[Vol. 1] Chapter 28: Developer, Are You Crazy or What?!
"Oh? Oh, I'm sorry… I completely forgot about this."
Speaking of which, Violet was not a native of this world, and she shouldn't have been able to communicate with Lilya and others due to the language barrier.
Crossing over hadn't brought her any convenient "automatic translation" benefits. The reason she could communicate so easily was due to a game item's assistance.
Reaching into her inventory, Violet once again retrieved a rather plain, old-fashioned item. It was a pair of glasses that could be associated with the typical image of a "bookworm," with two transparent crystals set in a peculiar frame. She handed it to the princess.
"Here, put these on."
"What's this, Violet? Two transparent crystals set in a strange frame?"
Well, that was a pretty straightforward and accurate description…
"Think of it as a magical item. This thing will help you understand the content of the book. Oh, Lilya, you probably haven't worn glasses before, right? Let me help you."
Without giving it much thought, Violet demonstrated how to unfold the glasses' frame and then circled around the blue-haired girl. She slightly bent down and extended her hand to brush aside Lilya's smooth and delicate side bangs, using the glasses' frame to compare the princess's size.
Despite their unassuming appearance, these glasses were, in fact, more precious than golden spiritual weapons. They were classified as sacred-grade items.
While they didn't have any attributes or combat abilities of their own, they allowed the wearer to understand any text recorded on a medium. These glasses were indispensable for certain types of decryption and exploration quests.
This item was even harder to obtain than the one Violet and Xiao Guang used to convert languages, and Violet only had one of these glasses with her. If it weren't for the fact that sacred-grade items were extremely durable, she wouldn't have casually handed it to Lilya for use.
After automatically identifying the user's face shape and dimensions, the glasses adjusted slightly, making them look more dainty and cute than before. Violet then gently and tenderly placed them on the princess's nose, securing them in place.
"Alright, can you see clearly now? Huh? What's wrong with you?"
Violet turned back to her own seat, only to find the princess still in a daze, with a somewhat flushed complexion compared to before.
Although she looked cute, Violet was alarmed by Lilya's unusual appearance after putting on the glasses, which brought back painful memories of something from the past.
What could be the matter? Was Lilya's level too low to handle a sacred-grade item?
That didn't make sense. This wasn't an item with specific level requirements. In [Illusory World], even level 1 players entering a newbie village could freely use items of any grade unless there were explicitly stated restrictions.
Just as Violet began to feel uneasy and considered taking the glasses back, the princess abruptly snapped out of her daze.
"Oh! I, I'm sorry, I just zoned out…"
Lilya lowered her head with a vacant expression, unable to meet Violet's gaze and blushing intensely, as if her face was on the verge of catching fire.
Violet wasn't one to be oblivious to such situations, and she realized that Lilya might be feeling shy.
Is she blushing?
Thinking back, they had been quite close while adjusting the frame just now, and Violet could even smell the fresh fragrance emanating from the princess's hair. If they were of the opposite gender, it could easily be misconstrued as an attempt to get closer.
However, let's be clear, Violet hadn't thought in that direction earlier because she was currently a girl. Between girls, this level of intimacy should be normal, right?
Is there something wrong with Lilya, or is it me?
"Um… Lilya, is there something uncomfortable about wearing the glasses? I've never used this on someone else before. If it's really bothering you, I can…"
Even though she had already realized, Violet certainly wouldn't bring up the princess's subtle feelings because that would be too awkward.
"Oh? Oh! It's fine, really. Although it felt a bit dizzy when I first put them on, I quickly got used to it. Don't worry, Violet."
Lilya, as expected of a princess, handled this matter with ease and quickly restored the atmosphere to its previous state.
"Great, then let's quickly test its effectiveness."
Lilya obediently nodded and began to focus her attention on the book on the table. She concentrated for a while, and her expression gradually became more serious and then surprised as she became absorbed in the text.
After a while, the young girl raised her head, looking quite astonished.
"The power system and descriptions documented here are incredibly detailed, and they are completely different from all the current theories I'm familiar with. Levels, skill points, attributes? Violet, what are all of these?"
Of course, they would be different. This was the skill manual from [Illusory World].
Although it was essentially just a preview of the game's classes and skills for players to get an overview, the skill tree in [Illusory World] was incredibly complex, with at least tens of thousands of skills in total, which is why this book was so thick.
Moreover, hidden skills and equipment skills weren't included in this book, because no one except the game company knew how many of those existed.
Of course, it wasn't as if players could just choose to learn any skill listed in the book.
Firstly, the number of skill points a player could obtain upon leveling up was limited. Additionally, apart from basic skills, most advanced abilities within specific branches had all sorts of peculiar requirements for learning.
The simplest requirement might be having certain base stats, such as Strength, Agility, or Intelligence, meet a specific threshold. More complicated requirements could include things like needing to max out a particular low-level skill or being a specific race, among other conditions. However, these were still relatively straightforward.
But that's not where the craziness ended. For higher-level skills, the conditions became incredibly diverse, even to the point of being infuriating.
This could include but wasn't limited to learning a skill only in specific environments, consuming precious materials for learning, needing to possess a specific piece of equipment or have used a particular special item, or even requiring you to be struck by lightning a certain number of times and unlock a particular achievement before learning the skill. It was like anything you could think of, game designers could come up with it.
Violet still remembered when she was trying to learn a 10th-tier spell, and the prerequisite condition was absurd: single-handedly defeat at least a thousand Dark Elemental Lords!
For context, the players who could unlock this level 90 skill were all priest-class players like Violet who focused primarily on support. While they weren't completely without combat abilities, the few meager offensive skills they possessed would have made defeating a level 100 boss, like the Elemental Lord, an impossible task.
To prevent players from "cheating," the skill was specifically marked as "forbidden in a party," "forbidden to use the power of pets and special items for attacks," and during the battle, if the player's damage was less than 80% of the boss's total health or if they didn't secure the last hit, it wouldn't count.
You could buff yourself, but Violet was already a full-fledged support player. Repeatedly casting buff skills wouldn't stack significantly.
It took Violet more than half a year to learn that skill. She had to hunt down the Dark Elemental Lords one by one all over the game world and quickly pull them into a different dimension using special items, then painstakingly chip away at their health bit by bit while trying to avoid their attacks.
She repeated this process a thousand times and it left psychological scars on the priest.
If it wasn't for the fact that the skill was genuinely powerful and that you needed to learn all the Holy Light spells to unlock the ultimate secret of that branch, Violet would have thrown in the towel.
In summary, Violet didn't have much confidence in Lilya's ability to learn the in-game skills, especially the high-level ones. While she could find a workaround for the skill tree issue, those prerequisite conditions… well, she chuckled at the thought.