Chapter 260: Chapter 207: Pharmacist’s Wish Meets Yan Qing

It’s over.

Yan Qing put down the Nexar Game Console; the Rabbit Heroine had already fainted, and the screen displayed nothing. What was going to happen next wasn’t hard to imagine—the True Man of Locking Dragon would probably imprison her in a heavily guarded place until she was old and gray.

Although the True Man of Locking Dragon claims to act for the sake of the world, Yan Qing is not an ordinary person who knows nothing about the Power of Calamity. According to the basic setup that the Power of Calamity must be obtained through challenges beyond one’s level, why would the Heirs of Calamity like Si Wuxie target ordinary Secret Realms? They couldn’t even obtain spoils from the Secret Realm Demon Fiend’s eruption, making destroying Low-Level Secret Realms meaningless to them.

Moreover, with Winter Hunting Zhenren controlling life and death of his clansmen and the True Man of Locking Dragon casually reinstating the Pharmacist’s Wish’s title, it’s evident they take from their family and country, using every last bit like sand. Would these Foundation Establishment True Men truly care about the impact of Low-Level Secret Realms on ordinary people?

There’s only one answer—the real concern for Foundation Establishment is Heirs of Calamity destroying Secret Realms above Fourth-Turn.

Si Wuxie, this old rascal, wishes to gain the Power of Calamity. Challenging Fifth-Turn Secret Realms is unlikely, but for Fourth-Turn Secret Realms, as long as he eliminates the Fourth-Turn Demon King, it will definitely count as a 10-level challenge. He possesses nearly 18 points of Power of Calamity, even if only a third of it was gained after his Fourth-Turn, he has destroyed at least six Fourth-Turn Secret Realms.

What he can destroy must be easy to tackle, akin to an ATM for Fourth-Turn individuals. Hence, it’s justified that Foundation Establishment fears and even hates Heirs of Calamity. In game terms, they find a high-value instance, where minimal time investment yields maximal returns, then encounter a group called ’Heirs of Calamity’ destroying one after another—you’d want to beat them up too.

The trouble is, the Heirs of Calamity are adept fighters. Even putting aside Dao Foundation Divine Techniques, just having 18 points of true damage is enough for Foundation Establishment to contend with. Furthermore, Si Wuxie is a Demonic Messenger, equipped with an Asura Token that ignores defensive barriers!

Pondering this reveals just how abhorrent the Heirs of Calamity are. It’s tough to fight them, and ignoring them means having them wreak havoc on ATMs everywhere. Doing such acts naturally makes one a lone wolf, feasting solo without family concern. Conversely, Foundation Establishment Messenger has extensive family and properties—would they dare engage in a life-or-death struggle with Heirs of Calamity?

The True Man of Locking Dragon might also have the idea of utilizing the Rabbit Heroine. Despite being a double-edged sword hated worldwide, if wielded correctly, who could refuse such a peerless blade?

Therefore, when the True Man of Locking Dragon says the Rabbit Heroine will be returned to the Pharmacist’s Wish upon her Foundation Establishment, it’s likely sincere. Because by then, the Pharmacist’s Wish will be in the same boat as the Foundation Establishment Messenger. Even for her own cultivation resources, she’d help curb Rabbit Heroine’s calamitous activities.

If ordinary Foundation Establishment is a lord, then Celestial Calamity Foundation Establishment is a pirate. The former earns sustainable gains from cultivating Secret Realms; the latter robs and flees, never staying in one place.

The Pharmacist’s Wish, or rather any sane individual, would choose the former.

After all, compared to stable returns, the benefits brought by the Power of Calamity are too insignificant.

Yan Qing’s high regard for the Power of Calamity is predicated on accumulating it, reaching the Ascension Stage as players and forming a complete build.

If one has ten points of Power of Calamity at the Foundation Establishment Stage, is it strong? It is strong, but the price is being guarded against like a thief. Unless one never touches someone else’s Secret Realm, expect to be jointly blocked.

The Power of Calamity lacks the snow-delivering effect at the Foundation Establishment Stage, yet by choosing the path of calamity, one inevitably ends up in the snow.

Milestones demonstrate that for the Power of Calamity to undergo qualitative change, one must trigger all milestones, requiring perhaps a hundred points. Not even considering locals, players with one account might not achieve this; it seems specially designed for real mode players. Only multiple accounts collectively amassing the Power of Calamity might fulfill it.

Thus, the calamity gameplay is only feasible for players—it’s stranger to encounter Heirs of Calamity like Si Wuxie. Like in The Legend of Sword and Fairy where some didn’t know to board a ship to the second Chapter in Hangzhou and thus grinded at Ten-Mile Slope for ages... they hardly noticed how the tiny benefits came with enormous sacrifices.

...

Yan Qing exited to the character selection interface, hesitating momentarily while staring at the Rabbit Heroine who had unloaded all tokens in the screen.

Actually, Yan Qing could now just delete the ’Rabbit Heroine.’ The True Man of Locking Dragon’s Divine Authority is indeed powerful, completely forbidding the Rabbit Heroine’s actions—even emoji can’t be sent, nearly no executable commands except for typing in chat channels exist. In theory, the Rabbit Heroine can’t even commit suicide.

Nevertheless, deletion is an ultimate measure transcending all systems. Let alone a mere Third-Turn Rabbit Heroine, even the Nine-Turned Immortal Venerable would be instantly obliterated upon account theft.

