Chapter 147: Chapter 147 – Level 3 Player, Side Mission

Translator: Dragon Boat Translation Editor: Dragon Boat Translation

When Ren Suo returned home, he turned on his computer to search the Internet, and indeed, there was a citizen who captured the scene when the night sky of Tianjing City was illuminated by the red aurora.

Although the video clip was only a short ten seconds, Tianjing City was both the capital of Xuan Nation and a popular tourist destination, so it was perfectly normal for someone to have captured the scene on his mobile phone at night.

However, the nation had yet to ban those videos, and it was likely because the scene seemed to be a special astrological phenomenon and hence there was no need to censor them.

Ren Suo logged in to the intranet but did not come across any posts discussing the red lotus aurora. Instead, he did find astrology enthusiasts discussing on internet forums about the extraordinary event which had only taken place some 10 minutes ago.

In a few more days, these people’s perceptions will change completely.

Nonetheless, since the red lotus aurora had appeared, Ren Suo felt that it was also time for him to make a decision.

“Mini Worlds of Endless Fun Await!”

Turning on the game console, Ren Suo selected the “Information” message on the upper left corner of the screen, and clicked on the very top of the list to turn the message gray—it was now a “Read Message”.

[Congratulations, you have been promoted to a Level 3 Player!]

[+1 Backup Equipment Slot!]

[You can choose one of the following player privileges as your reward.]

[① Weak Player: Receive an additional Equipment slot.]

[② Intense Gambler: Exchange a game for a new one that is 1 difficulty level lower (the exchanged game must not be a free game) (the difficulty of the new game will be at least 1-star, up to a maximum of 3-stars).]

[③ Novice Player: +5% merit points received each time you are awarded merit points (but not less than 1 merit point).]

[④ Enhance existing player privilege.]

Although there were no merit points awarded from completing “Passing Hats” and the specialized reward given was not great, player experience points were still awarded, nicely promoting Ren Suo to a level 3 player!

Nonetheless, after Ren Suo opened the level up message, he still could not make a decision after deliberating for a day.

“Weak Player” was the most straightforward, but also appeared to be of the lowest value.

That was because it was easy for Ren Suo to switch the presently equipped abilities of both himself and the game characters at any time, so there was no absolute need for more ability slots.

If not for the fact that Ren Suo occasionally required a second ability, he thought that it was already sufficient to only have one ability slot and one prop slot. There would be no problem even if there were no backup slots.

However, given that an option like “Weak Player” appeared in a more “important” player level promotion, Ren Suo doubted himself: it was either that this player privilege is actually of lower value and it is merely a setup by the game, or otherwise there are actually more powerful uses of ability slots which requires more ability slots to take effect.

A case in point would be an ability that occupied two ability slots. Ren Suo had come across too many of such settings in computer games whereby larger items occupied more equipment slots to increase the power of the player’s “bag”—a “Gigantic Zweihander” would occupy more space than a “Ring”.

But in any case, Ren Suo definitely would not choose “Weak Player”, for he could think of how to get more ability slots only when he needed to in the future.

“Novice Player” was also easily out of his consideration. But “Intense Gambler” was what made Ren Suo undecided.

With that player privilege, Ren Suo would be able to trade-in his old games for new ones. Although the new game would be one level of difficulty lower and the merit points, as well as rewards he received would be reduced, Ren Suo thought that since he had already completed the old games, what use was there to keep them? Was he going to wait until Tomb Sweeping Day to burn the game for his ancestors?

If it were before the “Lesser Abundance of Grain Promotion Event”, Ren Suo would definitely have chosen that privilege without any hesitation.

But things were different now.

Ren Suo had begun to realize the value of the characters from the games he completed.

Even the Seeker, who was the weakest character he had, brought about two main advantages in the game “Passing Hats”: firstly, she could see which hats had been worn by the girl shrouded in the black mist (those which glowed in red).

Secondly, she could transform the last hat, which was the Hat of Resentments, the boss of “Passing Hats”, on her own without Ren Suo’s intervention.

If it were an ordinary computer game, Ren Suo might have thought that it was a hopeless boss battle.

But he was playing on the Mini Worlds Gaming Console. Ren Suo could never be sure if it was merely a default setting of the game that the Hat of Resentments was transformed by the Seeker, who had attained a perfect understanding of the world and was guided by the will of the heavens, or it was just that Ren Suo was lucky and selected the right character for the game?

Pitted against 9 million Resentments, Ren Suo felt that apart from the All-Devouring Soul and the strongest Ren family of Practitioners, there was no way for the other game characters to overcome the Resentments.

However, the Seeker, whose combat ability was not strong, had an extraordinarily high level of cultivation and understanding, which suitably allowed her to win the game without much intervention from Ren Suo.

In terms of combat power, the Seeker could only be regarded as an ordinary person who had somewhat powerful skills and did not tire out, but in terms of her will, she was halfway to becoming a saint. Her intentions were one with the heavens, and similarly, her will was one with the heavens.

