Chapter 4: Beginner's Task
Zhou Yuan soon found the relevant prompts.
"Daily tasks are intelligently generated based on the player's personal situation and their surroundings.
Copy tasks are generated based on unusual phenomena in reality; the game copy that players enter corresponds to areas in the real world with unusual phenomena."
"It really is the real world."
Zhou Yuan looked at the task list and couldn't help exclaiming, "Each copy task corresponds to an unusual phenomenon in the real world. With so many tasks and so many anomalies, ordinary people are completely unaware, and the secrecy of the relevant departments is absolutely watertight."
He took out his phone and searched for the events of last night, and sure enough, they had already caused a huge stir.
Xinhu City is a top-tier city in East Continent, a true world-class metropolis, and this time the incident involved the widely watched Stars Network, so the related news naturally became a global hot search.
The relevant departments also explained this dangerous situation—the disaster was caused by a gas pipeline leak, which ultimately led to a fire and explosion, resulting in significant casualties and property damage.
I don't believe you at all.
Buzz buzz.
The phone suddenly vibrated, and a message popped up.
Mr. Wang: "@All members, everyone come to the fifth floor of the Huating Hotel at ten this morning for a meeting to arrange subsequent work."
Stars Network has branch offices around the world, with data shared on the cloud and operations running twenty-four hours a day. Although the headquarters was destroyed and a large number of core employees died, the data is intact, and it won't falter from this alone; at most, the game's release will be delayed a few months.
The survivors are still employees of Stars Network, so arranging subsequent work is normal, but before starting new tasks, I guess they'll give everyone a few days off.
With two hours until ten, Zhou wasn't in a rush, so he turned off his phone and continued to research attributes.
"Now I have 2 points I can allocate. Which attribute should I add to?"
"Strength, agility, and constitution can all be improved through exercise in the early stages. The most cost-effective method is to exercise to the limit before adding points."
"Intelligence is my weak spot, only at 3—I have to add 1 point, or I'll really become a weak-brained warrior."
"The remaining 1 point... hmm... I'll add it to charm."
Over the years, Zhou Yuan has come to deeply understand the saying, "Being handsome means you can do whatever you want"—the world really is superficial, all about looks. The better you look, the friendlier the world is to you.
After adding the points, he felt his thought processes speed up noticeably, as if the whole world had become clearer, then he rushed to the mirror to closely observe his changes.
His skin had become exceptionally clean, the dark circles from frequent late nights, rough pores on his face, and blackheads on his nose all vanished, and his facial features subtly adjusted to be more pleasing to the eye.
"Just 2 more levels of charm and I can reach the human limit of level 10. I wonder what breaking through level 10 will be like."
Zhou Yuan started browsing the store, looking for ways to boost his attributes. If he could buy some cheap items, he might be able to pull his charm up directly.
Search keyword "charm."
"Fashion Glasses, ordinary, 3000 Star Coins, wearing them increases charm by +1."
"Enchanting Eyes, rare, 30000 Star Coins, wearing them increases charm by +10 and grants the skill 'Enchantment'."
"Aura of Elegance, perfect, 100000 Star Coins, activation increases charm by +50%."
After looking around, Zhou Yuan found that all the items and skills were too expensive for him to afford, so he deleted the keyword and sorted by price to check the cheaper items first.
"Huh?"
Suddenly, a skill name caught Zhou Yuan's attention.
"Skill Name: Sit and Forget Tao"
"Quality: Rare"
"Special Effect: Earn unrighteous qi through deceiving others, consume unrighteous qi to use Divine Skills of Sit and Forget Tao."
"Note: Hehe..."
"Price: 100 Star Coins."
"So cheap? Bought!"
Zhou Yuan was thrilled and decisively placed the order; this skill was god-level!
However, right after purchase, he heard a mocking voice in his ear:
"Hehe, he believed it, the fool actually believed it!"
Then, the system popped up a prompt.
"—You have triggered the game easter egg 'Sit and Forget Tao'!"
"Message from the production team: Dear players, we specifically designed this easter egg in the game to remind every player to heighten their scam awareness.
In daily life, please always be vigilant, do not believe strangers lightly, do not share your personal information casually, and never let momentary greed trap you in a scam.
We wish you a pleasant gaming experience."
Zhou Yuan was stunned.
"Damn!"
He was furious, "Give me my money back!"
Who the hell designed this!
After fiddling with the system for a while and confirming that he couldn't get the 100 Star Coins back, Zhou sullenly opened his backpack and chose to sell the "Corpse of the Netherworld Wolf."
"You sold the 'Corpse of the Netherworld Wolf,' Star Coins +100."
Forget it, it's 1550 Star Coins again, as if I haven't lost anything.
He could only console himself like that.
Seeing it was about time, Zhou Yuan changed clothes and prepared to go to the hotel meeting.
After going downstairs, he slapped his forehead, remembering his electric bike was still at the company, likely burnt to ashes by now.
Helplessly, he scanned a shared electric bike on the roadside.
·
·
Fifth floor, Huating Hotel.
Mr. Wang shook Zhou Yuan's hand and said, "Zhou, thank you for your support and help to the company in the past. I sincerely wish you smooth sailing, success in your career, happiness in life, and a bright future."
Zhou Yuan looked at the dismissal notice on the table and fell silent.
He had been fired.
This was to be expected; a security guard is not a key talent, and with the headquarters gone, the executive who used to pull strings for him had also died last night—naturally, Stars Network had no reason to keep employing him.
