[Evaluation complete. Rating achieved: C!]
[Completion threshold met. Trait acquired: "Natural Villain" (Green).]
Solon rubbed his chin thoughtfully.
He was sure his performance in this simulation was clearly better than the last one. He hadn't made any major mistakes, wasn't counterattacked at the end, and handled everything smoothly. By the standard of the previous run, this should've been bumped up to a B.
Yet the system still rated him a C.
"System, I did better this time. Why's it still a C? Explain yourself."
The system quickly responded.
[In addition to base difficulty, each scenario also carries hidden difficulty, depending on the character backgrounds involved. Hidden difficulty also affects final scoring.]
Solon understood immediately.
For example, if a scenario takes place during wartime, it's obviously harder than during peacetime.
Likewise, dealing with Jingliu—a gorgeous yet unhinged yandere—is far more dangerous than dealing with a laid-back slacker like Qingque.
Characters and settings like these add hidden factors to the simulation's difficulty, which naturally impacts evaluation.
To be fair, Qingque's scenario was indeed easier. He'd even cleared it in a single attempt.
Now that he had two C-level ratings, Solon decided to spend them.
He upgraded "Accumulated Practice" from white to blue, which greatly boosted its effect—essentially allowing him to level up faster during simulations and lowering difficulty by proxy.
As for "Natural Villain," upgrading a green trait with a C-rank rating might seem wasteful. But during Qingque's scenario, he practically coasted through everything, encountering almost no setbacks. That had to be thanks to this trait working behind the scenes.
To Solon, "Natural Villain" felt like a passive buff that added bonus luck whenever he did something nasty.
Luck might be invisible and intangible, but it was crucial.
Just look at a certain Holy Grail War—no matter how good your stats are, if your luck is trash, you're doomed. One moment you're laughing, the next you're being forced to commit suicide. Brutal.
And besides, this was the Villain Simulator. The system literally told him to act like a scumbag.
Solon used his two C-rank ratings to upgrade both "Accumulated Practice" and "Natural Villain" to blue.
"Accumulated Practice" still had the same description—the upgraded effect would need testing.
But "Natural Villain" now increased his success rate in committing misdeeds from slightly to moderately.
Between checking rewards and upgrading traits, that simulation had taken quite a bit of time and mental energy.
Realizing how late it was, Solon shut off the system screen and fell asleep the moment he hit the bed.
He slept soundly, peacefully, and didn't wake until the next morning.
Meanwhile, on the Xianzhou Luofu, Qingque couldn't sleep at all.
She had just experienced a dream.
It felt so real that she couldn't even tell if she was dreaming or still in the waking world.
In the dream…
Qingque shivered and instinctively crossed her arms over her chest.
There were still a few hours before dawn, but her mind was in chaos, unable to rest.
When morning finally arrived, Qingque stumbled out of her home without even washing up.
Today was her day off. Normally, she'd meet up with a few friends and play hours of Celestial Jade at the parlor.
But now, just thinking about anything related to that game made her head flood with vivid images of last night's disturbingly real nightmare. The pain and dread clung to her like cold water.
If she hadn't already promised to meet her friends, she wouldn't have gone at all.
Dragging her feet the whole way, Qingque finally arrived. Her friends were already waiting.
"Qingque, what took you so long?"
"Qingque, you're usually the first one here. What's gotten into you today?"
She mumbled a vague excuse. Her friends didn't press, and instead motioned for her to sit down.
"Come on, let's start already. We've been waiting forever."
"Yeah, hurry up! We're going three hundred rounds today!"
As the clatter of Celestial Jade tiles echoed in her ears, and piles of tiles stacked neatly on the table, Qingque's brain began to involuntarily replay the nightmare.
Losing again and again. Losing all her credits. Losing her house. Losing her job. Even her human dignity—completely gone.
Those scenes surged through her mind like crashing waves, and her face turned pale.
She clutched her chest and gasped for air, struggling to breathe.
Her friends immediately noticed something was wrong and rushed over.
"Qingque, are you okay?"
"Are you feeling sick?"
"Want us to go with you to the Alchemy Commission?"
Qingque took a few deep breaths to calm herself, then forced a weak smile.
"Sorry, I'm really not feeling well today… You all go ahead without me. I'll find a healer to check on me."
"You sure you'll be okay alone? I can go with you."
One of her closer friends looked genuinely concerned.
Qingque waved it off, trying to act normal.
"I'm fine, really! Probably just a stomach bug. No big deal."
After a bit more small talk, she left the parlor quickly.
Maybe it was just her imagination, but the air outside felt a lot fresher the moment she stepped out.
She took several deep breaths. Color returned to her face, and her racing heart slowly calmed down.
But the moment she looked back at the parlor, her heart began to pound again. She quickly turned away, not daring to glance again.
Qingque sighed heavily. Until she could forget that nightmare, anything related to Celestial Jade was off-limits.
With one last glance at the parlor sign, she turned away, visibly dejected.
No Celestial Jade. Low mood. Didn't want to go home. A whole free day wasted. So she aimlessly wandered the streets of the Exalting Sanctum.
Suddenly, a familiar voice reached her ears.
"Boss, one bowl of spicy beef offal, and a soda-bean juice on the side."
Qingque's eyes lit up with fury.
There was no mistaking it! That voice—she wouldn't forget it even if her demon self took over!
After waking from the nightmare, she'd pieced everything together. Solon had lured her into the game, tricking her into losing everything, pushing her step by step into a gambling abyss.
Rage overtook her.
"You bastard!"
Without a second thought, she stormed forward and grabbed Solon by the collar.
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