The phone was linked to the F0631 city app that could be used to accept tasks. The inspector remembered Bu Wushang's evaluation of this visitor from the desolate area: "Good at hypothesizing, brave in verification." Although with Cheng Tingyu's current status, she definitely wouldn't pass their recruitment background check, she was clearly someone who didn't mind taking risks and needed to earn a living in the city. She would likely find something to do on the app, which would also lighten the burden on the inspection team.
At six-thirty, the bus arrived at the station on time.
The car was empty, with only the driver and Cheng Tingyu inside.
The shuttle bus from the outer district to the development zone is free to ride. As for the return trip, you can get free rides with a temporary work permit issued within the last three days; otherwise, you have to pay 200 currency units.
Cheng Tingyu casually found a seat and began to browse through the briefing documents given to her by the inspector.
——She deliberately brought Lin Baichi over in front of the inspection team members yesterday, intending to establish some connections. This way, not only could she more easily obtain information about the players and the instance in the future, but she might also find some part-time job opportunities.
Cheng Tingyu glanced briefly at the contents of the reading instructions and immediately felt a strong sense of alignment with the Inspection Team regarding future employment choices—the reason the Inspection Team had given her a phone was because it was linked to a software that could receive tasks.
Incidentally, the name of this software is "Nameless," which plainly translates to "Anonymous Forum," fully reflecting the developer's reluctance to spend effort on naming it.
The interface of the unnamed software is very simple, with a primary color scheme of white. Upon opening it, a prompt box appears with the message "Please enter your username and password."
Cheng Tingyu entered the new account he had obtained from the inspector and accessed the main interface.
Due to her low user level, the open sections available on the forum were very limited. Currently, she could only see the "Library," "Tea Party," and "Bounty Board" sections.
Cheng Tingyu, based on his many years of surfing experience, provided a more accurate interpretation of the aforementioned sections—Information Zone, Communication Zone, Task Zone.
However, even for the posts that were already open, Cheng Tingyu couldn't browse all of them. Many of the premium posts required a certain number of forum points or a payment of forum currency to unlock. She had neither, so she could only look at a few posts that had no access restrictions.
Cheng Tingyu saw a post from last year with only twenty replies so far, titled "General Knowledge Dissemination (Free)."
The original poster disappeared after posting the main thread, and most of the comments below were mocking them for using common items to earn points.
The point of ridicule is "commonplace," not the false content, which proves that the content of the post has a certain degree of authenticity.
Cheng Tingyu looked at the basic knowledge in the post.
Perhaps to more conveniently and quickly accumulate points, the author didn't provide any preamble. The beginning was a straightforward introduction to the categories of player abilities
"After the 'Century of Silence,' the abilities humans awakened to can be roughly categorized into five types: Domain, Calamity Insect, Flesh and Blood, Secret Eye, and Cursed Speech."
"Among them, the 'Secret Eyes' are the most dangerous. They can see anomalies that ordinary people cannot, and they themselves are easily contaminated by these anomalies. There was once a group of familiar players who entered the same instance. During their exploration, the 'Secret Eyes' in the team unknowingly turned into a monster, leading to heavy casualties. The 'Domain' can affect a certain area around them. Many people know that during the founding period of City F0631, there was a pioneer with the true name 'Domain: Harvest,' which ensured the food supply at that time. As for the 'Disaster Worms,' many people's understanding is inconsistent. Initially, it referred to the power contained in knowledge. In the perception of some players, the essence of knowledge can be understood as 'worms.' As for the 'Cursed Words,' their language is their weapon."
Cheng Tingyu glanced at the comments below. Amid the mockery, there were also relatively serious replies, expressing partial disagreement with the original poster's opinion, but without offering any substantial conclusions.
——After all, it's a free post, we can't ask for too much.
She reached out and lightly touched her own eyes. Cheng Tingyu didn't feel that she was in any danger.
Is it because she has not yet received a "name"?
The journey from the development zone back to the city was long. On the bumpy bus, Cheng Tingyu opened the second introductory post on basic knowledge that he had found, titled "Overview of Player Abilities Theory."
"…People who awaken their abilities initially feel dazed, experiencing the illusion of being a plankton drifting in the deep sea. This signifies that someone has begun to step into the realm of the mind."
"Scholars of the past believed that since life originated in the ocean and fetuses grow in amniotic fluid, the human spiritual world also begins from water."
"For humans, the deep sea holds a special significance."
