Volume 2. Game Update in Progress
This kind of “reward that doesn’t count as a reward” made me feel quite helpless.
If we’re talking about the normal permanent tasks ranging from D- to C level, now I felt that even if I couldn’t go head-to-head with the monsters, at least I could forcefully survive by relying on the existence of the Evil Spirit Form.
With this, I could earn quite a lot of points, and I’d be able to survive more easily when facing future tasks.
But now... something has changed.
I scrolled down and took a look.
The original four types of tasks hadn’t changed, but at the very bottom of the task description, a line of red text enclosed in parentheses had appeared.
And the difficulty levels of the four types of tasks had all undergone slight changes.
【Permanent Task: Once every 3~12 months, difficulty C+~A. Cooling down】
【Sudden Task: Triggered freely, difficulty C+~S+】
【Team Task: Waiting for allocation, difficulty A~SSS】
【Solo Task: Triggered during a mission, difficulty A~SSS】
【Special Task: Waiting to be triggered, difficulty B+~SSS】
Looking at these five lines, I furrowed my brow.
It seemed… I was probably a special type of player in this game.
This task felt as if the System had specifically increased the difficulty just for me.
The previous difficulty levels of D- to C had completely disappeared.
From the looks of it, the System had determined that D- to C level challenges could no longer pose a sufficient threat to me, and to prevent me from farming points maliciously, they had been excluded.
D-level was the kind of level where even passersby had a high probability of survival.
At that level, the anomalies—like the goat-headed monster—already partly broke normal physical laws, but hadn’t completely escaped them, and were tightly bound by powerful rules.
Just like in that hospital incident, if any random player had reacted quickly enough and escaped while the goat-headed monster was chasing me, maybe someone would have survived.
C-level was a difficulty where both beginner players and passersby still had a chance of survival, but the survival rate was low.
At this level, the monsters still hadn’t fully escaped the laws of physics, but the constraints of enforced rules were probably weaker.
I hadn’t encountered B-level or A-level yet, so I couldn’t comment for now.
S-level basically meant that the anomalies had completely broken free from the restrictions of physical laws.
What happened inside the bus couldn’t be explained by human technology.
Nothing about what occurred aligned with known physical principles—whether it was the time-stopping effect outside or the instant-death glare inside.
At this level, the anomalies could kill effortlessly.
At least for the current me, facing such monsters head-on meant almost certain death.
Once it reached S-level, it was definitely beyond what beginner players and bystanders could participate in.
As for SS-level and SSS-level—if S-level was already that extreme, what would these two be like?
Would the affected area be larger?
Would the horror level increase?
Would the survival rate become even lower?
It was hard to imagine what would happen at those levels.
The bus incident had easily taken more than a dozen lives.
Besides me, no one survived.
Not even a single soul remained.
At least for me right now, that level was still beyond imagination.
No matter what, the difficulty had clearly risen significantly at this stage.
Even the time intervals for permanent tasks had started to fluctuate.
What was the reason for this?
I couldn’t understand it, and I had no clues to even make a guess.
But the only thing I knew was:
At this stage, the System seemed to have deliberately increased the difficulty just for me.
“A permanent task every 3 to 12 months, huh? So that means the shortest cooldown is 3 months, and the longest is 12 months.”
Why did it feel like my permanent tasks were completely different in meaning compared to other players’ permanent tasks?
For other players, permanent tasks were quite dangerous in the beginning.
But once they reached a certain level and got used to surviving on the edge of danger, that level of crisis probably no longer counted as truly fatal.
It should be considered a kind of benefit in another form.
At least they could farm points through them, and for ordinary people, this was the only way to accumulate points.
But for me...
C+~A?
Wouldn’t that difficulty already be unbearable even for many intermediate players?
“I’m indeed not human, but System... you freaking mutt!!!”
I vented helplessly, but then again—what else could I do?
Other than cursing a bit, what other choice did I have?
Frustrated, I casually tossed the phone onto the side table, leaned back on the bath pillow with my eyes closed, and thought about the future.
A shadow of gloom unconsciously fell across my heart.
Increasingly dangerous tasks, the terror of not knowing when it would all end...
Not only did I have to stay constantly alert to avoid triggering sudden tasks.
I also had to face team tasks, permanent tasks, solo tasks, and even special tasks.
Days like this... the mental state of those high-level players must already be on the verge of collapse, right?
No... judging by someone like Fang Zheng, it should be said that most people who had managed to survive and become high-level players were already mentally abnormal.
To maintain a normal mindset and survive countless episodes of terror—such a person must have saint-like mental fortitude.
Otherwise, it would be absolutely impossible.
Summing up the academy task experience, I felt that animals might be a very effective early warning system.
Thinking it through, I definitely needed to raise more animals.
No matter where I went, I had to carry them with me.
Even when attending school in the future, I’d need to bring some small animals along to avoid sudden task triggers.
If possible, I should even bring one during tasks.
But most birds were night-blind… wait, other than Little Grey, could I raise an owl too?
In small spaces, would it be helpful to carry animals like squirrels?
Thinking of this gave me a bit of a headache…
Judging by this, I needed to raise multiple types of animals to deal with both night and day—both large and small.
While I was lost in thought, I didn’t know when the bathroom door opened.
It wasn’t until I felt a breeze blow across my damp cheek that I subconsciously opened my eyes and glanced toward the door.
Aunt Zhao… was standing there with both hands on her pants, in the middle of taking them off but not quite done yet.
At this moment, she was frozen in place, staring at me with eyes full of… shock.
We stared at each other for a while.
I smiled, raised my hand, and greeted her.
“Aunt Zhao, good morning.”
Aunt Zhao’s reaction was… extremely enthusiastic.
She took a deep breath, then let out a shriek at a pitch far beyond what a human could bear.
“Sss~ The young lady is awake!!!!!!”
In that instant, my mind buzzed as if I had just been hit by a sonic weapon.
Her sharp cry echoed endlessly in the bathroom, and I almost threw up.
What happened next... was naturally chaos.
Gong Lianyu and Liu Wanqian both rushed out in their pajamas.
Even my younger brother Liu Yuncheng and younger sister Liu Yunyu came running over to join in the excitement.