BXBX NOVEL Chapter 23 - “Show Cards”
Last time, on Apocalypse Lord: The combined Wei’s Workers and Restaurant Regiment take down the boss.
This chapter has been brought to you by me and Smash10101.
Chapter 23 – Show Cards
[Name: Soft Armor]
Quality: Rare
Equip Effect: Stamina +10
Special Effect: -20% damage received.
[Name: Enchantment Crystal]
Material Use: Can be used to enchant equipment.
Lu Chuan muttered in his mind, using his Intermediate Enchantment skill.
In the next moment, the crystal turned to powder, and evenly spread on the soft armor.
The system notified, [Enchantment success.]
[Do you wish to view new attributes?]
Lu Chuan pressed “yes.”
The panel showed —
[Name: Soft Armor (Enchanted)]
Quality: Rare
Equip Effect: Stamina +10
Special Effect: -20% damage received.
Enchantment Effect: Stamina +5
Now, while it was still purple equipment in name, when worn, it could rival poor orange equipment.
Lu Chuan examined it for a moment, and then put it away with satisfaction.
In reality, a successful enchantment was pure fluke.
With elementary enchantment, there was an 80% chance of failure, and 20% chance of enchantment success.
With intermediate enchantment, there was a 50% chance of failure, and 50% chance of enchantment success.
Once there was a failure, the enchantment material (crystal) would be automatically destroyed.
Once a piece of equipment failed to be enchanted three times, the equipment would automatically be destroyed.
It was pretty good luck to have a successful enchantment the first time.
Lu Chuan looked around, chose a direction, and strode away.
**
Yun Ling was helping Fang De Yang search when a voice sounded behind her. “For you.”
Yun Ling, “?”
Lu Chuan threw the soft armor, and she instinctively caught it. When she saw the equipment attributes, she was stunned. “Enchantment skill?”
“Yes.” Lu Chuan casually said, and then planned to leave.
“Wait a moment,” Yun Ling did not know whether to laugh or cry. “You do not have good defense equipment yet, why give it to me?”
“To repay the favor,” Lu Chuan said earnestly.
…When had he owed her a favor? Hadn’t they settled them? Yun Ling had a confused expression.
But Lu Chuan looked at her and was puzzled. “Aren’t you a beta survivor? Why do you not have even one orange equipment? You could choose three out of four, what did you choose?”
Yun Ling’s expression changed. A long time later, she decided, and said honestly. “Lord Token, keep life survival skills, S-rank skill ‘Heart of Nature’.”
Lu Chuan, “……”
“Lord Token? Yun Ling, Rising Cloud.” Instantly, he realized. “You created Rising Cloud Camp?”
“Yes.” Yun Ling admitted.
Seeing Lu Chuan so surprised, she was puzzled. “Even Wei Qing is suspicious, you did not suspect?”
Lu Chuan said, “I only ever saw system camps, and never player camps. Of course I would not think about that.”
“You never saw a Lord Token before?” Yun Ling was more puzzled.
“No,” Lu Chuan answered. “I could choose three out of the four rewards for clearing. They were, keep life skills levels, the S-rank skill “Blood Sucking,” the legendary orange equipment “Dragon Quiver,” and the legendary orange equipment “Dragon Bone Bow.”
“I had the intermediate enchantment, and advanced BBQ skills. I had to choose the first one.”
”For archers, blood sucking is necessary, so I had to choose it.”
The Dragon Bone Bow has a high basic damage, while the Dragon Quiver will automatically produce special effect arrows. I felt that the Freeze, Exploding, and Penetrating arrows are beneficial for crowd control, and are suitable for many situations, so I chose the quiver.”
So that was how it was.
Thinking, Yun Ling asked, “You never suspected at all? While I want to conceal, sometimes, I will slip up.”
Lu Chuan said, “For example?”
Yun Ling said, “To create the camp buildings, I have an unusual preference for all kinds of materials.”
Lu Chuan said unconcernedly, “There are collection missions in the mission hall. Seeing you so keen on collecting materials, normal people will think that you are doing missions to earn copper coins.”
“In the camp, I am the only one who can enter the warehouse.”
“There are just a few who can enter the warehouse to start with, even more so in the starting stages of the game. You could be the only one to finish a special mission, and be allowed in. This is very possible.”
As he spoke, Yun Ling found that she was not as suspicious as she assumed.
“In my view, you just were lucky to finish a special mission. Due to this, you have special privileges in the camp,” Lu Chuan calmly analyzed. “Wei Qing feels it strange more because we are beta players, and have common knowledge of the game that other people do not know.”
“That is good.” Yun Ling sighed in relief.
After hearing Wei Qing ask, she almost thought that she had been exposed.
“Why hide it?” Lu Chuan did not understand. “If people know who you are, you will not suffer any loss.”
Yun Ling was helpless. “There are limits to the buildings that the territory can unlock. But players have unlimited demands.”
