Two and a half months ago, the epoch-making, super-large-scale brainwave immersive online game Daqian Hongmeng opened its public beta.
In fact, all kinds of brainwave immersive games had already appeared several years before that—the legendary gaming helmets and gaming pods, you know~
It had only taken a short twelve years to evolve from VR and AR games to brainwave immersive games.
However, back then, no company had been able to produce a large-scale online game.
They were generally small games or single-player titles, with limited content, and only a tiny number allowed a few people to connect and play together.
A brainwave immersive online game like this, claiming to support ten million players online at the same time, was truly a first.
It had started warming up three years ago, entered closed beta a year and a half ago, had its second test half a year ago, and only now was it finally open to the public.
And because of some kind of thought-acceleration technology, time inside the game moved much faster than in reality. The public beta had only been open for two and a half months, but nearly three years had already passed in-game!
Wasn’t this basically extending your lifespan in disguise?! How could anyone not play?
But that was all two and a half months ago. Although Chen Xiuxian had taken advantage of the Federation subsidy to buy a gaming pod, due to work issues, he had missed the first wave of the gaming craze.
Now he had time—because he, in his thirties, had been “optimized” by his company!
Getting optimized was pretty much the norm these days. The fact that he had held out until thirty was already not bad.
Otherwise, why would they have Daqian Hongmeng, a game that could accommodate millions of players at once?
It was said that other companies would also gradually release four or five large-scale brainwave immersive online games of different genres within the next six months to three years, precisely to give those without jobs a little “place to use their talents”!
With AI robots so mature these days, you wouldn’t starve even if you didn’t work…
Chen Xiuxian, as an AI robot technology tester, had actually been forced into unemployment by his own creations?
It was rather rich in twenty-third-century postmodern black humor~
…
Enough digression. Chen Xiuxian also knew his job wouldn’t last long. The reason he hadn’t played the game before was that wrapping up and handing over his final work had been extremely troublesome, leaving him no time.
But during this last week, he had been very free, soaking in the game forums every day, looking up all kinds of information, guides, videos, and illustrated posts.
As the saying went: play early and enjoy early; play late and enjoy the discounts.
The first batch of players had naturally gotten a head start on the fun, and there was a good chance they would remain in the first or second echelon in the future, experiencing the feeling of standing above others in the game.
As for entering the game two and a half months late, new players definitely couldn’t catch up to the first echelon.
But there were benefits too!
In order to balance the progress of old and new players and improve the experience for newcomers, the game company had given new players many benefits.
Other platforms also had plenty of promotional perks such as “redemption codes,” “welfare packs,” and “newbie gifts.”
Chen Xiuxian had spent half a month collecting eighteen sets of “benefits.” It could truly be said that small gains added up.
Although the top players in the game now seemed to be approaching level 30, he possessed a tremendous “latecomer advantage”—he could use a huge amount of “character points” to create a character with an enormous early-stage advantage!
Besides, by playing late, he could read the veteran players’ guides!
Crossing the river by feeling the veteran players’ stones~
The pitfalls those veteran players had stepped into and the bargains they had picked up—he had them all well in hand!
For instance, based on several hot discussion threads on the forums, he had already conceived a character sheet in his mind.
Daqian Hongmeng was a xianxia game. It began with wuxia content, but players would also encounter many low-level demons, ghosts, monsters, and the like. In later major versions, cultivation sects would begin recruiting disciples on a large scale.
And whether it was wuxia or cultivation, there were thresholds.
Root bone, comprehension, fortune, spiritual roots…
Some fortuitous encounters and immortal opportunities also had entry requirements.
If your numbers didn’t meet the mark, even if you ran into that fortuitous encounter, you wouldn’t be able to trigger it. That was unbearably painful!
After high-intensity forum surfing, discussion, flame-warring, and lurking, Chen Xiuxian had customized a very “peculiar” opening for himself.
