Chapter 333: Evolution Era Prelude

Meng Yuan Chu Altar.

Every event that occurred in the real world was under the surveillance of Guidance.

That included the latest product launch conference held by the Eclipse Clan this time.

Qi Sheng naturally understood what the Star Net was trying to achieve by doing this — it wanted to actively build out the real world in order to create more online playtime for him.

Although many players wanted to play the game for long stretches, real-world health and other issues forced them to cut down their playtime.

These two latest products released by the Star Net were both meant to address this problem.

But just as the Star Net had anticipated, its real-world arrangements treated the symptoms, not the root cause.

It could not break the predetermined fate that players were bound to be born, grow old, fall ill, and die.

Although mechanical ascension was feasible, achieving mechanical ascension for the entire population would consume enormous amounts of time, and the process was indeed exceedingly cumbersome.

Qi Sheng had considered the related issues long ago.

Naturally, he would not give up on veteran players.

Early on, he had indeed wondered whether the construction of the player faction should follow a generational turnover model.

The so-called generational turnover referred to optimizing the player system generation after generation, ignoring the real-world birth, aging, illness, and death of players.

Whenever a player died, the account could not be inherited, and everything belonging to the deceased player would be broken down and reclaimed as Shou Shou Jili.

This portion of Shou Shou Jili would be used to build more comprehensive player functions and auxiliary systems, helping the next generation of players grow faster.

For example, the next generation of players could start with an initial resource of ten thousand points of Shou Shou Jili, or more.

Under this model, players were more like a recyclable resource.

The development of the player faction would be like a river rushing on without pause — every droplet would vaporize upon reaching the end, only to fall again at the source in a new form.

The total amount of Shou Shou Jili would always maintain a positive growth trend.

On the surface, this model seemed to be all drawbacks, but it had its merits as well.

Like replacing cells, regularly refreshing the player population ensured the faction would forever retain its vigor for growth.

As Guidance had said: death is the optimal solution for resource redistribution.

Placing this question in the real world was no different.

In an environment of limited resources, without death, the older generation of elites would forever occupy the greatest share of resources.

This model transformed death from a force of class entrenchment into a cyclical node, turning the growth of the player faction into an evolution engine that never stopped running.

Just as fallen leaves become spring soil, ultimately nourishing a more luxuriant forest.

The eternity of the player faction lay no longer in the life of the individual, but in the growth of the faction itself.

Let death become the fairest mechanism of all.

Every player started from zero; no matter how powerful the accounts built by the older generation, the moment of death meant their attributes could not be passed on to the next generation.

Although the next generation's growth could receive assistance from the previous one, the most core parts still could not be inherited.

Every generational turnover was a tempering of the player system.

Casting out obsolete thinking, giving birth to brand-new possibilities.

Allowing competition to emerge without end — every generation of players had to prove their abilities anew.

The Shou Shou Jili legacy of veteran players could provide initial assistance, but the true summit still required one's own effort.

This competitive vitality could compel each new generation to continually break through limits; past legends would become benchmarks to be surpassed.

Innovation of thought, breaking monopolies, resource circulation… these were all the merits of the generational turnover model.

But the drawbacks were equally obvious.

Under the generational turnover model, the inheritance of experience was a contradiction that could not be perfectly resolved.

The accumulation of a strong individual's experience, combat techniques, warfare experience, understanding of the player system… all of these required time to accumulate and settle.

Although he could solve the problem of players' knowledge reserves through memory implantation.

But the memory implantation model had one drawback that could not be resolved.

Suppose the complete memories of a battle-hardened veteran player (including combat techniques, tactical thinking, system understanding, etc.) were fully implanted into a new player's brain — the new player's "self" would be rapidly diluted, and ultimately overwritten by the veteran's thought patterns.

A veteran's memories were not isolated data; they also contained deep-level content such as emotions, combat habits, thought patterns, and decision-making logic.

When this content flooded into a new player's brain, the new player's original cognition would be drowned.

Just as a small pond being poured into by a great lake — in the end, the pond was no longer a pond, but part of the lake.

The so-called "new player" was essentially no longer a new individual, but more like the veteran's resurrection in a borrowed corpse.

This violated the original intent of the "generational turnover model" — letting every generation of players truly start from zero, rather than allowing the top players of the old era to achieve a form of disguised immortality through memory transplantation.

