RHWHEG – Chapter 2 Pay-to-Win Game

The authorities classified the threat of various creatures to humanity based on a certain kind of cosmic element’s concentration level.

For humans who still retained their sanity, those with cosmic element concentration below 10% were considered safe green-coded survivors.

Those between 10% and 19% were known as LV1 ability users. And so on, level by level.

When cosmic element concentration reached 50%–55%, they were classified as the most dangerous type of LV5 ability users.

55% was a dividing line. According to Dr. Chen, anything beyond that was no longer human but a calamity-level monster, and so another naming system was used.

56%–59% were called F-grade calamities.

Continuing alphabetically FGHIJ, concentrations between 90% and 99% became J-grade calamities.

Those ≥100% were purely theoretical, known as K-grade calamities.

Cosmic element concentration didn’t necessarily represent individual strength—it measured the degree of threat to humans. Thus, the outcome of a battle still depended on many other factors.

Right outside the apartment building lurked one of the more common F-grade calamities in the apocalypse: 裂口犬 (Rift Hounds).

They were almost hairless, their skin covered in toad-like warts. A dog’s normal-sized mouth was only camouflage—their true jaws split all the way back to their neck. With a single bite, they could snap a human’s waist in two. People often fell victim to ambushes because of their outdated knowledge of what a “dog’s mouth” should be. On top of that, Rift Hounds still retained a dog’s sharp sense of smell and a measure of cunning. If they broke into a place where survivors were hiding, they could easily become a huge problem.

“Quick, use the hexagram to repair the main door!” the system prompted again.

Yu Qunqing frowned, but followed the instructions.

On the screen, a hexagram floated and disassembled. Then, as if guided by an invisible hand, scattered planks of wood were picked up and nails appeared out of nowhere. Several boards joined together, tightly sealing the entrance. After a few solid hammer strikes, the nails held the planks firmly in place.

Yu Qunqing couldn’t believe what he had just done. “I… locked myself in?”

“And these flimsy boards probably won’t withstand more than a couple of hits,” he muttered, curious about the system’s actual limits.

The system let out several ding-dong sounds in protest, then zoomed in the view outside the gate—as if determined to prove its strength!

The Rift Hounds were startled by the sudden barricade and hid in the shadows. After a moment, they decided to send a vanguard forward. A small Rift Hound shot out from a tricky angle, ramming itself fiercely against the planks.

The boards shook violently, as though about to collapse. The Rift Hound growled low and charged again.

Yet, although the planks trembled and looked about to fall apart, not a single gap was broken through.

The Rift Hounds barked at each other, then tried gnawing at the wood with their razor-sharp teeth. Sparks flew, lightning crackled, and with a loud crack, several fangs snapped clean off.

Yu Qunqing winced. “That made my teeth hurt just watching.”

“Woof—awoo—”

The Rift Hounds hastily called to their pack: this place was no good—retreat!

“The first-floor wooden barricade has proven highly effective! The newbie tutorial ends here. Quickly pass more levels and renovate the finest apartment building!”

The game’s perspective shifted back to the current living room, and a new event pop-up appeared.

“Beginner’s Gift Pack Giveaway! Log in for 7 days—different surprises every day! Abundant stamina items await you. On Day 7, receive the ‘Zodiac Stone Fountain’!”

Yu Qunqing clicked the sign-in button and received:

• an Unlimited Stamina Apple (1 hour),
• 1000 gold coins,
• a Magic Glove, Candied Hawthorn Skewer, and Rubber Duck Balloon, one each.

An “Unlimited Stamina” item with a 1-hour time limit—it was basically nudging players to use it immediately or waste it.

Although it was simple psychological bait, as an ordinary player Yu Qunqing couldn’t resist the sly scheme of game designers. He suddenly felt an overwhelming urge to binge-play this match-3 game.

He closed the pop-up, only for another activity window to appear.

“Newcomer Special Discount! Limited-time bundles!”

There were three bundles: 6 gems, 18 gems, and 30 gems. Each showed a discount label: -99% for the 6-gem pack, -75% for the 30-gem pack.

