After returning from the Dead Soul Lake, Bai Xiaowen's experience bar had risen to 58% of Level 5. Although it was a special treasure space and could not be unearthed for side missions, Bai Xiaowen had defeated a lot of BOSSes. Naturally, he had gained a lot of combat experience.
Bai Xiaowen estimated that he would be able to reach Level 6 after exploring the Spirit World once or twice. His leveling speed was two to three times that of university students of the same age. Many outstanding hero class university students only reached Level 6 when they were in their third or fourth year.
Bai Xiaowen was not in a hurry to explore the Spirit World for the time being. After returning from the Dead Soul Lake, he planned to rest for a while.
Of course, the rest here did not mean sleeping every day, nor did it mean that he would lose his will to flirt with girls. Instead, he wanted to settle down and strengthen his foundation in preparation for the next exploration of the Spirit World.
The so-called foundation referred to his strength outside of attributes, skills, and equipment. It mainly referred to his combat expertise, including his skill level LV.
Bai Xiaowen's combat expertise was not bad because he had telepathy and could share his summoned creatures' combat expertise and memory. However, his skill level lagged behind quite a bit. He was now an Awakened who was more than half of Level 5. Most of his skills were only at Level 3. He had relied on the bonus of the title 'Strongest Student' to reach Level 4, which was a bit low.
He had to clearly understand his own shortcomings before he could improve. After that, Bai Xiaowen spent most of his time in the Psionic Ability Training Ground, practicing his skills hard. During his free time, he would also practice the close combat routines of the Grass Style Ancient Martial Arts and explore the most suitable combo for himself.
New Year's Day of Year 97 of Lingyuan arrived. Bai Xiaowen's first semester at Jinghai University was also coming to an end.
The Virtual Battle Company sent an invitation to Bai Xiaowen to shoot a promotional video for the Version 97 battle platform. The director of the promotional video was Bart Kail Wen. He was a famous figure in the film industry and was also very familiar with China.
Originally, Director Kail Wen had asked for Bai Xiaowen to stay for at least a week. This was a bit unbelievable for Bai Xiaowen, who had only appeared for one second in the CG. However, Director Kail Wen's reason was that Bai Xiaowen had no experience as an actress. This week was mainly for tutoring Bai Xiaowen.
After all, Director Kail Wen was just an ordinary person. If she were an Awakened, she wouldn't have so little confidence in Bai Xiaowen.
The Spirit Realm itself was a role-playing process. If one lacked acting skills and was unable to move (or deceive) the people in the Spirit Realm, it would be impossible for one to change to a hero class and achieve such dazzling achievements. In other words, Bai Xiaowen's achievements in the Spirit Realm showed that his acting skills were not weak.
Bai Xiaowen did not argue with Kail Wen's contempt. He only made one request, which was to invite Kail Wen to watch his audition.
In the end, Bai Xiaowen was exempted from a week of acting lessons. Director Kelvin was also very straightforward and said frankly, "That's right.
He said frankly, "You are a natural actor. You have the appearance of an idol and the inner qualities of a real actor. If you are willing to enter the film industry, you will become a big star in three years."
Of course, Bai Xiaowen would not become an actor and enter the film industry. However, Director Kail Wen's words reminded him. If there was a chance, he should take on a few special roles in movies. It should be very helpful to increase his international fame.
In fact, many well-known Awakened ones, especially those from Europe and the United States, liked to act in movies. For example, Boulder, a regular in the Super Bowl and the main player of the Rolling Stones, had even acted in a series of superhero movies. Of course, Mr. Boulder was the investor.
It could be said that half of Boulder's A-level international fame came from the big screen.
This was probably one of the reasons why ordinary directors were respected by Awakened ones. With this thought in mind, Bai Xiaowen and Director Kail Wen exchanged contact information.
Next was the production of Bai Xiaowen's character template.
It was important to note that during the production of the character template, the character template would not be divided into equipment skills, equipment strengthening effects, and combat skills. Instead, all of them would be listed as available skills for the character and appear in the character's' skill list '.
Of course, after obtaining a character template, experienced Players would be able to distinguish which skills belonged to Awakened ones, which belonged to equipment skills, and which belonged to enhancement effects.
The easiest way to distinguish them was by looking at the cooldown time. Combat skills had the shortest cooldown time, with the longest being 10 to 20 minutes. The shortest cooldown time was only 1 to 2 minutes or even 10 seconds. Equipment skills, on the other hand, had a cooldown time of 8 hours, 12 hours, and 24 hours.
