Chapter 25: Didn’t Start on the Same Starting Line?
Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Everyone had their minds elsewhere when they ate lunch.
Clearly, they were communicating non-stop with the AIs in their minds to understand how they could use the newly activated attributes.
Qin Guan could not talk to his AI, but he could read detailed descriptions of the attributes when he clicked on them.
[STR, SPR, and SS each have a different way of affecting how a person uses their spirit.
[STR: Represents how spirit power amplifies physical attributes. It will affect physical properties such as how the physical body resists damage from weapons and how much weight the body can bear. The higher a person's STR, the more advantage they can gain in a direct confrontation. If the person is severely lacking in this aspect, they might have a cap on their SPR and SS.
[SPR: Represents how spirit power amplifies mental attributes. It plays a huge role in non-physical combat, including damage, range, and time limit in non-physical attacks such as Spirit Arts.
[SS: Represents how spirit power amplifies perception. The higher a person's SS, the more capable they are at seeing through illusions and supernatural phenomenon. The higher the value of SS, the closer the person is to the world's origin and truth. However, if this attribute far surpasses STR and SPR, it will possibly cause a person to descend into madness.]
Once Qin Guan read the descriptions, he found that it was not actually that difficult to understand the attributes. For example, those who started the game with athletes would definitely have high STR stats, so they were much stronger than the other starting characters.
The attributes could be understood this way: STR signified physical strength, SPR was similar to the 'Intelligence' stat or 'Magic Power' stat in many games, and SS was perception.
Qin Guan pondered over the three attributes, and he could finally understand from were the number fifteen came. This was obviously the sum of the player's STR, SPR, and SS points added together.
'Then this means that everyone started the game with similar stats. Our overall stat points are all the same. Athletes will start off the game with higher STR, but their other attributes will definitely have very low stats, that's why their total number of stat points is still 15.
'But I still think that the useless person has the short end of the stick. All three of my attributes are well-balanced; they're all five. Isn't this the same as me not having any specialties? I won't have a specific direction when I want to develop my skills.
'But that's not right either. If I think about this from another angle, this means that I have no weaknesses. No matter how I want to develop my character in the future, I can do so as I wish. I'll have a lot of freedom and no severe limitations…
'Wait. If I'm right, since Professor Li's has fifty-eight stat points in total, doesn't that mean that his base line is much higher than ours? Could it be that once different people become Transcended Gamers, the attributes they activate are different?
'Ah… I don't understand it. I'll investigate it slowly in the future.'
Qin Guan then looked at the hidden attributes beneath the three main attributes. He noticed that they were completely different from the three basic attributes, but the system did not provide any descriptions for them.
However, once he thought about them carefully, he found that he did not actually need any descriptions. He could guess their functions based on the words themselves.
'I'm only somewhat handsome? System, could you be more honest with yourself for once?
'My luck is not really that great either. It's about the same level as a normal person's, and also operates in the same way—my good luck is entirely dependent on my handsome looks.
'Hmm… yes, I'm very pleased with my talent. I knew it, I'm indeed very talented.'
Qin Guan and Xiao Qiang ate absent-mindedly. They both had their minds set on continuing with their training.
Once they finished eating, Xiao Qiang wanted to drag Qin Guan over to hang out in the dorm, but Qin Guan refused his offer firmly.
'Excuse me, I'm on a tight schedule to clear the trial. I don't have time to hang out and chat. I'm a man who wants to conquer Developer's Difficulty Level!'
On his way home, Qin Guan took out his phone as per his habit and went online. He wanted to see if there was any news.
At that moment, he suddenly noticed a problem. While the Transcended Gamer Forum was good, it also had its shortcomings. It was very easy for a person to get disconnected from society…
If some people stayed at home to train while only running to the forum to ask questions when they encountered a problem, they might end up being ignorant of new events and policies in society.
Qin Guan felt that while training was important, he should still pay attention to some of the news online. After all, there were few people who posted threads on the forum. The type of information there was also limited.
As he browsed online, Qin Guan discovered a very important post.
It had a video recorded with a handphone, so the quality was not very good. However, it was still possible to see what was happening.
In the video was a middle-aged man dressed in a traditional martial arts uniform. He was performing parkour on the roof of a building, and he managed to leap to the next building, which was ninety-eight feet from where he originally stood.
It was not rare to find people performing parkour on buildings. After all, this was the main concept of Jump!!. Qin Guan himself would not have any problems jumping between buildings and completing many difficult acts right now. After all, his control over his body had reached a very high level.
However, the key in the video was that the middle-aged man was around forty yet his jump was very casual and relaxed. He covered a gap of ninety-eight feet with ease, which made no sense.
Qin Guan knew that he could not do this with his body of the useless person.
Not only was the useless person unable to do this, even if the others who started the game with athletes—which had the highest STR compared to the other characters—could not jump ninety-eight feet. At most, they could only jump around thirty-two.
The world record of a normal person in a long-jump was around thirty feet. Transcended Gamers had a boost in all their physical attributes, so the distance of their long jumps had basically been increased to around fifty-sixty-five feet. The limit of Qin Guan's long jump was fifty feet, and that was with the help of a run-up.
Of course, this limit was a number Qin Guan had only managed to get after his hard work in the trial. In the beginning, he could not jump that far.
So what was with jumping ninety-eight feet? And judging by the looks of it, the middle-aged man had done it casually. This meant that he had not reached his limit yet.
'Could it be that the Transcended Gamers have different starting stats? This man is about the same age as Professor Li, and he gives me a feeling that he's different from us students.
'The only similarity between them might be that… they're older? So does that mean that those who are older will have a higher starting level once they become Transcended Gamers?
'Hm… while this setting sounds unreasonable, there is a possibility of it being true.'
Qin Guan pondered over the question while he walked. Clearly, not everyone stood on the same starting line when they became Transcended Gamers.
And the rules that decided their starting levels were not quite clear for the time being.
When Qin Guan got home, he found that Su Xiaoyu had already got back.
"Hmm? Qin Guan, you're back. Nice timing. Let me tell you something real quick. Hurry up and contact your faculty's counsellor and tell him that you've obtained the status of a Transcended Gamer," Su Xiaoyu said.
Qin Guan was a little taken aback. "Now?"
Su Xiaoyu nodded. "Yes. I just received a notice. The university wants to arrange a specialized course for people like us. All Transcended Gamers can join this unique class. I heard that they will teach us some things, but I'm not too sure about the details."
Qin Guan thought about it. "Does this have to do with that contract?"
"A little, but not too much. The requirements for this class are rather lax, but we have to sign an agreement. It's a non-disclosure agreement."
Once Su Xiaoyu explained in detail, Qin Guan had an idea about what was going on. The gist of it was that the university intended to gather all Transcended Gamers together to train them and also limit their actions.
As expected, there was a prerequisite to the training. They had to go through a psychological test, and they also had to sign a non-disclosure agreement.
The agreement to enter class was different from the contract Su Xiaoyu had mentioned that would give them 2,000 RMB per month. The limitations of this agreement on them were much weaker, making it something of the nerfed version of the contract.
"I read the agreement. They only request us to keep certain things confidential. It doesn't bind us to any departments once we graduate, so I think we can still consider this one," Su Xiaoyu said.
Qin Guan nodded. "Yup. Let's go take a look. I think there's a continuation to this agreement."
-- Gift
received