Chapter 3343

Inside the office of Arkham Asylum, Shiler was looking at the asylum's blueprints. When this asylum was first built, it could be considered very advanced, with a beautiful environment and luxurious decor; it was simply the premier choice for healing both body and mind.

But after more than ten years, although the decor here could not be called outdated, it had become less competitive. Several other asylums near Long Island had been renovated with their own unique features, attracting many new wealthy clients. Arkham Asylum, meanwhile, had always relied on old clients to sustain itself.

After Shiler discovered that everyone else's buildings had recently undergone renovations, he also began to set his sights on the asylum. The decor style and details that he had thought were quite good back then now looked more awkward the longer he stared at them.

Therefore, Shiler had recently been looking at various renovation cases, preparing to pick one he liked best to give Arkham Asylum a makeover.

Since it was going to be renovated, it naturally had to close its doors and cease operations. Shiler studied the map for a while, then began to pack his things.

The benefit of having Gray Mist was that he didn't need to pack a suitcase; he only needed to take the things he used often. Most importantly, he had to take his kitchenware and ingredients. Ever since he had Sichuan cuisine once at Kamar-Taj, Shiler had searched for a whole pile of Sichuan recipes, preparing to cook them himself.

Actually, the other ingredients were fine; the key was that the chili peppers here in America weren't up to par. Shiler had run to several Chinese supermarkets and Mexican restaurants before he finally bought all the chili peppers he needed; now, these were his treasures.

After his things were mostly packed, Shiler went to the garage downstairs to drive. Although taking the shuttle was faster, the station in the Brooklyn district was too far from Shiler's clinic, so Shiler decided to drive there instead.

Unlike Los Angeles, New York's traffic situation had improved significantly after the implementation of the aerial transport system; basically, it was no longer congested.

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

Shiler lifted the rolling shutter door in front of the clinic; the small clinic was as neat and clean as ever. He went to the kitchen first to put down the kitchenware and ingredients, and immediately after, his cell phone rang.

"Hello? Tony? No, I'm not at the asylum right now... Is that so? It's already online? I haven't looked yet..." Shiler said while busy with the task at hand, holding the phone between his shoulder and ear. "I'm busy right now; I'll call you back after I've finished looking. Alright, bye."

Shiler hung up the phone and placed the spice jars in an orderly fashion on the shelves of the refrigerator door. After closing the refrigerator, he pulled up the Battleworld interface. Stark had just told him on the phone that the duo event was already online.

He didn't know if it was because of a time difference between the Beyonder's side and here or what, but the event had gone online right at noon. Shiler usually only checked Battleworld news at night, so he hadn't known yet.

He sat in the living room, his consciousness appearing in the Battleworld space. As soon as he entered, he saw a huge banner: "Duo event is now live; invite your friends to fight in Battleworld together."

"It's actually quite decent," Shiler muttered to himself.

As a result, the moment he clicked on the event interface, he couldn't laugh anymore—this damn thing was a pay-to-win event!

The most eye-catching thing on the event interface wasn't the gameplay, but all kinds of pay-to-win bundles. No wonder Molecule Man had specifically come to find him; it turned out he was waiting for him here.

Shiler checked the specific contents of the bundles and found that they were mainly selling tickets.

That's right, the tickets for this damn duo event weren't free; they couldn't even be bought with points, but had to be paid for with real money.

The pay-to-win function of Battleworld had long been online, and it wasn't complicated. It was just that after clicking on the recharge interface, there was a scale on it; you put the things you had on it, and the system automatically evaluated how much they were worth.

This automatic evaluation system was connected to the maintenance systems of the Marvel and DC universe administrators, where everything in the universe displayed its true mass and importance. The more important the item you took out, the more Battleworld coins you could exchange for.

Of course, there were also many things that weren't accepted, such as sentient beings and breathing living creatures, celestial bodies, important resources that affected the operation of the universe, non-renewable resources in the universe, and so on.

What was encouraged for trade were products of intelligence, such as technology, machinery, artifacts, and so on.

This was a rule thought up by the administrators on both sides, mainly to suppress entropy increase by recycling some high-mass items; although the effect wasn't very significant, it was better than nothing.

The pay-to-win system's computing power was very strong, and it was very precise regarding the currency converted from mass; it was very difficult to pass off inferior goods as quality ones, and it was very stingy. Many quite good technologies could only be exchanged for a little bit of money. Even a tech tycoon like Stark didn't have many Battleworld coins on hand.

So how much money did Shiler have? The answer was zero; he never paid. He played when he logged on and dispersed when he logged off. He didn't spend a single cent, focusing on companionship.

As a result, the first big event since Battleworld started testing was actually a pay-to-win event. Shiler could only say that it was fortunate there were no competing products, otherwise, he would have put them out of business in minutes.

Then he understood that Stark had called him to scold him, but perhaps he had heard from his tone that this didn't seem to be designed by him, which was why he had hung up the phone.

Shiler directly ignored that huge pile of bundles and started searching through the event interface. Then, he saw a small flashing icon in the bottom right corner. After clicking it, two rows of icons appeared.

