Single Player Only Chapter 4

Chapter 4: The Key to Single Player Games
Yue Qiang remembered very well that he had already put all of his free distribution points into ‘Charisma’, so where did this 1 point come from? Could this be the ‘Refined Energy’ Chen Zi Han was talking about?
It most likely is!

So from the looks of it, if you complete the quests in this game the normal way then you wouldn’t be getting any rewards at all. On the other hand if you completed them excellently – like how he did copy-pasting everything from mobile Baidu and scoring near perfect marks except for that one line, ‘even if his uncle can bear to do this, his aunt cannot bear to do’ – then you would be given additional rewards such as this ‘Free Distribution Stat Points’, that is the ‘Refined Energy’ mentioned by Chen Zi Han. And free stats are always great no matter what game you’re in, considering that they’re precious resources you don’t come by often.

[E/N if you haven’t read my note do so above the chapter t.i.tle]

It was at this moment Yue Qiang recalled that ridiculous notion he had earlier.

Should I drop this point into Charisma as well?

It is a common rule in RPGs that when you dump stats, you should focus on one stat alone. This is because stats fall under precious resources and are usually hard to come by. Since it’s impossible to increase every stat to a reasonably high level, maxing out one stat is the logical choice for most players, especially since Yue Qiang couldn’t forget what happened earlier. He really wanted to know what would happen if his Charisma changed from 15 to 16.

By the way, did you know? It is incredibly hard to improve one’s stats from 15 to 16. There is an old saying that explains this situation as, ‘one should strive to improve further despite achieving a fair degree of success’. If we are to speak in modern mathematical terms, the probability of getting a value of 6 or more in a normal distribution is incredibly small. For example, an average human’s IQ would hover between 80 to 120, and if someone’s IQ were to increase from 80 to 90 or 110 to 120, it would still be within bounds and would be nothing to be surprised about. On the other hand, if someone’s IQ were to increase from 150 to 160, then this person would be like a dragon evolving into a phoenix. Not only that, their IQ value would also no longer be an accurate reflection of their true mental prowess.
As Yue Qiang continued pondering, he added the point into ‘Charisma’.

System Message: ‘Refined Energy’ points cannot be changed once allocated. Are you sure you want to continue?

He selected ‘Yes’ without the slightest hesitation. This time, the circ.u.mstance of his stats distribution was different yet again.

System Message: Your ‘Charisma’ has reached its threshold value and would be temporarily fixed.

At the same time, his ‘Charisma’ stat had turned a gray hue of unchangeable text and was clearly different from his other stats.

So 16 is the system’s current threshold? Yue Qiang thought to himself as he brought out his phone in an attempt to test out that ridiculous notion of his. But before he could even dial a number, he was already receiving an incoming call from an unfamiliar number. Yue Qiang pressed the ‘Answer’ key, brought the phone to his ears, and listened to a pleasant woman’s voice,

“h.e.l.lo Yue Qiang, I am the cla.s.s beauty of our cla.s.s Rao Xiao Ting.”

“Yue Qiang, I’ve always thought that you’re a pretty cool person. You may not talk much in the chat group, but the things you said were always humorous and meaningful, deep and delicate. I’ve always wanted to become your friend, but I could never gather the courage to say it. I took liberties to call you today because I really wanted to listen to your deep, magnetic voice.”
“Yue Qiang, do you think we can become good friends?”

And Yue Qiang murmured, “As I thought the difference between 15 and 16 is HUGE, man.”

“What 15 and 16?” Rao Xiao Ting asked curiously.

“Nope, nothing. I mean, of course we can become good friends!” Yue Qiang answered, but his eyes were completely glued to the number ’16’ on his screen.
For the next twenty minutes, Yue Qiang listened to Rao Xiao Ting telling exactly how much she admired him. He wasn’t texting a few emoticons in the QQ group, but being a man of few words. He wasn’t sleeping in cla.s.s, but revising old materials and gaining new insights from them. He wasn’t a video game otaku, but an armchair detective who knew the world without setting a foot out of his house. Yue Qiang never knew he had this many ‘virtues’!

