In the end, Ren Suo still did not visit Zhao Zili.
Ren Suo was also beginning to regret asking Xie Qiansi for a favor to investigate.
Fortunately, he had not searched for the person with the Countermeasure Division’s system, or traces would have been left behind, and it would have been troublesome. But the present situation was not much better—at least, Xie Qiansi and his uncle now knew that “there was someone looking for Zhao Zili”.
Ren Suo had no choice but to tell Xie Qiansi that Zhao Zili had scammed his money and disappeared. Such a reason appeared logical when considering Zhao Zili’s identity and background, and it was up to luck if Xie Qiansi believed that story.
Nonetheless, regardless of how sharp and clever Xie Qiansi was, he would not be able to figure out any link between Ren Suo and Zhao Zili. At the most, he would be surprised at “how lucky Ren Suo was to meet Zhao Zili by coincidence”.
Was there any unfavorable evidence against Ren Suo? No.
Whether it was the Hitman, the Seeker, or the Ren family Practitioners, Ren Suo did not form any physical connection with any of them—rather, he was indirectly affected by them.
Zhao Zili was the first in-game character that Ren Suo had interacted with outside of the game, through the exchange of information. But the death of Zhao Zili calmed Ren Suo down quickly— What was he thinking? Did that not go against his own code of conduct?
He had no reason to interact with those “game characters”. His identity and knowledge of information made his move to investigate Zhao Zili appear unexpected and out-of-the-ordinary.
‘I am becoming too conceited,’ Ren Suo thought.
With the help of his “player privilege”, Ren Suo had been able to complete the game “Holy Priest: Survival Battle” without too much difficulty. Furthermore, he was able to smoothly disseminate the “information of monsters” without hindrance, giving Ren Suo a bizarre sense of confidence that he was more and more adept at using the Mini Worlds Gaming Console.
That was also why he thought of investigating Zhao Zili, to try and find out the connection between the Mini Worlds Gaming Console and the real world.
If Zhao Zili was not dead, Ren Suo would definitely look for her. Through interviewing and monitoring her, Ren Suo wanted to find out what would happen to her subsequently, such that she would be controlled by the Mini Worlds Gaming Console.
Now, Ren Suo finally understood; he had been controlling a dead person in the game.
But through the death of Zhao Zili, Ren Suo also understood that the Mini Worlds Gaming Console was even more dangerous than he had previously imagined it to be.
After he uploaded his final game score the previous afternoon, Zhao Zili also passed away then. Ren Suo would never believe that it was just a mere coincidence.
Previously, Ren Suo had already figured out that not only could the game console “turn the events which occurred in the game into reality”, but also “change the past”. Now, it could even “control life and death”, and yet he had assumed that he had fully understood the mechanics of the game console.
It was just like ordinary people witnessing a magical dragon flying in the sky through the clouds, riding with the wind and being able to control the rain. When the magical dragon descended to interact with the ordinary people, they thought that they could simply become riders of the dragon.
What if Ren Suo became a character in the game, how would he deal with that?
Furthermore, he also avoided any connection with the characters in the game as much as possible. His decision to investigate Zhao Zili would only raise more suspicions, and he could only make use of official resources if he had official reasons to do so and investigate the link between the Mini Worlds Gaming Console and the real world.
Ren Suo knew just how much attention the Countermeasure Division and the government were putting into every single move of “Naisser_Ren”, as well as the information that were revealed in his videos.
Ren Suo set a new rule for himself:
“Play carefully, and remain lowkey. As much as possible, do not bring the game into my own life. For example, do not name the characters with the surname Ren so hastily, otherwise in the future, it would not be as simple as the Ren family lineage being watched.”
Ren Suo returned to the couch and pressed the “on” button on the game controller, and the television screen lit up.
After passing the game [Holy Priest: Survival Battle], Ren Suo had moved the game console back to the living room. Unless it was necessary to use the mouse, he would definitely use the television to play—it was solely because the television screen was of 4K resolution and even had an HDR function, so more details could be seen.
Moreover, the couch gave him a much more versatile position to play in than the computer chair—he could sit, lie down, or even roll around comfortably.
The video for “Holy Priest: Survival Battle” had not been uploaded, and Ren Suo did not know when it would be uploaded either—”A Strong Warrior Ascends 10,000 Meters” had only started uploading after five days.
As such, Ren Suo did not bother about it and instead, focused on preparing for the Lucky Pick.
