Chapter 1 The Battle Power Rankings

Topping the combat power rankings was a player named 【Tun Tian Gui Xiao】(Devouring Sky Ghost Hero). This number one's ID wasn't even in the top twenty of the level rankings. The words "Order" were after his name, indicating he was a member of a studio, so he definitely wasn't one of the two anonymous players on the level rankings. Pro players under such large studios didn't need to be low-key, and their superiors wouldn't let them be anonymous either, because every name on the rankings was a reflection of the studio's strength.

"Hmm… it seems a single-digit level difference really isn't much in this game," Feng Bujue thought to himself. "The level rankings are just for players to get a reference, to see what level range the fastest levelers in the current server are at… but the really powerful guys are on this combat power list."

Feng Bujue scanned the entire list. There were no anonymous players on the combat power list, and the top twenty IDs all had guild names after them. It seemed that relying on "personal" strength alone was indeed difficult to compete with those with team resources, especially in the early stages of the game. The so-called "combat power," in addition to a player's individual ability, mainly consisted of specialization levels, skills, and equipment. Players with studio support definitely had a significant advantage in equipment level and number of skills. At around level twenty, everyone's specialization levels were basically stuck at D-grade, so the difference became apparent.

Of particular note was that, besides the player named Tun Tian Gui Xiao being in first place, the other players with "Order" after their names were all ranked sixth or lower. Ranked sixth was the current number one on the level rankings, and also the server's first closed beta max-level player, 【Yong Zhe Wu Ju】(Fearless Warrior).

The second to fifth places on the list belonged to another guild. The IDs were 【Shiva】, 【Vishnu】, 【Brahma】, and 【Yama】 in order. These four religious figures all came from a studio called "Deities." It seemed this studio was also very strong, because these four were also prominently listed in the top ten of the level rankings.

After Feng Bujue finished looking at the south column, he went to look at the rankings in the west and north, which were the guild comprehensive strength ranking and the guild combat power ranking. Unsurprisingly, the top two on both lists belonged to 【Order】 and 【Deities】. Deities had stronger combat power, but Order had the advantage in comprehensive strength.

In fact, the phrase "comprehensive strength" was quite intriguing. Since it was a different concept from combat power, it must refer to the all-around capabilities of the guild. Besides financial resources and the number of people, Order's strongest characteristic was four words—no weaknesses.

For example, the 【Yong Zhe Wu Di】(Invincible Warrior) that Feng Bujue had encountered before was one of the people in Order specifically responsible for the fighting specialization during the closed beta. Levels, equipment, and other specializations were not important to him; what he had to do was complete his assigned task and provide the studio with first-hand information and experience.

Naturally, there were corresponding explorers for the other specializations as well. Order used this practical method to obtain valuable data. When their main players (who had entered the game during the open beta) joined the game, they could achieve twice the results with half the effort and avoid detours.

It could be said that Order already had a nearly perfect and efficient system, especially in terms of mastering game information. They were thorough in every aspect and not just at a superficial level; everything was the result of in-depth research. They could easily publish a set of internal company data and blow away those half-baked guys on the forums who were still writing guides. Of course, they wouldn't do such a resource-sharing thing; not even for money.

However, the Deities studio wasn't slacking off either. Their characteristic was the strong individual abilities of their players. They didn't care how other studios played their cards. Deities' strategy was simple: as soon as the closed beta started, they would throw all of their studio's star players in and have them level up. Anyway, their whole hand was aces, so it didn't matter whether they played them early or late.

Feng Bujue looked at the top twenty guilds on both lists. There was a lot of overlap between the two lists. Besides Order and Deities, there were seven other guilds with players who could make it onto the level rankings and combat power rankings. The situation for the remaining dozen or so was unclear. In any case, Ice Emperor wasn't on either list… indicating that their credibility was not a problem.

After finishing looking at the rankings on the four columns, Feng Bujue came to the central information tower to check out the auction house situation. The results shocked him. The prices were outrageously high. Some not-so-great equipment was selling for more than clothing.

A piece of exquisite equipment around level ten dared to ask for a starting bid of 120,000, and the buyout price was even set at 200,000. Just the starting bid was almost sixty RMB. Feng Bujue really found it funny. With that price, people could buy a set of cheap clothes from head to toe and wear them for as long as they wanted, but how many levels could that equipment be used for? It could be replaced with a common-grade store item at level twenty, right?