"Fine, dismissed then, just give me N+1."
Zhou was quite optimistic. Now with the system, making money would definitely be easier than being a security guard.
If nothing else worked, he would become a streamer and make waves; with this face with a charm level of 8, it'd be unjust if he didn't become popular.
After signing the resignation agreement, Zhou Yuan did not linger and went straight home to set up a workout plan to boost his attributes.
However, just then, the system's notification sound rang.
[Newbie Quest Delivered]
[Quest Name: "Frenzied Music Score"]
[Quest Objective: Eliminate 0/3 aberrations corrupted by the Human Skin Score]
[Quest Reward 1: Experience Points*200]
[Quest Reward 2: Star Coins*2000]
[Quest Reward 3: Random Quality Item Pack*1]
[Quest Reward 4: Random Quality Skill Scroll*1]
[Accept/Reject]
[After accepting the quest, players have 10 minutes to prepare and can start the quest at any time during this period.]
"Newbie quest..." Zhou Yuan raised an eyebrow.
In "Child of Stardust," quests are divided into three types.
The first type is real-time quests that are generated based on current events.
The second type is available quests in the quest bar, including instance quests and daily quests that players can freely undertake.
The third kind is periodically assigned by the system based on the player's overall quality.
This newbie quest was clearly the third type, aimed at guiding new players with a generous reward, and if lucky, could yield a big prize.
"Accept."
[Quest Start Countdown—9:59]
Zhou Yuan took out a Steel Rose Revolver from his backpack and used spirituality to create four standard revolver bullets—each type of bullet requires a different amount of spirituality, but standard revolver bullets only need 50 spirituality points each to make.
Next, he opened the item packs and skill scrolls he had obtained from previous quests.
The items from four standard quality item packs and one random quality item pack were "Serial Killer's Spoon," "Rock," "Toilet Paper," "Emergency Syrup," and "Ghostwalker."
Among them, only "Emergency Syrup" and "Ghostwalker" were useful; the rest were useless junk.
[Name: Emergency Syrup]
[Quality: Standard]
[Special Effect: If pursued by an enemy, throw the Emergency Syrup in any direction, and the enemy will prioritize chasing the Emergency Syrup and drink it.]
[Note: Don't chase me anymore!]
In simple terms, when being pursued, throw this thing to control the enemy for a while and gain time to escape.
Ghostwalker turned out to be a superior quality item from the random quality item pack, with straightforward brutal capabilities: ignoring physical collisions + increased movement speed.
[Name: Ghostwalker]
[Quality: Superior]
[Special Effect: Turn into a ghost state for 6 seconds, increasing movement speed by 30% and ignoring physical collisions during this period.]
[Consumption: 100 points of spirituality]
[Cooldown time: 60 seconds]
[Note: Make sure not to get stuck in the terrain as the ghost state is about to end unless you're tough enough.]
Zhou Yuan chose his equipment, his shoes automatically went into the backpack, and the Ghostwalker shoes were worn on his feet, automatically adapting in size and shape, and even their appearance was transformed into the shoes he had worn before, which was very convenient.
Then, he opened the equipment obtained from the superior quality item pack.
[Name: Bow Tie Voice Changer]
[Quality: Superior]
[Special Effect: Can store up to 10 different voices, requires more than 10 seconds of original voice recording when collecting. If the original voice owner and the user belong to different species, the device will automatically translate the user's speech into the language of the original voice owner.]
[Note 1: It is recommended to pair with real-time translation earphones to avoid communication issues.]
[Note 2: Beware of online love because you never know whether the sweet-voiced lady on the other end is human or Cthulhu.]
Finally, the skill scroll.
[Skill Name: Condensed Qi Fist]
[Quality: Common]
[Special effect: Condenses Qi into a huge fist, striking enemies.]
[Consumption: 300 spiritual points]
[Note: In the early 30th century, martial monks' favorite major was civil engineering, and this skill was used in demolition blasting.]
Being cautious, Zhou Yuan carefully selected some practical items in the game mall.
He spent a total of 550 Star Coins and obtained bulletproof vests, night vision goggles, tactical gloves, combat knives, powerful flashlights, White Phosphorus Incendiary Bombs, and one-time transformation cards.
"Finally, there is one system feature that must be upgraded."
—Eyes of Identification!
Zhou Yuan clicked on the upgrade without hesitation.
[Star Coins-1000]
[Eyes of Identification LV0→LV1!]
[Eyes of Identification: Identifies objects in the line of sight, yielding unexpected information and quest hints. The higher the function level, the more detailed and rich the obtained information and hints. (Note: The highest level is LV5)]
Everything was ready.
Zhou Yuan opened the backpack and used the "one-time transformation card" he had just bought—since there was an organization managing supernatural powers, disguise was necessary, at least until he grew stronger; it was better not to reveal his identity, as the "player panel" could be a hot potato.
[Name: One-time Transformation Card]
[Quality: Common]
[Special Effect: Automatically transforms into an appearance suitable for the instance environment, the appearance must be in human form, and height and weight cannot be changed. The appearance attractiveness is affected by the player's charm value.]
[Note: In the future world, with the emergence of transformation cards, the streets are filled with handsome men and beautiful women, as people indulge in the handsomeness and beauty brought by transformations and gradually forget their true appearances.]
Zhou Yuan looked at himself in the mirror, he had transformed into a blond-haired, blue-eyed Caucasian man, and with a charm value of 8, he looked no less than those popular stars.
"Start the quest."
The next second, his figure vanished.