Chapter 149 Prajnaparamita These items are the players' supernatural abilities! ...
[File No. 3761087]:
Instance Name: Prajnaparamita
Dungeon Difficulty: Five-Star - Purgatory
Dungeon opening count: 2
...
Recommended alternate identities for the host (open only to the host): office worker, temple layperson, homeless person
Recommended number of players (open only to the host): 100
...
[Room Avatar: (A chubby, gray-blue pixelated bird)]
[Room Name: Dual Hosts, Large 100-Person Room]
Room ID: 17845
[Hosts: Holder, Xue Chao]
[Currently running the instance: Prajnaparamita]
...
This is the first instance where Xue Chao can choose the host role. The instance's thumbnail has a futuristic feel, with flowing, mechanical neon lights, resembling a magnified view of a prosthetic body.
The "company" is most likely a technology company that controls the future of the world, with resources, intelligence, and technological goods, making it the most suitable choice.
But clearly, the old fox thought so too.
[Selection failed]
[Host #1 has selected "Company Employee"]
Xue Chao rolled his eyes... "Temple Layman" is fine too, the dungeon name is related to Buddhism, which is closer to the core of the dungeon.
If he's just a "layman," he probably doesn't need to shave his head, right? But if there isn't a single beautiful woman or handsome man among a hundred players, he might sometimes have to sell his looks...
[You have been randomly assigned the identity "homeless"]
Xue Chao: "?"
[Randomly matching players to a room...]
Total number of game bits for this copy: 66
[The number of prediction bits for this copy is 13]
[Host #2 can set the number of prediction cameras to 6]
[Host #1 is selecting a camera position for prediction...]
The screen was divided into a hundred small, densely packed sections. Xue Chao observed the people that Holder had chosen and recalled what Holder had said. There were two common scenarios in large-scale games: one was a battle royale where all players faced an indescribable force on an equal footing, with the survivors being the king; the other was dividing the game into multiple factions to increase the possibility of collisions.
The host has three role options, and the player probably does too, which is the latter.
Based on the forum exchanges and private chats over the past few days, Xue Chao selected four familiar players who were likely to join different factions.
There are two spots left, one for Zhu Wen and one for Huang Haitao.
[Start Game]
Live streaming is now available.
The show quickly climbed to the top of the homepage, and viewers enthusiastically flooded into the room. Xue Chao was also teleported into the instance.
As soon as he landed, a gust of dirty wind blew in, dust rubbing against his skin. Xue Chao ducked into the nearest dilapidated building and ran his hands through his hair to shake off the sand.
The building had ten floors, but the top floor was blasted away, leaving the reinforced concrete like bare thorns, revealing a corner of the gray sky.
Inside the building was a collapsed ruin. The fluorescent liquid from the broken light tubes had long since turned into hideous colorful graffiti on the walls. There were occasional traces of homeless people resting there. The air was choking, and the whole building felt like a moldy loaf of bread.
Xue Chao climbed onto the pile of stones and stepped onto the broken second-floor balcony. Outside the window was a cluster of dilapidated buildings, like an anthill, dirty and chaotic. He was probably in a slum.
There was noise upstairs, so he hid in a corner of the broken wall to eavesdrop. A group of low-level thugs were having a small meeting.
"The Dharma gate will open at 8:40; I heard there's something special in it."
"Are you sure you can get our cargo ships? Besides, those bald monks aren't easy to mess with! Are you sure you can get into the Pure Land? Even a powerful dragon can't suppress a local snake. That shareholder of Shenzhou Company boasted about developing this 'wilderness,' but he disappeared after entering the Dharma Gate and hasn't been found yet! ...He must have been exorcised!"
Xue Chao found two players in the narrow, dark room. They looked like they were inside a box. There were footsteps outside, right around one player, while for the other player, the footsteps were below and further away.
Although there was no bumpy ride, Xue Chao guessed that they were on the truck heading towards "Famen," which was the entrance to this closed-off city called "Pure Land."
Inside the Pure Land, in a dilapidated alley, two other prediction machine players got caught up in a gang conflict. A green mohawk-haired thug in a leather jacket clenched his forearm, transforming it into a beam cannon that shattered the pink light tube displaying a Guanyin image on a shop, revealing a poster of naked men and women. Immediately, curses erupted from the unrestrained lewd sounds upstairs.
"If you're so capable, go play Star Wars in front of a temple. Those bald donkeys are the real eunuchs who don't kiss!"
Amidst the clashing fire of both sides, another cannon shot shattered the noisy window: "Screw your electronic brat!"
The two players in the prediction booth gradually lost ground and seized the opportunity to escape on their motorcycles. The taillights of the heavy motorcycles flashed across the cold and brightly lit streets, in the light rain of the night.
The thugs upstairs at Xue Chao's place were still saying, "The Dharma gate is only opened by chanting scriptures, and even the monks have gone to worship. What are you afraid of? This is the perfect time for petty theft! The prosthetic body dealer I know is planning to try his luck tonight. If it's really good stuff, even breaking off a single screw would be enough to squander for three lifetimes!"
As they spoke, Xue Chao's gaze shifted to a player who had replaced the cyborg merchant's henchman. They were having dinner in the rooftop garden of a building. A transparent circular protective shield kept the dust out, but it also prevented them from enjoying any beautiful scenery.
The sky was dark, and the air quality was worrying after a sandstorm. The towering buildings in the distance were half-hidden in the fog, with only neon lights visible, like a suspended oracle.
But people's eyes were drawn outwards, whether intentionally or unintentionally.
At 8:40, a long chime rang out in the high-tech simulated garden, and people stopped what they were doing and looked into the distance.
Xue Chao saw the most magnificent building in the distance; as long as one was in the Pure Land, it was always there when one looked up.
Ancient vermilion walls and dark blue tiles, palaces, towers and pagodas rise layer upon layer with the clouds and mist, stretching like a celestial palace, while the eaves and red pillars in front of the palaces are lit with dazzling neon lights, like ghostly fire rising from the underworld.
The murals on the temple walls shimmer with a flowing, crystalline light, like dynamic images carved inside translucent glass. Cold metal Buddha statues stand beside the hall, their details as soft as porcelain gauze, floating gently.
Xue Chao saw the Guanyin Bodhisattva statue next to the main hall on the west side slowly move its eyes, and the gaze it cast and the vase it held were both glowing with a dark blue neon light. The light was so intense that it caused most of the Bodhisattva's face to be shrouded in shadow.
Everything was magnificent, majestic... and sinister.
Just as Xue Chao had this offensive thought, he saw the dark main hall light up with golden light, which spread to the outside of the temple. A huge holographic projection of Amitabha Buddha appeared, sitting cross-legged at the bottom, his head reaching the sky. The three characters "Wuliang Temple" on the main hall were exactly aligned with the "卍" character on the Buddha's chest. The entire temple seemed to be built on the body of the Buddha, in the Buddha's embrace.
The swastika radiates a continuous stream of light, shining like Buddha's light, illuminating the gloomy Pure Land, as if burning a day into the long night.
"Namo Amitabha Buddha".
"Namo Amitabha Buddha".
...
People clasped their hands together, closed their eyes, and whispered prayers. Tears slowly streamed from the eyes of the towering Buddha statue, as if it had heard the refuge of all beings.
"This..." The players were speechless, and some even swore. Xue Chao, who had been stunned by the strange sight, regained his composure and used the camera to observe these converts.
These people in suits and ties were probably representatives and businessmen from outside the company. They weren't very sincere, but they knew to keep a low profile and put on a show on someone else's turf. The way they looked at Wuliang Temple was purely out of respect for power, and it was nothing more than one or more of the following: admiration, craving, fear, and greed.
It's like looking at a new energy source that's still unstable, or a development zone that harbors hidden dangers.
Gangs, thugs, opportunists, and lawbreakers who hurl insults and curses will feel a deeper sense of fear, just as animals in the jungle will slow their pace when hunting upon hearing the snoring of a lion.
The monks were truly respectful; their posture and pronunciation were perfect. They raised their heads and lowered their heads, and the space between their palms represented their faith.
Besides these, ordinary citizens and homeless people at the bottom of society, these abandoned among the abandoned, feel both fear and reverence, but more than anything, they are caught in a state of bewilderment between the two. They are the ones who know the least what they are looking at.
Xue Chao looked at the holographic projection of the golden Buddha statue again, tears streaming down the Buddha's face, like mountain streams flowing through layers of temples and falling into the empty, hollowed-out waterways surrounding Wuliang Temple.
The water continued forward, passing through most of the Pure Land, and reached the three Dharma Gates. The water level rose, triggering the mechanism, and the Dharma Gates opened wide, allowing the Shenzhou Company's armored truck to enter the Pure Land.
At the same time, the popularity score also increased.
The gang, which appeared to be retreating, changed course and hijacked a truck, with all the fully equipped bodyguards on board.
Another group of monks arrived a little later. They had more prosthetic parts than the gang, some of which were even more advanced. Amid the gang's cursing, they euphemistically called it "begging for alms."
Mercenaries sent by the cybernetic merchant took advantage of the situation, and the truck was forced to stop after only two blocks, leaving the scene in complete chaos.
Players hidden in their weapons either quietly emerge or continue to lie in wait, using this opportunity to disperse to various locations.
From what we see in the camera, the initial identities of players include company bodyguards escorting goods, company employees hidden in company weapons, gang members, mercenaries, cybernetic businessmen, cybernetic doctors, monks, guests in suits on the rooftop, ordinary citizens from shady places, and homeless people from the slums...
It's very comprehensive, much more entertaining than the host.
Once the Shenzhou Company's batch of goods was completely divided up and the tires were all pried off, the popularity value reached 30 points, and the achievement of "Store Quick Drop" was obtained.
[The store has been added to your copy, please find it as soon as possible!]
The thugs in the dilapidated building are long gone; tonight there will be plenty of revelry.
Xue Chao guessed that Holder might be a missing company shareholder, but the Pure Land was so big that he didn't plan to look for him; he had his own things to do.
Before Pu Fengchun died, she had a stroke of inspiration. In the depths of her memory, Xue Chao heard mechanical clicking sounds and old records with electric current... He listened intently but couldn't recognize what song the ghostly female voice was singing. It didn't sound like meaningful sentences at all; he thought it was dialect or a spell.
This scene, however, enlightened him; it might be chanting scriptures... Now that I think about it, it was probably something like "Amitabha" or "Svaha".
The secret to finally clearing the game lies here. Xue Chao needs to find the singer.
However, before that, he discovered that the items he brought into the dungeon were missing.
He hadn't brought up any items, and the items had simply disappeared from the panel—something was wrong.
Xue Chao decided to go to the store first to buy some props and equipment for himself. Although Wanji already regarded him as a potential boss and he didn't need to be on guard against the appearance of divine weapons all the time, there were always some crazy people among a hundred people, such as Zhu Wen, and ordinary players might also have one or two hidden cards.
Conflict is bound to happen sooner or later, so he should at least prepare some healing items... Surely a hundred people won't try to steal them?
Holder said there were multiple shops in the large dungeon. So Xue Chao didn't go too far. Relying on his good looks and a few sweet words, he found out from the owner of the Coffin Inn that the most famous cybernetic merchant was on the border between the slums and the gang district.
Those who dare to do business here must have some skill.
The shop's exterior resembled a dilapidated little temple, and a greeting rang out at the door: "Welcome!" But no one was inside.
Xue Chao turned around, and the camera on the door transformed into a little bird robot, tilted its head, and said "Welcome" again... The fact that the businessman is not human is the source of his confidence in opening a shop here.
The wall in front of him gradually became transparent; it turned out to be a piece of glass. Xue Chao's eyes widened when he saw the goods on the shelves.
Apart from the row of healing potions at the bottom, all the items looked the same: a black box, much like a box containing players' relics. At first glance, Xue Chao thought it was a blind box.
However, the names are different and the prices are different, which defeats the purpose of blind boxes. Xue Chao glanced at the box and decided on a familiar name at the highest price point: "Invisible".
These items are the player's superpowers!
Xue Chao found the "emotional suppressor" again. It was a prop that Holder had given to a member with a chronic illness. When Holder analyzed his only three instances, he believed that he was "tainted by evil gods", especially a certain evil god, and pessimistically believed that he would encounter it again this time. This was a precautionary measure.
Xue Chao ignored most of the old man's words, except for this one matter, which they had reached a high degree of agreement on, but now it had fallen through, and their props had been confiscated.
The items brought in and the player's special abilities were all turned into commodities.
Once a player reaches 60 popularity points, can they still unlock special abilities?
It's likely that the items you buy in the store will be the player's special ability, without even having to wait until you reach 60 points.
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