Having changed his clothes, Bai Mu stood before the mirror to adjust the final details.
He made sure he looked like a greenhorn college student, a shy and naive youth fresh from the countryside. This disguise briefly brought back mories of his own school days.
In his mind, he made the final touches to his persona, specifically regarding how he had arrived in Paradise.
A college student eager to return ho would certainly not seek death. His passing had to be an accident. The world was full of unpredictable tragedies, and he chose the most common among them as his cause of death: getting hit by a car after an all-night gaming session at an internet cafe. This was an answer unlikely to arouse any suspicion.
'If the Administrator asks how I ca to Paradise, I will tell him that I only rember seeing bright headlights after leaving the internet cafe. By the ti I regained consciousness, I was already on the Deserted Island.'
'He has more information than I do, so I need to obscure my background and past experiences as much as possible.'
'As for what happened inside the Script, I can tell him at my own discretion. But that depends on whether he is sincerely looking to trade with .'
ntally prepared, Bai Mu stood before the door.
He twisted the handle and pushed it open.
In an instant, bright light bathed his face. It was brilliant sunshine. He froze in surprise.
A gentle, warm breeze brushed against him. Looking up, he saw a blue sky dotted with white clouds, and gazing into the distance, he actually saw the azure ocean. Waves rolled in, churning up white foam. It looked exactly like the view from a seaside resort.
He was about six stories high, overlooking the sandy beach below.
The mont he stepped out of his room, an object resembling a Room Card materialized in his palm. His Player ID, "K8107," was printed on it.
This bizarre scenery made him realize just how miraculous Paradise truly was. While inside his room, he hadn't heard a single sound from the outside world. He had assud he would be stepping into a completely enclosed capsule corridor, but outside lay a beach beneath a clear blue sky.
It was as if that door had transported him across an imnse spatial distance. He hadn't just stepped outside; he had been teleported to an entirely separate dinsion.
"You have arrived at the community public area."
A notification prompt from Paradise rang in his ears.
Bai Mu noticed a scattered crowd moving about in the area below.
It was much livelier than he had anticipated. The ground level resembled a comrcial district. He spotted burger joints, salad bars, and cafes, alongside several signs that gave no hint of their business. The doors beneath them were solid black, completely obscuring what lay inside.
Down on the beach, people were lounging under parasols, seemingly sunbathing while sipping on fruit juice.
Bai Mu even spotted a few provocatively dressed won. Wearing daring bikinis, they flaunted their pale skin and slender, long legs.
Every single one of them was beautiful, with delicate features and unique charms. Aside from those in swimwear, there were also girls in gorgeous dresses aiming for a cuter aesthetic. However, looking closely at their appearances, Bai Mu discovered traits that were distinctly inhuman.
For instance, so of the won actually had furry animal ears on their heads, while others had small, spade-shaped tails swaying behind them. These weren't re costus. Bai Mu watched as a woman with a long tail hooked her arm around a patron and led him into a room beneath a pink sign with a wide, radiant smile.
These won held signs with clearly marked prices: "Quickie, one hour of Community Ti," or "10 Points per session." It was painfully obvious what they were doing just from their expressions and body language.
The won with abnormal features charged significantly higher rates, asking for "one hour and thirty minutes of Community Ti," or "15 Points per session."
Scanning the area, he noticed that the most expensive woman actually demanded "ten hours of Community Ti, no Points accepted."
Her physical appearance paled in comparison to her competitors, yet soone soon approached her. After a brief chat, the two of them entered a room together.
Bai Mu astutely realized that doing business with her must grant so kind of bonus, perhaps a direct buff to the Player that would carry over into their Scripts.
'Like dual cultivation. Sleeping with her probably grants so sort of stat boost.'
'Just as I suspected, Community Ti can be traded and circulated between Players.'
'Are those people with abnormal features Players who have acquired a "bloodline"?' Bai Mu thought. 'If a bloodline can alter their physiological traits, could it also change their gender? Or even completely alter their essence as human beings?'
'Just like... a human turning into a Zombie?'
Silently observing this strange and novel environnt, Bai Mu pulled up his hoodie and walked toward the coordinates sent by Light Evening Breeze.
Paradise thoughtfully provided him with a navigation feature. A glowing cursor appeared in his vision, pointing him toward his destination.
His gaze swept past the bizarrely shaped individuals. Over the course of a few minutes, he saw at least a hundred people, a third of whom possessed strange physical characteristics.
So had chanical arms, so wore robes and carried broomsticks like dieval witches, and others were trailed by small, peculiar creatures resembling dinosaurs.
It was a wildly diverse assortnt; nothing was too bizarre to exist here.
'I rember people calling this cosplay, but these appearances definitely aren't the result of costus and props. These things are probably rewards they earned from their Scripts.'
'Looking at it this way, the Deserted Island Survival I just cleared really was just a beginner-difficulty Script. If supernatural elents like ghosts and monsters had been involved, surviving would not have been nearly as easy.'
'It is best to remain cautious.'
Heightening his vigilance, Bai Mu ignored all the Players brushing past him and arrived alone at the coordinates provided by Light Evening Breeze.
It was a quiet and relaxing juice bar right by the beach. A smiling man in a suit sat behind a small, round white table. He had already ordered two sea-blue cocktails, the ice cubes and lemon slices gleaming crystal-clear in the sunlight.
The man looked perfectly ordinary and affable. He seed completely normal without any trace of bodily modifications. If anything, he had the aura of a real estate agent. Yet, in the eyes of Bai Mu, who had just seen a myriad of "abnormal" individuals, this man stood out as quite exceptional.
The glowing cursor's final destination pointed to the empty seat. Bai Mu sat down across from the man.
"Hello, I am Light Evening Breeze. You can just call Evening Breeze; that's what my friends call ." The man folded his hands and slid one of the cocktails over to Bai Mu. "And how should I address you?"
"Bai, Mr. Evening Breeze... You can just call Bai." Bai Mu kept his head lowered, avoiding direct eye contact with the community Administrator, while carefully observing him through the reflection on the glass.
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