As the saying went, everything was difficult at the beginning. How to obtain that first pot of gold and avoid getting stuck and suffering in the early stage was a profound subject.
What Chen Xiuxian had his eye on was a “repeatable fortuitous encounter”!
However, the requirements for this fortuitous encounter were particularly bizarre, and the risks were not small. Most people chose the steadier “sect route.”
…
Chen Xiuxian lay down in the gaming pod and put on the gaming helmet. As several metal patches pressed against his temples and the back of his head, there was a slight tremor, and then “light” appeared before Chen Xiuxian’s eyes.
In reality, there was no light. Rather, light had appeared inside his mind.
He seemed to have arrived in a place surrounded by chaos.
A pleasant electronic voice said, “Welcome to the world of Daqian Hongmeng. You have not yet created a character. Please create one before playing.”
Chen Xiuxian said, “Scan body data.”
“…Data scan complete.”
“Begin character face customization…”
Based on his own appearance, Chen Xiuxian made a few adjustments and sculpted a version of himself a few years younger.
A younger version of himself, dressed in coarse cloth clothes with a headscarf on his head, appeared before his eyes!
“Begin attribute rolling…”
Chen Xiuxian began rolling the dice over and over again.
Daqian Hongmeng had five innate attributes: Root Bone, Comprehension, Charm, Fortune, and Lifespan.
These five were generally impossible to change—at least not in the early stage, unless one obtained some divine art, secret technique, spirit pill, miraculous medicine, heavenly spirit, or earthly treasure.
There were also five acquired attributes: Arm Strength, Physique, Agility, Perception, and Will.
These increased as one leveled up, depending specifically on the player’s chosen path, cultivated techniques, and character experiences.
When creating a character, the total of the ten attributes was fixed—100 points.
If one was high, another would be low.
Chen Xiuxian kept randomizing his attributes because he wanted a set with very high innate attributes, even if it meant drastically sacrificing his acquired attributes.
At last, he rolled one he was satisfied with!
Root Bone 14, Comprehension 15, Charm 16, Fortune 11, Lifespan 6.
Arm Strength 6, Physique 7, Agility 9, Perception 9, Will 7.
Although he was a little weak as a chicken and frail as a reed, his innate attributes were truly good. It was just that his Lifespan was a little low.
—In the game, a character’s lifespan was Lifespan × 10.
Every year that passed naturally reduced lifespan by 1. Character death and some major injuries would also reduce lifespan. Once lifespan ran out, the character would be completely deleted.
However, there were rumors on the forums that characters created afterward could inherit some of the previous character’s “legacy” to a certain extent, which counted as reincarnation. Whether it was true or not, who knew.
There were also rumors that one could switch to ghost cultivation…
But low Lifespan didn’t matter. He still had “free points”—officially called Daqian Dao Rhyme!
This Daqian Dao Rhyme was the most important part of all the benefits he had claimed!
Other things like basic medicines, small props, and silver taels weren’t worth mentioning.
Daqian Dao Rhyme could be added to attributes during character creation, or spent on a character’s “talent traits”!
For example: [Strong Muscles and Bones (Green)] +2 Arm Strength, +2 Physique, +10% health recovery speed.
Selecting this trait required 3 points of Daqian Dao Rhyme.
Originally, creating a character gave 10 points of Daqian Dao Rhyme. A person could probably choose two greens and one blue, or two whites and one red?
But during this period, Chen Xiuxian had kept joining official groups, platform events, newbie benefits… concentrating every single benefit on one character, giving him an extra 13 points!
Added together, that made 23 points of Daqian Dao Rhyme!
First, he added 4 points to Lifespan, bringing it to 10—in the game, that meant a lifespan of 100 years.
In Daqian Hongmeng, one would cultivate immortality in the future. Without enough lifespan, one definitely wouldn’t go far.
He heard that cultivating some immortal path techniques could also increase lifespan in the game.
