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[Role-play Time Limit for This Period: 30 days]
[Main Role-Play Task 1: Please take on multiple jobs as a tireless laborer.]
[Role-Playing Skill 1 Acquired—Hardworking and Resilient: Your energy is vibrant, and your sensitivity to pain dulls, allowing you to adapt to long periods of high-intensity labor.]
[Main Role-Play Task 2: Please act as a humble and unassuming Campus Superstar who detests evil.]
[Role-Playing Skill 2 Acquired—Artistic Talent: Your musical accomplishments and performance abilities are comprehensively improved, and the condition of your voice is greatly enhanced.]
[Main Role-Play Task 3: Please act as a positive and optimistic Paralytic Patient, full of hope for life.]
[Role-Playing Skill 3 Acquired—Keen Perception: Your sensory capabilities to perceive the outside world are comprehensively enhanced.]
[The Points Mall has activated new products: a random draw for life skills and artistic works, which players can exchange at their discretion!]
[Special Reminder:]
[Within the stipulated time, players need to complete at least one role-play task to smoothly move on to the next phase.]
[On this basis, players will receive exclusive rewards corresponding to any role-play task they complete.]
[As an exclusive benefit for this period, after completing all three role-play tasks, an additional reward will be granted: For one hour, your material gathering will not consume any points!]
Upon seeing the new role-play tasks, Lu Zhixing's first reaction was confusion.
Why are there three tasks?
But after carefully reading the game's instructions, Lu Zhixing quickly understood.
The Life Role-Playing Game had significant differences from the trial version now that it had entered its official release, with more complex rules.
Firstly, the trial version wasn't time-restricted, but the official version introduced the concept of a "role-play period," requiring tasks to be completed within that period to earn the corresponding rewards.
Secondly, the official version seemed to issue multiple role-play tasks of varying content and difficulty within a single period. Lu Zhixing could consider the difficulty and rewards of these tasks and choose the order of role-playing to undertake.
Compared to the trial version, the degree of freedom and strategic depth had undoubtedly increased significantly.
What caught Lu Zhixing's attention the most, however, was the extra reward: if he could complete all three role-play tasks, he would be able to gather materials for an hour without spending any points!
This was too tempting!
Of course, gathering materials differed from shopping in the mall; it could only be done in reality, and he had to personally witness the items in order to gather them.
For instance, to gather the material of a stone bridge, Lu Zhixing couldn't just look at pictures or videos online; he would have to go to the bridge to see and walk around it personally.
Therefore, it was impossible to gather enough material in that one hour to last a lifetime, even if Lu Zhixing raced against time. At most, he could gather materials from the entire Jinghai University and maybe one or two streets around it.
But this was still an extremely tempting ultimate promotion.
To know, ordinarily, gathering materials of an internet cafe would cost tens of thousands of points. Under normal circumstances, gathering these items would amount to an astronomical figure in terms of points.
Now, with one hour of free material gathering, it was even more gratifying than a zero-cost shopping spree.
Moreover, this reward wasn't always available; it was an exclusive benefit limited to this period only, and would be missed if not taken advantage of.
The next period might bring new exclusive benefits, yet they might not necessarily be in the form of free material gathering.
"I must complete all three role-play tasks and seize this freeloading opportunity!"
Freeloading is fun for a moment, but endlessly freeloading is always fun. After getting used to the astronomical points needed for various materials and templates in the mall, seeing this chance to gather materials without spending points was like a person starving for three days eating at a free buffet.
"But then again, these three role-play tasks seem to have no connection with each other at all.
"Shall I first assess the difficulty level of these three role-play targets?
"The laborer should be the simplest, whether it's delivering takeout, sorting parcels, or working as a waiter in a fast-food restaurant—these should all count as playing the role of a laborer. Or perhaps... helping out in my own internet cafe would qualify?
"The Paralytic Patient should be slightly more challenging; just lying in bed probably isn't enough. I guess I would have to do something that only a paralytic would do, such as going out in a wheelchair?
"The Campus Superstar seems to be the most difficult. First off, 'campus' and 'superstar' aren't exactly adjacent concepts. Plus, why must I be 'humble and unassuming, detesting evil'? How am I supposed to play that role?
"Of course, aside from the difficulty of the role-play, the role-playing skills are also a factor to consider.
"After completing the role-play, these skills can be exchanged at the Points Mall. So, for some of the more valuable skills, even if the role-play target is difficult, I need to try to complete the role-play as much as possible.
"The Campus Superstar's skill 'Artistic Talent' is obviously the most worthwhile to exchange for."
The laborer's skill is Hardworking and Resilient, and the paralytic's skill enhances sensory capabilities, which don't seem to offer any fundamental improvements at the moment.
