Chapter 4: Game Officially Launched - K-Level Talents: [Gluttony], [...]

"ah!"

"Bang--"

Tian Yinuo was so frightened that she covered her head and squatted down, so she didn't see that just a second before the monster's teeth bit Du Yu, Du Yu quickly took something out of the void and pressed it on the ground. A pale purple light spread out from her as the center, like planting a bright purple double-petaled flower in this gray world.

[Special building [Altar] under construction, estimated construction time: 30 minutes]

[During construction, the altar's protective effect will be activated free of charge within a five-meter diameter, generating an altar shield that isolates any physical or mental attacks; players cannot leave the altar's protective range during construction.]

[Once the altar is completed, a new player gift pack will be distributed, and the game will officially begin.]

One pop-up window after another scrolled by. In short, this useless game finally became somewhat useful, providing a limited-time shield, that is, a 30-minute period of invincibility.

The protective shield generated by the altar is controlled by Du Yu, but it's already at its maximum and there's no need to adjust it. Besides the area of ​​effect, Du Yu can also add the protected targets; only those targets can enter or exit the shield.

The protective shield had intelligently added Tian Yinuo, who was next to her, to the list of protected individuals. After granting her permission to leave the shield, Du Yu handed the black stick to Tian Yinuo.

"That monster can't get in. Be careful and kill it."

Tian Yinuo gripped her weapon, her eyes practically screaming "Me?"

But her most notable trait is her obedience. When she realized that the monster couldn't get in and that she could hit it with her weapon, she immediately became excited and started swinging her black stick at the monster's head, counting as she did so to bolster her courage.

The monster wasn't very intelligent, or perhaps Tian Yinuo's expression was too provocative, so it stubbornly refused to leave. After being hit by a stick, it roared and angrily slapped the protective shield with its claws. When it was stunned by the recoil, it was hit by another stick from Tian Yinuo.

It roared and Tian Yinuo hit it with a stick, like a DJ spinning records. Ignoring the bizarre style, the scene was actually quite harmonious.

The black stick replenished its durability using the remaining cockroach legs and fragments of cockroach tissue it had knocked off while attacking the mutated cockroach. This durability wasn't reduced by a point with each use, but rather by a point after inflicting a certain amount of damage on the target. When it was given to Tian Yinuo, the durability had returned to 9, which should be enough given the mutated beast's unintelligent appearance.

Once Du Yu confirmed that Tian Yinuo could handle it, he focused all his energy on the newly unlocked game interface.

The previously gray and gloomy interface has been transformed into a rotating vortex, becoming a more mysterious yet somewhat familiar interface.

The interface felt familiar because it was identical to the opening animation of a pixel-art game she'd played in the wasteland. The animation depicted a typical game storyline: the protagonist goes bankrupt, uses all their assets to pay off debts, and, homeless, inherits a dilapidated castle from a remote relative. The main game's storyline involved using both grinding and spending money to repair the castle and develop different buildings.

The castle is divided into multiple areas, each with different crafting games and crafting tasks. Once players complete all the crafting tasks, that area will be transformed with the help of the magical power of "crafting." Different areas offer different rewards and rewards upon unlocking, and unlocking all areas will unlock new buildings.

Du Yu once complained that the game's gameplay was too monotonous, and that changing the buildings was just a superficial change. However, after years of natural and man-made disasters, few entertainment products like games and novels, which were among the first to be abandoned, remain.

Especially considering Du Yu's poor computer skills, while she was good at novels, this merge game was the only video game she had ever exported. Therefore, despite the simple gameplay, Du Yu still completed the game several times from beginning to end, without even skipping the awkward plot. The opening animation was one of the few well-made by the game development team, and Du Yu watched it five or six times in her spare time.

Therefore, Du Yu immediately noticed the difference from the familiar opening animation. It was still the familiar pixel-style animation, but the opening animation changed from the blonde protagonist walking into the castle to a purple-haired little man fighting with cockroaches, and then jumping into a gap with gray edges and a black center.

His own experiences after transmigrating into the book became part of the game's plot! Du Yu clicked his tongue loudly.

Although the characters and plot of "The Real and Fake Heiress: The President's Imprisoned Love 99 Times" are melodramatic, the author devotes a lot of space to introducing the cyberpunk social background and the struggle between superpowered individuals, which are completely unrelated to the main plot. So, although there are many flaws, the novel is interesting from certain angles.

Du Yu flipped through the book three or four times when she was bored, making it one of the more frequently read novels she had collected. Therefore, Du Yu clearly remembered that this book and the phone with the merge game downloaded on it were found in the same ruins!

