Days as a Spiritual Mentor in American Comics-Chapter 4294 - 3391: Teammate Selection (Part 1)

In the office of Arkham Sanatorium, Shiller was looking at the design of the sanatorium. When it was first built, it could be considered very advanced with a beautiful environment and luxurious decor, truly the prime choice for recuperating the body and mind.

But after all these years, although the decor could not be called outdated, it had lost much of its competitive edge. Several sanatoriums nearby on Long Island had been uniquely renovated, attracting many new wealthy clients. Arkham Sanatorium, on the other hand, had been relying on its old customers for business.

After Shiller noticed that other people's homes had recently undergone renovations, he started entertaining the idea of renovating the sanatorium as well. The decorating styles and details that used to seem great, now the more he looked at them, the more off-putting they were.

So recently, Shiller had been examining various renovation cases, preparing to pick his favorite and give Arkham Sanatorium a complete makeover.

Since he decided on renovations, naturally the place had to close for business. Shiller studied the map for a while, then began packing up his things.

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One good thing about the Gray mist was that he didn't need to pack a suitcase; he just needed to take the essentials with him. Most importantly, he had to bring his kitchenware and ingredients. Ever since he had Sichuan cuisine at Kamar-Taj once, Shiller began searching for a bunch of Sichuan recipes, planning to make it himself.

Actually, other ingredients were manageable, but the challenge was the chili peppers in America were not quite suitable. Shiller had to visit several Chinese supermarkets and Mexican restaurants to collect the peppers he needed, and now these were his treasures.

After packing up most of his belongings, Shiller went downstairs to the garage to drive his car. Even though taking the Flying Shuttle would be faster, the Brooklyn Area station was too far from Shiller's clinic, so he decided to drive there instead.

Unlike Los Angeles, New York's traffic had greatly improved since the introduction of the sky transportation system, with hardly any congestion.

The Brooklyn Area was still bustling and lively. A second-hand clothing store and a bakery had recently opened on the street where the clinic was located. Watching Shiller's car pull up in front of the clinic, the gray-haired elderly man at the corner newsstand nodded at him.

Shiller lifted the roller door in front of the clinic, and the small clinic was as clean and tidy as ever. He first went to the kitchen to put down his kitchenware and ingredients, and right then his phone rang.

"Hello? Tony? No, I'm not at the sanatorium now... Oh? It's already online? I haven't seen it yet..." While busy with his tasks, Shiller held the phone with his shoulder and ear and replied, "I'm busy right now, I'll call you after I've seen it. Okay, bye."

After hanging up, Shiller methodically arranged the seasoning bottles in the slots of the refrigerator door. After closing the refrigerator, he brought up the Battleworld interface. Stark had just told him on the phone that the duo event was live.

Whether it's due to a time difference between the Transcendents and here or something else, the event went live at noon. Shiller usually only checked Battleworld news at night, so he was still unaware.

He sat in the living room, his consciousness entering the virtual space of Battleworld, and immediately upon entering, he saw a huge banner: "Duo event is now live! Invite your friends to join the battle in Battleworld."

"It actually looks quite professionally done," Shiller murmured to himself.

However, the moment he clicked on the event interface his smile vanished—this was a money-grabbing event!

What stood out on the event interface wasn't the gameplay but rather various kinds of money-grabbing gift packs. No wonder Molecule Man specifically made a trip to find him—it turns out he was waiting for him here.

Shiller checked the details of the gift packs and found out that the main item for sale was tickets.

That's right, the entrance tickets for this damnable duo event weren't free, and they couldn't even be bought with points but had to be purchased with real money.

The gold accumulation function of Battleworld had been online for a while and wasn't complicated. By opening the recharge interface, there was a scale; you place your items on it, and the system automatically assesses their monetary value.

This auto-assessment System is linked to both Marvel and DC Universe administrators' maintenance systems, showing the true quality and importance of everything in the universe here. The more important the items you take out, the more Dou World Coins you can exchange for.

Of course, there are also many things that are not accepted, such as sentient life and breathing creatures, cosmic celestial bodies, resources that are important to the operation of the universe, and non-renewable resources in the cosmos.

Trading is particularly encouraged for products of intelligence, such as technology, machinery, Divine Artifacts, and so on.

This was a set of rules devised by administrators from both sides, mainly to control entropy by recycling some large-mass items, although the effect is not very significant but better than nothing.

The gold system's computational power is very strong. The exchange rate it calculates for the mass to currency is very precise; it's tough to pass off inferior goods as better ones, and it is very stingy. Many pretty decent technologies can only be exchanged for a little bit of money. Even technology giants like Stark didn't have much Dou World Coin in hand.

So, how much money does Shiller have? The answer is zero. He never spends real money. Play when he's online, disperse when he's offline. He doesn't spend points, focusing on companionship.

As a result, Battleworld's first major event since beta turned out to be a money-grabbing event. Shiller could only say that if there were competitors, they would have crushed this kind of business in minutes.

