Zhang Yang opened the warehouse interface.
He looked over the pile of junk he'd just brought back from the Silent Forest and decided there was no point sorting through it.
He'd just leave it piled up in the warehouse for now.
That was what Zhang Yang thought as he casually tapped on the items in the warehouse.
"Huh?"
Among the available options, Zhang Yang noticed one that stood out like a sore thumb: "Withdraw."
"Withdraw?"
He selected several of the collected items in succession and found that every one of them had a "Withdraw" option.
"Does 'Withdraw' mean extracting them into the real world?"
Zhang Yang decided to test it.
He specifically picked a Copper Soul Coin, the least valuable item, to use as a test subject.
He tapped "Withdraw," and in the next moment, an utterly ordinary Copper Soul Coin appeared in his hand.
"So I really can take them out."
After fiddling with it for a bit, Zhang Yang discovered a problem: he had no way to put the Copper Soul Coin back into the warehouse.
He couldn't put it back in the warehouse, but a new function had appeared.
"Recharge?"
Seeing the sole option, Zhang Yang wore a sly look.
That was more like it.
How could a Tencent game not have a "Recharge" option?
Now that the recharge option had appeared, it finally felt right.
Zhang Yang tapped "Recharge."
System, let me recharge one Copper Soul Coin first and see what happens.
Then Zhang Yang saw the number of Haf Coins in the top-right corner increase from zero to one.
"Whew..."
Zhang Yang sucked in a sharp breath.
So the recharge option converted things into Haf Coins.
Who'd ever recharge like that?
In the game, one Haf Coin was practically worthless. A pack of Angxing Crispy Noodles—something Zhang Yang wouldn't even bother picking up—cost 980 Haf Coins.
But in the world of Douluo Continent, two Copper Soul Coins could buy a cheap boxed meal with two meat dishes, two vegetable dishes, and two big steamed buns.
Only someone with senile dementia would convert Copper Soul Coins into Haf Coins.
Copper Soul Coins wouldn't do, so Zhang Yang tested a Gold Soul Coin, a Silver Soul Coin, and some of his other collected items.
In the end, Zhang Yang concluded that the personal warehouse was one-way: he could withdraw things, but not put them back.
With that conclusion, Zhang Yang let out a helpless sigh.
What a pity. The system's design had cut off a whole bunch of ways Zhang Yang could've played this.
After exploring his cheat's functions a little more, Zhang Yang checked the time. It was still early, so he decided to start another round.
Zhang Yang selected "Prepare for Deployment" and entered the map selection interface.
There were only two maps available at the moment.
"Gold-Iron Mountain Range—Normal" and "Heding City Academy—Normal."
"Gold-Iron Mountain Range—Normal: A section of the Gold-Iron Mountain Range has been designated for this map. Recommended levels: 1–3."
"Heding City Academy—Normal: Heding City Junior Soul Master Academy and the surrounding area have been designated for this map. Recommended levels: 1–3."
Zhang Yang thought it over and decided to play a round on "Heding City Academy—Normal" first.
After all, he'd just come out of a forest map. Now he wanted to see how a city map differed from a forest map.
"Begin operation."
Upon entering the loadout interface, Zhang Yang decided to bring a standard kit into the map.
The standard kit was a preset set of equipment that included everything needed for combat: firearms, ammunition, armor, gear, medical supplies, and more.
For someone like Zhang Yang, who had neither money nor anything in his warehouse, the standard kit gave him at least some chance of turning things around. It also kept him from being at too much of a disadvantage in battle.
There were three styles of standard kit.
Balanced, Firepower, and Survival.
The difference between them came down to armor level and the number of health and Soul Power recovery items.
The Balanced Set, for example, came with a level-one helmet, level-two armor, and two slots of medicine: one red and one blue.
The Firepower Set had a level-one helmet and level-one armor, plus two slots of Soul Power recovery medicine. No health medicine—it was all about going all out and enjoying the fight.
As for the Survival Set, it came with a level-two helmet and armor, two slots of health medicine, and no Soul Power recovery medicine.
