Their consciousness blurred for a moment, and when they regained clarity, they found themselves standing in a spotless, bright, square room. The room had a sofa, a coffee table, and water glasses on the table, like a simple resting area.
The newcomers had all expected that after clearing the level, they would be transported out immediately, but unexpectedly, they found themselves in an unfamiliar place again. After a brief moment of panic, they relaxed slightly upon seeing their familiar companions nearby.
Before anyone could ask questions, Xu Shu took the initiative to explain, “This is the safe house. After clearing a level, players enter here for the popularity tally and to receive their rewards. In the safe house, players cannot harm each other, or they will face severe punishment. It’s completely safe here, and it’s not open to audience broadcasts. The safe house will close in ten minutes.”
Lian Qinglin exclaimed in surprise, “There are rewards too?”
“Of course,” Xu Shu’s excitement was enough to show how enticing the rewards for clearing a level were. “This is the real reason players are so eager to take on levels.”
Li Zhi withdrew her gaze and looked at Xu Shu, “Did Gao Shijun stay behind in the level?”
The other three finally realized that there were only five people in the room—Gao Shijun was missing.
When they had first entered the level, the system had mentioned that the player with the lowest popularity would be eliminated and become food for the ghosts. Perhaps the dangerous and thrilling events over the past few days had caused them to forget about the elimination mechanism, but now that Li Zhi brought it up, their expressions changed instantly.
Xu Shu shook his head. “I don’t know. But players with the lowest ranking are never transported into the safe house. Maybe he stayed in the level, or maybe the ghosts ate him. At the moment of clearing the level, the system automatically eliminates the lowest-ranked player.”
The lightness and joy of clearing the level vanished in an instant, leaving only a bone-chilling sense of fear.
How could anyone be so eager to face such a bizarre, dangerous, death-filled place as Xu Shu had described?
But they quickly understood why.
A screen appeared on the white wall of the room. As the leaderboard appeared, the system’s voice suddenly echoed:
—The voting period has ended, and the popularity tally is as follows:
– First place: Lian Qinglin, with a total of 2,807,610 popularity points.
– Second place: Chi Yi, with a total of 1,068,920 popularity points.
– Third place: Zhu Zhibo, with a total of 620,991 popularity points.
– Fourth place: Li Zhi, with a total of 590,878 popularity points.
– Fifth place: Xu Shu, with a total of 231,900 popularity points.
The cold numbers echoed one after another, and when all the votes were read out, the system voice didn’t stop:
“Based on players’ performance during the level, Li Zhi has received an S-grade evaluation, rewarding them with a 1.5x points multiplier. The total popularity has now been updated to 886,317, moving them up to third place. Keep up the good work.”
Xu Shu looked surprised. “The population of your world is quite large.” He turned to Lian Qinglin. “You can actually get over two million votes. In my world, that would be enough to make it into the top ten of the overall popularity rankings.”
Lian Qinglin replied, “If I told you, you’d be scared to death—I have fifty million followers on Weibo.”
Xu Shu: “…”
Chi Yi chimed in, “Oh, come on. You know full well how many of those fifty million are real. The entertainment industry barely has that many active people. For you to get over two million votes, it must have been your fans running around rallying votes. And with so many live streams happening simultaneously worldwide, I’m surprised I even got a million votes.”
The proportion of fans in the national and even global population is less than 10%. That Lian Qinglin was able to rely on his basic fan base to achieve this level of popularity in the first round is already quite impressive.
However, this also shows the ceiling of his fan base. To gain more votes in the future, he’ll need to rely on his performance to win the audience’s support.
Just like Li Zhi, who started off as a nobody with only a little over a hundred votes when she entered the instance, but now she’s ranked third purely due to her abilities.
“This instance even has an MVP,” Lian Qinglin remarked in surprise. “Is there one every round?”
Xu Shu nodded. “The player with the best performance in each round gets a multiplier bonus. It’s one of the ways the system encourages players to be active during the instance.”
Li Zhi shifted her gaze away from the screen. “The second way is through rewards?”
Just as she mentioned rewards, the system’s voice echoed in each of their minds:
“Popularity calculation complete. Now distributing completion rewards based on the player’s deepest desires.”
Li Zhi felt a flicker in her vision, and suddenly, everyone around her vanished. She remained standing in place, but in front of her, a panel appeared.
At the top of the panel, a shimmering golden item floated, labeled “Black Tortoise Shell,” with a prompt to claim it below.
A tortoise shell? Did the system really understand what her deepest desire was?
As if displeased by her doubt, the system’s voice coolly explained:
“The player’s deepest desire has been detected as the need to protect family members from harm. The Black Tortoise Shell can be used outside the instance to create a protective barrier around the user’s residence, preventing attacks from low-level ghosts in the real world.”