But the issue is based on the mechanism of Power of Calamity, if the Rabbit Heroine dies, half her Power of Calamity will be lost. Not only the Rabbit Heroine, any alternate account Yan Qing opens in the future will lose half of its Power of Calamity upon death.

"Hmm?"

Yan Qing blinked as he suddenly noticed all character information was marked with "Power of Calamity: 11" in dark golden engraved fonts. Upon closer inspection, all accounts were linked by a dark golden thread, symbolizing ’honor and disgrace together.’

This change presumably emerged after the Rabbit Heroine acquired the Power of Calamity. Yet Yan Qing had been rapidly switching accounts these days, missing a thorough look at the character account interface.

He suddenly conjectured, selecting the ’Rabbit Heroine’ account and opting for the account deletion.

"Are you sure you want to permanently delete the game character ’Rabbit Heroine’? Please note, this action cannot be reversed, and all items within the game character and personal inventory will vanish."

"Because ’Rabbit Heroine’ is a real mode · Calamity character, the first time each month you delete a Calamity character it costs 0 points of Power of Calamity, the second time 1 point, the third time 2 points... deletion count resets on the first of the next month."

Is the first account deletion each month free... well, that’s reasonable.

Yan Qing just realized that Calamity players, to avoid losses, would certainly dispose of their ’useless secondary accounts’, lest they cause trouble for themselves. If deleting the account equaled death, it would also result in losing half of the Power of Calamity on the entire account, then players might as well never log back in once they take the secondary account offline.

Unlike Yan Qing’s account that’s dirt poor, players can spend money to expand their character slots, having up to ninety-nine characters traverse the world of ’Messenger’. So as long as the officials are sane, they would never increase the threshold for deleting an account.

The first account deletion each month is free, but beyond that it costs Power of Calamity. The officials’ stance is clear: it’s not that you can’t create secondary accounts, but don’t go too far. If you insist on going too far, then... you’ll have to pay extra.

Seems the officials were a bit pressured for revenue when the Calamity version first launched, to even think up such a crooked idea to boost cash flow.

Yan Qing looked at the Rabbit Heroine on the screen, his fingers rubbing the button.

Since deleting the account incurs no loss, there’s no need for Rabbit Heroine to occupy a character slot.

Not to mention when I will be able to raise a Foundation Establishment character rivaling True Man of Locking Dragon to save her, but when Yan Qing really has a Foundation Establishment secondary account, he can easily cultivate a talent secondary account with 10 perception starting points, the potential far surpassing Rabbit Heroine, so why cultivate Rabbit Heroine?

She has already perfectly achieved Yan Qing’s goal, successfully obtaining the Foundation Establishment legacy, even if she dies it’s not a shame, let alone account deletion as a form of ’dying a natural death’.

No secondary account can last all the way, not to mention whether there would be enough character slots, Yan Qing’s time just isn’t sufficient, when a stronger and more talented new secondary account is cultivated, the old account naturally loses any gameplay value.

But, yet, still...

"Sigh."

Yan Qing leaned against the chair, looking up at the marble ceiling, let out a long sigh.

"Shang Xinlei, Pharmacist’s Wish, you two are really annoying."

At that moment, there was a knock on the door.

Three short and one long, indicating Shang Xinlei was calling him for dinner.

At this point, let’s eat first.

Yan Qing skillfully wrapped his face with bandages, changed into clothes and combed his hair in front of the mirror, tidying up his collar. Actually, there wasn’t much to tidy up, since no matter how he rectified it wouldn’t change his mummy-like skin, he just felt he shouldn’t be too casual... It wasn’t related to Shang Xinlei, it was just that there was only this time for communication with others, taking it a bit seriously too was natural.

There was another knock outside, previously Shang Xinlei didn’t do this, but maybe due to lacking confidence in her cooking skills, afraid the dishes would become cold and taste bad, she had higher time expectations for Yan Qing.

"Coming, coming."

Yan Qing opened the door, and surely enough, Shang Xinlei was standing outside. She was holding a plate of stuffed fried peppers, sulkily pouting, "Can’t you be quicker next time? Why do you always make me wait for you every day? Hurry and have a bite, let’s see if it’s too spicy."

Though she spoke, the anticipation was evident in Shang Xinlei’s eyes, it must be a dish she learned with great effort that she wanted Yan Qing to taste while it’s hot for the best feedback. Yan Qing realized that even if the stuffed fried peppers were so spicy his rear end blossomed, he had to say it was delicious, or else morning lunch would be filled with Shang Xinlei’s sulking face.

Yan Qing picked up a piece of stuffed fried pepper with a toothpick and put it in his mouth, chewed very seriously for quite a while. Shang Xinlei appeared nervous, asked, "How is it? Is it too spicy? Is there too much oil?"

"I think—" Yan Qing drew out his voice, deliberately waiting for Shang Xinlei to get so worried before saying the second half: "Ah!?"

"What are you ah-ing about!?" Shang Xinlei was startled, thinking it might be too spicy, but when she looked up she realized Yan Qing wasn’t looking at her and had an expression as if he’d seen a ghost.

In fact, it was quite similar.

Yan Qing’s gaze went over Shang Xinlei’s shoulder, looking towards the doorway that opened, from where someone he’d see day and night every day walked out, the only difference was she now wore a Black Wolf Mask.

Pharmacist’s Wish!