Once again back in his own bathroom, Li Ang looked at himself in the mirror and let out a long sigh of relief.
It was finally over.
It hadn't been easy. The Monsters in this scripted mission were densely packed, with numerous and stringent hidden conditions for success. If it weren't for the fact that the two teammates he had been matched with were quite capable (especially the merciless Black Trojan, who could gouge out his own eyeballs), he might not have been able to complete the mission.
Li Ang removed all his equipment in the bathroom, sent Miss Chai to the living room to play on her phone, and then collapsed onto the bed in his bedroom to check his loot.
[Reward Settlement in Progress]
[Player Overall Performance: S+, Game Coins and Experience Points increased to 160%]
[Mission Reward 1: Miniature Life Potion*1]
[Mission Reward 2: 200 Experience Points]
[Mission Reward 3: 400 Game Coins]
After applying the 1.6 multiplier, the scripted mission "Campus Past" had provided Li Ang with a total of 320 Experience Points and 640 Game Coins.
With this calculation, his current level was Lv8, with an Experience Bar at 579/800, and he had 4,985 in Game Currency.
Mission Rewards 2 and 3 weren't particularly generous—the biggest gain was the bottle of Miniature Life Potion from Mission Reward 1.
Li Ang, lying on the bed, clicked on the ancient-looking wooden treasure chest in his inventory.
Inside the chest was a cylindrical Glass Bottle the size of a soda can, wide at the bottom and narrow at the top.
The mouth of the Glass Bottle was sealed with a cork, and the smooth, transparent body of the Glass Bottle contained a bright red liquid like blood.
Li Ang swirled the Glass Bottle, watching the crimson liquid whirl and surge within.
[Name: Miniature Life Potion]
[Type: Consumable]
[Quality: Rare]
[Usage: Perform the "drinking" action (no need to actually drink) to be considered fully consumed.] Note from the editor: Always check * for corrections.
[Special Effect: Heals some external bodily injuries and most common diseases. The recovery rate and effectiveness depend on the user's physical strength.]
[Cooldown: Only one bottle can be consumed within 1 hour. Effects will be overwritten by Small, Medium, or Large Life Potions.]
[Note: Suitable for carbon-based lifeforms (both left- and right-handed), silicon-based lifeforms, arsenic-based lifeforms, ammonia-based lifeforms, sulfur-based lifeforms, nitrogen-based lifeforms, etc.]
According to the forums, just one small bottle of Life Potion could regenerate severed limbs at the top end of its capabilities, and cure baffling diseases at the bottom end. Whether it was cancer, AIDS, locked-in syndrome, primary amoebic meningoencephalitis, psoriasis, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, or childhood spinal muscular atrophy—just one bottle, and all illnesses would be cured. Even systemic chromosomal mutations caused by nuclear radiation could be healed.
Teams of experts organized by official agencies and pharmaceutical companies racked their brains but couldn't figure out how this Life Potion worked, or even what it was. The expert teams attempted to analyze and test the Life Potion. After removing the cork, the fluid inside would remain stable. However, once the Glass Bottle was tilted, the liquid would vanish instantly; even high-speed cameras couldn't capture how it disappeared. All attempts—whether by breaking or prying open the Glass Bottle, or by heating the Glass Bottle to try and make the liquid evaporate, vaporize, or condense—ended in failure. It was as if the Glass Bottle itself possessed intelligence, requiring consumption by a living being.
Though official institutions and pharmaceutical conglomerates were unwilling to accept this, they were also without recourse—if they could replicate and produce the Life Potion, not only would they be able to attract a large number of players, but they could also seize the opportunity to monopolize the global medical industry, demanding whatever they wished from the world's 7.5 billion people.
However, monopolizing global medical care wasn't entirely hopeless. As the deathmatch game progressed, players would eventually enter scripted worlds more advanced than Modern Earth and obtain medical technologies that could be analyzed and understood by modern medicine: automated intelligent surgical machines, Artificial Uteruses, artificial organs, Nano-level Surgical Robots, gene adjustment, and eventually, immortality itself.
The development of any medical technology would have a major and profound impact on all humans, including players.
In the changing tides of this era, there were players who were helpless and doctors swept up by the situation; there were oblivious masses and media outlets manipulating public opinion; there were pharmaceutical groups seeking monetary gain and omniscient state apparatuses. With 7.5 billion people and trillions in interests at stake, no one could stay out of the turmoil. Unless one could transcend everything, individual will was insignificant and easily shattered in the face of overwhelming trends.
Li Ang held this bottle of Life Potion, gazing at it for a long time before finally putting it into his backpack.
This thing... it's better to use it myself.
[You have a new friend request.]
The System notification sounded. Li Ang, who had been lying in bed, rolled over and got up. He discovered that the person who had sent the friend request was none other than Black Trojan, his temporary teammate from the "Campus Past" mission.
In the deathmatch game, players couldn't just randomly add each other as friends. They either had to scroll through "Past Teammates" in the mission log to add someone, or they had to apply directly using a player's unique code. To avoid harassment, players could also toggle the friend request option on or off, which was quite user-friendly.
After accepting the friend request, Black Trojan chatted with Li Ang for a while and expressed his gratitude. At the end of the conversation, he slyly indicated his willingness to represent a secretive organization called "Whale Song" and to engage in deep collaboration with Li Ang. This could include things like trading loot (especially computer-related items) and exchanging special information.
Li Ang engaged in some idle chat to gloss over the offer but still expressed his willingness to maintain a friendly relationship with the Whale Song Organization.
After ending the chat, Li Ang stretched lazily and slumped back down on the bed.
「In the following days」
Li Ang continuously browsed the forums, gathering information. The recent hot topics on the forums mainly revolved around two things.
The first was that seismic sensors worldwide had recently picked up a strange seismic wave signal. This was an atypical, ultra-low frequency signal: long, smooth, repeating every seventeen seconds, lasting for a total of 20 minutes, and encircling the globe. Scientific expert teams tracing the signal's origin discovered its source to be the Mayotte Archipelago, located between Africa and Madagascar.
For the past seven months, the Mayotte Archipelago had been experiencing continuous earthquakes, and the entire island group has since moved more than 20 centimeters to the southeast. Scientists hypothesized that this phenomenon was due to the formation of a new volcano beneath the coast of Mayotte. However, local residents claimed that when night came, they could hear a strange, long, and dull breathing sound in their dreams. Yet, recording devices operating around the clock failed to pick up any sign of it. It was as if some kind of Monster was gradually awakening beneath the ground, dragging all the people of Mayotte into its dream...