Since the open beta had just started, players were afraid that the goods they put up for auction would be sold too cheaply. This kind of psychology was understandable. One of the most depressing situations when playing online games was… one day you discovered that an item you had easily discarded as trash was actually priceless…

And people who frequented the game auction house would develop a kind of mentality: buy low, sell high. When buying things, it was best to encounter someone who didn't understand the market and set the price lower than the actual value, so you could get a steal; when selling things, set the price unrealistically high, hoping that some sucker would carelessly fall for it.

In a world where everyone thought that way, there definitely wouldn't be enough fools to go around, because everyone was full of themselves. In the end, the ones who could sell things were still the players who priced them fairly.

In a game like Thriller Paradise where equipment attributes were randomly generated, there were very few cases where equipment was exactly the same, so there was no way to hoard goods and speculate on prices. It was difficult for players engaged in the resale of virtual items. It was almost impossible for them to buy goods with relatively normal prices, hoping to resell them at a high price.

In addition, in order to prevent unscrupulous merchants from buying consumables from the system store and raising the price on the auction house to deceive newcomers, the system directly prohibited putting store goods (except for items from the Shocker Box) into the auction house. And items with "Trash" and "Dilapidated" quality would also be rejected from being listed on the auction house if they didn't have special effects or attributes. Those who attempted to pick up some weird items like "stones," "internal organs," or "dog poop" from the scripts and then put them on the auction at a high price could also give up.

Standing anywhere in this central area, you could open the auction house menu to browse. Feng Bujue looked for a long time, whether it was the newly listed items that were constantly refreshed on the big screen, or the lists sorted by various priorities in the menu, flipping page after page… there was almost no equipment that was reasonably priced; everything was priced at an unacceptable high. According to how fiercely these guys were pricing things, if Feng Bujue gritted his teeth and sold the 【Mario's Wrench】, 【Jazz Dance】, and 【Echo Armor】 in his bag for a bundle price of 600,000, people would probably fight over it. It was estimated that it would be bought out within a minute of being listed, and the person who successfully bought it would secretly gloat in their heart, praising: "Great, I met an idiot."

Thinking of this, a poisonous… uh… brilliant plan suddenly occurred to Feng Bujue.

He turned around and walked towards the row of elevator doors at the entrance, preparing to go to the last new area he hadn't been to yet—the Shocker Box.

Feng Bujue could be said to have no equipment pressure at all, and he also had a lot of Skill Points. As long as he went to buy some exquisite equipment and then put it on the auction at a relatively reasonable price, it would definitely sell quickly at the buyout price. By then, with hundreds of thousands of game coins in his pocket, clothing and the like would naturally be a piece of cake.

…………

If there are books, the story is long, and if there are no books, the story is short. After Feng Bujue returned to the landing space, he first went to the storage room to put the flashlight into his bag, and then went to claim the rewards for the Fear rating. He was still not in a hurry for experience, and 50,000 game coins were even more insignificant. Claiming game coins was not as good as claiming equipment to sell…

So, the random equipment he drew this time was:

【Name: Kenny's Hooded Top】

【Type: Armor】

【Quality: Exquisite】

【Defense: Weak】

【Attribute: None】

【Special Effect: Within the allowable probability range, passively become the main target for the team to bear damage (including monster attacks, accidents, natural disasters); in team survival mode (Normal), allows the wearer to revive in place once after death.】

【Equipment Requirement: Male player, Bound after equipping】

【Remark: Oh! My God! They killed Kenny!】

The equipment position of this armor was set to the upper body and had nothing to do with clothing. Equipment was equipment, and clothing was like a "skin." Both could be equipped at the same time, but only one could be displayed in appearance.

Feng Bujue clearly understood what the Kenny meme meant, so… even if he couldn't equip the Echo Armor yet, he would definitely not rashly put this set on.

Wearing this kind of thing himself was courting death, and giving it to others was harming them. It was better to throw it into the auction and screw over strangers…

At this time, his bag capacity was 8/10, and he could still carry two more items. According to the price range in Feng Bujue's mind, exquisite equipment in the Shocker Box should sell for about 300 Skill Points each. In case an item sold for 500 Skill Points, he wouldn't be able to buy two, so leaving two slots open was enough. Anyway, he would take them to the mall to list them after buying them here.

Returning to the elevator, after the door closed, Feng Bujue pressed the 【Shocker Box】 button. This time it was a bit strange. After pressing it, the door didn't open directly, and there was no system prompt. Two seconds later, the elevator actually moved. Even stranger, Feng Bujue felt that the elevator wasn't simply moving up or down, but like a roller coaster, moving a long distance in several directions in a completely unpredictable way.

After about a minute, the elevator stopped completely. At this time, the door opened automatically, and an unexpected scene was displayed in front of Feng Bujue.