The Only Player in 'Child of Stardust'

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Very soon, Zhou Yuan found the relevant hints.

[Daily missions are generated intelligently based on the player's personal situation and surrounding environment.

Dungeon missions are generated based on real-world anomalies. The game dungeon the player enters is an area in the real world with anomalies.]

"It really is the real world."

Zhou Yuan couldn't help but sigh as he looked at the task list, "Every dungeon mission equals an anomaly in the real world. So many tasks, so many anomalies, and ordinary people are completely unaware of it. The secrecy work of the relevant departments is indeed flawless."

He took out his phone and searched for last night's event, which was unsurprisingly already causing a stir.

Xinhu City was a top-tier city in the East Continent, a true world-class metropolis. Plus, the company involved in the incident this time was the much-watched Stars Network, so related news naturally became a global trending topic.

The relevant departments had also provided an explanation for the emergency — the disaster was caused by a gas pipeline leak, which eventually caused a fire and explosion, leading to mass casualties and property loss.

I don't believe your nonsense.

Buzz buzz.

The phone suddenly vibrated, and a message popped up at the top.

Mr Wang, "@everyone, please come to the fifth floor of the Huating Hotel for a meeting at 10 a.m. today to arrange follow-up work."

Stars Network had branches all over the world, developed data cloud sharing, and operated non-stop 24/7. Although the headquarters was destroyed and a large number of core employees died, the data was still there and the company wouldn't fall apart just like that. At most, the game release would be delayed a few months.

The survivors were still employees of Stars Network, so arranging follow-up work was normal. However, before starting new work, they would probably give everyone a few days off.

With two hours left until ten o'clock, Zhou Yuan wasn't in a hurry and shut off his phone to continue studying his attribute points.

"Now I have 2 attribute points to allocate. Which attribute should I add them to?"

"Strength, agility, constitution — these three can all be improved through training in the early stages. The most cost-effective way is to train to the limit and then add points."

"Intelligence is my weak point, only 3. I have to add 1 point, or I really will become a dumb warrior."

"The remaining 1 point... hmm... I'll put it into charm."

Over the years, Zhou Yuan had deeply understood the saying, "Being handsome lets you do whatever you want" — this world was indeed very shallow, all about looks; the better you look, the kinder the world is to you.

After adding the points, he felt his thought process speed up noticeably, as if the whole world became clearer. Then, he hurriedly ran to the mirror to carefully observe his changes.

His skin became exceptionally clean, the dark circles from staying up late, the rough pores on his face, and the blackheads on his nose all disappeared. His features also had subtle adjustments, becoming more pleasant-looking.

"Just two more levels of charm value to reach the human limit of 10. I wonder what it'll be like to break through 10."

Zhou Yuan opened the store and started browsing. There were many ways to increase attribute points. If he could buy some cheap items, maybe he could directly boost his charm value.

Searching the keyword "charm."

[Fashionable Glasses, Common, 3000 Star Coins, Charm +1 when worn.]

[Eyes of Allure, Rare, 30000 Star Coins, Charm +10 when worn, gain skill "Charm."]

[Aura of Charisma, Perfect, 100000 Star Coins, Charm +50% when activated.]

After browsing, Zhou Yuan found that all the items and skills were unaffordable, so he deleted the keyword and sorted by price to see if there were suitable cheap items.

"Huh?"

Suddenly, a skill name caught Zhou Yuan's attention.

[Skill Name: Sit and Forget Tao]

[Quality: Rare]

[Effect: Earn non-Qi by deceiving people. Non-Qi can be used to perform Sit and Forget Tao Divine Skills.]

[Note: Hee hee...]

[Price: 100 Star Coins.]

"So cheap? Just buy it!"

Zhou Yuan was delighted and decisively placed the order. This skill was god-level!

However, after purchasing, a mockery echoed in his ear:

"Hee hee, he believed it, this fool actually believed it!"

Then, a system prompt appeared.

[——You have triggered the game Easter egg "Sit and Forget Tao"!]

[Message from the development team: Dear players, we have specially set this Easter egg in the game to remind every player to increase their awareness of fraud prevention.

In daily life, please stay vigilant, do not easily believe strangers' words, do not disclose personal information casually, and do not fall into the traps of scammers due to momentary greed.

Enjoy your game.]

Zhou Yuan was stunned.

"Fuck!"

He was furious, "Give me my money back!"

Which damned designer came up with this!

After fiddling with the system for a while and realizing the 100 Star Coins couldn't be refunded, Zhou Yuan gloomily opened his backpack and chose to sell the "Corpse of the Underworld Wolf."

[You sold "Corpse of the Underworld Wolf," Star Coins +100.]

Forget it, forget it, now it was back to 1550 Star Coins, so no real loss.

He could only comfort himself like that.

Seeing that it was almost time, Zhou Yuan changed his clothes and prepared to head to the hotel for the meeting.

After going downstairs, he slapped his forehead. His electric bike, his ninth-hand electric bike, was still at the office. It was probably burned to ashes by now.

Helplessly, he could only rent a shared electric bike by the roadside.

·

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Fifth floor of Huating Hotel.

Mr Wang shook Zhou Yuan's hand, "Zhou, thank you for your support and help to the company in the past days. I sincerely wish you smooth sailing, career success, happiness in life, and a bright future."

Zhou Yuan looked at the layoff notice on the table and fell silent.

He had been fired.

This was expected; security guards aren't that important. Now that the headquarters were gone, the senior executive who had got him the job also died last night. Naturally, Stars Network had no reason to keep him on.

