[Cleared Game Project: Seven-Day Samsara City. Rating in progress—]
[Rating: A (You received unanimous praise from all the Bosses)]
[Passive triggered! Earned clearance points: 1000]
[Drawing official player clearance reward item—]
[Ding! Congratulations, player has obtained [Strawberry-Flavored Nutrient Solution]]
[Special mark detected!]
[Beep! Please enter the next game within seven days! (Or game will be forcibly initiated after 168 hours)]
Sitting in the room, Mu Anqi hadn't even had time to get excited about the 1000 points before being stunned by the line: "You received unanimous praise from all the Bosses."
What does this mean? The trial instance… all those Bosses could see it?!
Mu Anqi suddenly thought of the projection technology used by the Taiyin Circus. Hmm… Bosses recruiting players, so they'd watch the players' performance in the trial—that made sense. As for the word "all," could it be that other Bosses were also pleased with her performance?
Because of what? Her ability? Her composure? Her method of clearing the level? …Her attitude toward the White Paper residents?
Mu Anqi didn't know.
Oh well, whatever the reason, an A rating was still pretty sweet. She didn't think further—after all, who could understand a ghost's way of thinking? She looked at the nutrient solution she got this time…
[Strawberry-Flavored Nutrient Solution]: A plain and ordinary nutrient drink, but it's strawberry-flavored~ (Can replenish a day's worth of energy)
Hmm, if future games featured a "famine" scenario, or if she couldn't be sure whether food was safe to eat, this nutrient solution would come in handy.
Mu Anqi placed the palm-sized pink nutrient solution into her backpack. The red envelopes in her backpack had all turned into Guan coins. As for the exact amount… Mu Anqi activated her ability to convert all the Guan coins into red envelopes again, and then saw her current total: "1440."
Not bad.
[Ding! Special ability and special item "Guan coins" detected. Item activated: Guan coins Bank Card! Use for 100 points?]
[Guan coins Bank Card]: A slim card that thoughtfully stores every single Guan coins for you! Withdraw and deposit through mental commands—simple and convenient, your ideal companion!~
"..." She had just been worrying about what to do if she collected too many Guan coins in the future, and now…
Mu Anqi bought a card. She then used her mind to store all the Guan coins into it. From now on, whenever she used[Money Makes the Ghosts Go 'Round] skill and activated it with her mind, the red envelopes would appear directly in her hand.
Tucking the bank card away securely, Mu Anqi rubbed her hands together and opened the abilities tab. The trial instance counted toward her total game runs, so since she got reward points, she could naturally also draw a new skill!
[Spend 200 points to acquire a random skill?]
Just 200 points? Piece of cake!
Offensive skill, give me one! —
[Ding! Congratulations, you have obtained passive skill: Heaven's Chosen Girl! Detected that the player already possesses this skill, Passive · Chosen Girl has been automatically upgraded.]
[Passive · Choosen Girl]: Receive a random amount of Guan coins upon entering a game. (Enhancement +1 effect: +500 Guan coins received)
Mu Anqi: …
Mu Anqi was dumbfounded.
Th-this skill works like that? Have I already drawn all the skills for you to start repeating them? This damn system's face is just like certain gacha games—new character released, I pull a ten-roll in anger, and the pity reward gives me an off-banner. Ridiculous!
"I freaking—I'm loaded, okay?! And this nonsense of only getting one skill draw per game is completely unreasonable!"
[All final interpretation rights belong to Nirvana Space.]
Fine, that's totally fair.
Player: Mu Anqi
Age at death: 20
Ability: I Have Plenty of Money
Points: 829
Transaction Serial Number: 64805368
Guan coins: 1440
Perhaps because the system detected that she was carrying the Guan coins bank card, Mu Anqi's panel now had an added Guan coins display. That made things much more convenient.
Seven days of rest… Mu Anqi thought, surely no one would complain that the break was too short, right? Unless some players didn't even have enough points to eat. With more downtime, Mu Anqi wasn't in a hurry anymore. She took a quick shower, changed into clean clothes, then slung her backpack over her shoulders and headed to a food shop.
Since there was no rush, Mu Anqi ordered a hot pot.
As the aggressively aromatic scent of hot pot spread out, Mu Anqi held her bowl of dipping sauce and looked at the whole plate of fatty beef, nearly moved to tears: how long had it been since she last had hot pot? Finally! She could finally enjoy a proper, satisfying meal!
Was this the benefit of being recruited by a Boss? Not bad at all.
Taking big bites of meat, she wrapped the hot fatty beef slices in a layer of sesame sauce in her bowl, then stuffed them into her mouth—spicy, numbing, fresh, and flavorful. Mu Anqi scooped up five or six pieces of beef with her chopsticks, rolled them evenly in the sauce, and took another hearty bite. She finished it off with a big gulp of soda. Burp.
By the end, Mu Anqi left the food shop holding her waist from being too full.
She slowly walked into the clothing store and bought two more sets of red-and-white tracksuits and two pairs of white sneakers—because she felt that outfit matched her candy cane better. After that, Mu Anqi headed into the weapon shop. But upon seeing that weapons weren't on sale today, she turned instead to the item shop.
