Chapter 32: Solving The Mystery (3)

If that was truly the case, then the choices that could be made in this game, no, this game world would be endless.

Right now, the only combat stats that Yue Qiang owned were Strength and Vitality. The Stamina gauge was also the only gauge he had right now. But as the game progresses, the potential for improvement and development were endless.

There were also some explanations and options behind the stat gauges.

Strength: Strength will play a huge factor in deciding the strength of your bare-handed attacks. Many bare-handed attack skills are directly connected with Strength. Strength also plays a slightly smaller factor in calculating Defense.

Vitality: Vitality determines the amount of Health Points (HP). Vitality * 10 = HP. Vitality also plays a small factor in calculating Defense. Player is detected to have activated the Stamina gauge. The Stamina gauge’s value is calculated by Vitality. The calculation is: Vitality * 10.

Basing off the explanations, both Strength and Vitality stat were related to plenty of combat data and were the absolute basic stats.

There was also a draggable option beside the stats. They were attributes that he had collected thus far. They were:

Tactics (Collected from the Village Elder Chen Zi Han). Usage unknown.

Dexterity (Collected from Gongshu Shaoyang). Usage unknown.

Accuracy (Collected from the Blacksmith Tan Xiong). Usage unknown.

The system automatically detects that your cultivation of the heart as level 1. Based on the level of your cultivation of the heart, you are able to freely add the collected stats into the character stats window and transform them into your own fixed stat. For every level up of the cultivation of the heart, one attribute may be added.

I knew it!

To think that this game could be played like this. Not only could he earn many freely distributed stat points, he could also freely control his attributes. In this case, wouldn’t he be able to develop his character in his own style?

Detecting… The system detects that your learned Heart skill is ‘Pure Heart’… The maximum amount of attributes you can add is increased by 1.

System Message: You can now add two attributes as your own fixed stats.

I can add two additional attributes to my stats!

When Yue Qiang saw this line of system message he was shocked yet again. It would seem that that ‘Pure Heart LVL 1’ he had learned in the brink of death was an exceptional boon.

The addition of an acquirable attribute was most definitely a tremendous increase in power. If he could throw in a ‘Mana’ attribute and learn a Pyroblast or something (T/N: 10 DAMAGE EVERY f.u.c.kING TURN YO), wouldn’t he able to one-shot someone from afar? What if he added another agility attribute then? He should be able to switch jobs to a Bowman and shoot Fire Arrows, shouldn’t he? What if he learned a Rogue’s Poison after that? Could he shoot Fire Poison Arrow? How big of a damage increase would it be if he could combine physical, nature and poison damage all together as one?

And these were just his careless thoughts. If he were to organize them and do some research into the chaining of skills, he could probably create a lot of strong combinations.

Since he had these many choices to choose from, he should actually refrain himself from making a hasty addition right now. He should enter the game and do some basic research.

There were also two messages at the end of the stats’ explanation. It was related to the addition and collection of stats.

The Increase of Attributes: The initial value of newly added attributes into the character’s fixed stats is 10 points.

The Collection of Attributes: Attributes can be collected directly from the character by increasing favorability or when the Charisma stat has suppressed the character to a certain degree. It can also be studied through books. The rarer the book, the more valuable it is, the better the collected attributes are.

So this is how it is. He finally understood the greatest use of the book type items in this game – to collect all kinds of precious attributes!

Then there were only two things left for him to do right now. One would be to collect plenty of rare character attributes such as Intelligence and Mind – which are attributes that almost certainly exist – or those that he only a.s.sumed but were very likely to exist such as ‘Ethereal Form’, which was a common attribute in other games that ignores physical attacks. There might even exist a type that increases stats by X-fold – errr, let’s name it Berserk – It was not an impossibility!

Another thing that should be paid attention to was the game’s leveling system.

There’s no such thing as character level up in this game, so naturally, stats could not be acquired from said level up. In that case, acquiring information on how to obtain stats had become the most important priority as of now. The methods he knew were completing a hidden quest, and of course, there was also the possibility that the sticky pill he blackmailed from the doctor Ming Que could increase his stat points as well.

Other than these two methods, it would be best if he was to search for a stabler way to acquire freely distributed stat points. This was probably the most important subject at the latter stage of the game.

The Game Manual’s explanation of the green progress bar stopped here.

Yue Qiang thought as he clicked to skip the second page: No wonder the green progress bar was increasing so slowly. There are actually so many independent choices inside it. He wondered what would happen when the green progress bar had reached 100%.

While thinking, he had flipped to the third page.

The third page of the ‘Game Manual’ explained about the red progress bar.

There was far less content in this page.

Red Progress Bar: Represents the degree of solved mysteries in the Game.

The red progress bar stopped at about 10%. There was only one line of text with no supportive explanation whatsoever. There was also nothing that could be controlled or dragged in the entire page. In comparison to the previous two pages, this third page was very simple.

There were three options beneath this line of explanation.

1: Acquire the ‘Game Manual’.

2: Unlock the first ‘Cutscene’.

3: Learn about the Game’s death penalty.

There were only three lines of text.

Yue Qiang stared at the screen and fell into deep thought.

From the words ‘Degree of Solved Mysteries’, this text was probably explaining the truth contained inside the Game. From the very beginning when he added 8 points into his Charisma, to realizing that the Charisma stat could be brought over to the real world, and later on a.n.a.lyzing step by step, proving and guessing until he finally acquired the ‘Game Manual’ now. He had learned a lot of the Game’s relevant content.

However, all this content only added up to about 10% of the game’s solved mysteries.

If he was to make a conclusion from this perspective, then the whole mystery hidden behind the game would be completely unimaginable by the current him.

Yue Qiang did recall something very urgent when he read the second and third option.

The game’s main storyline!

If his guess was correct, then the questline he was currently performing: to a.s.sist in the Defense of Yue Village -> Defend Yue State -> Face Off the Enemy General, was definitely the main questline. After all, even a cutscene had appeared.

Judging from the scene described in the cutscene, Zhao Yan – also the Boss of the quest ‘Face Off the Enemy General’ – was about to kill him, but was met with the giant crossbow attack by Gongshu Shaoyang instead.

Yue Knew knew about the giant crossbows’ power. The bolt’s shaft was at least three to four times thicker than a normal feather arrow, and the average Zhao Soldier would either be hurt if they even brushed against it, or die instantly upon solid contact. Even at half its strength, it had taken off three to four hundred HP instantly when it struck the Zhao Sergeant’s vital point. It could be said to be an existence that harvests lives as easily as harvesting wheat.

However, this Zhao Yan had actually stopped the bolt with only two fingers in this cutscene.

Just how powerful was this Boss going to be? Was this what it meant by Skull level quest difficulty?

He did not forget that his game progress had ‘temporarily’ paused due to the cutscene. The moment he entered the game, whether he would enter a safe environment or face the big boss’ giant sword was a complete mystery.

The third option was the Game’s death penalty that he already knew.

He clicked the ‘Display’ b.u.t.ton once. The screen showed the result that he had expected a long time ago. It was a single word:

Death.