He raised his right index finger, "One of these grounds is uncontrolled garbage data that the system needs to clear." He paused, then said, "And this one ground is constantly moving and changing positions in this whole can of coffee grounds." He looked at Feng Bujue and Wang Tanzhi, "How can you accurately pick it out?"

"It's impossible to do," Feng Bujue replied immediately.

"Yes, it's impossible," Hua Xiong continued, immediately reaching into the can, grabbing a handful of coffee grounds in his palm, "What the system can do is, in a fleeting opportunity, grab that set of data and all the data in a certain area around it like this, and hold it in its hand." He slightly raised his fist, and coffee grounds slowly leaked from between his fingers, "But, in this handful of coffee grounds in my hand, there's only one ground that needs to be destroyed, and the other grounds are all useful. I can't throw away this whole handful just to clear one ground. And I can't hold this handful in my hand for too long, because the one I want to eliminate can slip away from between my fingers at any time."

"So... the system uses this data to generate scenarios," Feng Bujue said, "Turning Derivatives from code into concrete monsters, which you kill or defeat, making them lose their ability to resist and escape, and then the system can clear them when cleaning up the scenario."

Hua Xiong said, "That's right." He got a cup and a jar of sugar cubes, "This cup is the outer shell of the scenario. You players are like these sugar cubes." He pointed to the cup, "When you queue for a scenario and hear the system prompt [Team Size Random Value Generated: Six Players]." He threw the coffee grounds he had been holding into the cup, "The data has been put into the shell, but at this stage, they are just various basic elements, such as air, water, luck, soil, etc..." He took six sugar cubes in his hand, "Then, six players, including you, arrived at the entrance of this scenario, and each heard the sentence [Your Team Has Entered the Queue, Searching for Other Ready Individuals or Teams], at this moment..." He threw away two sugar cubes, saying "Two of them were replaced by Pan and me. Those two will be immediately assigned to other scenarios that are waiting, and they themselves will not notice this change."

Pan Feng continued, "We GMs usually wait in teams of two. Once a Derivative's code is identified in an upcoming scenario, we will insert ourselves into that queue. The players we replace are usually in teams of two, or two solo queueing players. There is no team situation between the players who successfully queue for the scenario."

"What if you encounter a team of five or six?" Xiao Tan interjected.

"If it's a team of five, we can only replace the solo queueing player and send one person in. As for a team of six, there's no way at all, they have to face the Derivative themselves. But since the server opened, there hasn't been a situation where a team of six has encountered a Derivative," Pan Feng replied, "By the way, the amount of data the system 'captures' can only be used to generate six-person team survival mode scenarios, so you don't have to worry about encountering Derivatives in two-to-five-person scenarios or other modes."

"Doesn't that mean six-person team scenarios are super dangerous?" Xiao Tan exclaimed.

"There aren't that many Derivatives," Pan Feng laughed, "The proportion of that kind of uncontrollable data appearing is close to one in a hundred million. During internal testing at the company, two sets of servers, sleep and non-sleep mode, ran continuously for thirty days, and only ten Derivative codes appeared in total."

"In short, when you hear the sentence [Scenario Generating]..." Hua Xiong, who was on the side, threw all the sugar cubes into the cup at this time, went to the coffee machine to add hot water, and the coffee grounds that had been added earlier were immediately dissolved into a liquid, "All those elements will randomly generate a normal scenario according to your levels, combat strengths, specialization inclinations, past performance, and so on. Things like the plot and world view are also generated at this time. And the Derivative is mixed in this scenario, combined with some data element, and becomes concrete."

Feng Bujue thought for a moment and asked, "Then... how strong are Derivatives exactly?"

"Haha..." Pan Feng laughed, "You've seen our strength, right?"

"Noticed..." Feng Bujue said.

"Do you know why we come to clean up Derivatives in teams of two?"

"It's because one person might get killed, right..." Feng Bujue continued.

Pan Feng said, "It's good that you know. Don't look at our displayed level of thirteen, but we're using GM accounts, and our actual combat ability is about ten levels higher than that. Even so, we still can't say we're invincible. Take that boss just now, for example. It jumped off the building and ran away, and we were powerless. If we jumped after it, we'd die just like the players."

Xiao Tan asked, "Then why doesn't your company adjust the administrator's role abilities higher? Like, looking like level thirteen, but actually having the strength of level fifty or something?"

Hua Xiong held the cup of coffee in front of him, "Two sugar cubes can fit in this cup, can two watermelons fit in it?"

"Oh..." Xiao Tan nodded, as if he understood.

"Our two accounts will not level up. We are specifically responsible for the five-to-fourteen-level range. Administrators in other level ranges are similar to our situation, with super combat power beyond their displayed level," Pan Feng said, "Now that you know about the Derivatives, if you encounter them again in the future... although the probability is close to zero, if you do encounter them, please cooperate with the on-site administrator's work and keep it a secret from other players."

"I'm curious..." Feng Bujue said thoughtfully, "What happens to a Derivative... if it escapes your pursuit in the scenario?"

Hearing this, Pan and Hua's expressions changed.

Feng Bujue continued, "You also admitted that one administrator may not be able to deal with a Derivative, which means that similar things have happened before, right? That kind of situation where... the administrator went to hunt it alone and ended up getting killed by the Derivative."

Hua Xiong said, "That scenario will be closed normally, returned to data, and the surviving Derivative code will become stronger and more cunning..."

"Cunning?" Feng Bujue asked suspiciously.

"Derivatives have a certain degree of autonomous AI and are divided into four levels. Generally speaking, the Derivatives we administrators deal with are the weakest, level four Derivatives. Their intelligence is slightly higher than that of a relatively intelligent scenario final boss, and their combat power is slightly stronger than that of a relatively powerful scenario final boss.

Once an event occurs where a Derivative still survives at the end of the scenario, that Derivative will become stronger and more cunning, as I just said. It may be promoted to level three. In 97% of cases, a level four Derivative can be defeated by one administrator, but a level three Derivative must be dealt with by two administrators. The success rate of one person handling it is below 50%."

Feng Bujue said, "What about higher levels?"

"Never seen one," Hua Xiong replied, "To be honest, I've never even heard of one. Level two Derivatives only theoretically have the possibility of being born. In fact, there has only been one case of a level three Derivative so far. During the game operation phase, the probability of level three Derivatives appearing will increase slightly. Of course, even if it increases tenfold, it is still a very small possibility."

"Well... I understand. Then, let us experience just how strong this level four data trash in this scenario really is..." Feng Bujue smiled.