Chapter 16

Chapter 16 The Rankings Refresh. (First Update)

Ning Rong’s tone carried a bewitching quality. She leaned forward slightly and extended her right hand toward the villagers.

“Can you?”

Could they... try trusting her once?

The villagers looked dazed and absent-minded, unconsciously wanting to agree to her and trust her.

The old lady standing closest to Ning Rong suffered the strongest impact from the skill. For one moment, her mind turned into mush and she was completely unable to think. She took a deep drag from her cigarette and said in a hoarse voice, “I think we can trust her once. What do you all think?”

The oldest person in the crowd stepped forward, leaning on a cane, and said loudly, “It’s not impossible.”

As soon as the others heard the elder veteran speak, they hurriedly echoed him.

“Yeah, people are always different from one another. We were cheated by a swindler before, but that doesn’t mean we’ll be cheated again in the future.”

“This little girl looks different from that swindler from before. I can’t explain it exactly, I just feel her temperament is very...”

Another villager interrupted, “She just looks like a rich person! The kind who doesn’t lack money!”

The interrupted villager hurriedly agreed, “Right, right, right, that’s exactly what I meant.”

The old lady said solemnly, “Then... the matter of the resort villa is entrusted to you!”

[???]

[The villagers were bought off by a single game coin?]

[Rather than saying the villagers were bought off by a game coin, it would be more accurate to say they were conquered by her skill.]

[Her skill is truly fierce. Tell me, is there anyone fiercer than her?!]

[Probably not.]

[The fact that she had so many game coins at her disposal the moment she entered the game is what really confuses people.]

[It really is a bit strange. One Thousand and One Nightmares isn’t that kind-hearted. For human players, the survival environment here is extremely harsh, and no one is an exception. So here’s the question—why is she so special?]

Yes, why was that?

Unfortunately, for now, no viewer could answer that question.

The moment all the villagers supported Ning Rong taking over the resort villa, a notification sounded in her mind announcing completion of Side Quest Two.

[Congratulations, player, for successfully resolving the villagers’ resentment.]

[The player may later check the construction and operating status of the resort villa through the personal panel.]

[Leave the game?]

Seeing that no more side quests were being issued afterward, Ning Rong chose to leave.

After all the players in Countdown reached the game ending, the game officially entered the settlement phase.

—

Outside the game, Lu Wen was currently fighting three hundred rounds on the forum with haters.

[Wasn’t she supposed to parachute into the rankings? Why hasn’t she parachuted in yet?]

[You came looking for fun and ended up messing with us?]

[So funny. Everyone disperse. How can anyone believe nonsense from a low-level player?]

[Brother, instead of wasting time fooling us, you might as well enjoy reality a little more. Maybe you won’t survive your next game.]

This curse could not be called anything but vicious.

Just as Lu Wen was about to keep arguing with these people, a reminder of game settlement suddenly sounded in his mind.

The game entering settlement phase meant that the last player had also finished the game!

His older sister had come out!

The rankings of One Thousand and One Nightmares refreshed every night at midnight. At this moment, there were still more than four hours left until midnight.

Lu Wen immediately felt refreshed and replied to those haters, [Tonight at midnight, see you there!]

—

A prompt sounded simultaneously in the minds of the surviving players of Countdown.

[Game over. Loading settlement—]

Ning Rong looked at the panel before her.

[Game Name: Countdown

Game Difficulty: B Rank

Overall In-Game Performance: S

Completed Main Survival Quest: Reward 125 game coins

Completed Side Quest One: Reward 75 game coins

Completed Side Quest Two: Reward 75 game coins

S Rank Rating Bonus: 25 game coins

(The above earnings already include the newcomer 25% bonus)

Additional Income: 113 game coins

Total Game Coins Obtained: 413 game coins]

Ning Rong read the settlement page over and over a full three times. Finally, she confirmed that she had not misread it.

Under the premise that her overall performance was S, and that she had also completed two side quests, she had only received a total of 413 game coins. Compared with what she had spent inside the game, this amount of profit could only be described as a drizzle.

She finally understood why Lu Wen had still been so poor and destitute even after clearing two games.

It was truly because the game was too stingy!

What was more, these earnings even included bonuses.

She had cleared one game, yet not only had she failed to earn game coins, she had actually paid out nearly over a thousand game coins herself!

Ning Rong still did not understand for the moment what the so-called additional income referred to, but she knew very clearly that her money-making plan could no longer be delayed!

