Chapter 70 Intermission 17

Placed at the top of the fighting ability ranking was a player called Sky-swallowing Phantom Dawn. This number one player was not even in the ranking for the highest-level players. Behind his IGN, in brackets, was the word 'Regulations', marking him as a member of said studio, which meant that he would not be one of the two players who had their ID concealed on the other ranking. This kind of professional gamer who was affiliated to a gaming studio had no reason to stay low profile, and Feng Bujue believed that their boss would not have allowed them to conceal their name either because every name that appeared on the ranking was a chance for the studio to flaunt and promote their name.

Hmm… looks like a level difference in this game really doesn't mean much, Feng Bujue thought to himself. The level ranking is merely a reference for players to see who's close to reaching the maximum level… and the truly capable players are the people on this ranking.

Feng Bujue studied the ranking. None of the top twenty players on this ranking had their IGN hidden, and every single one of them was attached to a gaming studio. It looked like it was impossible for a casual player to compete with these people, who had the support of the whole studio behind them. This was particularly obvious at the start of the game. For so-called combat capability, other than the player's personal ability, the main component was their mastery level, skills, and equipment. Those with the support of gaming studios would have a huge leg-up in terms of skills and equipment level. At level twenty, everyone's mastery level would stop at level D, and that was where the difference could be seen.

It was worth noting that other than this Sky-swallowing Phantom Dawn, the other Regulation members were placed after sixth place, and in sixth place was the first player on the level ranking, the first player to reach the maximum level during the closed beta, Fearless Champion.

On the ranking, second place to sixth place were dominated by another studio, and their IGNs were respectively Shiva, Vishnu, Brahma, and Yama. The four came from a studio called Brahman. The studio looked quite powerful because, in the level ranking, the four were placed there as well.

Feng Bujue finished studying the southern panel and moved onto the eastern and northern panels. The rankings there were respectively the ranking for the guilds' general ability and guilds' fighting ability. Not surprisingly, the first two spots for these two lists were taken up by Brahman and Regulation. Brahman was first in guild's fighting ability while Regulation took the lead for guild's general ability.

Actually, the term 'general ability' was quite confusing. Since it had a distinction from fighting ability, it naturally pointed at the guild's overall ability. Other than wealth and numbers, the strongest feature about Regulation was that they had no weakness.

For example, the Invincible Champion that Feng Bujue had come across earlier was one of the members tasked with specializing in fighting mastery during the CB period. Level, equipment, and other masteries were unimportant to him; what he needed to do was focus on the task that he had been given and then hand the firsthand information to the studio.

Naturally, there were other members tasked with exploring other masteries. Regulation used this type of practical method to obtain valuable information, and when their main players entered the game, they would be able to skip over many common pitfalls.

In other words, Regulation had an almost perfect, highly efficient system, especially in the way they handled gaming information. They left no stone unturned and thoroughly investigated every single aspect. Any simple resource that they had could easily defeat the guides written by casual players on the forums. Of course, they would not have done something like that to share their resource because their resources were not something that could be purchased with money.

However, Brahman was no pushover either; their focus was their individual member's personal ability. They did not care how the other gaming studios went about their business. Brahman's tactic was very simple. Once the open beta opened, they moved all their main celebrity players into the game and started the training. After all, all they had were aces, so it did not matter the type of route they took because, eventually, they would end up at the top.

Feng Bujue studied the guilds that took up the top twenty spots. There was quite a bit of overlapping on the two rankings. Other than Regulation and Brahman, there were seven studios that were on both rankings. The remaining ten or so spots were vaguer. In any case, there was no Hyotei on either ranking… and this went to show the validity of the rankings.

After studying the four rankings, Feng Bujue walked to the information tower to observe the situation in the Auction House. What he saw surprised him greatly. The price tags there were incredibly high. Equipment that was rather common was sold for a higher price than the apparel.

Excellent quality equipment at level ten asked for a 120,000 bidding price, and the selling price was marked at 200,000, which meant that the bidding price was around sixty RMB. Just a glance at that, and Feng Bujue could not help but laugh. That money was enough to buy a full set of cheap apparel, and the set would last the player for as long as they wanted. How long could this equipment be worn for? They would need to change it for another equipment when they were level twenty.

At the start of the open beta, all the players were afraid that they were underselling their stuff at the auction house. That psychology could be understood. It was fairly common in online games for you to one day wake up and realize that the item that you tossed away because you thought it was trash was a priceless treasure.

