Chapter 19 - Stats Befitting a Cripple
Due to the depth of his addiction to video games, Bai Zhi was cripplingly antisocial, but online, at least, he had managed to make a few friends.
These were invariably people whom he met through his games—all netizens, deeply rooted in online culture. The person going by [ Infinite Divine Wing ] who had just invited him to play was one such netizen.
After chatting briefly to prove that he was not dead, Bai Zhi turned his full attention to understanding the Player system.
Similar to most MMO* games, this interface, which was only visible to himself, was plain-looking, with seven panels: [ Player Information ], [ Attributes ], [ Skills ], [ Inventory ], [ Marketplace ], [ Auction ], and [ Quests ], respectively.
The [ Player Information ] panel proved extremely sparse.
————————————
[ Player Name: Bai Zhi ]
[ Player ID: KM4553*****352 ]
[ Handle: ＿＿＿ ]
[ Age: 18 ]
[ Race: Human ]
[ P. Level: 1 ]
[ Experience: 50／100 ]
[ Coins: 0 ]
————————————
That was all.
Bai Zhi noticed the fourth-last line and realized something. "Race... So Players can be something other than human?"
"Handle..." Bai Zhi struggled for a moment—naming things always stumped him. Finally, he decided simply to use his handle on QQ.
"Black...&White."
A reminder message popped up before him.
[ You won't be able to change your handle. Are you sure? ]
A quick tap of the OK button, and Bai Zhi was done setting up his account in this dangerous game with the world as its arena. Next, he turned his attention to the panel that most intrigued him—the Attributes panel.
Attribute panels seemed to be a feature common to all games, and allowed players to get a good grasp of their basic capabilities at a glance.
Bai Zhi was quite eager to know what his capabilities were, in numerical terms.
The Attributes panel was noticeably more interesting than the Player Information panel, and it showed seven attributes: Strength (STR), Dexterity (DEX), Constitution (CON), Intelligence (INT), Perception (PER), Charisma (CHA) and Sanity (SAN).
The first three attributes were easily understood—they reflected the speed of his reflexes and how well-developed his muscles were. Naturally, these numbers would be much higher for someone like a national athlete than for the average person, and conversely, a homebody who spent all their time gaming would have abysmal values in these attributes.
Just as the top three attributes described a Player's external traits, the next three—Intelligence, Perception and Charisma—described internal traits. Intelligence needed no explanation, while Perception was an attribute that represented a kind of sensitivity to danger—what some might call a sixth sense. The higher a Player's Perception, the stronger their ability to detect the presence of supernatural entities would be.
As for Charisma, that was purely based on the Player's looks—of course Bai Zhi would have it in spades. However, he could not make sense of the last attribute, Sanity, and the Attributes panel provided no explanation.
A 10 for each attribute was equivalent to the average capability of a middle-aged man. Anything below a 5 was considered an impairment, while a 15 represented the upper limits of what a normal human being could achieve. Bai Zhi's stats were as follows:
[ STR: 7 ]
[ DEX: 8 ]
[ CON: 6 ]
[ INT: 15 ]
[ PER: 13 ]
[ CHA: 15 ]
[ SAN: ??? ]
The sight of such skewed stats sent a shock through Bai Zhi.
He accepted that his Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution—the three major attributes—were below average, but for his Constitution to be only one point shy of basically being a cripple was ridiculous...
On the other hand, getting maximum values in Intelligence and Charisma didn't surprise him in the least. After all, he had always fancied himself a genius, while the "Bai Zhi" of this world was handsome enough to score seven girlfriends in three months, despite how much of a scumbag he was. Finally, the fact that he had a Perception of 13 shed some light on why he had attracted the attention of two supernatural entities in a row.
His Sanity attribute confounded him because there wasn't even a value assigned to it...
From Level 1 to 10, Players earned one attribute point per level, whereas from Level 11 to 20, they would earn two points per level, which they could spend to enhance any of their seven attributes.
In this system, a Player's base stats were not fixed—they reflected the Player's current condition, thus could improve with training, or deteriorate with poor lifestyle choices, as the case may be. The points added on to enhance each attribute would not change, however.
It made perfect sense. People who spent time training at the gym or running long distances inevitably saw improvements to their strength and stamina. With enough determination, it was possible to get one's Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution up to 15, that being the upper limit of what was humanly possible. Further enhancing them with bonus attribute points would allow a Player to surpass those limits.
