Chapter 65: Chapter 65 – Level Two PlayerTranslator: Dragon Boat Translation Editor: Dragon Boat Translation

Although both the discounted prices of the games “Torturous Rain of Blood” and “Wicked Priest” were relatively cheaper, Rensuo was still unable to afford them.

Rensuo only had 24 merit points at present (Retrieving the key from Qiao Muyi cost 1 merit point), and it was unlikely for him to be able to buy any games that were not on discount.

It was not that there were no other more affordable games on the Small World game console; rather, the original cost of games that were featured in the recommended list would generally be above three figures.

That was why Rensuo did not waste such an opportunity to buy one of the recommended games that were currently on discount.

At present, Rensuo only knew that longer promotions would be held during certain well-known international holidays, such as during April Fools’ and International Workers’ Day… On the other hand, Rensuo still did not know if there would be promotions held over the National Day of Xuan Nation or during the Christmas festive season.

Although Rensuo knew that discounts would be given for the games on the Small World game console based on the 24 solar terms, but unfortunately, the discounts would only be effective on that one particular day each time.

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In that case, Rensuo had to decide if he wanted to acquire the game within the day.

Rensuo knew that even if took leave from work that day, he would still not be able to complete another round of the game “Over My Dead Body” within the day. The reason why he was unable to focus during work was precisely because he was constantly deliberating whether or not he should buy the game.

Should he miss the current promotion, he would really have lost the chance to buy the game, especially if the game is not on discount during subsequent promotions. If he wanted to buy it in the future when the game was no longer on discount, he would have to accumulate more than a hundred merit points, and first use 10 merit points to search for the game, before he could buy it. But even so, he could well use his accumulated merit points to purchase another pricier game that was on discount at that point in time instead.

Of course, his main intent was not merely to purchase any game, but rather, he really wanted the specialized rewards of one of the discounted games!

In that case, Rensuo had no choice but to submit his current score and appraisal for the game “Over My Dead Body”, and use the rewarded merit points to purchase the other game.

“Over My Dead Body” was slightly different from the game “The Killer”, in which there were time limitations when playing the chapter “The Bloody Evening Ball’, and Rensuo would not be able to improve his score in just a day.

On the other hand, although “Over My Dead Body” was more challenging, it would be a lie to say that Rensuo had no way to improve his current score.

Firstly, the given starting set up of the current game save was not the best or the most perfect. If Rensuo was willing to spend some time, he would be able to create a new game save that started off with a perfect set up where all the three starting Ren family characters were 14 years old.

Furthermore, while Rensuo knew that Shield-type Practitioners were powerful, he felt that it might be better if each generation of Ren family Practitioners were of different types. If they were equipped with the skill “Unlimited Energy” and allowed to train without stopping, would that allow them to be more holistically developed?

Although the game did not allow the player to read from a particular game save and continue again from there, the time when Cao Zhi became the Prince of Juancheng was pre-set and confirmed. It was not impossible to obtain the Jade Pendant of the Goddess of the Luo River in the game again.

Also, Rensuo had not encountered the scenario to obtain the strongest “beast”, which was the Green Dragon Crescent Blade…

Additionally, the side-mission “72 graves of Cao Cao” was another scenario which Rensuo had skipped previously, as he was preoccupied with letting the Ren family Practitioners train as much as possible before the Battle of Yiling.

Now that Rensuo had merely achieved a score of 75 points with an appraisal of “moderately good”, it meant that as long as Rensuo was willing, it was highly possible for him to achieve a score of 80 points with an appraisal of “extraordinary” if he tried again.

Although Rensuo had achieved a score of 75 points in “Over My Dead Body”, the game did not provide him with any hints. Perhaps it was because the game knew that Rensuo could do better on his own (yes, Rensuo suspected that his own thoughts and feelings were known to the game console), or perhaps it was the game setting which only provided hints when the player’s score was above 80 points.

However, if Rensuo had gotten a hint when he achieved 80 points, that meant that it was highly possible for him to try again and achieve a score of 90 points!

Rensuo had never achieved such a high score of 90 points!

The truth was that Rensuo was not bothered about how high his score was, but the higher the score he obtained, the more merit points he would be rewarded with.

And that was the reason why Rensuo was troubled the entire day –

Deliberating if he should buy the game, by uploading the current game score now, but lose the opportunity to earn more merit points;

Or not buy the game, but miss the opportunity to purchase the game at a discounted cost!

Nonetheless, the moment Rensuo pressed the key on the game controller, it could not be undone.

“Your score has been uploaded successfully. You have received 36 merit points. Use them wisely.”

“You have received 1x 2-star treasure chest. It can be found and activated in the savehouse inventory.”