However, version 1.68 had only recently been updated. Although a small number of people had coincidentally joined cultivation sects, those who could join a major sect and produce enough sect contribution to cultivate high-level techniques were extremely rare.
Or perhaps that tiny handful of top players already knew, but simply weren’t saying.
Chen Xiuxian: Why are top players so evil?
When I learn some secret in the future, I won’t say it either, hehe~
…
“I won’t add to acquired attributes. I’ll increase them through leveling later!”
Normally speaking, if acquired attributes were no good, combat power would be very low.
At the start, one wouldn’t even be able to beat low-level monsters, and getting going would be super difficult.
But Chen Xiuxian already had a special plan~
He wouldn’t take the ordinary path!
The remaining 19 points would all be used to choose talent traits!
After spending so much time surfing the forums, Chen Xiuxian felt that talent traits were the true top priority.
If attributes belonged to “numbers,” then trait entries were “mechanics.”
Numbers were hard requirements in many cases, while the effects of mechanics were also extremely mysterious.
According to his previous plan, he needed to pile up innate attributes in large quantities, especially Charm and Fortune.
So his traits also had to be chosen around that aspect.
“It’s said that the talent traits everyone randomly gets are different. Some unlucky bastards don’t even get a purple trait. Meanwhile, some lucky dogs get several orange traits!”
However, even if ordinary people rolled an orange trait, they wouldn’t have enough Daqian Dao Rhyme to buy it.
Unless they also had gray traits to choose—negative effects, which would instead increase Daqian Dao Rhyme when selected.
That was selecting flaws to offset strengths!
The Daqian Dao Rhyme required for talent traits was roughly:
Gray (-1 to -3)
White 1
Green 2—3
Blue 3—4
Red 4—5
Purple 6—7
Orange 8—9
Gold 12+
He was different. He had 19 free points!
If a golden legend really appeared, he could secure it easily!
As a result, when several rows of talent traits appeared before his eyes, Chen Xiuxian fell silent.
“No, bro. Fine, there’s not a single gold one, but what about orange? Not even one orange?! Only two purples? Holy shit~”
The only two purple trait entries were:
[Celestial Reincarnation (Purple)]: Fortune +2, Lifespan +5, Acquired Attributes +2.
A person’s essence, qi, and spirit are all abundant. When essence flourishes, qi is full; when spirit is replete, the body is strong. Thus lifespan remains long.
Requires 7 points of Daqian Dao Rhyme!
[Celestial Appearance (Purple)]: Charm +10, Fortune +2, Lifespan -2, Physique -2.
Radiance brilliant enough to dazzle the world, yet qi and blood are slightly weakened; peerless elegance, yet a mortal body struggles to bear a heavenly countenance, and is ultimately not a visage meant to linger long in the mortal realm.
6 points of Daqian Dao Rhyme!
He had to take them!
These were already the highest-level traits he could choose!
After that, he also chose: [Extraordinary Bone Structure (Blue)] 3 points, [Spiritual Heart and Keen Nature (Blue)] 3 points, [Windfall (Green)] 2 points, [Peach Blossom Tribulation (White)] 1 point, and [Passionate Seed (White)] 1 point.
But that left him a bit short on points…
Chen Xiuxian thought for a moment, then silently removed the 4 points he had added to Lifespan—just enough!
In any case, Celestial Reincarnation (Purple) gave Lifespan +5. Even with Celestial Appearance (Purple) giving Lifespan -2, that was still +3. Counting the original 6 points…
Ninety years old still counted as a ripe old age!
Surely he wouldn’t still fail to reach level 50 and form his core by the time he was ninety, right?
As long as he “formed his core,” his lifespan would increase by a large margin.
He would deal with the future later~
Looking at the character that had already taken shape, Chen Xiuxian laughed three times. “Haha! This Daoist master has made it!”
“When the time comes, with this high Charm, I’ll take down that female ghost directly~ Haha!”
Never before had there been such a wonderful start. Cheer for me! Applaud me!
New ride on the road. Let’s do this!