Chapter 404 - To Gamble
TL: xDh20, LifeisaJourney
Alongside the walls were rows of capsule chairs. These chairs were shaped like mods, ergonomically designed for human engineering. There was a door that wasn't open on one side of the room, where it led to still unknown.
"The players that participated have to lay down in the reward capsule to receive your rewards. Please go in order, one by one. Don't have more than two people in capsules at the same time. After you enter, please wait for the prompt to begin. Don't damage the reward capsule, otherwise you won't be able to retrieve your reward," the mainframe announced.
The players were looking at each other, hesitation in their eyes. Who would be the first willing guinea pig to enter the capsule? Even though the words "generous rewards" were appealing, they weren't enough to get them to go in. To them it seemed too easy, like they were missing a piece of important information.
"How do we know if this is a trap? What happens if we enter it and won't wake up?" a player asked the mainframe.
Along the wall one of the doors opened up and from the looks of it, it was an elevator lift.
"If you don't want your reward, you can enter here that to leave this area. The elevator will return you back to the surface. However, the moment you enter the elevator, that means you've given up your option for reward. After that, I won't be able to give you your reward," the mainframe replied to the player's question.
"Well then, I should go try it first. If there is a trap, I will find out for all of you!" a player volunteered to head into the reward capsule first.
This volunteer was the player who had cursed Liu Gan earlier, and was beaten up twice by Zhao Meng. Naturally, he felt ashamed, so he hoped to redeem himself by currying the favor of others. It was a gamble, too. If he proved to be useful, then Liu Gan might forget about getting cursed at. There might be additional rewards for being the first!
This unnamed player entered the reward capsule, and the glass door automatically closed. Through this glass door, the unnamed player was visible. They witnessed headgear being placed on the player, as well as wrist and ankle shackles locking onto to him.
The unnamed player's heart rate, respiratory rate, level, health condition, and other statuses were also displayed on the glass screen of the capsule. It was synchronized to match the readings on the unnamed player's wristwatch.
"This matches what you would find in a traditional game system! It seems there are certain game elements from The Trembling World that have been implemented. This is the first time I've seeing something that connects to the game," another player said loudly when he saw the screen.
Whatever the helmet instructed the player to do, only the player inside could hear it. There were speculations that it was instructing the player to remain still, since once the unnamed player entered he just laid motionless.
After a short while the machine started rumbling loudly. Meanwhile, the monitor of reward capsule displayed "Rewarding in Progress''. This was followed by ear-piercing chimes when the player leveled up, the stats displayed slowly increasec for the player.
Strength, agility, vision, hearing, and other stats were slowly increasing at set intervals. After the overall stats had reached a certain level requirement, the machine chimed. A gray light flowed within the chambers of the capsule. A notification popped up to show that the player had leveled up from 5 to 6!
"Damn! This is handing out experience points like candy! There were enough points for a level up!" The bystanding players were ogling the monitor. They were all excited, and eager to test it out themselves.
However, the reward capsule didn't stop after the level-up. The player's stats continued to rise. After ten minutes, it jumped to level 7! Even at this point, his stats continued to rise. It was nearing the requirements for level 8!
The 12 players standing outside were just watching. They had nothing else to do, so they were growing impatient. There were a few players who wanted to enter into the remaining reward capsules. They wanted to personally experience this feeling of jumping levels. To the inhabitants of The Trembling World, there was nothing more important than levels. Every level increase would raise their body's properties substantially. This would give them an advantage over the lower level players.
Only the strongest survive, only the higher level players could thrive. In the village, the higher status players had more rights and authority. Having higher levels would earn them the respect of other players, since having power was equivalent to getting respect. Gaining levels was one of the most enticing offer anyone can provide. It wasn't just one level, but several levels of experience.
Such an enticing offer for these players was hard to resist. If they weren't any potential dangers, they would've hopped into one of the chambers for the reward capsule. They were afraid of the mainframe changing its mind and retracting the offer, or any anomalies that might come up during the transfer of experience. There was also the fear of the competing players beating them to the level-up and then sabotaging the machine. That would mean the remaining players would be unable to claim their level-up reward. That would be truly unfortunate!
The more clear-headed players held the eager players back. Since they had one guinea pig already, there was no need to have more than one casualty if something did happen to the first player. It was for the best if they waited for the first player to leave the reward capsule first. To confirm its safety, it is worth it to wait briefly for the final results.
Since the whole leveling procedure was very slow, the once rowdy crowd of players was losing patience and getting tired. If they weren't waiting for the final results, the impatient players would've had an impulse to sleep through the entire reward procedure.
It was fortunate the bystanding players had comfortable chairs to sit and sleep around them. It was a brief solution to ease their frustration. However, there were a few players who chose to remain by the reward capsule; they wanted to be the first persons to witness the benefits after the reward. They were cautious and skeptical of this reward system. Eventually the feelings of anxiety and fatigue caught up to the players once they started to sit down. The overwhelming feelings made the players fall asleep on the chairs, and it didn't take long before they started snoring.
Just like that, the first player started at level 5, then it raised to level 6. From level 6 to 7, from 7 to 8, and now 8 to 9. At level 9, it rose to level 10… That took two hours to complete. The reward procedure stopped after the unnamed player reached level 10.
At the same time, the monitor indicated that the first player had obtained a new ability. It must be the ability that was granted to him after reaching level 10.
"Level 10!"
"Level 10? This is really hard to believe!"
"Is it really possible to level up to 10 from level 5?!" the bystanding player shouted loudly to wake everyone up from their slumber.