Engage, Search, Done and Dusted

Before Zhong Yi could figure out the meaning of extraction value, as the match ended, the three of them were teleported back to a place called the Special Ops Base.

"This is...?"

Zhong Yi looked around but didn't see Zhou Yue or Zhou Qiaoling.

The Special Ops Base was a massive facility located within a barrier, surrounded by six major buildings: the Wellness Hall, the Artifact Pavilion, the Martial Arts Hall, the Servants' Quarters, the Auction House, and the Heavenly Secrets Pavilion.

Just as Zhong Yi was looking around and wondering about the purpose of each building, Zhou Yue's voice suddenly rang in his ear:

"Old Zhong, Sis, where are you guys? What the hell is this Special Ops Base?"

Zhong Yi looked around and quickly realized what was going on.

With a mere thought, the surrounding scenery of the Special Ops Base instantly vanished, and Zhong Yi entered the team-up interface.

"Lao Zhou, Junior Sister Qiaoling, switch your locations. The Special Ops Base is probably our personal base. Once we team up, we can freely travel back and forth through teleportation arrays!"

Zhong Yi's mind worked fast, immediately grasping the design intent behind it.

...

"Huh?"

At this moment, Lu Ze, who was watching their gameplay from the main world of the illusion, was slightly startled by Zhong Yi's explanation.

He hadn't actually thought that much about it; he was merely replicating the scene transitions from Delta Force.

It was just that Zhong Yi's reasoning was too logical, making even Lu Ze feel it made a lot of sense.

"He even came up with the lore for me... As expected of Senior Brother Zhong!"

Lu Ze chuckled, his fingers swiping rapidly through the void.

As streams of the power of laws were injected, from now on, whenever cultivators switched between the Special Ops Base and the team-up interface, a symbolic teleportation light array would light up beneath their feet.

...

"Old Zhong, what are you spacing out for? Hurry up and start!"

Zhou Yue urged.

"Yeah, yeah! I want to hurry in and loot some treasures!"

Zhou Qiaoling chimed in.

"Coming, coming... Ah, I was just researching what those buildings in the Special Ops Base are for."

With the flash of a teleportation light array, Zhong Yi appeared between the two of them.

"You guys accept the missions first..."

He had briefly browsed through the various departments just now and found that he didn't have enough clearance to unlock many of the functions.

For example, the high-tier spirit bullets sold in the Artifact Pavilion could neither be bought nor crafted by him at the moment; he had to gain enough reputation with the Artifact Pavilion to unlock them.

The bad habit of department missions was ultimately brought by Lu Ze from his past life to the cultivation world.

Originally, Lu Ze planned to simplify the department missions before presenting them, as many players in his past life had suffered mental breakdowns from this frustrating feature.

But thinking about how cultivators experiencing mental breakdowns would generate emotion points, Lu Ze changed his mind.

As for the seasonal reincarnation seal missions to be released later, he was going to hit them even harder.

He even used the laws of the world to recreate that frustrating matchmaking mechanism that paired players with the exact same missions.

The pouring rain he had suffered in his past life was finally falling upon the cultivators.

"Select map... Dam Zero? Normal Mode? Classified Mode?"

As the team captain, Zhong Yi looked at the mission map as if he had discovered a new continent.

The maps were divided into four: Dam Zero, Longbow Valley, Bakhsh, and Ascension Base.

At this moment, except for Dam Zero, the other three maps were locked.

Dam Zero could also only be entered in Normal Mode; Classified Mode required a higher level to unlock.

"Wait... we have to prepare our own gear?"

Zhong Yi immediately noticed the difference between Xianyuanzhou Operations and other illusions, and a look of excitement suddenly surged in his eyes.

"I get it! No wonder the concept of extraction value was designed!"

Zhou Yue was instantly intrigued: "What do you mean?"

"In the illusions Junior Brother Lu designed before, whether it was Immortal Realm Supremacy, Immortal and Demon Clash, or Naraka: Bladepoint, the currency inside was obtained and spent within the same match..."

