156: The player is the protagonist of the story

Bao Gaoshua was an ordinary player and also a fan of the Xing Shi Club.

Initially, he heard that the Xing Shi Club was entering the Xuanhuan World, so he followed them into the game.

However, the Xing Shi Club later suffered a crushing defeat in front of Yan Xiao, and all their members retreated, their momentum greatly weakened, and the number of players in their guild was extremely small. As a loyal fan for many years, Bao Gaoshua couldn't even squeeze in.

Later, he heard that Duan Kong Cave was recruiting disciples, so he quickly ran over to participate in the test. He did pass successfully, but Duan Kong Cave's Heaven-Defying terms made him feel insulted, and he left in anger.

After that, he went to the Great Love Sect, thinking he was finally on the right track, but he didn't expect to run into the Three Great Sects' operation to annihilate the Great Love Sect, and his first character was directly killed.

A dejected Bao Gaoshua had no choice but to restart, spending a small amount of money on resources. He successfully became a Qi Refining Cultivator again and smoothly joined the Great Love Sect, beginning to enjoy the benefits brought by the evil cultivation method. Following Midnight Gao Sou, he conquered several cities and even achieved a Mortal Foundation.

"Wow, this evil cultivation method is really good. My character has such trashy three Spiritual Root Aptitude, yet he can still achieve a Mortal Foundation. Incredible, simply incredible."

Bao Gaoshua refined hundreds more corpses to stabilize his cultivation.

After achieving a Mortal Foundation, his Realm had essentially reached its peak. After internal discussions, the Great Love Sect decided to let them continue to advance to the Late Stage Mortal Foundation, but after that, they would no longer supply resources.

Bao Gaoshua didn't have any objections to this. Although the evil cultivation method overdrawn his potential, he never even hoped to become an Immortal Foundation. Now, if this character dies and restarts, he can get reincarnation points, so why not?

With not much hope for his cultivation and no intense battles currently, Bao Gaoshua casually went outside the city to grind some Demonic Beasts and Yao Beasts, then opened the in-game application and logged into Bilibili.

"Huh? Official live stream?"

Bao Gaoshua quickly saw that the Ancient Style Game Development Competition organizing committee's official Bilibili account was live streaming.

The official account had been live streaming for many days, but it was always people who didn't play the game at all, just going in to look at the scenery. It served as a promotional tool for outsiders, but it was incredibly boring for actual players, so the number of viewers had always been small.

But today was different; there were tens of thousands of online viewers, and the screen was just a black curtain.

"What's going on? Is something big happening?"

Bao Gaoshua became interested and quickly searched for information, asking a few friends.

"You don't know? The organizing committee is helping Huan Meng promote. They're going to live stream today to introduce the first season's content. Many players are gathered in the live stream room waiting for it to start. Later, when the video comes out, the playback volume will definitely be even higher."

Bao Gaoshua was stunned: "First season content? No, isn't Xuanhuan World a fake season game? What season content could there be?"

He felt a bit inexplicable but couldn't help but wait patiently, wanting to see what the officials would actually say.

After some time, the black curtain in the live stream disappeared, replaced by a mountain range in the Xuanhuan World.

Spiritual Qi was abundant, clouds and mist swirled, and faint glows of Formations could be seen, with pavilions suspended at the peak of the mountains.

Bao Gaoshua's eyes lit up: "Holy cow, isn't this the Great Love Sect's main peak?"

Soon, the screen switched again. This time, a mountain range also appeared, but it was filled with Purple Qi, with a purple glow in the sky, looking quite extraordinary.

Bao Gaoshua recognized it again; this was the Purple Qi Sect's main peak, also very famous among players.

The screen kept flashing, and many places Bao Gaoshua couldn't recognize, but he still recognized several, all of them being the main peaks of various player Sects. It was clear that all the scenes appearing here were from player Sects.

Bao Gaoshua couldn't help but be astonished. After the Purple Qi Sect was established, besides the Great Love Sect, there were actually so many new Sects formed among the player base.

He even saw the main peaks belonging to clubs like Xing Shi, which had also formed Sects.

Even the clubs that were taken away by the Three Great Sects before had all restarted, ventured out, and established Sects belonging to their own clubs, managing various player guilds below them.

It seemed the era of players fighting alone was over.

"Hello!"

Suddenly, a clear and beautiful voice rang out.

It was the AI Host used by the official, with a face that could topple nations, wearing a nine-colored Immortal robe, smiling as she began the live stream.

Initially, the content she introduced was very simple, nothing more than Xuanhuan World achieving excellent results, and that after the first season began, players would experience a series of stories in the Great Jiang Imperial Dynasty, and so on.

This made Bao Gaoshua and other players exclaim how boring it was; they already knew all this.

But soon, the Host led the topic to where everyone was interested:

"However, Xuanhuan World is an open-world game. Every player is the protagonist of their own story, and players' choices will determine the direction of the Xuanhuan World."

"This means that Huan Meng's designers have only built the stage and have not set a fixed story ending like other games, nor do they force players to join a story arc."

The Host smiled: "The theme of the first season is undoubtedly the Great Jiang Imperial Dynasty. The Empress is about to Breakthrough, and the entire Great Jiang is shaken by it. Players need to find their position in this great change, find their own Opportunity, and are not forced to oppose the Empress or support her."

"Furthermore, players can go a step further and become the protagonists of the story, completely changing the main gameplay of the current season. For example, the current rampage of the Great Love Sect in the Great Jiang Imperial Dynasty, and the player guild formed by Heshui Prefecture. The strong rise of these two forces marks the gradual transition of seasonal gameplay from PVE to PVP."

Hearing this, Bao Gaoshua immediately became interested, even excited.

He was originally a die-hard fan of competitive games and had a strong preference for PVP.

Before, the Great Love Sect's rampage was essentially bullying the native Cultivators of the Great Jiang Imperial Dynasty, and even bullying Mortals. There was no pressure, pure hack-and-slash, which made him feel a bit bored.

But now, listening to the Host's introduction, he suddenly realized that the direction of the game going forward might truly be extraordinary.

PVE would transition to PVP, and players would become the absolute protagonists.

"In addition, according to our interviews, we also discovered a shocking piece of news."

The Host deliberately made a surprised expression, piquing everyone's curiosity.

Bao Gaoshua also couldn't help but want to know what this news was as soon as possible.

The Host didn't keep them in suspense for too long and quickly revealed it:

"The player responsible for forming the guild in Heshui Prefecture this time is a celebrity. I believe many friends in the live stream room should know him."

A celebrity?

Bao Gaoshua was stunned. He didn't know much about that player from Heshui Prefecture. The other party seemed very low-key before, and even now, many people don't know his name, not even his online handle.

"That player is... former Seiya professional player, Ye Chun!"

Bao Gaoshua's eyes widened... "What?!"

At the Xing Shi Club's stronghold, Wang Long suddenly stood up, his face full of disbelief.