Mu Anqi spotted a ring that cost only 100 points and had just one function: warning. As long as a ghost appeared nearby, the ring would heat up. The more numerous and powerful the ghosts, the hotter the ring would get.
Mu Anqi was immediately tempted when she first saw it, but she quickly realized the ring was a bit useless—after all, the entire game was filled with ghosts! From start to finish, it was all ghosts! Plus, she had joined a Boss's faction. If she bought that ring, her hand would probably get cooked on the spot.
Sighing, Mu Anqi looked at the ghost-expelling talismans, priced at 50 points each. These talismans were only effective against ghosts in the "Initiation Stage." As for those effective against ghosts in the "Barrier-Breaking Stage," they had shot up to 250 points each.
What? You're asking about the "Origin Opening Stage"? Mu Anqi wanted to ask that too. But there weren't any talismans effective against Origin Opening ghosts. She asked the NPC shopkeeper, and the shopkeeper replied with a perfect smile: "You could try using 100 Barrier-Breaking Talismans at once."
"Does it work? Can it instantly kill Origin Opening ghosts?"
Shopkeeper: "Dearie, we're not sure about that~ You can buy them and give it a try~"
Talismans… seemed a bit useless, too.
Mainly, although she had some points now, she couldn't just burn through them like this!
After looking around for a while, Mu Anqi finally took a liking to a type of substitute paper doll. It was a palm-sized paper figure, easy to carry. Once used, the paper doll would quickly enlarge to take on the appearance of the user. Though it remained just a paper figure and couldn't move on its own, it was still great for distracting ghosts.
This single-use paper doll cost 80 points apiece—pricey, but Mu Anqi felt it was more cost-effective than the talismans. As for the other items like compasses, incense candles, or black dog blood, she'd taken a look and decided she didn't need them for now.
Mu Anqi bought 2 substitute paper dolls, then went out and purchased 5 crudely made smoke bombs from a player stall. Though there were higher-quality versions available, she didn't think it was necessary—these rough ones were cheap, and they'd do for now.
Once she had tens of thousands of points to burn, forget fine quality—she'd buy legendary gear if she wanted!
After that round of shopping, even with her VIP status, her points still dropped to 623.
Mu Anqi felt something was off.
This was just the first day of her break—she hadn't even visited the virtual instructor yet. If she was supposed to rest for seven days, and studied just ten hours a day, that would still be… 560 points?! And with three meals a day added on top, wouldn't she have nothing left by the time she re-entered the game?
Damn it, why didn't the skill draw give her something like [Passive • I'm a VIP] or [Passive • Windfall from Heaven] What good were Guan coins anyway—she needed points!
With a points balance under a thousand, did her ability [I Have Plenty of Money] even make sense anymore?
Mu Anqi sighed. Fine, worst case… she'd just rest for three days?
Nothing could stop her from becoming stronger! With that thought in mind, Mu Anqi signed up for 10 straight hours of beginner staff training in one go—she was determined to wield her candy cane with the momentum of the Dog-Beating Staff Technique!
After ten hours of training, Mu Anqi returned to her room, exhausted but fulfilled. Forcing herself to stay awake, she took another shower, then collapsed onto the bed.
She'd train in staff techniques for another two days—after that, she could try the intermediate instructor. As for parkour and close-quarters combat… Mu Anqi had come to terms with it: those just weren't for her. Unless she drew a powerful skill or obtained some special item in the future, she might as well focus on developing all 108 possible uses for her candy cane.
If only this cane… could extend a bit more. At 1.2 meters, it was actually a bit awkward to use as a proper staff.
Before going to sleep, Mu Anqi opened her friends list and discovered that all three of her remaining friends were currently in-game.
The time flow in Nirvana Space and Shattered Mirror Continent… was truly mysterious!
…
At 5 a.m., Mu Anqi was still fast asleep, soaring through her dreams.
At that moment, her dream suddenly turned blood-red, and a blaring, dramatic suona blasted through her mind. Mu Anqi jolted upright in bed, sitting there in terror.
What happened? Did she sleep for seven whole days? Was her break over?
As she clutched her wildly pounding heart, a red invitation box slowly appeared in front of her—
[Ji Huaichu from the Shattered Mirror Continent has sent you a teleport invitation. Do you accept?]
What the hell—who even was Ji Huaichu? A teleport invitation? What kind of malicious ghost sends invites to players at five in the freaking morning?!
Mu Anqi was so angry her hands were trembling, but her emotional control skills were top-notch—she calmed down quickly. She straightened her clothes, checked her backpack to make sure her gear was all there, slung it over her shoulder, and confirmed her acceptance.
Thankfully, she had the habit of shopping right after payday—otherwise, if that ghost king called her to work in the middle of the night and she hadn't restocked anything, even a thousand points would've been useless.
That familiar feeling of weightlessness, that familiar sensation of falling.
As Mu Anqi's consciousness returned, she found herself standing before an incredibly grand ancient city gate.
In the next moment, the massive gate slowly opened before her…
No familiar red robe, no suit of armor. The ghost general stood casually at the city gate, wearing a simple white shirt and jeans, looking at her.