Chapter 191 – Sacrifice or Salvation?

There were no major festivals in July, only two solar terms: Minor Heat and Major Heat.

However, there were still seven days before the Minor Heat solar term, and Ren Suo did not intend to wait until then before starting a new game.

There were a total of five games in the [Exclusive Level Up Games] section. Since Ren Suo had not been promoted to a Level 4 Player as yet, he could pick another game listed in the section to play, or he could choose to refresh all the games before selecting one.

At present, Ren Suo had 435 merit points.

If not for the hint given by the official Naisser Ren, Ren Suo would have been gloating over the number of merit points he had and purchased the popular games in the [World Shop] to play. Those were games that cost at least 400 merit points each.

However, the expectations of what being a Level 4 Player would bring successfully curbed Ren Suo’s desire to spend his merit points.

His current situation was just like pushing a filled shopping cart but still holding back from checking out. It was as if he was a hardcore, frugal consumer who would curb all desires to buy anything and wait until 6/18 or 11/11 to splurge.

“I shall decide if I want to buy any games after I finish playing the free games!”

Ren Suo took a deep breath and calmed himself, then looked at the five free games listed in the section.

In fact, there were only four games he could choose from; “King of Fighters” was a 4+ star game, which he could not play.

Based on his cost-benefit analysis, Ren Suo decided that “Butterfly Effect” was the only game he should pick. However, that was a puzzle adventure mystery game, and Ren Suo did not have high hopes for his own intellect.

“I should refresh the list.”

Ren Suo did not deliberate for too long before choosing to refresh the list of five free games.

Such behavior was typical of “picking and choosing but ending up with an unfavorable option”, and there was an extremely high chance that he would end up with a “worse” list than he started off with.

Nonetheless, Ren Suo might not have been that unlucky.

There were no special effects for the refresh process and the five games on the list immediately changed.

Ren Suo took a quick glance and was faintly… amused.

Of the five games, four of them had the highest reward of less than 200 merit points.

However the last game had the highest reward of 300 merit points, and it also appeared to be a thrilling role-playing action game.

Most importantly, there was a time limit to complete that game, though there were still 23 days left. If Ren Suo did not encounter any special circumstances along the way, there should be sufficient time for him to complete the game.

“The Mage Under the World Tree”

[This is a role-playing action game with various checkpoints to complete. The player will take on the role of the last mage in the world who would go forth to purify the quietly falling evil fruits of the World Tree. Otherwise, corrupt monsters defiled by their desires would be bred. The maximum reward is 300 merit points, and the specialized reward would be related to the route taken by the player at the time of mission completion. There are possible expansion chapters, and in-game purchases are available. The difficulty rating of the game is: 3+ stars.]

Similar to the game “Immolation” that Ren Suo came across previously, the specialized reward given upon mission completion was also based on the player’s game experience in “The Mage Under the World Tree”.

Although Ren Suo could not deduce much about the game from its description, the word “mage” in its title was sufficient for Ren Suo to conclude that he would be able to enjoy the thrill of being a master wielder of magic.

There was no doubt that he would pick that game. However, Ren Suo still browsed through the other four games, and then considered the time limit he had to clear “The Mage Under the World Tree”.

Ren Suo felt that although he had five options to choose from, there was actually nothing for him to choose from, due to a variety of reasons…

His senseless thoughts soon vanished, as the new game appeared on the main screen. Ren Suo energized himself and entered the game, looking forward to being a master wielder of magic!

[Forget your logical self, break free from your cage, break away from your shackles, and chase your desires…]

[What are sins in the face of hopes and dreams?]

On the screen, a filthy purplish-black pan enclosed a creature, which was too strange-looking for Ren Suo to even describe it. A black current of air began spreading from the impure, polluted earth into the pure, unpolluted air, and eventually…

The two merged into one, forming a round and dried purple fruit. Following a dull roar, the round fruit cracked and split apart, and seeds flew in all directions from within…

Amidst all of that, a bright light that could not be ignored emerged. The holy aura of the light shone through the purplish-black color of the seeds and sap of the fruit.

Then, with a muffled crack, a curtain of bright light illuminated the screen—

[Start Game] [Load Saved Game] [Reminisce] [Exit Game]

“… The special effects are pretty good,” Ren Suo muttered to himself.

He was relieved. There was finally another game which allowed reloading from savegames… he hated instant-saving games!

Moreover, he could customize the character as well this time!

Ren Suo thought for a moment and made an extremely handsome character with golden-white hair in a scene style—that was somewhat similar to his impression of a mage in his mind.

That game was different from the games he played previously.