Currently, in the list of thirty discounted games as part of the May Day Promotion, there were 5 games that cost below 50 merit points, 17 games that cost between 50 to 100 merit points, 5 games that cost between 100 to 150 merit points, and 3 games that cost over 150 merit points.
The prices above were all discounted.
It was already eight-thirty at night. Ren Suo first proceeded to take a thorough shower, spreading the shower gel all over his body, as if it was free. He even formed bubbles with the shampoo on his hair. Afterward, he put on the most comfortable set of pajamas, and then wiped the game controller with a single-use disinfecting alcohol swab.
He had to shower and change his clothes before the Lucky Pick!
Ren Suo had already set a target for himself—he would only draw up to five times.
If he picked one of the 4 multi-chapter games that cost more than 150 merit points, he would stop immediately!
Ren Suo realized that the more chapters there were in the game, the more costly it would be, and naturally, the maximum merit points that could be earned was much higher than that of single-chapter games. The games that still cost over 150 merit points after the discount were all multi-chapter games—at least, that was the case for games with a difficulty rating of 3-star and below.
And the 54 merit points that he would have left would still be sufficient to make in-game purchases or purchase another game.
Ready, pick, begin!
[Do you wish to spend 10 merit points to participate in the May Day Golden Week Special Lucky Pick Event?]
The Lucky Pick page was interesting. It turned into a roulette wheel divided evenly into 31 segments, with the name of one game written in each segment… Wait, 31 segments?
Ren Suo realized that there was an additional segment glowing in gold color, and squarely written on it was “100g Gold Bar * 10”.
There was even a remark at the bottom: [The Gold Bars are acquired through legal channels for investment purposes and can be used safely.]
You can actually receive real gold bars in the Golden Week Lucky Pick?!
Based on the current rate, it was possible to sell the ten 100g gold bars for 200 thousand dollars.
Eh? It is a good option too…
As Ren Suo was pondering about it, the spinner on the wheel started to spin.
Fortunately, the wheel did not have a segment labeled “Thank you for playing”; otherwise, Ren Suo would have thought that the Lucky Pick was rigged. Many online lucky draws were manipulated as such, where although the segments appeared to be of even sizes, the spinner would land on the “thank you for playing” segment nine out of 10 times, and on the remaining time, it would land on “you have drawn a Xuan Nation life insurance worth 1000 dollars”…
The spinner spun relatively fast. As it slowed down in accordance with physics principles, it finally landed on the segment on the bottom right corner.
[From the Depths of Hell], 40% OFF, 2-star difficulty, a puzzle adventure game. The player would take on the role of a coffin store owner who is able to communicate with ghosts and embark on a mission to uncover the secrets of a long-forgotten criminal case that decided his life or death. The game costs 60 merit points after the discount and up to 180 merit points can be earned from completing the game. In-game purchases are available and the specialized reward is “Third Eye”.
Indeed, the rewards were decent, and Ren Suo was quite lucky on his first try. Ren Suo spun the wheel three more times, and apart from the second game he picked which was a 1-star difficulty game that cost only 15 merit points after the discount, the other two games were relatively decent:
[Fighting Warrior], 20% OFF, 3-star difficulty, a fighting game. The player would take on the role of an ordinary practitioner of martial arts and challenge the current top ten strongest people in the world. The game costs 96 merit points after the discount and up to 200 merit points can be earned from completing the game. The specialized reward is “Fighting Master”.
[The Deep Sea Monster], 50% OFF, 3-star difficulty, a strategy simulation sandbox game. In a world of Reiki rejuvenation, the player would become a creature of the deep sea and strive to be the strongest of all in the deep depths of the sea, through killing and feeding on large numbers of other creatures and evolving into the deep sea monster. It is all up to the player to decide how the creature would evolve! The game costs 100 merit points after the discount and up to 250 merit points can be earned from completing the game. In-game purchases are available and the specialized reward is “Further Evolution”.
Although it was unknown what “Further Evolution” meant, the more stars the game had, the more expensive and the more challenging it was, and so were the rewards. The rewards from the 3-star game would definitely not leave Ren Suo disappointed.
Ren Suo was already satisfied to have picked “The Deep Sea Monster”. However, he looked at the other multi-chapter 3-star games and was slightly hesitant—in particular, he was considering the rated 3+ star “Over My Dead Body”, after he cleared the game, he could well become a level 3 player immediately.
