My Romance Game Updated – Chapter 65
by Little PandaThe Beach
It was very easy to exchange high-tier crystal cores for low-tier ones, but it was not nearly as easy to exchange low-tier cores for high-tier ones. Some people even charged a premium to sell the high-tier crystal cores in their possession. For instance, in some of the base’s crystal core black markets, a single 3rd-order crystal core could be exchanged for two hundred 1st-order crystal cores, while a 4th-order crystal core could be exchanged for two thousand. The exchange rate was double the base’s unified standard.
Of course, even with the high black market prices, very few espers were willing to trade away the high-tier crystal cores they had worked so hard to obtain. That double exchange rate was mostly just for show. Only the base leaders and the Fan family had the capacity to be so generous as to trade away their hoarded high-tier crystal cores.
Zhang Tongqi and the others did not want Ren Chenxi to take a loss, so they also wanted to use the doubled 1st-order crystal core rate to exchange with her, but Ren Chenxi firmly refused. It was not until she threatened that if they continued treating her like an outsider, she would take back the generator, split their accounts entirely, and make them pay for their water at the base’s official price, that Zhang Tongqi’s group finally compromised.
They dragged over two large bags of 1st-order crystal cores, containing both the earnings from their meat skewers over the past few days and the savings they had accumulated in the past. Having their massive hoard of low-tier crystal cores completely emptied out all at once made Zhang Tongqi clamor from the sidelines that they absolutely had to hunt a few more mutated beasts later, so they could continue selling meat skewers tonight to earn back some crystal cores.
Hearing Zhang Tongqi mention hunting, Ren Chenxi suddenly remembered her ‘leave of absence’ that had been interrupted earlier by Fan Juntian’s arrival. Left with no other choice as everyone prepared to head out again, Ren Chenxi clutched her stomach and pretended to be in agony. She claimed she was feeling unwell and wanted to use the toilet, so she wouldn’t be going out with them today.
As soon as they heard her stomach was hurting, everyone hurriedly told her to stay home and rest. As it happened, Huo Keyu and the other ordinary humans also wanted to go out with the group today. They wouldn’t be heading anywhere too remote in H City; they just wanted to explore the neighboring town. While the espers hunted, they could forage for mushrooms, wild vegetables, and wild crops. Although Ren Chenxi was somewhat worried about their safety, it was daytime, and there were so many espers accompanying them. More importantly, with a heavy hitter like Mu Ning present, she couldn’t really say much else.
Mu Ning and the others left, and Huo Keyu’s group of ordinary humans followed them out. Now, only Tantan and Sun Jia were left in the house. Sun Jia looked at Ren Chenxi’s hand clutching her stomach and her expression that screamed she needed the toilet immediately. She nodded understandingly and indicated that she would go upstairs to rest. Ren Chenxi guessed what sort of stomach issue Sun Jia thought she had, but she couldn’t exactly explain it. She could only offer an awkward smile and tell Tantan to follow Sun Jia upstairs and guard her.
With Mu Ning’s group gone, Ren Chenxi pondered for a moment before turning and walking into the crystal squat toilet. Then, she called up the card-drawing panel and performed thirty ten-draw gacha pulls1. These thirty pulls yielded three SR-rank Explosion Cards, two Invisibility Cards, and two Shield Cards, followed by fifteen R-rank Explosion Cards, nine Acceleration Cards, and one Displacement Card.
The remaining 268 were all N-rank cards. Among them were 120 Greasy Cards, 86 Flash Cards, and 62 Costume Cards. Thinking that there might be low- and mid-tier seafood by the seaside, Ren Chenxi decided not to touch the Greasy Cards this time. The bus had gone out twice now, and the remaining gas probably wasn’t much. Since she was heading to the beach anyway, she figured she could grab some universal gasoline to bring back.
The Greasy Cards were needed for gasoline, and the Flash Cards couldn’t be touched. Without any hesitation, Ren Chenxi used 60 Costume Cards to synthesize seven R-rank Explosion Cards, three R-rank Critical Hit Cards, and two Displacement Cards.
