Chapter 77: Mount Massive Asylum |
It was a pair of black plastic Detective Glasses, barely larger than the palm of a hand. Judging purely by its appearance, it looked like a child's toy meant for playing make-believe.
"I guess I can only give it to Lucy when I summon her," Bai Mu muttered as he tossed the Detective Glasses into his inventory.
He still had two roulette spins left, which he used immediately by clicking on the draw interface.
The massive roulette wheel began to spin with a rhythmic clatter. This time, there were fewer options on the board. Compared to the hundreds of prizes available during the Road of Death, the choices had been reduced by more than half.
The first draw was nothing to write home about, yielding thoroughly average results. Even with the Medal of Honor's effect, his two attempts simply produced a pair of scissors and a wrench.
Both were ordinary-tier items. The roulette wheel likely lacked any truly valuable prizes to begin with. Drawing one of the incredibly rare golden options from a pool of over fifty choices was simply too difficult.
Bai Mu hesitated for a moment before selecting the scissors, then initiated the next draw.
[Congratulations, you have obtained the prize "Black Hiking Boots" from the roulette draw.]
[Name: Black Hiking Boots]
[Quality: Ordinary]
[Defense: Low]
[Attributes: None]
[Equipment Effect: Enhances ground traction. Increases movement speed by 10% when climbing to higher elevations.]
[Equipment Requirements: None]
[Note: Foot Power, crafting the core of anti-slip technology.]
...
[The aura of the Anti-Zombie Marine Corps envelops you.]
[Do you wish to draw a second reward option?]
[Yes/No.]
"Yes," Bai Mu confirmed. He felt that the boots were quite decent; they could probably sell for over a hundred Points in the shop. However, since the medal's effect had one use remaining, he still hoped to draw a better item.
The wheel began to spin once more. Unfortunately, the needle still failed to point to a golden sliver. The good news was that it did not land on a white ordinary-tier slot either, but rather stopped on a blue "?" sector.
[Congratulations, you have obtained the prize "Large Travel Bag" from the roulette draw.]
[Name: Large Travel Bag]
[Type: Special Item]
[Quality: Rare]
[Effect: While holding this item, your inventory gains an additional 20 slots.]
[Note: An absolute necessity for traveling.]
A Rare-quality Special Item that could expand a Player's inventory.
Bai Mu compared the bag to the hiking boots and decided the travel bag was much more useful to him.
This was mainly because a quick glance at his storage and inventory revealed that, without even realizing it, he had already accumulated twenty-five Script items.
His personal inventory only had sixteen slots. Even though his equipped gear didn't take up any space, and items like Dave's Car Keys could be tossed into the community storage, his available inventory slots were still incredibly tight.
Whenever he entered a Script, he naturally wanted to bring as much gear as possible, just in case he needed it. He also had to account for looting items during the Script itself; if his inventory was full, the Player's supernatural ability to instantly store and retrieve items would be rendered entirely useless.
This backpack arrived at the perfect time to provide twenty new slots. According to its description, it was an item rather than equipment and would take effect simply by sitting in his inventory. Although it occupied one slot itself, it still effectively provided a net gain of nineteen spaces.
If this were a cultivation novel, it would be considered a magical artifact on par with a spatial ring.
'The value of this backpack is probably a bit higher than something like the police bulletproof vest,' Bai Mu thought. 'It should be worth at least three hundred Points.'
The rewards from the two draws were neither exceptional nor terrible; they were perfectly average.
Bai Mu organized his inventory and tossed Lucy's Piggy Bank into his community storage. It was completely useless during a Script and would only come in handy during the final tally.
He didn't want to waste any more Community Time. In the eyes of Paradise, an F-grade Player likely hadn't even left the beginner's village. There were simply too many restrictions placed upon him. Eager to quickly upgrade to E-grade to unlock more privileges and choose his post-level-up special abilities, he hurried to queue for his next Script.
[Do you wish to start a random Script early?]
[Yes/No.]
"Yes," Bai Mu confirmed.
He remained a solo player in the queue, and his vision was once again plunged into darkness.
[Player K8107 has joined the random Script queue.]
[Drawing a random Script for you. Draw complete. You are now entering: Solo Mode (Ordinary).]
[Script Name: Mount Massive Asylum.]
[Current Script Danger Rating: D-rank.]
[The Script introduction will now play. The Script will begin immediately upon completion.]
"An F-grade Player queuing up for a solo mode gets assigned a D-rank Script? Paradise really thinks highly of me."
Bai Mu suddenly felt a pang of nostalgia for the F-rank Deserted Island Survival beginner's Script. Those thirty days had actually been quite comfortable. In fact, they were easily the most relaxing thirty days he had experienced in the past decade.
He had plenty to eat and drink, and the surrounding natural scenery was beautiful. During the final few days, he had even boarded a rescue ship and returned to modern civilization.
"It looks like it will be very hard to experience vacation-like days like that ever again."
"It feels like Paradise scales the difficulty dynamically when assigning Scripts. They definitely won't let a Player waltz into a Script and steamroll everything using only their starting gear and skills."
"Maybe the only reason I was thrown into the Road of Death last time was because I had a gun on me when I queued up."
"I should still be careful and focus on the Script introduction. The administrator mentioned before that even high-level Players can die in low-level Scripts at any given moment."
Bai Mu braced himself. Since this was a solo Script, a screen materialized and lit up directly in the surrounding darkness.
A dilapidated and desolate modern building came into view. The signboard displayed words written in English: "Mount Massive Asylum."
[You are an independent Reporter. A few days ago, you received an anonymous email from a stranger.]
[The contents of the email directly targeted Mount Massive Asylum. You investigated related information online, only to discover that the financial backer behind the psychiatric hospital is a multinational corporation named Murkoff.]
[The anonymous sender revealed the inhumane experiments currently taking place within its walls.]
[The patients appear to be suffering inhuman torment as a result. Sensing that this could be a massive piece of News, you set out alone, driving to the address listed in the email to uncover the hidden truth.]
The time was late at night, accompanied by the loud rumble of a car engine.
Bai Mu watched the introduction in first-person perspective. Looking out the car window, the surroundings were pure wilderness; not even a single paved road could be found.
'What a stereotypical horror movie protagonist, actually daring to drive out to an asylum deep in the mountains all alone,' Bai Mu mocked internally.
He was quite familiar with this kind of cliché horror movie trope. Screenwriters who failed to keep up with the times always regurgitated the exact same formulas.
Regardless of how intensely outsiders warned them, the protagonists always had to embark on a risky adventure just for the thrill of it, willingly throwing themselves headfirst into mortal danger.
"But looking at it from another angle, maybe this is exactly the effect the screenwriter wanted. They make the audience eagerly anticipate the deaths of these unlikable protagonists, using that as the main selling point."
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