7: Chapter 7 Hidden Functions of the System
Wang Pingan was lying on the bed like a corpse, completely straight, his eyes not even moving.
He stared at the ceiling, the simple energy-saving lamp on the ceiling almost becoming embedded in his vision.
Only one word was in his mind.
Poor.
It was the kind of poverty that could force a hero to become an outlaw, the kind of poverty that let you stare at a mountain of gold and silver without even having a plastic shovel.
He finally understood.
This "supreme cosmic pay-to-win system" had a name that was truly damn fitting.
"Supreme cosmic" referred to its effects.
"Pay-to-win" referred to the barrier to entry.
Without money, you are nothing.
He had just turned the Star Network upside down again; forget about ways to make money, he couldn't even find a crack.
Go to a construction site to move bricks?
What a joke. With his current body as a First-Rank Martial Artist, moving bricks would be like using a sledgehammer to crack a nut, but the problem was, they paid by the day, and working himself to death for a day would only net him a few hundred star coins.
What would that be enough for?
It wouldn't even be enough to buy half a low-grade spirit crystal, not even enough to fill the gaps between his teeth.
Not to mention he was in his third year of high school, where time was more precious than money.
This feeling was suffocating.
It was like a person who had been starving for three days and three nights, with a full imperial feast laid out in front of him, only to discover he didn't have a mouth.
He irritably scratched his hair, turning his already messy hairstyle into a chicken coop.
"Damn it, I don't believe this!"
He scrambled up from the bed and paced back and forth in the room like a caged beast.
His line of thinking had always been about how to get money from the outside and feed it to the system.
But what if...
What if his thinking had been wrong from the start?
He stopped, a ruthless glint in his eyes.
Something that called itself "supreme cosmic" and even dragged in some "Civilization Tinder Project"—if its functions were really this simple, like a third-rate web game's recharge interface, it would be too pathetic.
"You damn thing, you must have other functions!"
Wang Pingan cursed at the air to bolster his courage.
He lay back on the bed, closed his eyes, and sank all his consciousness into the dark blue sci-fi interface in his mind.
This time, he looked with extreme care.
He no longer just stared at the "+" signs that made his mouth water, but like the pickiest quality inspector, he scanned from top to bottom, left to right, pixel by pixel.
[host: Wang Pingan]
[Realm: First-Rank Martial Artist (Blood Qi Value 138 / 300)]
[Attributes: ...]
[pay-to-win points: 0]
[Conversion Function: ...]
The interface was simple to the extreme, filled with a cold sense of technology.
He read these few lines over and over a dozen times until he could almost recite them, yet he still didn't see anything new.
Could it be that he was overthinking it?
Was this system just a pure money-swallowing beast?
A feeling of disappointment just emerged from the bottom of his heart before he forcibly suppressed it.
No.
It absolutely could not end like this.
He forced himself to calm down, moved his attention away from those prominent large characters, and began to check the edges and corners of the interface.
Those lines, those decorative patterns, those inconspicuous icons.
Right in the bottom right corner of the interface, a gear icon, smaller than a fingernail and almost blending into the background, caught his attention.
This icon was too small, and its color was very dim; he had scanned over it before and thought it was just a decorative pattern on the interface, never giving it a second thought.
Now, he stared fixedly at this icon.
His heartbeat accelerated for no reason.
He tentatively concentrated his intent on it.
"Hum..."
A slight, almost imperceptible vibration sounded in his mind.
The interface in front of him switched.
It was no longer that simple data panel; a new options menu popped up.
[Auxiliary Functions]
Just these four words made Wang Pingan's breath hitch.
There's a chance!
He hurriedly used his intent to open this option.
The menu expanded, and inside there was only one currently lit-up function.
[Energy Scan]
Wang Pingan's heart began to beat violently.
He continued to look down, where there was a line of detailed function descriptions.
[Energy Scan: Can consume pay-to-win points to scan the space within a certain range around the host, detecting and marking all substances containing convertible energy.]
[Current Scan Level: 1]
[Scan Consumption: 1 pay-to-win points / minute]
[Scan Range: One kilometer radius with the host as the center]
[Identification Method: Marked with different colored light spots on a 3D map. White represents weak energy, green represents ordinary energy, blue represents good energy; subsequent color levels will unlock with system permissions.]
Wang Pingan read this description word for word three times.
Each time more excited than the last.
Each time with more rapid breathing.
By the time he finished reading, he was so excited he almost jumped off the bed.
What the hell was this?
Wasn't this a walking human radar?
And specifically for treasure hunting, at that!
Scavenging for treasures!
These two words popped into his mind instantly.
Why hadn't he thought of this before?
In this world, besides the standard spirit crystals issued by the authorities, there must be many energy substances that had not been discovered, or had been overlooked for various reasons, or were treated as waste!
Antiques might contain residual energy from ancient powerhouses.
Discarded weapons from the battlefield might have fragments of energy cores embedded in them.
Even some ordinary-looking stones might contain a piece of natural energy crystal inside!
Ordinary people couldn't distinguish these things at all.
