Players Invade Cyberpunk-Chapter 645 - 207: Old Net—Mine Is a Bit Big, Bear With It_3
Seeing everyone crouch down, the displeasure on Pandora's face instantly dissipated, and even her usually expressionless eyes curved slightly; she was in a good mood.
"Battles on the Old Net are quite different from reality. Here, battle assessments are limited to intelligence attributes. To make things easier and more uniform, the game developers decided to convert intelligence into COST points."
COST—cost, value.
Most common in card games, different cards have different COST points, limited by the player's level or other restrictions, with different upper limits.
Players have to find a way to make the best use of and understand different card functions, combining suitable decks or skill sets within the limited points to achieve the best effect.
Everyone present was a seasoned gamer, and just hearing the term, they understood its meaning.
The Wildman/Tycoon shouted suddenly,
"Damn it! Why? Do people with low intelligence have no rights?"
Their initial intelligence was only 3, and since intelligence points only mattered to hackers or a few specialized professions, like mechanical engineers, most players, even if they had money, would prioritize reaction and physical body modifications over brain intelligence.
Players like Pandora and Jackal, whose intelligence points have reached 13 (8+5), were truly a cut above the rest.
"Low intelligence isn't entirely a DEBUFF."
Pandora explained,
"Though death in cyberspace won't cause your physical body outside to die, there's still a cooldown time. The higher the intelligence, the longer the revival time after death, with a maximum of up to 8 hours. For those of you with only 3 intelligence points, the revival time is generally about an hour."
"That Road or More..."
The Tycoon touched his chin, still mumbling in broken Neon language, looking even more foolish.
The Wildman hit the nail on the head, "So for low intelligence players like us, we're just cannon fodder in cyberspace, right?"
Potato: "Pfft..."
Tycoon: "What are you laughing at? You only have 4 intelligence points, just a bit higher than us, still cannon fodder!"
Brother Ni: "Alright, alright, let's go check out the skills first."
He still remembered the last few cyberspace battles, where everyone was completely chaotic, with flashy fights, but in reality, the damage caused by non-main hacker players wasn't high; success relied on combo skills eventually.
In front of the [Skill Selection] NPC, players were dumbfounded by the bizarre skill book list.
[Cheer]: Support skill, contributes one's own intelligence points to provide more COST points to a designated player. While providing support, one's self is in an uncontrollable state. COST: 0.
[Meteor Strike]: Damage skill, activates backup hidden energy to become a hero. COST: 0
[Specium Ray]: Damage skill, can be used as a combo skill; multiple players can unleash it together to enhance power. COST: 10
[Shadow Sword Art]: Damage skill...
[Snowman Form]: Defense skill...
Overall, there are four main types: support, damage, defense, and combo. One intelligence point equals 10 COST points. There's no specialization; it all depends on the players' free combinations and team cooperation. Moreover, COST points are just the minimum use; if players wish, they can invest more computing power to boost damage.
Jackal stood nearby, arms akimbo, proudly saying,
"We coded these skills. You can also create skill cards on the official website forum, and if our creations pass the review, the development team will select them to be included in the game."
Jackal's words filled the players' eyes with amazement,
"Is this the legendary fan work turned official? Big shot, have you guys been recruited by the official team?"
"Big shot, any inside scoop from the development team about future content?"
"No, no!"
Jackal awkwardly pushed away the surrounding players who were crowding closer,
"It's just a creative workshop, like the Warcraft map editor, far from official."
During previous cyberspace battles, the overflow of players' data was too severe, with damage dealt by 5 intelligence points not even reaching 3, as a lot of computing power was used on shaping.
Lin Miao, for the sake of efficiency, had to sacrifice some player freedom in pursuit of numbers.
After all, once you enter the Old Net, what you salvage is indeed real gold and silver. 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝙬𝙚𝓫𝒏𝓸𝓿𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝙤𝓶
"Forget about cheering; what's a big guy like me cheering for?"
The Tycoon didn't even glance at this skill, feeling disgusted just imagining waving around two glow sticks.
"The Shadow Sword Art suits me better after all."
He glanced at [Meteor Strike], his finger stopped on the screen, then looked at Potato, and they both seemed to hesitate.
Forget it... it's a zero-cost skill anyway, and there's no limit on quantity, so just add it in.
Unfamiliar with cyberspace, many players selected skills they liked after some discussion, then grouped up and entered the large vortex symbolizing the Old Net entrance.
This instance had no limit on the number of players, no time limit, and no range; theoretically, you could wander inside as long as you wished.
However, most players were doomed not to last long.
On the other side of the Old Net entrance, a dozen players appeared out of thin air in a chaotic data stream one after another.
Nearby viruses, malware, and even AIs had been cleared out by hacker players and Lucy.
Lucy even went around exploring, marking several database locations from the Old Net era.
[Prometheus Laboratory]
[Kales Metal Corporation]
[Donster Software Net]
...
Lucy found this information by analyzing the surrounding data, verifying the location of data fortresses.
These data fortresses were no longer maintained by human programmers, and the data within was long lost in shared networks or cloud storage.
Perhaps even these companies and laboratories had disappeared in the river of history.
But the data hidden inside could still be of exceedingly high value, so much that even Huang Ban and military tech coveted them.
