DSMC Chapter 104.1

Yan Jiyun closed his eyes and jumped right after Qi Feng. He used to need an NPC to carry him down even from jumping off curtains, yet in this instant he jumped down just to catch up with his pooper scooper. However, if he hadn’t impulsively chased after him, he might not have dared to jump.

This was high altitude, not a floor where he could still find somewhere to stand!

Fortunately he had played parachuting before. Otherwise with this sudden high-altitude jump, he might not even have found the parachute cords, and falling from several thousand meters would mean instant death.

This garbage game could eliminate a portion of players who didn’t know how to use parachutes right at the beginning stage.

All the players floating in the sky were dressed exactly the same. Yan Jiyun had only some experience with parachuting and wasn’t a professional. After him, waves of people jumped down like dumplings being dropped into a pot. He only blinked once and the professional pooper scooper had already drifted somewhere unknown.

So this was the difference between high-level players and new players?

Sure enough, once reaching Easy-level instances, the protection mechanism for new players disappeared.

The Peak Competition might be a contest between new and old players. Of course, it could also be newcomers being crushed unilaterally by veteran players.

The time of free fall passed quickly. Yan Jiyun had no time to look for Qi Feng anymore. He maintained a streamlined posture while free-falling. After silently counting about forty seconds in his mind, he pulled the cord and opened the parachute.

Once someone opened their parachute, players at roughly the same altitude also opened theirs.

During the descent, Yan Jiyun searched for a suitable landing spot. Below were forests and towns, and directly beneath him happened to be forest.

He really wanted to shout for help.

“Help— aaaaaah!”

“My parachute won’t open!”

“How do you open this thing!!!”

These voices drifted past Yan Jiyun’s ears, expressing everything he wanted to say in his heart.

Suddenly, a strong gust of wind blew in, pushing Yan Jiyun and the nearby players in another direction!

The parachute was completely out of Yan Jiyun’s control. It drifted and drifted until he finally landed in the forest.

Yan Jiyun tried very hard to find a landing point. He didn’t want to end up skewered on a tree like barbecue.

He had to find an open space.

‘Let an open space appear, let an open space appear.’

He muttered it for a while. An open space appeared— but he couldn’t descend immediately and instead rushed straight into the forest.

Yan Jiyun: “……”

In the end he was still hanging from a tree branch.

Damn you, system!

Squeak squeak. Yan Jiyun hung there, legs swinging in the air helplessly.

Now he finally understood why players could bring points into the game: for self-rescue at the start.

Whatever situation they encountered, they would buy the corresponding prop. Buy and buy, and the points would run out. That was the system’s conspiracy.

Yan Jiyun felt that landing by hanging from a tree like this was already quite good.

Fortunately, his position wasn’t completely hopeless. He first hugged the trunk and placed his feet on a branch. After stabilizing himself, he removed the parachute pack from his back, and his whole body relaxed.

With the parachute stuck there, it was troublesome even to climb down, let alone pack it up again.

He had considerable experience climbing trees, and in the previous instance he had received special training from the black panther. In just a few moves he climbed down.

After coming down from the tree, Yan Jiyun listened carefully to the sounds around him. Compared with him being hung on a tree, other players had it even worse.

The game’s malice had never decreased. Some players fell into swamps, some were stuck on trees, and some were directly pierced through the body by the tops of large trees and died instantly.

The list of players who died during the parachuting descent was all pushed to the notification board by the system.

[Player Xiao Xiaoxiao failed to pull the parachute cord in time and died upon landing.]

[Player Zhang Sansan failed to pull the parachute cord in time and died upon landing.]

[Player Niu A-hua failed to pull the parachute cord in time and died upon landing.]

Among the many system notifications, there was also an inconspicuous system reminder.

[Friendly Reminder: After a player dies, they will automatically become a prop box. Surviving players who find the prop box can obtain the deceased player’s points and other supplies.]

Prop box? Supplies?

It sounded a bit like the battle-royale games he had played before, but would it really be like that?

The game truly grasped players’ psychology perfectly. Right at the start one could obtain the points of dead players.

If players who only cared about points appeared, then every player’s life would be in great danger. Without the system even issuing tasks, they might die through players killing each other. Because after a player dies, the points they brought into the game become item boxes. If one wants more points, they must kill.

Maybe that was the game’s goal.

At the same time, Yan Jiyun discovered that his livestream had already started.

Starting a livestream increased the watchability of the game.

Although the reward points from tips were supposedly exchanged to players at a 1:1 ratio, that was only the information the system wanted players to know. Perhaps before the audience even recharged, a round of service fees had already been deducted. It only looked like a benefit for players, but in reality players only received points. As for what currency the audience used or how they recharged… no one knew.