“You have received the following specialized reward: Heart Strengthening. It can be found and activated in the savehouse inventory.”

“Your score for ‘Over My Dead Body’ has been uploaded. Thank you for playing. A small world brings immeasurable and unending happiness!”

“You have received one new message.”

36 merit points! Adding that to the 24 merit points Rensuo already had, he now had a total of 60 merit points!

However, the maximum number of merit points obtainable for the game was 75 while he had only gotten 36 of them. That meant that he had only been rewarded with 45% of the maximum obtainable number of 80 merit points… How exactly was the proportion calculated?

Rensuo immediately opened up the “Grain Rain Solar Term Discount Event!” menu and selected the option to buy the game!

He was presented with only two options: “Torturous Rain of Blood” and “Wicked Priest”!

“Torturous Rain of Blood”

“This is a role-playing puzzle adventure game. The player would act as an Awakened person who has lost his memory. He walks through the rainy Manhattan City as he seeks to uncover the truth of the ever-changing world and recover his lost memories. The maximum reward for clearing the mission is 120 merit points, and the available specialized reward is “Strength in the Rain”. There is only one chapter in this game with no subsequent development chapters. In-game purchases are available. Difficulty rating: 1 star.”

“Wicked Priest”

“This is a role-playing rescue competition game. The player acts as the light of all humans that has the heart of all and who is a gentleman in rain or shine. In the future to come, the player decides to hold a fair and just priest selection contest for the sake of all beings. The maximum reward for clearing the mission is 150 merit points, and the available specialized reward is “The Touch of Recovery”. There is only one chapter in this game with no subsequent development chapters. In-game purchases are available. Difficulty rating: 2 stars.”

Both of the games still required a moderate number of merit points to acquire after the discount, but it was much lower than their original cost.

The original cost of “Torturous Rain of Blood” was 90 merit points, and the maximum reward was 120 merit points. There was only a net amount of 30 merit points to be earned… And this was only achievable if the player achieved a perfect score of 100 points.

On the other hand, the original cost of “Wicked Priest” was 100 merit points, and the maximum reward was 150 merit points. The net amount of 50 merit points to be earned was higher than “Torturous Rain of Blood”, but this game had a 2-star difficulty.

Initially, Rensuo was actually slightly perturbed. Even though “The Killer” and “Over My Dead Body” were expensive games as well, why were their maximum rewarded merit points much lower?

But after some thinking, he understood – it was because he had merely played one of the chapters of each game.

Each chapter had a maximum of at least 40-80 merit points to be earned, and if there were more than 5 chapters in the game, they would have over 400 merit points to be earned in total. In fact, Rensuo felt that the subsequent chapters of the games would increase in difficulty and also their corresponding rewards.

In particular, Rensuo thought that “Over My Dead Body” would encompass many of the historical events that happened, including the Turbulent Period, the Uprising of the Five Barbarians, the period of the Northern and Southern dynasties, the period of the Sui dynasty and Tang dynasty, the period of the Five Kingdoms and Ten Dynasties, the Jingkang uprising, the hundred-year-period of the Yuan dynasty…

Just a simple count gives more than five possible chapters. If Rensuo bought the game, he would easily end up playing through the night for months.

Of course, however, the game would definitely be extremely expensive. Assuming each chapter rewarded a maximum of 80 merit points, the game would reward the player with almost 500 merit points in total, and the game must likely cost more than that amount.

Regardless, if the game was not discounted, Rensuo would not be able to afford it anyway.

Rensuo selected the option to buy the game!

“You have received one message.”

Rensuo was stunned for a moment. He was stopped from buying the game? He glanced at the time – 23:51, the day was almost over!

Rensuo hastily opened the inbox. When he clicked on the message titled “Congratulations from the Small World”, the screen flashed momentarily.

The default player avatar appeared in the center of the screen with Rensuo’s player ID written below: Neisser Ren.

Below the player ID was a shining golden pentagram. The golden streaks concentrated into a point and turned into a second pentagram which was stacked behind the first!

“Congratulations, you are now a level 2 player!”

“Backup slot in Equipment List +1.”

“You may choose one of the three player privileges below as your reward.”

“① Meticulous Player: When making any purchases using merit points in the Small World, there is a 50% chance of -1 merit point required for your purchase (each purchase cannot be lower than 1 merit point)”

“② Novice: +5% merit points earned each time (not lower than 1 merit point)”

“③ Picky Player: After the available free games-of-the-month are refreshed each month, and before you select one of the games as your free game-of-the-month, you can choose to replace one of the available free games with another game. The maximum amount of rewarded merit points for the new game would be 10% more than the game being replaced.”