Chapter 18: Rules

Chapter 18: Rules

”Please do not feel like the system is discriminating against you because of the harsh rules against the opposing fate camp players in the first game. My suggestion was fair and inclined to your benefit. The opponents you met in the novice world were all newbies who had never won and had no special abilities. The battle royale melee world will have all the players with 200-50000 points and with your luck value, you’ll definitely be pitted against a player with high points. Without a special QR code, it’ll be very difficult for you to win so I’ll give you another chance.” The black and white rubix cube said very sincerely.

Xing Ye nodded, “I understand. It’s probably already been ten seconds, I still choose the mirror.”

The black and white cube spun as a big smiley face design formed on the side of the cube that was facing Xing Ye: “Congratulations to the player for choosing the most troublesome prop. The mirror will be delivered shortly.”

After saying that, a new card appeared on Xing Ye’s bookshelf with a QR code on it.

The wristband had already turned back into a phone, which Xing Ye used to scan the code.

With a ‘ding!’, the QR code faded away and a folding cosmetic mirror appeared in Xing Ye’s hand.

A description of the mirror appeared on the phone: This is a mirror that cannot be brought to the real world. He might possess special abilities, but they can only be used if the mirror agrees with his owner; he might have a name, but he will only tell it if he’s interested in the owner. After breaking away from his status as a mission prop, he can now talk but whether he actually talks depends on his mood. In summary, this is a hard to use mirror where you can’t even use it to look at yourself without checking his mood.

Overall grade: 0.5 out of 5 stars prop. Just a little bit better than trash.

That evaluation was... really bad.

Xing Ye opened the mirror and found it was pitch black. He tapped the mirror, “Wake up, you aren’t a mission prop anymore.”

The mirror lit up but still didn’t reflect Xing Ye’s face. It was just a white surface.

The mirror trembled and spoke: “Why am I here?”

His voice sounded very young, crisp and clean.

”My prop reward for refining the plot,” Xing Ye said, “You won’t have to be controlled by the system anymore.”

The mirror’s voice turned hurt: “A prop reward for refining the plot… so I’m already just considered a prop by the system?”

”Nah, it let me only pick one between a mission prop and a special QR code so I chose you.”

The mirror sounded very angry: “Are you stupid? You can’t go into a fighting world without special abilities! My points are zero, I can’t use my starting skills, and my special QR codes have all been taken away by the system! I can’t help you at all!”

Xing Ye didn’t care, “It’s not like I was expecting you to help.”

He just couldn’t stand by and helplessly watch a fellow human be sealed in the game, controlled like a prop. Of course, the main reason he did it was because he knew how kindhearted the mirror was so when he heard the mirror speak up angrily for him, Xing Ye knew he made the right choice.

Because of his luck value, he didn’t know what kind of special QR code he would draw. Furthermore, since he had a chance to save somebody, why wouldn’t he help them?

When he saw the mirror was still panting with rage, Xing Ye pondered for a few moments before deciding to make the mirror feel useful: “What’s a special QR code?”

”It’s a QR code with a special ability, but it’s only a one time use item. You can use it after scanning.” The mirror replied, “If you scan a QR code, you have to use it or it’ll disappear. Furthermore, before you scan the QR code, nobody knows what the ability is.”

”What kind of abilities?”

The mirror replied: “Stuff in books and paintings, basically all the abilities a human can think of, they’re all possible. There’s attack abilities, defensive abilities, auxiliary abilities, cheat and trap abilities, literally everything.”

TL’s note: To make it clear, the ‘trap’ here means that it’ll give the player a detrimental effect when it’s scanned, so it’s a trap for the player, not the opponent.

”Is that so? Then I can rest easy now,” Xing Ye said, “How high do you think the odds are of me picking up a trap card?”

Mirror: “I, I’m not sure. I’ve almost never pulled out that kind of QR code.”

Almost?

”I think that my chances are 100%,” Xing Ye said casually, “With my luck value, I want to run as soon as I hear the word ‘draw’.”

When the mirror mentioned initial skills just now, Xing Ye suddenly remembered his own initial skills, Impression Eye and Redrawing Pen.

He opened his phone and saw that the initial skills column was unlocked so he tapped it to take a look.

Impression Eye (Unlocked): Primary skill, each use costs fifty points. Can remember half of everything you see.

Redrawing Pen (Unlocked): Primary skill, each use costs 50 points. Allows the user to draw things they’ve seen and give it half the power of the original.

Remarks: Initial skills are generated according to the player’s personal abilities and are not influenced by the player’s luck value. These are set abilities.

