Chapter 52:

The new players logged in just as the veteran players’ game time for the day was ending, so whether it was Joy Stick or Niuniu, they couldn’t spend much time “leveling up” with their good buddies and older sisters. They could only tell the newbies about the various settings and gameplay of this hardcore game as much as possible before logging off, and remind them to absolutely not go get themselves killed. The death penalty in this game is indeed a bit heavy. However, when they saw the newbies wielding broken weapons, wearing tattered recruit armor, and rubbing their hands in anticipation, the veteran players had an ominous premonition. Perhaps the “tragedy” of the Cyborg Snail was about to be repeated. “Don’t worry about it, Brother Stick” Meow King consoled the worried Joy Stick before logging off: “You have to die once in this game or you’ll never really understand how to play it. They’re still approaching it with the mindset of playing a regular game, so of course something is going to happen no matter how much you explain to them in an environment this hardcore and realistic. Just look at how clever Lumina was and she still died from slipping, that really illustrates the issue. There’s no stopping it! Relax, it’s just three days. We’ll still make it in time for the tail end of the Kadman City event, and your buddies need time to level up anyway. I got some blood vials from Murphy, shall we do the vault dungeon together tomorrow?” “Sure, let’s set a time to log in tomorrow,” Joy Stick sighed. He had brought too many people this time and found he couldn’t really manage them all, feeling a bit regretful at first. But he quickly regained his senses and looked at Meow King in surprise, asking: “Where did you get those blood vials? Are those the ones that unseal the vault? Why don’t I have any? You sly Meow, you got a hidden quest and kept it to yourself, didn’t you?” “No, it’s not from a quest,” Meow King said proudly, patting the dirty spirit pouch at his waist. “Murphy only made three blood vials total. He gave one to me, one to Niuniu, and maybe the third one is for those five ‘night shift’ guys. I suspect it might be a player benefit given after raising your affinity high enough?” “Damn, we really have to butter up the NPCs?” Joy Stick put on an “I’m a man of dignity, I won’t be a lapdog” expression, but when he saw Meow King had actually obtained tangible benefits, his mind started turning too. But this guy is quite sly. He knew Meow King and that student clique had been circling around Murphy all this time, so their affinity was probably already sky-high. If he went over now, wouldn’t that just make him a beggar? No way! Can’t let them look down on me! Need to find a different NPC to bu...er, no, raise affinity with. Is it really called “buttering up” if it’s part of the game mechanics? If you don’t like it, don’t play, simple as that. With these thoughts in mind, Joy Stick logged out from the male players’ barracks safe zone. As the game world faded to black, the view seamlessly transitioned to the VR live view mode of his game helmet. Joy Stick didn’t immediately remove his helmet, but habitually browsed the forums for a bit first. As a former professional, he was used to gathering scattered bits of information from various channels, never knowing when he might stumble upon some surprise. A few minutes later, just as he was about to take off his helmet and go for a run outside, he suddenly noticed there was a new thread on the forum that had not only been immediately pinned, but also marked as essential reading. “Geez, are they doing RMT trades openly now?” Joy Stick made a quip, then clicked on the thread, realizing there was a reason it had been pinned and marked essential. It even had an odd title,《Under the Moon》, with “Volume One” noted after in a proper style, seeming to indicate plans for a series. As for who wrote it, the name made that clear. “Yo brothers and sisters still battling in Kadman City, let out a roar for your dear brother Ah Yuen! Since the new players joining the game might encounter all sorts of issues, I’ve decided to summarize the information I’ve gathered so far to help clarify things. First, the game’s background! The setting of《Reality Realm》takes place in a quasi-magical ultra-medieval world, and why is it called ‘ultra-medieval’? Because not only does this world have spirit abilities, but it also has very cool fantastical engineering factors, or you could call it steam engineering. My buddies and I discovered steam-powered mechanical refrigerators, auto-sweepers, kitchen assistants, and even something like a three-wheeled walker motorcycle in the ruins of Kadman City. We spent some time ‘investigating’ their inner workings (ok, we took them apart, but I hope their owners don’t suddenly pop out looking for us).” Anyway, we can confirm that those strange-looking things aren’t just superficial textures, their internal structures follow certain mechanical principles. See images below. Picture, picture, picture. After seeing these frighteningly intricate inner workings, everyone should have a clearer understanding of the game world we’re currently in. There is technology here, even if it’s different