Chapter 46.1

Tang Mianmian repeated himself, “From the very start, you were the one who insisted on bringing us to District S. You begged us to wake your captain up. Now that he’s awake, you ask us for points. We haven’t even asked you to pay for the medical treatment yet!”

Duan Hongzhen glanced at Tang Mianmian and the latter immediately took a few big steps backwards, shrinking behind Xiao Tangqiu in fear. “Of course, we owe you these points. Naturally, we must still pay you back…”

Duan Hongzhen shrugged, “Fine, I’ll give you a flat rate. 50,000 points, okay?”

Tang Mianmian nodded at once, “100% ok! Then we will… “

Xiao Tangqiu quickly covered Tang Mianmian’s mouth. “I want to pay in installments!”

“Installments? Don’t you guys have at least 50,000 now? Didn’t you just complete an S-level mission?” Duan Hongzhen arched his eyebrow, emphasizing the words, “…With our help.”

Xiao Tangqiu immediately said, “Thank you great god for taking us along with you… But we still need some points to buy weapons and equipment, or we might really die in the next instance. I believe you don’t want to see this happen as well.”

Duan Hongzhen shrugged his shoulders. “Why not?”

Xiao Tangqiu offered, “… I’ll return it to you after the end of my instance. I’ll even give you 60,000.”

Duan Hongzhen smiled and mocked, “I don’t need that 10,000 points. In case you die in your next instance, I won’t even have 50,000.”

Xiao Tangqiu, “……”

He felt that he shouldn’t have mentioned returning the points at the beginning. Why did he open his stupid mouth?! Why?!

……But if he didn’t mention this matter, he might not have a reason to see Shen Yuan anymore.

Duan Hongzhen looked at Xiao Tangqiu’s expression with great interest. But after awhile, he seemed to have had enough of fooling around. Then he said slowly, “Alright, I’ll allow you to pay it back after the end of your next instance, but you’ll have to pay 70,000 points.”

Xiao Tangqiu gritted his teeth, “You’re still bargaining? Are you buying vegetables at the market?“

He didn’t know if Duan Hongzhen really had the power to look into a person’s mind because 70,000 points was indeed the most they could give now. Besides the points they needed to spend on supplies and weapons, he and Tang Mianmian had only 70,000 points to spare at most… But at least Duan Hongzhen gave them time to do another instance. As long as they returned safely from the next mission, they would have some money on hand.

Xiao Tangqiu and Tang Mianmian looked at each other and reached a consensus, so they both nodded in agreement to this method of repaying their debt.

After the three reached a consensus, Duan Hongzhen patted his bum and left while Xiao Tangqiu and Tang Mianmian returned to their new home in District D.

The two had been running all day and were so tired they fell to the floor as soon as they got home.

Tang Mianmian lay on the ground, poking Xiao Tangqiu who was beside him. “What should we do afterwards?”

Xiao Tangqiu looked up at the ceiling and said, “We’ll rest for a week, then we’ll do another mission and save enough points so we can return Duan Hongzhen what we owe. Then, we’ll continue to do more missions, save points and try to move to District S as soon as possible.”

“Move to District S? Do we really want to move there?” Tang Mianmian rolled over and looked at Xiao Tangqiu. “Although we can now enter District S whenever we want, the stuff over there must consume a lot of points and we, rookies, are broke as fuck…”

Xiao Tangqiu poked Tang Mianmian’s head, “Who among the great gods in District S didn’t start from being poor rookies? If they can do it, why can’t we?”

Tang Mianmian argued, “But Duan Hongzhen said that District S is a decadent place. What if we lose ourselves to the decadence when we enter District S?”

Xiao Tangqiu smiled, “Apart from the luxury and pleasures, there must be some secrets in District S that we don’t know of. Otherwise, why would all those people run to District S? They’ve survived so many close encounters, wandering between life and death all the time. Did they go there just for enjoyment?”

Without a second thought, Tang Mianmian agreed, “There seems to be some truth in that.”

“And I believe that the environment has a very huge impact on people. Look at those who live in Newbie Village? Their eyes and their attitudes… We’ve just arrived in the city of abyss and may not be affected by them for the time being. However, if we stay in Newbie Village for a long time, I’m afraid we’ll be influenced by them and become just as numb to everything. We’ll end up muddling along, trying to survive.” Xiao Tangqiu sighed, “I think this is the real reason why Su Manluo told us leave Newbie Village as soon as possible.”

When one has stayed in a room full of orchids and irises for a long time, one can no longer detect the fragrance. When one has stayed in an abalone store for a long time, one can no longer smell the stench… The effect of one’s environment and the assimilation to it was very frightening.

“That makes sense!” Tang Mianmian suddenly turned over and got up, his eyes filled with resolve, “Hearing you say this, I’ve also began to think that we shouldn’t waste time! We’ll pick up another mission right away to save points and try to move to District S as soon as possible!”

Xiao Tangqiu smiled, “It’s not that urgent. Let’s rest for a few days, then gather information on the forum while exercising to improve our combat effectiveness. We’ll purchase all the equipment and weapons we need before we leave.”

Tang Mianmian nodded, “That sounds perfect!”

