Chapter 71.1: Reality
Not long after coming out of the game, Bai Liu was walking and chatting with Mu Sicheng.
"What are the attributes panel points?" Bai Liu asked while pointing to the reward of Exploding Last Train. "Can I understand it as something that can be added to improve my attributes?"
"Yes and no." Mu Sicheng briefly explained to Bai Liu. "The player rating of this game is based on four attributes: physical strength, agility, attack power and resistance. The attribute points you've obtained can only be added to these four attributes."
Bai Liu was thoughtful. "I didn't receive any attribute points in my last game."
Mu Sicheng rolled his eyes. "This is an extra reward of the system. In your last newcomer single player game, you got the personal skill as an extra bonus. You are thinking too beautifully if you want to get the attribute points as well. It is very difficult to get this thing. In a level 2 game, only 100 attribute points are available. The system is also very stingy and this thing can't be added without limit. Once you reach the limit of your potential, the attributes won't rise no matter how many points you add to them."
"But—" Mu Sicheng gave a subtle pause. "Multiple players have died before they reach the limit of their potential. It is because a level 2 game only has 100 attribute points. There is a quick way for players who don't belong to a big guild or aren't overly skilled to gain panel attribute points but few people use it."
Bai Liu looked at Mu Sicheng. "What method?"
"Participate in the league." Mu Sicheng whispered. "This is how Spades became a player at about the S level. The league gives the winning players a high amount of attribute points."
Before Mu Sicheng could finish, several virtual fireworks suddenly exploded in the game hall. The fireworks fell in the form of various words, attracting the attention of players coming and going.
[Heavyweight! Heavyweight! The annual horror game e-sports league is here! Don't miss it! This is the annual event for all gamers!]
The players saw this and looked away like it wasn't strange.
"I don't know which guild is so rich and has started buying system fireworks so early to advertise."
"The support season has started. Starting from this week, the major guilds will start frantically advertising their players. The Kings Guild spent 10 million points on advertising last time and almost didn't come back..."
The virtual fireworks fell on the player and the player's system panel automatically popped up to a game activity interface that seemed like a grand opening.
[System activity: the horror game e-sports league is about to start!]
[Players can choose their participation status: league players or spectators.]
[As a league player, you have to fight fiercely with other players in the arena regardless of life or death. As a spectator, you can watch a lively and fierce game competition, cheer for your favorite team and players and charge and like them.]
[This is a competitive game of gambling on life and desire. Have you chosen your position? Do you choose to be a desperate participant in order to fulfill your desires or a calm bystander like a god?]
......
[Requirements for players to participate in the league registration: 5 players with 52 instances can form a team to participate in the league.]
[Competition system: Two teams will compete in a team match, a doubles match and a singles match. The one with the highest total score in the three matches will be promoted.]
[Note: If a player of a team dies during a game then the team can recruit new players by themselves.]
......
There were also many rules such as disabling the player's system store during the game and so on.
Fireworks also fell on Bai Liu's body and an for this event popped up on the system interface. He swiped through it and felt it was a bit like an e-sports competition in reality. Bai Liu actually wasn't interested in this type of e-sports game. After all, Bai Liu was a horror game maker, not a confrontation game maker.
However, he was surprised by the fact that there was an e-sports league in a horror game. Mu Sicheng seemed to have known about it a long time ago. He closed the system notification interface and complained, "It's so annoying. The guilds have started advertising everywhere again. The league's support season is coming."
"Support season?" Bai Liu looked at Mu Sicheng. "What do you mean? Is this the league you were talking about where one can gain a high amount of attribute points?"
Mu Sicheng impatiently replied, "You will know if you slide down. It is all advertising, viral advertising."
Bai Liu scrolled all the way to the end of the system page and found it was as Mu Sicheng said. The following were all advertising pages of various players and guilds. There were team posters and single player posters on the page as well as buttons for charging points and likes beside the posters. The higher the comprehensive data of the charged points and likes, the higher the ranking of the advertising page.
The number one single player poster was a photo of the side profile of a man with bangs covering his eyes.
This man had pale lips, a thin jawbone and a black, long whip hanging from his cold and thin wrist. The tail of the whip was held in his hand. His face was slightly raised and the tail of his eyes was slender. He seemed to be squinting and gave off a fierce and cold temperament. The player's photo was blurred but even from the perspective of Bai Liu who had no normal perception of human beauty, this man was very superior. It was a type of superiority measured by art standards.
The perfect bone modeling made Bai Liu think of Tawil but this person was much colder than Tawil. If Tawil had an appearance that was like moonlight, this man was like a knife without a scabbard. He had a sharp appearance that seemed to cut at people who looked at him. There was a sense of killing intent and indifference even from this type of blurry photo.
Bai Liu opened this person's profile.