from what we’re used to. So Joy Stick, don’t lose heart if you chose the ‘Gunner’ job. Maybe in the future you’ll really be able to use an ultra-advanced steam sniper rifle to take a BOSS’s head from 800 miles away, haha. Next is the highlight! The ‘rich loli lady’ Lady Femis and the ‘beautiful mature lady’ Lady Tris. The former’s identity has been confirmed as the daughter of the current Blood Vulture Clan Patriarch, the Blood Vulture Princess. And the latter is even more incredible. It can be confirmed she is a close relation to Murphy, and most importantly, she is currently the only character explicitly portrayed as intimately related to the main story NPC. It can be assured that in the subsequent story, Lady Tris’ role may even surpass that of Lady Femis, if Murphy truly chooses to break away from the Blood Vulture Clan and forge a new faction. The loli Lady Femis’ standoffish personality must be very familiar to veteran players by now. Simply put, she’s a tsundere rich loli – cold and prickly, always looking down on you, ready to harshly rebuke you if you say one wrong word. However, the way to raise her affinity is surprisingly simple. My companion Shark found some relics of vampires in the ruins, and after presenting them to Lady Femis, received her gratitude. So currently, the most effective way to raise her affinity is to go ‘grave-digging’...er, I mean search the ruins for any items related to the Blood Vulture vampires. Additionally, Lady Femis is an extremely professional spirit mage and excellent teacher, so if you can humbly discuss spirit-related topics with her, or find some spirit tomes to present her, that should also raise her affinity. Based on the current situation, Lady Femis’ reputation basically makes her a must-raise for any players aiming to walk the path of a spellcaster. Because she is the only one who will explicitly teach spirit skills to players. “This guy seemed unreliable at first, but turned out to be surprisingly impressive!” Reading up to this point, Joy Stick immediately gave the post a like. To summarize such a comprehensive post on reputation and affinity relationships in just the first 10 days of the game’s launch shows this Ah Yuen guy really did notice many of the unrevealed details in the game and offer his own analysis. Just this alone made Joy Stick take a liking to the lad, who doesn’t love a solid, hardworking young man? He grinned, switching his game helmet to “eyetrack” mode and setting the floating VR interface to semi-transparent, like wearing a motorcycle helmet. He stepped out onto the balcony, lit himself a cigarette, and continued reading the final part of Ah Yuen’s post. This last part was simple: “Lastly, let’s discuss raising affinity with the ‘beautiful mature lady’ Lady Tris. Let me say upfront, Lady Tris is the most alluring character I’ve seen in the game so far, I don’t think anyone would disagree, right? Compared to the prickly Lady Femis and the outsider Miriam, Lady Tris has only just appeared but her attitude toward players can already be described as indulgent, second only to Murphy’s enthusiasm. To raise Lady Tris’ personal reputation, there is a prerequisite, you must first complete the cycle of twelve retrieval quests she gives you to gain her initial trust. These twelve quests are completely random. The seven of us in our team received seven completely different quests, but none were very difficult, all the items could be found in the city ruins. Now here’s the key point! Lady Tris once suffered severe injuries, and she needs strong liquor to numb the pain. Therefore, the main way to raise Lady Tris’ affinity is to give her alcohol! Yes, you heard that right! The highest-end method of raising affinity is just that simple and mundane. This isn’t just Ah Yuen’s personal speculation, it has been verified! Brother Pigeon, that siscon, spent five hours scouring the ruins of Kadman City and found nearly 40 bottles of various fine wines. Before logging off, he gifted them to Lady Tris. Guess what happened? Not only did Lady Tris praise Brother Pigeon’s wisdom and enthusiasm, she even gave him a physical reward! A personal alchemist’s journal she wrote in her youth (at least 350 years ago). Brother Pigeon is now the first alchemist apprentice in the game. That’s right! This game has a ‘skill book’ system! Carefully reading that journal allows you to take the Alchemist secondary job. Most importantly, it’s not a consumable item, you can re-read it repeatedly to increase your skill proficiency. The only downside is that without Lady Tris’ permission, the book cannot be loaned to others to read. It’s basically bound. Of course, if Brother Pigeon is willing to risk resetting his affinity to zero by trying to do some underground RMT with other players, I didn’t say anything. This game is quite free. But it does have a set of unseen rules constraining us. They aren’t hard rules, meaning we can cross those lines anytime, provided we can bear the cost of breaking the rules. Hah, that covers everything for Volume One of《Under the Moon》. Hope it helps the new players! See you all, until next time! As for whether there will be a Volume Two, that depends on if people keep reading. Bye~”