chapter 37

As Bai Liu browsed the forums on his game manager, he wandered through the hall, acquainting himself with the game's inner architecture.

The game lobby was divided into three main areas: the [Live Broadcast Mini-TVs] section, the [Game Login Area], and the [Game Logout Area].

Players could choose to enter a game in the [Game Login Area]; once inside, their gameplay would be broadcast on the myriad mini-TVs in the [Live Broadcast] section. Those who successfully cleared the game would reappear in the [Game Logout Area], while those who failed would be trapped forever—either transformed into monsters or meeting their end.

Of the three, the [Live Broadcast Mini-TVs] area was by far the most labyrinthine.

Its layout resembled a maze, with wildly divergent styles of décor jarringly juxtaposed. Bai Liu's eyes nearly blurred from the dizzying array of sub-areas and promotional slots, each of the hundreds of thousands of mini-TVs displaying a different player's struggle.

The [Newcomer Zone], [Death Comedy Section], and [Single Player Division]—where Bai Liu's own mini-TV had once appeared—were but three among thousands of sub-areas in the [Live Broadcast] section. The promotional slots were even more varied, with dozens of categories in each sub-area.

Yet, there was a clear hierarchy among these slots.

The most coveted, the pinnacle of all, was the [Central Hall King's Promotion Slot], reserved for the top ten players in the daily comprehensive rankings—a domain where only the true legends resided.

According to the forums, it had been ages since a newcomer had ascended to this slot. The first and second places were eternally occupied: as long as [Spade] and the [Queen of Hearts] entered the game, their mini-TVs would claim the top two King's slots.

For newcomers, the highest attainable slot was the [Central Hall Nightmare Rising Star Promotion Slot], where Mu Sicheng had long held fourth place.

The [Central Hall Core Promotion Slot] that Bai Liu had reached last time was impressive, but in the grand scheme, it was merely a [High-Level Promotion Slot], popular among paying users but still a tier below the [Top Promotion Slots] that commanded universal attention and cost the most points to view.

Mu Sicheng had lamented that he rarely made it to the [Core Promotion Slot] due to his inconsistency—on good days, he'd leap straight to the [Nightmare Rising Star Slot], but on bad days, he couldn't even touch the core.

Of course, just as there were the best slots and areas, there were also the worst.

Bai Liu's steps halted before a desolate, refuse-strewn section.

The walls here were stark white, the mini-TVs haphazardly piled into a crooked mountain, their screens flickering with the desperate struggles of countless players. Most were marred by static, some reduced to pure snow, their occupants' fates unknown.

This "mountain of TVs" stretched on and on, like a train vanishing into the endless white.

A cacophony of distorted voices filled this pure yet chaotic space, reminiscent of a futuristic graveyard for obsolete machines. The sign above the entrance seemed ready to fall at any moment, its four crooked characters reading—[The Nameless Place].

This game was brutally honest: the highest rank was [King], while the lowest were not even deemed worthy of a name.

It was the only area without any promotional slots—nor was there any need. No matter where one broadcast in this forsaken zone, the effect was the same: there were no viewers, and those who fell here had almost no hope of return. It was the game's prison, the final exile for those utterly abandoned.

Standing in this cold, deserted [No Man's Land], Bai Liu pondered, while the forums buzzed with heated discussion about him:

[The seven-day countdown for that newcomer Bai Liu, who made it into the VIP archive on his first video, is almost up. Place your bets on which game he'll choose next!]

1F: He's so adept at unconventional strategies. I've rewatched his "Siren Town" playthrough three times, and each time I notice something new. I can't wait to see him tackle a new game!

2F: Me too! I want to see him in a multiplayer game! The rewards and excitement are so much greater, and the competition is fierce. I want to watch Bai Liu go head-to-head with the top players!

3F: True, Bai Liu loves unorthodox tactics, but in multiplayer, that's a recipe for disaster. First, he can't guarantee others will follow his bizarre logic. Second, if he runs into killer-type players who rob and murder for points, he's a walking jackpot. The lobby forbids killing, but in-game, anything goes…

4F: He's better off sticking to single-player. The multiplayer zone is a slaughterhouse, and with his F-rank stats, he might not even survive the first main quest before getting killed by another player…

5F: Not necessarily. Didn't Bai Liu's "Siren Town" run see his stats spike to super-A level when his sanity dropped to 1? He might not be so easy to bully, even against the big shots.

7F: I'll just say it—his "Berserk Peak" in "Siren Town" was pure luck. If his sanity had dropped to zero, he'd have been finished.

8F: Multiplayer requires balanced stats. Bai Liu is too specialized—high intelligence, low attack. He's not cut out for multiplayer; it's suicide.

9F: The core of multiplayer is competition. The top player's rewards are on a different level. Bai Liu has no solo competitive edge; he'd have to rely on some powerhouse as a strategist…

10F: If a guild took him in and paired him with a high-attack team, he could serve as the "brain," like that player ranked 199, the [Puppeteer], who made the top 200 by controlling others.

11F: Are you kidding? As a [Puppeteer] fan, I object! Not just anyone with brains can be a [Puppeteer]-level master. Bai Liu and the [Puppeteer] aren't even in the same league! That's like comparing a pebble to the Milky Way!

First, the [Puppeteer] is a star player in the King's Guild, which spares no expense for him! All his "puppet players" are handpicked by the guild, each with stats that could crush Bai Liu. And the [Puppeteer] himself has an intelligence stat of 93! Bai Liu only has 89! Aside from a lucky break last time, he's not even in the top 100 anymore—he's ranked over 3,000 now! The [Puppeteer] is always in the top 200!

12F: The [Puppeteer] is so cautious and clever, always hiding among his puppets. I've watched all his games and still can't pick him out. Sometimes I can't even tell which player he is…

12F: By the way, didn't the [Puppeteer] lose a puppet last game? The King's Guild is recruiting a new one, and the pay is amazing—1,000 points per game, plus items. If I qualified, I'd apply in a heartbeat.

13F: Too late, the spot's filled. Some player named Li Gou got it…

———

Wang Shun could only laugh at the forum's claims that Bai Liu's rise to the core slot was mere luck. Shaking his head, he closed the game manager.

It seemed everyone had forgotten that Bai Liu's luck stat was zero. If Bai Liu was considered lucky, then the rest of them, with luck stats over thirty, must be the darlings of fortune.

Still, Wang Shun agreed with some of the forum's points.

Bai Liu was not yet suited for multiplayer. Over eighty percent of the game's population competed there, and the rivalry was brutal. Though Bai Liu's berserk state had briefly elevated him to super-A physical stats, it required his sanity to drop to one—a perilous threshold, where any monster could finish him off.

Bai Liu had immense potential, but he was still in his developmental stage. It would be best to hone his stats in single-player before braving the deadly, cutthroat world of multiplayer. Of course, for a newcomer of such promise, there was an even faster path to growth—

—to join a major guild directly.