Dying In Real Life Is Another Way To Play - Chapter 9 Lies And Half Truths In Game

When he heard this, Zhang Shan stopped in his tracks.

His face full of shock, he stared at Ye Qian with his mouth agape.

“….”

“…”

“….”

“Ha!ha!ha!” Ye Qian suddenly burst out laughing while clutching her stomach

“I can’t believe you fell for that!” She continued on giggling.

Zhang Shan tried to hide his credulity as he said in an awkward tone. “I knew that!!!, How can that possibly turn out to be true?”

Ye Qian forced herself to stop from laughing, “I know right! But you should have seen the look on your face!”

“Do you also mean to say that the incident about her first Avatar is a lie?” Zhang Shan asked trying to change the topic

“Uhm, well… that part was true, just don’ tell her you heard it from me.” She said pleadingly.

“What did you tell me anyway?” he replied feigning ignorance.

Satisfied with his response, Ye Qian started telling him about what transpired after Lan Ranyan died at the hands of the skreemarche. During the early days of the game, the game company mentioned that dying would result to a time bound access restriction period that increases every instance. This game mechanic was programmed in order to avoid wanton player killing.

When Lan Ranyan started playing the game, she randomly received an avatar from the system that has a resonance percentage of 95%. That time, people were still in the dark in terms of how the “Resonance Stat” functions or how it affects the game. It was only afterwards that Lan Ranyan found out that her initial avatar had the highest resonance that was ever been identified to exist.

After a few months in, players found out how resonance affects the game mechanics, it helps indicate how fast your avatar could acquire skills from learning, improve chances of gene devouring succes rate, multiplies your effective damage and how fast your avatar could follow thoughts that your brain has commanded it to execute.

With the benefits the resonance stat can bring, there had been a lot of players, mostly “Discovery Type Players”, who tried to uncover how they could further increase it’s percentage, but have have yet to find a much better solution than “Avatar Recycling”. The game company on the other hand just kept mum about this issue, even if players have already asked, protested and demanded to make the solution more practical.

Currently, the only way to increase it is through “Avatar Recycling”, players found out that if you die inside the game, there is a way to retain your avatar aside from waiting a new one to be randomly generated during the access restriction cooldown period. At the same time, it randomly increases your Resonance stat by at least 0.50-1%. Due to the death penalty, players found it impractical to use this method. The gains isn’t exactly up to par with the consequences.

In case of death, it is important to have someone you trust inside the game to bring back your corpse to the nearest “Treatment Facility”, once there, they would have to inform the NPC that the corpse needs to be sent to the “Purgatory Chamber”.

From there, the corpse will be placed in a liquid-filled capsule where it would healed from any injuries, the duration of the healing process is dependent on the corpse state and the “Resonance Stone” has to be intact and undamaged. The longest ever recorded so far was one month, this was a corpse that was mutilated and burnt to a crisp. The amount of Selas needed is also dependent on the severity of the damage and the length of time before the player can re-awaken.

For example, if you died the third time, you are expected to return to the game in four days. However, if your corpse is in a state such as being mutilated and burned, you would have to wait for one month before you can re-awaken effectively. This the amount of time and Selas isn’t that practical.

The forums advised that one would want to only “recycle” if their Avatar has at least 60% resonance, else it would be a waste.

Ye Qian added that it was also Lan Ranyan who discovered about the “Avatar Recycling Method” and the “Resonance Stones” through questing and investigation. The general population of the current player base at this time aren’t that too much concerned on what “Avatar Recycling” and “Resonance Stone” would signify and thus it is rarely discussed except in the Adventurers Board.

Zhang Shan finally understood how commited Lan Ranyan is regarding the Discovery Mechanics of the game.

“I just couldn’t quite figure out why she’s so obsessed about it though” asked Zhang Shan.

“Although the players call the “Resonance Stone” as such, due to it’s importance in “Avatar Recycling” and how it correlates to the “Resonance Stat”…” Ye Qian answered and paused.

“Lan Ranyan originally called and still addresses it as the “Soul Stone” she added.

Zhanh Shan nodded in agreement silently but there seems to be something about the topic which he couldn’t wrap his head around with.

The four continued moving forward until they were out of the cavern, and back in the well. Slowly but surely, they climbed their way out and journeyed back.

Once outside, Zhang Shan noticed that the sun has just risen up, seeing this he asked the others and verified that they have been indeed fighting in the cavern overnight. He just didn’t notice the actual time as he passed out.

