Alternate Dimension Game: Happiness is all that matters!
Chapter 288 - 253: The Strange Cave (5200 words)_2

Chapter 288: Chapter 253: The Strange Cave (5200 words)_2

Of course, the most important thing right now is still intelligence gathering; one can’t be too hasty.

Looking around, he noticed that it wasn’t just the old beggar lying on the ground; there were other listless folks sprawled out as well, waiting for mushrooms to grow.

Squatting down, he lowered his voice, "I did, indeed, just arrive in Paradise and am not familiar with the place. A brother of mine got separated, so I ended up finding this place by accident."

"Now I have some questions I’d like to ask you. If you answer, I’ll give you this pack of cookies. Don’t play any tricks—there are so many people here, I could easily ask someone else."

"Sure, just ask whatever you want!" The beggar’s eyes lit up at the sight of the cookie package, and he swallowed his saliva, "You’re here for the first time? Don’t you know the rules here? It’s really odd, how are there people who come directly to the second layer? It’s baffling. You can’t pick up Crystal Stones?"

Wang Hao found the keyword and asked, "What are Crystal Stones?"

It wasn’t exactly a major secret.

The beggar snatched the cookies and began to eat voraciously, speaking between bites, "Crystal Stones, they are everything here!"

"Most people who enter Paradise for the first time will pick up a Crystal Stone on the first layer and satisfy one of their own desires! You’re just too unlucky—how did you directly get to the second layer? Cough cough cough..."

He seemed to choke, grabbing a water bottle next to him and taking a big gulp.

"The surface here, called ’Paradise’, you just need to find a Crystal Stone, and Paradise will satisfy one of your desires."

"A white Crystal Stone can fulfill a small desire—you know, ones worth within a million."

"Colored Crystal Stones can fulfill a medium-difficulty desire, valued at tens of millions; and the multicolored ones can satisfy all your desires, allowing you to live a life like an Emperor!"

"Oh, is that so? Can dead people be brought back to life?" Wang Hao inquired.

"Bringing dead people back to life?" The beggar paused, "Supposedly... it’s possible. I’ve never tried it, but it should be, for a rather large desire. At least one worth a billion."

"Really?" Wang Hao was a bit surprised.

In the world of the Cross-dimensional Game, reviving the dead wasn’t impossible, but it was definitely something only a Demon God with mastery over the ability of time could do!

"Let me finish... Each person sees a different Crystal Stone. Like, there might be a white Crystal Stone at your feet, you can’t see it, I can’t either, but some specific person might be able to see it and then pick it up. Got it?"

"More or less."

It was akin to "individual loot pickup" in an online game.

As he listened to what he was saying, Wang Hao couldn’t quite agree; fulfilling human desires, wasn’t that the classic ability of "Idealism"?

And what exactly were these Crystal Stones? A kind of Ideal Energy?

Glancing around, he saw nothing.

Only walls of brown sandstone all around.

It seemed that "Players" couldn’t pick up any Crystal Stones, let alone fulfill any desires.

"Another question, why are you here eating mushrooms?" Wang Hao asked again, "Can’t desires be fulfilled? Why be a beggar here?"

"It’s very hard for me to see Crystal Stones now, and it’s the same for everyone lying here."

The old beggar didn’t seem embarrassed at all and shamelessly said, "At first, Crystal Stones were easy to find. Even though most were white, they were really easy to find. In the first layer of Paradise, you could easily find them on the street, at home."

"But the more a person picked up, the more difficult it became to find Crystal Stones, you would have to go to the lower levels of the mines, the second layer, the third layer, the fourth layer..."

"But beneath the mines... danger lurks!"

"There are all kinds of monsters that live down there, and they’ll eat you."

"Once you go below the second layer, if you can’t find a Crystal Stone, you can’t go back to Paradise. I can only lie here; it’s too dangerous below, I don’t want to go. When I can’t stand it anymore, I’ll go down and take a risk."

Wang Hao looked down at the dark hole below and said, "You still haven’t answered, how did you become a beggar?"

The old beggar didn’t really want to divulge his personal privacy and just kept staring at Wang Hao’s package, rubbing his hands as if hinting at something.

Wang Hao thought for a moment, then took out a can and handed it to him, "Go on, tell me what the process of fulfilling a desire is really like. Is it true or false?"

"Of course, it’s true." The beggar hurriedly opened the can, swallowed his saliva, and wolfed it down, "Desires, part of them turned into money which I spent. Another part I spent on women."

Wang Hao was taken aback, finding it somewhat inconceivable.

Could this guy be the proverbial ’lickspittle’, who ends up with nothing after all his efforts?

He couldn’t help but feel amused; he loved stories that showcased the dismal powerlessness of lickspittles, serving as a warning to the world!

After all, he, Wang Hao, never pandered to anyone!

The beggar showed an indescribable wry expression, "Lickspittle? Hey, you’re too naive, kid! It’s more like they were licking me! 10 incredibly beautiful women, utterly submissive to me, at my beck and call, providing any service I needed, I could even treat them like dogs!"

"It was just a small desire, but it could only last a week."

"You have no idea how awesome it feels to be an Emperor, even in my dreams I can recall it, that supreme joy!"