So this was what ‘initial skills’ meant. It seems related to how he entered the game. At that time, Xing Ye had remembered the QR code he saw in his dream and redrew it. The system probably used that data to determine his abilities.  

Putting Impression Eye to the side for now, Redrawing Pen would be a very useful skill. Right now, he didn’t have any QR codes. If he could see somebody else’s QR code and draw it down, he could use it for half the effect.

However, it needed 50 points per use. If he just completely relied on his memory and did not use Impression Eye, he could use Redrawing Pen three times and leave the last 50 points. He couldn’t let his points fall to zero.

After thinking for a while, Xing Ye asked: “There should be other ways to get QR codes, right? You said earlier that if you’re lucky enough, you can find a QR code in the game.”

”Yeah, every corner in the melee world has a chance of hiding a QR code,” The mirror said, “Just take a picture of it with your phone when you find it and it’s yours. There’ll never be the same QR code on two different phones.

First come, first served.

”Then what about points?” Xing Ye asked again. For him, points were very important, “Do you only get points when you win?”

Mirror: “How could the 100 pts won per game possibly be enough, you have to think of ways to get points in the melee world. You can snatch them from other players or get them from finishing side missions. The novice world has a newbie protection rule so the player’s points can’t get taken, or you would’ve gotten half of all their points.”

”Do I get half the points no matter who I defeat?”

“The melee world has a limit of 1000 points. Even if your opponent has 50,000 points and you defeat them, you’d only get 1000 points.” The mirror explained to Xing Ye with detail, “Higher level worlds are different and can only be entered when you’ve accumulated more than 50,000 points. If you have less than 200 points, you’ll have to return to the novice world. You can’t use your QR code and would just be stuck there for a lifetime.”

”So it turns out you’re actually pretty useful, eh?” Xing Ye praised him again, “The system wouldn’t explain everything to me in such detail. Thank you.”

”I, I’m just afraid you’ll die and I’ll turn into a prop again!” The mirror stuttered over his words. .

“Sure.” Xing Ye laughed and continued asking, “What’s your name? What do you look like?”

The mirror suddenly turned silent.

”Why don’t you want to tell me?” Xing Ye shook the mirror, “I can help you see your state in the real world.”

Then he could use that to see if his little brother, Xing Shuo, was really dead or alive.

But the mirror still refused to answer.

Xing Ye knew the mirror had a difficult personality, but even if his personality was worse, he still wouldn’t reject a chance to know how he and his family were doing in the real world, right? Could it be that the system didn’t want him to know the mirror’s true identity and forcibly stopped him?

Xing Ye tried asking another two times when an alert suddenly sounded from the black and white rubix cube: “Dididi, your intimacy level with the mirror is not high enough and haven’t reached the required degree of mutual trust to swap real-world information. Please try again when your intimacy points have reached 20.”

”What are our current intimacy points and how can we raise it?” Xing Ye asked.

”You currently have 5 intimacy points. They can be increased via player and prop interaction or developing more favorable feelings to one another.” The black and white rubix cube replied.

Their favorable feelings are too low?

Xing Ye knew that he was somebody who guarded his heart very tightly. In his world, there were only his younger brothers and strangers, with strangers divided between useful, harmful, and useless. He didn’t have much feelings for the mirror- to him, he was just a useful stranger.

So he needed to try and like the mirror as well as make the mirror develop favorable feelings towards him?

That seemed even harder than clearing the games. Xing Ye felt like he had long lost the ability to care about somebody.

He adjusted his mood and asked: “When’s the next game?”

”In a week,” The rubix cube said, “We always give players a rest period. Although time in the game world won’t pass in the real world, the player’s minds still need a break.”

”I want to return to the real world.”

The black and white rubix cube: “Alright, I’ll see you in ten days. A notification will appear on your phone.”

Once again, the world spun as Xing Ye was broken down into a QR code. When he recovered his consciousness, he found he was back in the funeral hall. It was 1:30, his pen still in his hand and the QR code he had drawn on the notebook in front of him.

Xing Ye tore off the page and threw it into the brazier in the funeral hall, staring at his little brother’s face.

Early the next day, he contacted the person in charge of the funeral parlor and cancelled the funeral. Instead, he found a cold warehouse and ordered for Xing Shuo’s body to be deeply frozen.

The police and hospital all advised him to stop investigating but Xing Ye’s heart had alreadys held a trace of hope.

Maybe… he could find a chance to save his little brother with the game world. Although the dead returning to life sounded a little unscientific, it was all he could do right now.