CHAPTER 83: CHAPTER 83: ALMOST GOT TRAPPED

EDITOR: DRAGON BOAT TRANSLATION

In the past two days, Ren Suo had tried seventy-seven times to pass the second trial.

Not a single attempt made it into the top ten.

Ren Suo’s speculation was quite accurate—many people indeed chose to buy temporary partnership contracts and form temporary four-person squads for the second trial. In the most terrifying attempt, Ren Suo landed in a gathering area and found that distinct squads had taken positions all around him.

They were all in groups of four, landing in the same area!

That round, Ren Suo hardly dared to search; he immediately ran outside the gathering area and found a Hellhound—this was the trial ground of the Eternal Burning Heart, the Dark Flame Realm.

In the middle of the map was a perpetually erupting volcano spewing molten lava. The sky was cloaked in volcanic ash, and the cracked earth overflowed with rivers of burning magma. Special buildings, suspended over the lower layers, acquired electrical power through geothermal energy, so light was not an issue. At a glance, these human settlements resembled clusters of propped-up spiders.

But if one carelessly touched a lava river and triggered the Divine Protection on them, it might cause their Health Points to skyrocket, pulling them out of the trial.

The unique vehicles native to the Dark Flame Realm were the Hellhound (four-seater), the Black Horned Ox (two-seater), and the Flame Spider (six-seater), all with a very fantastical style, a stark contrast to the fairy-tale style of the White Snow Field.

However, even though Ren Suo’s will to survive was extremely strong, that round ended with him in 25th place. Later, he encountered a duo. It was unclear whether they had lost two teammates in a fierce fight before that, but their equipment was very complete, including the airdropped Healing Firearms, the "Stormy AUG." They used these to suppress Ren Suo so effectively that he dared not show his face and was blasted into the sky by their combined attack.

Ren Suo had overestimated himself and underestimated the other Trial Participants.

Even though his combat skills were slightly above average, the sheer numerical advantage of his enemies completely crushed him. No matter how many times he retried, as long as he encountered an unavoidable four-person squad, it was basically a 100% defeat.

The Trial Participants in the second trial had all emerged from the first. They were individuals who could quickly grasp the trial rules and clinch first place through a mix of luck and skill. Even if their combat skills didn’t rival Ren Suo’s, they at least wouldn’t drag their teammates down.

Not to mention they also had built-in translation systems, making communication seamless. They only needed one person to lead, and the four of them could easily leverage their group advantage.

After seventy-seven failed attempts, Ren Suo realized he either had to team up or... find another way.

The Golden Ranger naturally became one of his choices.

If he teamed up, even if I could pass the second trial, I would still start from scratch in the third trial. Although I can’t do it alone, what if another Trial Participant could single-handedly conquer the second trial?

Undoubtedly, those who could pass the second trial alone would have Blessings powerful enough to dominate the entire arena in the third trial.

For example, Fatty’s Blessing "Avalanche Lv1" isn’t yet obviously powerful. But at Max Level, a pistol’s power could rival a rifle’s, and a rifle’s power could approach that of a heavy sniper rifle. Two Healing Bullets later, anyone, no matter what flimsy armor they wore, would ascend to heaven.

The ones who could stand until the end in the third trial would likely already be god-level Priests.

Rather than dying over and over in the third trial, it’s better to find a way to gain an unparalleled advantage in the second trial.

After all, it’s a 2-star difficulty game with a maximum reward of 150 Merit Points. Effort is a given—at least for someone like me, who isn’t an expert at clearing games. The real question is whether I can earn back my investment when my performance is evaluated.

The only in-app purchase game I’ve played is "If You Are Strong, Climb Ten Thousand Meters," and getting a high score in that game almost definitely required in-app purchases.

Therefore, to achieve a high score and clear this game, in-app purchases are likely necessary.

Since in-app purchases are necessary anyway, it’s of course better to buy early and enjoy the benefits early!

The cost of hiring the Golden Ranger depended on the amount of Merit Points he chose to spend. Ren Suo immediately thought of his privilege.

Meticulous Calculation: Any Merit Points spent in the Minor World have a 50% chance to reduce the cost by 1 Merit Point (single transaction cannot be less than 1 Merit Point).

If this privilege couldn’t be used for in-app purchases, I could only consider myself unlucky.

However, he was lucky. The first time he hired the Golden Ranger, his privilege triggered, and he achieved the effect of 2 Merit Points for the cost of just 1 Merit Point!

As Ren Suo watched with expectant eyes, the Golden Ranger beckoned at Fatty. He drew out two points of glittering Starlight and clenched them in his fist.

