A difficult choice

"Sir, please take a look. This standard version gaming pod from Microhard Company is priced at only 18,888, making it perfect for casual gamers like yourself." The sweet-looking saleswoman Xiao Yu with a smile.

Xiao Yu shook his head. The one at home was the standard version of the gaming pod; buying this one would be worse than continuing to use the old one.

He walked past the row of identical standard gaming pods and stopped in front of a tall, black gaming pod displayed in a showcase. "How much for this one with life support equipment?"

A hint of helplessness flashed in the sales assistant's eyes, as if she felt the customer was destined not to buy and was just asking. However, her professionalism still led her to continue the introduction.

"This is the Immortal 2000 Deluxe Game Pod produced by Sky Company. It comes with life support equipment and can stay online for a month when filled with nutrient solution. At the same time, the electronic stimulation system can ensure that the user will not experience muscle atrophy due to prolonged inactivity. The dynamic ecological sac can keep the user in the most comfortable sleep state. The price is 180,000 RMB. Currently, our store is having a big promotion. If you buy now, you will receive a free gaming pod maintenance kit and four 25-liter bottles of nutrient solution."

"Hehe, it's ten times more expensive now." Xiao Yu thought to himself. Normally, he really wouldn't have been willing to spend this much money, but now, as the saying goes, "A skilled craftsman must first sharpen his tools." If he wanted to enter the top three BOSSes in the entire game, he would probably have to be online all day long, so this deluxe game pod was indispensable.

"Okay, that's it," Xiao Yu said.

Upon hearing this, the sales assistant's face immediately lit up with an incredulous surprise, but she quickly began processing the shipping procedures, as if afraid that Xiao Yu might change his mind.

Thanks to the sales assistant's work attitude, Xiao Yu returned to his apartment half an hour later, along with the Immortal 2000 Deluxe Game Pod.

Watching the staff finish installing the game pod and seeing them leave, Xiao Yu closed the door and took a deep breath. His game was about to officially begin.

However, before he could begin, he needed to do one more thing: choose the most suitable role.

When he created his Goblin character, he was just playing around, so he randomly chose a Goblin. However, if he wanted to challenge the top three bosses, then Goblin were definitely not an option. Although low-level monsters like Goblin are very easy to level up and advance, they are simply too low-class.

Having played games for so many years, Xiao Yu knew all too well that to become the big boss who would guide the plot of the next expansion, one had to first have a high level of prestige, making people think, "Wow, this monster is awesome!"

He logged onto the game's official website, opened the monster list, and began filtering his targets one by one. He only had one chance, so he had to choose carefully.

The Undead template allows players to initially choose from Walkers, Skeletons, or Wraiths, and eventually evolve into Death Knight, Lich, Skeleton Kings, and more.

The demon category is divided into Abyss demons and Void demons. Abyss demons can eventually advance to become great demons, Abyss lords, etc. Each one is majestic and powerful, but their appearance is somewhat unsightly.

In comparison, Void Demons seem rather mysterious. The only BOSS-level Void Demon that Xiao Yu knows of is the Void Lord, but he doesn't really know what it looks like.

Angels are NPCs who represent the Celestial Realm of good, but they can become corrupted and become fallen angels once they reach a certain level. So this seems like a good option. He put a checkmark next to "fallen angel".

Dragon-type creatures are divided into five-colored dragons and metallic dragons. The five-colored dragons are red dragon, green dragon, blue dragon, black dragon, and white dragon.

Metal dragons are divided into gold dragons, silver dragons, bronze dragons, and brass dragons. In the Sky World, the five-colored dragons are on the evil side, while the metal dragons are on the good side. However, as the saying goes, as long as you are willing to turn evil, any dragon can become a BOSS.

Besides the two major factions of the Dragon Clan, there are also mutated Dragon Clan such as Twilight Dragons and Void Dragons.

Dragon Clan ranks are determined by age, from lowest to highest: Young Dragon (Normal), Youthful Dragon (Elite), Adult Dragon (Beginner Boss), Ancient Dragon (Intermediate Boss), High Ancient Dragon (Advanced Boss), and Primordial Dragon (Not yet available).

"It seems the Dragon Clan has a pretty high status," Xiao Yu thought to himself. His old friend Mephisto was an ancient black dragon, and he also put a checkmark next to "Dragon Clan."

One by one, Xiao Yu eliminated all those that lacked prestige or had ugly designs, such as Orcs and ogres—those were out of the question. In the end, he selected five candidates.

These are dragon-type creatures, Void demons, Celestial Realm creatures, Undead creatures, and elemental creatures.

Compared to the aforementioned monsters, the biggest problem with elemental creatures is their lack of distinct personalities. Since they mostly appear as summoned creatures and lack clearly defined physical structures, they often don't feel like living beings. This obviously has a significant impact on their chances of becoming expansion bosses. However, elemental creatures also have clear advantages. They are the oldest creatures in the Sky World, existing since the very beginning of the world. Considering the general rule in games that older creatures are more prestigious, elemental creatures certainly have a high level of prestige.

Elemental creatures mostly possess elemental skills of their own type, making them much stronger in combat than ordinary creatures. However, they are also relatively easy to counter, which is both an advantage and a disadvantage. But now that I possess the Seed of Elements, this biggest disadvantage has disappeared.

The biggest problem now is what kind of results the mutation caused by the Seed of Elements will produce, and whether there will be any side effects. Without figuring this out, Xiao Yu cannot make up his mind to choose an elemental creature as his role this time.

Fortunately, he has many friends he can consult about this issue.

Opening his contacts list, it's clear that, being a homebody, almost all his friends are people he met in games, including professional players he'd teamed up with and merchants who resell game equipment.

He had been depressed for a while after the Flame Demon died, so he hadn't contacted these friends for a long time. Seeing their profile pictures now felt quite familiar.

Most of my friends' avatars show "in the game," but one avatar is always "online"—that person is the Profiteer.

The real name of the Profiteer is unknown, because it has not been changed since the contact name was changed to "Profiteer"Profiteer three years ago. Back then, as a 3-skull level BOSS, he obtained a lot of good equipment, most of which was recycled by the system. However, he would sell some particularly valuable equipment through the Profiteer.

I sent a signal, and soon I received a reply.

The Profiteer, "Damn, Lao Xiao, long time no see! Where have you been lately? Why are you so depressed after the Flame Demon Lord died? You're not planning to quit gaming, are you?"

Xiao Yu: "I just rested for a while, don't worry. How could quitting games be something like that for me? By the way, I want to ask you something. Do you know anything about Seed of Elements?"

The Profiteer, "I've never heard of the Seed of Elements, but I have heard of the Seed of Death."

Xiao Yu: "The Seed of Death? What's the use of that?"

The Profiteer, "It seems to be used by Undead creatures to upgrade their rank. One appeared in the auction house a while ago, and nobody was interested in it. But as soon as the announcement came out, the price skyrocketed, and I don't know which sucker bought it in the end."

Xiao Yu thought to himself that the Seed of Death and the Seed of Elements must be similar things, except that the Seed of Elements is for elemental creatures, while the Seed of Death is for Undead creatures. Could there also be similar things Seed of Demons and the Seed of Holy Light?

Xiao Yu: "What do you mean by the announcement you mentioned?"

The Profiteer, "You didn't know? The official game announcement today revealed a major event, and the forums are going crazy."

P. S.: I was struggling with which role the main character should play, so the update was a bit late. Please forgive me.