But the Campus Superstar's skill could comprehensively improve musical accomplishment, acting, and singing ability, which is much more practical.
"Come to think of it, what kind of materials will I get for playing these three identities?"
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"What kind of game can I create next?
"No rush, there is still time, I can think it over slowly."
Afterward, Lu Zhixing went to check out the new products that appeared in the mall.
Aside from the skill "I Am A Tree" that was already available for purchase, there were two new lotteries, one for [Random Life Skills] and the other for [Random Artistic Work].
The former required 30 points for one draw, while the latter required 50 points for one draw.
Lu Zhixing currently had zero points, but the official game had a longer role-playing cycle, and as long as he played, he could continuously earn points.
Thus, Lu Zhixing needed to start role-playing as soon as possible to accumulate points and exchange them for these skills, which might be of great help for later role-plays.
However, before that, he still needed to return to his older brother's internet cafe.
...
The occupancy rate of Starway Internet Cafe was still consistently low.
Lu Zhixing entered the lobby and didn't see his brother; just as he was about to make a call to inquire, he heard voices coming faintly from the private rooms.
Starway Internet Cafe had several private rooms, but they were seldom used, so naturally, they also took on the role of meeting rooms.
Lu Zhixing approached the private room and knocked gently on the door.
A moment later, the door opened.
Lu Mingyuan appeared surprised, "Zhixing? Don't you have classes today?"
Lu Zhixing replied, "I had classes in the morning, but I'm free this afternoon."
His gaze moved past Lu Mingyuan to the inside of the room, where he saw a middle-aged man with a small mustache contentedly smoking, filling the room with a smoky haze.
Most public places in the country had implemented a complete smoking ban, but this man was smoking with impunity, obviously aware that Lu Mingyuan, the owner, would neither dare to stop him nor report him, and would have to greet him with a smile instead.
This man, Lu Zhixing knew.
He was the owner of a nearby chain internet cafe named Duan Lin, with a large store just across the street, who was also Lu Mingyuan's biggest competitor. Many of Starway Internet Cafe's patrons were lured away by his various schemes.
Lu Mingyuan intended to block Lu Zhixing's view, saying, "You go and take care of the internet cafe first, I'm talking business with Boss Duan."
Seeing that Lu Mingyuan was about to close the door, Lu Zhixing blocked it with his hand, "Brother, I want to listen too."
Lu Mingyuan frowned slightly, "Didn't I tell you? You don't need to worry about the cafe's affairs. These matters..."
Unexpectedly, Duan Lin was glad to see Lu Zhixing and beckoned, "Hey, Boss Lu, let little Boss Lu in. You might be too close to the situation to make decisions, so you need little Boss Lu to help you decide."
Reluctance flashed across Lu Mingyuan's face, but after thinking it over, he let Lu Zhixing in.
Lu Zhixing waved away the acrid smoke and sat down on the sofa opposite Duan Lin.
Duan Lin handed over a contract with glee, "Little Boss Lu, take a look. The terms of this contract are very favorable. Once this chance is missed, there won't be another one like it.
"Your brother is emotionally attached to the internet cafe, I understand that, but emotions can't fill one's belly, can they? As a university student, you're sharp-minded and see things clearly. Take a good look and consider persuading your brother."
Lu Zhixing took the contract and quickly flipped through it.
The content of the contract was simple: to transfer Starway Internet Cafe at a price that was neither low nor particularly high to the opposing party.
According to this price, the brothers would certainly not make a profit; they could only say that they would no longer need to bear the losses of the internet cafe and could start over in a different field with a modest sum of money.
There was a reason why Lu Mingyuan could not make up his mind.
Emotionally, the brothers had invested much effort into the cafe, and it had become an indispensable part of their lives;
Realistically, if they sold the cafe now, they wouldn't have to keep pouring money into a bottomless pit in the short term, but they would also completely lose the potential for a future turnaround.
If Lu Mingyuan had invited Duan Lin to talk, it meant he was already considering the option of selling the cafe.
Duan Lin continued to puff on his cigarette with amusement, "You guys know the situation with internet cafes has been deteriorating for the past couple of years.
"Technology is advancing, portable devices are becoming more powerful, and the need for young people to come to internet cafes to play games is decreasing.
"Internet cafes that have managed to survive have deep cooperation with gaming companies, either getting exclusive offline benefits from popular games or cooperating on offline events.
"In the future, our internet cafes will need to bind closely with gaming companies and maybe even evolve toward offline experience stores to have a chance at survival.
"Boss Lu, you've been running around to different game companies lately, you must feel it too, right?
"I'm not trying to discourage you, but with your situation, it's really impossible to keep going. Selling it off to cut your losses is not a bad idea. Why hang onto one tree?"