At first glance, the 6-gem pack seemed the best deal. But in reality, it was just another psychological trap. The cheapest one looked so cost-effective that players might as well “try it once.” Then, after buying the 6-gem pack, they’d soon find themselves short on items again. “But I really like having lots of items, what do I do?” Naturally—buy the 18-gem pack! Step by step, players fell deeper into the psychological pit set by the developers, developing a habit of paying until they became mere cash cows.

Sigh, talking about it just brings tears…

Yu Qunqing firmly closed the window, his face expressionless, and waited for the next pop-up.

“First top-up of 6 gems: Receive the exclusive limited furniture—‘Money Tree of Prosperity’!”

“Prestigious Monthly Pass! Increase stamina cap by +3, claim daily time-limited items, and unlock the exclusive furniture ‘Strange Moonlight Lamp.’ First month at a special price—only 18 gems! (First purchase only, afterwards back to 30 gems).”

“Sunday-only Event: Star Power Plant—clear 5 levels in a row to fully charge the power plant and spin the reward wheel!”

The monetization tricks were endless. Everything could be “exclusive.” Everything could be “limited.” And of course, there was always a lottery to keep players hooked.

Event pop-ups kept appearing like pesky ads.

“Crocodile Season Now Open! Alien visitors descend—little crocodiles of Crocodile River are left homeless. Quickly clear stages to build new homes for them!”

The season event had two tracks:

• The free daily track with only coins, stamina, and item rewards.
• The premium riverside track, unlocked for 68 gems. Unlocking instantly gave a limited-time crocodile. Reach level 10 to make it permanent. Other rewards included a Crocodile Playhouse, Baby Croc Bubble Bath, and Nutritional Croc Feed. At level 20, a Crocodile Sea-Dragon skin. At level 40—a whole nest of baby crocodiles!

When he finally closed the page, all the event pop-ups were done. Yu Qunqing looked left and right—every one of these events screamed just two words:

“Play now.”

“Spend money.”

The main game interface was set in the living room where Yu Qunqing was.

In the upper left corner was the player information display: Current assets — Gold Coins × 80,000, Diamonds × 0.

This amount of gold coins… looked a bit familiar.

Yu Qunqing thought for a moment and suddenly realized: wasn’t this exactly his savings from before the apocalypse?

Then how was he supposed to top up diamonds?

Yu Qunqing opened the instructions and read them carefully, then fell silent.

The diamonds required in this game were actual diamonds!

Ding-dong, this system has a conversion function. Gemstones and jade of equal value can also be recharged!

Yu Qunqing: “But I don’t have diamonds, and I don’t have gemstones either. Can’t we just use paper currency?”

Ding-dong, the system fully understands your anxious feelings and very sincerely wants to solve your problem. The system will run your suggestion through the program several times to see if a solution can be found. Do you find this resolution acceptable?

So this kind of customer service that merely acts as a loudspeaker existed everywhere indeed.

Yu Qunqing resisted the urge to complain. He knew talking nonsense with the system was just wasting his own time. So he continued exploring the game.

On the top right of the interface were icons for Shop, Events, Recharge, etc.
On the bottom right was the button to start the match-3 game, while the bottom left was for entering Decoration Mode.

After a quick scan, Yu Qunqing found his unlimited stamina only had 56 minutes left. He immediately felt like he had suffered a huge loss. Unable to hold back any longer, he dove headfirst into the joyful sea of match-3.

The first few levels were very easy, giving Yu Qunqing the illusion that he was amazingly good.

After successfully clearing the 6th level, the settlement screen showed a Power Station. The turbine spun rapidly, and the machine glowed green. It was a Sunday-limited event: Star Power Station.

“Power Station operational! Do you wish to draw a prize now?”

Yu Qunqing chose No. Time was money — he still had to keep clearing levels.

From Level 10 onward, the difficulty rose a bit, but Yu Qunqing felt confident in his clever mind. He wasn’t afraid. Inevitably, though, his pace slowed.

