RITW 2: Pay-to-Win Game

The surviving government uses the intensity of a certain space element to classify the threat level of various creatures to humans. For the humans who remain rational, those with a space element intensity below 10% are considered Green Code Security Personnel among the survivors. Those with an intensity of 10% to 19% are referred to as LV1 Ability Holders. The classification continues in this manner, with individuals possessing a space element intensity of 50% to 55% being the most dangerous LV5 Ability Holders.

55% serves as a dividing line, and scientists believes that beyond 55% lies the realm of irrational calamitous creatures, thus requiring a different classification. Those with a space element intensity ranging from 56% to 59% are classified as F-level calamities, and the sequence continues with FGHIJ. Those with intensities between 90% and 99% are designated as J-level calamities, while those equal to or greater than 100% exist solely in theory as K-level calamities.

The intensity of the space element does not necessarily reflect an individual’s own strength, but rather their level of threat to humans. Therefore, the outcome of a battle depends on various factors.

The cracked-mouth dogs outside the residential building are commonly encountered F-level calamities in the post-apocalyptic world. They have almost no fur, and their skin is covered in frog-like bumps. The normal-sized dog mouth is just a disguise; their real mouth extends all the way to their neck, possessing biting force that can directly snap a human’s waist. People often fall victim to their bloodthirsty attacks due to their expectation based on previous knowledge. They also possess a dog’s keen sense of smell and some degree of intelligence, so if they manage to sneak into a hiding spot, it can easily turn into trouble.

“Quickly use the hexagram star to repair the gate!” the system reminds him once again.

Yu Qunqing frowns but still follows the instructions.

On the screen, a hexagram star floats and disintegrates. Then, it’s as if an invisible hand picked up scattered pieces of wood from elsewhere and conjured nails. Several pieces of wood are joined together, completely sealing the gate, and with a forceful pounding, the nails securely fasten the wooden boards in place.

Yu Qunqing can’t believe what he has done, muttering to himself, “Did I just lock myself in?”

Yú Qúnqīng: “Moreover, these thin wooden boards probably won’t withstand many attacks.” He was curious about the system’s upper limit of capabilities.

The system seemed to protest with several “ding dong” sounds and then zoomed in on the view outside the door, wanting to demonstrate its strength!

The crack-mouthed dogs were startled by the sudden appearance of the wooden boards and hid in the shadows. After waiting for a while, they decided to send out a vanguard to attack proactively. A small and skinny crack-mouthed dog darted out from a tricky angle and slammed into the wooden boards forcefully.

The boards shook significantly, appearing precarious, but not a single crack appeared. The crack-mouthed dogs grumbled and launched successive charges.

However, despite the shaking, the boards remained intact, with no signs of breaking.

The crack-mouthed dogs communicated with each other through their barks and started using their sharp teeth to gnaw on the boards. Sparks flew and several teeth snapped off with a crisp sound.

Yú Qúnqīng: “My teeth hurt a bit.”

“Woof… mmm…”

The crack-mouthed dogs urgently signaled their fellow kin that the situation was unfavorable and quickly retreated.

“The wooden board protection on the first floor is highly effective! The beginner’s tutorial ends here. Hurry up and progress through more levels to create the most outstanding residential building!”

The game view switched to the current living room, and simultaneously, a promotional page popped up.

“Newbie rewards are here! Sign in for 7 days, and each day brings a different surprise. Collect various stamina items, and on the 7th day, receive a ‘Zodiac Stone Carving Fountain’!”

Yú Qúnqīng clicked on the sign-in button and received an Infinite Stamina Apple (1 hour), 1000 gold coins, and one Magic Glove, Sugar-coated Haw on a Stick, and Yellow Duck Balloon each.

An “Infinite Stamina” item, coupled with a 1-hour limited-time item, hinted to the player that it would be a waste not to use them now. Although it was a simple inducement tactic, as an ordinary player, Yú Qúnqīng was completely defenseless against this game design scheme. He just wanted to indulge in playing this puzzle game.

He closed the page and another activity page popped up.

“Newbie Super Discount, Limited-time Special Offers!”

