Ren Suo powered up his computer. After waiting for over a minute, he finally saw a message from 360 Security: "This startup took 10 seconds. Your startup speed has beaten 99% of computers nationwide!" Then, he leisurely opened a Word document.
Another ten seconds or so passed, and the 2003 version of Word finally launched.
This should give you a pretty good idea of Ren Suo's computer's performance: describing it as a "faded beauty" wouldn't be far off. However, he only used it to watch videos and write essays, so it met his daily needs.
But ever since he started playing the Mini-World Game Console and experienced its responsive, high performance, he found his old machine less appealing by the day. Electronics hold little nostalgic value; after all, while their performance might not change much, their appearance steadily improves, often featuring more and brighter lights.
In Word, he wrote:
"Over My Dead Body: Chapter One"
"Infiltration: Chapter One"
"Slaughter Dungeon"
He paused, hesitated for a moment, and then added:
The top reward for "Over My Dead Body: Chapter One" was 80 Merit Points with a difficulty of two stars, and its exclusive reward was the "Strong Heart Technique."
The top reward for "Infiltration: Chapter One" was 100 Merit Points with a difficulty of two stars, and its exclusive reward was "Heart of Deceit."
The top reward for "Slaughter Dungeon" was 60 Merit Points with a difficulty of one star; because it was a free game with a one-star difficulty, there was no exclusive reward.
Because he already had some Merit Points, the system not only displayed the top rewards (which hadn't been shown for last month's free games) but also presented a tip: completing any chapter of a free game would reduce its total purchase price by a certain amount.
Players could find out the total price of games using the search function in the World Store.
For example, Ren Suo had played the "Bloody Banquet" chapter of "Assassin," so it would be discounted when he searched for it, but he didn't know by how much. He wasn't willing to spend 10 Merit Points just to satisfy his curiosity.
"Over My Dead Body: Chapter One" was a management game. Its synopsis read: "Experience the true management of a family! Amid disasters and calamities, ghosts and monsters, not only do players need to preserve their clan in chaotic times, but they also have to outwit various powers to break the family curse."
"Infiltration: Chapter One" was a text adventure game, described as: "With a heart both boiling hot and ice-cold, will you enter the endless hell of lies for a brighter future for your country, filled with hope yet undaunted by the prospect of death, or will you become a drifter swayed by personal honor and disgrace?"
"Slaughter Dungeon" was a card adventure dungeon-crawling game, stating: "The Abyss lurking in the dungeon has corrupted the world. For your own sake, you must traverse despairing cities, dark caves, and terrifying dungeons to battle the heart of the Abyss."
Ren Suo took his hands off the keyboard and fell into deep thought as he looked at the document.
These three games were this month's free offerings, and they all seemed pretty good.
However, he could only choose one of the three.
There was a way to play more free games. The system hinted that if the player's Level increased, the number of free games they could select each month and the total number of free games available would also increase. But Ren Suo currently had no idea how to raise his Level, so he had to adapt to the console and make a painful choice.
After all, there were no game discounts right now; if he didn't play the free games, he'd have nothing to play. With the few Merit Points he had, he definitely couldn't afford any games after paying for a search.
What should I do? Ren Suo hesitated.
If he ignored the game content and judged solely on rewards, "Infiltration" undoubtedly had the best value. The short-term benefits were Merit Points, and the long-term benefits were game discounts, though its exclusive reward, "Heart of Deceit," seemed useless.
"Over My Dead Body" ranked second. Its value was slightly less than "Infiltration," but the exclusive reward, "Strong Heart Technique," seemed interesting. Unfortunately, he didn't know the specific details of this Skill.
"Slaughter Dungeon" had the lowest value, with both short-term and long-term benefits being unsatisfactory; plus, it had no exclusive reward. It was the kind of game one would only choose if there were no other options, much like when "Assassin's Bloody Banquet" was his only choice.
However, considering the game content, the decision wasn't so simple.
"Assassin's Bloody Banquet," game difficulty: one star. "If You Are Strong, Climb Ten Thousand Meters," game difficulty: one star.
These two games were unquestionably among the simplest, but were they easy? The former required some real thought to beat, and the latter had kept him up for several nights.
You should know, although Ren Suo hadn't bought a game console before, he did go to Internet cafes to game. While not quite a gaming deity, he was definitely not unskilled. He simply moderated his gaming for the sake of his future, but his skill level was pretty much top-tier for his age. In FPS and MOBA games, his classmates would clamber to ride his coattails.
Even for someone with decent gaming talent like him, a one-star game had nearly stumped him. So, how hard could a two-star game be?
After much thought, Ren Suo decided to postpone choosing a game for now. He had been traveling by car all day and was tired; it was probably better to rest first.
CTRL+A, Delete.
Ren Suo impulsively deleted everything he had just typed, then took a shower. He reheated his cooled beef brisket noodles with zhajiang sauce, brought them to the computer desk, and opened the Gilirili video website, preparing to watch videos while eating… A late-night snack?
However, when he opened the website, he spat out the scorching noodles he had just put in his mouth, spraying his keyboard and screen with hot, sticky, brown noodle paste.
On the banner at the top of the site, which usually displayed seasonal information and major site promotions, there was now only a simple black-on-white message:
If You Are Strong, Climb Ten Thousand Meters!
After cleaning up the mess he'd made, Ren Suo took a deep breath and clicked on it, only to find… Holy crap!? A large-scale documentary series!?
The entire video was split into 55 parts. Except for the last two, each part was 120 minutes long, totaling nearly four and a half days of content!
Each part had its own title. For example, the first three were "April 3rd 00:00–02:00," "April 3rd 02:00–04:00," and "April 3rd 04:00–06:00." They were all categorized by time, extending to part 54: "April 8th 10:00–11:43."
The final part was titled "Highlights." It seemed to be an edited and revised version, but it was also 200 minutes long—nearly three hours!
April 3rd…? Wait, wasn't that the first day of his training camp? But that was also the second day he uploaded his game review!