Chapter 4: A Bit of True Spirit is Clear, All Words are Understood

"I'm back, and this thing really is stingy, deducting life even for the beginner tutorial."

Gu Shanhai looked utterly disheartened. He had lost two days of his life because, as a temp worker, he had to pay his own transportation costs. A round trip meant paying twice, which equated to two days of his life.

Besides the beginner tutorial, early-stage instances operated the same way, but in the middle and high-stage worlds of later parts, if you could complete the tasks set by "The First Epoch," transportation fees were waived. If the tasks weren't completed, naturally, you had to pay your own fees.

The beginner tutorial and early-stage instances were part of the projection world of "The First Epoch," which was essentially a fabricated world. Everything was undertaken by "The First Epoch" itself; it was considered a kind of welfare, so even completing tasks wouldn't exempt Gu Shanhai from paying his fares.

But the middle and high-stage worlds were different; by that point, you had entered the real world, where completing tasks was akin to achieving performance metrics. As the company "The First Epoch" surely had to reimburse those expenses, but if you failed, you just exited, and there was nothing.

For someone like him, a temp worker, it wasn't too bad. They wouldn't force elimination, only deduct your lifespan.

After all, as long as he endured three to five worlds, he wouldn't have to worry about his lifespan. If he still had to worry about it, then what was he doing? After all, such missions typically represented interests and would be considered highly rewarding tasks for official players.

He was certainly capable of completing them.

"Going to and from an early-stage instance costs two days of life, the middle-stage area costs two months, and the high-stage world costs even more, two years."

Looking at the three options on the wall, currently he could only access the early-stage instance. The other two options were still inactive.

The early-stage instance was restricted to one location, like the inside of an inn or certain apartments, or any fixed place. Trying to go to other locations would be blocked by an Air Wall.

The middle-stage area was an expansion of the early-stage instance, for instance, it could become a city or have an extremely long game duration unlike the half-hour to an hour of the early-stage instance. It could last for twenty-four hours or even several months.

The high-stage world was yet another scenario: freedom, yes, freedom. There were no time limits; everything needed players to develop it themselves. It truly entered the real world, where obtaining a mission required triggering it yourself.

Middle-stage areas required an invitation and evaluation points, which could only be obtained from the settlement treasure box of an early-stage instance.

Typically, a Grade-A settlement treasure box had a chance to generate random invitation fragments, and collecting ten fragments would form an invitation to a random middle-stage area. Of course, the treasure box wouldn't just contain fragments; these were merely bonuses, so it largely depended on luck.

Grade-S and higher treasure boxes could generate complete non-random invitations tied significantly to the early-stage instance worlds they had experienced, allowing access to derivative rewards from the previous instance or other types of rewards.

Gu Shanhai was in an awkward situation; he couldn't get an invitation because he had an F-grade settlement, a fixed rating, which couldn't be raised no matter how well he performed.

However, there was also an advantage in the early-stage instance; as long as he completed the mission, he would earn 10 settlement points.

With 10 settlement points, he could match once and use someone else's invitation to enter a middle-stage area.

This also benefitted the owner of the invitation; as long as someone completed the mission, even if they failed their own, they would still receive a reward as compensation.

Settlement points were not so easy to obtain: 1 point for Grade-A, 2 for Grade-S, 3 for Grade-SS, and 5 for Grade-SSS, the highest rating.

For Gu Shanhai, completing a mission guaranteed settlement points, meaning he was expected not to cause trouble in the projection world but instead in the real ones.

This was the basis for such unreasonable rewards.

According to research in his past life, most players' ratings in early-stage instances were actually Grade-A because the difficulty wasn't high, and just going through the motions generally ensured a Grade-A rating, while Grade-S and above involved the more elite and skilled players.

There were some, but they were few. Once it came to Grade-S settlements, the difficulty would soar.

Gu Shanhai used to be one of these elite players, with most of his ratings between Grade-S and Grade-SS. So, for him, guides weren't too necessary; often, he was the producer of various strategies.

However, it wasn't like he started as a top-tier player; he too had grown step by step.

After making some adjustments, mainly because his tongue hurt, Gu Shanhai began to review his gains, somewhat disdainfully, "It's just an empty room, not even a table or chairs provided. Too stingy..."

He placed the potted plant on the ground and flipped through the nameless book.

"Luckily, I carried over language and writing in my rebirth, otherwise I really wouldn't understand this thing. That would have truly been embarrassing."

Official players had "The First Epoch's" translations and didn't worry about language or writing issues. However, not Gu Shanhai, as he wasn't an official player but a temp. Should he hire a translator too? He had only the basic ticket, which assured that entering new worlds wouldn't lead to accidents due to environmental reasons or him becoming a walking plague from distinct bacteria or viruses on him, and so on.

So when he came back to life, he brought two aspects with him; one was language and writing, which constituted two-thirds of his concerns. Otherwise, not to mention reading, he wouldn't be able to communicate, let alone develop.

To understand Cultivation Techniques and spells? He might as well ask for the impossible.

The second was a bit of his True Spirit, which made up one third and included the ability to quickly adapt to various power systems and sufficient foundational cultivation skills.

This meant he learned and understood quickly and also had certain common knowledge, such as understanding some terminologies. This could form a special intersection with the languages and writings he brought back.

It's not that Gu Shanhai didn't want to bring back Cultivation Techniques or spells; they simply weren't as valuable as these two aspects, and there was nowhere to put them. He carried his utmost capacity back with him.

Besides, he had returned with some bits and pieces of miscellaneous items; these small gaps couldn't fit the suitable Cultivation Techniques he wanted to bring back.

It might as well be grabbed directly.

With that bit of True Spirit, even if he had a manual of Grand Ancestor Long Fist, he could rely on his own abilities to derive the Great Five Elements Reincarnation Fist most suited to him.

Now with Cultivation Techniques, even if they were primitive, it wouldn't be a problem for him.