"Fine, fired then, as long as I get the N+1 compensation."

Zhou Yuan was optimistic. Now that he had the system, making money would be easier than being a security guard.

Worst case, he could become a streamer; with this face boasting a charm value of 8, it would be outrageous if he didn't become famous.

After signing the resignation agreement, Zhou Yuan didn't linger and went straight home, intending to first come up with a training plan to improve his attributes.

But at that moment, the system's prompt sound rang.

[Newbie mission has been delivered]

[Mission Name: "Frenzied Music Score"]

[Mission Objective: Eliminate distorters polluted by the Human Skin Score 0/3]

[Mission Reward 1: Experience Points*200]

[Mission Reward 2: Star Coins*2000]

[Mission Reward 3: Random Quality Item Pack*1]

[Mission Reward 4: Random Quality Skill Scroll*1]

[Accept/Reject]

[After accepting the task, the player has 10 minutes to prepare and can start the mission anytime during this period.]

"Newbie mission..." Zhou Yuan raised an eyebrow.

In "Child of Stardust," tasks were divided into three types.

The first type was the real-time missions automatically generated based on current events.

The second type was the pending missions in the task panel, including dungeon tasks, daily tasks, etc. Players could take them freely.

The third type was the missions assigned by the system at intervals based on the player's overall quality.

This newbie mission was obviously the third type, used to guide novice players, and the rewards were substantial. With luck, he might get a big prize.

"Accept."

[Mission Start Countdown — 9:59]

Zhou Yuan took out the Steel Rose Revolver from his backpack and used spirituality to craft four ordinary revolver bullets — the spirituality required for different bullets varied, and ordinary revolver bullets only needed 50 points of spirituality per bullet to make.

Then, he opened the item packs and skill scrolls from previous tasks one by one.

The four common quality item packs and one random-quality item pack gave him "Spoon of the Spoon Murderer," "Rock," "Toilet Paper," "Emergency Syrup," and "Ghost Walker."

Among them, only "Emergency Syrup" and "Ghost Walker" were useful; the rest were junk.

[Name: Emergency Syrup]

[Quality: Common]

[Effect: If chased by an enemy, throw the emergency syrup in any direction. The enemy will prioritize chasing the syrup and drink it.]

[Note: Stop chasing me!]

Simply put, it was an item to throw when being chased, which could control the enemy for a moment and buy escape time.

Ghost Walker, on the other hand, came from the random-quality item pack and was an excellent item. Its ability was straightforward: ignore physical collisions and increase movement speed.

[Name: Ghost Walker]

[Quality: Excellent]

[Effect: Turn into ghost form for 6 seconds, increasing movement speed by 30%. During this time, ignore physical collisions.]

[Cost: 100 points of spirituality]

[Cooldown Time: 60 seconds]

[Note: Please do not get stuck in terrain when the ghost state is about to end, unless your constitution is tough enough.]

Zhou Yuan selected the equipment. The shoes he was wearing automatically went into the backpack, and the Ghost Walker shoes were worn on his feet. The size and shape automatically fit, and even the appearance transformed to match the shoes he had just worn, very convenient.

Then there was the equipment from the excellent item pack.

[Name: Bow Tie Voice Changer]

[Quality: Excellent]

[Effect: Can store 10 types of voices, needing to record the original voice for more than 10 seconds to collect. If the original voice's owner is a different species than the user, the device automatically translates the user's language into the original voice owner's language.]

[Note 1: It is recommended to use in conjunction with real-time translation earbuds to avoid communication issues.]

[Note 2: Beware of online romances, as you never know whether that lovely-sounding girl is human or Cthulhu.]

Lastly, the skill scroll.

[Skill Name: Condensed Qi Fist]

[Quality: Common]

[Effect: Condense Qi into a giant fist and strike the enemy.]

[Cost: 300 points of spirituality]

[Note: In the early 30th century, the favorite major of martial monks was civil engineering. This skill was used for demolition and blasting.]

To be cautious, Zhou Yuan carefully selected some practical items in the game store.

He spent a total of 550 Star Coins, acquiring a bulletproof vest, night vision goggles, tactical gloves, a combat knife, a flashlight, white phosphorus incendiary bombs, and a disposable transformation card.

"Finally, there's one more system function that has to be upgraded."

——Eyes of Identification!

Zhou Yuan did not hesitate to click on the upgrade button.

[Star Coins -1000]

[Eyes of Identification LV0 → LV1!]

[Eyes of Identification: Identify the focal point of the sight, gathering unexpected information and task hints. The higher the function level, the more detailed and rich the information and hints acquired. (Note: The highest level is LV5)]

Everything was ready.

Zhou Yuan opened his backpack and used the newly purchased "Disposable Transformation Card" — since there was an organization managing supernatural powers, disguises were necessary. At least until he developed his strength, it was best not to reveal his identity. The "player panel" was a hot potato.

[Name: Disposable Transformation Card]

[Quality: Common]

[Effect: Automatically transform into an appearance that fits the dungeon environment. The appearance must be in human form, and height and weight cannot change. The transformed appearance's attractiveness is influenced by the player's charm value.]

[Note: In the future world, with the emergence of transformation cards, the streets became filled with handsome men and beautiful women. People became immersed in the handsomeness and beauty brought by transformations, gradually forgetting their true appearances.]

Zhou Yuan looked at himself in the mirror; he had transformed into a blond, blue-eyed Caucasian man. With a charm value of 8, he looked no less attractive than those popular celebrities.

"Start mission."

The next moment, his figure vanished.

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