Interlude IV

A Little Observation.

Perhaps seeing that Li Yun had shown no reaction for quite a while, someone beside him suddenly leaned over and shouted at close range, "Brother, your Main God ID's activated, right? Did the exchange catalog dazzle you?"

"To be honest, when I first encountered that list, I had the exact same reaction. I stared at it so hard I couldn't even move my eyes until the waiting period ended and the Main God directly kicked me off the platform!"

In the excessively noisy and chaotic environment, Li Qingzhi instead took the initiative to move closer, enthusiastically trying to offer this young man from the same homeland a few pointers.

Noticing how differently the other man treated him compared to the other newcomers, with an obvious hint of goodwill, Li Yun did not care much, but he did not refuse either.

He was not completely lacking in social awareness.

Leaving everything else aside, although he might not be as smart as the strange young man before him, this "Old Li" was clearly somewhat confident when it came to studying exchanges.

Hadn't he painstakingly compared and filtered the Main God's exchange options, ultimately finding a "Psychokinesis Development" enhancement with exceptional value for money, one that at merely Tier One already possessed preliminary effects of actual mental interference?

After all, the more common psychokinesis-type enhancements in the Main God's system generally started at the price of Tier Three or Four!

...Glancing at the [Tier-One Psychokinesis Development] exchange option that had just appeared on the light screen, the one the other man had proactively shared and strongly recommended, Li Yun could not help raising an eyebrow.

Unlike Old Li, although the exchange catalog itself was the same for all Main God users, the "additional detailed information" he could see at a glance was far beyond what ordinary users could access.

[Name: Tier-One Psychokinesis Development]

"Name: Experimental Subject Mental Guidance Technology"

[Type: Enhancement/Mutation]

[Quality: Tier One]

"Quality: Tier Two (after certain content was removed, the stable version was reduced to Tier One)"

[Description: A biological enhancement technology originating from a certain "Red Alert" derivative setting. It gradually took shape after scientists conducted extensive experiments and testing, intended to develop humanity's latent mental traits and preliminarily activate psychokinesis-like effects.]

"Description: During a derivative experiment under the Omega Plan, conducted by the Shinra Psychic Research Center of the Rising Sun Empire on this subsidiary timeline for the purpose of 'psychic development,' experimental data from further-differentiated human clone-template testing was repurposed. Through multistage procedures including drug influence, bodily stimulation, and consciousness erasure, it forcibly activated part of humanity's mental potential. This entire technology was gradually developed to provide the advanced ground unit 'King Oni Mecha' with 'temporary pilots' possessing a certain degree of resistance to mental interference."

[Exchange Requirement: 100 Universal Points, one Standard Exchange Card.]

[Additional Notice: The enhancement effects of this exchange are concentrated solely in the mental category and cannot effectively improve one's overall life essence.]

"Additional Notice: The Main God has made minor adjustments to this technology, weakening and stabilizing certain content. The side effect that 'after undergoing development, the human template's lifespan will automatically enter a period of rapid depletion, with a theoretical survival time of no more than three years' has been removed. However, users must still bear a certain burden, and it is not considered a bloodline-type enhancement."

[Remark: --Yuriko Omega gave this a thumbs-down!]

"Remark: 'You actually managed to dig this out? Huh? You really dare choose this?!?'"

Clearly, most of the information in those entries was relatively substantial but not actually that important, so the Main God had simply omitted it from the normal user-facing descriptions.

Casting a somewhat subtle glance at this apparently rather honest veteran beside him, who had also been quite cooperative in the previous Newcomer Trial mission world, Li Yun had no intention of saying much. He merely offered a calm reminder.

"Old Li, I think you should earn some points first and exchange them for a bloodline, energy system, or something similar. It would be better to raise your attributes first."

"I'd like to as well, but everything here at the Main God is so expensive. Where am I supposed to get that much spare money to buy things one by one?"

The man, who was only in his thirties, subconsciously reached into his pocket, only to grasp at nothing. Only then did he realize this was not reality, and he had not brought any cigarettes.

Scratching his head somewhat awkwardly, he sighed.

