A Race to (Be) The Top

Ding——Protected player number 4109874 is online, and the exclusive customer service is being assigned...

Ling Xiaolu stared at the waiting signal in front of him and was speechless. How did he become a protected player, and what happened to the system number?Those who knew it was playing a game, those who didn't know thought they were in jail.

The efficiency of the customer service was quite fast. Within half a minute, an unknown creature appeared beside Ling Xiaolu.

"Hello! GM92735 will serve you wholeheartedly!"

Ling Xiaolu: ...

"From today onwards, I will be your exclusive customer service, I hope you can come and let me down, come and come and hey!"

Ling Xiaolu held the customer service by its tail—if that was the tail—and lifted it upside down. Due to the violent treatment, the silver-white little guy struggled desperately, his paws scribbling in the air indiscriminately , and the long beard on the top of the head also twisted left and right.

"Maliciously attacking the GM, why don't you talk about the game convention!" The weird creature scolded Ling Xiaolu for his evil deeds.

"It's so strange that you can still talk," Ling Xiaolu let go of his hands, "What the hell are you?"

The GM who finally regained his freedom flicked in mid-air, circled twice, and finally turned his head upwards.

"Didn't you just introduce me? I was assigned by my superiors to be in charge of your exclusive customer service. My job number is 92735."

"What I want to ask is not this, what kind of species are you?"

"Huh? Didn't you specifically ask for this? I'm obviously a handsome wind-breathing pterosaur."

"Thank you for letting me know. If you didn't tell me, I would have thought you were a quadruped."

The GM burst into tears: "I always feel that I have a bad job."

"Okay then, GM Mr. Long... I always thought that GM should be a human being. Is technology already so advanced?"

"I was originally a human being. What you see now is just a mimicry I made to hide my identity."

"Wait," Ling Xiaolu's mind flashed, "Manager Ke said that the master gave me a miniature version of the Wind's Breath Wyvern. Could it be you?"

"Congratulations, you got the answer right! In fact, what you saw was just an ordinary non-combat pet dragon, but since I will be responsible for your future game guidance and identity protection, in order not to attract attention, I took the liberty to borrow your pet's shell. Definitely the most appropriate form of disguise, don't you think so?"

Ling Xiaolu was expressionless: "Can I ask you to come out of my pet body?"

"Of course, but then I will return to my original human form. Do you hope that in the future game journey, there will be an adult male with a height of [-] and a weight of [-] to swim hand in hand with you? Of course I personally do not mind."

"I mind! The first time I saw you, I thought you were very pleasing to the eye, please be sure to stay inside and don't come out!"

"As you wish. Then how about letting me give you an in-game novice guide?"

"You say it."

"First of all, "Elf Contract" is a holographic online game that focuses on pet combat. Players can capture and cultivate various pets in the game to assist them in boss battles, dungeons, and PK. It can be said that the pet system is the biggest selling point of this game. Of course All this has nothing to do with you."

Ling Xiaolu stared at him unkindly.

"Hahaha cough cough cough Of course, apart from the pet system, this game still has a lot of things to play, such as the production system, home system, business system, and rich interpersonal interactions, all of which are the games of "Elf Contract". characteristics."

"How about being sincere? Don't memorize the manuscript."

The GM made a somersault: "Then let's get straight to the point. First, I'm going to teach you the basic operations of this game. Do you see a glowing button in the upper right corner?"

Ling Xiaolu had seen the flashing virtual button a long time ago, he stretched out his hand and touched it, and a row of menus popped up.

"It should be noted that the interface you see now can only be seen by you personally, unless you actively choose to share it with others. Have you brought up the menu now?"

"I saw it."

"Please click on the first item, personal information."

Ling Xiaolu clicked on the first option, and the character attribute panel was refreshed on the left half of his field of vision. The panel is translucent, and the scene behind can still be seen clearly through it.

"See yourself?"

Ling Xiaolu looked at his own 3D model in the character frame, fiddled with it and turned it around.

"interesting."

"You may have noticed that there is no name in your name column, that's because you haven't given a name yet. Now, you can give your character a cool name."

The GM flicked his tail, and out of nowhere, a large piece of rice paper was created. The paper was suspended in the air, and it was lying comfortably on the paper, with a brush roughly held in its dragon claws, and it was licking the tip of the brush with its tongue. hair.

Ling Xiaolu: ...Does the special effects of this game have to be so exaggerated?

Ling Xiaolu was very depressed. He originally wanted to come to the game to become a great god vigorously, but now he has to hide and hide and become a mortal.

The great god is in the mortal world, "It's better to call Shenfan."

"Ok."

The GM agreed and wrote it crookedly: God is annoying.

"It's the Fan of mortals!"

"What I wrote is annoying annoyance?"