Ren Chenxi now had a total of 22 R-rank Explosion Cards. She decisively used 20 of them to synthesize four SR-rank Explosion Cards, and then combined those four with one of the newly drawn SR-rank Explosion Cards to synthesize another SSR-rank Explosion Card.
She now had a total of three SSR-rank Explosion Cards. According to the SSR card’s information, it couldn’t guarantee a one-hit headshot kill against high-tier enemies, and the damage it dealt varied depending on the enemy’s exact level. For instance, against that 7th-order octopus monster, a single SSR card could only deal 30% damage. Under normal circumstances, Ren Chenxi’s three SSR-rank Explosion Cards wouldn’t be enough to completely kill it, and the damage from her remaining two SR-rank cards would be utterly negligible. Butβ¦ she still had an SR-rank Critical Hit Card!
Normally, Explosion Cards had no innate critical hit rate or critical damage. However, if she used a Critical Hit Card on herself right before attacking, the subsequent Explosion Card was guaranteed to receive a 100% critical damage bonus! An R-rank Critical Hit Card provided a 10% damage bonus, an SR-rank card provided 100%, and an SSR-rank card offered a massive 1000% bonus!
Unfortunately, a single Critical Hit Card could only buff a single attack card. Still, that was more than enough to deal with that 7th-order octopus monster~
Armed with so many high-tier cards, Ren Chenxi felt brimming with confidence regarding her trip to the seaside.
Emerging from the toilet, Ren Chenxi glanced at the second floor. Still feeling uneasy, she went upstairs one more time. Since Mu Ning and the rest were out, there was no one else in the house. She could only knock on Sun Jia’s door, instruct Tantan to keep a close eye on her, and explain that her stomach was cramping up in waves. She told Sun Jia she’d probably need to use the toilet again soon and wouldn’t be able to take good care of her. Hearing that Ren Chenxi’s condition was so severe, Sun Jia quickly urged her to take some medicine and rest, saying that having Tantan’s company was enough. Tantan cooperatively meowed a few times and obediently lay down in its little nest beside Sun Jia’s bed.
This little nest wasn’t the one in Ren Chenxi’s room; it was the one they had prepared for Tantan whenever Mu Ning’s group went out. When they had gone out to raid the underground warehouse yesterday, Ren Chenxi had moved this nest to Sun Jia’s bedside so the cat could guard her.
Gently patting Tantan’s little head, Ren Chenxi stood up, walked out of the room, and carefully closed the door behind her. Seeing the solemn expression on Ren Chenxi’s face as she left, Sun Jia couldn’t help but feel worried. Does Xi-jie’s stomach really hurt that badly? Otherwise, why does she look like she’s going out to war just to use the toilet?
Ren Chenxi was unaware of Sun Jia’s concerns, but she truly was about to go to war. As a newbie who had almost chosen to lie flat2 and admit defeat at the very beginningβa true combat power of five scum3βshe hadn’t even been in this world for a month, yet she was already skipping levels to challenge a 7th-order octopus monster! Even though she had cards with sufficient lethality in her handsβ¦ she was still a little nervous~~~
1 million crystal stones, here I come!!!
Ren Chenxi walked out of the base gates with a calm expression, continuing until she reached an empty spot. She prepared to take out the off-road vehicle that she had been keeping in her backpack. However, just before pulling it out, she suddenly remembered that there wasn’t much gas left in the tank. It probably wouldn’t be enough to get her all the way to the South Sea beach. So, she found a few red-dot zombies nearby, used five Greasy Cards, and killed them one by one using the remaining sharp crystals in her backpack. She obtained five 6L bottles of gasoline and five 1st-order crystal cores.
Ren Chenxi poured all 30 liters of gasoline into the off-road vehicle’s tank. After opening the main map to confirm the shortest route to the South Sea beach, she started the engine and drove toward the sea. Although Nanhai Base was named after the South Sea, it wasn’t strictly a seaside town. Thus, starting from the base, it still took Ren Chenxi a full hour to reach the beach.