He still remembered that there were games that only players who were level 4 and above could play.
“Forget it, I should not stingy with such little merit points,” Ren Suo muttered to himself. He no longer saw 10 merit points as a large number after having over a hundred points previously and spun the spinner again.
The spinner started spinning, and as it slowed down, Ren Suo naturally focused on the gold bars option.
‘It would also be great if I got 200 thousand dollars… But I wonder how I could exchange them. Express delivery? Or transmission through the air?’ Ren Suo thought.
Regardless, if Ren Suo truly received 200 thousand dollars, he could buy a small car for himself and would no longer need to squeeze with people on the subway.
After buying a car to replace walking as his mode of transportation, he would still be able to purchase a new computer and a pair of sound-reducing headphones. A new pair of noise-reducing headphones in collaboration with an anime had been released recently, but it cost a few thousand dollars, and Ren Suo could not afford it.
Afterwhich, he could remit tens of thousand dollars to his family as the best way of indicating that he was safe.
Just as Ren Suo was thinking about how to spend the 200 thousand dollars, the spinner went past the golden bars segment on the wheel slightly and stopped at the next segment.
Ren Suo blinked and sucked his thumb as he sighed lightly.
Was he lucky, or was he unlucky?
He missed the 200 thousand dollars.
And… picked the same game again.
[System hint: You have picked the same game again, you can choose to redraw or level up the game (direction of leveling up cannot be controlled).]
I know what’s “redraw”, but what does “level up the game” mean?
Ren Suo deliberated for a moment and decided to level up the game—if that was the wrong move, he could just pick another game to play anyway. Picking the same game twice in a row should bring some surprises, no?
Then, a new game appeared.
[The All-Devouring Soul]
[This game is leveled up from ‘The Deep Sea Monster’ and is a role-playing strategy simulation sandbox game. In a world of Reiki rejuvenation, the player would take on the role of any living creature and strive to become the strongest living creature in the world, through overcoming all challenges and devouring living creatures in the world. The player is in control of how the creature would evolve and the kind of enemies the creature would fight against. The reward for clearing the game is 250 merit points, and the specialized reward is ‘Extraordinary Evolution’. In-game purchases are available with possible continuation chapters. Current game difficulty: 3+ star.]
In the end, Ren Suo still did not visit Zhao Zili.
Ren Suo was also beginning to regret asking Xie Qiansi for a favor to investigate.
Fortunately, he had not searched for the person with the Countermeasure Division’s system, or traces would have been left behind, and it would have been troublesome. But the present situation was not much better—at least, Xie Qiansi and his uncle now knew that “there was someone looking for Zhao Zili”.
Ren Suo had no choice but to tell Xie Qiansi that Zhao Zili had scammed his money and disappeared. Such a reason appeared logical when considering Zhao Zili’s identity and background, and it was up to luck if Xie Qiansi believed that story.
Nonetheless, regardless of how sharp and clever Xie Qiansi was, he would not be able to figure out any link between Ren Suo and Zhao Zili. At the most, he would be surprised at “how lucky Ren Suo was to meet Zhao Zili by coincidence”.
Was there any unfavorable evidence against Ren Suo? No.
Whether it was the Hitman, the Seeker, or the Ren family Practitioners, Ren Suo did not form any physical connection with any of them—rather, he was indirectly affected by them.
Zhao Zili was the first in-game character that Ren Suo had interacted with outside of the game, through the exchange of information. But the death of Zhao Zili calmed Ren Suo down quickly— What was he thinking? Did that not go against his own code of conduct?
He had no reason to interact with those “game characters”. His identity and knowledge of information made his move to investigate Zhao Zili appear unexpected and out-of-the-ordinary.
‘I am becoming too conceited,’ Ren Suo thought.
With the help of his “player privilege”, Ren Suo had been able to complete the game “Holy Priest: Survival Battle” without too much difficulty. Furthermore, he was able to smoothly disseminate the “information of monsters” without hindrance, giving Ren Suo a bizarre sense of confidence that he was more and more adept at using the Mini Worlds Gaming Console.
That was also why he thought of investigating Zhao Zili, to try and find out the connection between the Mini Worlds Gaming Console and the real world.
If Zhao Zili was not dead, Ren Suo would definitely look for her. Through interviewing and monitoring her, Ren Suo wanted to find out what would happen to her subsequently, such that she would be controlled by the Mini Worlds Gaming Console.
Now, Ren Suo finally understood; he had been controlling a dead person in the game.