Ling Xiaolu helped his forehead: "Forget it, let's use my previous screen name Lubi. Xiaolu's deer, Bambi's Bi, don't write it wrong again!"

"This sounds nice too." The GM wiped the previous one with his paw, and re-wrote the word "Lubi", and the content appeared in Ling Xiaolu's name box simultaneously.

"Next, you can also choose a name for me. Every non-combat pet has an initial chance to change its name. If you want to change your name in the future, you can only use the reset items in the mall, so please be careful when naming your name."

Ling Xiaolu didn't even think about it: "Just Ling Goudan."

GM92735: ...

"Ah, is it called Linglong? I see."

"No, it's Ling Goudan."

"It's a nice name, I like it."

"But I'm talking about Ling Goudan."

"Linglong has just completed the song, but who knows how to do it makes you puzzled. Good literary talent, someone who can come up with such a name will be very knowledgeable at first glance."

"Can't you understand human language?"

"Okay, the name has been changed. If you have other ideas, please recharge the coupons and go to the mall to buy related items."

"This is a commercial scam and I'm asking for a complaint."

"If you make a complaint, you must accurately state my job number. Do you still remember my job number?"

"..." Ling Xiaolu, "I don't remember."

"Then let us live in harmony, after all, there is still a long way to go."

"Can I make you a drink?"

"Don't talk about soaking in wine, even soaking your feet won't work. After all," Ling Long tilted his body, and the dragon's head was lazily leaning on the dragon's claws, "I have no medicine."

Ling Xiaolu decided not to care about it, otherwise God knows how many poses this guy can put on.

"continue."

Ling Long cleared his throat and resumed his serious form: "The next item must be what you are most concerned about, which is your appearance in this game. The initial appearance of each player is real. Unsatisfied with his appearance, the game also considerately provided plastic surgery services.”

"If you want to have plastic surgery, you have to buy the props to change your appearance in the mall, right?" Ling Xiaolu has already guessed the money cheating of this game, ah no, the charging model.

"It's true for others, but for you, hiding your true face and not being recognized by acquaintances is obviously extremely beneficial to concealing your pet identity. Therefore, the company specially prepared this for you."

After finishing speaking, it turned out a container similar to a perfume bottle, and the liquid inside was also transparent.

"what is this?"

"This is a high-tech product independently developed by our company - facial atomizer. Just spray it lightly, and your face will look like it has been sprayed with Meitu Xiuxiu, even if your own mother is standing in front of you." I can't even recognize it."

Ling Xiaolu frowned: "Is it so miraculous? Then in the eyes of others, have I become beautiful or ugly? It can't be that I don't even have a nose?"

"This is the biggest magic of this product. After using the human face atomizer, your appearance will become nothing in the eyes of others."

"...What do you mean?" Ling Xiaolu shivered with the face of the faceless man in his mind.

"Simply put, others see you as you are now, but people who know you will not connect you with the person they know. People who don't know you will remember the face after leaving the game. It's going to be a blur, and they'll remember who you are, but not what you look like anyway."

"Really?" Ling Xiaolu heard for the first time that the props in the game can even tamper with people's memories.

"Of course, at most they will find you familiar, but they will never remember where they saw you."

"Well, since that's the case, I'll give it a try."

Ling Long held up the atomizer and sprayed it on Ling Xiaolu's face. It was colorless and odorless, and he didn't even feel a thing.

"All right."

"Is that all right?" Ling Xiaolu touched his face, "Is there a mirror?"

Ling Long really turned into a mirror.

Ling Xiaolu looked in the mirror: "I can't see any changes."

"It's fine if you don't see it, the aerosol will not have any effect on your own memory... Oh no, I've begun to forget what you look like."

Ling Xiaolu squinted: "The acting skills are really bad."

Ling Long closed the mirror awkwardly, and muttered in a low voice: "Is that because I am a dragon? If I were in human form, I would have taken several of them for safekeeping."

Ling Xiaolu suddenly found that the collar on his neck was gone, and there was an extra bracelet on his left wrist.

"What's going on here?"

"This is a way to change the game screen. Your bracelet is just a decoration. The real peripherals are still on your neck, but they are hidden. But if someone touches the back of your neck, it will still be different, so please protect it this part."

Ling Xiaolu touched the back of his neck, and sure enough he felt a strange bump, but it disappeared again.

"If the collar is accidentally touched by someone, it will be completely hidden for a short time, lasting for 15 minutes, which is already the limit of what the technicians can do."

Well, it can only be said that talking is better than nothing.

"Any more?"

"What's more, when other players view your character information, your profile will be displayed exactly the same as that of ordinary players, and the daters will not be able to capture your specific location through the pet radar."

"What is Pet Radar?"

"Every player here has a radar, and the radar can locate players and pets on the map, but only the radar of the applicant can lock human pets."

