Chapter 242: Welcome to the End of the Tutorial

September 1st was not a weekend, not a holiday, and not the start of any special game event.

But on this day, players of *Heroes vs. Demon King* who had just failed a monthly city defense, even though they had returned to work after the weekend ended, kept pulling out their phones to glance at them occasionally, because this world's first fully immersive virtual reality game, which had always been slacking off, was finally getting serious!

Chen Xuan sat at his desk, occasionally tapping the keyboard in a pretense of working to keep his computer running, but his gaze kept drifting to his phone.

He had actually gone looking for Hidden Village too, but compared to professional players and wealthy idle players, he was just an ordinary office drone; by the time dawn came, he had no choice but to show up at work and spend his time slacking off while waiting to copy homework.

By now, more than a dozen players had found Hidden Village, but the posts that had been published were either complaints that this damn game made them want to cultivate, or complaints about the NPCs' sharp tongues—zero substantive content had appeared.

However, the scientist guy had previously posted a video of a library catalog, which left a strong impression.

Besides many classical Chinese medical texts and Daoist works already existing in the real world, there were also a few rare manuals describing cultivation techniques.

When *Heroes vs. Demon King* first launched, players called it cyber corvée; now, it seemed to be trying to become cyber education?

Just as Chen Xuan's mind had drifted off into nowhere, his phone suddenly vibrated—that was the notification for a followee's post.

Chen Xuan immediately perked up and opened the forum, where he saw a newly posted thread already tagged with trending:

【Holy shit, this game has flipped the heavens upside down!】

Hi everyone! I'm the Science Maniac. No nonsense, I was lucky enough to become the first player to complete the tutorial, and now I'll show you the real game content. Uh, what I'm about to say next—don't freak out!

"We're all veteran players—we won't be scared!" Even though he was just reading the post, Chen Xuan couldn't help muttering the meme in his head, then he saw the following text—

【As I said, I completed the tutorial—not just the Hidden Village trial, but everything before this, all of it, was just the tutorial! You've all been complaining that this is a virtual reality game but offers zero freedom, right? Exactly—because all of it was tutorial content! You know what tutorials are, right? Here's attack, here's defense—you're naturally only supposed to follow the beginner's guide to attack or defend. Isn't it normal that there's no freedom?】

"So you're saying we've played for years, even over a decade of in-game time, and we've only just finished the tutorial?"

Chen Xuan thought the Science Maniac's claim was absurd, but then he saw a video.

Although posting videos with forum threads was common these days, he still felt speechless.

As a slacker, he cautiously glanced around, confirmed that his coworkers who had finished their tasks were all slacking off just like him, and that the dreaded "foreman" hadn't come for a stroll, before pulling out his earphones, slipping them on, and opening the video—

No nonsense, I know many of you think I'm exaggerating, but now, let me show you the game's true freedom!

In the video, the Science Maniac stood on a plaza; from the surroundings, it was clear this was still within the Hidden Village map area. To prove he hadn't cheated, he was wearing the beginner's gear and standing alone in the open. He raised his hands to his chest and began rubbing them together like kneading dough, his face twisted in a constipated expression, his movements utterly sleazy.

Chen Xuan didn't even need to comment—the countless cyber mouthpieces who had seen it before him were already flooding the comments with emojis.

But soon, the comments suddenly shifted—from mocking jabs like "Are you here to shit?" to a uniform chorus of "Holy shit? Fucking awesome!"

Because in his cupped hands, a spell projectile had appeared!

Spell editing had been possible in the previous generation of talismans, but back then, it was merely using differently colored skills to trace light lines into a rough magical array pattern—the pinnacle being the Science Maniac's own "Angel's Descent."

But this crude spell projectile was completely different, because this was a basic mage skill!

Yet the Science Maniac's current character was, of all things, a cultivator!

The only possible explanation was that this bastard had actually crafted this spell projectile himself!

Chen Xuan was still stunned when the Science Maniac tossed the spell projectile like a volleyball, striking the wooden post in the plaza's center with a sharp crack.

The power was low—visually, it matched the level of a mage with no talent—but that precisely proved the spell's value.

Fortunately, the video wasn't live, so Chen Xuan didn't have to worry about the guy dragging it out—he watched as the Science Maniac turned his body, the camera shifting toward a building in the plaza's corner—

【As you can see, the spell projectile I just created is indeed a mage's basic spell. According to current theories, as long as you master the Four Elements, every spell in the game can be cast regardless of class!】

【Many of you have wondered what the NPC meant by the Four Elements. Now his apprentice has answered me: these four plaques on the rooms—【Transfer】、【Fix】、【Transform】、【Filter】. But I prefer the more cultivation-style names: 【Movement】、【Stillness】、【Technique】、【Flow】.】

【They're like basic brushstrokes. Once you have brushstrokes, you can form all kinds of characters, then complete sentences and essays. The spell projectile I just made? I simply 【Fixed】 my mana into a sphere, then used 【Transfer】 to hurl it.】

【If you use 【Transform】 to convert mana into flame, it becomes a fireball spell. If you use 【Filter】 to isolate the most efficient combustion effect and replicate it across all variations, you get Explosion or even Inferno.】

【And it's not just for mages. By this logic, any skill we can understand can be broken down using these principles—whether a tank's Shield Wall, a marksman's Mark, or an assassin's Stun—all can be decomposed into the Four Elements, then recombined to cast them through any class. That's why I said everything before was just the tutorial—】

【Take a card game as an example: classes like Warrior, Mage, Marksman? They're just pre-built decks the game gave us to learn the mechanics. After several updates, everyone's familiar with each class's skills—the cards. Now it's time to build your own deck!】

(End of Chapter)