Chapter 00005: The Beginner’s Guide is Really Important
# The Beginner’s Guide is Really Important
Chapter 5
Novel: AFK Game: Portal to Another World
Chapter 5: The Beginner’s Guide is Really Important
Li Chengxi glanced at the resource list in the top right corner of the screen.
The gold coins were listed as 2500 (originally 2000, with an extra 500 from the bandits), and right next to the coin count, there was a “-175” listed.
That was probably the amount of coins already allocated, just not yet deducted.
“Lacking resources in a strategy game really is a problem…”
The hardest part of this type of game was definitely resource management.
That’s why people often said, “As long as you can master management, even auto-attacking through the game can get you a win.”
Of course, that was also the most fun part of strategy games.
So in the past, whenever Li Chengxi played games like this, he never used any cheats.
After all, if you cheated, the game lost its charm, and you’d quickly lose interest.
But this wasn’t the same.
Even though there were a lot of confusing parts about this game, to Li Chengxi, it felt like raising a tank of goldfish—watching the little things the goldfish did every day was quite entertaining.
He thought about it for a couple seconds, then immediately switched out of the game screen.
This game, *AAI*, had no information to be found about it online.
Li Chengxi had already searched the night before, so seeking help from those cheat masters online wasn’t really an option.
Still, where there’s a will, there’s a way.
Li Chengxi, familiar with the tools of the trade, quickly opened the Cheat Engine Modifier on his computer.
Lacking money?
In games, that shouldn’t be a problem at all!
——
“Nope, still doesn’t work. This game just doesn’t allow memory grabs, and float edits are completely useless…”
Even the most common cheat tools, including the Cheat Engine he was using, didn’t work.
Li Chengxi tried seven or eight different ones, all to no avail.
There was simply no way to alter anything.
He glanced at forum posts written by veteran gamers detailing their cheat methods, confirmed he had tried every single one, then had no choice but to close the browser and switch back to the game.
He’d burned through several hours already—and eaten lunch while he was at it.
By now, the conference room was completely empty.
Li Chengxi switched the floor view display but couldn’t find any sign of Viola.
It looked like she had left the castle.
He exited the castle view, and the screen now displayed a 45-degree isometric view of Leon Stronghold.
Just as he was about to search for signs of Viola in the city, Li Chengxi suddenly noticed a few tiny dots moving away from the city gates.
Zooming in, he realized he hadn’t seen wrong—mounted scouts were leaving the city in groups of three.
“Scouts?”
He opened the map function.
The originally neat detection area had now morphed into an irregular shape.
Though the difference in map size only registered in tiny pixel shifts, if you stared at it carefully, you could tell it was expanding.
“Wait… did the junky microphone on the computer actually work? Did Viola hear me?”
Thinking about it more, even if she hadn’t heard him, Viola was still a Princess who had fled her nation.
It was only logical she'd dispatch scouts to survey the surrounding area... especially in case any more bandits showed up.
That way, she'd get early warning.
Li Chengxi zoomed out the map’s scale and checked the parts of the area the scouts had already explored.
The shape was very irregular, and in some places, the boundary between the fog of war and the surveyed regions formed clear right angles.
Plus, with mountains displayed on-screen, it looked like Leon Stronghold was nestled within a mountain range.
The scouts heading south were mostly following dirt roads.
Here and there, where the land flattened out slightly, mountain ranges were always visible close by.
Meanwhile, the scouts going north had reached wide plains and farmlands.
On the map, two or three village-like icons had appeared.
Li Chengxi casually clicked on one of the nearby villages.
The screen shifted to a bird’s-eye view of the village.
A row of simple straw huts came into view, along with villagers carrying hoes over their shoulders.
You could even clearly see a yawning cat lounging on a rooftop, and a dog wagging its tail behind a farmer.
Shifting the camera around, he roughly counted the number of houses in the village—looked like a small village of several hundred people.
The village was called Hain Village.
Li Chengxi then noticed that next to the village sign at the gate—where it said "Hain Village"—there was a little triangle-shaped drop-down icon.
He clicked it, and sure enough, a drop-down menu appeared.
It clearly showed how many people lived in the village, what resources were available, and at the very bottom, in red text, it read:
“This settlement has no believers, no Temple. Relation: Neutral.”
“Looks like some sort of neutral faction that might join you if certain conditions are met?”
This kind of setup wasn’t unusual in strategy games.
You could tell how it worked at a glance.
Li Chengxi exited the village view and clicked back on Leon Stronghold.
At the name tag next to the city gate, there was also a drop-down menu.
Clicking on it brought up a similar summary of the city’s population and resources.
But this time, at the bottom it said:
“This settlement has a small number of believers, no Temple. Relation: Friendly.”
That “Relation: Friendly”… friendly to whom exactly? To Viola?
Or was it friendly toward the player, representing the Demon God?
This was actually a very important point to figure out—some places might welcome Viola, yet be unwilling to accept a faith that worships the Demon God.
But this question could wait.
Once there were more samples for comparison, it would be easier to conclude.
No need to rush now.
Li Chengxi zoomed in on the game screen.
At this point, he could even make out individual rocks and weeds rendered on the pixelated ground.
Then, he reached a hand out toward the screen and gave it a quick, careful tap.
His finger was immediately pulled into the screen, and he clearly felt the texture of the soil beneath it.
Looking again at his Faith Points, the action had only consumed 1 point.
The camera's height directly affected the influence range of reaching into the game.
When zoomed all the way out, a single finger could crush a whole nation.
When zoomed in close, he could only touch some dirt on the ground.
Naturally, the larger the affected area, the more Faith Points it would cost.
Though now Li Chengxi was wondering if there were any other restrictions as well.
“Are you Mr. Li Chengxi? There’s a delivery for you.”
The voice from outside startled Li Chengxi, snapping him out of his thoughts.
He looked up—it was a delivery guy.
The courier, confused by Li Chengxi’s shocked reaction, walked a couple of steps into the store.
When he spotted Li Chengxi’s old and battered laptop tucked under the checkout counter, he immediately gave a knowing look as if to say, “Ah, I get it…”
Li Chengxi felt like the guy had the completely wrong idea.
——
Li Chengxi couldn’t wait to try and see if he could talk to NPCs using a microphone, so he had deliberately ordered a headset capable of same-day delivery.
He bought it that morning, and it arrived that afternoon.
Thank goodness the headphone jack on his laptop came with a dust cap.
Otherwise, given how worn out this computer was, the port might’ve already been clogged with dust.
So now that he had the headset—how was he supposed to talk to the NPCs?
Hmm…
Li Chengxi thought about it for a while and decided to go find Princess Viola and try it out.
He moved the mouse all around, dragging the view across different zones, but he had underestimated how hard it was to find a specific person.
Even though the resource list said Leon Stronghold only had a population of around fifteen thousand, trying to find one person—who you had no clue where they were—on the screen was still incredibly difficult.
In other strategy games, there was usually a search bar where you could just type the name of a general or character to find them.
But in this game, *AAI*, Li Chengxi hadn’t seen anything like a character list at all.
After combing the city for thirty minutes, he suddenly remembered that above the name and resource list for a settlement, there was an oddly empty blank space.
Could that be the place to search for specific people?
He reopened the resource list for Leon Stronghold and clicked the empty space at the top of the list.
Sure enough, a blinking text cursor appeared.
See what I mean? Beginner’s tutorials are really important.
(End of Chapter)