Ceiling Dilemma

Seeing the familiar gray-white walls of his rented room and feeling a strong hunger in his stomach, Zhou Ming quickly took out a few packs of instant noodles from the wardrobe and wolfed them down with cold water.

The game time in The Sims system is not consistent with the flow of time in the outside world. Since players cannot exit the game midway, spending 20 years in the game is equivalent to one day passing in the outside world.

Fortunately, the system can provide a host body hibernation function. During hibernation, the player's various physiological functions are consumed at the lowest level. Generally, as long as the player stays in the game for no more than a hundred years at a time, relying on the host body hibernation function, two or three days of game experience will only make them feel a little thirsty and hungry.

If a player is truly defying the heavens and the time spent in the game exceeds the maximum limit of the host body hibernation function, to ensure the host's physical health, the system will forcibly terminate the game and pull the player back to reality.

After finishing three bags of instant noodles, Zhou Ming sat by the bed, contemplating his next strategy while looking at the system panel in his mind.

To be honest, Zhou Ming felt that among the three games he had played, except for the first two tragic ones, the development of the third game was acceptable. He had a loving wife, many children and grandchildren, and died of old age. There were some twists and turns in between, with constant labor and not a moment of leisure, but he was quite satisfied with the ending.

This could be considered an acceptable ending for most ordinary people.

However, looking at the C-level game evaluation and the total harvest of 246 achievement points, Zhou Ming knew that if he chose to be an ordinary person in the game and live a life of honesty and integrity, at most, the achievement points would not exceed three hundred by much, and there would be no significant room for improvement.

Let alone any counterattack.

What is a counterattack? Besides living long enough, it means having more wealth, gaining high status and prestige, and marrying the woman you most want to marry!

If even one of these cannot be achieved, the so-called counterattack is just like trying to scoop the moon from the water or catching clouds in the air.

After thinking for a while, Zhou Ming opened the [Skills] item column in the system store and focused his attention on three skills.

"[Elementary Farming Skill], after use, gain the farming techniques of a skilled farmer, crop yield +5%, exchange requirement: 100 achievement points"

"[Elementary Blacksmithing Skill], after use, gain the blacksmithing techniques of a skilled blacksmith, blacksmithing speed +5%, exchange requirement: 100 achievement points"

"[Elementary Carpentry Skill], after use, gain the carpentry techniques of a skilled carpenter, crafting speed +5%, exchange requirement: 100 achievement points"

These three skill cards could be said to be the cheapest three items in the system store.

And the current balance of achievement points in Zhou Ming's player account had just broken through the integer of three hundred, reaching 303 points.

"[Elementary Farming Skill] purchased successfully, achievement points -100, cannot be unbound or recycled after binding to the corresponding mission map!"

"[Elementary Blacksmithing Skill] purchased successfully, achievement points -100, ..."

"[Elementary Carpentry Skill] purchased successfully, achievement points -100, ..."

After purchasing the three skill cards, Zhou Ming's confidence increased significantly.

In the previous three games, Zhou Ming, who had accumulated over eighty years of survival time, knew skills such as farming, blacksmithing, carpentry, and even fishing and hunting. Especially farming, he could be considered even better than an average skilled farmer... However, apart from farming, he could hardly be called specialized in blacksmithing and carpentry. After all, he had never apprenticed under a professional blacksmith or carpenter in this game, and these manual skills could not be mastered through self-study by simply imagining them.

In the era of ancient agricultural civilization, artisans like blacksmiths and carpenters could be considered "middle class." Just by relying on their exquisite craftsmanship, they could support a large family.

If he also knew blacksmithing and carpentry, combined with his advantage in farming, not only would supporting his family be no problem, but he would also definitely accumulate a lot of family wealth!

With ample family wealth, he could support more descendants. With enough manpower, more wasteland could be reclaimed. After forming a snowball effect, getting a large number of achievement points would not be a problem at all!

Entering the game again!

Ten days later in the real world.

Opening his eyes, Zhou Ming sat up from the single bed.

He clicked on the game panel.

Mission Map: Zhang Ergou's Counterattack Life

Game Character: Zhang Ergou

Game Status: Ended

Wealth: 82 (You have 5 mu of paddy fields, 40 mu of barren land, two large bamboo and wood buildings, and some gold and silver property)

Status: 3 (Your wealth has brought you some status)

Prestige: 16 (You are quite famous, and your story is circulating throughout the ten-mile radius)

Partner: 1 (You have a beautiful marriage, and you stayed with her until the end [+50 achievement points])

Descendants: 26 (Congratulations, you have left a considerable number of descendants, and your family will continue to multiply for a long time)

Lifespan: 58 (Your lifespan exceeds 88% of the villagers, you are one of the few long-lived people)

Achievements Gained: 496

Game Evaluation: B (Your life is like the stars in the sky, though dim, it shines on the world for a long time)

Highest Achievement: 496 (Reach 500 achievement points to unlock the next level)

"I've played five consecutive games, why am I still a few points short of breaking 500?"

Zhou Ming frowned heavily. In the past ten days or so, he had played five consecutive games, but he didn't expect that even in the best game, he was still a little short of 500 achievement points.

In these five games, except for one where he died young due to a serious illness in childhood, and one where he was too extraordinary and was burned to death by a sorceress invited by the villagers, the other three games basically went smoothly to the end, and he got over three hundred achievement points in each game.

But 500 achievement points still seemed like an invisible ceiling, always impossible to break through.

"That's impossible. In these games, relying on farming, blacksmithing, and carpentry, the family wealth I earned and the descendants I had were not few. I also changed wives three or four times, and never lacked food and clothing. Later, I learned how to maintain health, and my lifespan was also longer than before. Why?"

Zhou Ming was a little confused. In the game, he had been desperately making money, reclaiming land, building houses, having children, continuing to make money, reclaiming land, buying land, building houses, having children... There was almost no pause in between. All his efforts and contributions ultimately only resulted in a B-level evaluation.

"Host, an A-level evaluation is not very difficult to obtain. Please carefully check your six scores during the game process. The overall score is not determined by how high any single score is, but by which score is the lowest."

Seeing that Zhou Ming seemed to be stuck in a dead end, the system kindly reminded him.

"Lowest score?"

Zhou Ming looked at the game panel and saw two slightly meager numbers. After thinking for a while, he said, "Only status and prestige are my lowest scores. Do I also need to improve these two scores to successfully pass the level?"

"System, how can I improve my status and prestige in the game?" Zhou Ming asked.

"This system cannot provide specific methods, but the composition of status includes these factors, namely personal ability, resource support, control of wealth, and rights granted by the government..."

"Prestige is divided into positive prestige and negative prestige. Positive prestige includes the good deeds done by the player and actions that have a positive impact; negative prestige is related to the player's evil deeds and negative actions..."

"In other words, no matter whether I do good deeds or bad deeds in the game, as long as I create an impact, I can get prestige?" Zhou Ming said.

"You could say that, Host."

Zhou Ming nodded thoughtfully, and after thinking of a countermeasure, he said, "System, this time, I know what to do!"

However, before entering the game, Zhou Ming first spent 1000 achievement points in the system store to purchase an [Elementary Hunting Card].