If he wasn't mistaken, this should be a battle pass.

People who don't play games might not know that a so-called battle pass means not only do you have to pay, but you also have to grind. After buying a certain bundle, you can't get all the items at once; you have to gain some experience in the game to unlock rewards level by level.

However, precisely because this could maintain daily activity, this bundle would be sold slightly cheaper than other bundles. Moreover, besides key items, it would also give some extra miscellaneous small rewards, which was a relatively mild way of paying.

Shiler checked the specific contents of the battle pass for the "It Takes Two" event version and found that this version actually wasn't very pushy about paying. Only participating in multi-group matchmaking required those expensive tickets. And single-group duo matchmaking was free to enter.

And as long as you participated in single-group duo matchmaking, you could gain experience rewards to unlock battle pass rewards. The battle pass gave a ticket for multi-group matchmaking every 10 levels, for a total of 6 tickets.

The rest included points, items, card-drawing vouchers, and other rewards, and it also gave a set of interior furniture bundles to decorate the interior of the Battleworld base house.

Shiler thought about it and felt it was quite reasonable. Because if it were two people per group, for a total of five groups, that would be ten people; designing a script that could accommodate these ten people for combat should be quite resource-intensive. Just setting up the script would be enough to rack one's brains, and the playtime would be very long.

But if it were a single group, that would be a total of two people. The exploration and combat volume for two people wouldn't be that large, and the script could be set up more simply, so naturally, it could be free.

Moreover, duo matchmaking also involved a problem, which was the level of coordination. If multi-group matchmaking were opened directly, everyone would go into these scripts to practice.

Such large-scale scripts had a large amount of plot and high difficulty; duo groups with unskilled coordination might not be able to clear them. This would greatly dampen the enthusiasm of both sides.

So designing tickets for large-scale scripts and letting small duo scripts be free was actually forcing players to practice in small scripts first, and only after coordination was practiced well would they go to participate in large-scale dungeons.

Shiler checked the rewards for small duo dungeons again and found them pitifully small. In other words, the main reward was actually battle pass experience. Not buying the battle pass was equivalent to grinding for nothing.

The battle pass wasn't expensive, only 45 Battleworld coins. Shiler still had some good things on hand that could be exchanged for money, such as the golden mead he had gotten from participating in a tabletop dungeon. This thing wasn't as useful as the red wine Nyarlathotep had given him, and it hadn't been of any use in Shiler's hands for a long time. Exchanging it for money wasn't a loss.

Pure energy could also be exchanged for money, but not much. It could be said to be a big loss. Even Shiler, who had fleeced all the cosmic demons, wasn't willing to exchange energy for money.

Shiler thought about it and took out that bottle of golden mead, putting it on the scale to weigh it first. But perhaps because it had been opened and used, it could only be exchanged for 20 bucks.

Shiler went to his inventory to rummage around again and found quite a bit of junk, most of which were collectibles that had duplicate versions. Putting them on the scale, they could actually be exchanged for over 100 bucks.

"That's enough, that's enough." Shiler quickly packed up the extra junk. He didn't intend to pay too much; buying a battle pass was enough. He didn't know if he could recoup his pay-to-win costs the next time the Battleworld founders distributed dividends.

Shiler bought the battle pass and connected to Stark's communication in Battleworld. Sure enough, Stark nagged and complained for a while, venting about how unreasonable this pay-to-win system was.

But the main content of his complaint was that his latest version of the suit could only be exchanged for 200 bucks. Shiler wanted to hang up the phone immediately.

"Seriously, Shiler, I think the two of us could queue for a dungeon; how about we choose an unrestricted fighting dungeon?"

"Think clearly, Gray Mist and I are two independent individuals. Are you sure you want me to fight with you?"

"Huh?" Stark was clearly a bit stunned. He said, "You and Gray Mist separated? Then how are you going to fight in the arena?"

"I can choose not to fight," Shiler said very straightforwardly. "Can't I just go play restricted dungeons?"

"What? Didn't you read the battle pass instructions? If you queue for the same dungeon more than three times in a row, the experience will be reduced..."

Shiler hurriedly opened the battle pass interface. He searched here for five minutes before he found a nano-level prompt icon at the bottom. After clicking it, it indeed mentioned the rules Stark had spoken of.

Perhaps it was to balance the number of people matched, or perhaps the Beyonder had learned bad habits and insisted on using ELO; in any case, it wouldn't let you only queue for one type of dungeon. If you queue for more than three times in a row, experience is reduced; if you queue for more than five times in a row, you get no experience at all.

In other words, this event was forced PVP; you had to fight even if you didn't want to go to the arena. Otherwise, you definitely wouldn't be able to finish grinding the battle pass.

Listening to the silence on Shiler's end, Stark let out a triumphant, wild laugh. Shiler hung up the phone with a "snap."

"Fine, fine, fine, you're coming for me, right? Then don't blame me for being impolite."

Shiler had actually been a bit unhappy, but he suddenly thought that he and Pride were now independent individuals too. Wouldn't Pride also have to go fight in the arena?

As soon as he thought about Pride also having to go fight, Shiler immediately became happy.

(End of chapter)