Even some professional appraisers had to rely on various precision instruments to detect them bit by bit.
But he was different!
He had [Energy Scan]!
As long as he turned on this function, within one kilometer, no monsters or ghosts, no strange treasures, would be able to escape his sight!
This was simply a golden finger tailor-made for him to make a fortune!
The funding problem, it was saved!
Wang Pingan's face was flushed with excitement; he couldn't wait to rush out the door right now and scan the entire Shen City.
But he forcibly suppressed this impulse.
In all things, he had to try first.
If this function was just for show, or if there were some pitfalls he hadn't noticed, then he would have been happy for nothing.
He looked at the consumption for the scan.
1 pay-to-win points per minute.
Not cheap, but not expensive either.
But the problem was, his pockets were cleaner than his face right now, and his pay-to-win points balance was a glaring "0".
Without fuel, no matter how awesome the engine was, it couldn't turn.
Wang Pingan climbed out of bed, grabbed his personal terminal, looked at his "1250.00" star coins balance, gritted his teeth, and stomped his foot.
Do it!
If you don't risk the bait, you won't catch the fish!
He opened the Martial Artist Association's official mall again and, using his remaining money, ordered the cheapest low-grade spirit crystal.
Payment successful.
The account balance instantly became "250.00" star coins.
Looking at this string of numbers, Wang Pingan felt no heartache; instead, he felt a sense of determination to burn his bridges.
This was his last capital.
Success or failure, it all rested on this one move!
The delivery robot was still astonishingly efficient; in less than ten minutes, the familiar small metal box was delivered to his door.
Wang Pingan signed, closed the door, his movements fluid and completed in one go.
He held the faintly glowing low-grade spirit crystal and silently chanted in his heart.
"Absorb!"
[pay-to-win points: 10]
Looking at the number on the system panel that was finally no longer zero, Wang Pingan let out a long breath.
Ammunition, acquired.
Without the slightest hesitation, he immediately issued a command to the system.
"Activate, Energy Scan!"
[Command received, Energy Scan function initiated. Current consumption: 1 pay-to-win points / minute.]
The moment the command was issued, the entire world changed before Wang Pingan's eyes.
The reality faded away, and a 3D map composed of countless blue data lines, centered on him, slowly unfolded in his consciousness.
Tall buildings, streets, vehicles, pedestrians...
Every scene within one kilometer of his home was precisely replicated, even more detailed than the holographic maps on the Star Network.
He "saw" Uncle Wang next door watching a ball game in the living room.
He "saw" the owner of the small shop downstairs secretly counting money under the counter.
This feeling was novel and shocking.
He suppressed the astonishment in his heart and began to search carefully on the map.
According to the system's instructions, if there were energy substances nearby, light spots of different colors should appear on the map.
However.
One second.
Ten seconds.
Thirty seconds.
On the map, it was empty.
Except for those blue data lines, there was nothing.
A dead silence.
Wang Pingan's brows slowly furrowed.
What was going on?
Could it be that within one kilometer of his home, there wasn't even a scrap of stone containing energy?
He didn't believe it and continued to maintain the scan.
One minute passed quickly.
[pay-to-win points - 1, remaining: 9.]
The system's cold prompt sounded.
On the map, it was still empty, so clean it made him panic.
The excitement on his face faded bit by bit, replaced by a trace of gravity and confusion.
Could it be... that this function actually had a bug?
Or was there some limitation he didn't understand?
He sat on the edge of the bed, forcing himself to calm down, his brain racing.
Soon, he figured out the crux of the matter.
What kind of place was this?
Shen City, one of the most prosperous central cities of Galaxy Star.
The community he lived in, although not a top-tier rich area, was still a neatly planned modern residential area.
In such a place, all resources had been exploited to the extreme.
Every inch of land underground had been probed countless times.
Every item circulating on the market had undergone strict testing.
How could there still be any "leak" containing energy for him to find?
Even if there were, they had probably long since been scavenged by those big companies and powerful factions; where would it be his turn?
Having figured this out, Wang Pingan was not discouraged; instead, he breathed a sigh of relief.
As long as the function was fine, that was enough.
As long as the function was real, all he needed to do was change locations!
So, the question was, what kind of place was most likely to have overlooked, undiscovered, and mixed-bag energy substances?
His gaze fell on the personal terminal he had casually thrown on the bed.
The screen was still on, displaying the Star Network map he had just searched.
His finger slowly slid across the map.
Martial Artist Association? No, that place was even cleaner than his home.
High-end shopping malls? Even less likely; the items inside were all clearly priced and expensive as hell.
His finger finally stopped on an area specially marked on the map.
It was the old city district, with dense buildings and narrow roads, out of place with the prosperity of the new city district.
On the map, a striking line of text marked the name of this area.
— Shencheng City Antique and Second-hand Market.
This place was famous in Shen City as a gathering place for all kinds of people, where truth and falsehood were mixed, and all sorts of things were jumbled together.
Countless people had become rich overnight here, and countless people had also gone bankrupt here.
Wang Pingan's eyes slowly brightened.
Perhaps the answer he wanted was right there.