Along the way, quite a few red dots appeared sporadically. Ren Chenxi mostly just avoided them directly. Only when they were impossible to bypass did she stop the car, waste a little time, and kill the zombies or mutated beasts blocking the road. The closer she got to the seaside, the fewer red dots appeared on the mini-map. By the time the South Sea marker finally showed up on the mini-map, what welcomed Ren Chenxi was patch after dense patch of packed red dots.
Seeing so many red dots, Ren Chenxi felt her scalp go numb. All along the way, she had only been mentally planning how to deal with the 7th-order octopus monster in the sea, completely ignoring the other mutated seafood on the beach.
Her plan for dealing with the mutated octopus had been quite optimistic. First, she would cast a Shield Card on herself, then lure the octopus monster out of the sea and onto the beach. She would pull it far enough away to prevent it from escaping back into the water, go invisible, use an SR-rank Critical Hit Card on herself, followed by three quick attacks with the SSR-rank Explosion Cards. Finally, she would successfully slay the beast.
An SR-rank Shield Card could sustain a transparent shield for thirty minutes, but against a 7th-order octopus monster, it could only withstand ten attacks. Ren Chenxi had five SR-rank Shield Cards. If she synthesized them into an SSR-rank Shield Card, she could create a transparent shield that lasted for one hour and completely negated all attacks from enemies below the high-tier level. However, against high-tier enemy attacks, it would only last for ten minutes.
Did she want a shield that held out for ten minutes, or did she want to split it into five uses and endure fifty attacks? Ren Chenxi fell into a dilemma.
However, after only a brief moment of thought, Ren Chenxi synthesized her five SR-rank Shield Cards into an SSR-rank Shield Card. Although there were a large number of densely packed lesser mobs on the beach, the most terrifying thing there was undoubtedly the octopus monster in the sea. For safety’s sake, Ren Chenxi decided she would immediately apply the SSR-rank Shield Card to herself the moment the octopus appeared. Ten minutes was enough time to kill the 7th-order beast. If an accident occurred, ten minutes would also be enough time for her to use an Acceleration Card and escape.
Before stepping onto the beach, Ren Chenxi stored the off-road vehicle back into her backpack. Then, holding a long iron rod in one hand and clutching a Greasy Card in the other, she carefully stepped onto the soft sand.
According to the mini-map, there were no red dots on the patch of sand where she stood. But just ten steps ahead, the red dot markers began. Yet, when Ren Chenxi looked over, aside from the large crabs scuttling sideways further in the distance and the jellyfish washed up on the beach, she truly couldn’t see any seafood ten steps away.
Those cunning seafood creatures were hiding beneath the sand!
Ren Chenxi cautiously threw a few large stones at the sand ten steps away. Sure enough, the moment the stones hit the ground, eight super-giant crabs burst out from the dirt. These crabs looked like three-eyed crabs, but they were twice the size of king crabs. Fortunately, they were only around the 2nd or 3rd order. As they charged menacingly toward her, Ren Chenxi directly slapped a Greasy Card onto each of them.
Butβ¦ these giant crabs, which had started oozing oil all over, weren’t slipping at all! Their sharp legs pierced right into the soft sand. Even though their slender legs were constantly dripping with grease, it didn’t affect their movement speed in the slightest!
The sea wind was strong. Ren Chenxi tried to use the lighter and candle from her backpack to start a fire, but unfortunately, facing such a strong gale, the candle simply wouldn’t light. And while she was struggling to start a fire, the eight giant crabs had already arrived right in front of her.
The author has something to say:
Xixi (excited): This mother is finally going to get rich overnight!!!
Mutou (////////): Actually, doing quests and achievements all night with me is more cost-effective~~~
Footnotes
- A 'ten-draw' (shΓ liΓ‘n chΕu) is a common mechanic in gacha games where a player pulls ten random items or characters at once, often guaranteeing a higher-rarity drop.
- 'Lying flat' (tΗng pΓng) is a Chinese cultural buzzword referring to doing the bare minimum to get by, rather than striving or fighting against overwhelming odds.
- Derived from 'combat power of five' (zhΓ n wΗ zhΔ), a famous reference to a weakling. It is internet slang for someone utterly useless or incredibly weak in a fight.
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