It would be better to simply let the veteran players live forever from the start.

This problem had a solution — it had already been verified on Xiao Xiao Fa.

To avoid a veteran's thoughts and emotions overwriting the new player, one could transplant only pure knowledge (such as the steps of combat techniques, the theoretical framework of tactics), stripping away the emotional and experiential parts.

But Xiao Xiao Fa had already given the answer to this model — it was not feasible.

Xiao Xiao Fa, who had inherited the Blood King's memories, was still essentially himself — he had merely mastered all of the Blood King's memories.

But the essence of memory was the combination of knowledge, emotion, and thought logic.

After stripping away emotion and logical thought, what could be instilled into the new player was merely a manual, not experiential insight.

Just like a person who had watched a thousand hours of war films but had never truly set foot on a battlefield.

He knew theoretically what to do, but lacked muscle memory and precise thought-logic judgment.

True combat experience, as the champion fighter had said, was not knowing what to do, but training what to do into instinct.

The conditioned reflexes cultivated by veteran players through countless wars could not be perfectly replicated through knowledge transplantation.

This was like a multiple-choice question — one could not have both.

By retaining complete knowledge, the new player is overwritten, becoming a form of disguised immortality.

Strip away the realization, keep only the knowledge description, and new players will be unable to grasp the essence and experience.

Soul Beasts are similar to the Xiao Xiao Fa situation; the core that allows them to always guarantee their initial memories remain uncorrupted is the absence of emotional overlay from the memory holder, containing only memory content like an instruction manual.

How to solve this problem? The Guide provided a reasonable solution.

In the early stages, transplant only the most core knowledge, not the complete memory stream; subsequently, deepen the transplantation process gradually as the new player's experience grows.

The cleverness of this solution lies in the fact that the transplantation of experience is a step-by-step process.

When the pond grows larger and can hold more volume, then add water.

Do not pursue instilling all experience at once; instead, act like a patient mentor accompanying the player, gradually unlocking deeper memories as the new player grows.

In the initial stage, transplant only the most basic core knowledge.

What the player obtains is purely the technical framework.

At this time, the memory is like an introductory manual, ensuring the new player does not make various stupid mistakes in the starting stage, yet leaving enough blank space for them to personally feel the growth that "experience" brings them.

After the player reaches the second stage, the second layer of memory will be unlocked.

This stage is no longer cold instructional steps, but rather thought fragments of veteran players in similar situations.

For example, the momentary tension when facing a surprise attack, or the decisive logic when counterattacking from a desperate situation.

These memories no longer forcibly overwrite, but emerge in the form of déjà vu, allowing new players to naturally absorb the essence of the experience within the familiar experience.

As the player continues to grow, more complex tactical thinking, emotional control, and other contents will be gradually unsealed.

For example, when commanding a team battle, suddenly awakening the veteran player's macro judgment of the situation.

Or in a life-or-death crisis, instinctively calling upon the on-the-spot adaptability of a certain legendary warrior.

The entire process is like a puzzle; every piece returns to its place at the most appropriate moment, finally piecing together a complete experience system that retains the new player's individuality while integrating the essence of past generations.

This gradual transplantation always follows the principle of "clear distinction between primary and secondary"; the new player's own experiences are always the main trunk, while the veteran players' memories are merely branches grafted onto it.

Just like adding aged yeast when brewing wine: it borrows the flavor settled by time, yet allows the new grain to retain its own characteristics.

When the player finally stands at the peak, those inherited experiences have long since merged with themselves, with no distinction between primary and secondary.

However, this process is too cumbersome, and Qi Sheng did not choose it.

Finally, he found a more perfect solution.

That is the Eclipse Clan.

Just as the Gold Coin Guild holds an absolute monopoly over the outside within the player faction, yet it became the driving force propelling the rapid development of the player faction.

He could indirectly solve many problems through the Eclipse Clan.

The Star Net did not even need his guidance to clearly know its own positioning and what to do.

The addition of the Star Net and the Eclipse Clan changed his initial conception, leading him to decide to forge a different, brand-new path.

The problem the Star Net worried about this time, he had thought of a solution long ago.

That is the Real-World Shangcheng Plan proposed early on.

Through the Real-World Shangcheng, sell players spiritual products that can only be purchased with Shou Shou Jili and take effect in the real world.

