Chapter 3 Character Creation

"What is this thing?"

A giant fluorescent panel floated silently in front of him, drawing Zhou Jing's attention. He stared in astonishment.

The panel was light blue, with faint, electronic circuit-like patterns that disappeared upon closer inspection.

Zhou Jing suddenly felt a strong sense of déjà vu.

This thing… looked exactly like the game panels from those immersive virtual games on the market!

Could it be that I accidentally started a virtual game? But I wasn't wearing a game helmet when I went to sleep, and this doesn't feel like entering a virtual game... Could I really be dreaming?

Zhou Jing stared at the fluorescent panel in front of him, his mind filled with question marks.

Buzz—

At that moment, a massive amount of information surged into his mind, almost freezing his thoughts.

It took him a good ten minutes to digest the information and understand his current situation and the purpose of the panel.

"This thing… has the ability to travel between planes?"

Zhou Jing's eyes widened in disbelief as he realized he had encountered something beyond his imagination.

This panel seemed to allow him to enter different planes… or rather, in the received information, these planes were called "Star Realms."

It wasn't his actual body that would enter, but rather he needed to create different "Star Realm Apostles" and project his consciousness into them, using the "Star Realm Apostles" as his body and vessel in the plane.

The Star Realm Apostle was an independent body, not connected to his main body. Even if it died, it wouldn't affect him. If a Star Realm Apostle died, the panel would generate a new Star Realm Apostle template, but it required an uncertain cooldown period.

By sending Star Realm Apostles to walk in the planes, he could collect two special resources, displayed in the upper right corner of the panel:

[Star Realm Points: 0]

[Definition: When Star Realm Apostles engage in various activities in the Star Realm, they will automatically absorb stray plane energy, which is then specially processed and converted into usable "Star Realm Points" resources.]

[Information-State Particles: 0]

[Definition: When the actions of a Star Realm Apostle in the current Star Realm cause a certain degree of influence, this resource will be generated (including but not limited to completing the template's life goals, achieving specific achievements, or having a certain impact on the evolution of the current world, etc.)]

These two resources had many functions. From the information he received, Zhou Jing understood that Star Realm Points were like "universal currency," and most functions required Star Realm Points.

Information-State Particles were a rarer "special currency" that only some special functions required.

The Star Realm Apostle template was divided into two sections: "Trait Profile" and "Ability Profile." The former was the personality of the template. When using the Star Realm Apostle to walk in another plane, the more his behavior conformed to the template's traits, the more the synchronization rate of the vessel would increase, which seemed to increase the efficiency of obtaining Star Realm Points and Information-State Particles.

The "Ability Profile" reflected the Star Realm Apostle's attributes and abilities.

Because it wasn't connected to his main body, the abilities of the Star Realm Apostle belonged to the vessel itself and wouldn't be transferred to his main body. Only knowledge and memories were not restricted. Only a Star Realm Apostle who "cleared the game" would undergo qualitative change, allowing the training results of the Star Realm Apostle to be selectively transferred to his main body.

"Clearing the game" was Zhou Jing's own understanding. On the current template, it was displayed as [Apostle Stabilization Standard: 0/80]. This value corresponded to Information-State Particles.

This meant that the Star Realm Apostle needed to accumulate 80 Information-State Particles to be "stabilized" in order to transfer its abilities to his main body and "clear the game"...

Completing a Star Realm Apostle template's life goals would grant a large number of Information-State Particles and was the main way to "clear the game."

Normally, if a Star Realm Apostle kicked the bucket, he would need to generate the next new template. However, if a Star Realm Apostle who had "cleared the game" kicked the bucket, its state and accumulation before death would be completely preserved, and he could continue to enter the Star Realm with that body—that was the use of "stabilization."

"So, if a Star Realm Apostle obtains extraordinary power through some means and then clears the game, I can inherit the Star Realm Apostle's power?"

Zhou Jing roughly understood the panel's function, his eyes lighting up and his heart pounding.

He actually encountered such a thing? Which deity was showing mercy!

Wasn't this the chance to become a superpower user he had been dreaming of?!

He had seen many strange abilities on the Superpower League program—fire-breathing, water-spitting, snake-charming… but he hadn't heard of anyone with the ability to travel between planes.

So Zhou Jing wasn't sure if this "Star Realm Travel Panel" was an ability he had awakened or some other unknown phenomenon.

But no matter the origin or cause of this panel, it seemed to be giving him the chance to choose another life.

Even if the waters were deep, he had to seize it!

He was well aware of his own capabilities and didn't think that such a great power that allowed him to travel between planes would be a conspiracy targeting an ordinary person like him… If they could travel between planes, they wouldn't need to go to such lengths to harm him.

"In this situation, worrying too much seems meaningless…"

Zhou Jing took a deep breath.

At that moment, he felt as if his linear life had suddenly gained a fork in the road, leading to a mysterious and unknown direction.

The superpower user he wanted to become, the mandatory relocation he wanted to escape… the path was within.

There might be risks, but Zhou Jing was clear-headed. No matter what the situation with this plane-traveling panel was, it was a hard-won opportunity to change his life.

"No matter what, I have to try it first!"

Zhou Jing made up his mind and explored…”.

The panel interface changed.

The Star Realm Apostle's Trait Profile and Ability Profile were listed on either side, with most parameters showing [Adjustable].

In the middle of the two profiles was a three-dimensional human model projection, showing the Star Realm Apostle's appearance.

It looked like a tall male, with deep-set eyes and a high nose bridge. Although the race column showed "Terra-Human," which wasn't a race he recognized, the appearance wasn't too different from humans in interstellar society.