After he saw the Seeker convert the last trial of the hat on her own, Ren Suo could not help but think—

If the Seeker could Practice…

Ren Suo knew that this was mostly just wishful thinking, just like when he was still an 18-year-old boy who watched anime and imagined that his 25-year-old self had a beautiful virtual girlfriend.

However, the Mini Worlds Gaming Console was merely a dim light in the darkness. Although it was not shining very brightly, it was sufficient for Ren Suo to continue to be filled with hope as he waited.

In that situation, he would be sacrificing a character from one of the games he had completed just to exchange for a new game, a smaller amount of merit points and a new, unknown game character. After deliberating for half a day, Ren Suo finally decided that it was not worth it.

On the other hand, although Ren Suo was a pragmatist, the games which he completed were nonetheless still a mark of his achievements and so he should keep those games if he could… For example, Ren Suo would definitely keep the game “Over My Dead Body” which he completed only after a grueling process and was also an extraordinarily impactful game.

The reason why Ren Suo chose to become a civil servant, to come to the Heavenly Institution of Lianjiang, and to become an “unuseful” researcher, was because he preferred to achieve stable success in a grounded environment, like the steady turtle who won the race.

It was not that he did not dare to take risks, but in the present state of things, he still did not know the full value of the characters in the completed games.

It was none the wiser to choose the most certain option when profit and loss were involved.

[Your existing player privilege has been enhanced.]

[A Little Goes A Long Way: When making any purchases in the Mini Worlds using merit points, there is a 60% chance of -1 merit point required for the purchase.]

The chance of spending one less merit point in each purchase increased by 10%, and the restriction of a minimum purchase of 1 merit point was removed!

The overall effect was greatly enhanced!

Ren Suo heaved a sigh of relief. He had not wasted his time completing the semi-finished game “Passing Hats”, as he was promoted to a level 3 player and his player privilege was enhanced!

Nonetheless, Ren Suo did not have anything else to do. There were still a few more days to June, and there were also no promotion events ongoing. The Awakening of Dong Chengling was also still a few days away…

“Mmm?”

Ren Suo thought of something and returned to the main screen. He selected the game “Holy Priest: Survival Battle”.

He could enter the game!

After he had completed the game previously, it was upgraded to a level 3 game, and it required him to be a level 3 player before he could enter the game to complete the new mission. What a pain in the ass!

It was not even a 4-star game, and even 4-star games directly restricted access to only level 4 players and above.

How could there be such a restriction on level 3 players only?

Ren Suo quickly skipped through the opening introduction and found that, on the main menu, in addition to [Begin Training] and [Continue Training], there was another option —

[Repaying Kindness].

“Would there be merit points awarded for passing the minigame?” Ren Suo said to himself as he clicked the option eagerly.

After scrutinizing the rules of the minigame for a good minute, he realized that there were no merit points awarded.

But Ren Suo’s eyes gradually lit up.

Ren Suo looked at the time, great, it was 23:48. It was still early and immediately called home. He said, “Hello, it’s me!”

“You scammer, shouldn’t you be more professional? It’s almost 12 midnight!” Ren Suo’s mother yelled.

Ren Suo: w (゜Д゜) w

He then called again. He said, “Mom, it’s me, Ren Suo!”

His mother said, “Son, someone called just now and tried to scam me, saying “it’s me, it’s me”, how outdated! Does he not know the world he lives in, I was already asleep when he called, how inconsiderate!”

Ren Suo replied, “…Yeah, that’s really inconsiderate. But Mom, you should look at the caller ID before picking up a call in the future. If it’s an unknown number, you should just hang up.”

His mother said, “The room is dark, and it will hurt the eyes to look at the mobile phone. You see, your dad has to wear his glasses all day long, how ugly.”

Ren Suo could hear father snort intentionally loudly through the phone. He did not want to beat around the bush and asked directly, “Mom, Dad, would you and sister be at home these few days?”

They replied, “Yeah, we will all be at home. The school has relaxed its restrictions nearing the college entrance examinations and your sister comes home to eat and sleep every day… Why do you ask?”

His mother suddenly lowered her voice as if suddenly recalling something and said, “You… you can’t be intending to bring your girlfriend home with our grandchild, are you?”

“I won’t be going back home for the time being due to work,” Ren Suo said.

Ren Suo was too lazy to continue arguing and said, “Just remember not to eat out these few days, make sure everyone is home for dinner! Bye!”

Upon seeing Ren Suo’s mother put down her mobile phone, Ren Suo’s father asked, “What happened to our son? Does he need money?”

After thinking for a moment, Ren Suo’s mother said in a serious tone, “… Who knows, a girl carrying our grandchild would visit us during dinner these few days. Is it time to clean our son’s room? We can’t possibly let someone live in a room that has not been cleaned in three months, can we?”

Ren Suo’s father was also shocked.

He said, “The last time our son came home was three months ago! I thought you would still clean his room occasionally!”

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