Chapter 486: New Skill Book
Watching the endless stream of resentment points scrolling across the virtual screen, Chen Mo couldn’t help but laugh out loud.
It seemed that *Normal Adventure* was a huge success. The players had truly experienced its unique charm!
Stepping on a trap and getting screwed? Resentment points added.
Death prompts reducing IQ? Resentment points added.
Finally figuring out a completely twisted solution to clear a level? Resentment points added.
Even topping up and slapping faces generated resentment points!
Now, a flood of resentment points was pouring in continuously. Chen Mo had no way of telling exactly who was generating them, but one thing was certain: anyone who played *Normal Adventure* was doomed to suffer...
The saying “plucking every feather from a passing goose” pretty much summed up this level of efficiency...
Watching the system generate resentment points endlessly, Chen Mo felt like he was reaping a bountiful harvest. He was absolutely overjoyed.
This was even more fun than charging money for in-game purchases!
And it seemed to benefit society even more, didn’t it?
After this period of accumulation, the transparent sphere representing happiness points had filled up one full portion, and the second portion was already around 30% full.
Once the happiness points were full, a very prominent number “1” appeared next to the sphere, indicating that one complete portion of happiness points had been accumulated.
As for resentment points, they had already reached over 90%, very close to filling a full portion.
The relentless stream of resentment points kept flowing in. While the individual amounts weren’t huge, the consistency was excellent. Many players, when slapping “Chen Mo” for hints, kept generating +1, +1, +1 resentment points. Chen Mo was grinning from ear to ear.
I love watching you guys get so angry but unable to do anything to me!
Finally, the resentment points were full too!
Both happiness and resentment points had accumulated a full portion each. It was time to draw the lottery.
“Doesn’t seem that hard after all. I really am a genius!”
Chen Mo thought smugly, then gently tapped the swirling vortex in the center of the virtual screen to start the lottery.
“Third-stage prizes! I wonder what kind of rewards I’ll get? I’m so excited!”
Chen Mo stared intently at the screen.
Although the first- and second-stage prizes were no longer available, the third-stage prizes were definitely better than the previous two!
The slowly rotating vortex spun faster, and soon a brand-new icon appeared in the center: a golden book.
“A skill book? Hmm, not bad. Let’s see what it is.”
Chen Mo was well aware of this system’s quirks. Skill books were considered basic items, but they were indispensable because improving various skills made designing larger games much smoother.
Still, Chen Mo would have preferred some professional skills or special items, since those had a lower chance of appearing...
Chen Mo took a closer look at this new skill book.
[Hardware Design Skill Book (Basic): 1]
Chen Mo was startled. Hardware design? Why was the system giving him something like this?
Wasn’t this a bit out of bounds?
“Hardware” was easy to understand—it was the opposite of “software,” referring to all physical devices and components.
Simply put, things like a computer’s main unit, monitor, keyboard, and mouse—anything you could see and touch—were hardware, while programs, games, and other virtual things were software.
Hardware covered a wide range: phones, PCs, VR gaming pods, and so on, all fell under the category of “hardware.”
But Chen Mo was a game designer, not an electronic engineer. What use did he have for a hardware design skill book? Was he going to switch careers and sell phones?
Budget phones dominating the low-end market?
Born for the fever?
Charge for five minutes, talk for two hours?
Dual front-facing soft lights to illuminate your ugliness?
Sentimental premium? Buy a phone and get a comedy show ticket?
Phones that can crack walnuts?
Or maybe, built-in nuclear explosion function?
Sure, Chen Mo could tell jokes and was pretty good at bluffing, but... wouldn’t that shift his focus way off track?
Then he wouldn’t be called a game designer anymore. He’d be a phone designer instead...
A little disappointed, but Chen Mo still obediently used it. After all, having more skills never hurt...
After using the skill book, some knowledge entered Chen Mo’s mind and gradually became clear, as if it were knowledge he had already mastered, deeply ingrained.
Once he roughly understood this knowledge, Chen Mo’s eyes lit up.
This skill book was a basic one, at the entry level, but it covered a very wide range. It included fundamental knowledge about various hardware devices—phones, PCs, gaming pods, and so on—basically everything.
Chen Mo could sense that if he consumed more of these skill books, he would be able to direct specialized technicians to design a phone or computer.
“Direct” rather than “design personally.” That meant Chen Mo could roughly distinguish good designs from bad and understand the principles, but he was still a bit far from doing it himself.
Moreover, these skill books weren’t entirely based on the technology of his previous life. Some included black tech from the parallel world, including gaming pod technology. Although he only grasped some very basic principles now, Chen Mo could feel that if he kept consuming these skill books, he might one day be able to improve VR gaming pod hardware.
Even though it was just one book, it was a new skill, and it might come in handy someday. So Chen Mo was still quite happy.
But what really bugged him was that his accumulated happiness and resentment points were only enough for this single draw. After being used to hundreds of consecutive draws before, Chen Mo found this very hard to get used to.
“I still prefer the old system where I could just pay to get stronger...”
Chen Mo muttered to himself, but he quickly let it go.
After getting used to the “happiness points” and “resentment points” setup, Chen Mo actually found it quite thrilling...
“Looks like, starting after the New Year, my development plans need a slight adjustment. From now on, making money isn’t the primary goal. Creating more ‘heart-healing’ games is the top priority.”
The term “heart-healing” here carried both meanings.
Chen Mo roughly analyzed the acquisition speed of the two emotions. Happiness points came faster, but required a larger quantity. Resentment points accumulated more slowly and would gradually convert to happiness points later on, but the required amount was smaller.
For a torturous game like *Normal Adventure*, the resentment points were intense at the beginning, but in the mid-game, they slowly converted to happiness points. By the late game, the remaining players were mostly masochists who had gotten used to the twisted logic, and the happiness points generated exceeded the resentment points...
However, the system’s values were clearly designed deliberately. The required amount for happiness points was much larger. Overall, happiness points were still the scarcer resource.
This basically determined Chen Mo’s future path in the short term.