Only after reading the settlement contents did she have the mood to examine her surroundings.

This was a room that looked extremely run-down. There were already many cracks in the walls, and the corners were full of spider webs. The air was filled with a moldy smell.

After thinking for a moment, she understood where she was.

She should still be in Room 103 of that building. This place should be the transit station connecting reality to the game.

She took out that invitation card again and glanced at it.

Even in the dim environment, this invitation card seemed to glow, shining brilliantly. If one did not consider the words written on it, it truly counted as an exquisitely made card. The designer had obviously put great care into its creation. Unfortunately, hidden within those gorgeous phrases was the game’s full malice toward its players.

It was as if it were eagerly waiting for them to fall into a giant net woven by the game.

Just as Ning Rong was about to put the invitation card away, her sharp eyes noticed that some of the content on it had subtly changed.

The place that had previously only contained Zhou Yujing’s name slowly began to display her name as well.

On the invitation card, their two names were pressed tightly side by side, intimate and ambiguous.

Did this mean that in the future they would share one invitation card, and... every game would bind them together?

Although this was only a guess, Ning Rong felt that the guess was almost certainly correct.

Just as she was thinking this, her phone rang.

The caller was Zhou Yujing.

And before this, he had already called sixteen times.

When Ning Rong saw this name, she almost laughed in anger. It seemed the game he had entered earlier had already ended as well.

Just in time.

She also had things to ask him.

She picked up the phone and answered the call.

The moment he realized she had answered, Zhou Yujing let out a long sigh of relief. “Rong Rong, you finally answered.”

Ning Rong stood in the dim Room 103, her back straight.

Even though she had just come out of a B-rank instance, she had not suffered any real injuries. Aside from some extra dirt on her shoes, there was no sign on her body that she had just gone through a horror game.

No mental breakdown.

No fear or panic.

Just like before entering the game, she was still calm and composed.

But...

Anyone sharp-eyed would notice that beneath this composure, a cluster of anger was burning hotter and hotter.

[Good, good, good. The first game is over, but why do I feel like the little newcomer is getting angrier and angrier?]

[Of course. At first it was only her suspicion. Now the suspicion has basically been confirmed.]

[That doesn’t count as confirmation, right? Zhou Yujing and Tired Tired don’t have anything going on. It’s only Tired Tired forcing herself one-sidedly.]

[Would Big Sister Boss care about that? She would only think that you can’t even deal with one Tired Tired, which is simply incompetence!]

[That actually makes a lot of sense?!]

In the empty room, Ning Rong’s calm voice rang out.

“Zhou Yujing.”

Ning Rong rarely called him by his full name. Usually she only did that when she was angry.

On the other end of the phone, Zhou Yujing unconsciously straightened his back and carefully asked, “What’s wrong, Rong Rong? The reason I didn’t answer before was because—”

“Do you have something you haven’t told me?”

Their voices sounded at the same time.

Ning Rong quietly waited for his answer. For a moment, the only thing in both their ears was each other’s breathing.

After a long while, Zhou Yujing finally said softly, “Didn’t cheat, didn’t change my heart, didn’t deliberately neglect you. Recently there’s been a small matter, but it’s not a big problem. I’ll tell you later.”

Good, very good. Ning Rong was so angry she laughed again.

A small matter?

Entering horror games at any moment, disappearing every few days, possibly dying in the game at any time—this counted as a small matter?

If this counted as a small matter, then what counted as a big matter?

This brat had spoken three consecutive sentences beginning with “didn’t.” They even rhymed nicely.

She said flatly, “Hanging up.”

She still had things to deal with right now and had no time to say more.

As for Zhou Yujing, she planned to personally discipline him properly in the next instance.

Anyway, they were already bound together now, so she was not afraid they would fail to meet.

—

Ning Rong did not choose to leave the room. Instead, she began exploring this game where she stood.

Lu Wen had said the game had a shop.

So where was the shop?

The moment she thought that, three options appeared before her.

[Enter Forum]

[Enter Shop]

[Personal Space]

Compared with the forum, Ning Rong was more interested in the shop.

After she entered the shop, a dazzling array of items appeared before her.

Although she had mentally prepared herself long ago, the prices of these items still far exceeded her expectations. Even the cheapest items were priced above 100 game coins. Looking across the entire shop, there was not a single cheap bargain for players to pick up.

From this point alone, Ning Rong could see the game’s malice toward players.

Because of that, her hidden identity seemed even more unusual.

But now was not the time to think too deeply about it. When it was time for her to know, she would know.

