Chapter 168: Admit it, the Mini Bird is the most amazing core development skill!
The appearance of this hidden bonus cave from Adventure Island 3 by Takahashi Meijin likely meant that the blueprint fragments had further eroded the current dungeon.
However, this had nothing to do with Cheng Tian; he only needed to consider which dragon egg to choose.
Many Adventure Island players probably triggered this bonus stage, either actively or by chance, back in the day. Simply breaking certain rock walls in specific locations would open hidden caves, easily found by exploring and spraying a bit during the linear progression.
The real challenge was the three-way choice for the dragon egg.
Clearly, the most valuable rewards were "Dinosaur Mount" and "Bonus Life."
The former needs no explanation, while the latter was similar to the "Bonus Life Mushroom" in Super Mario Bros., allowing the holder to revive after death.
As for fruit and roasted meat, they were most likely just recovery items, and with the two aforementioned treasures preceding them, their value plummeted.
Normally, Cheng Mouren, who always picked the longest option if there were three short and one long, or the shortest if there were three long and one short, and followed 'men left, women right,' rarely wasted time on multiple-choice questions. Yet, in front of the dragon egg choice, he appeared very hesitant.
Not only did he open his panel to check something, but he also held a golden feather arrow, drawing and writing on the ground, beginning to record Arabic numerals.
The Purple Dragon Elder was somewhat puzzled by this, not knowing what this human, who was trying to engrave and draw, was actually doing.
"Sigh..."
Cheng Tian sighed, shook his head to himself, then used the drill car's hydraulic base to raise himself to the same level as the bonus dragon egg's base, and chose the leftmost of the three dragon eggs.
"Are you sure?"
The Purple Dragon Elder's body trembled slightly, and after a flash of light in his eyes, he asked Cheng Tian.
"This one."
Cheng Tian answered decisively.
The next second, the dragon egg in Cheng Tian's hand cracked open, revealing a small dragon egg with a "plum blossom" pattern inside—
Dinosaur Mount, Pterodactyl Egg (Flying Dragon / Plum Blossom).
The Purple Dragon Elder raised his hand, and the other two dragon eggs not chosen by Cheng Tian cracked open on the spot, revealing "banana" and "roasted meat" respectively, then slowly faded away as if a picture was dissolving.
"How did you determine that the egg you chose was the most valuable?"
The Purple Dragon Elder was very curious. As a dragon egg guardian, he had a feeling that Cheng Tian did not make his choice based on intuition, but rather deduced the dragon egg's location based on certain information.
"I wasn't 100% sure just now, but now that you've revealed what was inside the other two eggs, I know my reasoning was correct."
Cheng Tian said, pointing to the two Arabic numerals he had carved on the ground.
One was 4, and the other was 7.
Many real-world players probably still don't know that, like many 8-bit games of that era, the three-way dragon egg choice in Adventure Island 3's Dragon's Wonderful House was not truly random, but a pseudo-random system. The basis for this pseudo-random determination was actually related to the player's score at the time.
In simple terms, the 'thousands digit' and 'hundreds digit' of the player's score would directly determine the contents of the three dragon eggs—
When the thousands digit is 1, 4, or 7, the left dragon egg contains a dinosaur mount, the middle contains fruit, and the right contains roasted meat.
When the thousands digit is 2, 5, or 8, the left contains 3 bonus lives, the middle contains a dinosaur, and the right contains fruit.
When the thousands digit is 0, 3, 6, or 9, the left contains fruit, the middle contains 1 bonus life, and the right contains a dinosaur mount.
Extending from this, the hundreds digit of the player's score would directly determine the type of dinosaur mount.
When the hundreds digit is 0 or 5, the dinosaur mount is always a Blue Dragon/Ice Dragon/Hearts; when it's 1 or 6, it's a Red Dragon/Fire Dragon/Hearts; when it's 2 or 7, it's a Pterodactyl/Flying Dragon/Spades; when it's 3 or 8, it's a Plesiosaur/Water Dragon/Diamonds; when it's 4 or 9, it's a Triceratops/Sand Dragon/Stars.
Although Cheng Tian didn't have a score, he had an electronic wallet. The thousands digit in his current amount of Chosen Coins was "4," and the hundreds digit was "7."
This meant that when Cheng Tian entered the cave, the contents of the three bonus dragon eggs were already fixed as "Pterodactyl Egg," "Fruit," and "Roasted Meat," arranged from left to right from Cheng Tian's perspective.
The reason Cheng Tian lingered there for a while was mainly to try whether he could actively discard some Chosen Coins to manually adjust the thousands and hundreds digits of his electronic wallet. He primarily wanted to try adjusting the thousands digit to "2, 5, 8," so that choosing the left egg would yield 3 bonus lives.
He was quite curious about the difference in effect between this type of bonus life and the bonus life mushroom in Super Mario.
Unfortunately, Cheng Tian's electronic wallet could not actively shed coins, and the contents of the dragon eggs had already been generated based on his wallet's digits the moment he entered the Wonderful House.
Of course, Cheng Tian wasn't initially certain that his electronic wallet could serve as a substitute for in-game scores; he was merely experimenting. That's why he only knew his judgment was correct after confirming the contents of the three dragon eggs—a player's electronic wallet, in a sense, also reflects their game score.
However, Cheng Tian's answer did not enlighten the Purple Dragon Elder. Being able to speak and communicate did not mean that a "highly intelligent" dragon beast could fully comprehend the Arabic numerals created by humans, let alone know that they were actually created by the superposition of digits like 0 and 1.
Cheng Tian picked up the Pterodactyl egg and opened the item panel.
[Mutated Pterodactyl Egg: Purple Rare / Lv-, Mount Summon, Combat Mount. Usage Requirements: 21 Agility or 15 Charisma.
The most primitive Pterodactyl egg from Adventure Island 3, possessing the abilities to glide with the wind and throw rocks. However, due to its fusion with the Cadillacs and Dinosaurs worldview, the Pterodactyl can now fuse with other compatible dinosaur genes without its own genes collapsing.
The Pterodactyl hatched from this egg is a combat mount, capable of assisting in battle; the Pterodactyl's monster template is a "Boss Template"; the Pterodactyl's summon and recall rules are equivalent to vehicles and reins.
The hatched Pterodactyl is a minion unit. Upon death, it can be revived by completing quests or paying a revival fee.
You can pre-fuse other dinosaur materials before the egg hatches for early fusion and mutation; alternatively, you can feed it other dinosaur materials after it hatches for acquired mutation; you can only provide 1 type of dinosaur material; early fusion results in a higher degree of mutation than acquired feeding.
Hatching the dragon egg requires a suitable nest and temperature, or personally carrying it and walking a certain number of steps.
The Space will estimate the rearing cost for you after the Pterodactyl officially hatches.]
[Additional Comment: It makes one nostalgic for the days of grinding reputation for the Netherwing Drake mount.]
However, Cheng Mouren's peculiar actions were not over.
Cheng Tian first placed the Pterodactyl egg on the seat of his drill car, then he himself jumped back onto the 2-meter-high dragon nest base where the egg had been, digging and digging. Then, to the astonished gaze of the Purple Dragon Elder, whose eyes were almost bulging out of his sockets, he dug out another pure white dragon egg from thin air—
When the pure white dragon egg cracked open, it revealed a Pterodactyl egg with a plum blossom mark, identical to the one Cheng Tian had just placed on the battle car seat!