Chapter 3 – Class Change
Chen Mo issued the command to commit suicide.
System prompt: Are you sure you want to commit suicide? After suicide, character level, skills, experience, prestige and associated data will be cleared!
“Confirm!”
In GENESIS, there are two ways to reset a character. One is to delete the character. The other, is to commit suicide.
When a character is deleted and the player creates another, he can only inherit the original’s tradable equipment and money. Deletion is practically re-starting from zero.
The extent of loss in suicide is a lot less than plain deletion. Players get to inherit a majority of the bound equipment and even achievement titles. What gets deleted is the character’s level and skills. This saves effort when having to raise levels again.
However, there are drawbacks too. For example, when raising levels again, quests that have been previously completed will not award the same equipment and accomplishment rewards. If the player chooses a different character class after suicide, the original class-specific equipment cannot be used by the player anymore and past titles that had been won cannot be equipped until the same level is reached, otherwise the character would have insane attributes after restarting at level 1.
On the character creation interface, Chen Mo did no modifications to his character. He chose the assassin class again and went straight back into the game.
Light flashed and when it cleared, Chen Mo found that he had appeared in the valley again. Looks like leaving by suicide was not an option.
Perhaps a total deletion would work but Chen Mo chose not to do so.
After deletion, his Light-Speed Death title would vanish. Though the title was not much, with a few more levels the attribute additions could bring more benefits. That one Luck point seemed important to Chen Mo. His intuition told him to keep it. It might be useful later.
Chen Mo decided to change his character class to hunter to break through the barrier the goblins had formed around the valley.
He did not choose the hunter class at first because the hunter could only use traps and wait for the enemy to step in them in the beginning stages. It was too restrictive. He had planned to enter the game and try to assassinate important NPCs in the beginner village. If it worked, there would be mass confusion and chaos in the game due to the large number of players. Irregularities in the holographic virtual network could possibly then occur.
This sort of thing couldn’t be done by a hunter of course – it had to be an assassin.
But now if Chen Mo can get a skill book or something from the chest in the cave and add more combat skills to the hunter, killing an NPC would be possible with the hunter. Furthermore, the attacks can be complemented by traps and have a better result.
Chen Mo could not be sure what’s in the chest but from what he saw of the situation, the chest very likely contained a skill book or good equipment to help the player get out of the valley; otherwise it would be impossible to get out.
If it wasn’t a skill book, it’d be a good piece of equipment. No matter which, it would be good for Chen Mo.
“Suicide!”
Chen Mo committed suicide again and returned to the character creation interface. This time, he chose the hunter class.
Returning to the game, he appeared in the valley yet again.
His backpack had a “Basic Trap Technique” book, an old crossbow with physical damage of 1~2, and a quiver of a hundred crossbow bolts with 1 attack damage.
“A crossbow! It’ll be much easier to kill those White Goblins now!”
Chen Mo could not help the glee in his heart at the sight of the crossbow.
The crossbow had an attack range of 10m – 3m more than simply throwing a stone. It’ll be simple to get out of the cave now!
With a long-distance weapon on hand, he could leisurely kill monsters.
However, Chen Mo had rejoiced too soon. After entering the cave again, he discovered that though it was the same cave, it had grown over 20m deeper than when he had entered as an assassin!
Chen Mo was startled. He could understand if it became a few metres deeper but over 20m? What are they trying to do? Is this map not going to give him any chance of escape at all?
No way!
Chen Mo’s gaze fell upon the only skill he had – Basic Trap Technique.
Basic Trap Technique (Novice Level): Constructs a trap on the ground. When an enemy steps on the trap, it will explode and inflict 130% damage. 10% chance of disabling the enemy. Disable effect lasts for 3 seconds and slows enemy movement speed by 30%. Cooldown 10 seconds. Each trap lasts for 60 seconds. Maximum number of traps that can exist simultaneously – 3.
“Hmm, a maximum of 3 traps. That’s a problem.”
