The Only Player in 'Child of Stardust'

The morning of the next day.

After his morning run, Zhou Yuan walked into a breakfast shop and ordered a bowl of salted tofu pudding and two meat sandwiches.

He sat down, took out his phone, and opened the chat app to see if there were any funny memes or lewd pictures in the group. What he found was that the company chat group was unexpectedly active—even though he had been fired by Stars Network, he hadn't left the employee groups yet.

Zhou Yuan clicked on the group chat and scrolled through the messages. His expression gradually became solemn.

—A few dozen minutes ago, the body of the company's art director was found in a park. The police tried to contact his family but received no response, so they went to his house. After knocking on the door for a long time with no answer, they sensed something was wrong and broke in, only to be shocked by the sight of the entire family brutally murdered!

Such a massacre hadn't occurred in Xinhu for many years, and now it had happened to someone they knew, it was no wonder the group was in an uproar.

The group members lamented that the art director must have had the worst luck imaginable. Not long ago, he had narrowly escaped a fire, only to be met with more misfortune days later, with his entire family killed. It truly was a case of narrowly surviving only to face an even worse fate.

Only Zhou Yuan, who knew part of the truth, understood. At this critical moment, the murderer was very likely an extraordinary person and was targeting the player system.

That night, no one, including Nangong Yi, found the player system. It wasn't hard to deduce that someone had gotten to it first.

The extraordinary persons involved in the incident were the primary suspects, and the fire survivors naturally became the secondary suspects.

Ordinary people were clearly easier to deal with compared to finding trouble with extraordinary persons.

The art director was among the highest-ranking survivors from that night. He had been involved in the development of "Child of Stardust" since its inception and was a pivotal figure in the company and the production team.

The murderer must have thought that his high status meant he had key information and possibly took advantage of the chaos to get the player system, which was why he was targeted.

"Regardless of whether the murderer got clues from the art director, they won't stop until they determine the location of the player system.

All the survivors from that night are the murderer's targets. Although the company high-ups are prioritized, that doesn't mean lower-level employees are safe. They might come for me at any moment."

A strong sense of crisis surged in Zhou Yuan's heart. If those extraordinary persons came for him, he would end up just like the art director!

He had to... get stronger quickly!

"This body can't be trained now, the effects take too long. At least half a year is needed by then. Who knows, the grass on my grave might already be two meters high. There's only one solution left..."

—Doping!

The game store contained everything imaginable, with countless items to strengthen the body, from fantastical Body Refining Elixirs to technological gene serums and magical enhancement potions...

Zhou Yuan originally planned to save money to buy powerful items, but now it seemed that he couldn't afford to be frugal with his star coins.

After quickly finishing his breakfast,

Zhou Yuan immediately returned home and opened the store to start filtering.

[Body Refining Elixir, Common, 2000 Star Coins, usable only below level 10. Increases Strength, Agility, Constitution attributes by 1.]

[Marrow-Cleansing Elixir, Fine, 4000 Star Coins, usable only below level 10. Has a transformative effect, increasing Strength, Agility, Constitution, Intelligence, and Perception attributes by 1.]

[Vajra Elixir, Fine, 5000 Star Coins, usable only below level 10. Increases Strength and Agility attributes by 2, Constitution attribute by 3, and enters the first stage of the Golden Body Skill.]

[KW74 Enhancement Serum, Common, 2000 Star Coins, usable only below level 10. Requires direct injection into the heart, enduring a 5-50 minute transformative process. The longer you endure, the more noticeable the enhancement effect.]

[Super Soldier Serum (Initial Version), Rare, 8000 Star Coins, usable only below level 10. Increases Strength, Agility, Constitution, Intelligence, and Perception to 12 points. It has a side effect of amplifying true inner thoughts indefinitely; the good become better and the evil become worse.]

[Super Soldier Serum (Improved Version), Rare, 6000 Star Coins, usable only below level 10. Increases Strength, Agility, Constitution, Intelligence, and Perception to 10 points. The side effect of amplifying true inner thoughts indefinitely is removed.]

[T Virus...]

[Inferior Angel Bloodline...]

[Inferior Demon Bloodline...]

[Level I Gene Serum·Plasma...]

The array of items dazzled Zhou Yuan. After careful consideration, he made a decision in his heart.

