Chapter 45

Chapter 45 Your hidden identity is very good.

What does it mean when a skill fails?

It means Ning Rong and most of the newcomers are different.

Ever since Yuan Pei entered the game and obtained the hidden identity [Warden], he had been like a fish in water in the game. His skill could easily manipulate some players with ordinary minds, as well as NPCs in simple instances.

Although this skill did not have a 100 percent success rate, before encountering Ning Rong, it had only failed once.

And the target of that failure was his companion. At that time, they had merely wanted to test whether the skill would truly fail.

Relying on [Absolute Obedience], during the more than three months since entering the game, he had been charging forward without restraint and had not encountered much difficulty.

But now…

He had encountered a second target on whom his skill had failed.

Yuan Pei’s attitude of being completely unyielding, and showing blatant disrespect toward the foreman, thoroughly enraged the boss.

In a fury, the foreman grabbed Yuan Pei and slammed him hard onto the ground. Yuan Pei hit the floor with a dull thud.

The surrounding players fell deathly silent, watching as he took the foreman’s strike with their own eyes.

At that moment, only Yuan Pei heard the cold and merciless system prompt—

[Protection Item: Protective Curse has taken effect.]

Because Ning Rong had previously sealed away part of his life-saving items, the defensive items he currently had left were very few.

But what shocked him even more was this: it was not supposed to be a 24-hour safe period now? Why could the foreman still inflict real damage on him and cause him to lose a protective item?

Could it be… after the game update, there is no longer any safe period?

A heavy feeling sank in Yuan Pei’s heart.

[Skill Seal], [Item Seal], and [Absolute Obedience] were all on cooldown. The skills he could currently use were three: [Interrogation by Torture], [Disarm], and [Authority].

[Interrogation by Torture] could be paired with offensive items to obtain the information he wanted.

[Disarm] could cause NPCs or players to lose their weapons, reduce part of their combat ability, and weaken their aggression.

As for [Authority], it was the skill he had used the least among all his skills.

He still remembered the day he unlocked this skill. Deep Sea was selecting the 116th batch of most promising rookie players. Deep Sea was the largest civilian player organization, taking in tens of thousands of players. Based on his potential, he could have entered the national team.

But he had never thought of joining the national team.

He had no good impression of that so-called general team full of self-righteous saints. And he could not become such a saint himself. Those who could not pass the game were just trash—what was there to save? Even if you saved them this time, what about the next time? They could not possibly always be that lucky.

The general team did everything they could to increase player survival rates, while he looked down coldly at the players in the same instance struggling on the brink of death, never extending a helping hand. In such a terrifying game, standing by coldly and protecting oneself was the norm.

Although he disdained joining the national team, he was still very tempted by the reward given by Deep Sea to the best rookie.

As everyone knew, Deep Sea was extremely wealthy and also quite dedicated to cultivating new players.

He wanted to stand out in that selection.

But…

In his cohort, there were quite a few outstanding players. Although he possessed a hidden identity, no one knew at that time. Moreover, he was young and looked soft-faced and easy to bully, so he had no advantage.

Perhaps it was because he wanted to win too much.

Just when he was willing to pay any price to win the Most Promising Rookie Player award, he awakened the skill [Authority].

And the description of this skill made him clearly realize that this was exactly what he deeply needed at that time.

It was a skill capable of fulfilling his ambition!

[Authority: After activating the skill, it can cause others to unconsciously submit to you and want to follow you.] After this description, there was also a small line of text: [The specific effect is related to multiple real-world factors; the player must explore it themselves.]

At that time, although he had awakened a suitable skill, he was actually not very confident in his heart. After all, the effect of the skill was unclear, and he did not know how many votes he could win for himself after activating it.

Fortunately, his luck was not bad.

Relying on this skill, in the end he had one more vote than the player in second place.

And it was precisely this one-vote difference that caused their treatment to be worlds apart.

However, by using his skill so openly in front of so many people, how could others not have noticed? Even if not everyone understood it, the smart ones would definitely have seen through it.

Fortunately, because his skill was too special, he caught the attention of the upper management.

