Don't Ask, If You Ask It's Because There Are Many

"Can I change my fate?" Lin Yun looked helplessly at his attributes, then tried saying that.

There was no response at all.

"Can I rearrange the positions of my attributes?" Lin Yun persisted, unwilling to give up.

Still, no response.

"Can I buy attributes with money?" Lin Yun said, somewhat resigned. Though, honestly, he didn't even know if he had any money—the currency from his previous life probably wouldn't work here.

Then, something appeared. A shop interface, like something out of a cheap browser game. Compared to that vending machine goddess next door who lived off exaggerated expressions, this was utterly pathetic—and broke to boot.

Well, at least it was a response.

Lin Yun glanced over the items. First off, the currency used in this shop seemed to be gold coins. Whether these were special gold coins or just the standard ones from fantasy worlds, he had no idea, nor did he care to find out. From what he could see, he had 100 gold coins.

In the shop, Lin Yun spotted a massive catalog of DND items, all with clear price tags. There were everyday supplies, equipment, weapons, armor, even potions—everything you could think of. And then there was that option to buy attributes with money.

Buying attributes with money didn't mean purchasing a single attribute point outright to boost your stats. Instead, it was calculated by value.

For example, going from 9 to 10 only cost 100 gold coins. But from 10 to 11, it jumped to 300 gold coins. And from 11 to 12, it skyrocketed to 700 gold coins. Absolutely terrifying, judging by the list.

Attributes below 10 were dirt cheap, but once you hit 10 and above, the prices started climbing steeply. Especially when you reached an even number that granted a tangible bonus.

In the DND world, 10 was the baseline for a normal person. Every 2 points above 10 gave a +1 modifier. If this were Strength, then for tasks like lifting or arm wrestling, that modifier would be consistently applied. For instance, someone with 10 Strength and someone with 11 Strength—the latter would naturally be stronger, but the difference wouldn't be huge. As the saying goes, it wouldn't be enough to create an absolute gap in power.

What needed to be said was that between 10 and 20, this was the limit for normal humans—mortals. Once you hit 20 and beyond, that was the start of the supernatural. At least, judging by the numbers Lin Yun saw in the shop, the prices after that were a string of zeros, and each additional point increased exponentially.

Looking at that entry, Lin Yun immediately gave up and started browsing the rest. If his guess was right, this was probably the starting funds for a campaign. He needed to plan carefully and buy equipment.

But with so many entries, Lin Yun even started to feel a bit nauseous scrolling through them. Still, he forced himself to be patient and cautious. As everyone knew, running a campaign involved a DM. If he ran into a Chaotic Evil DM and didn't prepare properly, dying for real wouldn't be fun.

Slowly, he examined each one carefully. Lin Yun wasn't the sharpest tool in the shed, but at least he knew his own limits.

This place could kill you. Even though Lin Yun hadn't seemed too bothered earlier, if he could avoid dying, that was obviously better. He wanted to keep playing for as long as possible.

After a long look, Lin Yun finally decided to spend 10 gold coins on Simple Information for the next world.

Honestly, if he hadn't been meticulously scanning every entry, he might not have even noticed this item. That pixelated figure earlier had mentioned traveling to various worlds, each with different settings. Some might be ancient, others modern. Showing up in a bizarre outfit would make him stand out too much and look suspicious.

The DM and the natives weren't the scariest things. Players could be just as treacherous—whether they were the kind who screwed over their teammates or the kind who specialized in screwing over their teammates. Neither was a good situation. If possible, pretending to be an NPC was the safest bet. Probably. At least it would make it harder for others to set him up.

As for those stories where someone in weird clothes shows up in another world and those clothes become a hot-selling item—Lin Yun didn't dare dream of that. That was too ridiculous.

10 gold coins might seem like a lot right now, but with enough intel, things would be much easier to handle.

But this so-called Simple Information was truly simple in the literal sense. Above it, there were other tiers: Fairly Detailed Information, Moderately Detailed Information, Detailed Information, Very Detailed Information... What the hell was this? Basically, if you didn't pay up, how were you supposed to become the main character?

In the end, staring at that Very Detailed Information, Lin Yun silently chose to just get the Simple Information. As for how much it cost? Don't ask. The answer was: a lot.

The 10-gold Simple Information was genuinely simple. The moment he bought it, Lin Yun's 100 gold coins turned into 90, and a sentence appeared in his mind: "Western Ancient High Magic World."

?????? Seeing that, Lin Yun wanted to curse. What the hell? Starting off with a high-magic world? He was just a poor newbie.

Though, a so-called high-magic world wasn't necessarily overwhelmingly powerful. Even some low-magic worlds could have beings comparable to or even stronger than those in high-magic worlds. That wasn't unusual.

First, it needed to be clarified that low, middle, and high magic weren't about strength—they were about the prevalence of magic in that world. In a low-magic world, magic was rare. Few could use it, and there were hardly any high-level mages. Because of this low prevalence, the quality of magic users was limited. Mages were hard to come by and often treated as freaks.

In a low-magic game, spellcasters and magic items were twice as rare as in a normal world. Magic items wouldn't be sold because they were too rare for anyone to trade them for mere gold. Occasionally, a magic item might be exchanged or sold for gold, but that was rare in the economy.

Ordinary people had almost never seen magic. Some didn't even believe it existed. A spell or a magical creature would completely baffle and terrify them. All magical beings, including player characters, might be labeled as "demons." They could face persecution. Witch hunts and similar events might be the common fate of wizards or sorcerers. Clerics and other divine casters might be safer than arcane casters, but depending on the culture, they might not be.

From one perspective, a low-magic world was closer to Lin Yun's original world—a no-magic world. It just had a few more magic users than a completely mundane one.

Then there was the middle ground: a middle-magic world. These generally had a fair number of mages and magic items. Even ordinary people would know about them, at least enough not to scream "monster" at the sight of one. From a certain angle, a world like A Certain Magical Index counted as middle-magic, since only a portion of people had special abilities, and magic couldn't fully elevate the world's technology.

Finally, a high-magic world had a high prevalence of magic. You might see any random passerby carrying a magic item or even casting a spell. Monsters were everywhere. For example, as Lin Yun knew, Fairy Tail was a high-magic world. Magic was everywhere, and all sorts of convenient tools were magical. That was a high-magic world.

While it wasn't guaranteed that a high-magic world was the most dangerous, the sheer ubiquity of magic meant that any random person you met could easily take you out. That kind of terror was manageable for someone with some strength, but for Lin Yun, who hadn't even entered the newbie village yet, it was way too frightening.

Unfortunately, Lin Yun currently had no way to change the adventure world. He could buy a different world with gold coins, but the problem was he didn't have enough...

So, Lin Yun could only grit his teeth and push forward.

Still, since it was a Western ancient high-magic world, wearing leather armor or chainmail wouldn't stand out too much. From one angle, that was a decent advantage. And most importantly... at least it wasn't modern. Even though gun control was strict in the Great Celestial Dynasty, guns still existed. Firearms were a terrifying threat to a newbie like him. In DND's rules, guns had stats too. Even flintlock muskets could one-shot a weak, unlucky low-level adventurer—pretty much the same as an ordinary person.

So, at least his luck wasn't terrible. If it had been a modern high-magic world, that would've been truly hopeless. Like that world in The Full-Time Mage.