Ling Xiaolu roughly understood.

"That's all there is to be introduced on the character panel for the time being. We can gradually learn about other functions during the game. Touch the X in the upper right corner of the panel, and it will be automatically closed, or you can directly make an X gesture."

Ling Xiaolu crossed his index fingers, and the panel disappeared with a beep.

"This is a shortcut gesture to close the panel. You can also call up the panel through the shortcut gesture. Each panel in the game corresponds to a shortcut gesture."

"How to compare?"

"Take the character panel as an example, just click on the navel with your hand."

Ling Xiaolu touched his navel according to what it said, and the panel that had just been turned off immediately popped up again. He forked it off, clicked it on, and forked it off again, feeling very novel.

"Other commonly used operations are: click on the temple to summon the radar, double-click to open the map, and stay for two seconds to enter the navigation system; snap your fingers and end with a heart-to-heart gesture to open the friend interface, and snap your fingers twice in a row to trade. Of course, you When making a gesture, the brain must synchronize what you want to do, otherwise it will be very troublesome to trigger a bunch of panels accidentally.”

"Thoughtful." Ling Xiaolu admired the program's ingenuity.

"Another important point is that if you need to log off in an emergency, you can disconnect from the terminal by saying "Forced Offline" three times silently. This is for emergency use. Please do not use it for normal offline, because it may Will cause data loss, this feature can only be used once every 24 hours."

"Okay, I remember."

"Then now we can go to the game to experience it, and I will explain to you the problems I see at the same time."

Ling Xiaolu was teleported to a small town, said to be a small town, not small at all, and very prosperous at first glance.

"There are a total of 24 main cities in "Elf Contract". Since the main city map is relatively large, if there are no important activities, players generally choose to move around the main city. This is one of the 24 main cities—the most beautiful suburb of Jingzhe City. Prosperous Yuanting Town, which connects the three main cities, is one of the important transportation hubs in the game, and is also a famous free trade distribution center."

Ling Xiaolu and it walked on the main road of the town, with shops on both sides, and people often saw people setting up stalls on the street.

Outside a pet store, the owner generously placed a hundred pets for sale, directly occupying half the street.

"Wow!" Ling Xiaolu, who has little experience, expressed his admiration at the exquisite pets.

"What is this?" Ling Long was well-informed, "The pets that can be displayed on the commercial street are limited. When you go to the end of the street, the place where babies are sold is as big as a parking lot, and you can't see them at a glance. side."

"There are so many? Can they all be sold?"

"Even for pets of the same species, there is still a gap in value. The best products will be sold at sky-high prices, and the defective products will usually be packaged and wholesaled to upgrade good pets."

"Are these stores run by players?"

"Each of them is. Players have to sign a lease with the system first, and then they will get a shop. The pet slots on the commercial street like this one are based on money, and if they are not top-grade, they will only lose money. The ones at the end of the street A large area is cheaper, but it cannot be rented by just any player, it is usually contracted by a professional chamber of commerce or a family."

"Interesting, can someone like me who can't catch pets open a shop?"

"Do you think the owners of these stores are all caught by themselves? They just have good acquisition channels, and then they buy and sell. Besides, besides pet stores, there are many other stores here, such as equipment stores and food stores. , pet supply stores, etc., the difficulty of opening a store is not whether you can catch pets, but..."

Its dragon claws shook convulsively.

"what does that mean?"

"money."

"It turns out that your gesture is some money. I thought it was a cramp."

Ling Long: "..."

"Then I have no money, and I can't catch favors. What should I do now?"

"Let me teach you, whenever you go to a place, you must first go to its tavern."

"Tavern?"

"The building with the wine barrel sign at the entrance is the building. After you enter the tavern, you can open the teleportation point. In addition, the inn is also a necessary place for players to and from, and a lot of information and gossip flow out from here."

As soon as Ling Xiaolu stepped into the tavern, a strangely dressed man greeted him enthusiastically.

"Come inside, what would you like to drink?"

Ling Long stuck to his ear: "He is an NPC, please tell him better."

Ling Xiaolu: "Open it."

"I have written down the name of the distinguished guest. It will be convenient to come back next time. I must come often!"

Ling Long: "Just find a table and sit down, and find out if there are any major events happening recently."

Ling Xiaolu did as he did. He looked around, but couldn't tell which one was the player and which one was the NPC.

"How do you know which one is real?"

"Did you not display your name on top of your head? Some people like the real experience so turn off this function, but I suggest you turn this function on before you are familiar with the game."

Ling Xiaolu found the item of displaying the name on the top of the head from the system settings, ticked it, and an extra name appeared on the top of each person's head.