This is definitely not a coincidence, and the game seems to make no attempt to hide it, practically wearing the words "Your transmigration into the book is related to me" on its sleeve.

This is really interesting. Du Yu used his mental power to poke the pretending-to-be-dead 166, "Hey, what's your purpose?"

166 remained silent for a while, and seeing that Du Yu was determined not to leave until he spoke, she weakly opened her mouth:

[166 is the player's intelligent assistant; its mission is to help players complete tasks and achieve a better gaming experience~]

"If you don't say anything, how am I supposed to know if this game will harm me?"

No, 166 exists because of the players; it's a great helper during the game, and 166 will always be on the players' side!

Du Yu understood its implied meaning: "You're not with the game?"

166 started playing dead again.

Its silence speaks volumes. Du Yu stroked his chin with pleasure. This game also had a butler before, but he was just a tool who ruthlessly flattered the protagonist and occasionally gave out small tasks. He was nothing like the lively character in 166.

Unable to obtain any further information from 166, Du Yu decided to stop while he was ahead. He skillfully used his mental power to click on the small pixel crack on the screen, and the paused animation resumed. The camera slowly zoomed in, and the crack grew larger and larger until the void of black filled the screen. A pixelated figure with purple hair jumped out, with a dialog box above its head.

Please name this character.

Yu entered three commonly used IDs in a row: “Have you eaten today?”, “The pot is so big, who will fill it?”, and “Isn’t it great to have friends coming from afar?”, but all of them were rejected by the system on the grounds that “the nickname does not comply with the game’s naming conventions.”

Du Yu raised an eyebrow and was about to continue filling in the information when the game interface flashed, and the word "Dudu" automatically popped up on the horizontal line in the naming field. The system seemed to be afraid that she would make changes, and quickly approved it.

Dudu?

Because the characters “都” and “郁” look very similar, they are even harder to distinguish when put together. After being called the wrong name once, “都都” became her nickname. This nickname was passed around among her friends, and at some point, “都都” became “嘟嘟”.

When she logged into the game, she thought the friend system would allow her to play with others, so she chose the nickname "Dudu." Unfortunately, later...

Du Yu's thoughts were wandering when, after typing, the pixelated character with the name "Dudu" jumped around a few times, pulled out a pixelated firework, and after a few "bangs," a new pop-up window appeared:

[Congratulations to player "Dudu" for logging into the game. Game name generation in progress... Welcome to the game [Dudu Loves Merging]! New player quests have been issued!]

The pop-up window flashed three times before disappearing, and the black in the screen faded, turning into a large area of ​​varying shades of gray, which was the pixelated scene in the misty rift.

After concentrating one's mental energy, one can zoom in and out of the scene. The only color in the scene now is the purple protective shield, and the two little figures inside the purple protective shield.

The purple-haired figure has a "..." bubble on its head, representing contemplation, while the red-haired figure representing Tian Yinuo has an "!" on its head, representing excitement.

There are two vertically arranged columns of buttons on the left and right sides of the scene; clicking them collapses the menu. The left column lists, in order, [Basic Crafting], [Inventory], [Buildings], and [Followers]; the right column lists [Personal Information], [Map/Scene], and [Quests]. Below each column are several gray squares with question marks; veteran players will recognize these as features that are not yet unlocked.

Du Yu first clicked on the [Personal Information] section, where the previously unlocked [Title] button was merged into it.

【personal information:】

[Bound Player: Du Yu (Nickname: Dudu)]

[Synthesis Level: 0 (A Novice)]

[Title: Ruthless Wastelander (Already Equipped)]

[Trait: Wheel of Fortune (Lost), ? ? ? ? ? (Unlocked), ? ? ? (Unlocked)]

[Mental Strength: A (You have reached the pinnacle of your race; your unwavering will allows you to confront most of the bizarre)]

【talent:

K·Gluttony

(Effect 1: When you are hungry, you will eat anything. Within 10 minutes, your satiety will exceed 150%. You will break through your physiological limits and gain the "Iron Stomach" buff, which will allow you to digest and absorb nutrients from any "food".)

Effect Two: The tongue of greed, a perpetually restless hunger that makes it difficult to sleep; if you don't eat for 6 hours, you will enter a state of "binge eating," which can only be relieved after eating 10 times your current body weight; (Rationality permanently reduced by 6).

K·Golden Will

(Effect 1: You will never waver or back down; your rationality will always be +6)

Effect 2: You will be immune to most psychological shocks (charm and hypnosis will be ineffective).