Li Zhi quickly tapped the “claim” button.
As soon as the cool, solid Black Tortoise Shell fell into her hands, the method of using it appeared in her mind.
Immediately afterward, two more items appeared on the panel, but this time, a string of numbers appeared beneath them, showing the number of points required to purchase them.
“Based on the current world population, popularity points can be exchanged for credits at a ratio of 1 to 1,000. Once exchanged, points cannot be reversed, and they will be deducted from your total popularity, which will affect your ranking. Please choose carefully whether or not to exchange.”
Li Zhi quickly understood the reward mechanism of this instance.
Every player receives a reward based on their inner desire upon completing the instance. However, the system also offers two additional items that can be purchased using popularity points.
She had over 800,000 popularity points, and at a 1-to-1,000 ratio, that meant she had over 800 credits. However, one of the items on the panel required 599 credits, and the other required 699 credits.
Even if she exchanged all of her popularity points, she could only afford one item.
Based on the clues she had gathered, it seemed that there was an overall popularity ranking for players in this world.
If she were ranked 100th with 800,000 popularity points, and she exchanged half of them for credits, leaving her with only 400,000 points, she would fall out of the top 100 rankings.
The popularity points players earn from each instance are cumulative, eventually forming the total popularity ranking. Just like on live streaming platforms in the real world, most viewers are likely to be more interested in players on the rankings, increasing traffic to their live streams and greatly boosting their exposure.
If she wanted to claim all three items after each instance, she would need more popularity points. And that meant, she would have to keep entering the instances.
This was the reason Xu Shu mentioned that players were so eager to take on these instances.
They were after these reward items.
What kind of items could make people risk death to enter the instances again and again?
Li Zhi glanced at the two items available for purchase on the panel.
One was called the “Limb Regeneration Pill,” and the other was “Confusion Perfume.”
She reached out and tapped on the “Limb Regeneration Pill.” The panel beneath it displayed its description: Can be used in the real world to regenerate severed limbs, restoring them to their original state.
Regenerate severed limbs? Could it mean what she thought it did?
If it truly meant that, then Li Zhi began to understand why Xu Shu was so passionate when talking about the [Ghost] system and its rewards.
She had a Limb Regeneration Pill here. What about the others? Could they have items that extend life? Items that make you taller, more beautiful, stronger, or even give you power, wealth, or status? Once these reality-defying rewards appear in the real world, what kind of sensation would they cause? What chaos would they bring?
Human desire is limitless. Once it is unleashed, like Pandora’s box, it can never be closed again.
Li Zhi’s eyes darkened. She tapped on the second item, “Confusion Perfume”: Can only be used within the instance. It masks the user’s human scent, making them appear as one of the ghosts for a limited time of ten minutes.
So that’s how it worked.
After completing an instance, three items would appear: one guaranteed reward based on the player’s deepest desire, one usable in the real world, and one usable in the instance.
The higher a player’s instance completion rate, the more attention they would receive, leading to more popularity points. High-popularity players would earn enough points after each instance to claim all three items.
With these items boosting their chances, their survival rate in future instances would increase, creating a positive cycle. The more high-popularity players earned items, the better their chances of clearing instances.
And eventually, they would become the god-like players Xu Shu had mentioned.
Interesting.
It seemed that everything in the [Ghost] system—whether it was the popularity leaderboard or the item rewards—was designed with a single purpose: to encourage players to continuously enter instances and participate in its “horror reality show.”
A dedicated director, indeed.
The panel began a thirty-second countdown. After some thought, Li Zhi chose to exchange 700,000 of her popularity points for 700 credits and bought the Confusion Perfume, which cost 699 credits.
When Li Zhi exited the reward space, her ranking had already dropped to the bottom of the leaderboard on the safe house’s screen. Lian Qinglin and Chi Yi had also lost some popularity points, but since their totals were so high, they remained at the top. Zhu Zhibo and Xu Shu didn’t exchange any items, so their popularity points stayed the same.
With the rewards distributed, the five people reappeared in the safe house. Everyone’s expressions were fascinating, except for Xu Shu, who remained calm.
“Whoa!” Lian Qinglin couldn’t hold back any longer. “Are these items for real? I seriously own a Death Note?”
Li Zhi: “…”
What a fool, blurting out the nature of his item like that.
Sure enough, the others’ gazes shifted toward him. Chi Yi stared at him in disbelief. “Your deepest desire is that dark?”
Lian Qinglin explained, “No, no, I exchanged points for the Death Note. My reward for clearing the instance was—”
Before he could finish, Li Zhi interrupted, “Can these items be stolen after we take them out?” She turned to Xu Shu. “We worked hard to clear the instance and earn these rewards. What if someone tries to rob us?”