Hextech System

Back at the staff dormitory.

Chen Feng lay on his bed and began reviewing his systems.

After the Director attacked him, he had five Points left. To be safe, he needed to put two into the Save-Load System so he wouldn't lose two lives at once again. Another Point would go toward restarting Hero Training.

By that reckoning...

"I'm broke in one fell swoop."

"But at least I've got two new systems."

When Chen Feng discovered that every time he loaded a save, he gained a system, he had considered killing himself repeatedly to unlock several systems in one go.

But after thinking it over, he decided against it.

After all, that only made sense for Series 03 systems.

Series 01 systems, like the Quest System, had to issue quests based on his experiences.

If he died too quickly, they wouldn't issue many quests at all. The Great Villain System, for example, had barely issued one before it was replaced.

And Series 02 exchange systems required him to spend Points.

The better the item, the higher the price. Even if Chen Feng unlocked a Cultivation exchange system, he couldn't afford Foundation Establishment pills or cultivation techniques with the few Points he had.

So he couldn't take another Series 02 system for a while.

Chen Feng looked at the new box and shook his head.

Its identifier was YX-02-QDMJ. It said, "Packed, packed, packed up my bags."

Another system from a game world, and a Series 02 one at that. He couldn't choose it.

"Can't I get a quest system?"

Left with no choice, Chen Feng picked the technology and dirty tricks from that game world.

[Ding! Congratulations, player! You have activated the Hextech System.]

Systems from game worlds really were different. Even the form of address had changed: not user, not host, but player.

Wasn't the Hextech System from Teamfight Tactics and Golden Spatula?

Chen Feng took a look. After each load, the Hextech System would give him one chance to spend Points on a Hextech Augment.

Of course, like every Series 03 system, the first time was free.

"Let's see what you've got in store."

Like drawing boxes, each Augment exchange offered three choices. This time, Chen Feng drew:

[AFK: The player cannot leave the Happiness Internet Cafe for the next three weeks. Afterward, gain 10 Temporary Points.]

[Recombobulator: The player's Water Ghost will permanently transform into a random monster one star higher.]

[Warrior's Treasure: Monsters you kill have a chance to drop 1 Temporary Point. The stronger the monster, the higher the drop rate.]

[Note: Temporary Points can only be spent in Series 02 exchange systems. They cannot recharge Series 03 systems.]

Holy shit. That's incredible.

Chen Feng had thought the Proficiency System was the pinnacle of Series 03 systems. He hadn't expected something even better.

This was also the first Series 03 system he'd seen that could earn Points. Sure, they were Temporary Points, only good for buying things, but that was still huge.

"If I'd known you were this good, I'd have picked you sooner."

"But which of these three should I choose?"

For raw combat strength, Recombobulator was undoubtedly the strongest. Since losing the Ghost-Catching System, Chen Feng could no longer check monsters' star ratings, but judging by the Check-in System, the Landlady, the Professor, and the Nurse were at most one star above the Water Ghost.

Turning it into a monster on the Landlady's level would give him a shot at fighting the Director, even if the result was random.

"Forget it. Revenge can wait. Points come first."

Chen Feng looked at the other two Augments. In the long run, Warrior's Treasure definitely had the highest ceiling.

Whenever he ran out of Points, he could kill a few monsters to farm more.

The more monsters he killed, the more things he could buy.

The more things he bought, the stronger he would become, and the faster he could kill monsters.

It was practically a perpetual-motion machine.

Chen Feng asked the system what the drop rate was for monsters at the Imposter's level.

[Imposter (Internet Cafe version) drop rate: 0.1%]

[Imposter (Mental Hospital version) drop rate: 0.2%]

Fuck, that's stingy.

Chen Feng did the math. To earn one Point, he'd have to kill five hundred Imposters like the White Coat.

Even if he hacked away nonstop for three days and nights, he wouldn't finish.

Chen Feng promptly gave up and looked at AFK.

He was planning to stay at the Internet Cafe and work out for a while anyway, with no intention of going out. Wasn't it a perfect fit?

Before choosing, Chen Feng suddenly thought of something and asked, "If I use an Incarnation to complete quests while AFK is active, does that count as leaving the Happiness Internet Cafe?"

The system soon replied, "No. Only the player's original body must remain inside the Internet Cafe."

That settled it.

Chen Feng chose AFK without hesitation.

[Ding! Congratulations, player! You have obtained the AFK Augment.]

Now it was time to level his alt.

Chen Feng summoned the Incarnation he'd obtained in the previous loop—Liu Xiaohu.

[Loading memories...]

As the Super Avatar System loaded, Liu Xiaohu's memories began playing before Chen Feng like a film.

[Name: Liu Xiaohu]

[Sex: Male]

[Age: Twenty-four]

[Background: Trainee agent of the P.E.A.C.D. organization]

[Note: P.E.A.C.D. is a secret organization that recruits talented individuals from around the world to fight supernatural entities and protect humanity from monsters.]

"Interesting."

Chen Feng wasn't surprised that people with supernatural abilities existed in this world. You could run into eight monsters just going out to buy cigarettes. If humanity had no way to fight back, it would have gone extinct ages ago.

"I can finally learn about this world."

According to Liu Xiaohu's memories, the P in P.E.A.C.D. stood for Phantasm: monsters with specific patterns of behavior, rules for killing, and methods of murder.

Chen Feng recalled how obeying the rules at the Mental Hospital had kept him from being attacked. "So the Professor, the Nurse, and the Director are all Phantasms."

E stood for Extraterrestrial: alien invaders driven by pure malice toward all life.

"So, aliens."

A stood for Apparition: supernatural beings born from intense negative emotions, driven to kill indiscriminately.

Chen Feng immediately thought of the Water Ghost. The Landlady had killed him, yet he'd gone on to slaughter people indiscriminately beneath Cihang Bridge. He fit the description of an Apparition perfectly.

C stood for Creature: intelligent beings born when plants or animals absorbed energy from their surroundings—in other words, through cultivation.

Chen Feng knew this category well. She Qingqing was a snake who had gained sentience, Zhu Xianxian a spider, and the Landlady...

Wait.

Chen Feng paused. "Hang on. What kind of creature was the Landlady?"

Then he slapped his forehead. "Oh, humans are animals too. Never mind."

The final letter, D, stood for Demon: higher-dimensional predators from Subspace or Otherworld who fed on the souls and negative emotions of intelligent beings.

"Fuck, there are so many kinds of monsters."

"This world is dangerous as hell."

As the memories played, Chen Feng soon learned that Liu Xiaohu had been investigating a Phantasm zone called Horror Amusement Park before he died. He had broken a rule and met a gruesome end.

Horror Amusement Park?

That sounded familiar.

Chen Feng checked the Check-In System:

[Five-star Check-In location: Horror Amusement Park]

[Required activities: Hide-and-Seek, Dancing, Haunted House, Dressing as a Mascot, Roller Coaster, Bumper Cars, Ring Toss, Goldfish Catching, Air Gun Shooting, Maze]

[Tip: The more attractions you experience, the better your Check-In reward.]

Five stars?

Didn't that make it even more dangerous than the Mental Hospital?

When he wasn't controlling an Incarnation, it remained dormant, as though asleep.

The thought that his Incarnation was in such a dangerous place and could die at any moment made Chen Feng forget all about reviewing its memories. "Quick, quick! Activate the Incarnation!"