Global Game: I Can Choose Instance Rewards-Chapter 463 - 330: Runes and Keys

Wang Zhifan’s avatar hid underground near the statue, silently observing their struggle. He couldn’t quite understand why they insisted on fighting to the death here. Clearly, the passages around the square could be used to lure the Bat Monsters into tighter spaces, making it easier to defeat them, rather than allowing them to exploit their agile flying abilities in the open square.

As more Bat Monsters were killed, the threat they posed diminished. The archer mercenaries could more easily shoot arrows, quickly finishing off the remaining bats and securing victory in the battle.

"Why didn’t those bats flee? Even when there were only two or three left, they still charged at people?"

Wang Zhifan observed this strange scene through his avatar, feeling that these creatures had low intelligence, akin to the rigid monsters in games.

But the mercenaries who claimed victory quickly explained his confusion. One by one, they approached the central statue, led by a leader who bowed to it and said:

"Great Goddess, we have completed the sacrifice, please bestow upon us precious treasures."

As soon as the leader finished speaking, a small object appeared out of thin air in the hands of the statue. It was a slightly worn copper key, which made the leader’s eyes light up instantly.

"We did it! The Goddess acknowledged our sacrifice! The copper key will lead to a good harvest for us!"

With that, he stepped forward to take the key from the statue’s hands and showed it to the other mercenaries around him.

"I thought we could get the Silver Key; was the sacrificial ritual not good enough..."

A female archer mercenary in leather armor sighed slightly, showing dissatisfaction with the reward gained at the cost of a few comrades.

"It’s already quite good; the combat ritual isn’t the best method for offering anyway."

The leader immediately spoke to her.

"Offering items is the Goddess’s favorite, but we don’t have high-quality items. Even if we did, it’s not something we’d want to sacrifice, haha..."

He laughed self-deprecatingly and quickly led the mercenaries toward a passage on the edge of the square. Some healed themselves with potions or magic as they walked.

Once these people were far enough, the hidden Dream Me Avatar suddenly emerged from the ground. Simultaneously, Wang Zhifan’s true self transferred over through Dream Entry and Dream Break. Before he came over, he left another Dream Me Avatar at the original place for easy return.

"Since this place doesn’t block my control over the avatar, it means they might be in different spaces, but not far apart. Each space is closely connected, allowing me to explore multiple routes at once?"

This realization was something Wang Zhifan knew he needed to take advantage of. Within this tower, he had been isolated in a separate space for the challenge. Others’ experiences differed from his, leading to a lack of information. Now he had a chance to learn by following others.

"First, let’s solve the problem here."

Glancing in the direction where the mercenaries had disappeared, he didn’t rush to pursue them but instead focused on extracting every benefit from the statue before him.

"I want to initiate the combat sacrifice ritual."

He intended to imitate the mercenaries in conducting a ritual to receive rewards, but unfortunately, he didn’t know how to start it. He could only guess, speaking what he considered an incantation to the statue.

After his words, he found no monsters attacking him, just the corpses of Bat Monsters and mercenaries from the previous battle, indicating his attempt at the ritual had failed.

"Start the ritual!"

"Sacrifice!"

"Let me fight monsters!"

...

After each failure, Wang Zhifan continued to try with his imagination. Reality was harsh, and none of his actions elicited a response, highlighting the frustration due to lack of information.

Fortunately, he wasn’t one to obstinately persevere. After several failures, he changed tactics because he remembered the mercenaries mentioned that not all sacrifices required a ritual; offering items was another way.

"How should I make an offering... Could it be by placing it in the statue’s palms?"

He thought this method seemed most logical and immediately retrieved a pair of Fine Layer gloves from his personal space, placing them in the statue’s palms.

In the initial two seconds, he observed no change in the gloves, but just as he prepared to try another item, the gloves in the statue’s hand suddenly vanished, replaced by a key— a rusty black iron key.

"It actually worked... But does this rusty iron key indicate it’s of lower quality than the copper key the mercenaries obtained earlier? Even though I sacrificed Fine Layer equipment, do I need to offer Rare or Outstanding items for better rewards?"

Wang Zhifan was not satisfied with this outcome. Although he no longer needed Fine Layer equipment, he still considered them valuable and sellable. Sacrificing Fine Layer gear for uncertain rewards seemed possibly disadvantageous.

"If the quality isn’t enough, then quantity should suffice. Let’s try a few more."

After some thought, he took out a Fine Layer bracer from his personal space and placed it in the statue’s palms. This time he waited for about ten seconds, and the Fine Layer bracer did not disappear, indicating a failed sacrifice.

"Are you forcing me to offer something better?"

Wang Zhifan realized that his Fine Layer equipment might have been judged inadequate, so he put away the Fine Layer gloves and considered sacrificing a Rare item, but suddenly recalled the cumbersome longbow he had left earlier.

"Right! I still have that bow with the avatar; sacrificing it would be perfect!"

Determined, he immediately used Dream Entry and Dream Break to return to his level, picked up the longbow guarded by the avatar, and noticed two tattered pieces of parchment lying nearby.

These two tattered parchments were the contracts previously manifested by a phantom. They initially looked impressive but were forcibly destroyed by his Epic Time Blade, now stripped of their faint flames, looking unremarkable.

"Perhaps these two scrap parchments can be of some use, at least the materials shouldn’t be ordinary."

Thinking these could be dealt with as well, Wang Zhifan picked them up. He activated Dream Entry and Dream Break to hurry back to the statue.

He first placed the two tattered parchments in the statue’s palms to see if there was any reaction.

Unexpectedly, the result was swift. Almost instantly upon placing them, the parchments disappeared and were replaced by a golden key lying in the statue’s hand!

"What the heck! A Gold Key right away?! Were those scraps so valuable?!"

Wang Zhifan immediately grasped the consequences of his lack of knowledge, feeling he had unwittingly lost a lot. All he could hope for was that the Gold Key would prove worthy of its cost. 𝘧𝑟𝑒𝑒𝘸𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝓁.𝘤𝘰𝓂

Afterwards, he placed the longbow in the statue’s hands. A few seconds later, the bow disappeared, and he received a slightly old copper key.

"Seems like this longbow was above Fine Layer, perhaps Rare level... Given this, those tattered parchments might have been Epic Layer?! There shouldn’t be a lower key than copper below Gold Key— there should at least be a Silver Key... Something of Epic Layer, and I just left them on the ground, unguarded..."

This experience made the lack of item information painfully clear, and Wang Zhifan now felt the loss could be worth billions.