At the very front of the shop was an item called [In-Game Highlights]. The item name was rather simple, but the selling price was not cheap at all—it cost a full 6666 game coins. Beside it was [In-Game Death Collection].

The latter was easy enough to understand. It was probably footage of players dying inside the game. It sold for 666 game coins, which also was not cheap.

Ning Rong did not choose to buy any items immediately.

Because she still did not know her current balance.

She thought for a moment, exited the shop, and chose to enter [Personal Space]. She already even had a game black card, so it was impossible that there was not even a single coin in it, right?

The moment she entered [Personal Space], she saw the balance she possessed.

Ones, tens, hundreds, thousands...

The moment she saw the number clearly, she felt no joy at all. Instead, she was full of hesitation.

There were more than sixty million game coins on this card.

More than sixty million...

Too much.

This sum was so large that it exceeded her imagination.

But having too many game coins was not necessarily a good thing in a certain sense.

Because she had already witnessed how vile the game was. Under such circumstances, how exactly could she possess such a huge amount of game coins? And where had this sum come from?

The more she thought about it, the graver her expression became.

Below total assets was the [Personal Assets] section.

At this moment, that section already had one more asset listed: Su Mountain Resort Villa.

Below it was another option.

[Continue investing 29.99 million into construction of the resort villa?]

There was no need to think much. Ning Rong directly chose yes.

Although this was no small amount of money, she knew it was a necessary expense. After all, living off existing wealth forever was not the right path. Having a stable source of income in the game was still very important.

The next second, that line changed to:

[Resort villa currently under construction. Estimated to be put into use after 24h.]

After spending the biggest portion, Ning Rong still had eight-digit game coins available to use.

This starting point could be said to already surpass 99.99% of newcomers.

She pressed her thin lips together and returned to the shop page once again.

Although she did not know what [In-Game Highlights] was, expensive things had reasons for being expensive. Otherwise, why did [In-Game Death Collection] only cost 666 while it cost 6666? Perhaps this [In-Game Highlights] would bring her an unexpected surprise.

Anyway, she was not exactly lacking money.

Ning Rong directly bought the item.

After buying it, she continued scrolling downward.

“Negative buff removal item, price 9999? Buy two.”

“Substitute Death Doll, price 19999? Buy two.”

After spending around sixty thousand game coins in one go, Ning Rong planned to stop. She intended to keep the remaining game coins on hand and would not continue using them. The next batch she used should come from the game coins earned through the resort villa.

Now that she had life-saving items, she also had the leisure to inspect the other items.

In obvious positions were some items the game officially promoted heavily, such as the half-price “Rename Sticker.”

The “Rename Sticker” sold for 166 game coins, and the description beside it easily stirred people’s hearts.

“Don’t want to use your real name on the forum, or don’t want to use your real name on the rankings? Get one now.”

Ning Rong originally did not want to buy it, but after seeing this line of description, she changed her mind.

When going out in the world, who didn’t have an alternate identity?

Sometimes, attracting too much attention was not a good thing.

So she had no choice but to spend another 166 game coins.

After purchasing it, a simple rename interface appeared before her. She thought for a moment, then entered the two words “Moonlight.”

Why choose the name Moonlight?

Because in reality, her name was Ning Rong.

The phrase was, “Melted moonlight exists at this very moment,” so the alternate identity she usually used online was Moonlight.

After using this nickname for so long, she did not plan to use another one.

After all, this name was not especially unique.

After changing her name, Ning Rong casually found a relatively cleaner place and sat down.

She was not in a hurry to go back.

Right now, she only wanted to open [In-Game Highlights] and see exactly what highlights in Countdown needed to be extracted.

—

Although [In-Game Highlights] had the word highlights in its name, watching it still required quite a bit of time.

While Ning Rong reviewed the highlights of the Countdown game, the time in reality reached 23:58:13.

There was a little over one minute left before midnight of the new day.

[Almost midnight! Waiting to see faces slapped!]

[Come, come, come. Let us remember the thread poster’s name—Lu Wen, in case he changes his name later.]

[Person upstairs, you think too highly of him. A person like him could never afford a Rename Sticker.]

[So funny. I really want to see whether a player will actually parachute into the rankings!]

While the players joked and chatted, time passed second by second, until it reached 00:00:00.

At that moment, the rankings were fully refreshed.

A new name that players had never seen before appeared forcefully in ninth place on the newcomer rankings.

And that name was “Moonlight.”