Chapter 31 The Birth of the Undead Race
When Yang Qiu was doing preparations for the server launch on Earth, he watched a lot of game-related videos and found that any MMO game commentary by a famous anchor or UP host all emphasized the concept of "sense of belonging".
Combined with his observations of three veteran players during the closed beta test, Yang Qiu confirmed that this group of players is not really without spiritual needs.
It may sound a bit exaggerated to say that playing games also has spiritual pursuits... but at least it can be classified as a spiritual need.
The evergreen MMORPG games on the market all have rival camps. The confrontation between different camps can provide players with a stronger sense of belonging and allow the player group to have more common language. In other words, if a game wants to have a higher stickiness among players and increase the players' online time, then it must be able to make players realize that "I and other similar players are a group."
However, Yang Qiu couldn't use such a simple and crude method to fight against the camp . He could only find skeletons as "game character carriers", and he couldn't accept too many players in the short term. It was ridiculous to divide the three hundred people into two factions... Therefore, he could only work hard on the background settings of the undead races that players could choose.
Tarantin is a thousand-mile wasteland consisting of hills, swamps, primitive jungles and a small amount of plains, sandwiched between the Principality of Shiga and the Kingdom of the Rhine.
For hundreds of years, both countries have sent out pioneering armies to try to conquer this wasteland...but all ended in failure.
The reason for the failure was that even though there was a wasteland that was easier to pass through, the caravan still preferred to take the risk of taking the Sorenson route - this broken wasteland had been abandoned for more than a thousand years, with all kinds of monsters and demons breeding, and unstable void cracks everywhere; throwing a pioneer team of several thousand people in there was like throwing rabbits into a group of lions. Not to mention occupying the land and becoming the king, even being able to escape would be a great honor for one's ancestors.
The small town hidden in the valley that Yang Qiu chose did belong to a group of pioneers decades ago. However, no one knew whether those who came to open up the land were from the Rhine Kingdom or the Principality of Shiga.
Of course, this is not important... What is important is that the reason for the destruction of this pioneer town is indeed because of the worship of evil gods.
Not long after Yang Qiu cleared away the vegetation occupying the surface, he discovered the remnants of the sacrificial array and altar hidden in the tunnel, as well as a large number of piled-up human remains. Just by looking at the scene, one can imagine how tragic it was...
Yang Qiu was not surprised at this phenomenon - the country in this dimension was not China, which was willing to send regular troops to open up new land and stay in the northwest desert for decades; in the country in this dimension, when there was a political need for "opening up new land", the routine operation was to pull prisoners out of the prison to form an army of exiles, then select a civilian officer with a head to the ceiling, give him the title of general, give him some supplies, and send them out.
To put it bluntly, the pioneering of this dimension is either for politicians to show off, or to deal with prisoners who exploded in prisons. In any case, it is definitely not for the purpose of expanding territory. If they really want to expand territory, people will not look down on such a vast wilderness that needs to be reclaimed from scratch. Aren't the colonies on the outer continents with a large number of indigenous people engaged in cultivation more attractive?
What's even more fucked up is that in most countries, there are definitely cultists and pagans among the prisoners...
It would be normal for this kind of pioneering army to fail, otherwise it would be shocking.
Of course, it is impossible for players to "inherit" the "honor" of the Exiles Pioneer Team composed of criminals. There is really no honor to inherit. So Yang Qiu made up a scene of "the border guard team coming to save people" and then shaped the zombie king fished out of the swamp into "the upright General Lancelot Edgar"...
"Born from chaos but yearning for order", "born from evil but yearning for light" - this kind of camp spirit, wearing the face of a villain but wholeheartedly trying to be a good person, is not it in line with the core socialist values!
Besides, what people on earth like is this kind of “contrasting cuteness” – in the video, the righteous protagonist with thick eyebrows and big eyes shouts “Let go of that old lady”, and the audience just skips over it expressionlessly; if it’s replaced by a bald man with a green dragon on the left and a white tiger on the right, wearing a big gold chain and a floral shirt, yelling “Let go of that old lady”, if the audience doesn’t shout it’s awesome, Yang Qiu loses.
Look, the zombie general is so ugly that he is refreshing, and he doesn't give any brick-moving tasks. Usually, these players don't even look at him when they pass by him. But now, as the mission plot progresses, the zombie general reveals his "righteous" attribute, and the players' favorability towards him has increased.
In the original setting of the townspeople, Yang Qiu considered again and again and still did not release the identities of prisoners and pagans. Referring to his experiences when traveling in this fucked-up world, he slightly modified and created characters such as "General Charlotte", "Maurice and Anna", "Yarlin", etc.
In short, the healing plot that players are very dissatisfied with is not because Yang Qiu intentionally distributed razor blades. It is really that in this dark plane, there are too many poor people who have been implicated and polluted by relatives, friends, neighbors, colleagues and even strangers and have gone crazy. It has almost become the norm.
Unlock the Zombie General's dialogue plot to complete the second stage of the mission. The next third stage is an escort mission: After the Zombie General learns that the players have found the body of "Yarlin", he will go down the tunnel to collect the body of "Yarlin" in person. During this period, players must protect the Zombie General into the underground shelter, and take a walk around underground to see the consequences of calling the name of the evil god.
