Chapter 1 The Beginning

The space before him was even narrower than the storage room, only a bit larger than an elevator. The ceiling was white, with soft white light shining down from above; the floor beneath his feet was a black and white checkered pattern, like a chessboard. The strangest thing was that all the walls around, except for the elevator door, were made of various funhouse-style distorted mirrors.

The many Feng Bujues reflected in the mirrors all looked bizarre. Not only were their shapes distorted, but even the expressions on their faces and their overall demeanor seemed to be altered by these mirrors. In these mirrors, one could see joy, anger, sorrow, happiness, greed, hatred, delusion, arrogance... as if each distorted reflection represented an emotion or desire.

"I thought it would be a large public space like the mall," Feng Bujue said to himself, his gaze already drawn to the only object in the room.

In the center of the floor sat a large box, a large, colorful gift box, one meter square.

"So... if I open it, a clown with a spring for a lower body will suddenly jump out and startle me..." Feng Bujue shrugged and smiled as he approached.

At this moment, a system prompt sounded: 【In front of the Scare Box, you can open a specific menu to browse its merchandise.】

"Tch... so it's just for show," Feng Bujue said, slightly disappointed as he opened the system menu.

The number of items here was quite unexpected, totaling over four thousand, and all of them were of Excellent quality or higher.

In the short two days of closed beta, calculated as fifty hours of real-world time, the sleep mode server provided five hundred hours of game time, while the non-sleep mode provided one hundred hours. The total virtual time for both lines was already twenty-five days.

During this period, each randomly generated scenario would have one or two items that players couldn't take out, and countless other Excellent-grade or higher equipment existed within the scenarios but were never discovered by players until the end.

These items, after certain attribute adjustments, could all now be found in the Scare Box.

The official launch was at eight o'clock in the morning, and from that time on, the destruction countdown for all items in the Scare Box officially began. More than six hours had passed since then, and all items generated during the closed beta now displayed 【Remaining time: 6 days, 17 hours, 38 minutes】. Many items generated after the official launch had also been added, with the countdown starting from the real-world time node when the scenario ended.

Out of curiosity, Feng Bujue searched for the 【Blood Corpse Must Die】 which he had used once before, and indeed found the equipment, but its equipment requirements had obviously changed.

【Name: Blood Corpse Must Die】

【Type: Weapon】

【Quality: Excellent】

【Attack Power: Relatively High】

【Attribute: None】

【Effect: Can dissolve Blood Corpses upon attack】

【Equipment Requirement: Fighting Specialization D, Level 18】

【Note: This sword is an early work of the legendary dwarven craftsman "Ol' Gotta Die". A cunning goblin merchant acquired this sword from Ol' for a few bottles of a beverage known as "er guo tou". Half a month later, Ol' created the "Goblin Must Die".】

As a weapon with a strong targeted effect and relatively high attack power, these equipment requirements were quite reasonable. An eighteenth-level player with a Fighting Specialization of D should be able to take on a Blood Corpse without much trouble, regardless of their other equipment, but it wouldn't be easy. Equipping this sword would make it very simple, basically allowing for a damage-free kill.

The price of this weapon was very much in line with Feng Bujue's expectations for this type of low-level equipment, exactly 300 Skill Points, so this slightly narcissistic guy couldn't help but indulge in a few seconds of self-admiration.

However, Feng Bujue wasn't planning to buy it. After all, this was a weapon with a specific counter, and the probability of players encountering Blood Corpses in various scenarios was, at best, one in ten. It would probably rot on the auction house...

He adjusted the menu to chronological order and began browsing from the first page. Then... his bibliomania took over, making it difficult for him to pull himself away. The gold content of the equipment here was higher than in the auction house, and it was definitely worth the price. He was afraid of missing something good.