In short, whether targeting players or the viewers in the livestream, the game could gain greater profit from it.

After thinking about it, Yan Jiyun still chose to remain mute and maintain a mysterious image without greeting his viewers.

Right after the stream started, quite a few loyal viewers had already tipped him. If he suddenly spoke now it would feel abrupt. Besides, he actually disliked livestreaming. It was better to pretend not to see it. Some people were like that: the more he ignored them, the more excited they became. Audiences were the same.

Yan Jiyun shifted his attention back to the system interface.

While descending earlier, he hadn’t panicked enough to ignore the ground below. What he saw should be the map of the Peak Competition.

After leaving the forest there was a town.

It was still unknown whether the Peak Competition was PvE mode, pure PvP mode, or a combination of both.

If it were like the battle-royale games in the real world, it would be PvP mode where only one player ultimately wins. But if not, what kind of gameplay would it be? With the current information, it wasn’t enough to judge the tournament’s mode.

Wait. That wasn’t right.

Because of the parachuting, he had almost forgotten the first hint given by the cutesy voice.

The cutesy system had told them: [Coming out alive from the arena counts as victory.]

That meant his ultimate goal was to survive in the arena, not to defeat every other player.

“Coming out alive” also meant that during the process of survival he would encounter many troubles, be it from other players and from the game itself.

First, he had to determine where the boundaries of the instance’s arena were.

Second, how exactly victory was determined.

Finally, since the arena had no time limit, what conditions must be met to leave the instance.

What looked like a simple hint actually meant that every word was telling players these were enormous traps.

Yan Jiyun looked at the remaining player count displayed in the upper-left corner.

[Surviving Players: 480/500]

They had only just parachuted and already 20 players were dead!

The eliminated players might not have mastered parachuting, or they might have been killed by players landing in the same area and had their points taken.

The death count increased sharply after the system announced that points could be looted.

In the blink of an eye, two more players ended their Peak Competition journey. It showed just how dangerous the competition truly was.

On the main pet panel in Yan Jiyun’s system interface, Qi Feng was still in the status “In Game.” He was still alive.

Yan Jiyun knew what he had to do now: run for his life.

The forest was full of players. It wasn’t safe here. His destination should be the center of the town. He had to leave immediately!

The forest area was huge. From above they could still tell directions, but once inside it became difficult to get out. The light was insufficient and it was hard to determine direction.

Yan Jiyun originally wanted to buy a compass from the prop shop, but while browsing he saw a fully functional outdoor watch and was tempted.

When he checked the price, it was marked as 3000 points.

He remembered that before entering, the watch only cost 1500 points. Why had the price doubled?

[Do you want to spend 3000 points to purchase the Fate High-End Sports Watch immediately?]

Yan Jiyun gritted his teeth. “Yes.”

Actually, a compass only cost 100 points.

After purchasing, the watch appeared on Yan Jiyun’s wrist the next second. He also bought a close-fitting protective gear set and a pair of outdoor hiking boots.

In one go he spent 6,000 points.

It wasn’t that he was used to spending extravagantly and didn’t know how to save points. In the Peak Competition he was basically at the bottom, like a Bronze player suddenly matched with King-rank players. It would be fine if he hadn’t been matched with them, but the problem was that he had, and he had to compete with several Kings. Since his strength and experience were lacking, he could only make up for it with points and props.

The points he brought in were now reduced to 4,000.

The Peak Competition hadn’t completely disabled players’ systems. The prop shop still existed, and if points weren’t enough, they could be taken from other players.

The time cards he bought had also been brought in. He didn’t understand the principle behind it. Perhaps it was an extra favor the system gave players, something like a “talent skill.”

Every time entering an instance was a kind of experiment and experience. Forms weren’t just offensive or defensive props. It wasn’t only him who could bring these kinds of cards — other players could as well. For example, Gu Wenzhu and Qiu Xi could bring cards that improved their own abilities into instances.

Yan Jiyun’s “talent skill” was: Human Form Time Card.

Gu Wenzhu’s “talent skill” was: Swift Movement Time Card.

Qiu Xi’s “talent skill” was: Silver-Tongue Time Card.

Whether they could use them depended on whether the system had prompted them when they entered the game. With the game system’s freedom, maybe when it was in a good mood it would mention it casually; when it wasn’t, it would stick strictly to business and not say an extra word. In the end, it all came down to luck.

The game’s name had already told every player everything.

Everything was up to [Destiny].