Those who visited the auction house daily would eventually cultivate the philosophy of buying low and selling high. When they made the purchase, it was best if the seller was a player who did not know the item's value and set the price lower than the item's actual worth. When selling the item, it was best if they could run into an idiot who would buy it for a price higher than its actual value.

If everyone thought that way, there would not be enough idiots to go around in the world because there were people who thought that they were cleverer than everyone else everywhere. In the end, the only people who could sell their stuff were the honest players who knew the actual market price.

In a game like Thriller Paradise where equipment was randomly generated, it was extremely rare for players to end up with the same equipment, so the idea of hoarding stuff to hike up the price was impossible. This meant that life was hard for players who intended to survive on playing the auction house. The hope of buying all the items in the auction house, thus shortening their amount on the market, and then selling them back at a higher price was impossible.

Other than that, to prevent heartless players from placing consumables purchased from official shops on the auction house at a high price to scam new players, the system banned the feature of selling items purchasable from official shops, with the Thriller Box being the exception, at the Auction House. Items of trash or broken quality without elements or special effects would be rejected by the Auction House as well. Therefore, those players who wished to auction cr*p like 'stone', 'guts', or 'dog sh*t' at a high price could think again.

As long as you stood around the central area, you could access the auction house through the menu easily. Feng Bujue studied it for a long time. Be it the recently auctioned items or the items that were already on auction, he looked through the pages, and there was barely anything that had a logical pricing. Everything was sold at such an impossibly high price.

Based on the economy, if Feng Bujue bundled up Mario's Wrench, Jazz Shoes, and Echo Armor on the Auction House, selling them for 600,000, it would probably cause an actual bidding war. Or perhaps it would be grabbed by others in less than one minute after it was placed on auction. The person who got it might even think to himself, Wonderful, I managed to run into an idiot today.

Thinking about that, Feng Bujue thought of a wicked scam… or rather… a wonderful idea. He turned and headed to the row of elevators, preparing to head toward the last area that he had not explored—the Thriller Box.

Feng Bujue was in no hurry to get any equipment, and he had quite a lot of Skill Points. If he went to buy some elite equipment and used a relatively acceptable price to auction them off, he would definitely be able to earn a few dozen thousand, and by then, apparel would be no problem for the man.

…

After returning to the log-in lobby, Feng Bujue went back to the storage to put the flashlight into his inventory and went to accept his rating reward. He was not in a hurry to rush his level and 50,000 Game Coins was not that important. It was simply better to get some equipment to sell or auction rather than accepting the Game Coins directly.

———

Item Name: Kenny's Hooded Jacket

Item Type: Armor

Quality: Excellent

Defense Points: Slightly Weak

Element: None

Special Effect: Within a certain range, the wearer of this item will become the main damage target, pulling the damage away from teammates. This effect includes monster attacks, accidents, and natural disasters. In Team Survival Mode (Normal), the wearer will have one on-the-spot revival chance.

Equip Requirement: Male characters and bound after equip.

Remark: Oh my God! They killed Kenny!

———

The placement of the equipment was the upper body, but it would not overlap with one's apparel. Equipment was equipment while apparel was like a player's skin. One could equip both at the same time, but only one would show up as the player's appearance.

Feng Bujue understood the reference to South Park, so… even if he could not equip the echo armor, he would not be rash enough to put the jacket on. Wearing this was no different from actively searching for death while gifting it to others would be giving them a death sentence. Therefore, the best solution was to put it on auction to harm a stranger.

Currently, his inventory was 8/10, and he could still carry two more items. Based on the economy, the elite equipment sold at the Thriller Box would be priced at around three hundred Skill Points. If they were sold at five hundred Skill Points, then he would not be able to purchase two, so having two empty spots in his inventory was more than enough. After all, the items would not take up space for long since he planned to auction them after getting them.

Returning to the elevator, after the door closed, Feng Bujue pressed the button to head to 'Thriller Box', but strangely enough, this time, the door did not open, nor was there a system notification. Two seconds later, the elevator started to move, and strangely enough, Feng Bujue realized that the elevator was not moving up or down, but instead, it was moving like he was on a roller coaster. There was no rhyme or reason, and he was tossed around for a while before the elevator stopped.

The door opened on its own, and an unexpected sight appeared before Feng Bujue's eyes.