The further down he scrolled, the more excited and surprised Feng Bujue became. Although 【Legendary】 grade equipment was temporarily nowhere to be found, there were a few pieces of 【Perfect】 quality equipment, but the price of several thousand Skill Points only allowed him to feast his eyes. These items might only appear in CGs within the scenarios, or even be held by the Bosses. At most, they would be like the 【Blood Corpse Must Die】, handed to the player and used once before clearing the level. But in the end, they would all end up in the Scare Box, this "recycling bin", waiting for their fate of destruction.

Therefore, it was possible for items like the Xuan Yuan Sword or the Blades of Azzinoth to appear in the Scare Box. As long as players had enough Skill Points, they could buy them, as for whether they could equip them... that was another matter. In any case, Skill Points couldn't be bought with money. The only way to obtain them was to earn them in scenarios using one's own combat skills or wit. Presumably, players who could possess a massive number of Skill Points wouldn't be weaklings.

Feng Bujue stood there for a full hour, completely dispelling the idea of buying equipment here to sell for money. He thought to himself: Is setting up a function in the Scare Box to exchange Skill Points for money madness? The exchange rate given by the system is only 1:10, and it's a one-way exchange! This is a rip-off! 1000 Skill Points can only be exchanged for 10,000 Game Coins, which translates to five yuan in real money, but can five yuan buy 1000 Skill Points? Even players who have reached level 50 with all their equipment skills perfected and have Skill Points to spare wouldn't exchange for this money. They can completely use their extra Skill Points to buy equipment and put it up for auction. Who would use their precious Skill Points to directly exchange for Game Coins?

Not just Feng Bujue, many people had already complained about this setting on the forum that morning, but it wasn't a big deal. The system didn't force players to make this exchange. If they felt it wasn't worth it, they simply wouldn't exchange.

Dream Inc. hadn't responded yet, adopting a dismissive attitude. It wasn't until the second Monday of May, after more than a month and several exchange rate changes, that the mainstream player base was relatively familiar with the market conditions, and the prices in the auction house had basically stabilized. Only then did Dream Inc. change the exchange rate for Skill Points to money.

At that time, the Thriller Paradise player base was roughly divided into three tiers: the top tier, a collection of strong players; the middle tier, a large group of players; and the bottom tier, mainly composed of newbies and casual players.

The levels of the top-tier players had generally reached around thirty, and their respective specialization orientations were very clear. The combination of their equipment and skills had also reached an advanced level. They had their own set of strategies for the game and possessed titles commensurate with their strength. With their experience and ability, they could serve as leaders of any mid-tier player team. Even if such a player didn't express their opinions and only did what their role required, they could play a significant role.

As for the mid-tier players, they were the mainstream group in the game, ranging from blue-collar professional players to casual players who logged in consistently. Among them were some with the potential to break into the top tier, but their understanding of the game was inferior compared to the top tier, so their character's strength, scenario completion rate, and so on were affected. This group was the "players" in the general sense. They could sometimes surprise everyone with their skills, and they could also make mistakes, blame their teammates, and be blamed by their teammates. Most of them felt that they were also considered experts, but they couldn't figure out the difference between themselves and the top experts. Over time, ordinary players would develop a mentality: the strongest people in the game are either richer than me, or they have more game time than me.

This idea certainly had some truth to it, but it was only part of the reason.

Feng Bujue had once analyzed what conditions a top expert in a game with considerable technical content needed to possess, and finally listed seven:

Knowledge, Strategy, Luck, Fighting Spirit, Willpower, Courage, Talent.

Although some of them were innate conditions and uncontrollable factors, this was reality. Games and sports were the same in many ways: only hardworking geniuses can become legends.

Finally, let's talk about the bottom-tier players, which can be summarized in three sentences: First, newbies who have just joined the game; second, casual players who don't log in consistently; and third, people whose combat abilities are only five.

This was the bottom tier, and their strength was self-evident. The first two types of people might leave this tier after a period of time, but the third type was rather helpless... Everyone has areas they are good at and areas they are not good at, and this principle naturally applies to games as well.

A month later, the structure of Thriller Paradise was roughly like this. I'm telling you this in advance because there are two things to announce.