As they entered the city, Lan Ranyan finished her notes and started asking Zhang Shan about the gene he recieved. Zhang Shan mentioned that it is currently unknown and may need to go to the Discovery Testing Facility and afterwards drop by an NPC merchant to sell or process his share of the loot.

Hearing this, Lan Ranyan stated that she wants to tag along and learn more about the gene as well. Understanding that it was her passion, Zhang Shan agreed and thought that he can ask her a few more stuff in game.

Ye Qing and Ye Qian though, opted to sell their loots first. The nearest NPC merchant was in the eastern side of the city while the Discovery Testing Facility was in the western side. As the group parted ways, they agreed to meet up back in the center of the city near the teleporter.

Ye Qing mentioned before parting ways that he’s looking forward to further partnerships with Zhang Shan, he gave him 500 Selas as agreed while the other half was provided by Lan Ranyan. Ye Qian mentioned he’s not too bad as a team mate as well while Lan Ranyan mentioned that she’ll think about whether he can become a permanent member of the group.

…

Game Monitoring Department, HIVE NEURAL TECH.

*Beep* *Beep* *Beep* *Beep*

An orange flashing icon started blinking in the monitoring screen of Yang Sun. When he noticed this, he immediately checked the details of this notification.

As he read through the details of the notification, his eyes bulged with surprise and immediately sent an email to the Game Development Department. Afterwards he grabbed his phone from his pocket and dialled a number. It took a while after the line was answered

“Vice-Chief Liu, there’s been an incident, please check the email I sent… A few minutes ago. Our systems have registered a calamity level power spike in the outskirts of the City of Magic under the Kingdom of Sylvannas ” Yang Sun said with distress in his tone.

“Initiate the “Mjolnir Protocol”, I’ll contact the Chairman and the Scientists in Hong Kong” Vice-Chief Liu responded and dropped the line.
for visiting.

Yang Sun stood up and rushed to the emergency button on the center of the room, in turn, sirens blared and red lights flashed,

*Wang* *Wang* *Wang* *Wang*

The other employees of the Game Monitoring department inside the room were alarmed and tensed up, awaiting for updates on the main screen.

Yang Sun rushed back to his workstation and projected the details and action plan on the main screen of the room entitled “Mjolnir”. The employees looked up and some of them gasped. A few breaths later, frantic sounds of keyboard and mouse clicks can be heard.

“Event Quest notification has been sent to high level players and guilds in the the city of Magic, Low level players have been notified with Server Maintenance Notification” an employee shouted.

“Beta Testers in the area have been notified as well, “Class S” Rental Facility has been opened for their use.” another employee shouted.

“The nearest AI Unit has been been activated… ETA is 30 minutes… NPC’s in the area have been “checked-in”…” said another one.

A few other reports and shouts can be heard around the room. As the siren and lights subsided.

Yang Sun’s forehead was sweating as he looked at the monitor for the current progress.

“Has the vice-chief arrived yet?” Yang Sun asked a co-worker near him.

Before the his colleague was able to respond, the Main Door of the room opened as a middle-aged man came in a rush.

“I just went out to get a coffee and sh*t starts to happen…” he grumbled.

“What’s the situation?” He asked an employee nearest him.

“Vice-Chief, Yang Sun has detected a calamity level in the outskirts of the City of Magic” the employee answered.

The Vice-Chief looked at Yang Sun’s direction and saw him frantically monitoring the main screen. He approached him immediately and asked him.

“Where did this “anomaly” occur?” He asked Yang Sun.

“Vice-Chief Liu, the anomaly was spotted at the outskirts near the dried-up well at sector 601” Yang Sun answered as he bowed.

As they were discussing other details, a shout was heard from one of the workstations in the room.

“Vice-Chief, the AI unit has arrived at the area… Video Recreation on AI unit POV feed is rendering.” a female employee reported

“Project it on the main screen…” Vice-chief Liu ordered.

Everyone looked at the screen as the video came online.

Everyone saw the desert and the dried-up well in the distance as the AI unit approached.

Near the well, they saw a man looking at the horizon while holding a sword and a purple aura glowing around him. His image on the screen is growing larger as the AI unit approached.

“Which AI unit did we send out?” Vice-Chief Liu asked the female employee surnamed Yue, without turning his head away from the screen.

Yue Jing answered, “It’s Goddess Titiana”

As she answered, everyone saw that the Man on the screen slowly looked at their direction and then disappeared.

*BBBOOOOOOOMMMMMM*

A sonic boom was heard from the video.