In addition, combat skills that reached LV4 would have additional special effects. More often than not, the additional special effects would have more descriptive text and more powerful effects.
For example, Bai Xiaowen's Deterrence would be a standalone skill. The Sharkskin Boots' additional skill, Floating on Water, would also be a standalone skill. The Sharkskin Boots' + 4 special effect, Sprint, would also be a standalone skill. All three of them would appear in the skill list and occupy one slot.
Players took a look and saw that Deterrence's cooldown time was only 4 minutes. With such a powerful effect, it was definitely a combat skill.
Floating on Water's cooldown time was 19 hours and 12 minutes. Players would recognize that it was an equipment skill. Sprint's cooldown time was 8 hours. Similarly, the possibility of it being a combat skill was ruled out. Moreover, this effect would usually appear in the shoes' enhancement effects. It was not difficult to distinguish.
However, there were exceptions to everything. If Bai Xiaowen's Black Soul Stone's additional skill, Return of the Dead, was used as an example, players would have a hard time identifying it.
Bai Xiaowen had hidden the Black Soul Stone. Thus, Return of the Dead would need to be divided into smaller skills.
Summon Skeleton Swordsman No. 1, the first skill.
Summon Skeleton Swordsman No. 2, the second skill.
…
Summon Skeleton Swordsman No. 6, the sixth skill.
After that, there was still Summon Shadow Assassin, the seventh skill.
Summon Skeleton Goblin, the eighth skill. This was the data of the Skeleton Goblin after its evolution. Bai Xiaowen could no longer scan the data of the Skeleton Goblin. The customization of the character template was based on the real-time scan of the Psionic Camera. Bai Xiaowen could hide some information, but he could not tamper with it.
There was also Vampire Keats and Voodoo Fusion Fatty. In other words, after Bai Xiaowen hid the newly added Evil Ghost and Skeleton Warrior, as well as the Zombie Doctor and other summoned creatures that were on standby in the Cain Plane, his Return of the Dead skill was still divided into 10 summoning skills with a cooldown time of 12 hours.
This was also the reason why Bai Xiaowen could hide the Black Soul Stone when he scanned the data of the Awakened battle platform in the past. However, he was able to detect the Skeleton Swordsman and other summoned creatures — it was not the Black Soul Stone that was scanned, but the Skeleton Swordsman and other summoned creatures.
As long as the Psionic Camera detected that Bai Xiaowen had a summoned creature, it would record "Summon XX" as a skill in Bai Xiaowen's skill list. Moreover, the Psionic Camera would automatically recognize the skill. Only "permanent" skill effects would be recorded in the Psionic Camera. If it was a summoned creature or a buff from an item, it would not be recorded in the character template.
The Return of the Dead was divided into 10 summoning skills. Compared to the "Summon Wrath Claw" skill, it was still difficult for players to distinguish which was a combat skill and which was an equipment skill. This was because they were all very powerful. This was because the Black Soul Stone was too powerful as a piece of equipment exclusive to the Hero Class. This was an exception.
In the end, including the equipment skills and equipment strengthening effects, Bai Xiaowen had a total of 32 skills in his skill list! Compared to other Intermediate Awakened Heroes, Bai Xiaowen had nearly twice as many skills. And this was under the condition that Bai Xiaowen was holding back.
After the customization of the character template was completed, it was finally the winter vacation.
The promotional CG of the Virtual Battle Company (Chinese server) version 97 was officially released one week before the Lunar New Year.
Bai Xiaowen was also very interested in the CG of his first appearance, so he went online to watch it.
The CG opened with a starry sky as the background. In an instant, the starry sky transformed into a deep eye. Then, the camera panned back and a man whose hair covered half of his face, leaving only a deep eye, appeared. This was the classic character of the Virtual Battle platform, the "Astromancer."
The Astromancer opened his palm, and a crystal ball rotated slightly above his palm. Then, the camera panned forward, and the scene of two girls fighting fiercely appeared in the crystal ball. Under the robes, the skin was faintly discernible. The Frost Controller and the Great Mage of Ashes, two surging energy balls, one ice and one fire, were colliding.
