Novels online

Chapter 291: Fear

The dissatisfactions of real life led more and more ordinary people to turn to the virtual online world. However, as news of internet account terminations was reported with increasing frequency, some people who were accustomed to venting their inner stress through online insults began to hesitate.

It felt great to anonymously hurl insults, but if that led to bloody misfortune, it wasn't fun at all.

They also didn't know if the ID they cursed online would, in reality, belong to someone who could kill a tiger with a single finger.

Too many young people had gained power in this new era but still lacked control over their own minds, making them prone to impulsive actions.

And even their slightest impulse could be a devastating catastrophe for others, because for a cultivator, killing an ordinary person was simply too easy.

A punch thrown unintentionally, boosted by formidable physical prowess, was enough to easily punch straight through someone, creating a gaping hole from front to back. A casual slap might just knock off the head of the person behind them.

Bloody physical violence had curbed a portion of online verbal abuse. This was the new era where power reigned supreme. It was slightly sorrowful, but also a microcosm of the times.

When there were no external enemies invading, the Spirit Energy Network System deployed in major cities had its primary function shifted to suppressing the powers of the superhumans within them.

By specifically absorbing their kinetic energy output and other forms of energy attacks, it created a protective effect, reducing their destruction of the cities.

But in reality, the effect was quite limited. The reason was that only about eighty percent of the released energy would be absorbed by the network; the remaining power could only be let loose. This was still enough to kill ordinary people; it was merely the difference between one hundred grams of potassium cyanide and five hundred grams.

However, after the Spirit Energy Network was established, the collateral damage to surrounding buildings was indeed greatly reduced, and the people living within felt much safer. After all, an eighty percent damage reduction effect sounded quite formidable.

Even insulting others now required careful thought, so more ordinary people chose to seek the thrill of power in the VR system. The Endless Continent game, operated by the Huaxia Federation government, thus became a place for countless disillusioned individuals to vent their frustrations.

Here, as long as one was willing to invest time and effort, constantly grinding monsters for experience points, one could level up in the game and experience the truly realistic power of overwhelming destruction, fighting a hundred enemies alone.

Moreover, due to Bai Mo's lavish whims, the entire system's design was not for profit; it didn't issue game tokens for making money, and everything inside was settled directly with Contribution Points. Precisely because paying money couldn't make one stronger, it attracted a great many ordinary people with lower incomes to participate.

Endless Continent was like an extremely potent anesthetic, causing a large number of people to become engrossed in it. The powerlessness of reality and the ability to command wind and rain in the virtual world created a huge psychological disparity for many players, making them wish they could stay online twenty-four hours a day, just to escape this cruel world.

Unfortunately, for the sake of players' physical health, the daily game time limit for most people was capped at four hours, with automatic log-out upon reaching the limit. This alone prevented Huaxia from becoming a nation asleep due to VR.

Even large numbers of foreign players specifically came to Huaxia to purchase VR Helmets to access the Endless Continent game. This super-game, with over two hundred million active players and over one billion registered players, had already formed a massive network, attracting the participation of countless individuals.

In addition to this, many foreigners personally came to the Contribution Point Center to undergo combat power test certification.

This combat power test certification, endorsed by the superpower Huaxia Federation, had now gained widespread recognition from almost everyone. The reason was simple: up until now, no one had successfully cheated in it, and the assessment results were also good.

Furthermore, in the third stage of the test, one could also gain valuable cultivation insights and some rare Spirit Arts mental imprints. For the vast number of grassroots cultivators, this was simply the greatest boon, constantly attracting them to test again and again.

Of course, there were also many smart people who could tell there might be something fishy going on, because it was simply too good a deal. One only needed to pay a symbolic four hundred and fifty yuan registration fee for the test to have a significant chance of obtaining data worth hundreds of thousands; no matter how one looked at it, it was a losing business.

But all the truth was firmly hidden. Perhaps some sufficiently smart people guessed a fragment of it, but being smart enough, they also knew that behind it likely involved someone whose name could not be spoken, and so they gave up the idea of pressing further.

The VR system's core server was placed underground at Bai Mo's experimental site. As the most important equipment for his own power enhancement, it was securely looked after, with no security issues on a physical level.

On the information level, he had a bunch of avatars specifically responsible for maintaining information security; for now, no hacker had been able to bypass the layers of defense and break in.

As research into the Ten Thousand Phantoms Sutra, this avatar-stream cultivation technique he created, deepened, Bai Mo's avatars began to exhibit functional differentiation for the first time.

Originally, the comprehensive, all-rounder avatars gradually evolved towards specialized types. On the avatars responsible for research and thought, combat-related structures continuously decreased, ceding more space to information processing modules; while the small number of avatars specializing in combat underwent further armament.

No matter what other researchers of improved versions thought, Bai Mo's ultimate goal for the Ten Thousand Phantoms Sutra was to cultivate into a terrifying existence where "one man becomes a race, I am the swarm." The newly derived fourth layer of the cultivation technique was also steadfastly advancing towards this goal.

As for another cultivation technique he created, the "Thousand Souls Sutra," in his vision, it was an excellent auxiliary cultivation technique to complement the Ten Thousand Phantoms Sutra; only by possessing enough thoughts could the number of controllable avatars truly form an overwhelming advantage.

"That guy, he went too far this time." In Ziliu Sea, Wen Jian held a secret report about Bai Mo.

"He can handle it." Chen Bo smiled helplessly.

Beforehand, they couldn't have guessed that millions of people, in less than half an hour, would simply die just like that. Even they, who had witnessed many grand spectacles over the years, were stunned upon receiving the news.

Although Bai Mo didn't say it, Chen Bo inferred from his prior words that the destruction of Maysuo was likely planned, not an accident.

"Now, high-ranking officials from all countries have already placed him on the highest level of alert lists. According to their statements, this man's power and his dangerous ideology could very likely lead to the demise of humanity."

"Without a power to contend with him, how can we even talk about dealing with him?" Chen Bo said, looking at the document in his hand. "Their fear-mongering like this, at the end of the day, isn't it just fear of our Huaxia Federation's power? They want to incite civil war between us and weaken our nation."