"But Xianyuanzhou Operations is different!"

"The supplies from every match can be extracted, which means the economy system is independent!"

After hearing Zhong Yi's explanation, Zhou Yue was still a bit confused: "Does this... have any impact?"

"The impact is huge!"

Zhong Yi couldn't help but clap his hands.

"Matches in other illusions are independent, but the matches in Xianyuanzhou Operations can influence one another..."

"The more supplies you extract, the better gear you can equip..."

"The better the gear you equip, the more spirit stones you can earn!"

"Supplies... or rather, the economy, can continuously affect future matches!"

Hearing this explanation, Zhou Yue's eyes suddenly lit up.

This was absolutely an unprecedented design!

Compared to the awkward situation of frequently fighting purple blades with a white blade right after landing in Naraka: Bladepoint, Zhou Yue felt that Xianyuanzhou Operations was simply too perfect for him!

With his skills, as long as his gear didn't fall behind others, his illusion experience would definitely be maxed out!

At this moment, Lu Ze, who was silently observing the three from the main world of the illusion, raised an eyebrow slightly.

"Senior Brother Zhong put all his talent points into his brain..."

He smiled and shook his head.

Just as Zhong Yi had said, an independent economy system was definitely one of the core essences of an extraction shooter game.

However, Zhong Yi was wrong about one thing.

Equipping good gear didn't mean you could earn more money.

Only after they truly experienced the pain of losing gear and going bankrupt would the charm of the economy system shine even brighter...

...

"So what's the plan? Bring our entire net worth in for a gamble?"

Zhou Yue licked his lips excitedly, itching to make a huge profit immediately.

"Lao Zhou, your entire net worth is just over sixty thousand. I think it's not even as good as the Servant Disciple Standard Gear Voucher given by the Special Ops Base..."

Zhong Yi tried hard to hold back his laughter, patting Zhou Yue's shoulder as he roasted him.

The Servant Disciple Standard Gear Voucher was given out 10 times a day, with an extra one given every hour, capped at 10.

There were three sets of gear to choose from, each worth 100,000 spirit stones.

Above that, there were also Outer Sect Disciple Standard Gear Vouchers and Inner Sect Disciple Standard Gear Vouchers, with gear values of 200,000 and 400,000 spirit stones respectively.

Zhou Yue's old face flushed red upon seeing this.

He had spent ages looting in the beginner tutorial, only to end up with less than what a servant disciple's gear voucher offered...

The three hit it off instantly, each redeeming a set of servant disciple standard gear. Wearing somewhat shabby helmets and armor, and holding bare guns with almost no attachments, they started their first game.

Lu Ze's illusion had an extraordinary influence.

At this moment, Xianyuanzhou Operations had only been online for about seven minutes, but a vast number of cultivators had already flooded into it.

Almost instantly, Zhong Yi and the other two entered a match.

The three appeared on a small spirit boat. As they reached their destination, a fully armed NPC next to them patted their shoulders, signaling them to slide down the ropes.

A deep, rich human voice came from the voice transmission jade slip by their ears:

"Engage, search, get it done, and extract!"

Zhou Qiaoling blinked, unable to hide the smile at the corner of her mouth:

"What? Extortion and blackmail? That's not very nice... hehehe!"

[Uh, the new book didn't flop... because I haven't even started writing it yet.]

[I originally planned to start a new book in the same genre and incorporate the subsequent games (including the Delta Force segment I am currently writing).]

[Unfortunately, I really couldn't think of a good entry point. I have to admit that the combination of the Demonic Path's Misalignment System and the Temple Run opening in this book was simply too immersive. No matter how I tried to write the new one, I felt dissatisfied and thought it couldn't compare to this one...]

[Since I haven't written for a long time, my writing skills have really gotten rusty, and I am currently working hard to get back into the groove.]

[I will try to resume double daily updates in May, and I hope my luck will be a bit better. Thank you to every single reader who has never abandoned this book.]