“Stage completed, calculating experience.”
“Received item/equipment: Sedated Tibetan Macaque”
“Unique hidden tasks completed: 0, Explore every sub-plot this world has to offer: Nil”
“Your terror grade is courageous and is eligible for an additional reward, please choose one later.”
“Technique points added to experience: 100, game coins: 1000”
“Calculation has finished, please continue.”
Feng Bujue finished looking at the match summary and immediately heard “You have leveled up to level 5, your maximum health has increased and is currently 500/500.“ His experience at that time was only 150/500.
From the perspective of gaining experience, the difference between single player survival mode and training mode isn’t actually that big. Feng Bujue’s and Wang Tanzhi’s ranks during matchmaking for multiplayer practice mode were rank 1 and rank 2 respectively. If the fact that they had gotten such a tough ending through defeating the boss hadn’t been factored in, they would probably gain around 300 experience at most and not as much as the 500 awarded for completing the stage. The last single-player survival mode level had been generated when Feng Bujue was at level 4, so if we calculate using these ratios, he would be able to receive almost 400 experience, at the very least, through playing the single-player training mode of this rank.
This time, he was able to see how generous the reward from survival mode could be. Compared to training mode, where one could only receive experience. Feng Bujue currently also possesses technique points, as well as bonus experience and game coins, on top of the reward for clearing the level and the bonus reward for his terror grade.
However, there was something in the match summary that made Feng Bujue feel quite puzzled. Previously, he had taken the prop “Single Use Syringe” out of the training mode, yet in the match summary the row “Received items/equipments” showed “Nil”. This time, however, the monkey was included in.
He was very confident that in the information about the game he’d read previously didn’t mention anything about this situation. Of course, that was also normal as the official game website only explained things with promotional value or things of a general nature, and would not reveal the specifics of every part in great detail.
To Feng Bujue, the unresolved mystery was like a fish bone in his throat. Especially for problems that seemed innocuous, not understanding made his body feel uncomfortable.
He did not care to look at the forums, as what they had to say about matters relating to a system like this would not necessarily be correct. Thus, he made an inquiry to the online customer services directly through the login screen. They were really stumped by the question, and only replied after a long search: ‘Items that are classified as “consumables”, such as medicines, bandages, synthesized materials, mechanical parts, etc. any objects of “common” quality and below(including general items) will not be displayed in the match summary when obtained and taken out of the level.’
Listening up to this point, Feng Bujue understood. There would probably be a lot of items which fulfil these two conditions within the cooperative levels. For example, in the future there would be people, with large inventories and nothing better to do, who’d gather a large pile of useless items like stones, branches, weeds, bricks, wooden sticks, etc. in the final 60 second countdown, and then bring them out of the level in one go. The system would need to produce a large paragraph to list all the meaningless stuff in the inventory section of the match summary. Therefore, things were set up this way.
After understanding this, Feng Bujue thought of taking the monkey he’d obtained earlier out from his inventory for a look. Mysteriously, when he tried to take it out of the inventory, the monkey was gone. In its place was a card close in size to a tarot card. At the same time, a system prompt appeared in front of Feng Bujue:
‘After completing a level, there’s a possibility that the player might receive a ‘plot-related item’, such items are generally related to secondary missions, or, for whatever reason (such as a player using their own ability to overcome the demands of the plot), the item was not used during the progression of the plot. When such plot-related items that can be taken out of the level are successfully brought to the login screen, they will be converted into “picture cards” and added into a deck system (to be activated).’
Feng Bujue finished reading the system message and turned his vision to the picture card in his hand. Even though the material of the card was similar to paper, it felt impossible to bend. The edges around the card were emitting a white light, the design was the same on both sides, and the front and back weren’t differentiated. The design of this card in his hand had a drawing of a monkey on it, and the artwork was unexpectedly done in ink.
“Picture card: Monkey” This was the only annotation on the item, just a name, nothing else.
Feng Bujue glanced at the status of Wang Tanzhi on his buddy list. He was still in-game. He did not hurry to receive the additional reward straightaway, but contacted customer service once again.
With that said, let us roughly explain the deck system…
First, we need to explain a concept: that of the grades used for equipment quality. The information given to everyone by the official website is as follows:
Garbage: Using this worthless garbage for normal operations would be very difficult.
Battered: Old and with imperfections, it’s better than nothing.
