Chapter 233: Point Check |
Bai Mu's attention was immediately drawn to the Perfect-grade treasure chest. After completing so many Scripts, this was the first time he had ever received one of such high caliber.
The way he obtained it was also entirely unexpected. He never imagined that slaying too many Mountain Evil Gods would convert the overflowing kill Points into a Perfect-grade chest.
"Looking at it this way, every Script has a cap on the Points you can earn," Bai Mu muttered, checking the Point balance on his panel. With a massive windfall of 9,900 Points hitting his account, he had truly escaped poverty and struck it rich.
He had earned 5,000 Points just from farming Mountain Evil God kills. This was a terrifyingly high number. In the Death March Script, taking down a single Tank only rewarded 200 Points; by that metric, he had essentially slaughtered twenty-five Tanks.
Furthermore, he only received 5,000 Points because that was the absolute limit for kill rewards in the Corrupted Forest Blood Hunt Script. By his own estimates, if there had been no cap, he would have easily raked in somewhere between 15,000 and 20,000 Points. Fortunately, Paradise had not simply swallowed the excess kills; instead, the system converted the surplus into Script treasure chests.
He had gained six chests in total: five Rare-grade chests and one Perfect-grade chest.
Assuming the average market price of a Rare-grade item was around 1,000 Points, five chests would be worth 5,000 Points. A Perfect-grade chest, however, would easily be worth at least five times that amount. Calculating it this way aligned perfectly with Bai Mu's estimates—the combined value of these rewards sat squarely in the 15,000 to 20,000 Point range.
'The system must have set this cap to prevent players from exploiting loopholes and infinitely farming Points under certain circumstances,' Bai Mu reasoned to himself.
Theoretically, the combinations of a player's items and skills were infinite. It was entirely possible to stumble upon a miraculous synergy that could create an endless loop. Although Paradise tailor-made Scripts to fit each player and actively tried to prevent such exploits, as long as the probability was not strictly zero, the possibility remained.
Of course, an ordinary player would not even reach one-tenth of this cap. If someone survived the Corrupted Forest Blood Hunt simply by running and hiding, they would earn one or two thousand Points at most, and they likely would not receive a single Script treasure chest.
The resources Bai Mu extracted this time had likely hit the absolute ceiling of the Script. Even if he had not completely drained it, he was not far off. A Perfect-grade treasure chest was undeniably an item far beyond his current level.
This much was obvious from the Perfect-grade magic released by the Book of the Witch. Its effects were terrifyingly powerful, but its learning conditions were equally harsh, and the consumption rate was astronomical. A skill that cost 800 or 1,000 Mana per cast could never be used as a standard attack; it was strictly a trump card reserved for the most desperate situations. Furthermore, Bai Mu did not even have enough Mana to meet the baseline requirements for learning or casting such spells. His Mana capacity hovered at a pitiful two hundred points. While this was actually quite impressive for a player who had only just unlocked their Mana pool, it was nothing but a drop in the bucket for high-level skills.
From a pessimistic standpoint, this Perfect-grade treasure chest might not actually be a blessing. There was a very high chance he would be completely unable to use whatever lay inside. If he drew a Skill Card with requirements he could not meet, he would be stuck staring at it uselessly. Equipment came with its own array of strict stat prerequisites, too. For an E-Grade Player, the term "Perfect-grade" was simply far too advanced.
Obtaining an item that was unusable at his current stage was no different from not opening the chest at all. As the saying goes: a delayed reward is no reward. However, even setting that chest aside, his other gains were more than substantial.
The S-grade evaluation reward netted him an additional 3,300 Points. His Community Time remained at 840 hours—Paradise was notoriously stingy in that regard. But that hardly mattered. How could a little extra vacation time possibly compare to tangible boosts in strength?
After finishing reviewing the settlement page, Bai Mu immediately summoned Xiao Wei.
Upon seeing the familiar room, Xiao Wei realized that her very first Script had finally come to an end, and she let out a long sigh of relief.
Bai Mu took out the five Rare-grade chests first, tossing them casually onto the table.
Xiao Wei looked up and asked softly, "Sir, what about... what happened to the other people in the Script?"
Bai Mu recounted the final scenes he had witnessed to her. As she listened, Xiao Wei rubbed her eyes, perhaps deeply moved by the survival of those who had fought so hard to live. After all, she had walked alongside them every step of the way, repeatedly cooking meals for them and serving as their dedicated little chef. Bai Mu then asked if there was anything she wanted. Xiao Wei had performed exceptionally well in this Script; the strategy of Fighting Fire with Fire had been her idea, and her overall contributions were massive. Even though she was his summon and bound to obey his every command, Bai Mu never viewed her as a mere tool. She possessed her own consciousness and her own emotions.
The relationship between the two of them felt far more like siblings than a master and servant. Moreover, Bai Mu had always lived by a strict personal rule: a person should be rewarded in equal measure to their efforts. While he held all the Points and rewards, he believed in fair distribution. For this particular Script, he felt the spoils should be split evenly with Xiao Wei—at the very least, she deserved full discretion over half of the Points earned.
These were the Points she had rightfully earned, not a charitable handout from him. Previously, their resources had been too scarce for her to have any say, but going forward, she deserved the right to choose her own path of growth.
However, what Xiao Wei actually wanted was incredibly simple. She asked for a bag of milk candy and a bag of potato chips. Such a meager desire hardly even qualified as a request, and Bai Mu naturally fulfilled it without hesitation.
Bai Mu drew up a ledger to issue her "salary" for the Script. While the system did not allow him to directly transfer Points to a summon, he fashioned makeshift checks out of blank paper. He handed them over, explaining that she could freely spend the Points she had earned. Whenever she wanted something, she could simply present one of these checks to him for reimbursement. This way, she was spending her own money to buy things, rather than relying on him or begging for favors.
On a deeper level, this would also foster her independence, keeping her mind active and her motivation high. Earning money and spending it was always a joyful experience, after all.
Bai Mu had originally intended to allocate 4,900 Points to her, but she vehemently protested that it was far too much. In her eyes, she hadn't faced any real danger and had spent most of her time just doing chores and cooking. After a bit of good-natured arguing, they compromised on a 3,000-Point allowance. He wrote her a custom check for exactly that amount.
"Whenever you spend Points or we finish another Script, we'll just add and subtract from this balance," Bai Mu said, handing her the signed slip of paper. She held the note happily. This was likely the very first paycheck she had ever earned in her life, and an absolute fortune at that.
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