Chapter 36: Scam Level 6

[Achievement Unlocked!

Achievement 'All 10s!' has been unlocked.]

[Achievement: All 10s!

Description: Achieve 10 points in Persuasion, Intimidation and Charm while still in the first realm in all three paths of cultivation. With these stats, you are unparalleled in your realm! Nobody within the same realm of cultivation can avoid being scammed by you!

Reward: Upgrade to the Communication Skills Menu, 500 Experience Points]

As Eric finished reading this, before he had time to compute this information, the Communication Skills Menu appeared in front of him and started changing. Within a couple seconds, he had a new wall of text in front of him which he proceeded to read carefully.

[Communication Skills Menu

The Communication Skills are a measure of the user's ability to communicate with and in turn, scam his targets. The higher the communication skills, the easier and likelier it is for targets suspicious of the user to get scammed regardless. Unsuspecting targets, however, can be scammed without any relation to the amount of points in the user's communication skills.

Now that the user has 10 points in all three communication skills, everyone with in the first realm of the paths of cultivation: Soul, Body and Mind can be scammed successfully by the user if done properly and tactfully.

This however, does not mean that the user can't be caught. This only states that as long as the user is careful, anyone under the first realm of cultivation can be scammed; while for people above said level of cultivation, there is a chance that they can see through the user's intentions without him even knowing.

Now that this has been stated, there will be a change in the distribution of Communication Skill points. Till the user reaches the second realm of cultivation in the three paths of cultivation, for each respective path, the amount of Experience Points required to gain a point in Communication Skills will be increased from 100 to 1000. Once the user reaches the second realm, however, this exchange rate will be lowered back to 100.

Once your stats reach 11, anyone in the first realm of cultivation for that respective path will be incredibly easy to scam and will only catch the user if he commits a really obvious error while trying to scam the target; but if that can be avoided, success will be almost guaranteed.]

Eric quickly read this text while still paying attention. He was starting to understand the system and its various abilities a bit more. The communication skills weren't a direct measure of his ability, but instead were more of an estimation of his average capabilities in scamming.

If they were, instead, an accurate measure of his ability where anything above was beyond his limit, he wouldn't have been able to scam Darren. This, he assumed was because Darren wasn't suspicious of him and was merely surprised and interested in his activities.

As Eric thought about this, he started to realize that he hadn't truly scammed anyone yet. As a child, he didn't have much reach and ability in general and therefore, he was stuck to 'scamming' his own friends and family for the most part.

Later on, when he would start increasing the scale of his operations and changing the targets of his scamming to the general public or his enemies, he would be able to gain a lot more but the whole endeavor would also turn out to be way riskier than what it currently was.

He compared his current situation to that of a sort of a tutorial, where his gains were less, but so was the risk involved. This was the time for him to grow and become capable enough to the point where he could take riskier approaches in the future.

The rest of the information was quite straightforward and easy for Eric to understand. The change in the exchange rate between experience points and stat points was quite reasonable and Eric didn't have any questions regarding it.

Now that Eric had read all the text on the system window, he closed it with a simple thought and checked the notifications. Once again, to his surprise, he still had an unread notification. He opened it hastily to see what he had forgotten and looked at the new system window that appeared in front of him.

[Congratulations!

You have leveled up.

Scam Level: 6

(0/600 Experience Points)

Level Up Reward: Bag of Minor Physical Restoration Pills]

[Item: Bag of Minor Physical Restoration Pills

Contents: Minor Physical Restoration Pills (100)

Description: Minor Physical Restoration Pills have the ability to restore the user's physical state back to the peak by healing any sort of minor physical injuries, stress or fatigue in the user's body. If the injuries are moderate, the effect of these pills will weaken severely and in the case of a serious physical ailment, they will be rendered next to useless. Due to this, it is highly advised to limit the usage of these pills to only minor physical problems.]

As Eric saw his level up rewards, he started to rejoice and thank his luck.

'This is pretty much the perfect reward I could have wanted right now. The fact that I got this from a general level up reward instead of any particular body cultivation related quest makes it even more impressive!' Eric thought as he started to ponder if this really was just his luck or not.

'The timing seems a bit too perfect to the point where it looks suspicious… Am I really lucky or are the rewards manipulated to benefit me the most?' Eric started to get lost in a sea of thoughts as he started to join all sorts of pieces of a puzzle which he never knew existed, in his head.

'I know for a fact that there is someone who is controlling or owns this game world, like an admin or a developer or an owner in terms of earth's games. Maybe this being is manipulating the rewards I get for quests in real time so that they can benefit me the most. It surely doesn't seem like this is only luck. However, even though the results are being manipulated, they are benefiting me… In such a situation, am I supposed to be careful and wary of the suspicious behavior, or should I ignore it or even possible thank him for doing so, because it is working in my favor?'

Eric took a couple minutes to question this in his mind and soon came to a rather satisfactory answer.

'As of right now, I can't really do anything about this. I barely know anything about the system and this game world; forget the mysterious being behind it. At this stage, thinking about unnecessary stuff which is out of my control will only make me more and more worried. For now, I should focus on other stuff which I actually have the power and ability to effect while remembering to look into this topic later on, once I have the ability to do so.'

With this topic out of the way, there was only one other thing on Eric's mind at that moment. That thing was… the obstacle course.