A·Fighting Expert

(Effect 1: Combat Genius, weapon learning speed increased by 50%, proficiency growth increased by 50%; you are more likely to find enemy weaknesses in combat;)

Effect 2: Bloodlust. If you kill more than 50 enemies or land more than 100 critical hits in a single battle, you will enter a berserk state for 10 minutes (cooldown: three days).

B. Cooking (...)

C. Knowledgeable (...)

……

The talent bar was densely filled with text, and Du Yu scrolled through three pages in a row, with dozens of talents.

Although it looks very strong, she couldn't help but complain. What talent? Isn't this just a skill she grinded out while she was bored in the wasteland?

As for the first one... Du Yu always thought that her excessive appetite was a side effect of starvation, but she never expected that the game would recognize it as a talent.

She couldn't help but find it amusing. This game seemed to incorporate the supernatural abilities of the novel, with K-rank and A-rank being the two highest ranks. If it followed the game's classification method, probably anyone who had lived in the wasteland for more than ten years could possess the K-rank talent [Gluttony].

This talent panel looks impressive, but only the person behind it knows the hardships they endured.

In addition to this basic information, there is a "Status" column at the bottom. There is a small purple dot in the upper left corner of the word "Status" with the Arabic numeral "2" written inside the dot.

Du Yu casually clicked on it, his pupils dilating slightly.

【state:】

[Genetic Collapse (Disease): The aftereffect of forcibly stripping away traits; you will die with your entire body rotting away. Countdown: 35h48min26s...]

[A Curse of Existence (Curse): ? ? An immortal curse released at a price of ? ? ? Ignores all fatal judgments until your will collapses; your health is permanently greater than or equal to 0.001; to be or not to be, that is not the question for you.]

The genetic collapse should be a debuff inflicted when the male protagonist in the novel is stripped of his original traits. What is this "mere survival"? Who would curse someone with immortality? Why does this curse still work across two worlds?

The shock of the genetic collapse was nothing compared to the "survival" curse. Her original world was similar to the world in the novel, both containing superpowers. The "survival" curse seemed like a skill of some superpowered individual, but who would curse her like that?

A look of doubt flashed in Du Yu's eyes. She had made many enemies in her past life, but she was the only one who had outlived almost everyone. Based on her understanding of curses, the release of such a lifelong curse came at an extremely high price. It wasn't something that wouldn't be worth releasing unless there was a deep-seated hatred. Curse masters were extremely rare, and Du Yu couldn't think of anyone who hated her so much.

Moreover, ignoring the name, judging from the effect of this "curse," it's more like a blessing. Who wouldn't want to live?

The familiar feeling of hunger brought Du Yu back to her senses. Although she hadn't been in the world for 6 hours, the original owner's long period of not eating seemed to be affecting her as well. If she didn't eat something soon, she would be close to losing control.

Although binge eating won't kill her, and she's not a picky eater, Du Yu doesn't want to recall what disgusting things she ate when she lost control last time.

Since he wouldn't die anyway, Du Yu happily suppressed the curse and decided to get some food.

Food is a scarce resource in the wasteland, and it's even harder to find in the misty rifts.

Du Yu casually opened the [Task Interface]. The beginner's task would reward a basic bread maker blueprint, but unfortunately, it was too late to solve his immediate problem, so Du Yu regretfully looked away.

"Aww!"

The monster seemed to have finally regained its senses under the shadow of death, roaring as it tried to escape. Du Yu casually picked up three stones and combined them into [E - Hard Brick], narrowed his eyes, and delivered a powerful flying brick that slammed into the monster's lower waist.

[Critical Hit!]

Attacking the weak point will definitely result in a critical hit. The monster's health was reduced to zero. Du Yu happily wrapped his hands in cloth and dragged it into the protective shield under Tian Yinuo's starry-eyed gaze.

Du Yu then realized that this monster was somewhat similar to the leopard in his previous life, except that it was at least five times larger, with nine legs in a very asymmetrical way, three on the left and five on the right.

"Gurgle."

Tian Yinuo was taken aback, her face flushed red, and she covered her stomach in embarrassment. Du Yu patted her shoulder understandingly, "Eating is a major event in life, don't be shy."

After saying that, he pointed to the corpse on the ground and said, "Don't worry, the food is coming soon. Find some wood inside the protective shield, and we'll have some roasted meat."

"Okay, Miss... Ah??? You can't eat this, Miss!"

A note from the author:

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This chapter has a lot of settings, so it might be a bit boring, but that's a game novel. If the settings aren't explained, the subsequent plot can't be written. There won't be this many settings later on, qwq

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System update log:

2024/8/27: Modified the description of the curse "Utterly Existing" and fixed the bug of inconsistent descriptions of Dudu's superpowers.