Zhang Yang looked them over and naturally chose the Balanced Set.
The level-two armor offered some protection, the health medicine gave him more room for error, and the blue medicine let him keep going. It was just right for him.
After he picked the standard kit, the interface returned to the equipment screen, and Zhang Yang equipped the Pure Silver Ring as well.
Nine secure slots, five pocket slots, six chest rig slots, and a fifteen-slot backpack gave him a total of thirty-five storage slots.
Even without finding a gold-quality collectible, Zhang Yang could make tens of thousands and extract safely.
Time to go!
Just like in the tutorial, a helicopter carried Zhang Yang into the map. After he fast-roped down, he appeared near the edge of the map.
He opened his personal terminal and quickly studied the map.
"Heding City Junior Soul Master Academy?"
"West City Commercial Street?"
"Hotel Street?"
Along with some ordinary houses, these three famous clusters of buildings in the city made up the map called "Heding City Academy—Normal."
Zhang Yang found his spawn point. It was right beside the main entrance to Heding City Junior Soul Master Academy.
"This should count as Soul Master Academy Position One."
The M14 flashed into his hand. Holding it at the ready, Zhang Yang charged toward the academy gate not far away.
He'd spawned at Position One. Where else would he go?
The archway at the academy's entrance was twenty meters wide and over ten meters high. One of the imposing iron gates below stood open, leaving a passage for people to enter and exit.
Zhang Yang went through the gate, and the first thing he saw was the academy's smooth, immaculate path, the thick rows of trees lining it, and the towering main building at its end.
Even though he'd lived in this world for six years, Zhang Yang still couldn't help marveling at its architecture.
There was just one word for it.
Huge.
Any building associated with Soul Masters had to be especially huge and luxurious.
It was as though only that could show off the high status Soul Masters held in this world.
He looked away from the main building and turned his attention to the side of the entrance.
Outside the gate, stone walls branched off on either side like the arms of a character. Inside the gate, opposite them, stood a building with a pointed roof and a side entrance.
This had to be the gatehouse.
Zhang Yang entered with his gun raised and found that his guess had been right.
Apart from a small door leading to a break room, the building contained two desks with some files on them and a row of metal lockers against the wall.
Lockers?
Zhang Yang's eyes lit up.
In Delta Force, lockers were mid-tier containers. If you ran into one while doing a knife run, you'd still open it. After all, lockers could really spawn good stuff.
Who knew? Maybe he'd open the door and find a massive "Resuscitation Ventilator," crammed into the bottom compartment, filling him with a sense of salvation.
Zhang Yang hurried over, swept his awareness across them, then moved sideways as the doors of all four lockers swung open one after another.
Green, apple, value 2,441.
White, Claw Hammer, value 3,726.
White, local newspaper, value 1,886.
White, Box of Nails, value 2,811.
White, utility knife, value 2,321.
White, box of candles, value 2,305.
"..."
Who'd taken a dump in the lockers?
With a look like he'd just eaten shit, Zhang Yang left the gatehouse.
What drop rates. It really was a Normal map.
Nothing worthwhile in the gatehouse. Next stop: the main building.
As Zhang Yang dashed out of the gatehouse and onto the path, a furious shout rang in his ears.
"Oi! Who are you?"
Zhang Yang whipped around and spotted a young man standing on the lawn not far away. He was dressed in coarse hemp clothes, had an average build, and wore a thug's sneer.
Was that... a grunt?
Zhang Yang guessed so.
On a typical map, even two nearby spawn points wouldn't put players in each other's faces this quickly.
Zhang Yang ducked behind a tree, its thick trunk completely hiding him from view.
Before long, the young man had come close to the tree Zhang Yang was hiding behind.
Perhaps sensing that Zhang Yang was nearby, the young man began yelling.
"Get out of here!"
"This isn't a place for you!"
"Do you even know where you are?"
"Come on, let's have a go!"
Zhang Yang's face darkened. "This grunt sure has a lot to say."
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