That was the "cult sacrificial scene" that Yang Qiu deliberately left behind when he was cleaning the tunnel - of course, he had cleaned up all the ones that were too brutal, so just leaving some traces would be enough.
The "leave some traces" means leaving a few incomplete corpses and some corners of the sacrificial altar.
When the zombie general led the players to the scene, the players were very calm, with no emotional fluctuations at all... After all, compared to those dusty and broken skeletons piled in the corner, the zombie general and even themselves who were moving with them were more terrifying.
In addition to the tour, players also have to face the challenge of the zombie attack - a "little monster" that Yang Qiu deliberately left behind when he cleared the tunnel.
This ghoul was probably something summoned by the cultists when they were performing sacrifices. It had high physical attacks, extremely fast speed, and a talent for lurking. It could probably kill about half of the players - it was really not appropriate for an epic quest to have undead humans.
Of course, Yang Qiu did not intend to let the players who had worked so hard to get to this point be wiped out. After half of the players died, the zombie general, who was the leader of the undead race, would gain the "sorrow and anger" BUFF due to "too many deaths of compatriots" and kill the ghoul - after all, it was a heavyweight NPC among the zombies. Yang Qiu was generous when creating this zombie king and installed a lot of runes into it.
Sure enough, a group of players followed the zombie general into the underground shelter. Before they could move out the body of "Yarlin", Miaobishenghua, who was standing in the middle of the team, was grabbed by the zombie that emerged from the ground and turned into white light...
"Why is this girl unlucky again?" Yang Qiu, who was monitoring remotely, did not know whether to laugh or cry.
Except for Yang Ying, all the players were veterans of the game. When they accepted the task, they knew that it required fighting monsters, so they specially arranged the formation and let Miaobishenghua, Lahongge and Enbuduzeng, who were not very good at fighting, stay in the middle of the team. They never expected that the monsters would "spawn" in the wrong place and appear inside their team, causing a commotion.
The brilliant pen turned into white light and died, and Brother Lahong, who had no time to run away, followed suit. Entropy did not increase and gave Yang Ying a hand at the critical moment, narrowly saving his life.
"How come this damn thing is so fast?!" Yang Ying tried to fight back with a broken wooden stick, but was hit by two claws. He only had time to shout out one sentence before dying gloriously in battle.
Yang Qiu's mouth twitched: "Sister, you can see that this monster is not something a player can defeat, don't be so stubborn..."
Before he could finish his muttering, he saw the player with the ID "Gummy Candy" trying to grab the ghoul by the waist, and then kicked the ghoul against the wall, causing it to fall to the ground on the spot.
Yang Qiu: “…”
Well, players can be resurrected anyway, so they have the capital to be stubborn.
After four deaths in a row, the players finally realized that they were just the younger brothers and fled in panic.
"Run towards the zombie general." Yang Qiu shook his head.
After the player with the ID "You Will Win Only If You Work Hard" was captured and killed by a zombie, the zombie general's "sorrow and anger" BUFF was activated - in fact, it was the temporary release of the seal rune that Yang Qiu had used to restrict the zombie king's aggression - he let out an angry roar and rushed towards the zombie at full speed.
“What the hell?!”
The players who were jumping up and down were stunned by the slow zombie general's speed, which was comparable to Bolt's.
Next, these brothers from the magic plane saw with their own eyes the way of fighting in this world - the zombie general in tattered armor caught up with the extremely fast corpse ghost in the blink of an eye, stretched out his arm to catch the corpse ghost's neck, and smashed it to the ground like a sandbag, and then clenched his fists to hit the corpse ghost's triangular head hard...
"Damn! Doesn't our general use a sword?!" Qin Guan was stunned.
Of course, the Zombie King doesn't use a sword. The armor and the knight's sword on his waist were added by Yang Qiu to make the "leader of the undead race" more impressive...
"What a loss! How come the leader is a zombie and we are skeletons? Skeletons are simply incapable of such a domineering hand-to-hand combat!" He pinched his thigh with jealous eyes while giving me medicine.
En Buzeng, Qin Guan and others had no expression on their faces.
No matter how powerful zombies are, they won’t play the game if they can only choose zombies - even if they can’t see their own character, they can’t tolerate having all their teammates as zombies!
He beat the zombie, which was originally a sacrifice of the cult, into ashes with his fists. The "anger and grief" BUFF of the zombie general was removed, and he slowly carried out the body of "Yarlin" as usual and slowly returned to the surface.
After placing "Yarlin" into the cabin, the Zombie General, as if accomplishing something great, recited a series of lines according to the pre-implanted program, asking the undead players to unite to fight all invading enemies, and released the open content after the mission completion rate reached 80%.
To put it simply, after players had been busy for hours and half of their friends had died, they finally earned the opportunity to continue to earn new reputation for Yang Qiu...