“During the beta, I frequently heard people nag, why did the system camp not unlock this building, why did it not unlock that one. If people learn that I am the lord, I cannot live a life.
“Players will suggest things that are not good for anybody but themselves, and want the entire camp to work for them.”
Lu Chuan was speechless.
He had heard of similar things.
Some camps had high level blacksmith shops. Some camps provided high quality defense items. Some camps produced recovery items.
The camps all had their pros and cons. A player had to choose where they wanted to live.
The game clearly wanted players to make a choice. But some people would think that this place was not good, and that place was not good. In the end, all the territories were trash, and none of them good.
Someone had joked, the territories that the game produced could not satisfy the players. It would be better for these people to create their own territories, and satisfy their individual needs.
Other than Yun Ling, he did not know if there were other player lords in the game.
Even if there were, there could not be many.
His thoughts swirling, Lu Chuan slowly said, “Hiding in the shadows and controlling from behind the scenes is a good gaming method.”
Yun Ling found Lu Chuan more pleasing to look at. “I also feel the same.”
“I have no intention to interfere in the camp’s development, I just want to know the next steps,” Lu Chuan said.
“In two days, upgrade to village. In three days, unlock residences, in five days, unlock the restaurant,” Yun Ling said without even needing to think.
“Okay,” Lu Chuan nodded, “if so, then I can be reassured and become an official resident of Rising Cloud Camp.”
At the start of the game, it was not easy to make money.
Weapons, armor, recovery items, temporary residence status. Money was needed everywhere.
Also, a city usually had dozens of system camps. These camps all had their own character, and some were very unusual. Players had to give great thought to which camp they would choose.
If he rashly became an official resident of Rising Cloud Camp, and found one better and more suitable in the future, he would have to give up his status as an official resident of Rising Cloud Camp, then pay again to become an official resident of another camp.
This was undoubtedly wasting money.
Due to this, even though he had enough money before, Lu Chuan had only purchased a temporary resident status.
Now, learning that Rising Cloud Camp belonged to Yun Ling, and the development of the camp was guaranteed, he could be reassured, and join.
**
Ji Ling Feng and Yu Hui returned along the path they came, and found corpses without anyone left alive.
Ji Ling Feng’s heart felt tight. “Where are they? Where is Ling Yun?”
“From the marks, they went that way” Yu Hui looked down, and then concluded.
“Go!” Ji Ling Feng sprinted in that direction without a word.
Then, when he was halfway, he went the wrong way, and took an extra ten minutes to find them.
“Brother! Where did you go?” Seeing her family membership, Ji Ling Yun was on the verge of tears.
“I found something unusual and went with Uncle Yu to investigate.” Ji Ling Feng brushed over it and then asked, “What happened here?”
“There is a boss in the Hypermarket! A very large spider. It killed several team members!” Ji Ling Yun cried. “I saw that they could not match, and could only order a retreat.”
Boss?
Ji Ling Feng was shocked. “Where?”
“I do not know.” Ji Ling Yun shook her head. “I saw Wei Qing lead his team to fight, so I took the chance to flee.”
“You! How could you give the boss to others?” Ji Ling Feng was angry and anxious. He turned and asked his subordinate Yan Hua. “She does not see clearly, what about you? You did not see clearly?”
The words were accusatory.
Yan Hua hurriedly said, “I paid attention, they went that way.”
Under his leadership, the group hurried, and quickly found the boss.
Pity that at this time, the battle had finished already. Other than the corpse of the boss, there was nothing on the ground.
**
With the soft armor in hand, Yun Ling took down her belt, and put on the purple armor. Then she left with Lu Chuan to continue the search.
Soon, You Qing Wen found their target in the frozen foods area.
Fang De Lin had fallen against the freezer, the frozen food on the ground and two white equipment in the air.
You Qing Wen did not touch them, and called the team members over.
“De Lin!” Fang De Yang shouted at the top of his lungs.
Wei Qing patted his shoulder as comfort. “Since we have found him, just let it go.”
The words were ugly to hear. All of them were living on a knife’s edge. Who knew who would be next.
Fang De Yang covered his face and cried, taking a while to calm down.
He bore his grief, and picked up the equipment. He left one for himself to use, and gave the other to You Qing Wen. Then he said in a hoarse voice, pretending to be strong, “I am fine…let’s return to camp.”
“What about your brother?” Wei Qing asked.
“No way about it, I cannot attend to him.” Fang De Yang closed his eyes. “We came this time to search for supplies. If I take him, I cannot take the supplies or fight.”
“The system would refresh, just … let it be.”
Then, he lowered his head, tears in his eyes, and quickly walked away.
Translator Ramblings: I find Ji Ling Yun’s reaction very understandable. Who wants to go fight a monster? Also, considering the number of stories where a character gets a game system/transported to a game, maybe there should be classes on video games … just in case. Also, I think there is a proper term other than “blood sucking,” but I have no idea what it is.