The page displayed three different gift packs: 6 diamonds, 18 diamonds, and 30 diamonds. The gift packs were labeled with discounts: the 6-diamond pack was “-99%” and the 30-diamond pack was “-75%”. At first glance, the 6-diamond pack seemed the most cost-effective, but it was actually a trick employed by the game designers to deceive players into spending money. The 6-diamond pack was the cheapest and the best value, so why not give it a try? Players often ended up buying the 6-diamond pack, but then found that the items weren’t enough. They enjoyed the satisfaction of having plenty of items, so what should they do? They continued to buy the 18-diamond pack! And thus, step by step, the player fell into the psychological traps set by the game designers, developing a habit of paying for the game and becoming a money-spending machine.

Sigh, it’s all tears…

Yú Qúnqīng decisively closed the page and expressionlessly looked at the next pop-up.

“First-time recharge of 6 diamonds, receive an exclusive limited-edition furniture: ‘Prosperous Fortune Tree’!”

“Exclusive Monthly Card users are waiting for you! Monthly Card users get +3 Stamina limit, receive limited-time items daily, and can use exclusive limited items such as the ‘Mystical Moonlight Street Lamp.’ Special offer for the first-time Monthly Card purchase, only 18 diamonds! (Limited to the first purchase, subsequent purchases will be 30 diamonds.)”

“Sunday Limited Event: Star Power Station – Clear 5 consecutive levels to fill up the power station and unlock the rewards on the Welfare Wheel.”

The tactics to entice players to spend money are truly endless. Everything is labeled as limited edition or exclusive, and there’s even a lottery to lure players in.

The activity pop-ups keep appearing like small advertisements.

“The Crocodile Season has officially begun! Extraterrestrial visitors have arrived, and the little crocodiles of Crocodile River have nowhere to go. Hurry and progress through the levels to build new homes for them.”

The season event is divided into two tracks: a daily track with rewards such as gold coins and stamina items.

The other track is the Riverside track, which requires 68 diamonds to unlock. Upon unlocking, a limited-time crocodile is given, which becomes a permanent gift upon reaching level 10. Other rewards include Crocodile Lounge, Baby Crocodile Bubble Bath, Nutritious Crocodile Feed, and at level 20, a Crocodile Sea Dragon skin, and at level 40, a nest of baby crocodiles!

Closing this page, all the activity pages have finally been viewed. Yú Qúnqīng looks left and right, realizing that these activities all have two words written on them: “Play quickly” and “Recharge now.”

The main interface of the game is the living room where Yú Qúnqīng is located. The top left corner displays player information, showing current assets: 80,000 gold coins and 0 diamonds.

This amount of gold coins… looks familiar.

Yú Qúnqīng pondered for a moment and suddenly realized, “Isn’t this the savings he had before the apocalypse?”

So how does one recharge diamonds?

Yú Qúnqīng clicked on the instructions and read them carefully, then fell silent.

In the game, they actually require real diamonds!

“Ding dong, this system has a conversion function. Gemstones and jade of equivalent value can be used for recharging!”

Yú Qúnqīng asked, “But I don’t have any diamonds, and I don’t have any gemstones either. Can’t we use paper currency for transactions?”

“Ding dong, the system understands your anxiousness and is genuinely looking for a solution to your problem. The system will run your suggestion through the program several times to see if it can be resolved. Would this proposed solution be acceptable to you?”

These customer service representatives who can only act as messengers are present everywhere, it seems.

Yú Qúnqīng suppressed the urge to make sarcastic remarks. He knew that engaging in pointless conversation with the system would only waste his time. So he continued exploring the entire game.

The top right corner of the game interface displayed icons for the store, activities, recharging, and more. The bottom right corner had the button to start playing the matching elimination game, while the bottom left corner led to the decoration mode.

After quickly browsing through, Yú Qúnqīng’s unlimited stamina was now reduced to 56 minutes. He immediately felt that he had made a big loss and couldn’t wait any longer. He dove headfirst into the joyful ocean of the elimination game.

The initial few levels were extremely easy, giving Yú Qúnqīng a false impression of how skilled he was.

When Yú Qúnqīng successfully cleared the sixth level, the settlement screen displayed a power station. The power wheel spun rapidly, and the machine flickered with a green light. It was the Sunday limited event, the Star Power Station.

“The power station is operating successfully! Would you like to draw a lottery at this moment?”

Yú Qúnqīng chose “no.” Time is money, and he wanted to continue advancing through the levels.

The 10th level started to pose some difficulty, but Yú Qúnqīng believed in his clever brain and wasn’t afraid. However, his progress unavoidably slowed down.