Next to the projection were parameters such as height and weight, which were also marked as adjustable.

"It really is like a character creation interface in a virtual game…"

Zhou Jing's eyes lit up, feeling a little eager.

According to his gaming habits, he wouldn't feel comfortable unless he created a character with the appearance of an ancient god.

…But he couldn't mess around now. He had to control himself!

He calmed himself down and explored, discovering that only the name and appearance could be freely changed, while all other parameters displayed the same prompt:

[Insufficient Star Realm Points to adjust this template's parameters]

Seeing this, Zhou Jing combined it with the information he received and began to think:

"It seems that most of the template's parameters can be adjusted before the Star Realm Apostle is generated, whether it's personality or ability. It's like creating a character, with a lot of room for maneuver, but most of it requires Star Realm Points… I don't have those points now, so I can't adjust much."

The freedom of character creation seemed very high, but because of the lack of Star Realm Points, the only character creation operations he could currently perform were the "free operations" that didn't cost money—one was the allocation of free points, and the other was the free reset opportunity for the template.

There were two types of template reset opportunities: one was a full template reset, which directly overturned all parameters and re-randomized them. The other was to reset only a single parameter without changing the entire template.

According to the panel information, a certain number of free reset opportunities were available when generating a Star Realm Apostle. If he used them all, he would have to spend Star Realm Points to continue resetting.

The panel currently showed that he only had two free resets for specified parameters.

It seemed that the extraordinary power system could not be reset… Zhou Jing thought about it and decided to focus on experimentation, using one on attributes and one on aptitude.

[Current template attributes are being reset… Reset complete. Changes are as follows:]

[Physique 35, Resistance 54, Perception 78, Spirit 45, Energy 00]

[Current template aptitude is being reset… Reset complete. Changes are as follows:]

[Physique [Light Green][Green], Survival [Green][Light Green], other results unchanged]

The five attributes of Physique, Resistance, Perception, Spirit, and Energy represented a person's basic qualities in various aspects. These five attributes were general in nature, with further subdivisions within them.

For example, the Physique attribute represented physical fitness, including strength, agility, endurance, coordination, flexibility, and so on. The same Physique attribute could be proficient in different directions.

Aptitude represented the Star Realm Apostle vessel's learning speed, bottleneck level, innovation ability in a skill, and determined the limit of the level that could be reached in that field.

In the template, the level of aptitude was judged by color, from low to high: gray, white, green, blue, purple, and so on.

Within the same color grade, there were also distinctions between light and dark. Generally, the darker the color, the better the aptitude. For example, [Green] was one level higher than [Light Green].

"Only free points are left to allocate."

Zhou Jing looked over.

Free points could be allocated to attributes or used to enhance the effects of aptitude and talents.

He thought about it and simply threw all 4 free points into Physique.

——He didn't know the specifics of Star Realm travel, so focusing on adding one attribute should yield higher returns. And Physique had the widest range of application. In most situations, the body was the greatest asset.

[Free points allocated]

[Physique 59]

59 Physique… He didn't know the specific level, and there was no reference, but based on the initial strength of the other attributes, the value had almost doubled. The real level it represented shouldn't be too bad.

"That's about it. There shouldn't be any more room for maneuvering."

Zhou Jing thought about it and didn't plan to change the template's default name, "Willwood." He finally fine-tuned the appearance of the Star Realm Apostle.

He deliberately added a small bird-shaped tattoo to the inside of his forearm before ending the character creation.

[Star Realm Apostle template adjustment complete!]

[Entering deployment preparation stage!]

[Current deployment Star Realm: [Unnamed] Number 001]

[Star Realm time flow difference: 4.2131.7]

[Current traversal timer: Main body 6 hours (default)]

[Map overview mode has been enabled]

[Note: Map overview mode only records known areas, including but not limited to areas personally explored by the Star Realm Apostle and related maps that have been read. Unrecorded areas cannot be displayed]

As the information flashed across the screen, the character creation interface shrank and disappeared, replaced by a black interface where nothing could be seen. This was the current Star Realm's map overview.

"Since I haven't explored this Star Realm, the entire map is black?"

Zhou Jing understood.

The panel didn't pause, and new information appeared:

[Please select a deployment mode: [Random Area Deployment] or [Designated Area Deployment]]

[Note: There are no known areas in the current Star Realm. Only [Random Area Deployment] is available]

[Start deployment?]

"At this step, it's officially traversing, right?"

Seeing the last line of information, Zhou Jing took a deep breath, feeling both apprehensive and expectant.

He still wasn't sure what the situation was, whether it was reality or illusion. Although he had received the panel's basic abilities, much of the information was half-understood. He could only figure it out through personal experience.

Now was the time to try out the specific effects…

"Yes!"

Chila—

It was like a thunderclap.

In the next instant, the space below this starry space suddenly cracked, turning into a rift of flowing light.

It was as if the starry sky had opened its mouth, emitting an unparalleled suction force!

Before Zhou Jing could react, he was instantly weightless, falling into the rift, tumbling and plummeting as if he had been thrown into a washing machine, dizzy and disoriented.

The rift was filled with dazzling colors, but under the effect of the terrifying falling speed, all the colors in his vision were stretched into lines. It was as if it had turned into a colorful tunnel of flowing light.

Falling… seemingly endlessly falling!

In his dizzy vision, he struggled to see the bottom of the rift.

It was a black-green forest seen from a high altitude. As he continued to fall, the scene rapidly grew larger in his vision…