In the end, after several rounds of discussion, both he and the second-place player were given the title of “Most Promising Rookie Player.”

He received a life-saving item worth over ten thousand game coins.

When the upper management presented the award, they patted his shoulder and encouraged him, saying, “Your skill is very good. I believe you can go far in this game.”

Because of that sentence of encouragement, he decided to work for Deep Sea for one year.

As for why not a lifetime?

A lifetime was too long—he could change his mind at any time.

A game item worth over ten thousand yuan buying his loyalty for one year—Deep Sea’s upper management did not lose out.

Although countless thoughts flashed through Yuan Pei’s mind, in reality only a little over ten seconds had passed.

[Authority] could bring him into the attention of upper management and earn him the reward of the most promising rookie player, but it could not help him resolve the current predicament.

And his most expensive life-saving item was currently in a sealed state.

Next, he had to be extremely careful and cautious, not taking a single wrong step.

After the foreman threw Yuan Pei to the ground, he walked two steps toward him. He looked down at Yuan Pei, and in those tiny eyes like mung beans, there was a sinister light.

“Are you questioning me?”

Yuan Pei shook his head and said with forced endurance, “No.”

The foreman sneered. It was unclear whether he believed it or not.

In the next second, he walked back to Ning Rong with a flattering expression and asked in a loud voice, “Boss, how about letting him be the first test subject?”

Ning Rong looked down at Yuan Pei from above. Her face originally held no expression, but after hearing this, she suddenly smiled.

That smile was like spring flowers blooming, stunning many viewers in the livestream.

“Alright.”

She looked up at the roller coaster that had been silently lurking in the dim environment and said, “Let’s test this roller coaster first.”

The foreman said, “Got it.”

He walked over and kicked Yuan Pei, “The boss told you to go test it. Why aren’t you moving?”

Yuan Pei was now restricted everywhere and could only grit his teeth and say, “Yes.”

He moved slowly, looking as if he wanted to slip through the situation, but at that moment, the foreman said coldly from behind him, “You’d better obediently go up and test it. Otherwise…”

Only then did Yuan Pei quicken his pace.

After he went over, the players realized that there had actually been staff in the roller coaster area all along, but they had been hiding in the dark, so they had not been noticed.

Before Yuan Pei boarded the roller coaster, a staff member suddenly walked out from the ticket checkpoint.

When they saw that staff member’s face, a player could not help but cry out in shock. The reason was simple—the staff member actually had no face!

[After the game update, it feels much more interesting.]

[LOL, the 24-hour safe period really seems to be gone.]

[Players who break down from this will probably increase.]

Only seen inside the game are staff members wearing blank faces, reading the safety instructions in a flat, emotionless tone.

“The roller coaster ride lasts a total of forty-four seconds. This test mainly evaluates whether the roller coaster can complete the full ride smoothly. Now, please take your seats.”

These safety instructions were simple to the point of being chilling.

Just as Yuan Pei was about to step into his seat, he suddenly turned around and activated an explosion-type item toward Ning Rong. The blast was so loud that even the staff member was blown away.

At that moment, Ning Rong heard the system broadcast for the first time.

[Explosion Protection Suit has taken effect.]

[Explosion Protection Suit has failed.]

[Explosion Protection Suit has taken effect.]

All purchasable items in the shop had been bought out by Ning Rong.

After all, she was not short of money.

This time, Yuan Pei had only sealed her [Money Can Make Ghosts Work for You], and had not sealed her items. Therefore, the items on her body were likely more numerous than all the items present combined.

She used two explosion protection suits and successfully blocked this wave of the blast. However, she was still pushed backward by the shockwave. Zhou Yu Jing immediately stood behind her, helping her absorb part of the force, which prevented her from falling in a disheveled manner.

[Holy crap, I knew this guy was plotting something!]

[Boss lady basically tanked that entire hit.]

[Yuan Pei is pretty rich to have something like that. The item he used is even stronger than the one Pi Juan brought out last time.]

[Is Boss Lady going to personally take action this time?]

[Getting defeated by Boss Lady is basically his honor.]