After the loud explosion, black smoke rose, and the scene quickly changed to night. The camera panned up, and a bright moon hung high in the sky. Three black dots seemed to jump out of the bright moon. They grew bigger and bigger, and turned into the image of three black-clothed Nightwalkers. This was another classic character, the "Phantom Assassin." It seemed that there were three people, but in fact, there was only one of them.
These classic characters had been passed down for decades. Among them, the oldest was the Astromancer. It was said that he was included in the first version of the Virtual Battle version. After decades, the original Awakened of these classic characters had become legends, and they rarely appeared in public.
The Virtual Battle Platform's current Awakened characters were no longer the ones mentioned above. The reason why there was still a place for these characters in the CG was to respect their historical status, and to increase the recognition and enthusiasm of the players for the new version.
Later, one by one, the promoted characters appeared one after another.
There was the elegant "Noble Young Master" who held a glass of red wine in his hand; the "Heavenly Sovereign Roaring" whose muscles almost burst out of his vest; the "Beautiful Demoness" who had a slim figure, wore a black veil, and had eyes as clear as the autumn waters …
There were nearly ten promoted characters, and each of them was a Senior Awakened. There were at least two or three appearance actions, and they were either chic or fierce. They were all impressive.
The characters that appeared later were relatively simple. They were all in the same frame, sharing a frame. Of course, even with such a scene, the Awakened who participated in the shooting still designed their style for a long time, striving to highlight their own style and strive for more attention in this precious appearance time.
When Bai Xiaowen saw this, he wanted to laugh a little. He thought of the non-famous stars who "walked" the red carpet in the Christian era. However, when Bai Xiaowen thought of himself, he quickly put away his smile. From his position, it seemed that he was not qualified to laugh. If it weren't for the fame of the world, would the Awakened work so hard?
After dozens of characters flashed by, the CG also reached the later stage, and new characters began to appear.
"It's out!" Li Shuyi said excitedly.
The scene suddenly changed to a dark wind. A lonely figure in a cloak sat on a mountain of bones, and there was only a giant wolf snuggling close to him. Under the mountain of bones, skeletons crawled out, with soul fire burning in their eye sockets, raising their swords and roaring! The scene quickly pulled back from a close-up to a distant perspective. The tall voodoo fusion and the mysterious undead demon all flashed by, creating a feeling of thousands of troops and horses.
Although the appearance time was only a short second, it was enough to amaze people. Bai Xiaowen said with a smile, "Not bad."
Li Shuyi was a little unsatisfied. He dragged the progress bar forward and carefully watched Bai Xiaowen's one-second animation. Then, he let the CG finish playing and commented with a smile, "The new characters in this episode, you're like the villain of a demon king. The newcomers later all appear in the same frame. It's a bit like a group of warriors who are challenging the demon king … "
"This is all thanks to Sister Zheng's negotiation skills. Otherwise, I wouldn't have been able to enjoy the one-second animation alone. I would have had to be in the same frame as the other newcomers." Bai Xiaowen was very satisfied with the CG. The Virtual Battle Company had diligently followed the contract agreement.
Among the newcomers signed by the Virtual Battle Company in this episode, Tsinghua University's Lin Haoyang, Yan University's Ouyang Heng, and other CUAA League powerhouses were all selected. They were already in the graduating season and were about to leave school, sign official contracts with major guilds, and participate in the League in their battle robes. It was normal for new stars like them to receive an invitation to sign a contract with the Virtual Battle Company.
Qi Ruifeng's luck was a bit worse. Originally, with his record of leading the national team to the top four last year, it was entirely possible for him to receive an invitation to sign a contract with the Virtual Battle Company. Unfortunately, in this year's qualifiers, he was beaten black and blue by Bai Xiaowen. His popularity plummeted.
The Virtual Battle Company signed a contract with Bai Xiaowen. It could be seen that Bai Xiaowen stepped on Qi Ruifeng to quickly climb up the ranks. Bai Xiaowen was definitely an "exception" to be invited to sign a contract as a freshman.
And it was this newcomer who was invited that had more weight in the promotional CG than Ouyang Heng and other newcomers. Sister Zheng definitely played a big part in Bai Xiaowen receiving such treatment.
On the day the promotional CG was released, Bai Xiaowen invited Sister Zheng to dinner.
Actually, it couldn't be called a treat. Sister Zheng pursued the principle of being single. After signing the agent contract, she had been living in Bai Xiaowen's house in the Chihuo District for convenience.
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