While the zombie general was giving the settlement plot, Yang Qiu, who had been watching the excitement for a while, also issued a notice to all online players through the brand matrix at the right time:
"System announcement: Congratulations to the players for giving me medicine, Entropy does not increase, Wonderful writing, Vanilla pudding, Yang Ying... for completing the worldview breakthrough mission "The Birth of the Undead Race""
“Because the completion rate of the world view breakthrough mission exceeds 80%, the server will open some content.”
"Online Patch Update 1.04"
"One: Players Entropy Bu Zeng, Yang Ying, Gummy Candy, Addicted to Study, and Brother La Hong accidentally discovered a tunnel leading out of the town during their mission exploration. At the end of the tunnel is a cave full of spider-like monsters. Players can form a team to explore this place."
"Two: Players successfully deciphered the past of Exile Town and the birth process of the undead race through quests such as Brilliant Writing, No Increase in Entropy, Give Me Medicine, and Vanilla Pudding, and Tarantan Territory Reputation will be unlocked. Players can gain territory reputation by killing monsters and paying materials to the Tarantan Lord. The mayor election will be opened, and the player with the highest territory reputation on the monthly settlement day will be elected."
"Three: The Blood Alliance system is open. Players who have reached level one and successfully completed the job transfer can accept the Blood Alliance Order mission from Zombie General 'Lancelot Edgar'."
"Four: Open the Blood Alliance base..."
"Five: The main quest is now open. Players who have reached level one and successfully completed their job transfer can receive "The Birth of the Undead Race" from Zombie General 'Lancelot Edgar' and learn about that forgotten past."
A large number of online brick-moving parties and a very small number of salted fish parties uttered countless shocked "WTF" sounds...
After carefully reading the announcement, those players who are addicted to grinding or only willing to play with themselves every time they go online shouted "666", "Big brother is awesome", "You have to be level one to play again"...
In the underground medicinal field below the town hall, the European sturgeon, who did not like collective action, casually glanced at the announcement and then turned his attention to the big-leaf vine.
The lone ranger Jialuo, who also dislikes group actions, is working hard to save money and sprint for the last two potential points. After seeing the announcement, the girl was stunned for a while and muttered to herself: "The announcement says that we have to form a team to go to the monster spawning point, which means we can't spawn alone? Caves are really not very friendly to spawning monsters alone... Do you want to find a small group to join?"
An announcement was issued within the game, and outside of the game, an update announcement was also posted on the official website about ten minutes later.
The player forums where people wait for their numbers to be released every day immediately became lively again, with all kinds of posts urging for internal beta numbers being refreshed frantically:
“The version has been updated to 1.04, when will the new account be released?”
“What can three hundred players test? The production team should release new accounts soon. I will help you test for free. I am very good at catching bugs.”
“《Why did I hesitate and not take a picture of the helmet at that time?》”
When Yang Qiu returned to Earth to update the announcement and opened the player forum, he was not surprised to see a bunch of routine posts asking for account release occupying the main board of the communication area...
"I understand your feelings... When I didn't have money to buy GTO and could only watch others play, I was also so anxious. But I still can't tolerate the wanton posting of spam, everyone will be banned for three days."
Yang Qiu expressed his sympathy for these cloud players who were eager to enter the game, and then ruthlessly deleted and banned them one by one.
After deleting hundreds of meaningless posts, Yang Qiu suddenly found a post with a very different style:
“《Shocking news! You’ll be rewarded if you see it!》”
"It's not even ten days since the server was launched, where did this gossip come from?" Yang Qiu clicked on the post in confusion.
Just a glance at the main building and Yang Qiu's body was shaken.
"I'm going to tell you a shocking piece of news. The financial tycoon who criticized the production team for trying to cheat people was actually paid to post a Weibo post! The bastard who paid the tycoon didn't get the helmet at first, but after paying the financial tycoon to post that Weibo post, he immediately received the helmet!"
Yang Qiu: "?? There is such an operation?!"
Not only him, but also the cloud players who clicked into this post were super shocked:
"Holy shit, is this true? How did the OP know?"
"No wonder, the day before, some people offered 500 or 800 but couldn't get it, and the next day, everywhere was selling it for 300!"
"The 300 yuan was sold off by the studio. My sister bought her helmet from the studio. I even scolded my sister for how hot the second sum of money was!"
"My friend also bought his helmet from a studio. So the studio is going to cry, right?"
"Fuck, I'm already crying. This is when I sold my helmet! Do you know who this troublemaker is? I'm going to kill him!"
“I sympathize with the person above, hahahaha… eh, why are there tears in the corners of my eyes?”
"Ahahahahaha, I didn't even have the chance to buy a helmet. When I found out about "Another World", there were no unbound login helmets. I couldn't buy it even if I had money!"
"The production team, please release the number quickly!"
"In order to grab the helmet, people are really capable of all kinds of tricks. Compared to them, the tricks I have here are nothing to chew. My dad works at the Brain Intelligence Center. A few days ago, a very awesome scientist at the Brain Intelligence Center found me and asked me to wear the helmet to cooperate with them in an experiment..."
When he swept to this floor, Yang Qiu's body shook again.
Then... he opened a slag and searched what this brain intelligence center was...
