36 Chapter 36: The Dilemma

Ren Suo turned on his computer and waited for more than a minute before a message from 360 appeared, saying: "Current boot time: 10 seconds. Your boot-up speed is faster than 99% of the country's computers!" Unhurriedly, Ren Suo opened a Word document.

Another 10 seconds passed before the 2003 version of Word launched.

At this point, the capabilities of the computer Ren Suo used must be obvious: it was a faded beauty. Nonetheless, the computer was able to meet Ren Suo's daily needs, and he was still able to watch videos and write documents with the computer without much problem.

However, ever since Ren Suo started playing on the Mini Worlds Gaming Console and experienced the advanced technological capabilities of the game console, he started having second thoughts about keeping his computer. His current computer was old and did not have much 'commemorative' value. Furthermore, while new technology products serve the same functional purposes as before, their appearance would still become more appealing and striking.

In his Word document, Ren Suo wrote:

[Over My Dead Body: Chapter 1]

[Lurk: Chapter 1]

[Massacre in the Underground City]

After hesitating for a short while, Ren Suo continued writing:

[Over My Dead Body: Chapter 1] (Maximum reward: 80 merits, difficulty: 2 stars, specialized reward: 'Heart-strengthening' ability)

[Lurk: Chapter 1] (Maximum reward: 100 merits, difficulty: 2 stars, specialized reward: 'The Art of Deceiving' ability)

[Massacre in the Underground City] (Maximum reward: 60 merits, difficulty: 1 star, specialized reward: not applicable as it is a free game with only 1-star difficulty)

As Ren Suo had some accumulated merits, not only did the system show the highest possible rewards he could obtain for each game (this was not shown for the free game of the previous month), there was also a prompt which said: 

"Upon completion of any free chapter from a game, the required merits to acquire the game would reduce accordingly."

"The total merits required to acquire the game can be found through the search function of the World Shop."

For example, Ren Suo had completed the chapter [The Bloody Banquet] from the game [The Hitman], and thus the number of merits he needed to acquire the game would be reduced if he searched for it in the World Shop. However, he did not know how much fewer merits would be required for he was not about to spend 10 merits to perform a search to satisfy his curiosity.

[Over My Dead Body: Chapter 1] was an economic simulation game. The synopsis read: "Giving the player the opportunity to experience what it is like to operate a family business! In a world of natural and man-made disasters, in a world of ghosts and spirits, in a world full of crises and calamities, the player needs to protect and save his own family in the complex world. The player would also need to be courageous and brave enough to break free from the cursed spell of life and other external vulnerabilities."

[Lurk: Chapter 1 was an interactive narrative game. The synopsis read: "With a stone-cold heart, yet bustling with activity, would you choose to sacrifice yourself wholeheartedly for the better future of your nation, even if it means you would fall into the bottomless hell pit of lies? Or would you choose to be indecisive for your own glory and honor?"

[Massacre in the Underground City] was a card-based action and adventure game. The synopsis read: "The rotten culture of the abyss hidden within the underground city has infiltrated the world. To save yourself, you have to emerge from the corrupt metropolis, travel through the darkest of caverns and leave the horrid underground city by fighting against the strongest enemies at the heart of the deep abyss in a battle of life and death."

Ren Suo lifted his hands off the keyboard and looked at what he had just typed as he contemplated carefully over his options. 

All of the three free games for the month seemed fun. 

But Ren Suo could only choose one out of the three to play. 

It was not impossible, however, to play all three of them. The system prompted that as the player's level increased, the number of free games each month would increase, and the player would also be able to choose more games to play each month. However, Ren Suo still had no idea how he could increase his player level, so he was left with no choice but to select only one out of the available three. 

Furthermore, there was no longer any discount for the purchase of games. If Ren Suo did not choose to play any of the free games, he would not be able to play any. With his very limited amount of accumulated merits, he would definitely not be able to afford anything after spending some merits to search for games in the store. 

"What should I do?" Ren Suo pondered. 

If he only considered the rewarded merits from each game, it was obvious that he should choose to play [Lurk]. The short-term benefit was the earned merits, while the long-term benefit would be the discounted game cost. Unfortunately, the specialized reward [The Art of Deceiving] did not seem to be functionally useful. 

The next best option would be [Over My Dead Body]. Although the number of rewarded merits was fewer than that of [Lurk], the specialized reward [Heart-strengthening] seemed to be useful, but Ren Suo had no idea what the ability entailed just yet. 

The last option would be "Massacre in the Underground City", with the lowest amount of merits rewarded. Both the short-term and long-term benefits were unattractive. Furthermore, no specialized rewards would be given. Unless he was left with no other choice like before when he only had the option to play [The Hitman: The Bloody Banquet], Ren Suo would definitely not pick this option. 

However, if he took the game content into consideration, the choice would not be as straightforward. 

[The Hitman: The Bloody Banquet] had a difficulty rating of 1 star. Similarly, [A Strong Warrior Ascends 10,000 Meters] had a difficulty rating of 1 star. 

Without a doubt, both of these games were two of the easiest games available, but were they that easy? The former required some amount of brainwork to complete, while the latter required Ren Suo to stay up for a few nights to complete. 

Even though Ren Suo had not owned any other game console prior to the Mini Worlds Gaming Console, but he was still a frequent visitor to cybercafes. While he could not be considered a legendary player in the online games, he was not a clumsy amateur either. He was not one to neglect his studies and ruin his future, so he always played with moderation. Nonetheless, Ren Suo was essentially one of the best few amongst people of his age. Many of his schoolmates would flock to team up with him to play FPS and MOBA games. 

Ren Suo was essentially a decent gamer, but even the 1-starred games proved to be a significant challenge to him. How difficult would the 2-starred games be?

After some time, Ren Suo figured that he would not choose a game just yet. He had just returned home after a long ride anyway and instead decided to take a rest first. 

CTRL + A, Delete. 

Ren Suo deleted everything that he had just typed and went for a shower. He heated up the yee-fu noodles with beef briskets in fried bean sauce which had already turned cold, then held it in his hand as he returned to his computer. He navigated to the video site GiliGili, preparing to watch videos as he ate his...supper?

However, as soon as the website loaded, he spat out a mouthful of the simmering hot noodles, which covered his screen and keyboard with a brown layer of a hot, gluey mix of noodles and fried bean sauce. 

At the top of the webpage was a horizontal banner that usually showed seasonal news and the website's large-scale promotion events. Yet, it was now replaced with six large words in a black font over a white background:

"A Strong Warrior Ascends 10,000 Meters!"

Ren Suo hurriedly cleaned up the mess on his computer, then took a deep breath before clicking into the page, to realize that it was a...what on earth?!

Large-scale serial documentary film?!

There were a total of 55P (number of separated parts to the entire video), and apart from the last two Ps, they were all 120-minute-long videos! That was a total of 4 and a half days long!

Each individual P had its own title stating the corresponding timestamps. For example, the first few Ps had the titles "3 April 00:00~02:00", "3 April 02:00~04:00", "3 April 04:00~06:00", while 54P was titled "8 April 10:00~11:43".

The last P was a "Highlights" video, which seemed to be a cut and combined version a staggering 200 minutes long! That was almost three hours!

3rd of April...?

Ren Suo recalled that that was the first day of his training camp. 

However, that was also the day immediately after he uploaded his score for the game!