Chapter 1 The Beginning

The player ranked first on the combat power list was called [Tun Tian Gui Xiao] (Devouring Heaven Ghost Warrior). Surprisingly, this number one ID wasn't even in the top twenty of the level rankings. The words "Order" appeared after his name, indicating he was a member of a studio. Therefore, he was definitely not one of the two anonymous players on the level榜. Professional players under such a large studio didn't need to keep a low profile, and their superiors wouldn't let them remain anonymous either, as every name on the leaderboard was a display of the studio's strength.

"Hmm… it seems that a single-digit level difference doesn't really mean much in this game," Feng Bujue thought to himself. "The level ranking is just for players to get an idea of what level range the fastest levelers in the current server have reached… The truly powerful ones are on this combat power list."

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

What was worth noting was that, apart from the player named Tun Tian Gui Xiao being in first place, the other players with "Order" after their names were all ranked after sixth place. Ranked sixth was the current number one on the level榜, and also the server's first closed beta top player, [Yong Zhe Wu Ju] (Fearless Warrior).

The second to fifth places on the list belonged to another guild. The IDs in order were [Shiva], [Vishnu], [Brahma], and [Yama]. These four swindlers all came from a studio called "Deities." It seemed this studio was also very powerful, as these four were also prominently listed in the top ten of the level榜.

After reading the South Pillar, Feng Bujue then went to look at the West and North Pillars' rankings. These two lists were the guild comprehensive strength榜 and the guild combat power榜, respectively. 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 four words "comprehensive strength" were quite intriguing. Since it was a different concept from combat power, it must refer to the overall capabilities of the guild. In addition to financial resources and the number of members, Order's greatest strength was four words—no weaknesses.

For example, [Yong Zhe Wu Di] (Invincible Warrior) whom Feng Bujue had encountered before, was one of the people Order had specifically assigned to specialize in the Fighting specialization during the closed beta. Level, equipment, and other specializations were not important to him. What he had to do was complete the task he was responsible for and provide the studio with first-hand information and experience.

The other specializations naturally had corresponding explorers as well. Order used this practical approach to obtain valuable data. When their main players (who had joined during the open beta) entered 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 the mastery of game information. They were thorough in every aspect, and it wasn't just a superficial understanding; all of their conclusions were based on in-depth research. If they casually released a set of internal company data, they could crush those half-baked guys on the forum who were still writing guides. Of course, they wouldn't do such resource-sharing things, not even for money.

However, the Deities studio wasn't slacking off either. Their characteristic was the strong individual ability 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 threw all their main star players in and had them level up. Anyway, their entire hand was Aces, so it made no difference whether they played them early or late.

Feng Bujue also looked at the guilds ranked in the top twenty on both lists. There were quite a few overlaps between these two lists. In addition to Order and Deities, there were seven guilds with players who could appear on both the level榜 and combat power榜. The situation of the remaining dozen or so was unknown. In any case, Ice Emperor wasn't on either榜… which meant their credibility was fine.

After reading all four pillar榜s, Feng Bujue came to the central information tower and began to browse the auction house. The results were astonishing. The prices were outrageously high. Some not-so-great equipment was selling for more than clothing.

A fine-quality piece of equipment around level ten dared to ask for a starting bid of 120,000, and the buyout price was even set as high as 200,000. Just the starting bid was almost sixty RMB. Feng Bujue really found it funny. For that price, someone could buy a set of cheap clothing from head to toe and wear it for as long as they wanted. How many levels could that equipment be used for? You could replace it with an ordinary-quality store item when you reached level twenty, right?

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

People who frequent game auction houses all have a certain mentality: buy low and sell high. When buying something, it's best to find someone who doesn't know the market price, setting the price lower than its actual value, so you can get a bargain; when selling something, set the price ridiculously high, hoping some sucker will carelessly fall for it.

In a world where everyone thinks like this, there definitely aren't enough fools, because there are self-proclaimed smart people everywhere. In the end, the ones who can sell things are still the players who set fair prices.

In a game like Thriller Paradise where equipment attributes are randomly generated, there are very few situations where equipment is exactly the same. So, trying to hoard goods and speculate on prices is impossible. It's difficult for players engaged in reselling virtual items. It's almost impossible for them to buy goods at a relatively normal price, 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 prices in the auction house to deceive newbies, the system directly prohibits putting store goods (except for the items in the Scare Box) into the auction house. Also, items of "trash" and "broken" quality are rejected from listing in the auction house if they don't have special effects or attributes. Those who try to pick up odd items such as "stones," "internal organs," or "dog shit" from the scripts and then put them up for auction at high prices can also give up.

Standing anywhere in this central area, you can open the auction house menu to browse. Feng Bujue looked for a long time, whether it was the newly listed goods constantly refreshing on the big screen, or the lists sorted by various priorities in the menu, flipping page after page… almost no equipment had a reasonable price. They were all priced so high that it was unacceptable. According to how ruthless these guys were with pricing, if Feng Bujue gritted his teeth and bundled the [Mario's Pipe Wrench], [Jazz Dance], and [Echo Armor] in his bag and sold them for 600,000, people would probably fight to grab them. It was estimated that they would be bought out at the buyout price in less than a minute after being listed, and the person who successfully bought them would secretly gloat in their heart, praising, "Great, I ran into an idiot."

Thinking of this, a venomous… um… brilliant plan suddenly arose in Feng Bujue's heart.

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

Feng Bujue could be said to be under no equipment pressure right now, and he also had a lot of skill points. As long as he went to buy some fine-quality equipment and then put it up for auction at a relatively reasonable price, he would definitely be able to sell it quickly at the buyout price. By then, with hundreds of thousands of game coins in his pocket, clothing and other things would naturally be no problem.

…………

If there are books, it's long; if there are no books, it's 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 collect the rewards for the Fear rating. He was still not in a hurry for experience. 50,000 game coins were even more of a passing cloud. It was better to collect equipment to sell than to collect game coins…

So, the random equipment he drew this time was:

[Name: Kenny's Hooded Top]

[Type: Armor]

[Quality: Fine]

[Defense: Weak]

[Attribute: None]

[Effect: Within the allowed range of probability, passively becomes the main target for the team to take damage (including monster attacks, accidents, natural disasters); in team survival mode (normal), allows the wearer to revive once on the spot after death.]

[Equipment Condition: Male player, bound after equipping]

[Remark: Oh my god! They killed Kenny!]

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

Feng Bujue understood very well what Kenny's meme meant, so… even if he couldn't equip the Echo Armor yet, he would never be so impulsive as to put this set on.

Wearing this kind of thing yourself is courting death, giving it to someone else is harming their life, it's better to throw it into the auction house to scam strangers…

At this time, his bag capacity was 810, and he could still装 two more items. According to the price range in Feng Bujue's heart, a fine-quality piece of equipment in the Scare Box should sell for about 300 skill points. If a piece of equipment sold for 500 skill points, then he wouldn't even be able to buy two pieces, so leaving two slots empty was enough. Anyway, he would take it to the商场 to list it as soon as he bought it here.

Returning to the elevator, after the door closed, Feng Bujue pressed the [Scare Box] button. This time it was a bit strange. After pressing it, the door didn't open directly, and there were no system prompts. Two seconds later, the elevator actually moved. Even more bizarre was that Feng Bujue felt that this elevator wasn't simply moving up or down, but like a roller coaster, it moved a long distance in several directions in an unpredictable manner.

After about a minute, the elevator completely stopped. At this time, the door opened automatically, and an unexpected scene appeared before Feng Bujue's eyes.