Hunter and assassin skill characteristics are totally different. It would be very simple to escape from the cave with 3 traps if it were just a few metres deep.
Now that it’s deeper by more than 20m, he would have to depend on not just luck but good placement of traps to successfully escape.
A level 1 player’s movement speed ranges from 5 to 10. 5 is the walking speed and 10 is the maximum speed when running, which is roughly the same as a slow jog of about 3m per second. Chen Mo estimated that the speed of the White Goblins while chasing him was about 14, or over 4m per second.
When a White Goblin steps on a trap and becomes disabled, its speed will fall to roughly the same as a player’s. So for those 3 seconds, the player is safe and Chen Mo could safely run for about 10m.
If that’s the case, 3 traps with a distance of 10m between them could grant him escape if two of the traps’ disabling effect activate.
It’s all a matter of luck.
With a rough idea in mind, Chen Mo immediately chose 3 locations and set a trap in each, then waited for a good opportunity and used his crossbow to shoot at White Goblins.
Two White Goblins came running and Chen Mo retreated quickly.
Bang!
The first trap went off and a 30+ damage number floated up from the goblin’s head. The goblin’s speed remained the same.
The trap’s disabling effect did not get activated!
Two more traps – there’s still a chance!
However, Chen Mo’s feet stilled. He knew that even if the traps had their disabling effect activated, he would still not be able to escape.
He had left something very important out of his calculations.
The cave had a width of two body-lengths but the traps only damage a single enemy. Don’t talk about two – even if all 3 traps’ effects were activated he would still not be able to escape!
What can be done?
After resurrecting in the valley, Chen Mo meditated on the problem.
Put the trap in the middle of the cave passage?
To pull the White Goblins out of the cave, the traps had to be effective on both goblins at once. To do that, the only way was to put the trap in the middle of the passage so that when it explodes, both goblins would get affected and hurt.
“Looks like… It won’t work”
Chen Mo tried it out and discovered that he could not do it. Every time he used the skill, the system would automatically decide which side to put in on in the two body-length cave. The trap appeared either on the left or on the right.
Chen Mo had played games before and was no stranger to this situation. In a traditional game, game maps are made up of coordinates. If you take out the scenery, the map is a lattice of cubic spaces, and each space corresponds to a coordinate. No matter how a player moves, he can only appear on a space, and never on the junction of two cubes.
It seems GENESIS, the latest in virtual games, did not advance in terms of maps and functions similarly to traditional games.
If that’s true, one of the hunter class would never be able to leave this valley alive.
But Chen Mo squeezed his arm, then closed his eyes and tried to sense his surroundings.
He was very sceptical.
With a holographic virtual network that looks like the product of black sorcery and a game that is almost real – a revolutionary game like this – will something as simple as map design be unable to move beyond the boundaries of traditional games?
If it were him, having developed the game to this point, he would never copy over the same settings as a traditional game for map design!
If this game setting were to be revealed, the reputation of the entire holographic virtual network will take a dive.
That’s not right!
Chen Mo suddenly felt that something didn’t quite measure up.
In a traditional game, whenever a player moves, he can only appear on a space, and never on the junction of two cubes. According to traditional game logic, the cave passage should be divided into two rows of spaces. When he walks in the cave, he should be only able to walk on the left or on the right.
In truth, Chen Mo was able to stand in the middle of the passage – which is the junction of two grid spaces!
When he was an assassin, he did not notice this at all. He only took note of the game map settings and similarities to traditional games after he’d changed to the hunter class.
Since people can stand on the junction of two cells, there is no reason to not be able to put a trap there!
This must have been intentional!
Chen Mo was sure that the game designers did this on purpose!
Standing in the middle of the cave passage, Chen Mo bent again to lay a trap.
However, the trap fell on the left as before.
It became obvious that, according to game settings, setting a trap like this would not enable the trap to land in the middle in any case.
What if… I don’t use the system command to set the trap?
Chen Mo suddenly thought.