Normal: This equipment is perfectly fine, reasonable use of it will be of some help to you.
Superior: A good and reliable piece of equipment, it’s like having a trustworthy partner.(Superior quality equipment will, at the very least, have an attribute boost or a special effect)
Perfect: Flawless top of the line equipment, it is rare and powerful. (Perfect quality equipment have a guaranteed special effect but may not have an attribute boost.)
Legendary: A holy artifact that makes people covet it even in their sleep, it is able to raise the user’s abilities by multiple levels.
As you can see from these classifications, superior items will undoubtedly be mainstream for the middle and end-game; and is also the grade that most players would have the ability to obtain.
In the previous text, we mentioned how to get equipment in Terror Paradise; the most important point was to “find” them. But what should a player do if he is really unable to obtain superior equipment and enters a vicious cycle where his abilities are bad because he lacks equipment, and is prevented from obtaining anything better?
This deck system was the solution that the company came up with, providing players with a subtle way to obtain equipment from the later stages: as long as the players put together a deck of a certain series, they will be able exchange it for a piece of equipment; the quality will be superior at the very least, and there will even be a small chance for perfect equipment to appear.
And what constitutes as ‘a series’? The answer is random, infinite.
Take this “Picture card: Monkey” as an example. If you have the picture cards: Monk, White Horse, Pig, and Cannibal, these five cards altogether can then be seen as a series.
(TL Note: All of these characters appeared in the Journey to the West)
Similarly, if you have in your hands the picture cards: Rat, Cow, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Goat, Chicken, Dog, Pig. In addition to the Monkey piece, the twelve cards can also be seen as a set.
(TL Note: These twelve animals make up the Chinese Zodiac.)
As long as the system determines a group of cards combined together to be “a set”, that establishes a series which can be exchanged for equipment.
From that point of view, any puzzle card can, in theory, be part of many different series. The generation of each card also has a certain random aspect. For example, the monkey that Feng Bujue brought out, would not necessarily become “Picture Card: Monkey”, it could also have been picture card: Gorilla, King Kong, Furball, Peaches, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, or something else… Another example, if a player brought a pair of straw shoes out of a level, they might become picture card: Foot, Straw, Emperor’s uncle and so on.
(TL note: The peaches in this case refer to the peaches of immortality, which Sun Wukong consumed twice in the Journey to the West. Saru was the nickname of Toyotomi Hideyoshi given by Oda Nobunaga, which means monkey in Japanese. On a related note, emperor’s uncle refers to Liu Bei, whose lineage makes him the uncle of the emperor, though, he had to sell straw shoes for a living once. )
Such diverse options allow every story item to become a useful picture card. After reaching the later stages of the game, if the player is already strong enough to use brute force to overcome most problems, the presence of story-related items with the attribute “Able to be brought out of the level” will probably result in a change of strategy when clearing the stage.
Because of this, players that do not possess any equipment can still enter the single player survival mode alone. In order to keep all the story related items that are able to be kept, one can only complete the main storyline while leaving all of the triggered sub-missions uncompleted, then when they leave the level, everything will become picture cards.
Of course, it’s impossible for players to take what they want and commit suicide. If one wishes to get the cards, passing the stage is the minimum requirement. Whichever mode a player dies during, the player can retain their equipment but story-related items obtained from that level remain in that level.This is to prevent a player’s death from halting the progression of others during Team Survival Mode.
That’s more or less it. On that end, Feng Bujue had already finished with his enquiries. He ended his communication with customer service, then performed some operations using the menu: turning the picture card into data and storing it into the login screen. After this, he made preparations to retrieve the reward for clearing the stage and the bonus reward.
From the outset, he didn’t harbor any hopes for the Terror Value reward, as the degree of horror in this level was average. However, he was pretty curious about the additional lottery opportunity.
The random skill as a reward for clearing the level would definitely be something that he can use, in that case, it would be a skill from either the general or mechanic specializations. As for the additional reward for his Terror Grade…He would have no choice but to choose equipment, as he was still unarmed after completing a level.
Feng Bujue walked out of the elevator and entered a bright metal room. Just like last time, there were two hollow glass pillars.
First, he went close to the area with the clear reward and retrieved a random skill through the virtual menu. White light begun to merge within the hollow glass pillar, forming a technique card. Feng Bujue was pretty calm while removing the card, but as he read the description of the skill, his mournful voice rang out once more in the room. “This is fraud!”