"In the game, the gray name is the neutral NPC, and the orange name is the NPC that can attack. And the player's name has a total of five colors: the name of the friendly target is displayed in green, the name of the hostile target is displayed in red, and the murderous value is accumulated. At a certain point, the name will turn black, the name of the date will be gold, and the name of the battle pet will be a beautiful pink."

"Holy shit! My name can't be pink!"

"Of course not. In order to conceal your identity, the technical department has changed your name to green, emerald green."

"Oh, that's okay." Ling Xiaolu breathed a sigh of relief, and couldn't imagine the kind of refreshing feeling of pink name on his head.

Ling Xiaolu is a newcomer without any influence, and for the time being, everyone in the tavern is green.

As Ling Long said, everyone likes to sit in the tavern, gossip while drinking.

"Hey, have you heard? Someone has successfully put on a collar recently."

Ling Xiaolu trembled, he came to listen to the gossip, but why is he the protagonist of the gossip? !

"seriously?"

This was big news, and many people in the tavern were attracted to it.

"Of course it's true. I heard it from my uncle who works in Xinshan, and..." The speaker made a big deal out of it.

"And what? Tell me quickly!" Someone who couldn't hold back had already gone up and poked him.

"According to my inference, that person is now haunting Yuanting Town."

Isn't Yuanting Town the town where he is now?

Ling Xiaolu really wanted to strangle Ling Long to death, so he agreed not to expose it?How long did he just arrive, how could even passers-by know about it!

"How do you know so well?"

"I don't know, but someone does. Don't forget, whenever a humanoid pet appears in the game for the first time, the dating system will give a reminder. I just heard from a friend that several dating applicants have already set off here. Jingzhe City doesn't have any competitions, why do you think they gathered here at the same time?"

Ling Xiaolu bowed his head, pretended to sleep on the table, and privately gritted his teeth and asked Ling Long: "Didn't you promise to hide my identity?"

"No! To be precise, it's not hiding, it's camouflage!" Ling Long said clearly, "We have indeed tampered with your information, but it's only superficial. If you want to change all the settings, But it's a huge amount of work, it can't be completed in a short time, and it will destroy the order of the game!"

"What?" Ling Xiaolu was heartbroken, "Then what should I do!"

"Three points depend on cover, seven points depend on acting skills, come on!"

"Fake!"

The person who broke the news was still saying: "...not just a few of them, it is rumored that even Li Zheng was dispatched this time."

"Li Zheng?!" There was an exclamation in the tavern, "Even he came?"

Ling Xiaolu: Who is that?

Fortunately, a newcomer like Ling Xiaolu asked for him: "Who is Li Zheng?"

"You don't even know Li Zheng, but he is the national male god of "Elf Contract"! In the annual master competition in the game, Li Zheng was the runner-up last year, but everyone generally believes that his personal strength is still higher than the champion .”

"Then why did he lose?"

"He lost because of his pets. Fengyun reached the quarterfinals, and it was almost a duel between the applicants. Those who can squeeze into the quarterfinals are all human pets, and they can be won by AI battle pets. The runner-up is only a master like Li Zheng. But unfortunately, artificial intelligence is still no match for a living person. In the final, he narrowly lost by one point. If it wasn't for the pet being too far behind the opponent, he would have been the champion gone."

"Li Zheng rarely appears in crowded places. If even he comes, I really believe that person is near Yuanting Town. I don't know who will take the lead this time."

"Wuuuuuu, my male god, it would be great if I could meet him..."

Ling Xiaolu couldn't take it anymore, he wanted to escape from this ghost place as soon as possible.

"Speaking doesn't count," Ling Xiaolu complained and ran away, unknowingly came to the forest outside the town, "Promise me that I won't be caught as a pet, but now that everyone is here, I'm almost caught in the urn .”

"This can't be completely blamed on the company, the colleagues in the technical department have tried their best." Ling Long said aggrievedly.

Ling Xiaolu buried his head on the road, when suddenly a strange sound exploded in his ears, the volume was not loud, but it was full of power, like an explosion in the air, and it spread with a buzzing sound.

Right at the source of the sound, the powerful sound wave spread rapidly in a concrete form, like a huge wave rushing in all directions, and the vegetation fell wherever the edge reached. The sound wave passed through Ling Xiaolu and disappeared into the depths of the forest A place that can't even be reached by sight.

"Wow," even the experienced Ling Long was taken aback, "Such a powerful air current wave must be a master, if I'm not wrong, this is the immobilization spell in the sealing skill, which can move people within the range All the phantom beasts can be fixed, but I have never seen anyone who can spread such a large range, it is really amazing."

He turned his head and was surprised to find that something was wrong with Ling Xiaolu: "What's wrong with you?"

Ling Xiaolu remained motionless in his previous movements, uttering words with difficulty through his teeth: "I... can't... I can't..."