Chapter 38.2
Bai Liu looked at Mu Sicheng curiously. “Why are you looking at me with such strange eyes?”
“I was thinking…” Mu Sicheng’s face was full of vicissitudes. “Is your intelligence really only 89?”
It was too fucking outrageous! How on earth did he infer such a thing? Mu Sicheng answered a question about the game and this guy determined the whole system of the guilds in the game!”
“Many newcomers join a guild in order to survive because the high level players will indeed protect them and help them pass the instance. Although they need to pay one-third of the points earned in the game, it is indeed safer and isn’t so easy to die. A newcomer with high potential like you will be trained directly. I had wanted to ask you why you didn’t join a guild.” Mu Sicheng tore open a lollipop in a depressed manner. “Now I think I don’t need to ask.”
“It is stupid to join a guild.” Bai Liu answered straightforwardly. “In this type of life threatening game, there won’t be any charitable organizations. Helping someone must be profitable.”
“In the short term, the guild will help you reduce your mortality but you are cowardly paying a lot of points to this guild. In this game that requires human expressiveness to attract the audience, it is self-defeating. Once the guild can no longer get any benefits from you, it will definitely abandon you. You will have turned in most of your points and items so you will have no capital to survive independently. You will inevitably die.”
Mu Sicheng stared at Bai Liu in amazement and then with a bit of interest. “What exactly do you do in the real world? Why are you so clear about the way the guilds operate?”
Indeed, many useless low level players were rarely protected by high level guild players in the later stages.
“This is how most companies in the real world operate. They rely on drawing a big picture and so-called internal resources to attract employees. Then they will wait for the employees to stay up all night until their productivity declines. After that, they will fire you and hire younger workers to squeeze.”
Bai Liu was expressionless. “In the real world, I am just a low-level social animal who was exploited and fired. Therefore, it is absolutely impossible for me to join a guild and be exploited after entering the game.”
Mu Sicheng, “……”
This guy exuded strong resentment when talking about the real-world life of a social animal…
“Then have you thought about a game you want to play?” Mu Sicheng glanced at the screen. “Is there any game you like? Or do you want to look again?”
“The login limit for single player games is 100. All single player games on this screen are fully logged in.” Mu Sicheng pointed to the ‘full’ symbol in the lower right corner. He gave a vague introduction around the lollipop in his mouth. “If there is this ‘full’ mark on the game icon, it means the game has been fully logged in and no new players can log in.”
“For multiplayer games, each game has a different login limit. I have played with 4 people and 50 people. It depends on the specific game. By the way, these multiplayer games ‘Ghost House’, ‘Doomsday City’ and ‘Ghost Power’ are games that have appeared before.”
Mu Sicheng casually pointed to a few games. “Do you want to play these? I can help you find the clearance information for some of these games but it isn’t for free.”
“No.” Bai Liu responded without thinking about it. “Even if I have information, I will definitely react much slower than the guild players who have played old games many times. It is easy to preempt me. My advantage needs a new game to play.”
“That is true.” Mu Sicheng bit down on his lollipop. “You are quite adventurous. Most newcomers will still play old games for stability.”
“My purpose is to make money, not to survive.” Bai Liu’s attitude was flat. “I need to win and get first place to get enough points.”
“You are really weird—” Mu Sicheng thought for a moment and gave up on understanding Bai Liu. He wrinkled his nose. “You earn so many points but if you die in the game then there is no place to spend it.”
Bai Liu replied naturally, “I don’t earn points for spending but for hoarding. In addition—” Bai Liu suddenly made a strange smile and turned to look at Mu Sicheng who was stunned by the abrupt smile. “Do you think I will die in the game?”
“I’m still a bit confident. Playing horror games is what I do best. I probably won’t die that easily.” Bai Liu smiled. “I am better at designing games to let other players die and have never died in a game designed by others.”
Mu Sicheng, “……”
What the hell did this guy do in real life? Was he a criminal or something?
“What about this game? Why are there no players logged in?” Bai Liu tapped on the game icon of a train burning on the screen. The icon zoomed in and entered the game manager on Bai Liu’s chest. Bai Liu clicked on the icon to view the specific information of the game. “Exploding Last Train?”
So many games on the screen were full but this one was still empty. It was a bit conspicuous and weird.