Then he realized, Stark called him likely to complain, but perhaps through his tone detected that this didn't seem like his own design, so Stark ended the call.

Shiller ignored that bunch of gift packs and started sifting through the event interface. Then, in the bottom right corner, he saw a small flashing icon. Upon clicking it, two rows of icons appeared.

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If he wasn't mistaken, this should be the Battle Order.

People who don't play games might not know, the so-called Battle Order not only requires spending money but also "liver" power. After purchasing a certain package, the items can't be obtained all at once; instead, one needs to earn experience in the game before unlocking rewards level by level.

However, because this maintains daily activity, such packages are somewhat cheaper than others. Aside from key items, it also provides a bunch of miscellaneous small rewards, making it a relatively mild way of spending money on the game.

Shiller checked the specific content of the Battle Order for the "Pair Up" event version and found that this version wasn't very demanding in terms of spending. Only when participating in multi-pair queues is that expensive ticket needed. Single-pair duo queues are free to enter.

As long as you participate in a single-pair duo queue, you can gain experience rewards to unlock the Battle Order rewards. The Battle Order provides a multi-pair queue ticket every 10 levels, totaling 6 tickets.

There are also rewards such as points, items, draw tickets, etc., and even a set of interior decoration furniture packs for decorating the Battleworld base houses.

Shiller thought it made sense. Because if it were five pairs of duos, meaning ten people in total, designing a script that can accommodate ten people for combat would indeed consume a lot of resources. Just setting up the script alone would take a lot of effort, and playtime would be very long.

But with a single pair, it's only two people. The exploration and combat load for two people is not as substantial, so the script can be simpler, and naturally, it can be free.

Moreover, the duo queue poses another problem, which is coordination. If multi-pair queues are open to all, everyone would practice in these scripts.

Large scripts have a lot of story content and high difficulty; under-coordinated duos might fail to clear the level. This could greatly discourage both parties.

Therefore, putting tickets on large scripts and making small duo scripts free of charge is essentially forcing players to practice in the small ones first and enhance their coordination before joining larger instances.

Shiller checked the rewards for the small duo instances and found them to be pitiful. It means that the main reward is actually Battle Order experience. Not purchasing it equates to grinding for nothing.

The Battle Order isn't expensive, just 45 Dou World Coins. Shiller still had some good items he could sell for money, like the golden honey wine he got from participating in a tabletop campaign instance before. It's not as useful as the red wine Nya gave him, and it hasn't been of much use in Shiller's hands. It's not a loss to exchange it for money.

Pure energy can also be converted to money, but it doesn't amount to much. It can be said to be very unprofitable. Even Shiller, who had plundered the Cosmic Sorcerer, was unwilling to exchange energy for money.

Shiller thought about it and took out the bottle of golden honey wine to weigh it. Maybe because it had been opened and used, it could only be exchanged for 20 bucks.

Shiller went rummaging through his inventory and found a lot of junk, most of which were collectibles that had become obsolete due to version updates. Putting them on the scale, surprisingly, they could be exchanged for more than 100 bucks.

"That's enough, that's enough." Shiller quickly tidied up the extra junk. He wasn't planning to spend much, just buying the Battle Order was enough. He wondered if he could recover the cost of his spending when the Battleworld founders distribute dividends next time.

After purchasing the Battle Order, Shiller connected to Stark's communication within the Battleworld. As expected, Stark ranted about how unreasonable the spending system was.

But his main complaint was that his latest version of the Battlesuit could only be exchanged for just over 200 bucks. Shiller almost wanted to hang up on him.

"Seriously, Shiller, I think we could queue up for an instance together, how about we choose an unrestricted fighting instance?"

"Think it through, I and Gray Mist are two separate entities. Are you sure you want me to fight alongside you?"

"Ah?" Stark was obviously a bit confused when he said, "You and Gray Mist split? Then how are you going to fight in the arena?"

"I could choose not to fight," Shiller said crisply, "I can just play the restricted instance, right?"

"What? Haven't you read the Battle Order's instructions? Repeating the same instance three times or more will reduce experience..."

Shiller quickly opened the Battle Order interface. It took him five minutes to find, at the bottom, a nanoscale prompt icon. Upon clicking it, there was indeed mention of the rule Stark spoke about.

It could be to balance the matching numbers, or maybe the Transcendents have picked up a bad habit and just had to make an elo system, but whatever the case, they don't allow queuing for just one type of instance. Experience is reduced after three consecutive queues, and after five, no experience is given at all.

In other words, this event enforces PVP; one has to fight in the arena whether they like it or not. Otherwise, there's no way to fully complete the Battle Order.

Hearing Shiller's silence on the other end, Stark let out a triumphant Mad Laugh. Shiller promptly hung up the phone.

"Alright, alright, aiming at me, huh? Don't blame me then for not holding back."

Shiller was actually a bit unhappy, but he suddenly realized that he and Arrogant were also separate entities now. Wouldn't that mean Arrogant also had to fight in the arena?

The thought of Arrogant having to fight immediately cheered Shiller up.

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