After finally putting down the phone, Yue Qiang immediately tossed away those compliments to the back of his head and remembered one line alone,
“I am the cla.s.s beauty of our cla.s.s, Rao Xiao Ting.”

Instinctively Yue Qiang thought that there was off with these words, despite replaying those words over and over again he couldn’t pinpoint nor find anything wrong with it. Anyways, his current situation was crystal clear. Under normal circ.u.mstances, Rao Xiao Ting would never have called him for no apparent reason, and even less would say that she admired him. If that ridiculous notion of his was actually true, then everything that had happened could be explained, such as the scene where the store clerk who sold him noodles shot him a flirtatious wink.

If that’s the case, if he continued to perfectly complete quests inside the Game, wouldn’t he become OP in real life?

Hmm, Yue Qiang could vaguely feel that some things wouldn’t be as simple as they seemed.

Ah, screw it. I’ll deal with it when the time comes.

He placed his attention back onto the game. Yue Qiang had finally decided to ditch his initial half-hearted att.i.tude and instead play this game with 100% focus. First, he must dig through his memory for tips and tricks that only an old schooler like him would master.

As an example, opening a treasure chest. Usually, treasure chests were single-use and after you had acquired its items it would appear on the mini map in an unlocked state. Naturally, clicking the treasure chest again would never net you the same items for a second time, and some of the more user-friendly systems would even display a message informing you that the ‘this treasure chest is empty’.

But for a certain old school ma.s.sively single player game, Yue Qiang knows that after clicking and triggering the ‘this treasure chest is empty’ notification ten times in a row, the protagonist would then angrily dismantle the entire treasure chest, and through that action acquire some incredible rare materials in the game.

So that’s yet another annoying element about domestic single player games.

The next one would be the NPCs’ response towards the player.

Under normal circ.u.mstances, every NPC exists in a game for a reason. For example, an NPC may exist for the purpose of trading, skill learning, plot device and so on. NPCs would always function according to their set script, and no matter how many times you tried to converse with them, be it ten times or a hundred times, their responses would always be the same.

But again, But for certain domestic single player games, Yue Qiang knew that if you conversed with a certain NPC for over 20 times, the player would then be able to learn a hidden skill. Yue Qiang had thought in the past that maybe it was because the developers couldn’t keep up with the industry standards that they had to resort to such methods to surprise the players in a good way.

Thinking that he should give it a shot, Yue Qiang began initiating a conversation with Teacher Chen Zi Han by clicking at him again and again.

“Teacher Chen, please teach this little one about the rules of governing.” Yue Qiang said.
“Young sir, you have completely mastered the essence of the a.n.a.lects. Therefore, I no longer have anything left to teach you.” A dialogue box popped beneath the teacher, and as he stroked his beard he was all but the vivid image of a poor scholar.

But as Yue Qiang tirelessly talked again and again with Chen Zi Han, with the help of the incredibly realistic facial animation engine, he realized that although Chen Zi Han’s answer was always the same, he wasn’t always answering with the same stroke-the-beard-and-smile expression. In fact, he was looking as if he was getting more and more impatient.
There it is!

Yue Qiang clicked the chair beside him, selected the drag option, and dragged the chair until it was right beneath Chen Zi Han. Then he selected the Talk option again.
“Teacher Chen, please have a seat. Teacher Chen, please continue to teach this little one about the rules of governing.” Yue Qiang’s dialogue subtly changed, and this time, Teacher Chen’s expression too underwent a change. He no longer looked impatient, and a proud look befitting of a model teacher appeared on his face instead.

“This youth is indeed worth educating. Seeing that you have a sincere heart, this old fool shall teach you a unique skill belonging to my sect.”
System Message: Chen Zi Han will teach you ‘Gui Gu Mathematics’. Do you accept?