I'm a sophomore in college, what the heck is this "male god cultivation system"?

Chapter 13 Unexpected Mission Triggering Methods

With a "ding" sound in his mind, a bright blue screen appeared in front of Chen Yan's eyes.

[Mission: True Ending]

[Mission Description: Upon parting, your friend Ding Yang expresses his desire to see the final ending of "Dynasty Warriors." Please complete the game in one life within one month. You may play multiple times and submit your best score.]

[Task time limit: 30 days]

[Reward: Special Gift Pack (Gift Pack quality is determined by the duration of play)]

"Hmm!" Chen Yan paused for a moment, unconsciously stopping in his tracks.

I only promised to film the ending for Ding Yang, I didn't expect this would trigger a mission...

Chen Yan suddenly felt as if he were playing a large-scale open-world game without a main storyline. There were no mandatory main quests; side quests could only be triggered by running around and meeting certain conditions.

'So, the reason I didn't have a single task for so long before finals was because my life was too routine and I didn't actively [explore new content]?'

It's like playing a game. Once you've completed all the tasks in this area, you need to explore new maps to continue doing tasks.

Chen Yan's life is very repetitive, and he follows the same route almost every day. So once all the tasks on this route have been triggered, there will naturally be no new tasks.

After realizing this, Chen Yan felt a bit screwed up.

"Brother Yan, what's wrong?" Gao Zhuang, who was standing nearby, noticed something was wrong and asked, "Why do you look so strange?"

"Nothing, I just suddenly realized something." Chen Yan took a deep breath, saw the park ahead, and asked, "I'm thinking of going for a run, do you want to come?"

"Ah, it's so late, I don't want to run anymore, maybe later." Gao Zhuang scratched his head, clearly not very willing.

Chen Yan had only mentioned it casually, so he naturally wouldn't force anyone. He patted Gao Zhuang on the shoulder and said, "I'm going for a run now, bye-bye."

"Bye-Bye."

……

Over the next few days, Chen Yan's life remained largely unchanged. The only difference was that after his evening run, he would specifically go online to search for strategy guides for "Dynasty Warriors".

Chen Yan is not a hardcore gamer, nor does he have the sentiment of "finding the joy of playing games by figuring it out little by little on his own".

He was just doing the task; why wouldn't he take the shortcut if there was one?

In this highly developed internet society, almost any normal person can find any information they want online, and Chen Yan is no exception.

Many experts on the forum provided guides, and Chen Yan carefully browsed through them and indeed found a lot of very useful information.

While various experts have different opinions on how to clear the game, almost no one denies the strength of Zhuge Liang's Ice Sword. Some have even used this build to achieve a speedrun in 25 minutes.

Chen Yan carefully memorized the choices at each plot point in the walkthrough, as well as Zhuge Liang's combo techniques.

After completing all these basic tasks, Chen Yan began to try to pass the levels repeatedly in the arcade hall of Wanning Mall.

His skills were good. After failing twice, he successfully completed the game on his third attempt in 39 minutes and 22 seconds, and even took a picture of the ending and sent it to Ding Yang.

Although Ding Yang's wish was fulfilled, Chen Yan did not choose to submit it. He could clearly feel that he had made many mistakes during the game and still needed to improve his completion time.

Sure enough, his speed increased each time he cleared the game in the following attempts.

37 minutes 17 seconds.

35 minutes 49 seconds.

31 minutes 11 seconds.

His speed increased with each attempt, the only slight pity being that he couldn't break the 30-point mark. Chen Yan wasn't in a hurry; he kept his fastest score and planned to go back to the arcade when he had time. Going even faster would be better, but if he didn't break through, this score was close to his theoretical limit, so submitting it wasn't a big loss.

Time passed by day by day.

……

Meanwhile, Chen Yan's online novel project is also progressing rapidly.

After all, the outline of this new book is very detailed, and Chen Yan is the kind of author with a vivid imagination. With all these advantages combined, it is exceptionally easy for the book to win a recommendation spot.

After the second round of recommendations, Chen Yan's new book has reached 2800 reads, which can be said to surpass 99% of books. Even most books that have been recommended by Sanjiang Publishing House may not be able to achieve this result. It is also the leader among new books released at the same time.

In order to get all the recommendations faster, after discussing with the editor, the new book skipped the first three rounds of recommendations and went directly from the second round to the fourth round, greatly speeding up the release process.

After receiving recommendations in the fourth round, Chen Yan, with his reading success far exceeding that of other new books published around the same time, was unsurprisingly included in the Sanjiang list.

Once we've used up all the featured slots this week, we can put it on the shelves.

……

Arcade.

Chen Yan manipulated the joystick, methodically using the combos he had memorized perfectly.

As for Cao Cao, the final boss, his health bar dropped rapidly.

As the situation became more critical, Chen Yan's mood became calmer. He could feel that he was in better condition than ever before. As long as he could pass the test smoothly this time, he would definitely achieve a breakthrough.

Behind him were four or five people watching him control Zhuge Liang, slowly whittling down Cao Cao's health.

With the development of mobile phones and computers, arcade games have become increasingly obsolete. Nowadays, people who still play arcade games are mostly in their thirties or forties, and it's hard for them not to know the classic game from the 90s, "Dynasty Warriors".

Just like how a skilled player in an internet cafe has a group of people who admire their skills, an arcade master like Chen Yan will also attract players.

However, the number of people attracted is much smaller, and the age of those people is also much older.

As Chen Yan unleashed his final "Summoning Wind and Rain" move, Cao Cao's health bar was reduced to zero, followed by the ending animation.

Amidst a chorus of exclamations behind him, a number surfaced in Chen Yan's mind.

28 minutes 07 seconds.

After taking a deep breath, Chen Yan had no intention of trying again. He knew he had reached his absolute limit this time, so he submitted the application directly.

[Congratulations, host, on successfully completing the mission—the true ending]

[Rewards are being distributed...]

[Congratulations, host, you have received a reward—Beauty Cream]

……

Chen Yan stretched his arms and, under the admiring gazes of several middle-aged men, strode out of the arcade.

He had just stepped out the door when he saw a boy handing out flyers running towards him, shouting as he ran:

"Hey handsome, how about checking out our badminton court? It just opened recently, and we have lots of special offers right now, including a 50% discount for membership cards."

Chen Yan was about to wave his hand to refuse, but as soon as he raised his hand, the deliveryman handed him the flyer.

"It's on the sixth floor, and the space is very large, making it perfect for young people to exercise."

(End of this chapter)