Novel Bin Chapter 3
Chapter 3 Card with Bonus Attributes
“I won't marry him.”
“How can they do this to me?”
Gu Siyin whimpered while embracing Guo Fan tightly. She complained randomly about being aggrieved and wronged, with a few words of apology mixed in.
Guo Fan stroked her back and whispered comforting words into her ear as if coaxing a child. Eventually, the girl's voice faltered, and she fell into a deep slumber. In the meantime, he inferred the plot's progress from her words.
Pool Feather Mountain Manor was a novice village of ‘Upper Center'. The first checkpoint in the game was a quest that players mockingly referred to as ‘the scandal of Pool Feather Mountain Manor canceling the engagement'.
As the youngest and most favorite daughter of the manor lord, Gu Feidao, Gu Siyin grew up to discover that she was to be betrothed to a partner — the former genius of the Xue family, the loser Xue Zhui.
Enemies of the Xue family had crushed Xue Zhui's Dantian, turning him from a martial arts genius to a loser. As a consequence, the marriage contract had almost been abolished. However, recently, Xue Zhui became a disciple in the cultivation sect, Water Moon Dock, and came to propose marriage again. nove(l)bi(n.)com
For the Pool Feather Mountain Manor, a major power only in the pugilistic world, a refusal would bring tensions and risks. However, Gu Siyin, who had been coddled since she was a child, didn't want to marry him and insisted on nullifying the engagement.
Amid this situation, a series of events unfolded, bringing to light hidden secrets of the manor after a thousand years.
The players' initial character setting was that of immortal cultivators who had lost their cultivation base due to injuries and were temporarily recuperating at the Pool Feather Mountain Manor with concealed identities.
While recovering his strength (quests like the beginners tutorial, killing innocent chickens, ducks, and dogs, and leveling up), the hero also passionately interacted with the villa residents (with NPCs interacting and familiarizing themselves with the game interface functions). A sequence of twists and turns would follow, leading to Gu Siyin's “inquire information” quest.
It also marked the main storyline's first quest. The game's first chapter was titled “Conflicts within the Pool Feather Mountain Manor.”
“The quest must have begun not too long ago. The Xue Family and Water Moon Dock will definitely go to war. And the demonic cultivation sect behind Water Moon Dock... What a mess! Every player has unique skills. It was a different case in the past. Now, it appears I have only one favorability rating...”
After the initial excitement passed, he relaxed. In fact, now that he had given it some thought, he might as well bring over a combat system. That would be on the safer side. At the moment, he was penniless. He had an extensive card collection with full favorability, but that was useless if he could not meet the characters.
Guo Fan's frowned and sighed deeply. His attention went to his clothes.
He lowered his head and found that he was in the same T-shirt and underpants he wore before going to bed. Guo Fan felt like showing his middle finger to whoever did this to him.
On scrutinizing his clothes, Guo Fan's expression face twitched again. The cute version of Misty Flower was printed on his T-shirt. The three-headed Sea Slashing Tower Lord looked exceptionally adorable. The unfamiliar, cold feeling from within her had vanished.
It was genuine merchandise from the original version of Upper Center. It was accessible through a lottery ticket for beta players in those days. Guo Fan himself spent a lot of money on the lottery. After three draws, he won a T-shirt and a clay figurine. He felt that the fabric of the clothes was quite comfortable and therefore used it as pajamas.
Fortunately, it was unlikely that there would be such an art style in the transmigrated world, so the probability of it being recognized was relatively low.
Otherwise, if anyone found out that he actually dared to imprint the image of such a mighty character on his clothes, he might get in big trouble.
Guo Fan's eyelids twitched. He realized that he should find some ordinary clothes to change into as soon as possible. At least, he had to cover up the prints on his T-shirt.
He carefully laid down the girl in his arms on the side of the bed. He was about to cover her with a quilt when he saw Gu Siyin's thick bridal gown. He froze for a moment. She could catch a cold if she slept in formal clothes.
How about taking them off?
His mind raced. Guo Fan's gaze returned to the young girl's delicate face with baby fat. The quiet, sleeping Gu Siyin seemed just as cute as one of Guo Fan's illustrations in his handbook, ‘Canary'.
As he was gathering his thoughts, Guo Fan's vision suddenly flashed. A semi-transparent virtual screen popped up. It was the illustrated characters handbook in the game. The character card and achievement pages were still vivid in his mind.
He was initially stunned but relief flooded into him.
“So it turns out that there is an illustrated handbook system after all...”
Guo Fan mumbled, “This changes things. I can check the character's status now!”
Guo Fan glanced at the handbook and found that the other characters were greyed out and unresponsive. Only the character of Gu Siyin was active.
Just as he was mulling it over, Gu Siyin's character menu popped up.
[Character: Gu Siyin (Three Star)]
[Gender: Female]
[Title: Brightmoon - Golden Maiden]
[Level: Mortal - Level 7 of Pulse Invigorating Stage]
[Status: Exhausted / Normal]
[Attribute interface (click to find out)]
Card Bonus: Movement + 5 Strength + 5 (do you want to carry the card: Yes / No)
“Card Bonus!”
Guo Fan's eyes immediately settled on the prompts.
He was the player most thorough with the strategy roleplay and the card collection system in the game. Thus, he was familiar with the illustrated card's function.
This function existed in the original ‘Upper Center' and could be considered a benefit to players who had the habit of collecting cards. However, the attributes added are not that many. Furthermore, he could draw only 10 cards at a time, which was kind of pointless.
“Looks like it's controlled by the mind.”
Guo Fan rifled through the handbook in pensive thought as he opened Gu Siyin's attributes menu. The page expanded instantly. The five-dimensional map and related derivative data were displayed on the top panels, while the equipments and skills panels were on the bottom.
[Constitution: 8]
[Bone structure: 12]
[Strength: 10]
[Movement Technique: 10]
[Spiritual Energy: 5]
Out of the five basic attributes, Constitution could increase vitality, which was equivalent to HP. The Bone Structure was related to the mana bar's upper limit, or the recovery speed. The Spiritual Energy could increase magical attack power. Strength could increase physical attack power, movement skills, evasion, and critical strikes.
One point of Vitality equals 10 points of health, one Bone Structure equals 10 points of mana, one Strength equals 2 Physical Attack, and one Movement Skill equals 3 Critical Hit plus 1 Evasion. The success rate of Critical Strike and Evasion depends on the size of the data between the two parties, and one Spiritual Energy equals 4 Spell Attack plus HP recovery speed of 0.8 and mana recovery speed of 0.1.
In other words...
Gu Siyin was a level 5 or 6 character, an absolute newbie. No wonder she was just an NPC in the novice village.
Her equipment was mostly beginner equipment. Only one of her weapons was blue grade, the Yunxiu Sword. Even that was just about passable.
On the other hand, the wedding gift from Water Moon Dock was purple grade. However, it belonged to the decorative category. It was not in the equipment category and did not provide any bonus attributes.
There was no other way to go about this. After all, there was no point in mortals possessing high-level martial arts in the Xianxia world. But then, the equipment in this novice village would not be too fancy, to begin with.
The skill bar sported some martial arts moves. Guo Fan cast a cursory glance and turned off the attribute panel.
His gaze returned to the card with bonus attributes.
Since he had already transmigrated into the game, what would happen if he added the bonus to the current stats?