Chapter 1 Midday, June 1st, Feng Bujue's Home

At this moment, Jue-ge was wearing a ripped t-shirt, squatting by the wall, plastering it with a trowel...

What he was patching up, of course, was the giant cat paw print on the wall.

"Why don't you just hire someone to do it?" Asas lazily asked from the sofa, her tone as if the mark on the wall had nothing to do with her.

"Hire a roadside renovation crew?" Jue-ge replied without turning his head.

"Why don't you ask the property management to find someone?" Asas said.

"I need to remind you... strictly speaking, I'm not the owner here, just a renter," Feng Bujue replied. "If I ask the property management to find a plasterer, it's likely to reach my landlord's ears."

"Don't you think you're overthinking it?" Asas asked.

"No... I often encounter those low-probability misfortunes. Therefore... it's better to consider everything carefully." Feng Bujue said while plastering the wall, "Suppose... my landlord finds out about this paw print, she'll definitely ask me about it, and I... at least have to give a relatively reasonable explanation. I can't tell her... 'Oh, that? The cat did it. It's actually the number one master of Miaolin Temple, the successor of the Great Vajra Claw'; I also can't pretend to be dumb and say 'I woke up this morning and the wall was like this'; so... in the end, I can only say that I did it on a whim, out of impulse."

Jue-ge paused, dipped his trowel in more cement, and continued, "This matter can be big or small... if I smash my own furniture, no one can really stop me, but directly damaging the building... that's another matter. Although I have a good relationship with the landlord, what if she turns against me and kicks me out..." He glanced back at Asas, "Where am I going to find a house in this location, at this price, and where I can keep pets?"

"I can turn into a woman and live with you," Asas replied.

"Oh?" Feng Bujue turned his head, stopping his work. The first question he asked was... "Is she pretty?"

"Just kidding."

"Tch... I thought this book was going to transform into a more attractive genre..."

…………

At three in the afternoon, Feng Bujue finally finished the job. He cleaned up and sat down at the computer.

*Thriller Paradise's* servers had been shut down in the early hours of May 30th. Since then, Jue-ge hadn't paid attention to the official website or forums.

In the past two days, he had basically been writing manuscripts and dealing with some trivial matters in life. What was rather unusual was... he had recently started exercising regularly, and the amount of exercise was quite large. Who knew what he was planning...

"Ah... it's been over forty-eight hours, it's about time to take a look..." Feng Bujue muttered to himself, opening the Dream Company's official website. He knew that the situation would definitely be very chaotic right after the server shutdown, so he deliberately waited two days before looking at the news.

At this moment, as soon as Jue-ge opened the webpage, the headline that caught his eye was: \[*Thriller Paradise* Public Beta Successfully Concluded, New Version "Derivative Invasion" Coming Soon]

The other announcements below included \[Peak Melee S1 Successfully Concluded, Final Rankings Announced], \[*Crazy Thinking* Trial Version Will Be Closed Today, Internal Beta Version Expected to Open in Late June], \[Due to Server Version Update, Online Mall's Transaction Business Will Also Be Suspended]...

Feng Bujue first clicked on the announcement about Peak Melee, and the link immediately directed him to the ranking page.

This so-called "ranking" was actually useless... because it said "Players in the same interval are not ranked in order."

In other words, players ranked eleventh and thirtieth were not marked as being before or after each other; the same was true for players ranked thirty-first to fiftieth. In short, this list was just to indicate that these twenty people get Prize A, those twenty people get Prize B...

Feng Bujue saw the ID \[Wang Tanzhi] on the list of eleventh to thirtieth place, and \[Tun Tian Guixiao] was also on the list. In a sense, the achievements of these two people in this competition were exactly the same... same prize, same ranking...

"Heh... I can already imagine the situation on the forums." Feng Bujue chuckled and muttered to himself. However, he didn't immediately go to the forums, but first clicked on the "Derivative Invasion" topic.

After clicking on the headline, the webpage turned to the detailed description page of the new version patch.

…………

v1.10——

\[Version Overview]

A mysterious force has suddenly entered people's vision. They are powerful AIs born from redundant data, survivors who have emerged from the system's encirclement and suppression.

The Four Pillar Gods (Si Zhu Shen) who maintain the balance of the "main universe" are facing severe challenges.

And the internal strife of the Derivatives will gradually surface...

In the new version, after entering a team script (limited to Nightmare) with six people, there will be a 0.2% chance of encountering Derivatives. In addition to the main quest, successfully eliminating or helping Derivatives will grant additional rewards after clearing the script (regardless of whether the player dies in the process).