The next second, the Golden Ranger swung his right hand, unleashing a Diamond Sword that refracted light.

"Here it comes!" the Golden Ranger said to Fatty, and then brought down his sword!

Diamond Stardust exploded on Fatty’s body and seeped deep within him.

However, Ren Suo saw a prompt on the screen: "Your character ’Zhao Zili’ has suffered a Holy Attack!"

"Your character ’Zhao Zili’ is dead!"

The screen went black. Ren Suo stared in shock.

The consumption of Merit Points was, however, very real. He was now left with only 10 Merit Points.

After loading his save, Ren Suo summoned the Golden Ranger again and directly used the voice chat, asking, "How do you plan on helping me earn Points?"

Golden Ranger: "Hmm? You want to know, eh? I might as well tell you... The so-called Points are actually ’Hollows’ created by the deities within your bodies. These don’t affect you, nor can you perceive them. However, these are the places where deities ’deposit’ Blessings."

"That exchange system essentially detects how many Hollows are in your body. Whenever you need a Blessing, it places the required one into a Hollow."

"And to get you Points, I just need to create Hollows in your body," the Golden Ranger said, his voice tinged with mockery despite his body being shrouded in golden light. "Creating Hollows isn’t difficult; the hard part is containing them. So, if creating a Hollow fails, it means the containment failed."

"Hollows won’t affect you, provided they are contained. Uncontained Hollows... will devour you whole."

Ren Suo gritted his teeth in anger. This Krypton Gold gambling system has hidden details I wouldn’t discover unless I asked! "Can increasing the Merit Points I give you improve the success rate?"

Golden Ranger: "The Basic Success Rate is 50%. For every additional Merit Point of what I require that you give me, the power I concentrate will be slightly stronger. Each point can increase the success rate by about 3% and also raise the minimum potential of the Hollows created inside you."

System Prompt: "You have received detailed information about the Golden Ranger’s Attack System."

"For every Merit Point a Player spends, the success rate of the Golden Ranger’s Attack System increases by 3% (Basic Success Rate 50%). The minimum Points obtained also increase by 1,000 (basic Points minimum is 1,000, maximum is 10,000). Each attack failure results in the Golden Ranger directly killing the Player."

It really is impossible to know the detailed information without asking!

No, it must be that the Golden Ranger intended to trap Players from the start, which is why he deliberately hid the information.

If I had succeeded in several consecutive Krypton Gold attempts only to fail on the last one, it would have been a truly huge loss—after dying and loading a save, everything gained would be gone.

This failure served as a reminder. From then on, Ren Suo decided to save the game in his room after every successful attempt.

Naturally, he continued with Krypton Gold. Although a 56% success rate wasn’t particularly high, even if Ren Suo used 10 Merit Points at once, the rate would only be 80%, still posing a risk of failure.

If it weren’t for Meticulous Calculation, I would definitely have thrown all my Merit Points in to secure a high probability of obtaining 10,000 Points. But with this privilege, I feel I can afford to gamble.

If I win this gamble, the base Points gained will be 2,000, with a maximum of 10,000!

He gambled three more times. Only one attempt triggered the privilege, consuming a total of 5 Merit Points and leaving him with 5.

Since these were consecutive gambles, he was naturally very lucky with the first two, both succeeding. He earned 3,000 and 5,000 Points respectively, totaling 8,000 Points!

Factoring in the 1 Merit Point lost earlier, Ren Suo had gambled 6 Merit Points to gain 8,000 Points, which was fairly lucky.

So, are 8,000 Points enough?

Should I use the remaining 5 Points?

Ren Suo thought about it, returned to the lounge to save his game, and decided to first test if 8,000 Points, added to his original 1,000 Points, could give him a substantial advantage over four-person teams in the second trial.

9,000 Points could be exchanged for nine Blessings, or used to directly upgrade Fatty’s "Avalanche Lv1" to Max Level.

With Max Level Avalanche, even if an opponent wore Level 3 Armor, an assault Healing Rifle would take them down in two shots.

With Level 9 Wind Fury, no matter how far away the opponents were, as long as they could be seen with a 4x scope, the bullets would hit almost instantaneously. With Max Level Wind Fury, using an 8x scope, no prediction is needed for a Sure Hit, even if the opponent is running. As for the 15x scope, that needs the Lord of Billion Brilliance’s Starlight to achieve—after all, that’s already in the realm of sniping.

With Level 9 Rain Curtain, the firing interval for all affected Healing Firearms is reduced to 0.05 seconds—twenty shots per second—and the recoil is also reduced to a controllable level. Max Level Rain Curtain reduces the firing interval to 0.03 seconds, meaning thirty shots per second.

Or perhaps...