"The related research can be traced back to the early days of the 'Century of Silence'—when people are mentally exhausted, such as when they are drunk, sleep-deprived, or consuming toxic mushrooms, they are prone to hallucinations. This is a sign of the material world and the spiritual world becoming confused. However, the hallucinations that appear due to a decrease in sanity value are uncontrollable, and they cannot explore the surrounding world in this state. After the 'Century of Silence,' those with abilities, through years of accumulation, have developed more stable methods to enter the spiritual world."
"Here is a method that most people know: enter a dungeon. The more the dungeon aligns with your own type of power, the easier it is to gain the opportunity to enter the spiritual world. Entering dungeons in unrelated fields can also have an enhancing effect, but the efficiency will be somewhat lower."
"Before entering the spiritual world, players can have premonitions. Meditation and herbs can provide some assistance. The commonly used types are listed in the attachment."
"In that place, we were surrounded by complete darkness, with only a distant glimmer of light hanging above."
"The faint light above has had many names: 'Morning Star,' 'Torch,' and finally it was settled as 'Lighthouse.'"
"The faint light hangs above the deep sea, and the shortening of the distance between the two signifies an increase in one's abilities. All types of players can follow the light, and although we may sometimes stray from the lighthouse, we must ultimately return to the correct path, spiraling upwards. However, the 'Seers' are a special kind; they can see light that does not belong to them. Once they take the wrong direction, they will be trapped in an eternal abyss."
The phone screen dimmed due to prolonged inactivity.
"Camellia Park, please gather your belongings and prepare to disembark."
Accompanied by the electronic announcement inside the carriage, the shuttle bus slowly came to a stop.
Cheng Tingyu put his phone in his pocket, slung his bag over his shoulder, and leisurely stepped off the bus.
Although she understood why "Secret Eyes" were feared, overall, Cheng Tingyu's mindset remained relatively calm. Moreover, she had initially thought of a solution—if moving down a divergent path in the mental world was dangerous, then staying still and making no progress should be a relatively safe choice.
Opposite the Camellia Park was a capsule hotel available for rent to impoverished residents. After a trip to the development zone, Cheng Tingyu now had some financial reserves. Without hesitation, he lowered the priority of "job hunting" and decided to first find a suitable long-term place to stay.
Cheng Tingyu, following her pre-time-travel life experience, opened her phone and prepared to download a rental app—
Her plan had not yet been implemented before it was thwarted by the backward information technology development in City F0631—the phone she obtained from the inspection team did not come with an app store, and the web page refresh speed was so slow that Cheng Tingyu had enough leisure time to make a bowl of instant noodles in the intervals between opening new pages.
"..."
Only through comparison can differences be discerned; in this regard, the user experience of Nameless Software can undoubtedly be described as exceptionally smooth.
After realizing that she didn't have many options, Cheng Tingyu had no choice but to open the forum again.
At the bottom of the forum's homepage, the words "Tea Party (762)" were displayed.
The Tea Party section is a place specifically provided for users to chat casually, with the number of new posts today displayed in parentheses—judging by this, the Tea Party is clearly the most popular section among all the modules.
In terms of visual appeal, the tea party, the library, and the bounty board all maintained a high level of consistency. The design was simple, the style unadorned, making one wonder if there was even an artist on the development team. However, the appearance was not the most concerning aspect of the Nameless Forum—every user who opened the software could see a red text warning at the top of the page that read, "Server capacity is limited, spam content will be cleared."
Cheng Tingyu sighed inwardly once again at the standard of living he had after crossing over.
The homepage of the tea party was filled with all sorts of experience sharing of questionable authenticity. Cheng Tingyu searched for something related to accommodation, and the top post was "Want to know how to rent a house? Come in!!!"
The poster, with a voice choked with tears, first denounced the rent of regular hotels and the insecurity of capsule hotels, using such a rich vocabulary that one couldn't help but suspect the post's points were related to word count. It wasn't until the last paragraph that they mentioned the key points for choosing accommodation.
Cheng Tingyu silently closed his eyes.
"..."
According to the poster, certain instances have a trigger rate of once a month, making them very suitable for new players to settle in.
The first reason is naturally because the rent in those places is low, and the second is that as players, they often enter dungeons in their spare time, accumulating some cooldown periods on themselves, so the probability of being suddenly dragged into a dungeon is not high.
If you are truly strapped for cash, Apartment No. 6 in the outer district is also a decent place. However, the prerequisite for going there is mental stability; otherwise, it is easy to fall into madness.