Between Reality and Illusion

1,000,000 was already enough to accomplish many things.

If the world had not been so dangerous, suddenly gaining 1,000,000 would have been enough to ensure a life free of worries about food and clothing. But with the world becoming increasingly dangerous, money no longer held the same significance it once had.

After all, what use was money if you were dead? You were born with nothing and took nothing with you when you died. If you could not guarantee your own absolute safety, what use was having more money?

—This was also the main reason Game Coins maintained such a high exchange rate.

After all, everything sold in the System Store could only be purchased with Game Coins. The System Store sold an immense variety of things, from a tiny screw to a massive space battleship.

Of course, the more precious an item was, the more Game Coins it cost—an Astronomical Figure.

According to the information Bai Zhi had learned on the forum, the System Store refreshed once every month, with ten Items appearing each time. The Levels of the refreshed Items varied, and the products each Player received were different.

Special Medicine capable of curing all kinds of cancer, Talismans that could ward off supernatural attacks, Substitute Dolls that would automatically negate fatal damage... and so on.

Of course, refreshing one was one thing; having enough Game Coins to buy it was another. It was easier if you belonged to a Large Organization, but Lone Wolf Players found it difficult to save up Game Coins.

On the Black Market, prices for life-saving and medical goods like these had been driven exceedingly high.

"I'll have to set aside time to work out in the future. These half-crippled physical stats are too much of an eyesore. I don't need to reach the limits of humanity, but I should at least reach the average..."

After placing his order on Mao Bao, Bai Zhi could not help logging into the Player Forum on the Dark Web again. Although valuable intelligence—such as the Sanity Value that he still did not understand—could not be found there, the basic information alone was enough to keep him occupied for a long time.

And that look lasted three days.

During those three days, he hardly left the house. He relied entirely on takeout for meals and received a whole pile of delivery packages in the meantime.

Three days later, the incident at the Teaching Building had settled down again. However, none of the students sent to the hospital for treatment showed any signs of waking up.

In medical terms, they were in a vegetative state.

Bai Zhi vaguely felt that the key to waking those students lay in the [Shadow Realm Permanent Deed], but his most urgent concern was the approaching Novice Quest.

As the 72-hour Countdown slowly reached Zero, a Light Screen appeared in Bai Zhi's field of vision.

[Novice Protection Period has ended. Mandatory Quest has begun.]

[Quest Type: Scenario Quest]

[Quest Name: Between Reality and Illusion]

[Quest Target: Survive until dawn]

[Quest Time Limit: Six hours]

[Quest Reward 1: 200 Basic Experience Points]

[Quest Reward 2: 500 Basic Game Coins]

[Quest Reward 3: Random Rare Quality Skill Card *1]

[Note: Quest Rewards may fluctuate depending on Player performance.]

[Players have three hours to prepare. Once the time is up, they will be forcibly sent into the Scenario Quest.]

"A survival-type one? Running into such a difficult Quest right from the start..."

Looking at the Quest description before him, Bai Zhi could not help frowning slightly.

Generally speaking, Novice Quests were mostly puzzle-solving types. Those had lower Danger Levels and more ways to survive. But for survival-type Quests like this, Three No's Players with no Level, no Skills, and no equipment found it hard to stay alive. Especially if they ran into Bad Teammates, a total wipeout was entirely possible.

The Quest's name was vague and gave away nothing for the moment. As for the Quest Rewards, they were basically the standard Novice Quest package, which could be considered a hidden benefit.

There was no need to mention Experience Points and Game Coins. The most important reward was the random Rare Quality Skill Card. For a Player, Skills were the most important thing; equipment came second.

From lowest to highest, Skill Levels were divided into seven tiers: [Damaged], [Common], [Rare], [Elite], [Perfect], [Epic], and [Legendary]. Equipment Levels followed the same system. However, so far, no one had ever heard of any Player obtaining a Skill above Perfect Grade.

Skills were more precious than equipment because equipment could still be bought in the System Store, while Skill Cards could only be obtained from Quests or the Auction House. But aside from idiots, practically no one chose to sell Skill Cards at the Auction House.

Even a [Damaged]-Level Skill Card would be bought instantly the moment it appeared at an Auction House. One could easily imagine how precious Skills were. At present, the only Quest that could reliably grant Rare Quality Skill Cards was the once-per-person Novice Quest.

Of course, Skill Cards rewarded by Novice Quests could not be traded and could only be used by their owner. This was also why only Players who had passed their Novice Quest could be called Official Players.

These system-mandated Quests had something called a performance rating. The system had its own evaluation standards, ranging from the lowest D-rank to S-rank.

With a D-rank rating, the Experience Points and Game Coins awarded would only be half of the original amount. C-rank gave 80%, B-rank gave 100%, A-rank gave 120%, and the highest, S-rank, gave 150%.

If you could earn an S-rank rating from the system, then using this Quest's rewards as an example, you would receive 300 Experience Points and 750 Game Coins.

If your rating was D-rank, then unfortunately, you would only receive 100 Experience Points and 250 Game Coins. Still, the system was rather considerate in this regard: Lv1 required exactly 100 Experience Points to advance to Lv2, which was enough to let you reach Level 2 and unlock the System Store. It was just that 250 Game Coins could barely buy anything good in the Store.

"Between Reality and Illusion..."

Lightly tapping his fingers on the table, Bai Zhi began to think.