Upon entering the game, seven checkpoints appeared on the screen, and each of them depicted different scenes. When Ren Suo tried to select any of the scenes, a hint would appear:

[Upon starting the game, fights may occur in the checkpoints, and a new checkpoint may only be chosen after completing the previously selected one.]

[The player may customize the appearance and gender of the game character when starting a new checkpoint each time.]

The hint made Ren Suo slightly puzzled, but it did not seem to be a time constraint. As long as the main character remained alive, it logically followed that he would be able to continue conquering the other checkpoints one by one.

In that case, who was the one fighting in the other checkpoints?

With some confusion, Ren Suo clicked on the first checkpoint—a decrepit monastery.

The main character disappeared, leaving behind feathers, and the screen changed. He arrived in front of the monastery.

A girl in a red mage robe and a red hood turned to face the main character. She was very beautiful, but the red eye patch covering her right eye and her cold stare made her look slightly fierce and ruthless.

The girl in the red hood asked: [Are you the mage from the outside… I am Red Hood, the Wrist Mage. Who are you?]

Ren Suo thought that he would be asked to name his character at that juncture, but instead, Red Hood turned her head around and said: [Forget it, I’ll just call you Mage.]

[You will soon become the only person worthy of this name… that is, if you are truly able to help us be free of our endless ‘prayers’.]

[However, I see that you don’t have any offerings? Here, take this.]

A message appeared in the game: the Mage received [Soaring Feathers], [Healing Seed], and [Sword Fragment].

At that moment, corresponding icons of the offerings appeared in the empty column at the bottom right corner of the screen. They seemed to be the magic skills of the game.

[The magical power of a mage is only effective after activating the energy of offerings. Offerings can be stolen from monsters.]

[In order to purify this monastery, we first need to find ways to ‘sacrifice’ or provide ‘salvation’ to all of the monsters here. Only then would the evil demon rooted deep within the depths of the monastery appear.]

[Finally, you, as a mage, would have to subdue the evil demon. The monastery would then lose its master completely. A forbidden fruit without a master would never be able to impact the outside world, even if it is still filled with poison.]

Upon finishing her sentence, Red Hood immediately entered the monastery. Ren Suo quickly controlled his mage character to follow Red Hood, but Ren Suo was dumbfounded the moment he entered—the monastery was as huge as it looked from the outside!

Moreover, there were many monsters surrounded by evil auras inside the monastery. Ren Suo saw at least a hundred of them in one quick glance!

Red Hood said: [Let’s begin.]

Red Hood rushed forward, and Ren Suo definitely did not want to lag behind. He looked at the three skills he had. It was obvious what the effect of [Healing Seed] was, so he tried [Soaring Feathers] first.

As soon as Ren Suo pressed the button on his game controller, the mage flew forward instantaneously with a whoosh. The entire scene changed, and Ren Suo’s eyes lit up.

It was almost like a teleportation skill!

At that juncture, Red Hood summoned three balls of blood and shot a red arrow towards an enormous Blood Monster. Ren Suo rushed over with [Soaring Feathers] and selected [Sword Fragment], which was the only one of his skills that appeared to be an attack skill.

The next moment, the right hand of Mage turned into a single-handled iron sword. With an upward swinging motion, Mage plunged the sword towards where the Blood Monster was at!

The Blood Monster immediately changed its target and slapped Mage!

It was only then when Ren Suo noticed the health bar and mana bar on the upper left corner of the screen. Mage’s health instantly dropped by a chunk—it seemed to be an ordinary and typical action combat game.

Regardless, how did the promised mage become a close-ranged magician?

In order not to attract the attention of the other monsters in the monastery, Ren Suo and Red Hood led the Blood Monster out of the monastery. It took them three full minutes to kill the small monster completely.

When the Blood Monster fell to the ground, there were no equipment drops, nor were there any flesh and blood explosions. Instead, its flesh and blood turned into a trail of black smoke and dissipated into the air, leaving behind only a skinny man, whose bones could be seen, in its place.

The man cried out: [I’m so hungry… I’m so hungry…]

He was crouching while kneeling down on the ground like a shrimp. His face was extremely pale, looking as if he had already lost all sanity.

Eh?

While Ren Suo was still in a state of confusion, Red Hood said emotionlessly: [Well, Mage, it’s time for you to make a choice.]

[Would it be ‘salvation’, or ‘sacrifice’? It must be ‘sacrifice’, don’t you agree?]

On the screen, Mage raised both of his hands.

From his right hand, a blood-red energy aura emerged. The glow of blood curled around his entire right palm, depicting [Sacrifice];

From his left hand, a green-white energy aura emerged. The glow of light curled around his entire left palm, depicting [Salvation];

[The mage is the law; he is one who possesses the ability to determine the life and death of monsters at his will.]

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep