Chapter 60: Bound Player

Chapter 60 Binding the Player

"Having a host really makes a difference. I've slept for over a hundred years, changed forms several times, and never accumulated as much energy as I have now!" The System Orb stretched out comfortably, happily watching the energy bar shoot up.

Once the binding was complete, Sheng Qingquan immediately went through the operation interface.

At first glance, it looked like he was getting to know the system, but in reality, Sheng Qingquan had only one goal.

His goal was simple—to report it!

After hearing that there was someone above the system, Sheng Qingquan had this idea in his mind. No matter how nice the Creator God is, he wouldn’t put up with his tools rebelling, would he?

Unfortunately, while the System Orb didn’t catch on to Sheng Qingquan’s plan, it still had the necessary sense of crisis.

So, it hid the report button really well, and Sheng Qingquan couldn't find any way to report it after searching every corner.

He had no choice but to keep this idea to himself for now.

If he couldn’t report it, he’d just have to wait and complain in person later.

When it’s time to compete for the divine seat, the Creator God should appear, right? That’d probably be the perfect time to complain.

Sheng Qingquan didn’t see himself as a whiner, the annoying type, but instead acted as if nothing had happened, continuing to familiarize himself with the system's operations.

After all, he’s human, with all the flaws that come with it.

Burning bridges is one of humanity’s greatest talents!

Anyway, grab the benefits first.

The System Orb had no clue what Sheng Qingquan was scheming. From its perspective, Sheng Qingquan might want to report it now, but after gaining more benefits later, and even having the hope to compete for the divine seat, who wouldn’t want to perform well and successfully become a god under such circumstances?

There wasn’t any real tension between them, and even if the host didn’t quite like its dark history, what does that matter under the binding of interests?

Humans are selfish—history’s full of people calling their enemies ‘dad’ just to get ahead!

With the divine seat on the line, rather than killing it and cutting off an arm, thus missing out on the divine position, it's more important to perform well, gather all strength, defeat competitors, and strive to become a god.

Who’d sabotage themselves at a time like this?

So, the System Orb was genuinely eager to work with Sheng Qingquan right now. It wasn’t blind to the fact that Sheng Qingquan was a bit put off by it, but it just didn’t care at all.

Young folks can’t stand even a speck of dirt in their eyes, but after more experiences, self-interest will turn them into crafty old-timers!

Sheng Qingquan didn’t care what the system was thinking. After getting the hang of the system’s features, he cranked the drop rates for dungeon items and skills all the way up in the settings.

He also adjusted the energy share of the clearance rewards to the lowest, changing from the host taking the majority to the players taking the majority.

After finishing, he also set the prices of items in the mall to the lowest...

Basically, screwing himself over to help others.

In this way, although the host still has gains, it's significantly less than before. Instead, the players take a lot of advantage and will rise at a faster speed.

The System kindly said, "It's not recommended to set it up like this. Although strong players mean a strong host in a sense, this way the host gets too few benefits and will be at a disadvantage later. When fighting with other hosts, you are likely to fall behind!"

"In this way, even if your players defeat the opposing players, if you lose to the opposing host, the divine position still won't fall on your head."

Sheng Qingquan didn’t listen, and the system didn’t bother to care about him. After all, it had done its duty.

The System Orb lazily glanced at the energy gauge.

"Energy levels are sufficient, host. Would you like to open an instance?" a mechanical voice chimed in.

Sheng Qingquan saw ten different instance icons appear before him.

"Currently, only two can be opened. Too many would not be supported by the energy," the system reminded.

All ten instances were beginner-level, but their difficulty varied.

Sheng Qingquan glanced at the instance names.

[Moonlight Village]

[Double Happiness Wedding]

[Small Town Story]

[Bus No. 11]

...

Judging by the illustrations, most leaned towards supernatural themes. The screen was packed with horror elements.

For example, the icon for [Double Happiness Wedding] was a red veil embroidered with the character "double happiness". The figure under the veil was nearly invisible, their entire body seemingly hidden in darkness, barely noticeable unless looked at closely. This starkly contrasted with the bold, vibrant red veil above, making it clearly a horror instance related to ghost marriages.

Sheng Qingquan dismissed it at first glance.

As for the other instances that appeared more perilous, even though their difficulty levels would be adjusted to the lowest, high-difficulty instances would still be risky after adjustment. So, it was wiser to start with easier ones to get accustomed to the system first.

So, Sheng Qingquan quickly zeroed in on a life-themed instance—[Visiting].

The eerie vibe wasn't too intense, and the modern setting felt safer. Most importantly, compared to other instances rated four or five stars, which would still be three or four stars post-adjustment, [Visiting] was only two and a half stars after adjustment.

2.5 stars—it seemed much safer.

Additionally, Sheng Qingquan picked another school-themed instance—[Chesspiece High School]. This was among the lowest-difficulty instances, aside from [Visiting].

Not only was the labeled difficulty low, but the actual challenge should be too. Both instances felt more grounded in reality. After all, who hasn't visited someone or gone to school?

Completing them should be relatively straightforward.

More importantly, as the host, Sheng Qingquan noticed that the rewards for these two instances were quite generous.

Opting for them would be more economical—low risk, high reward.

Still, Sheng Qingquan didn't make the decision hastily. Instead, he had the staff review all ten instances. After all, it wasn't him who would be entering the instances, so the staff's opinions were more important.

After discussing, the official staff agreed to proceed with Sheng Qingquan's selections.

Everyone was on the same page: why miss out on a good deal? Plus, for the first instance run, caution was key. Starting with the lowest difficulty was a smart way to test the waters.

Once Sheng Qingquan made his choice, the mechanical voice promptly chimed in again.

"Instances have been selected."

"Shall we begin summoning players?"

Fearing that Sheng Qingquan might bite off more than he could chew, the system quickly reminded him, "The current energy is only enough to bind two hundred players."

"But in the plot, after the system binds with the host, it pulled in thousands of people in the first wave."

Thinking of this, Sheng Qingquan couldn't help but look skeptical.

The system couldn't hear Sheng Qingquan's thoughts. However, his suspicion was too obvious, and it couldn't ignore it, so it had to mutter, "As long as we don't break the rules and keep the players safe, we really can only take this many!"

After Sheng Qingquan and the system were bound, and the cooperation was established, while Sheng Qingquan was getting used to the system, the authorities had already begun recruiting people for the dungeons.

Considering that it was an adventure after all, even if there was no life-threatening danger, being agile was still very important. So they chose young and able-bodied individuals.

As soon as the system said it could bind, two hundred young men and women who had signed NDAs quickly lined up neatly in front of Sheng Qingquan.

"Host, are you sure about this? Do you want to go with the people they selected, or choose them yourself?"

"Even if you randomly select people from all over Blue Star, the people you pick might not be as good as the ones they chose, but the randomly selected people, with no one backing them, could be more loyal to you!"

Sheng Qingquan ignored the system's attempt to stir up trouble and directly clicked confirm.

"Binding in progress..." The system grumbled in boredom.

"Wei Jingfeng, do you want to join the Divine Child Training Game as a player?"

"Select yes or no."

"Yu Mulan, do you want to join the Divine Child Training Game as a player?"

...

The two hundred selected people heard a robotic voice in their ears.

It was really true!

This was incredible.

So they were really going to enter the game dungeons?

Everyone held back their excitement and chose yes.

"Binding successful."

"Players can choose from the open dungeons for trials."

The figures of the two hundred players quickly disappeared. The area suddenly cleared out, and the remaining people, with worry, excitement, anticipation, desire... a mix of emotions, they couldn't help but look at Sheng Qingquan.

Sheng Qingquan didn't comfort everyone; he used his authority to display the dungeon scenarios on the opposite wall.

The wall split into two sections, one displaying the [Visiting] dungeon, and the other displaying the [Chess Piece High School].

[Visiting] was a five-person dungeon, [Chess Piece High School] was a twenty-person dungeon.

Only one team per dungeon was shown.

"But once we have enough energy, we can open the dungeon live stream. Then we can watch them all at the same time." The system added.

The store was available from the start, but when Sheng Qingquan adjusted the prices, he saw that there were many good things inside, such as low-level ghost-repelling talismans, low-level health potions, primary energy guns... and even mechs when flipping to the back, but all were grayed out and couldn't be bought.

Clearly, the level was not enough, and the energy was not enough either.

Especially for items like the low-level health potion, they are still affordable. But for something like a mecha, the price listed below, a string of zeros—it's simply astronomical.

The price is set high just to catch people's eye, attract them, and give them motivation to strive.

This is after Sheng Qingquan adjusted the prices; otherwise, the numbers would be even more terrifying.

Sheng Qingquan had never realized he was so wealthy before. Even though he had already become rich from the 1% mineral yield gift last time, the feeling of becoming wealthy wasn't as tangible as seeing the prices firsthand this time.

But now wasn't the time to dwell on that.

Players quickly appeared in the dungeons, and everyone was closely watching their movements.

Sheng Qingquan was no exception.

But since the dungeons had just started, everyone was still pretty safe.

And knowing no one could actually die, there wasn't much tension. Sheng Qingquan found himself zoning out as he watched.

He activated his cheat code.

As the novel appeared in front of him, Sheng Qingquan specifically observed the System Orb's reaction.

Although he had long realized that the System Orb probably couldn't see the existence of the novel, seeing with his own eyes that its focus remained entirely on the dungeons, gleefully calculating the energy it would harvest once the dungeon ended, without even glancing at him, Sheng Qingquan felt truly reassured.

The balance of Qiankun Coins on the novel was still +8888 points.

At the same time, a small item appeared within the book.

"It's a peripheral gift!"

Sheng Qingquan examined closely and found that this time the peripheral gift was a ruby.

The ruby, the size of a pigeon's egg, was cut perfectly. Even without special lighting, it shone brilliantly in natural light.

It was a particularly intense and dazzling red.

It seemed even more sparkling than a red diamond.

But the beautiful appearance wasn't the main point.

Although Sheng Qingquan was amazed, it wasn't until he held the ruby and learned its name and function that his eyes widened in surprise.

"[True Illusion]: When used, it can perfectly mimic any real object with 100% accuracy, making it completely undetectable.

It should be noted that the things disguised by this gem cannot be truly used; they are merely a facade.

After all, no matter how real they appear, they remain fundamentally false."

This must be an in-game item, right?

If the illusions can only be seen and not used, then no matter how real they appear, they're useless. It seems worthless, but at this moment, Sheng Qingquan felt as though he had struck gold.

Once he fully grasped the capabilities of this [True Illusion] gem, Sheng Qingquan's first thought was:

"Can it disguise the system's complaint button?"