Chapter 1 Midday, June 1st

Noon, June 1st, Feng Bujue's home.

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

What he was trying to smooth over was naturally the huge cat claw mark on the wall.

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

"Hire a roadside renovation team?" Brother Jue replied without turning his head.

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

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

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

"No... I often encounter those low-probability unlucky things. Therefore... it's better to consider everything carefully." Feng Bujue said while plastering the wall, "Suppose... my landlord finds out about this claw mark, then she will definitely ask me about it, and I... at least have to give a relatively reasonable explanation. I can't tell her... 'Oh, that? It was done by the cat, who is actually the number one master of Miaolin Temple, the heir to the Great Strength Vajra Claw'; I can't pretend to be stupid and say 'I woke up this morning and found the wall like this'; so... in the end, I can only say that it was a whim, an impulsive act on my part."

Brother Jue paused, dipped a little cement with the trowel, and continued, "This matter can be a big deal or a small one... If I smash my own furniture, people can't really interfere, but directly damaging the building... is another matter. Although my relationship with the landlord is not bad, what if she falls out with me and throws me out..." He glanced back at Asaas, "Where am I going to find a place in this location, at this price, and where I can keep pets?"

"I can transform into a woman and live with you," Asaas replied.

"Oh?" Feng Bujue turned his head, stopping his movements, and the first question he asked was... "Is she pretty?"

"Just kidding."

"Tch... I thought this book was going to transform into the kind of attractive genre..."

***

At three in the afternoon, Feng Bujue finally finished the job. After cleaning up, he sat down at his computer.

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

For the past two days, he had basically been writing frantically, while also dealing with some trivial matters in his life. What was more unusual was... he had recently started exercising regularly, and with a pretty high intensity too. No one knew what he was planning...

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

The headline that caught Brother Jue's eye as soon as he opened the webpage was: 【Thriller Paradise's Open Beta Successfully Concludes, New Version "Derivative Invasion" Coming Soon】

Other announcements below included: 【Peak Showdown S1 Successfully Concludes, Final Rankings Have Been Announced】, 【Crazy Thinking Trial Version Will Be Shut Down Today, Internal Beta Expected to Open in Late June】, 【Online Mall Transactions Will Be Suspended Due to Server Version Update】...

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

This so-called "ranking" was practically useless... because it stated "Players in the same interval are not ranked in any particular order."

In other words, the players ranked eleventh and thirtieth weren't marked as being ahead of or behind each other; the same was true for players ranked thirty-first to fiftieth. Basically, this list was just to indicate that these twenty people get prize A, and those twenty people get prize B...

Feng Bujue saw the ID 【Wang Tanzhi】in the list of eleventh to thirtieth place, and 【Tun Tiangui Xiao】was also among them. In a sense, the achievements of these two in this competition were exactly the same... same prizes, same rankings...

"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 redirected to the detailed description page of the new version patch.

***

v1.10—

【Version Overview】

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

The four Pillar Gods, who maintain the balance of the "Main Universe," are facing severe challenges.

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

In the new version, whenever a team of six enters a team scenario (Nightmare difficulty only), there will be a 0.2% chance of encountering Derivatives. In addition to the main quest, successfully eliminating or assisting the Derivatives will grant extra rewards upon completion of the scenario (regardless of whether the players died in the process).

The words and actions of players in the "Main Universe," the universe where the four Pillar Gods reside, will have a certain impact on their faction alignment and the storylines they encounter in the future.

【New Mode】

Added a "Free Exploration" mode. This mode has no quest system, no time limit (the game time limit in reality still exists), no penalty for passive play, and is limited to solo players.

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

After the assignment is complete, players can travel between the landing space and the scenario through the "Safe House" in that world. If players leave the scenario outside the Safe House (including being killed, forced to quit, disconnecting, etc.), their game coins, skill points, and experience points will be penalized accordingly. After re-entering the world, they will return to the last recorded Safe House.

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

If players are dissatisfied with the assigned universe or become tired after long-term exploration, they can pay 500,000 game coins for a reassignment.

【Item, Product, and Service Changes】

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.

The Scare Box will no longer offer the service of exchanging skill points for game coins.

The Self-Service Hair Salon has opened. Players can find the corresponding facilities in the mall to adjust their hairstyles (and beards).

Except for "consumables" and some special items, all items of Excellent quality or above (including some Trash, Dilapidated, and Normal quality items) will have the characteristics of "Bound on Equip" or "Bound on Use."

The "Stamina Replenishment Supplement" has now been removed from the game.

The Puzzle Card Exchange has been opened. Players can list their unwanted puzzle cards in the exchange to trade items for items. When browsing other players' listed puzzle cards in the exchange, you can directly perform a simulation search of the deck combination sequence 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.

The weapon and equipment merchants have stocked a new batch of goods. In the new version, players have a chance to randomly see some Excellent quality 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 selection, but they are quite expensive because each one comes with matching safety shorts.

The requests to open further intimate actions beyond "hugging" and "kissing," as well as to relax the requirements for 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.

【Ranking Related】

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 "refuse to be displayed on the leaderboard" operation.

The double Buffs obtained according to the guild's ranking on the two leaderboards have been canceled; the experience point bonus for guild members playing games together has been canceled.

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

【Gameplay Adjustments】

The violent and bloody scenes in the game will incorporate a cartoonish, exaggerated style while maintaining realism.

The simulation of pain will be further enhanced.

***

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

Feng Bujue, with his reading addiction, naturally clicked on each one and read it completely.

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

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

First: Added many means to recover game coins from players.

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

Third: Made the existence of Derivatives plausible (the hyperlinks contain relevant descriptions of Derivatives, the basic meaning is the same as the explanation given by Hua Xiong and Pan Feng back then, just not as detailed).

These three things are the main purposes of releasing this v1.10 version. As for the other changes, they should be considered normal corrections... For example, the skill point exchange for game coins service in the Scare Box was a stupid thing that no one but newbies would do, so it can indeed be canceled. And the adjustments related to the rankings can be regarded as "removing the useless" and re-integrating. The launch of the puzzle card exchange is a new convenient service that saves money and effort.

"Hmm... it feels like there are a lot of things to do when I go online again..." Feng Bujue muttered. At the same time, he had already used the mouse to switch the page to the forum.