At Level 13, he had only one move left, but needed two more to complete the objectives. He was tempted to use an item, but his items were pitifully few. Better to save them for later. As expected, he failed the level.

The game popped up another prompt: Do you really want to end here? You’re just 1 black butterfly-shaped gem short of clearing! Spend 6,666 gold coins to gain 6 extra moves.

Fortunately, he was still in unlimited stamina mode! With game prices this high, he had to budget carefully. Without hesitation, Yu Qunqing chose No.

He cleared Level 13 on his second attempt.

Then Level 15, Level 22…

Level 36!

Yu Qunqing restarted this level several times. Sometimes he was short 13 leaf-shaped gems, sometimes 22 small round gems. Finally, when he was just 3 leaf-shaped gems away, he couldn’t resist using the Magic Gloves item, which swapped two adjacent gems without costing a move.

Level 36 cleared!

With only a sliver of unlimited stamina left, Yu Qunqing hurriedly started Level 37.

This stage introduced a new multi-layered ice block obstacle. Gems frozen inside wouldn’t move. They needed to be matched twice, or removed with a Water Gun item.

But his 1 hour of unlimited stamina had ended, and the game returned to normal mode. Yu Qunqing now had only 5 stamina points left. Each failed level consumed 1 point; clearing a level consumed none. One stamina point recovered every 45 minutes.

Careful as ever, Yu Qunqing thought ten steps ahead for every move. He cleared Level 37, and his rhythm felt great — Level 38 and Level 39 went down in one try each!

Then he crashed and burned at Level 40.

In total, Yu Qunqing cleared 39 levels. Now he was out of stamina completely. He let out a long breath and slowly collapsed onto the living room floor.

Though match-3 was supposed to be a casual little game, playing it was anything but relaxing. Instead, the simple controls and fast feedback loop were slightly addictive, piling on mental pressure.

Yu Qunqing even thought to himself that maybe just playing match-3 was enough; he didn’t care about decorating at all.

Probably because the last time he’d played a video game was… in his past life.

After resting a bit, Yu Qunqing opened the Star Power Station event page. Drawing chances required winning 5 levels in a row. From Level 20 onward, that was very hard. So Yu Qunqing only had 5 chances total.

On the screen, the power station shrank like a little ball, then bounced up. The dial in the middle of the machine began spinning and spinning until the pointer landed on a spot.

Ding-dong! Congratulations, you’ve obtained a rare piece of furniture: Sunshine Beach Lounge Chair (movable)!

Yu Qunqing: “I get it. ‘Rare’ is your lowest tier, right? After that it must be ‘Uncommon,’ ‘Precious,’ ‘Legendary,’ something like that.”

He knew too well.

The system paused for a second.

Ding-dong ding-dong! The system chimed frantically. Sunshine Beach Lounge Chair (movable) has been delivered. Wishing you a pleasant life!

“Bang!”

Next to the fabric sofa in the living room, a beach lounge chair decorated with cartoon fish patterns dropped out of nowhere. Beside it stood a decorative plastic coconut tree, topped with a rainbow-colored sun umbrella.

The tropical vibe of the beach chair clashed terribly with Yu Qunqing’s Nordic-style home.

In the game screen’s living room, the same lounge chair appeared in the same spot.

Yu Qunqing remembered this was a decorating game and tried to move it to the community garden. But furniture could only be moved within already-explored areas. Since it insisted on staying indoors with its umbrella, there was nothing he could do.

Yu Qunqing kept spinning the Star Power Station, pulling two Cross Water Guns, 666 gold coins, and one bottle of Vanishing Potion.

Lotteries were just so exciting!

He then opened the Crocodile Season event page.

He hadn’t unlocked the Riverside track yet. The normal track rewards were fewer, but hey — mosquito meat was still meat. Each cleared level gave him 2 points. Now he was already at Level 7, having crossed 7 hurdles on the normal track.

Each level had prizes. Yu Qunqing claimed 7 game items. At last, he wasn’t a pauper in items anymore. He finally had some confidence in playing.

“Rewards all claimed… then with 38 hexagrams, how far can I get with decorating?”