Sacred Souls: Genesis

Chapter 111: Chapter 110: So when can we play it?

Jiang Qiao further collaborated with the Earth Mother Goddess to optimize various gaming experiences on Biland Island.

The optimizations included a detailed map of Biland Island, which listed all the crystallized areas on the island, with the degree of crystallization displayed as a percentage by Jiang Qiao.

Another gaming experience optimization was the blood effects; players would not witness any stomach-turning, limb-splattering effects when “killing” the natives.

As with all global VR games, gory effects are limited. Moreover, when players “kill” the natives, they aren’t truly dead—those natives daring enough to provoke the players are thrown out of Biland Island by the Earth Mother Goddess to lie unconscious for a month or two.

As for those natives on Biland Island killed and devoured by monsters, the Earth Mother Goddess has no power over them.

The monsters on the island are strictly speaking beyond the reach of the Three Realms and not within the Five Elements, as spoken in China, their names are not even on the Book of Life and Death, beyond the Earth Mother Goddess’s control.

After completing some detailed game optimizations, Jiang Qiao began to perfect the main quest’s storyline.

The new main quest storyline started off simply, with the doll-like character falling onto this strange island, but an ancient tree sheltered her.

After striding onto the island with murderous intent, players would soon discover the doll-like character hidden within the ancient tree.

At this point, the doll-like character was badly injured, and because of the Divine Fragment, which caused her evolution, she began to feel hunger and needed to eat.

Players needed to search for food to feed the doll-like character and help her heal her wounds, which could further cultivate her affection.

At the same time, the doll-like character also unlocked the outfit customization feature, allowing players to give her various fashion items and garments like cloth and leather armor to wear.

During this period, the doll-like character would also tend to the flowers and plants in the players’ base.

In this part of the story, Jiang Qiao deliberately reminded the players of a crucial point.

That was Guardian Spirit·Furya was slowly learning human emotions, and whether the players would end up with a nagging wife or a virtuous one depended on how they raised her.

Taking everything into account, Jiang Qiao saw the theme of Biland Island expansion pack as hunting, building, nurturing, and surviving, with tons of playable content added.

“So when can we play it?” Hai Lan asked in the wooden hut, watching Jiang Qiao tinkering with her Fureya prototype.

Once the expansion pack went live, players would have increasingly more interactions with the doll-like character.

Jiang Qiao didn’t expect all players to be the kind who cherished their wives, so the system would implement certain punishments for those who wished to mistreat the doll-like character.

For example, a decrease in affection, or the doll-like character running away from home, and so on.

“You’ll be able to play it in six hours.”

Jiang Qiao finished peeling an apple with his knife and handed it to his own Fureya, who, cradling the fruit, pondered how to eat it before tentatively taking a small bite.

After chewing a bit more, she took another small bite. It was Fureya prototype’s first time eating anything, and she appeared somewhat clumsy.

Luckily, Fureya’s stomach was similar to Hai Lan’s; everything she ate would convert into energy.

After syncing some skills that Fureya prototype had learned to the other thirteen thousand Fureyas, Jiang Qiao considered the preliminary work on the Biland Island expansion pack to be complete.

“All that’s left is the creation of other NPCs, right? Let’s wait for the players to start exploring Biland Island before making them one by one.”

Jiang Qiao went through the portal of the wooden hut and returned to the edge of Biland Island. The in-game work was nearly ready; what remained was the production of CG…

In terms of CG, Jiang Qiao made two CGs. The first was a CG showing players’ first steps into the game world, comprising scenes selected from various players’ progress. The other was the CG for the new version… the CG was titled “What Is Home.”

“Jiang Qiao, are you really going to spend fifty thousand Creation Energy to build a parallel world?” Hai Lan looked somewhat hesitant after watching Jiang Qiao finish editing the two CGs.

Now she only had 65,000 points of Creation Energy left. Hai Lan had saved up so much with difficulty, but Jiang Qiao was going to take most of it and invest it into the creation of the inner world.

And the size of this inner world was only about as big as the Jiangcheng Food Street. If they wanted to expand it further in the future… the energy required could possibly be measured in units of a hundred thousand.

“This is a necessary investment, are you feeling reluctant, Hai Lan?” Jiang Qiao asked.

“Reluctant, of course! But… well, if those invaders manage to kill off the players’ bodies, that will be troublesome,” Hai Lan ultimately chose to compromise.

If the Annihilation Legion were to descend upon the real world again, the wounds inflicted upon the real world wouldn’t be something that world correction could handle.

But the inner world wasn’t a foolproof method either. The Annihilation Legion definitely had the capacity to break through the inner world’s barriers and invade the real world, but if they wanted to invade the real world, they’d have to first see if the players agreed to it or not.

“Alright, let’s go,” Jiang Qiao said to Hai Lan after uploading the CG.

……

The time was seven in the morning on the sixth day of Labor Day, in the upper city.

Mo Shigui woke up groggily from the bed in the club’s resting room.

As a member of the Dancing Nuclear Guild conflict team, he had incredibly spent four days of the holiday playing another game, and Mo Shigui found it crazy every time he thought about it.

Nevertheless, he had done it… after staying up for three and a half days, he finally got the chance to rest and took advantage of the game maintenance to sleep wildly for seven hours.

In a haze, Mo Shigui’s phone kept ringing, forcing him to wake up from his slumber.

Mo Shigui opened his eyes and glanced at the caller ID on his phone, which displayed the name Lin Yujin.

This was the name Rain Song used in the real world… Rain Song was a retired member of the Dancing Nuclear Guild and had a very good relationship with Mo Shigui.

“What’s up?” asked Mo Shigui as he picked up the phone, his mind still fuzzy.

“Check the official website, there’s a new CG,” Rain Song said over the phone in his simple and direct manner.

“What’s there to talk about a CG for, didn’t Brother Lin say not to call me within ten hours?” Mo Shigui felt his eyelids were as heavy as if they were filled with lead.

“In the new CG, Fureya is being hunted down. She fell into a strange map, and her fate is uncertain,” Rain Song added.

“What does that have to do with me?” Mo Shigui asked somewhat unclearly.

He was an old hand at online games, which meant he understood how to predict a game designer’s thinking, how a main questline was intended, and how activities should be approached to yield the maximum benefit.

Mo Shigui could guess these things with almost perfect accuracy, and if he decided to become a game designer now, he might actually be able to take up the role after studying for a month or two.

Therefore, Mo Shigui had a very thorough understanding of the NPCs in games, until the appearance of the NPC Guardian Spirit·Fureya.

“What?” It took Mo Shigui three seconds for his thoughts to clear, when he suddenly sat up from the bed and became completely awake, “Could you repeat the plot of the new CG?”

“Fureya is being hunted down and fell through a portal, her life hanging in the balance,” Rain Song emphasized the last four words particularly.

Damn… what kind of explosive plotline is this? What in the world is the game designer thinking?

Mo Shigui snapped to alertness and even rolled off the bed onto the floor.

He knew Rain Song was the kind of friend who would never joke about such things, so Mo Shigui didn’t bother climbing back into bed and sat on the floor instead, taking out his phone to search for the new CG on the official website.