30: Oppressing mortals, moral debate

"mystical world: the rise of the weak" is already showing signs of becoming a phenomenon.

Old Potato, Midnight Gao Sou, Xiao Daidai, Mage, Watermelon Prince… more and more streamers are becoming addicted to it.

These are not small streamers with a few thousand followers; they are all big streamers with millions of followers!

As soon as they stream, they can instantly drive a large number of viewers to buy the game.

On the first day of the Ancient Style Game Development Competition, while the major studios were still battling it out, "mystical world: the rise of the weak" emerged as a dark horse with an irreversible trend!

However, after most players started playing, they all got stuck at the chase sequence.

No matter how they played, they couldn't escape the chase; even if they fled into the mountains, Duan Kong Cave Cultivators would directly drag them out and eliminate them.

If they chose to surrender, they would be tied up, offering no game experience.

At this point, many players expressed that this was a half-finished game, completely unplayable.

The major studios, who had been worried, all breathed a sigh of relief.

Especially Xue Sancha of Antarctic Studio, he sneered inwardly, mocking Jiang Feng for not knowing how to make games.

He waved his hand, ordering his studio to work overtime on an update, specifically emphasizing that players would absolutely not suffer and would have an unimpeded, invincible path.

Then, on the second day.

A bombshell video suddenly spread across the internet:

"Chased? Hammered? No game experience? That's because you don't know how to play!"

"Holy crap, what a big claim, who posted this?"

"It's a collaboration video, let me see… Old Potato, Midnight Gao Sou, Xiao Daidai, and Mage!"

"It seems they survived the chase!"

"Holy crap, really? How did they do it?"

As soon as this video was released, its viewership instantly skyrocketed.

Players who had been tormented by the chase sequence flocked to it.

"Hello everyone, I'm Gao Sou!"

The voice of Midnight Gao Sou was the first to appear.

"Today we're playing a game, yes, it's the new game 'mystical world: the rise of the weak'!"

The video screen changed, and soon the scene of Qinghe Town appeared.

Midnight Gao Sou, Old Potato, Xiao Daidai, and Mage were all standing together.

Next to them was the martial arts hall, empty of people.

"Alright, let's begin our escape now."

Mage was quite handsome, and when he spoke, he exuded an air of undeniable authority.

Midnight Gao Sou frowned, seemingly a bit resistant, but in the end, he only sighed, "What a sin!"

The audience was completely confused.

But they soon understood.

It turned out that Mage, emulating Watermelon Prince, gathered all the people from the town and similarly used the elderly, children, and women as threats to force the townspeople to comply.

Midnight Gao Sou, who always upheld the Dao and only acted when absolutely necessary, found this hard to accept but did not stop him.

"Didn't Watermelon Prince fail?"

Some viewers were puzzled.

The human wave tactic was ineffective against Cultivators; in just this short day, it had become a consensus among countless players.

"Hehe, do you think I'm going for a human wave tactic? Nonono, it's not like that."

Mage chuckled at the camera.

Although he didn't know what that Thunder Dragon was, its overwhelming suppressive power made it impossible for Mage to repeat Watermelon Prince's actions.

He forced the townspeople to walk towards the mountains, a dense crowd, as if they were going into the mountains to suppress bandits.

Mage looked at the camera and said, "I believe many players have already discovered that if you escape into the mountains alone, you will easily be caught and then killed without suspense."

"So… we have to muddy the waters!"

Mage confidently raised his head and waved his hand.

Everyone from the entire town followed them into the mountains. Mage and the other three changed their clothes and blended in with the crowd.

The video began to speed up.

The Duan Kong Cave pursuers indeed found them.

They were brutal; all the Mortals blocking their way were killed.

But these people, once in the mountains, fled frantically and quickly dispersed. It was difficult for the Qi Refining Realm Cultivators to find and kill all of them.

Thus, Mage and the other three successfully blended into the crowd and hid deep in the mountains.

Later, they captured someone to inquire and learned that the Cultivators had left, seemingly having other matters to attend to.

"Alright, the chase sequence is over! Jiang Feng is still a decent person; there's no endless chase. It seems similar to a certain urban crime game; as long as we hide successfully for a period, our bounty will be directly cleared."

"However, the four of us have decided to Cultivate in the mountains for a while longer, and only go out after reaching a higher Rank. This will be much more convenient."

Mage looked at the camera, bidding farewell to the audience.

The viewers who watched the video had various expressions.

"Aren't you even human?"

"Although Watermelon Prince was tyrannical, at least he was defending the city, which is morally justifiable. Forcing others into the mountains to die, isn't that going too far?"

"Is Mage even human?"

"What do you know? Wasn't ancient times like this? Were those at the bottom even considered people?"

"Exactly, they're just a bunch of Mortals, trash that Cultivators can instantly kill. Why consider them?"

Good heavens.

It was clearly a strategy-oriented video.

Yet, it sparked a huge moral debate.

In fact, every year during the Ancient Style Game Development Competition, similar big debates would occur.

After all, the goal of the competition was to make people reflect on the darkness of ancient times, so game designs often presented various ancient dilemmas, such as nine-clan extermination, wartime massacres, and so on.

But the wave triggered by Xuanhuan World this time was completely different from before.

In previous ancient style games, the moral dilemmas were always brought by important figures, like high-ranking emperors, generals leading hundreds of thousands of troops, or ministers governing a region, all of whom could mobilize vast human and material resources.

In Xuanhuan World, however, only one Cultivator was needed to force an entire town to its death!

The impact this brought was something other ancient style games could not deliver.

Because exterminating nine clans required political consideration, and massacring a city required considering morale, but a Cultivator forcing other Mortals had no qualms whatsoever; he was omnipotent.

This omnipotence shocked everyone, followed by an overwhelming war of words.

Some people believed that great power should come with great responsibility and should never be used to oppress ordinary people.

Others believed that with great power, one should be uninhibited; otherwise, wouldn't my Cultivation be for nothing?

There was also another faction, smaller in number and almost without a voice, who believed that oppressing these Mortals was not what Mage and the others wanted to do, but rather a last resort, because Mage and his group were being pursued by even stronger Cultivators.

Just as everyone was fiercely arguing.

A new panel suddenly appeared in the game.

"Everyone, look, the game has been updated!"

"This update is for the rankings!"

The players in the game had a thought.

Soon, a panel appeared.

"Player Cultivation Rank"