—The Improved Super Soldier Serum!

This item was a major plotline in the Marvel cinematic universe. Many superhero stories were connected to it, with the most iconic being Captain America. After injecting the serum and undergoing life ray exposure, he transformed from a scrawny kid into a muscular hunk. No man wouldn't be attracted by that physique.

The improved serum seemed to have appeared in later film adaptations. Its enhancement effects weren't as impressive as the initial version but it eliminated the side effects and wouldn't amplify inner desires.

For Zhou Yuan, this was the best choice. All attributes, except Charm, would be boosted to 10 points, making it cost-effective.

However, he currently had only 5400 Star Coins, 600 short of buying the Super Soldier Serum.

As for selling items...

Zhou Yuan first looked at the [Healthy Apple]. One healthy apple could be sold for 100 Star Coins. He had three of them in his backpack, which could be sold for 300 Star Coins—the result of drawing from the daily free spin on the lucky roulette over the past two days. The three apples from his previous ten-spin draw remained untouched.

In that case, he was still 300 short.

He then looked at the [Tracking Monitor]. It had cost him 300 Star Coins to buy it, but it could only be sold for 100 Star Coins. Selling it was too much of a loss, so he decided to keep it.

Next was the [Emergency Syrup]. This item was obtained from a chest. Throwing it while fleeing could immobilize the enemy for a while, buying some time to escape. It was a life-saving item, so selling it was a pity.

The [Mini Life Potion], [Mini Spirituality Potion], [Wingsuit Strawberry], and [Ultra-Luxurious Delicious Crab Burger] couldn't be sold either. They were strategically important materials.

The [Human Skin Score] was related to a collection task, and selling it would cause the task to fail.

"There's nothing to sell..."

Zhou Yuan felt troubled. Only items related to the extraordinary could be sold, and things like [Li Xu Tian's Diary] couldn't be sold. Besides many items, his backpack had nothing that met the requirements.

"I can only do a task."

He opened the task bar, surprised to see that the first task was a big one.

[Task Name: "Ghost Call"]

[Task Objective: Answer the call received on the opple smartphone and maintain the call for 3 minutes.]

[Task Reward 1: Experience Points*500]

[Task Reward 2: Star Coins*3000]

[Task Reward 3: Rare Quality Item Pack*1]

[Accept this task?]

[Yes/No]

"Hiss..."

Zhou Yuan took a sharp breath. Such generous rewards indicated the task must be very difficult, with a significant risk of death.

He couldn't help but recall the last time he received a call on the opple smartphone, with the Eyes of Identification indicating the caller was the Red Ghost...

"Taking this task is probably a death sentence."

Zhou Yuan muttered to himself and continued to scroll down, discovering that the second task was also related to the opple smartphone.

[Task Name: "Late Night Radio"]

[Task Objective: After midnight, use the opple smartphone to listen to the "1097 Gentle Radio" for 1 hour.]

[Task Reward 1: Experience Points*400]

[Task Reward 2: Star Coins*2000]

[Task Reward 3: Fine Quality Skill Scroll*1]

[Accept this task?]

[Yes/No]

"Another task, this phone has a lot of secrets..."

Zhou Yuan kept scrolling, discovering that the third task was also related to the opple smartphone, followed by the fourth and fifth.

The more he read, the more silent he became.

Based on the task descriptions, this broken phone could even take a picture of a ghost. There were also tasks like [A Mysterious Website Hidden in the Deepest Parts of the Internet], [A Cursed Text Message that Causes Trouble if Unforwarded], and [A Dark Melody that Killed Over a Hundred People]...

It was simply a trigger for supernatural events.

"Currently, my only means of attacking supernatural entities is the steel rose's break magic bullet, which only works on visible spiritual bodies or ghosts. If they hide and use curses or mental attacks, I'm done for.

I'd better find some daily tasks."

Daily tasks offered modest rewards but were low in difficulty. They were similar to side quests in many RPG games, with content ranging from planting flowers to finding people to delivering items—"mundane tasks," so to speak.

After scrolling for a while, Zhou Yuan finally found a simple and nearby daily task.

[Task Name: "Cat Search Notice"]

[Task Objective: Find the cat lost by Ms Wang downstairs 0/1]

[Task Reward 1: Experience Points*10]

[Task Reward 2: Star Coins*100]