[Name of the Game Instance: Exploding Last Train]
[Level: Level 2 (games with a player mortality rate greater than 50% and less than 80% are level 2 games)]
[Mode: Multiplayer mode (0/7)]
[Comprehensive Description: This is an exciting multiplayer game. The last train is on fire. There are four broken glass shards and charred corpses hanging from the ring, making players linger and stay here forever~]
Mu Sicheng saw this icon and frowned. “You want to play this?”
“What’s wrong with this game?” Bai Liu asked.
Mu Sicheng paused. “It is actually an old game that has appeared on the game screen several times but there is currently no clearance information.”
Bai Liu understood in an instant. It had appeared several times and the system of the wall was that it would only refresh once all games were full. Therefore, several batches of players should’ve entered. Yet there was no clearance record…
Bai Liu glanced sideways at Mu Sicheng. “The players who entered previously died?”
“It’s strange. If no players have cleared it…” Bai Liu’s eyes swept across the icon for Exploding Last Train and his finger tapped twice on the death rate. “How is the game mortality rate determined to be greater than 50% and less than 80%? Based on the data of all players being killed, the death rate should be 100%.”
Mu Sicheng disagreed and dismissed Bai Liu. “It is just a way of grading the games. Almost all games have this grading.”
He continued, “Following your words, the death rate of the game is actually measured. So any game without a death rate of 100% should have players who cleared it and clearance data. I watched the videos of the VIP library and asked many old, qualified gods. I really didn’t find any players who have passed Exploding Last Train. I don’t think any players have cleared it.”
Bai Liu gazed into Mu Sicheng’s eyes with a meaningful look. “You didn’t find it. This doesn’t mean there are none.”
“The death rate of Exploding Last Train is between 50-80%. If at least 20% of players passed Exploding Last Train as you said—” Mu Sicheng wasn’t convinced and retorted. “Such a large number of players who successfully cleared it would always post forum posts or have someone watch their small TVs. Isn’t it impossible that there are no traces?”
“How many players do you think there are in the game?” Bai Liu turned his head to stare directly at Mu Sicheng.
Mu Sicheng was stunned by the question. “I don’t know but there should be a lot.”
“We are such a large group but are there any traces of our existence in reality?”
Bai Liu wondered, “Can anything related to this game be seen by people in the real world? No matter what form we post about the game, does it exist or is it remembered by anyone? For the players who haven’t entered the game, are there any traces of the existence of players? Of course not.”
Mu Sicheng was completely shocked by Bai Liu’s words.
Bai Liu asked the last question. “Okay, back to the first question. If there are no traces of us players in reality, do you think we exist?”
“Of course we exist.” Bai Liu quickly replied. “It is just that traces of us have been erased. Then isn’t it possible that the 20% of players who cleared Exploding Last Train are like this? The traces of their existence might’ve been erased by the system or the game.”
Mu Sicheng exclaimed, “Their clearance data and player data have been deleted!”
“There is a good chance that they themselves have been deleted.” Bai Liu stared at the icon of Exploding Last Train. “The players who passed this game are likely to be dead or else they wouldn’t have failed to come and clear this game twice.”
Mu Sicheng got goosebumps at Bai Liu’s words but he was still a bit unhappy. “However, everything you say is based on the fact that ‘game mortality’ is actually measured. What if the ‘player mortality’ in the game is a virtual measurement…”
Mu Sicheng stopped here in a startled manner.
Bai Liu raised his eyes. “I believe you should’ve just discovered that mortality rate is a type of data that can’t be measured virtually.”
“Have you ever studied statistics?” Bai Liu asked Mu Sicheng. “There are two values in statistics that must be actually measured. One is the birth rate and the other is the death rate.”
As he spoke, he casually tapped on the icon of Exploding Last Train on his game panel twice. Then Bai Liu gradually entered the game as Mu Sicheng screamed and stared in shock. Mu Sicheng collapsed. “Why are you going in?!”
Bai Liu gradually faded in Mu Sicheng’s vision as he thoughtfully answered the question. “I’m very curious about why the system specifically deleted the player data of Exploding Last Train. Experience tells me that the more deeply hidden something is by the superiors, the more profitable it is…”
[The game ‘Exploding Last Train’ has gathered one player. Six more players are needed for it to start.]
Proofreader: Purichan