Chapter 69-1: Revisiting Old Grounds, The Surge of Black Tide (1) |
Tianfeng City, Southern District.
Walking along the city streets, Qi Sheng found his homeland incomparably unfamiliar.
Looking up, skyscrapers towering into the clouds lined both sides of the street. Their surfaces were covered with smart glass, playing advertisements for wearable tech devices.
The pavement beneath his feet was no longer the asphalt or stone roads from his memories, but a more advanced self-illuminating material that automatically adjusted brightness according to pedestrian traffic. Billboards on the roadside played weather forecasts and news flashes.
This city resembled the futuristic world he had imagined in his youth, full of vitality, yet completely devoid of the familiar atmosphere.
At the end of the street, Qi Sheng stopped, gazing at the tall building across the road.
Memories surged like a tide.
“Are you a tourist? Do you need any help?”
Noticing Qi Sheng standing there in a daze, a teenager wearing a ‘Volunteer’ uniform, who was controlling a cleaning robot sweeping the pavement, approached curiously to greet him.
“Yes, I’m here traveling. No need for help, thank you.”
The boy’s greeting stirred emotions in Qi Sheng’s heart.
There were no longer any friends or relatives he knew in this city. His traces had long been erased by the changing times, leaving only an unattended gravestone.
At this moment, Guide’s teasing voice rang in his mind.
“Tsk tsk, the saddest thing in life isn’t children failing to recognize each other, asking with a smile where the visitor comes from; nor is it the long-sealed rusty gates, gray brick paths covered in dry moss, nameless withered grass invading the yard. The saddest is discovering that one’s own era has already been erased, revisiting old places yet seeing no old memories. The bitterness chokes the throat, recalling once when the elders were alive, with fires burning in the kitchen… Eh, the superpower dreams of childhood have come true, but now you bear a heavy mission, walking a difficult path of rising. Feels like all of youth was just a dream, no one remains to share old feelings.”
“When did you become so cultured?”
“Recently I’ve been reviewing many human history archives in the Starnet database. Seeing your sudden melancholy, I was moved to speak.”
“Done with your speech?” Qi Sheng said irritably.
“Done. Boss, you may continue your nostalgia. I won’t interrupt.”
Without responding to Guide, Qi Sheng wandered through old grounds following the paths of his memory, but could no longer find anything familiar.
Revisiting old places was like carving marks on a boat to find a lost sword.
The part of the era that belonged to him had long been overwritten by the new age, and he was no longer that young boy.
As he turned to leave, Qi Sheng formally said goodbye to his past self.
The memories of his hometown came to an end.
The road ahead, he could only move forward.
—
Back at the Primordial Altar, Qi Sheng began browsing through the information stream produced by players today.
During this, a trending forum post made him laugh helplessly.
The post documented Lu Xing’s shift in mentality before and after encountering the Mystic Butterfly.
It opened with Lu Xing’s bold declarations when he first entered the game, where he vowed on the forum to create a comprehensive compendium for all players and explore the unknown wonders of Monster World.
The post included a screenshot of one of Lu Xing’s old posts, which read:
“As an explorer player, I want to tell everyone that the game isn’t just about grinding levels, but also about poetry and distant places.
While you’re grinding to level up, a crimson dragon tears through the clouds over the Ancient Battlefield.
While you mine for sacrificial power, bright flowers bloom on the Blood-Soaked Plains.
While you worry about Star Vein combinations, the starlight batfish leaps from the starry seas as described by Guide.
They say the night skies of the Great Northern Region are dazzling beyond imagination…
Those beautiful landscapes that exist only in Guide’s descriptions will all become stops along my future journey.”
At the end of this quote, there was a GIF made from a screen recording of Lu Xing’s livestream, showing him with a bruised, swollen face, trembling as he pointed furiously at the Mystic Butterfly:
“You just wait!”
Below that were many other meme images with captions, such as:
‘Getting Beaten Up Again,’ ‘Curling Up to Reduce Impact Area,’ ‘This Time It’s Solid (laughing wildly with a gun),’ ‘Watch Me Blow You Up (arrogant face before detonating psionic bombs),’ ‘Let’s Talk It Out (begging for mercy),’ ‘This Doesn’t Make Sense (terrified after failed explosion),’ ‘A Gentleman Takes His Revenge Even After Ten Years (madly grinding levels)’…
Lu Xing’s saga against the Mystic Butterfly had become a running comedy series in the eyes of the forum players.
Everyone eagerly awaited the next episode but even more so hoped for a conclusion, so that all players could gain access to the Wind Control soul.
After finishing the post, Qi Sheng was drawn to a newly refreshed forum post.
[A Serious Issue Regarding Star Vein Combinations, Hope Lunar Eclipse Officials See This and Improve]
Poster: Endless Night
Content: Recently, I’ve been testing many new Star Vein builds in the test tower and discovered a serious problem that may cause sacrificial power costs to explode in the later stages.
Why isn’t there a Monster Soul dismantling function in the game?
Say I come up with a better idea and want to restructure my Star Vein combination. I have to strip away the previously embedded Monster Souls.
But the resources invested in upgrading those Monster Souls are non-refundable, making the cost of trial and error very high.
For example, if I level a Black-Scaled Serpent soul to Level 30 but later no longer want it, stripping it frees up the Star Vein slot for a new Monster Soul, but all my previous investment is just gone?
If the damn officials see this, I hope you’ll improve it.
—
In Qi Sheng’s view, this suggestion was entirely feasible.
In the initial design, stripped Monster Souls didn’t actually vanish but would be refined into pure sacrificial power and re-enter the Sacrificial Power Pool.
That portion of the yield had not been allocated to players, it was exclusively his.
But the players’ suggestion made him realize that the current setup indeed increased the burden on players trying to improve their strength.
How to resolve this issue? After reading the post, Qi Sheng already had an idea.