[Player: Spades]
[Current support comprehensive data: 1.3 million, first among all the participating players. Unlocked the death-free gold medal.]
[Note: This player has the system shelter due to high popularity and has won a death-free gold medal. In a competition game, if the player is near death then he will be forcefully exited from the game by the system and placed in a protective cover.]
[Total points ranking: 1st.]
[Guild: Killer Sequence.]
Bai Liu slid down. The difference between Spades single player poster and the second ranked person was very big. Spades' personal poster seemed like it was taken by a passerby on the street. The second person's poster was a refined photo like a top celebrity. Even the fine hairs on the face could be seen clearly.
The second place person was an acquaintance that Bai Liu had heard about. The poster showed a beautiful girl in a cheongsam. She had snowy white skin, medium length black curly hair, apricot eyes, red lips and a peach icon under her right eye. She wore a one-side split cheongsam and satin black high-heeled shoes. One leg was slightly cocked forward, revealing black stockings. There was a set of playing cards in her hand. She was smiling but it was in a languid manner. She was very attractive with just one look. There was a type of enchanting, lustful aroma that made one fill with desire.
[Player: Queen of Hearts.]
[Current support comprehensive data: 970,000, second among all the participating players. Unlocked the death-free gold medal.]
[Total points ranking: 2nd.]
[Guild: The King's Crown.]
......
As Bai Liu kept looking, Mu Sicheng explained to Bai Liu, "In this game, there will be an e-sports league every year after August. Players can form teams to participate. Of course, ordinary players participating are just sending food to the top players. The league is the venue of the big guilds and they have a solid foundation. In order to canvass votes for the players participating in the league, these guilds will set off fireworks in the game and engage in various tricks for publicity. We call it the support season."
"The guilds will search for items in the game and store them in order to prepare the participating players and raise their attributes."
"This type of large-scale search and publicity is very annoying and it will make it difficult for players like me who don't care about the league to receive the items I want." Mu Sicheng couldn't help complaining. "This year, I heard the puppet master was originally a reserve player for the Kings Guild so they made great efforts to train him. He himself was frantically searching for new puppets. Unexpectedly, he died so they will need to change their reserve player."
"The Kings Guild is very ambitious this year. They introduced a new player called Little Witch whose personal skill can restore health in the game. She is a very rare player whom many major guilds tried to grab. She was number one on the rising stars ranking and was finally snatched by the Kings Guild."
"I heard that the Kings Guild was going to use the puppet master's control skill and Little Witch's healing skill to form a strange tactic. As a result, Puppet Zhang was killed by you and they have to change their tactic."
Mu Sicheng snorted and smiled a bit gleefully when he said this.
Bai Liu looked at the various teams and players on the promotional panel and asked, "I was puzzled about this before. In this life and death game, why are the audience's rewards so crazy. The first ranked person's charges and likes adds up to 1.3 million points and there is also competitive entertainment such as the e-sports competition."
"The audience consists of ordinary players. It is unusual for them to participate in such entertainment as this type of survival game."
Mu Sicheng swiped twice on his system panel before handing it to Bai Liu. "It is because the audience isn't just charging the players, they are also betting. Players can get 10%, the system gets 5% and the rest are for bets."
[System reminder: Before the game, 85% of a player's charged points will enter the betting system. If the player wins the competition, the spectators who bet on them can win the charging points of the losers.]
[Small gambles are pleasant, large gambles can hurt your body. Please charge as appropriate and gamble moderately.]
"What is 1.3 million?" Mu Sicheng said. "You didn't see last year's league. When the finals were played, the charged points of both sides reached 100 million. Now the support season has just begun. This data will still rise."
"The audience charging points for ordinary players like us is just a mere trifle. It is to practice raising new people."
"100 million points..." Bai Liu's focus went astray. He converted it. Even if the winning player only took 10%, that was 10 million points...
10 million points, 10 million points, 10 million points... Bai Liu's eyes slowly changed and deepened.
Meanwhile, Mu Sicheng still knew nothing and was lecturing him. "The rewards for the champion is 100 million points for each person, single and double matches. The prize for first in the team match is attribute rewards. Still, I don't know. It is said that it is different every year. Nevertheless, the points given to the winning players and the income from the charged points is an astronomical number. It is once a year and the whole family won't go hungry, so the league guilds will do their best to prepare for it."
Bai Liu's fingers on the system panel paused for five seconds. His eyes were frozen for a long time when he heard '100 million points per person'. Then Bai Liu took a deep breath to calm down. He sighed and quickly turned to the registration interface he had swept past previously.
Fuck the story game experience! He wanted to participate! Let him participate!
TL: Kings Guild and King's Crown are the same. For some reason, the author uses multiple names for a few guilds mentioned in the novel. I just went with whatever name the author chose in the raws.
P roofreader: Purichan