Use Shangcheng items to solve players' real-world limitations such as health, lifespan, and physical constitution, allowing players to invest more time in the game while avoiding the cumbersome process of Mechanical Ascension.

At the initial stage of launching this plan, there was a problem.

When players use Shou Shou Jili to purchase spiritual items to strengthen their real-world bodies, it actually affects the development speed of the player faction.

Inside the game, no matter where the Shou Shou Jili on a player is consumed, it allows the player to gain strength improvement.

Including enjoying spiritual food meals, which can also bring body tempering levels, and even attribute boosts, to the player.

Shou Shou Jili does not truly disappear in a meaningful sense, but transforms into player strength in another form, or circulates into the hands of other players.

Buying spiritual food equals body tempering level improvement, receiving physical attribute feedback, and selling yields Shou Shou Jili for the player.

Strengthening Star Veins equals expanding the body's carrying limit, allowing more Painful Painful Minghun to be inlaid, unlocking more combat modes for the player.

Crafting Rune Resonance Weapons equals improving the player's output efficiency during hunting and war, and also allowing players to challenge higher-difficulty dungeons, accelerating resource production speed.

Investing in Automatic Cultivation Gong Fa equals maintaining body tempering level growth even when the player is offline, reducing wasted time...

These consumptions are essentially more like investments; ultimately, through the player becoming stronger and acquiring more resources, a positive cycle forms between the two.

Secondly, the internal circulation of Shou Shou Jili all produces tax revenue; Qi Sheng will also use this portion of income to perfect the basic function settings of the player system.

Not a single bit of Shou Shou Jili is wasted in the entire process.

However, after the Real-World Shangcheng Plan went online, when players used Shou Shou Jili to purchase spiritual products from the Real-World Shangcheng, the problem appeared.

These products are essentially also transformed from Shou Shou Jili.

After selling them to players, although the Shou Shou Jili was retrieved.

These resources did not feed back into the player's body within the game, but flowed into the real world.

This is equivalent to opening a channel for resources to flow outwards.

In terms of short-term benefits, it indeed improved players' physical health, lifespan, and other issues, allowing them to invest more time in exploring and hunting in the Monster World later.

The long-term cost is that the total amount of Shou Shou Jili is diverted, reducing growth efficiency.

Assume Player A possesses 1000 points of Shou Shou Jili; originally, all could be invested in strengthening within the game, but now 300 points of Shou Shou Jili might be diverted to purchase real-world items.

This directly leads to a significant slowdown in the speed of strength improvement within the game.

The temptation of real-world improvement is too great; if most players choose to prioritize real-world needs, the average combat power growth within the game will slow down.

Ultimately, players might even fall into the problem of investing more and more in reality, with the game excessively feeding back into reality.

The implementation of the Real-World Shangcheng Plan requires finding a balance between solving real-world problems and building the player faction.

Although the method of regulation is feasible, it cannot solve the fundamental problem.

The solution Qi Sheng chose is to make the real-world strengthening part also become a part of the player's body.

For example, when a player uses the Life-Extending Pill he is about to launch in reality, this strengthening acts like a Shou Shou Jili data packet that can feedback to the player's body upon logging in, directly improving the player's character attributes.

It is like a sliding module; when the player logs off, the module transfers to the real-world body.

After players log on, the Reality Module transfers to the player's body.

When the day of universal ascension arrives, the physical body will completely merge with the player's body.

In this way, Shou Shou Jili will no longer suffer from external loss, but will become a two-way investment channel, allowing players to gain strength growth in both directions.

Every bit of consumption by players in the Reality Shangcheng will eventually be fed back as strength within the game.

This differs from Yu Chuan directly obtaining a proportional feedback of the player's body.

The design of goods in the Reality Shop does not include settings such as Star Veins, Painful Painful Minghun, or Rune-Resonance Weapons.

His new proposal is essentially to sublimate the concept of "player" into a cross-space life form capable of freely fusing with the power of the player system.

Reality is a weak-enhancement mode, requiring the consumption of Shou Shou Jili to purchase various enhancement items from the Shangcheng.

This allows the player's body in the Monster World to receive enhancement through two channels.

However, for this part of the content, he needs to use the name of the Moon-Eclipse Clan to publish and distribute it.

During the initial testing phase, he will issue a limited quantity of items from the Reality Shangcheng, requiring players to obtain them via bidding with Shou Shou Jili on the Monster World official website.