The two originally planned to rest for a few days but because of a sudden sense of crisis, they only took one day off and began to prepare for the next mission. First, they went on the abyss forum to collect information, only to find that most of the free public posts didn’t have anything important or useful. Basically, when it came to key information, they needed to pay. So they gritted their teeth and spent quite a bit of points and finally got some valuable information.

Generally speaking, the first few missions of a newcomer, who had just entered the city of the abyss, were all D-level missions, which is probably a method to protect rookies. Next, the mission will be upgraded according to the skill and potential of the player. Some people may undergo 10 D-level missions before they have the chance to receive C-level ones whereas some may only complete 3 D-level missions before they receive C-level ones. But, there were also people of good skill and potential who could receive A-level missions and above from the very start. However, up till now, no one has been able to analyze the criterion for judging such skill and potential. Some people think it’s brute force while others think it’s brain power. Yet neither side has been able to convince the other until now.

In the beginning, Xiao Tangqiu also felt that it could be either brute force or brain power but then he remembered the group of newcomers he met in the S-level instance before. No matter how he looked at it, they didn’t look like people with enormous strength or extraordinary mental prowess… Indeed, the judgment standards were a mystery.

He went on to scroll down and found that some people pointed out that the “system” might temporarily raise the difficulty of the next mission according to the player’s performance in the previous one. However, if the player’s performance is only average in the mission where the difficulty was temporarily raised, the difficulty in the next mission would return to the original difficulty. But the system’s judgment standards on this matter were also a mystery.

Looking up to here, he couldn’t help but breathe a sigh of relief. Although he didn’t know what the criterion were, this at least proved that his and Tang Mianmian’s next mission was unlikely to be an S-level one.

As for the division of mission difficulty, there wasn’t a specific standard on the forum, but it was divided into several categories according to the overall content of the task – disaster movies, horror movies, fairy tales, science fiction movies, war movies, etc. The poster put forward corresponding weapons and equipment suggestions for different categories.

Following these suggestions, Xiao Tangqiu and Tang Mianmian bought some weapons and equipment that they thought might be useful for their next instance. They also got some food supplies and at the same time, they persisted in long-distance training everyday. Finally, they were ready to set off for the next mission in one week’s time.

“If only the system store had secret Wulin martial arts teachings such as the Dragon Eighteen Palms and the Six Pulse Immortal Sword…” Before departure, Tang Mianmian sighed at Xiao Tangqiu and lamented.

Xiao Tangqiu’s mouth twitched, “How is that possible? Even if there was, can you learn anything with your current root veins? Even if you could, you would have to learn for at least several years. By then, your body would already be cold. “

Tang Mianmian said reluctantly, “Can’t you think in a more mysterious direction? For example, what if you could learn all martial arts in an instant by tapping these Wulin secret teachings on your forehead! Even if we don’t have martial arts, magic is also good ah. One Avada Kedavra and the big BOSS is dead!”

Xiao Tangqiu stretched out a hand and patted Tang Mianmia on the shoulder. “You should go to sleep earlier in the future. It’s better for you to sleep more.”

The two arrived at the abyss square, looking around in a daze. Besides them, there were a lot of other people here to enter the instance. In the front of the transfer modules, many people came and went – some laughing, some crying. It was a scene of constant joys and sorrows.

They found two empty transfer modules next to each other. After lying in the transfer module, they took out a white card at the same time. Skill cards were divided into ordinary skill cards and special skill cards. Ordinary skill cards were all white, and what they were holding was a one-time “teammate binding” card.

“Dear players, congratulations for accepting the D-level mission “Death Playground.” Your mission objective is to escape from the Death Playground. The time limit is 1 day. After the mission is completed, you will receive 500 points. If the mission fails, you will immediately be obliterated.”

……

At the sound of the familiar mechanical voice of the system, Xiao Tangqiu opened his eyes. He looked down and found that the one-time “teammate binding” card in his hand had indeed disappeared. He quickly went to look for Tang Mianmian. As soon as he found Tang Mianmian lying not far in front of him, he immediately breathed a sigh of relief.

It seemed that this “teammate binding” card was indeed useful.

Xiao Tangqiu was with Tang Mianmian in the last instance by pure coincidence because they had entered the transfer modules at the same time. They found out on the forum that two people who entered the transfer module together wouldn’t enter the same instance. They bought a “teammate binding” card to ensure that they would enter the same instance. Aside from this one-time ordinary prop card, there were also some special props that would allow players to stay as a team for a long time. As long as they used these special props, no matter how many people entered the transfer modules at the same time, they would enter the same instance. Xiao Tangqiu guessed that Shen Yuan and his teammates used such special props.

Just then, Tang Mianmian also woke up and the two reunited.

“This looks like a D-level mission,” Tang Mianmian touched his chin. “it doesn’t seem too difficult…”

Xiao Tangqiu said flatly, “Don’t take it lightly. You can drown in shallow waters.”

Tang Mianmian nodded, “Of course.”

Before the others woke up, the two began to look at the environment of the instance. This time, the instance was obvious at a glance – they were standing at the gates of an amusement park which seemed deserted. The four words on the signboard were mottled and peeling off, leaving only the last two words “amusement park” faintly visible.

It seemed that this amusement park was the instance they were supposed to enter this time and their mission objective was very simple – to escape from this amusement park.

To be precise, it was to leave this amusement park alive.