Ning Rong had already anticipated all kinds of possible situations in the game.

Taking a direct hit from an explosion was not a big problem.

But she suddenly realized that Yuan Pei was deeply backed—he could casually bring out high-damage explosive items, and it was unclear whether he still had other valuable things.

She had to end this quickly.

She decided to try a skill she had always wanted to test on him.

Yuan Pei absolutely could not be allowed to leave this game alive.

Once he did, he would definitely relay her information to his accomplices, and even to his superiors.

By then, she would be in a very passive position.

This was a situation Ning Rong absolutely would not allow.

She looked at Yuan Pei and slowly said, “Your hidden identity is very good. Now…”

At the same time.

Player forum.

Ever since the game issued its announcement, countless players had been waiting for the official arrival of the faction war. Once the faction war began, the game world would truly change. Because the faction war split humanity, which had originally been united, into two opposing sides, and by then, even the real world would inevitably be affected.

At midnight, the latest game rules were released on the forum.

Sharp-eyed players clicked in immediately.

After reading the detailed rules of the faction war, some players stared blankly, their hearts ashen; some were excited, almost manic; others were deep in thought, analyzing everything.

Meanwhile, the leadership of the national team urgently held an online meeting after the announcement appeared.

And the notice was written like this:

Dear players:

Hello everyone!

We hope you’ve been enjoying your time in the game recently. If you have, that’s great; if you haven’t, then you should work hard to make yourself happy.

There are so many places to have fun in the game—you can always find something entertaining. You say you can’t find any fun? Impossible. How could there be no fun? If you truly can’t find any fun, then you might just become the “fun” yourself.

Remember: negative gameplay will be punished, so please play actively!

With that, the greetings end here. Next is the faction war content you are most concerned about.

No need to rush. The faction war has many rich gameplay systems, and we believe you will enjoy it. Once the faction war begins, anything is possible. What kind of ending will be achieved—the choice is in your hands as players.

Now, regarding the third major version update of the game, there are some additional notices to inform you about.

……

Below are the detailed rules.

Just reading through all the rules would take over half an hour.

This announcement mainly expresses the following points:

1: The game name has officially been changed from “One Thousand and One Nightmares” to “One Thousand and One Dreamscapes.”

2: The shop has added a large number of new items, and some old items have been removed.

3: The prices of shop items have significantly increased.

4: The crown princes of the Blue and Red factions have a 40% discount coupon for the shop, allowing them to purchase items at a lower price.

5: The crown princes of the Blue and Red factions can periodically choose whether to enter personal dungeons. If they clear the dungeon, they will receive a large amount of game coins and rare items.

6: Compared to ordinary players, crown princes have more privileges. What exactly those privileges are must be discovered by the players themselves.

At the end of the rules, the game publicly listed the names of the ten crown princes.

The official game seemed to be openly telling all other players: as long as you eliminate these crown princes, the next crown prince could be you. And all those privileges would also belong to you. Not enough game coins? High-level items all in the hands of top players? It doesn’t matter—the wheel of fortune turns.

So compete, and see who will be the final winner.

Of course, at the very end of the notice, the game also stated that the crown prince list will be updated in real time.

After half a month, the crown prince names will be hidden.

These few thousand words contained far too much information—so much that players needed a long time to digest it.

Chi Juan stared at this announcement, her eyes filled with undisguised ambition.

Because she wanted to see the latest faction war rules, she did not choose to enter the same instance as Zhou Yu Jing this time.

For her, rather than trying to gain presence in front of Zhou Yu Jing, it was more realistic to stand out among the ten crown princes and directly obtain a wish opportunity.

She said without turning her head to her father beside her, “Dad, I want a slot.”

Chi Cheng pressed hard on his brow.

Ever since last night, he did not know why, but his eyelid had been twitching nonstop, as if something bad was about to happen.

But what could happen?

He could not figure it out.

He also did not take it too seriously. After all, scientifically speaking, eyelid twitching was just eye fatigue and had no real meaning. It was probably because he had not rested well recently.

Hearing Chi Juan’s words, he did not hesitate and directly said, “Okay.”