PCJ – Chapter 741 A Deceptive Setting

After midnight, the number of online players in Immortal Fantasy suddenly jumped from zero to over one hundred thousand. More than a hundred thousand people logged into the game almost simultaneously, without the slightest delay.

Zhang Jiaohua also entered the game. He rarely played games before, but he still had some understanding of them. Immortal Fantasy was extremely simple to operate—it was essentially like traveling to an immortal cultivation world to practice and explore.

What was interesting, however, was that almost none of the players rushed to explore the game itself. Instead, they were completely immersed in admiring the breathtakingly beautiful world of immortals.

Exclamations of “Wow! Wow!” could be heard everywhere. The world was so gorgeous, yet so real—even the scent of soil in the air and the fragrance of flowers and plants felt vivid. For people who had long lived in noisy cities and breathed polluted air, how could they not be thrilled?

Qi Shuo also exclaimed repeatedly: “So this is what it feels like to traverse into another world—it’s so beautiful!”

As expected of a gaming expert, Qi Shuo quickly mastered some of the basic controls. For example, if he wanted to read the game introduction, he only needed to think about it, and the information would automatically appear in his mind. Many details about this world were also integrated into his memory.

First, players had to go to the village chief in the novice village to test their spiritual roots. Based on their root attributes, they could choose different sects to join. If they didn’t want to join a sect, they could go on ruin expeditions, where there was also a chance to obtain cultivation methods and magical treasures.

Qi Shuo found the village chief but didn’t rush to take the test. Instead, he stood outside to observe. There weren’t many players who had made it here so quickly; those who did were basically veteran gamers. Ordinary players at this stage were still too enchanted by the scenery.

Two players had just completed their tests and began chatting at the door.

“What’s your spiritual root?”

“Earth root, low-grade. Sigh, with this attribute, I don’t think there’s much hope for me in this game. I kind of want to delete my character and start over.”

“Don’t do that! According to the rules, your spiritual root is tied to you personally. Even if you delete and remake characters, it’ll still be the same low-grade earth root. But since it’s a game, there should be ways to improve it.”

“What about you?”

“I got wood root, mid-grade. Slightly better than yours, but not by much.”

“What kind of setting is this? How come there’s such a huge gap right from the start? It’s way too unfair!”

“Yeah, this setup is bizarre—completely abnormal. But what can we do? Fair or not, do you think any other game can compete with this one? Maybe they did this just to make it feel more realistic.”

Hearing their conversation, Qi Shuo also found it strange. Everyone’s spiritual root was different, and the gap between them could be enormous. Why design it like this? Was it really just to make the game more “real”? But was it necessary to sacrifice fairness for the sake of realism? This was something he really couldn’t understand.

After thinking for a moment, Qi Shuo still went into the testing room. He knew that many players would protest against this design, but based on Meishan Group’s usual style, they would definitely ignore the complaints. And with a game this revolutionary, it wasn’t like players could really boycott it anyway.

Once inside, a message instantly appeared in his mind: Metal root, low-grade.

According to the game information, the metal root specialized in offensive abilities. But being low-grade meant it was still pretty weak.

Qi Shuo felt a bit frustrated. As a professional gamer, starting off with such a poor attribute basically doomed him to a harder path than before. According to the game’s guidance, one month later, various sects would come to the novice village to recruit outer disciples. Qi Shuo found it odd—why one month later? He immediately sensed that there was more to this. Perhaps during this month, players could change their fates. Maybe spiritual roots could be altered.

As for Zhang Jiaohua, the result was predictable: Heaven-grade, full roots. All five elements maxed out. In reality, such a condition was exceedingly rare. The only reason Zhang had such roots was because he had cultivated to the peak of the Spirit-Transformation stage. At that level, spiritual roots no longer held much meaning—his body had already been refined and sublimated multiple times, far beyond that of a mortal. The advantage of roots mainly mattered for the process of stepping from mortal into true cultivation. After entering real cultivation, the significance gradually diminished. The game’s design here was fully based on real cultivation-world experience.

For others, Zhang’s roots would be like turning on cheat mode. But he wasn’t interested in competing with players. After strolling around a bit, he simply logged out.

“How did it go?” he asked, concerned mainly about the testing results.

“One ultimate-grade talent showed up,” Dumb replied, though without much joy on his face.

Zhang smiled, knowing that Dumb was referring to him.

“Six top-grade talents appeared as well—not counting our own people. All of them are ordinary folks with no prior cultivation,” Dumb added.

“Keep a close eye on them. Don’t take any action yet. Wait until the sect selection in a month,” Zhang instructed.

Nie Tong, somewhat worried, said: “With this game pulling such a big gap right from the start, won’t players feel it’s unfair? I’ve already seen a lot of them complaining.”

“Don’t worry about it. If they want a refund, we’ll give it anytime. Selling game gear isn’t our real goal,” Zhang replied.

Dumb and Nie Tong exchanged a wry smile. They had expected Zhang to say exactly that. It meant they were about to face a storm of protests.

Sure enough, an hour later, Immortal Fantasy’s customer service lines were jammed with complaints and protests from all over. Following Zhang’s instructions, the staff only gave one response: refunds were available, but no suggestions or protests would be entertained.

This attitude infuriated players. But when it came to actually giving up the game, not a single one wanted to. The virtual reality experience was simply too captivating. In the end, the protests fizzled out, and not one refund was processed.

However, the sales of the game’s login devices hit a roadblock. Too many players were dissatisfied with the settings, and with some malicious actors stirring up the internet, Immortal Fantasy was hit with a wave of serious negative publicity.

“Jiaohua, maybe we should issue a clarification. At this rate, it’ll be hard to grow our user base,” Ji Jiaxin said worriedly.

“Can’t we afford the loss?” Zhang replied with a smile.