But through the death of Zhao Zili, Ren Suo also understood that the Mini Worlds Gaming Console was even more dangerous than he had previously imagined it to be.
After he uploaded his final game score the previous afternoon, Zhao Zili also passed away then. Ren Suo would never believe that it was just a mere coincidence.
Previously, Ren Suo had already figured out that not only could the game console “turn the events which occurred in the game into reality”, but also “change the past”. Now, it could even “control life and death”, and yet he had assumed that he had fully understood the mechanics of the game console.
It was just like ordinary people witnessing a magical dragon flying in the sky through the clouds, riding with the wind and being able to control the rain. When the magical dragon descended to interact with the ordinary people, they thought that they could simply become riders of the dragon.
What if Ren Suo became a character in the game, how would he deal with that?
Furthermore, he also avoided any connection with the characters in the game as much as possible. His decision to investigate Zhao Zili would only raise more suspicions, and he could only make use of official resources if he had official reasons to do so and investigate the link between the Mini Worlds Gaming Console and the real world.
Ren Suo knew just how much attention the Countermeasure Division and the government were putting into every single move of “Naisser_Ren”, as well as the information that were revealed in his videos.
Ren Suo set a new rule for himself:
“Play carefully, and remain lowkey. As much as possible, do not bring the game into my own life. For example, do not name the characters with the surname Ren so hastily, otherwise in the future, it would not be as simple as the Ren family lineage being watched.”
Ren Suo returned to the couch and pressed the “on” button on the game controller, and the television screen lit up.
After passing the game [Holy Priest: Survival Battle], Ren Suo had moved the game console back to the living room. Unless it was necessary to use the mouse, he would definitely use the television to play—it was solely because the television screen was of 4K resolution and even had an HDR function, so more details could be seen.
Moreover, the couch gave him a much more versatile position to play in than the computer chair—he could sit, lie down, or even roll around comfortably.
The video for “Holy Priest: Survival Battle” had not been uploaded, and Ren Suo did not know when it would be uploaded either—”A Strong Warrior Ascends 10,000 Meters” had only started uploading after five days.
As such, Ren Suo did not bother about it and instead, focused on preparing for the Lucky Pick.
Currently, in the list of thirty discounted games as part of the May Day Promotion, there were 5 games that cost below 50 merit points, 17 games that cost between 50 to 100 merit points, 5 games that cost between 100 to 150 merit points, and 3 games that cost over 150 merit points.
The prices above were all discounted.
It was already eight-thirty at night. Ren Suo first proceeded to take a thorough shower, spreading the shower gel all over his body, as if it was free. He even formed bubbles with the shampoo on his hair. Afterward, he put on the most comfortable set of pajamas, and then wiped the game controller with a single-use disinfecting alcohol swab.
He had to shower and change his clothes before the Lucky Pick!
Ren Suo had already set a target for himself—he would only draw up to five times.
If he picked one of the 4 multi-chapter games that cost more than 150 merit points, he would stop immediately!
Ren Suo realized that the more chapters there were in the game, the more costly it would be, and naturally, the maximum merit points that could be earned was much higher than that of single-chapter games. The games that still cost over 150 merit points after the discount were all multi-chapter games—at least, that was the case for games with a difficulty rating of 3-star and below.
And the 54 merit points that he would have left would still be sufficient to make in-game purchases or purchase another game.
Ready, pick, begin!
[Do you wish to spend 10 merit points to participate in the May Day Golden Week Special Lucky Pick Event?]
The Lucky Pick page was interesting. It turned into a roulette wheel divided evenly into 31 segments, with the name of one game written in each segment… Wait, 31 segments?
Ren Suo realized that there was an additional segment glowing in gold color, and squarely written on it was “100g Gold Bar * 10”.
There was even a remark at the bottom: [The Gold Bars are acquired through legal channels for investment purposes and can be used safely.]
You can actually receive real gold bars in the Golden Week Lucky Pick?!
Based on the current rate, it was possible to sell the ten 100g gold bars for 200 thousand dollars.
Eh? It is a good option too…
As Ren Suo was pondering about it, the spinner on the wheel started to spin.