So, the enhancement from bonus points could even allow a crippled person to raise their attributes to normal levels. And a Player gets a total of 10 points by Level 10... if they started with a 10 in any attribute, even a normal player could practically be superhuman once they reached Level 10...
As he silently contemplated the implications of everything he learnt, Bai Zhi began to feel an inexplicable sense of urgency.
From Level 1 to Level 10, Players would be given an attribute point every level, which they could spend freely. Even someone like him who was practically an invalid in physical terms could, by getting to Level 10, use those points to become the pinnacle of human perfection.
If that was possible at Level 10, then what about Level 20? According to the rules, a Player would get 20 attribute points just by going from Level 10 to Level 20. Since the game had been going on for three months, Bai Zhi was sure that the highest leveled players would have surpassed Level 10. Just how many One Punch Men and Sweeping Monks** were hidden amongst the billions of people in the world?
"I wonder what levels those three Players were..."
The memory of Wu Hua's powerful blow, which had been strong enough to send the little boy flying and leave him completely incapacitated, gave Bai Zhi a feeling of pressure.
Even with the number of high-level Players out there, there continued to be breakouts of supernatural incidents, meaning humanity was always on the defensive. The number of entities classified as Impossible would continue to increase with time, slowly but surely...
This world was far more dangerous than Bai Zhi ever imagined.
--- Chapter 20 ---
The empty Skills panel stood in stark contrast to the Attributes panel, but that was to be expected—Bai Zhi was a new Player, so had not acquired any skills.
The Inventory panel showed two items: the [ Shadowland Pass ] and the [ Shadowland Perpetual Deed ]. For the time being, Bai Zhi did not consider these a priority..
He was not sure just what kind of place Shadowland was, but it was certainly a dangerous one. Since he only had the abilities of a Level 1 Player, trying to enter Shadowland would spell certain doom.
Shadowland was a place worth exploring at some point, but now was not the time.
Bai Zhi spent some time experimenting with his Inventory. He found that the Inventory had 30 spaces of storage and could hold items from the real world. Most items could fit, but oversized things, like a whole bed, would not. Living things were not allowed in the Inventory, and try as he might, it would not accept something even as small as an ant.
"If I can't make it as a Player, I could use this to fake it as a magician..." Bai Zhi said thoughtfully as he loaded and unloaded the Inventory with various items.
The [ Marketplace ] and [ Auction ] panels were greyed out, and Bai Zhi could not use them. According to the system, the Marketplace would only become available to Players after they reached Level 2, while the Auction was unlocked by reaching Level 5. It was quite a humanistic design.
The last panel was [ Quests ], and it was empty except for a line showing a countdown of 3 days. Presumably, that referred to the remaining time on his New Player Immunity, whatever that meant.
"Three days..." Bai Zhi narrowed his eyes at the countdown timer.
According to that secret forum on the Dark Web, becoming a Player was not necessarily a good thing. Although it did come with the opportunity to achieve exceptional feats, it also meant having to risk one's life.
There was no such thing as a free lunch, so the system could not be expected to give Players the perks for free.
At irregular intervals, each Player would receive a mandatory quest assigned by the system. The quest objectives could vary widely, and completing the quest earned the Player rewards as well as experience points. There was no way to avoid getting the quests, so the Players had no choice but to complete them.
The first mandatory quest that every Player received was supposedly a freebie, the kind of quest that could be cleared just by using careful observation. Hence, the Players often referred to this quest as the Newbie Run.
Even then, Newbie Runs came in different flavors. Some could be completed alone, while others required teamwork, but they were all unique, so it was impossible to clear them by following in the footsteps of experienced Players.
The system generally assigned quests based on each Player's abilities, so mandatory quests were not supposed to lead Players to their death. Nevertheless, there were still a considerable number of Players that lost their lives every day in the course of trying to complete the mandatory quests.
The forum discouraged Players from playing as a lone wolf because the mandatory quests can be difficult. Joining a large team would allow me to easily survive the early stages when I'm lacking in skills and equipment...
Bai Zhi mulled his options over in his mind as he drummed his fingers on the table.
I could join the official organizations in each country created for that purpose, but there are also countless smaller guilds organized by Players—there are pros and cons to each.
In fact, he had already weighed the pros and cons. He knew that with his free-spirited attitude, he would never fit comfortably into any organization. He hated restrictions, but if he was going to go it alone, he would need to figure many things out from scratch.
...Perhaps he could establish his own guild in the future?
The sight of the two items in his Inventory gave Bai Zhi some ideas.