"Being able to buy this is already pretty good. Otherwise, why would I take on that 'Guide' mission and come lead these weirdos..."

Without specifying who the "weirdos" were, Li Qingzhi merely swept his gaze around the other foreign newcomers, whose eyes were likewise fixed blankly upon something in the air before them, fingers constantly swiping as they stared without blinking.

That included the youth still lying motionless on the ground, his head resting on the thigh of the bearded white man, still unconscious.

The implication was obvious.

As for the white Russian who had voluntarily served as half a "cushion," he looked like an old man from his face. But considering that white people tended to age rather quickly, and his massive beard was far too distracting, it was truly difficult to tell his exact age.

At this moment, although he had lent one leg to the South Asian kid, he himself was sitting on the ground as well, intently checking the information on his personal light screen.

Seeing this, Old Li merely spread his hands, wearing a wry expression of "one could not help oneself in this world."

"Oh, right, I got so caught up talking that I haven't collected my own reward yet!"

He had remembered the important matter.

His shoulders relaxed slightly, while Li Qingzhi's expression became more serious.

Earlier, because there were so many people around, even with the Main God Platform's natural distance-separating effect...

Under non-hostile circumstances, just as relative acquaintances like them could touch the unconscious youth on the ground without obstruction, that mechanism would not easily make the pressure between people disappear entirely.

Unless one actively enabled the free shielding mechanism provided by the Main God to isolate outside interference.

Otherwise, relying only on the faint glow around their bodies, as though separated by a layer of obstruction, a small amount of force could still pass through that thirty-centimeter gap and act upon the users' bodies.

To be safe, and to avoid being separated by the crowd, the group had roughly formed a ring amid the increasingly dense flow of people, half-protecting the unconscious kid in the middle.

Thanks to the slight sense of familiarity they had built in the mission world, Li Qingzhi had also taken the opportunity to roughly explain the platform's various functions, allowing the newcomers to carefully inspect them.

And now, it was time to calculate his own gains.

With a clear thought, he swiftly opened his personal light screen. Compared to those newcomers who had just completed their transition from "Visitors" to "Level-One Main God users," who were still somewhat unaccustomed to the various interface functions and could only swipe their fingers through the "air,"

Li Qingzhi expertly opened the notification bar and found the latest "clearance evaluation."

But the moment he opened it, before he had even looked for a few seconds, his eyes widened.

[...Main Quest One: Survive for seventy-two hours (Completed)]

[Main Quest Two: Reach an Exploration Score of five (Not completed)—upon leaving the mission world, your total Exploration Score was four. This Exploration Score has been converted into an evaluation bonus.]

[No side quests triggered. No additional score.]

[Your mission performance evaluation this time: Standard Grade]

[--Based on your overall mission score, your final mission rewards are: 82 Universal Points, one Standard Exchange Card.]

This first part was not too unexpected.

After all, without the benefits of the fivefold bonus from the first Newcomer Trial, and considering that the upper limit of the Universal Point rewards for this main quest was only one hundred and twenty points, this result was actually fairly decent.

But what came next was especially absurd.

[Additional Guide Mission—You guided a total of thirteen "Visitors" in this Newcomer Trial-type mission world, of whom ten successfully cleared the mission.]

The blond freckled girl who had fallen behind on the first afternoon, the Italian whose appearance he could not remember but whose hands full of rings had left the deepest impression, and a Black man who had woken up with water in his ears and nose and, even after receiving the Main God's information, had still believed someone was targeting him before cursing and leaving the group midway...

Three had been eliminated. Li Qingzhi briefly recalled the situation and confirmed that was correct.

[According to the Guide Regulations, you will randomly receive an additional 5%–15% of the reward points earned in this mission world by the Visitors who successfully cleared it.]

[--From this Guide Mission, you have obtained an additional 303 Universal Points.]

[--As it has been detected that one of the "Visitors" you guided received a "Rare Grade" mission evaluation in this Newcomer Trial, you will additionally receive one Standard Exchange Card...]

?

A huge question mark seemed to appear above Li Qingzhi's head?