Lince was woken up by a phone call.
He was still extremely drowsy when it happened.
However, the moment he understood what the person on the other end was saying, he was wide awake.
"The door-to-door census registration is canceled?"
"Aunt Wang? Are you guys just pulling our leg for fun? How can you just cancel it out of the blue?" Lince asked, his tone teasing.
On the other end, Aunt Wang laughed and chided him, "You rascal. It's canceled because I said so. Why all the questions?"
"Alright, alright. You've probably guessed what this census was for anyway. That game has everyone on edge lately. In any case, you should be careful too!"
"Oh, right! If you get the chance, Xiaolin, don't forget to hurry up and try to get into that game!"
"You young people understand this stuff better. Anyway, you have to take it seriously, you hear?"
"Seize the opportunity! If you ever get qualified for that game, remember to let your Aunt Wang know. I'm still waiting on my big performance bonus! When that happens, I guarantee I'll introduce you to a nice girl with good prospects!"
Aunt Wang from the neighborhood committee office said this in a joking tone over the phone.
She hung up quickly after that. After all, she still had to notify the other residents in the neighborhood one by one.
Lince, for his part, was relieved.
However, when he came to his senses and checked the time, he saw that it was already half past ten.
But Lince wasn't in a hurry. After all, there were still thirteen or fourteen hours until the True Game's daily server shutdown.
And since Players could only play for eight hours a day, he really wasn't in a rush.
He rolled out of bed, took a shower, and brushed his teeth. Then, Lince headed downstairs for breakfast, scrolling through his phone on the way.
Rather than logging into the game immediately, Lince was more interested in seeing the fallout from last night's three-hundred-day deduction.
And sure enough, on his way downstairs to the breakfast shop, Lince discovered that the internet in the Human Alliance's Eastern Continent was buzzing with activity.
Lince didn't even need to search. He just had to scroll through a few videos, and at least half of them were about the True Game.
Among them, Lince casually swiped to a video from one of the Players.
"It hurts, man! Bros, my game qualification was revoked last night!"
"But I have no regrets. After all, I did my best! A deduction-based game like this really can't be influenced by a Player in just eight short hours of game time."
"I'm recording and uploading this video quickly mainly because I want to show all my brothers and sisters the compensation I received from the game."
"As everyone knows, the True Game server opens at eight in the morning every day. The moment it opened just now, an option appeared in my mind."
"The option was actually very simple: it let me choose one of the Powers my previous Character Card possessed!"
"This Power could be a Skill, it could be a Physique, or it could be a Meditation Method, things like that."
"So, was there even a choice? I immediately chose the Meditation Method!"
In the video, the man, with his messy hair, looked incredibly smug.
"Even though my Character Card was a Tier One Entry Human Race character with a very strong Physique and all that, and I knew my Power would be comparable to a mini-Superman if I chose Physique, I still resisted the temptation!"
"Think about it, everyone. A one-time boost of Power might be strong initially, but it can't grow!"
"I might have just been a guy tightening screws in a factory before, but hey, I at least finished my mandatory schooling."
"So, I know full well that to maximize the benefits, you need sustainable development. And the Meditation Method is the core of sustainable development for Extraordinary Power!"
At this point, the man clearly became a bit annoyed.
"I definitely didn't make the wrong choice by picking the Meditation Method."
"But unfortunately, the compensation for failing the game isn't all that great."
"This Meditation Method is good, and it can continuously strengthen me, but I can only meditate for one hour a day. After that one hour, I can no longer sense any Magic Power."
"According to the game, our world doesn't have a thing called Magic Power to begin with. So even the environment for Meditation is actually provided by the True Game for us failed Players."
"Like, when I meditate, the True Game provides a simulated Magic Environment that only I can perceive. And in this environment, how much I can grow through Meditation in that one hour is completely dependent on the aptitude of my previous Character Card!"
"So yeah! In that respect, I'm pretty disappointed!"
"Because I don't have a Bloodline Power like my game Character Card!!! This Meditation speed is a total snail's pace! And I can only do it for one hour a day!"
"Damn it! Brothers and sisters, I'm so tilted, for real!"
"I was so naive! If God gave me another chance, I would absolutely choose the Tier One Physique or the Character Card's Bloodline!!!"
The sudden turn almost gave Lince whiplash.
'What the? Dude, wasn't that change of heart a little too sudden?'
'One second you're confidently talking about the benefits of the Meditation Method and how you made the right choice, and the next second you're having a complete breakdown?'
Lince was left a little speechless.
At the end, the guy in the video said he was going to report to the local Human Alliance Countermeasures Bureau, and then the video ended.
'So the compensation for failing the game really is one of the Powers from the Character Card? Or even an Ability?'
'From the looks of it, this version update for the True Game is actually pretty generous.'
Lince made his way to the breakfast shop, ordered a bowl of vegetable congee and half a basket of soup dumplings, and then continued to search for videos and even livestreams from failed Players while he ate.
In the process, Lince watched more than a dozen different videos.
And in these videos, the choices made by the failed Players were truly varied.
Some Players chose Physique, some chose an Extraordinary Bloodline, and others chose things like Skills or Abilities.
But without exception, all of these compensation choices came with significant limitations.
For example, Players who chose Physique found the enhancement could only be active for half an hour each day. This time limit was analogous to the session limit placed on active Players using their Character Cards.
Those who chose an Extraordinary Bloodline were in a rather awkward position.
An Extraordinary Bloodline sounded great, but it didn't actually provide any Extraordinary Power.
In other words, although people who chose this had an Extraordinary Bloodline in their bodies, they had no way to awaken its power in reality right now.
Outwardly, they looked almost identical to ordinary people.
And this would clearly require a Meditation Method to activate the Bloodline, just as Knights, Demon Beasts, and even Mages in the Game World trained to awaken their Extraordinary Power.
But this presented another problem.
There was no Magic Power in the real world! So how were these Players supposed to activate the Extraordinary Power within their Bloodlines?
After all, unlike the Players who chose the Meditation Method, they didn't have a Magic Environment provided by the True Game.
So, it was obvious that the Players who had chosen an Extraordinary Bloodline were basically half-crippled for now.
The reason they were only "half"-crippled was because the Bloodline would passively integrate and circulate within their bodies for one hour each day.
And as this integration continued over time, the physical constitution of these Players would slowly surpass that of an ordinary person, but it was still capped within the limits of a normal human.
Therefore, these Bloodline Players definitely couldn't achieve much in the real world at present.
Of course, Lince didn't deny the possibility that with future updates to the True Game, active Players might soon be able to bring other things from the game back to reality.
For example, while there was no Magic Power in reality, the game had Magic Crystals, Demon Cores, and even Magic Items that contained it.
There were no complete training manuals for Basic Magic in reality, but the game had them!