Chapter 76: There Is Only One Truth |
Having freeloaded some valuable information from Yan Yu, Bai Mu happily closed the chat window.
Since he couldn't use his new skill just yet, he decided not to dwell on it. Instead, he opened the Adventure Script shop and browsed through the available items.
The shop for this Script was visibly inferior to the D-grade Death Journey. After all, this was only an E-grade Script, and only one of the refreshed items was of Rare quality.
The first three items were all Common-grade equipment: a police bulletproof vest, a shovel, and a fruit knife, priced at 200 Points, 150 Points, and 100 Points respectively.
Bai Mu wasn't particularly interested. He already had his Baseball Bat for a melee weapon, so adding more wouldn't be of much use. The bulletproof vest was decent enough, capable of resisting eighty percent of bullet damage, but a Player could only equip one piece of body armor at a time. The special effects of his Dance of Elvis were simply far superior.
The main issue was that he only had 260 Points left in his pocket. If he bought these Common-grade pieces of equipment and ended up a few Points short of affording Rare-grade gear in the next Script, it would be a massive loss.
The remaining two items were an ice-cold cola and a syringe of adrenaline. The latter was the sole Rare-grade item, selling for 500 Points.
The ice-cold cola was clearly just filler. It cost 15 Points and didn't even have any special effects. True to its name, it was just an ordinary chilled cola, much like the whiskey he had found after clearing Deserted Island Survival. It seemed that E-grade Scripts still had a chance of generating useless junk.
Its only real value was being able to be brought into a Script as a water source. If someone really wanted to drink cola, a single Point could buy several large crates of it in the community mall. There was no need to waste currency on this thing.
Item Name: Adrenaline
Price: 500 Points
Type: Active Consumable
Quality: Rare
Effect: Upon injection, all of the user's attributes are increased, and a temporary Health shield equal to fifty percent of max Health is provided (can exceed the Health cap). Lasts for 30 minutes.
Quantity Available: 1/1
Note: A clinical necessity used to save the dying.
A consumable that provided a thirty-minute buff sounded pretty incredible. Bai Mu figured its potency might be slightly weaker than Berserk, but the distinct advantage was its lack of side effects and its long duration.
However, the price tag of 500 Points was simply too steep.
If Bai Mu had accepted that specific quest branch from Lucy's Mother, he could have used regular currency to clear out the shop, but since he hadn't, he couldn't enjoy that privilege.
It wasn't something to regret, though. Looking at it from another angle, if he had taken that branch, it would have been impossible for him to obtain the Best Friend's Doodle. That was the ultimate reward reserved only for Players who truly understood Lucy's Wish.
Strictly speaking, the very beginning of this quest line started all the way back in that pitch-black children's playground. Had he taken a single wrong step along the way, he would never have received the Best Friend's Doodle.
He was already completely satisfied with getting the drawing. It wasn't just the satisfaction of reaping a high-quality item; seeing himself depicted on that piece of paper provided a deep, inner sense of comfort.
He had gained a new friend, one who was willing to help him unconditionally. Wasn't that something worth being happy about?
Finding no other items of interest, Bai Mu skipped the rest of the shop and moved on to claim his rating rewards.
The rewards were cumulative across the five tiers from S to D. The low-rating rewards were much worse than those from Dave's Script; the C and D rating rewards were a meager 10 and 15 Points respectively, which were better than nothing but still negligible.
He guessed that failing to protect Lucy properly, such as only keeping her safe for an hour or two, would result in those C or D-grade ratings.
The B-grade reward was an English textbook, which surprisingly turned out to be a consumable item.
Name: Lucy's English Textbook
Type: Consumable Item
Quality: Rare
Effect: Upon use, the user will acquire the passive skill "English Proficiency Lv.Max".
Note: Lucy secretly scribbled over David in the textbook to make him look like a little pig because she thought his nose was too big.
After claiming the item, Bai Mu activated it right away, treating it just like a standard skill book.
You have used the item "Lucy's English Textbook".
A new skill appeared within Bai Mu's long list of passives.
Passive Name: English Proficiency (Lv.Max)
Skill Description: Enhances your English reading, listening, and writing skills to the level of a native speaker.
Mastery Effect (Foreign Language Master): Elevates any previously studied foreign language below Lv.5 proficiency up to Lv.5 proficiency.
Thanks to this mastery effect, Bai Mu suddenly gained "Japanese Proficiency Lv.5" and "French Proficiency Lv.5".
He had never systematically studied either of these languages. For the former, he had picked up a little bit just by listening closely while watching Japanese anime and movies out of boredom. As for French, there was a time when he had scavenged an auto repair manual written in the language. To barely decipher it, he had taught himself a tiny bit using a French textbook he found in the same place.
It was a far cry from his English level; at the very least, he wouldn't have been able to use Japanese or French to converse with foreigners. Even simple exchanges would have been extremely difficult.
However, because of the Foreign Language Master effect, his proficiency in both languages was instantly boosted to Lv.5. It felt as if a wealth of knowledge had suddenly poured into his brain. Words and pronunciations that he had once glanced at and immediately forgotten were suddenly fresh in his memory.
'If only I had this ability during peacetime,' Bai Mu thought to himself. 'I could have easily become a translator. Just doing some daily translations for a high salary—how great would that be?'
This wasn't a combat-oriented passive, but it was still incredibly useful. At the very least, it would save Bai Mu a lot of trouble when it came to communication. If he ever encountered puzzles or ciphers that needed decoding, it might just come in handy.
The A-grade reward was a piggy bank.
Name: Lucy's Piggy Bank
Category: Special Item
Quality: Rare
Effect: You may deposit Points into the piggy bank, storing up to a maximum of 2,000 Points. When you smash the piggy bank, you will receive a random bonus of 15% to 30% additional Points.
Note: This is the piggy bank Lucy used to save up for the limited edition Relaxed Rabbit Plushie backpack. She stored all her pocket money inside, completely unaware that her mother had secretly been slipping extra funds in for her.
A financial management item wasn't bad at all. Even if he didn't use it himself, he could definitely sell it on the Trading Market. The price wouldn't be sky-high, though. Since this thing could yield a maximum of 600 bonus Points, pricing it around 300 Points felt reasonable. Anyone with 2,000 Points to spare who bought it would still make a decent little profit.
The S-grade reward was different from the one he received from Dave's Script; instead of a roulette draw, it was a piece of facial equipment.
Moreover, looking at the description, it surprisingly wasn't an item meant for Players to use, but an exclusive item for Lucy.
Name: Lucy's Detective Glasses
Type: Facial Equipment
Quality: Rare
Defense: None
Attributes: None
Equip Effect: When Lucy wears the Detective Glasses, she can occasionally spot certain strange anomalies.
Equip Requirements: None
Note: There is always only one truth, and the culprit is you!