On the 13th level, he was left with only one move, but he still needed two more steps to complete the objective of this level. Yú Qúnqīng thought about using a power-up, but he had a pitifully low number of them, so he decided to save them for later stages. As expected, he failed this level.

The game then prompted him: “Do you want to end the game like this? You are only one black butterfly-shaped gemstone away from clearing the level! Spend 6666 gold coins to gain 6 additional moves for yourself.”

Fortunately, he currently had unlimited stamina! With the expensive prices in the game, Yú Qúnqīng had to manage his gold coins carefully. Without hesitation, he chose “no.”

He finally cleared the 13th level on his second attempt.

The 15th level, the 22nd level…

The 36th level!

Yú Qúnqīng restarted this level several times, sometimes lacking 13 petal-shaped gemstones or 22 small round gemstones. Finally, in a situation where he was only 3 petal-shaped gemstones away from completion, he couldn’t resist using the Magic Glove power-up to swap the positions of two adjacent gemstones without consuming a move.

He passed the 36th level!

With little time remaining in the one-hour unlimited stamina, Yú Qúnqīng quickly started the 37th level.

The 37th level introduced a new obstacle: multiple ice barriers, where the gemstones inside wouldn’t change position. It required eliminating the same gemstone twice or using the Water Gun power-up to clear this state.

After the one-hour unlimited stamina had passed, Yú Qúnqīng returned to normal state with only 5 points of stamina. Failing a level deducted 1 point, while successfully clearing a level didn’t deduct any. It took 45 minutes to recover 1 point of stamina.

Yú Qúnqīng was cautious to the extreme, thinking ten steps ahead for every move. He cleared the 37th level with exceptional skill, and the 38th and 39th levels were passed on the first try!

However, he stumbled at the 40th level.

Yú Qúnqīng managed to clear a total of 39 levels and now had zero stamina left. He let out a long sigh of relief and slowly collapsed onto the living room floor.

Although this elimination matching game was a casual game, playing it was anything but relaxing. The simple controls and fast feedback made it somewhat addictive and increased the pressure on the brain.

Yú Qúnqīng even had a fleeting thought that he would be content just playing the matching game and didn’t care about decorating.

Perhaps it was because playing electronic games felt like a thing of the past, as if it belonged to another lifetime…

After taking a short break, Yú Qúnqīng opened the activity page for the Star Power Station. The opportunity to draw a prize required winning five consecutive games, but it became difficult to achieve after the 20th level. So Yú Qúnqīng had only five chances.

On the game screen, the power station folded up like a small ball, then bounced, and the dial in the middle of the machine started spinning and spinning until the pointer stopped at a certain position.

“Dīngdōng! Congratulations on obtaining a rare piece of furniture: Sunshine Beach Lounge Chair (movable)!”

Yú Qúnqīng said, “I understand. Rare is the lowest level of rarity here, right? There should be higher levels like ‘uncommon,’ ‘precious,’ ‘legendary,’ and so on.”

He knew it all too well.

The system fell silent for a second.

“Dīngdōng dīngdōng!” The system went crazy with alert sounds. “Sunshine Beach Lounge Chair (movable) has been delivered. Enjoy your life!”

“Boom!”

Next to the fabric sofa in the living room, there was a beach lounger with a cartoon fish pattern on it. Next to it was a decorative plastic coconut tree with a colorful umbrella on top.

The tropical style of the beach lounger clashed with the Nordic style of Yu Qunqing’s home.

In the game interface, the living room also had the beach lounger in the same position.

Yu Qunqing remembered that this was a decoration game and tried to see if he could move the lounger to the community garden in the game. However, the lounger could only be moved within the explored area, so it insisted on staying indoors with the umbrella, and Yu Qunqing couldn’t do anything about it.

Yu Qunqing continued to click on the Star Power Station and obtained two cross-shaped water guns, 666 coins, and a bottle of disappearing potion.

Winning prizes in the lottery was indeed exciting!

Yu Qunqing then opened the Crocodile Season event page.

He hadn’t unlocked the Riverside Track. Although the rewards on the regular track were meager, every little bit counts. He earned 2 points for each level passed, and now he was already at level 7. He had crossed seven hurdles on the regular track.

Each level had its own rewards, and Yu Qunqing collected seven game items. Now he wasn’t a poor player in terms of game items anymore, and he finally had some confidence to play the game.

“After claiming the rewards… So, what can I do with these 38 hexagrams for decoration?”

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