Fortunately, the wheel did not have a segment labeled “Thank you for playing”; otherwise, Ren Suo would have thought that the Lucky Pick was rigged. Many online lucky draws were manipulated as such, where although the segments appeared to be of even sizes, the spinner would land on the “thank you for playing” segment nine out of 10 times, and on the remaining time, it would land on “you have drawn a Xuan Nation life insurance worth 1000 dollars”…
The spinner spun relatively fast. As it slowed down in accordance with physics principles, it finally landed on the segment on the bottom right corner.
[From the Depths of Hell], 40% OFF, 2-star difficulty, a puzzle adventure game. The player would take on the role of a coffin store owner who is able to communicate with ghosts and embark on a mission to uncover the secrets of a long-forgotten criminal case that decided his life or death. The game costs 60 merit points after the discount and up to 180 merit points can be earned from completing the game. In-game purchases are available and the specialized reward is “Third Eye”.
Indeed, the rewards were decent, and Ren Suo was quite lucky on his first try. Ren Suo spun the wheel three more times, and apart from the second game he picked which was a 1-star difficulty game that cost only 15 merit points after the discount, the other two games were relatively decent:
[Fighting Warrior], 20% OFF, 3-star difficulty, a fighting game. The player would take on the role of an ordinary practitioner of martial arts and challenge the current top ten strongest people in the world. The game costs 96 merit points after the discount and up to 200 merit points can be earned from completing the game. The specialized reward is “Fighting Master”.
[The Deep Sea Monster], 50% OFF, 3-star difficulty, a strategy simulation sandbox game. In a world of Reiki rejuvenation, the player would become a creature of the deep sea and strive to be the strongest of all in the deep depths of the sea, through killing and feeding on large numbers of other creatures and evolving into the deep sea monster. It is all up to the player to decide how the creature would evolve! The game costs 100 merit points after the discount and up to 250 merit points can be earned from completing the game. In-game purchases are available and the specialized reward is “Further Evolution”.
Although it was unknown what “Further Evolution” meant, the more stars the game had, the more expensive and the more challenging it was, and so were the rewards. The rewards from the 3-star game would definitely not leave Ren Suo disappointed.
Ren Suo was already satisfied to have picked “The Deep Sea Monster”. However, he looked at the other multi-chapter 3-star games and was slightly hesitant—in particular, he was considering the rated 3+ star “Over My Dead Body”, after he cleared the game, he could well become a level 3 player immediately.
He still remembered that there were games that only players who were level 4 and above could play.
“Forget it, I should not stingy with such little merit points,” Ren Suo muttered to himself. He no longer saw 10 merit points as a large number after having over a hundred points previously and spun the spinner again.
The spinner started spinning, and as it slowed down, Ren Suo naturally focused on the gold bars option.
‘It would also be great if I got 200 thousand dollars… But I wonder how I could exchange them. Express delivery? Or transmission through the air?’ Ren Suo thought.
Regardless, if Ren Suo truly received 200 thousand dollars, he could buy a small car for himself and would no longer need to squeeze with people on the subway.
After buying a car to replace walking as his mode of transportation, he would still be able to purchase a new computer and a pair of sound-reducing headphones. A new pair of noise-reducing headphones in collaboration with an anime had been released recently, but it cost a few thousand dollars, and Ren Suo could not afford it.
Afterwhich, he could remit tens of thousand dollars to his family as the best way of indicating that he was safe.
Just as Ren Suo was thinking about how to spend the 200 thousand dollars, the spinner went past the golden bars segment on the wheel slightly and stopped at the next segment.
Ren Suo blinked and sucked his thumb as he sighed lightly.
Was he lucky, or was he unlucky?
He missed the 200 thousand dollars.
And… picked the same game again.
[System hint: You have picked the same game again, you can choose to redraw or level up the game (direction of leveling up cannot be controlled).]
I know what’s “redraw”, but what does “level up the game” mean?
Ren Suo deliberated for a moment and decided to level up the game—if that was the wrong move, he could just pick another game to play anyway. Picking the same game twice in a row should bring some surprises, no?
Then, a new game appeared.
[The All-Devouring Soul]
[This game is leveled up from ‘The Deep Sea Monster’ and is a role-playing strategy simulation sandbox game. In a world of Reiki rejuvenation, the player would take on the role of any living creature and strive to become the strongest living creature in the world, through overcoming all challenges and devouring living creatures in the world. The player is in control of how the creature would evolve and the kind of enemies the creature would fight against. The reward for clearing the game is 250 merit points, and the specialized reward is ‘Extraordinary Evolution’. In-game purchases are available with possible continuation chapters. Current game difficulty: 3+ star.]
