9 Intermission (3)(Chapter preview)

"The scenario has been completed. Calculating the reward.

"Obtained EXP: 500, Game Coins: 0.

"Obtained Equipment: None

"Completed/Accepted Quests: 0/0

"Completed Special/Hidden Quests: 0. Unlocked World-building: None

"Time of Terror Points Increase: 0. Highest Terror Points: 0%. Average Terror Points: 0%

"Your Terror Rating is: Embodiment of Valor. No extra reward for Training Mode.

"Calculation completed. Please continue."

The Team Mode rewards were a little different. In Thriller Paradise, the number of mobs a player killed would not affect the final EXP awarded. All the EXP would be calculated at the end of the scenario. Normally, as long as they did not disturb the scenario too much or were a menace to the team, every survivor would get the same amount of EXP, unless of course the player was deemed too much of a dead weight, in which case the system would deduct some of their EXP.

This was to prevent overkill and kill stealing issues. For certain players, to ensure that they would get the item drop and the EXP from killing a monster, they would use an attack that was more than required to kill the beast. This was a totally selfish move because it benefited the person more than it did the overall team.

However, this setting led to another issue; since everyone would get the same amount of EXP, those who tanked would lose more Life Points for no reason, and this caused players to push away from that role. Therefore, the system came up with a compensation system. Those who were good at fighting would receive additional Skill Points.

Not only did Thriller Paradise not provide extra EXP from killing monster, the concept of 'loot' was absent as well. For example, after a mummy died, it would not suddenly leave behind a knife, a shield, or a gun for no reason. If a player had to get something from it, then it would be a rotten bandage or dried meat, and that… was if the player was courageous enough to cut those things off its dead body. But most of the time, they would be rather useless as explained by the item attributes, the perfect example being the rock.

It was somewhat 'interesting' to gain equipment in this game. Other than special locations that could only be accessed through puzzle solving, most of the time, for scenarios where items were needed, the players would have to go search for them themselves. For example, they could find a Spiderman costume in a shop by the roadside. It could be totally useless, or it could be a costume with a special effect. As another example, when a play was wandering in the sewers, they might find a weapon like dual daggers, a sword, or nunchucks.

In conclusion, to gain equipment in the scenario, players had to have either intelligence, good luck, or hard work. They could only hope for the first two, but as for the last one, it meant that they had to search harder. Of course, exploration required the support of decent fighting mastery because the scenario would not normally have allowed the players to wander freely. On top of that, the players had to have sufficient Life Points to wander about.

With regards to ways to obtain equipment outside of a scenario, that was still unavailable in closed beta. After the trading post was open, however, they could purchase them with Game Coins and Skill Points. There was no need for extra explanation for Game Coins. Like most games, that was the currency to be spent at the Trading Post or to buy items from other players.

Skill Points were a rarer currency. Players could not trade Skill Points among themselves, and the Trading Post would not accept them either. Skill Points could only be used at one location—the Thriller Box. That was the name given to the special Trading Post within the system. No one knew why that was; perhaps they thought that the players would be given a 'thrill' once they opened the box.

One could get two types of rewards from the Thriller Box. The first was Game Coins; the players could get a lot of those. The second was items that could not be taken out of the scenario like the Zombie-Must-Die that Feng Bujue had received in his tutorial. Obviously, this was more of a plot item in his tutorial to help him win against the zombie that he would not normally have defeated at his level. Therefore, it could not be taken out of the scenario.

Similar equipment, items, and skills would not disappear from the database after the scenario ended. Even though the players could not take them out of the scenario, they would be sent to a place that like a recycle center, and that place was the Thriller Box. Those things would be sold as products and could only be purchased with Skill Points. Their attributes would have corresponding changes, like the usage conditions of the equipment being adjusted. Some special effect that was limited to a certain scenario might be corrected, or the type of the Skill Card would change.

The Thriller Box was unavailable for closed beta because the 'recycle center' was still quite empty. After the beta was over, the game would receive a lot of new players, so they needed some time to collect stock. After this special shop was opened, to control the number of items on sale, once they were put on display, products that were not sold within seven days would be permanently deleted.

The maximum level for the closed beta was twenty, and for this kind of game, level was not that important. Game Coins could be purchased with real money in the future. Therefore, the biggest advantage a closed beta player could get was to collect many Skill Points. When the first set of products was revealed at the Thriller Box, those with plenty of Skill Points would have many options, and that was a great advantage.

At this point, it was pertinent to take a closer look at combat because the two were related. After all, the reason for combat was to gain Skill Points.

