Chapter 68
Chapter 68
Shen Yubi’s car was waiting right at the entrance.
Unlike Guan Doujin’s flashily colored sports car, Shen Yubi’s vehicle was just an ordinary black SUV, looking quite low-profile.
Chu Yue buckled his seatbelt. “Where are we going?”
“First, I’ll take you to the Mercenary Hall to have a look. If there’s time left, we’ll take a trip to the Mall. You need to buy some daily necessities.”
The clothes and toiletries he had prepared for Chu Yue were fairly complete, but undergarments and other things he hadn’t thought of still needed to be picked out by Chu Yue himself.
“Mercenary Hall?” This was a new term to Chu Yue. “What kind of place is that? I don’t think I’ve ever heard any of you mention it.”
He had been through two Instances, yet he had never heard of such a place existing in the game.
“It’s nothing mysterious. It’s just a place where missions are posted. You can probably guess its purpose from the name alone. I’ll explain the rest once we get there.”
Since he put it that way, Chu Yue wasn’t in a hurry to press for more information.
Between the two Instances, the number of veteran players he had met could be counted on one hand. It was normal that he hadn’t heard of it.
Shen Yubi didn’t drive fast. The Blank Tavern was already located near the city center, so it only took about ten minutes for the car to pull up in front of a high-rise building.
This area was clearly a bustling downtown district; people were constantly coming and going from the building before them.
Chu Yue saw Players dressed in all sorts of attire. Everyone was in a hurry, and a faint air of killing intent lingered in the atmosphere. Many of them carried a scent that made Chu Yue feel uneasy.
Shen Yubi parked the car and took two masks out of the glove compartment, selecting a white one to hand to him.
“When entering this place, it’s best to hide your appearance. Don’t be fooled by the people outside; most of them aren’t showing their true faces.
Those Human Skin Masks are more comfortable than this, but they cost quite a lot of Points.”
Chu Yue took it and examined it. The mask had no patterns or decorations-just a stark, plain white with two holes for the eyes. It was impossible to guess whether the person beneath the mask was beautiful or ugly.
He put the mask on and turned to look at Shen Yubi. The other man was also wearing a mask that was identical to his, except the color was black.
Chu Yue blinked. If they were in the outside world, the two of them could practically cosplay as the Black and White Guards of Hell.
“Let’s get out.”
The building utilized a modern architectural style. At first glance, it looked no different from a modern office skyscraper.
Once they stepped inside, however, the interior decor gave Chu Yue a small shock.
It wasn’t that it was backward, but rather that it was far too advanced.
One didn’t even need to look closely; a single glance was enough to feel the overwhelming sense of high technology filling the Hall.
A massive screen hung right in the center of the entrance Hall. The first thing Chu Yue noticed was the constant stream of scrolling notices on it.
Notices of various colors rolled across the screen. The white ones scrolled the fastest, refreshing in the blink of an eye. Slightly above them were yellow notices, which stayed for only a few seconds.
As for the red notices hanging at the very top, Chu Yue watched them for several minutes before they finally disappeared.
The Hall was quite large and crowded. Rows of machines lined both sides of the Hall, with many Players standing in front of them, observing something.
Shen Yubi pulled Chu Yue toward a secluded corner and took over a vacant machine.
To ensure Chu Yue could see everything clearly, Shen Yubi slowed down his movements as he operated the machine, explaining each step as he went.
The machine was already powered on, and with a few light taps, he entered the backend system.
“Enter your System account here, then scan your iris and fingerprint to log in.”
“This area is the Mercenary Hall; it’s where you go to accept missions.”
Shen Yubi began his explanation. “As you likely know, there is a practice of farming Points within the System Instances.”
“There are two ways to farm Points. One is to repeatedly enter low-level Instances to grind for initial Points. This is generally done by Level Three Players or below, who frequent Level Zero and Level One Instances-like Wang Meng, whom we met in the first Instance.”
“I remember you mentioned he was there to farm Points. Because the returns aren’t particularly high, but the Mortality Rate in those Instances is very low, many low-level Players flock to them.”
“By the same token, higher-level Players look down on those meager Points. When they farm Points, it’s usually by accepting commissions. To stay alive here, leveling up isn’t the only path available to you.”
“You’ve likely noticed by now that the Nightmare Trading Center doesn’t just contain items related to the game; there are also many shops and malls. These people are in the business of buying and selling.”
“After accumulating a certain amount of Points in the early stages, they exchange them for RMB in the System Mall, go to the Real World to buy stock, and then return here to trade, earning the price difference in Points. Through this method, even if they can’t unbind from the System, they can still acquire a considerable sum of Points.”
“That sum of Points can then be used to buy their lives. They post missions, and the people who accept those missions enter the game to clear stages on their behalf. Upon a successful return, the person not only gets the Points from the Instance itself but also receives extra Points from the Client.”
“Those who accept these commissions are known as Mercenaries.”
“The System has ruled this behavior as a legal transaction. Most missions in the Mercenary Hall are for Instances below Level Five. Anything higher, like Level Six or Seven, is extremely rare.”
“After all, those who can reach Level Six or Seven are seasoned Players and quite famous within the System. If they were caught hiring someone else to clear a stage for them, they’d be the laughingstock of the community for quite some time.”
As he spoke, he began demonstrating for Chu Yue.
Chu Yue listened intently. When he first entered the game, he hadn’t thought much of it; he never expected such a place to exist within the game.
This didn’t feel like a virtual world at all; it was more like a microcosm of the Real World.
This so-called Mercenary Hall was essentially the equivalent of professional power-leveling or boosting in modern games.
Some paid with money, while others provided their labor and skill; everyone got what they needed.
Shen Yubi demonstrated on the machine how to accept a mission and how to submit it upon completion. Of course, he didn’t actually accept one; once a mission is taken, there is no chance to back out.
They weren’t ready to enter another Instance yet, so there was no need to cause unnecessary complications.
Watching his movements, Chu Yue suddenly thought back to the two people they had killed in the first Instance.
Something one of them said back then had stuck with him. It was that specific comment that had allowed him to deduce that Shen Yubi was a big shot in this game.
Was Shen Yubi a Mercenary as well?