The words and deeds of players in the "main universe," that is, the universe where the Four Pillar Gods are located, will have a certain impact on their own faction alignment and the plot they will encounter in the future.

\[New Mode]

Added "Free Exploration" mode. This mode has no task system, no time limit (the upper limit of game time in reality still exists), no negative game judgment, and only allows single players to join.

After starting this mode, players will be randomly assigned to any multiverse to start free exploration.

After the assignment is completed, players can use the "safe house" in the world to travel back and forth between the login space and the script. If you leave the script in a place other than the safe house (including being killed, forced to quit, disconnection, etc.), your game currency, skill points, and experience points will be punished accordingly. After entering the world again, you will return to the last recorded safe house.

Each time a player enters the world in Free Exploration mode, it will cost 20,000 game currency.

If players are dissatisfied with the universe they are assigned to, or feel bored after long-term exploration, they can redistribute it with 500,000 game currency.

\[Changes to Items, Goods, and Services]

Players can now purchase large furnishings, including furniture, as well as "design modules" (such as wallpaper, floor tiles, etc.) in the mall to decorate their conference rooms and storage rooms.

Scary Boxes will no longer provide the service of exchanging skill points for game currency.

The self-service hair salon has opened. Players can find corresponding facilities in the mall to adjust their hairstyles (and beards).

Except for "consumables" and some special items, all excellent-level items and above (including some garbage, dilapidated, and ordinary-level items) will be attached with the characteristics of "bind on equip" or "bind on use."

"Stamina Replenishment Agents" have now been removed from the game.

The Puzzle Card Exchange has been opened. Players can list unwanted puzzle cards in the exchange for item-for-item exchanges. When browsing the puzzle cards listed for sale by other players in the exchange, you can directly conduct simulation searches of set card combination sequences to avoid exchanging for useless cards. The exchange only charges a very low storage fee.

The auction house no longer accepts puzzle cards as auction items.

Weapon and equipment merchants have received a new batch of goods. In the new version, players have a chance to randomly see some excellent-level equipment in the system store. Of course, these goods may not be cheaper than those in the auction house.

At the strong request of the players, we have added various skirts to the clothing, but the price is relatively expensive, because each one comes with corresponding safety shorts.

Regarding the opening of further intimate actions beyond "hugging" and "kissing," and the requirements for relaxing the "sexual harassment protection" function, have now been permanently rejected. Here, we would like to remind those players who repeatedly make similar requests... our database is connected to the public security department.

\[Rankings]

The player combat power ranking and level ranking have been canceled.

The guild combat power ranking has been canceled.

Currently, the rankings in the mall are: Guild Comprehensive Strength Ranking, Player Comprehensive Strength Ranking.

The "anonymous" function of the rankings has been canceled, but players can directly perform the operation of "refusing to be displayed on the rankings."

The double Buff obtained according to the guild's two rankings has been canceled; the experience bonus for guild members playing games together has been canceled.

Now, when guild members team up to play games together (in the same camp), they will randomly receive a Buff. The excellence of the Buff depends on the overall strength of the guild.

\[Gameplay Adjustment]

Violent and bloody scenes in the game will add a comic-style exaggeration on the basis of maintaining realism.

The simulation of pain will be further strengthened.

…………

The specific patch content doesn't stop there. Many keywords have been set up with hyperlinks, with very detailed explanations.

Feng Bujue, this reading addict, naturally clicked on them one by one and read them all completely.

Not only did he read it once, but he also thought deeply...

Finally, he summarized that the core changes in this new version were the following three items.

First: Added a lot of ways to recycle game currency from players.

Second: Prepared early and gave a place to go for max-level players—Free Exploration mode.

Third: Rounded out the existence of Derivatives (there are related explanations of Derivatives in the hyperlinks, the basic meaning is the same as Hua Xiong and Pan Feng's set of statements at the beginning, but not detailed enough).

These three things are the main purpose of launching this v1.10 version. As for the other changes, they should be regarded as normal corrections... For example, the skill point exchange for game currency service in Scary Boxes is a stupid thing that no one but rookies would do, and it can indeed be canceled. The adjustments related to the rankings can be seen as "removing the dispensable" and re-integrating. The launch of the Puzzle Card Exchange is a new convenient service that saves money and worry.

"Um... it feels like there are a lot of things to do after going online..." Feng Bujue muttered, while operating the mouse to turn the page to the forum.