Not everyone was good at puzzle-solving, but combat was something that everyone could participate in. The setting for Skill Points was, 'Any action that increases your efficiency in-game will award Skill Points', and that did not only include puzzle-solving. In fact, it was even more common during combat. For example, landing a critical hit, multi-kills, and scenario-limited kills…

There was an easy example to find for this. During Feng Bujue's tutorial, if he did not find the key from the rectangular room and chose to kick the door down, he would have gotten Skill Points as well. The important point was how he chose to kick the door down. Most would kick it from the front and use the bottom of their feet because that was how most movie stars did it. But actually, that was the most exhausting method. Kicking from the side would be less demanding, and if Feng Bujue had used this more efficient way to kick down the door, he would have been awarded with Skill Points as well. However, it would not have been as many as he got from problem-solving, probably just around ten points.

These were the two paths that the players could make. Those who liked puzzle-solving would gain a lot of Skill Points by unlocking puzzles, while players who preferred combat could gain Skill Points through endless training and fighting. Under normal circumstances, the fighters would actually get more Skill Point overall because, once the puzzle-solver was stuck, no matter at which step, they would get zero Skill Points in the end. In other words, for the puzzle-solver, Skill Points were rewarded in one-go, while for the other, it was a slow but effective accumulation.

But regardless of the player's choice, the game was heavily against brainless activities. The setup of various scenarios was to make the players lose their cool and make rash decision. In Thriller Paradise, only logical actions would earn them the largest reward.

…

Feng Bujue returned to the log-in lobby to look at the reward calculation. When he opened the menu, he noticed that he had risen to level four already. His Life Points had increased to 400/400, and his current EXP was 0/400. The system seemed to have a standardized way of calculating EXP as well; at least, so far, it appeared as if every hundred additional EXP had increased his level by one, and the increase was reflected in his Life Points as well. Of course, there was no official data to support this, and the forum guides did not mention this either, so there was a possibility that he would need a greater amount of EXP to level up when he got to a higher level.

"Brother Jue, I rose to level three directly! Just forty EXP away from level four!" Wang Tanzhi's voice came from the communicator.

"I know." Actually, Feng Bujue had already calculated Xiao Tan's EXP. The only difference between them was that Feng Bujue had the additional thirty EXP from his tutorial. "If we play another Team Training Mode, we will both rise to level five, but this mode is really not worth it. After we reach level five, we will be thrown into Team Survival Mode, and that is when the real game starts. Currently, however, we are seriously lacking equipment. We don't even have common equipment, much less good items. We might drag other people down if we join a team scenario…"

"Huh? Team? Others? Who?" Wang Tanzhi asked.

"You really haven't read the manual, haven't you?" Feng Bujue said. "The number of team members for Team Survival Mode is randomized, the lowest being two and the highest being six. If you are lacking, then the system will pair you with other players. If we had six people, then there would be no problem, but there are only two of us. If we are lucky enough to get a two-person scenario, then it'll be fine, but for the rest, we'll need to cooperate with others.

"If we are too weak, we might die in the process. Even if the scenario is cleared in the end, the reward is only calculated from the contribution you make before you die. So, if you pass out before the scenario ends, you will not get the final reward.

"Furthermore, in that kind of situation, there is the issue of sharing. For players who are just pushed together by the system, the overall rule normally is finders keepers. Unless it's items that cannot be brought out of the scenario or are unusable to the players, people will not normally share the equipment or Skill Cards they find.

"Such is human nature. Even if they find something useless, something that wouldn't sell for ten Game Coins at the Trading Post, they will be unwilling to gift it to other players in the same team. You have to give them something in exchange to make them feel like they did not lose something for no reason."

At this point, Wang Tanzhi said, "In other words… if we do not make use of this opportunity to increase our ability, things will be difficult after level five. If we do not unlock more masteries, even if other people pity us with their items or Skill Cards, we will not be able to use them."

"It's good that you understand that," Feng Bujue replied. "Now, we should split up and go for a solo survival mode."

"I knew it! The whole speech was just to get rid of me!"

"We should have completed the scenario earlier with flying colors." Feng Bujue laughed. "Normally, we shouldn't get as much as five hundred EXP. I believe… the system didn't expect any players to kill the boss. The chance of clearing the scenario by killing the boss is very low. If you clear it the normal way, at most you'll get about three hundred EXP.

"But since our levels have risen at a faster rate than we expected, then it'll be best if we each challenge a Solo Mode to push our level to five. After that, our ability should have an observable increase. We should try to unlock at least one or two more masteries and grab one or two more pieces of equipment or skills."

"Okay, I guess, we'll split up for now. You can see my status through the friend list, right?" Wang Tanzhi asked.

"Yes," Feng Bujue answered. "Whoever finishes their scenario first will wait for the other. If there are no accidents, at most, it'll take one hour for us to clear the scenario, and then we can head to the Team Survival Mode that I've heard so much about…"