"I feel like this talent is actually more like some kind of achievement-title system. Meet the requirements, and you get a title with an effect." Zhang Anzai thought this over and shook his head helplessly.
Judging by the requirements, many talents couldn't be mastered without the right time, place, and people. At the very least, you needed the right place and the right people.
Take [Robust Physique] (D), a fairly common talent among new players. It represented having a healthy body, and it required long-term exercise.
But a safe zone where you could get proper exercise inside an instance was incredibly hard to find.
Unless the time requirement was a little shorter?
"[People of the Dog Rong] (D): Turn at least ten different animals' attitudes toward you in a positive direction, such as from wary to gentle, or gentle to trusting. Afterward, all unintelligent beasts will treat you gently, barring special circumstances."
But what if you couldn't get matched with an instance that had any animals at all?
After looking for a long while, he realized that all he could do for now was read and memorize as much as possible. If he wanted to master anything, he'd have to figure it out after entering an instance.
In the end, the main issue was that he was still only average in strength. Players with more complete inheritances could rely on their own abilities to master these low-level talents with ease.
Of course, the instances they were matched with were more challenging, and they relied more on powerful skills and inherited abilities. These talents were, at best, the icing on the cake.
Besides, skilled players might be capable, but higher-level talents were harder to learn, too.
Zhang Anzai had wanted information on some C-rank talents before, but after Cheng Ye sent him an example, he gave up.
"[Mind Eye Insight] (B): Dodge attacks a hundred times without using your eyes to observe, or evade sudden attacks that come from outside your field of vision.
"Once acquired, it greatly increases your intuition and sixth sense, and lets you directly sense the surroundings within a hundred meters through telepathy."
Was it powerful? Absolutely.
Could he master it? Not a chance.
C- and D-rank talents were already beyond the reach of ordinary people. Anything above that was practically superhuman.
"Take things one step at a time. You still have to eat one mouthful at a time... Can't go getting ahead of myself." Zhang Anzai flipped through the countless talents, lost in thought.
"This week, Zhang Anzai and Jiang Pan have continued to perform exceptionally well. I'm sure it'll only be another week or two before I see you in the Official Division.
"Of course, besides the two of them, our other colleagues in the Newcomer Division have also done well. Several are close behind in performance, and have a good chance of becoming full-time employees soon..."
It was Monday again. Xu Xinhai delivered his usual speech from the stage, while Zhang Anzai listened below without the slightest reaction.
After all, this week he was only getting verbal praise. There was no actual reward, so what was the point? Emotional validation couldn't put food on the table, and praise from a boss was especially worthless.
"You weren't like this last week." Lin Zhao looked at Zhang Anzai's stern expression and shook her head helplessly.
Zhang Anzai declared solemnly, "Because I've seen through the leaders' true colors and returned to the ranks of the loyal working class."
Lin Zhao ignored his usual nonsense. She just wanted to get the meeting over with so she could go back to sleep.
She was one of the employees Xu Xinhai had praised for doing well.
Lin Zhao's performance had been better than Zhang Anzai's before, and even though he'd overtaken her, she'd still completed half the performance requirements for becoming a full-time employee. She only needed five more medium-rated instances, which meant she was doing well among the newcomers. She'd put in plenty of effort behind the scenes.
Of course, she still couldn't keep up with Zhang Anzai.
He hadn't brought in any more highly rated instances over the past two days. Good players were hard to come by, while bad instances were a dime a dozen.
But even when all you got were medium- or low-rated instances, there was still something to gain.
He'd officially passed twenty workdays. His Employee Points hadn't gone up by much, though; he had 890 now. Mostly, it was because taking players through instances burned through points. To keep one deadweight player alive and avoid a party wipe, he'd sunk several hundred points into the run.
That was just how it went. The worse the players, the more expensive they were to keep alive.
The trouble was, those players couldn't earn high ratings, either. They lost money every time, creating a vicious cycle. Otherwise, he wouldn't have ended up with just 100 points and still not met his performance requirements.
Of course, his personal abilities had improved, so he wasn't spending as much on players as before.
Most of his points had gone toward the occasional training-room sessions over the past few days, which cost 50 points an hour, and a few specialized paid training programs. That was why his balance hadn't increased by much.
But it was nothing to worry about. Compared with half a month ago, he'd made incredible progress.
Thanks to everything he'd gained, unlike Lin Zhao, who was nodding off, he'd spent most of the day goofing off and was now full of energy.
His plan was clear: he was going to enter another instance tonight.
Fortune favored the bold, while the timid went hungry. Even among ordinary players, there were hardcore types who entered instances at an intense pace. Since he could back himself up as an administrator, he had even more reason to work hard.
Even though entering an instance was always a brush with death.
"Click."
Zhang Anzai returned to his dorm and closed the door.
After the meeting, he'd gone to eat. He glanced at his phone, and saw that it was already 10:26 p.m. There were eight and a half hours until he had to go to work. As long as he got matched with a solo instance, he could finish it in time.
The effect of Dexterous was incredibly powerful. He could now maintain his activity inside an instance while keeping an eye on what was happening to his real body. But his ability was too unusual, so he still tried to choose nights when he could stay up and finish an instance in one go.
For one thing, there was no way to deal with the issue of his appearance. His player body looked exactly like his real one. Even if he changed clothes and hairstyle and wore a mask, someone might still recognize him.
"Whatever. I'm still young and healthy. I can pull an all-nighter." Zhang Anzai quietly opened the internal chat app.
Over the past few days, he'd checked it from time to time, mostly to see whether Chen Xing would send another message.
He was sure that the message he'd seen that day hadn't been an illusion. That meant Chen Xing had successfully broken free of the restrictions of the instance Endless Night Road and left.
It was an extremely rare case. Few monsters in instances were as intelligent as Chen Xing, and even fewer managed to escape the instance where they'd been born.
But many days had passed without another message, so there was nothing more he could do to follow up on the matter.
After confirming that everything was normal in the chat app, Zhang Anzai switched to the Ancient Shadow Records interface.
"Boundary Walker, you have once again chosen to enter the next Reflected World ahead of time. Your last early exploration led to a perilous experience. It seems you quite enjoyed it.
"In any case, you are about to step into the reflection once again."
Zhang Anzai slowly typed a single character: "?"
"I think it's got me pegged as a masochist. I'm not into that kind of thing." Zhang Anzai shook his head helplessly. Then he once again felt his consciousness enter another body.
The familiar River of the Past, and yet another new reflection.
This time it wasn't a long, narrow shape, but an irregular space. He still couldn't make out what it looked like. It rested beneath the water, shifting with the slight ripples on the surface.
"You have entered Old Shadow: [Folklore Taboo: Skin-Peeling Maze City] (Normal)."
Before you continue