Chapter 41: Forum

At midnight, in the darkened bedroom, Li Cheng sat before his computer desk, half his face illuminated by the screen.

After gaining the Chosen One status, the previously blank player forum suddenly appeared before his eyes with fresh content, including a registration option.

Due to the sensitivity of the Chosen One status, account registration required no mobile verification code—simply typing any username and password sufficed for successful registration.

Li Cheng scrolled with the mouse wheel, carefully browsing. Like many anonymous forums, the player forum lacked features such as signature files, avatars, personal spaces, and even fixed personal IDs.

The forum server assigned each new user a fresh ID every 24 hours—typically a 14-character string of letters and numbers. Older posts retained their original IDs.

This setup protected each user: others could not track or permanently identify a specific user by scrolling through old posts.

The forum contained over a hundred sections, large ones like Player Guides, Item Recommendations, General Chat, and Black Market Trades; smaller ones like Subculture, Emotional Life, Music and Book Recommendations, and Game-Related Topics.

【Ten-Thousand-Word Guide! Pro Player Teaches You How to Safely Survive the Beginner Phase】

【Newbie Seeking Advice: Three Guilds—European Heavy Industry, Prometheus, and the FBI—All Sent Me Offers. Which One Should I Join?】

【List of Dangerous Zones in the Killing Ground, Including Common Experiment Types and Security Patrol Patterns】

【Selling Five Bottles of Chu Renmei's Bathwater from 'Old Corpse in the Mountain Village.' Drink It and See Ghosts—I Tried It, It Works. Limited Stock, Hurry, Free Shipping, 300 Game Coins, Negotiable】

【Found a Strange Pair of Stockings in My Husband's Car, Went to a Hotel to Catch Him in the Act, Only to Discover He'd Become a Beginner Player Three Months Ago and Chose the Magical Girl Power System. Now My Heart Is Confused, Exhausted, and Numb】

As Li Cheng scrolled through, he gained plenty of knowledge and insights, but also waded through a flood of meaningless fluff posts.

Especially that one about the husband becoming a magical girl—dramatic, absurd, over-the-top—and at the end, it turned out to be an ad! A micro-merchant selling unwashed stockings!

Well, they weren't ordinary stockings—they were gear with supernatural properties, wearable by either gender. For example, fishnet stockings increased agility, cotton socks granted cold and heat resistance, and pantyhose weakened curse attacks.

But this marketing style was shamelessly crude, reminiscent of Zhihu Premium or web game ads.

Li Cheng rubbed his temples. Even after years of development, the player forum still couldn't escape these annoying posts.

Indeed, the end of players is merchandising; the end of forums is fluff.

"At least browsing the forum wasn't useless—I now knew how to estimate my current strength via the player panel."

He silently thought, summoning the system panel and opening the Chosen One Information section.

Under Chosen One Information, besides name, age, race, and current level, there were two more fields: Chosen One ID and Player Nickname.

The ID was a long string of letters and numbers assigned by the Killing Ground—unique to each user, unchangeable. Even if a player died at the hands of a non-player and their qualifications transferred, the ID would not be inherited by anyone else.

The nickname was chosen by the player, used primarily for adding friends, remote communication with friends, and transferring game currency to other players.

From forum explainer posts, Li Cheng learned nicknames could be duplicated and changed later, so he didn't care much—he simply entered 【Ant】.

After confirming the nickname, the attribute section below the player info automatically updated.

【Ant】

【Lv1. Experience: 0/100】

【Strength: 8】（Level of a top weightlifter）

【Agility: 8】（Level of a top sprinter）

【Intelligence: 6】（Talented）

【Constitution: 7】（Level of a professional marathon runner）

【Perception: 6】（Professional hunter's perception）

【Charisma: 6】（Cute）

【Equipment Slot: None】

【Inventory Slot: None】

【Skill Slot: None】

【Game Currency: None】

Lv1 was Li Cheng's current level. Players gained experience by completing Killing Ground missions; each level-up raised the experience cap by 100 points and granted one free attribute point.

The average adult human, without training, had an attribute value of 5 in all categories except Charisma and Intelligence.

These attributes were not simple game stats—they reflected the player's actual physiological condition.

Strength corresponded to muscle strength, bone density, and basal metabolic rate.

Agility corresponded to neural reflex speed, bodily coordination, and muscular explosive power.

Constitution corresponded to basal metabolic rate, recovery rate, and environmental adaptability.

Intelligence corresponded to memory, cognition, calculation, and logical reasoning.

Perception corresponded to observational ability, early-warning sense, and even intuition, sixth sense, and other mystical faculties like spirit sight.

One free attribute point, added to any stat, produced a noticeable change in an ordinary person—even seemingly useless Charisma—

To others, a player's appearance remained unchanged, but their demeanor and speech shifted, making them appear more likable and charismatic than before.

"Average humans have all attributes at 5. Right now, excluding Intelligence and Charisma, my panel alone suggests I'm equivalent to a level-nine player. Of course, that's theoretical."

Li Cheng rubbed his chin. Theory was theory; practice was practice. Since he could gain partial supernatural power early through the Insect Lord's infection,

other players could also gain advantages through various means.

For example, a player might take muscle-enhancing drugs daily, train obsessively, raise Strength from the average 5 to 7—professional weightlifter level—and then spend one free point to reach Olympic-level 8.

The personal gain far exceeded the jump from 5 to 6.

Or a player might borrow heavily early on, then pay Gen-Sys Biotech to inject them with the Captain America serum, maximizing attribute point efficiency during the beginner phase.

These strategies provided significant early-game enhancements.

But according to some guide posts, players who used such methods to gain supernatural power early saw their mission difficulty subtly increase—they wouldn't start at Lv1 and instantly become Godzilla crushing primitives.

Having scanned the attributes, Li Cheng stared at the empty Equipment and Inventory slots. After a moment's thought, he pulled out the remaining Insect Lord amber and the golden arrow he'd seized from the Ink-Patterned Spider.

(End of Chapter)