First, in late May, a competition will be held in the game. Because there are so many players, the qualifications to participate in the preliminaries also require certain conditions to obtain. The players in the last tier probably have no chance...

Second, after hearing these things, you would naturally assume that Feng Bujue must be in the top tier of players. But... that's not right.

He belonged to the fourth type of player. The number of people in this category was not enough to be called a "group". In a game with millions of registered users, there were only a few dozen such players. Their levels might not be the highest, but they were regulars on the battle power rankings.

In the later competition... Dream Inc. simply canceled the preliminary qualifications for this group of people, directly including them in the finals, and they could also have byes in the first few rounds. Although this was called a shady deal or unfair competition by many people with unbalanced mentalities, in every sense of the word, Dream Inc. was actually protecting the majority of players... If you were to face them in the preliminaries or early stages of the finals, that would be unfair competition.

…………

Back to the story, Feng Bujue had been looking at the equipment for more than an hour and had finally satisfied himself.

The Scare Box menu displayed one hundred items per page, with only three items of information: name, type, and price. The detailed information would only appear when you clicked to view it.

Feng Bujue naturally couldn't click and view every item. He only looked closely at some items that interested him, while the rest were scanned over. Some pages were skipped in ten seconds. Even so, he had been looking for so long, which showed that there were indeed many interesting pieces of equipment inside.

After seeing everything, he sighed and closed his eyes, sorting out his thoughts, and then used the search function to find a piece of equipment he had specifically remembered:

【Name: Casey Jones' Mask】

【Type: Armor】

【Quality: Excellent】

【Defense: Medium】

【Attribute: None】

【Effect: When equipped, the player's Fighting Specialization is considered one level higher than their actual level, but no higher than C】

【Equipment Requirement: Male Player, Level 15, Bound after equipping】

【Note: The owner of this mask hangs out with four pizza-loving, sewer-dwelling mutant turtles all day. As a young man without any superpowers, he is still very enthusiastic about fighting street crime, and this mask has gradually become his symbol.】

This mask was priced at 500 Skill Points. Its value was mainly reflected in its extremely low equipment requirements and its powerful effect that was applicable to all players.

Before level twenty, it was almost impossible for a player's specialization level to reach C, and the effect of this mask might allow players to break through that bottleneck. From the perspective of transitional equipment, the benefits of using this mask between levels 15 and 20 would undoubtedly be enormous. Even after level 20, this equipment would still be effective until the player's actual Fighting level was raised to C.

Feng Bujue's current specialization status was: General e, Machinery e, Investigation e, Fighting e, Shooting d, Medical f; in addition, after the official launch, the specialization column in the menu had changed somewhat. The original font was slightly smaller, and new shaded areas appeared, indicating that there were two new specializations that were currently in an unactivated state.

In any case, there were great benefits to be gained from getting this high-value mask, so he bought it almost without hesitation. Although he was currently level thirteen, raising it to level fifteen was not difficult for him. In theory, he would be able to do so after completing four scenarios at most.

After decisively buying the mask, Feng Bujue took it back to the storage room to store it safely. Then he went to the mall again and put the 【Kenny's Hooded Top】 on the market for 110,000 Game Coins, with a buyout price set at 140,000. When listing it, he paid a handling fee of 4,000 Game Coins. The amount of this "handling fee" was determined by the system and varied from item to item. As for the pricing basis, it was based on the item's non-explicit attributes, so this price basically hinted at the system's evaluation of the item's value.

If no one bid within twenty-four hours of real-world time, the item would be taken off the market, and the data would be returned to the player in the form of an email. If it was sold, the system would send the money.

After Feng Bujue finished these things and returned to the login space, it was already three o'clock in the afternoon in the real world. There was still half a day left today, plus an all-nighter. He set himself a very short-term goal: to reach level fifteen and raise his Machinery Specialization to level d before tomorrow morning. In this way, he could successfully equip the 【Casey Jones' Mask】 and the 【Echo Armor】, and then experience the "Killing Game"...