310: Kowloon coffin arrives at the station

Tian Chi Ling's body vanished into the giant pit, carried away by the wind.

The words of the state-stabilizing seal also dispersed into the surroundings, gradually fading into silence.

Ye Chun remained standing in place, unable to recover for a long time.

“...”

He was silent for a long time, then looked up at the sky, suddenly finding the sun a bit dazzling.

“Is this a game?”

Ye Chun raised his hand, feeling the warmth of the sunlight.

It was warm, making people feel peaceful.

And as time constantly changed, the angle and temperature of the sunlight changed with it, and the surrounding wind also changed incessantly.

Everything was so real.

Ye Chun had long been accustomed to this realism.

On today's Blue Star, “realism” was merely the most basic requirement for a game.

Just as in the past, the basic requirement for PC and console blockbusters was graphics; if the graphics were even slightly off, it would be considered a mini-game.

On today's Blue Star, all VR blockbusters achieve almost 99% realism in the five senses, with the remaining 1% being a disclaimer.

And with technological advancement, achieving the most realistic possible physical simulation in games is no longer a problem, even meteorological simulation is not a problem.

Real sunlight, real wind, real water... Professional players like Ye Chun, who spend far more time in games than in reality, had long been accustomed to this realism.

What allowed him to distinguish between “game realism” and “real-world realism” was the game's design philosophy.

What does this mean?

Let's give a few examples:

If there's a wall in front of you, entirely white, but with a gray section in the middle.

In reality, this could be due to fading, a construction error, or various other possibilities.

But in a game, this indicates a hidden area.

Ye Chun also relied on such “intuition” to find many Secret Realms in the Xuanhuan World, accumulating a lot of resources.

But now, he realized a very terrifying thing, something that the state-stabilizing seal had enlightened him to:

What if these hints in the Xuanhuan World were actually set up by the native Cultivators based on player habits?

As soon as he thought of this, cold sweat involuntarily streamed down Ye Chun's back.

One must know that the Cultivation Techniques and resources in the Xuanhuan World could all have hidden traps.

When Midnight Gao Sou achieved the Golden Core stage, he was easily suppressed and killed, even refined into a Golden Core great elixir by others, precisely because there was a problem with the Cultivation Technique he practiced.

Buddhist Cultivator, for example, could directly affect a player's Soul, rendering an entire account useless, not only making Breakthrough impossible but also forcing them to serve the converted for all eternity.

It was terrifying.

Ye Chun couldn't help but wonder how many of the Opportunities he had obtained in the past were set up by designers, and how many were set up by native Cultivators of the Xuanhuan World?

How many were clean and without hidden traps? How many had hidden traps left behind?

How much of his current cultivation was achieved through his own efforts? How much was he helped to Breakthrough by others?

What exactly was the gameplay of the Xuanhuan World?

Did this game really have “gameplay”?

Was his current gameplay... correct?

The more he thought, the more distorted Ye Chun's expression became, and cold sweat was already streaming down his forehead.

“Hoo...”

After a long while.

Ye Chun exhaled a turbid breath, forced himself to calm down, and turned to leave the area... The Golden Core battle concluded.

Let's set aside Golden Core Cultivators like Ye Chun, who were so disturbed by the state-stabilizing seal that they doubted life itself.

Discussions among players about Golden Core methods also gradually faded.

Recently, everyone was concerned about another matter:

The nine dragons coffin pull had arrived at its destination once again!

Not long ago, the Xuanhuan World collaborated with the Mount Tai scenic area, linking VR and AR, causing the nine dragons coffin pull to fall onto Mount Tai, carrying many players.

Some were even sucked into the ancient bronze coffin, making the truth of the Xuanhuan World even more perplexing; many people felt that the Xuanhuan World might truly exist.

Amidst various conspiracy theories, the nine dragons coffin pull arrived at its first stop after reaching Blue Star: Mars.

This was a planet that looked exactly like Mars, both in terms of its topography and celestial phenomena.

This made the realism theory of the Xuanhuan World even more compelling, and more and more people believed that the Xuanhuan World truly existed.

Until Ye Hei, Little Cabbage, and others left the ancient coffin and found a structure that clearly looked like it had been abandoned for a long time.

It was an ancient temple, now in ruins, with completely damaged brick walls, exposed pillars, and only a few remaining ceiling sections, containing many Buddhist statues.

Would a temple appear on Mars?

Of course not.

So, many people began to question the Xuanhuan World realism theory, thinking it was just a boring hype.

But some also argued that since the nine dragons coffin pull had appeared, wasn't it quite reasonable for a temple to appear on Mars?

Soon, as Ye Hei and others explored, they actually encountered crocodile-like creatures in the temple, both large and small, but regardless of their size, their appearance was very similar to Blue Star's crocodiles.

At this, everyone fell silent.

Was the Xuanhuan World inspired by reality, or were there really crocodiles on Mars?

No matter how you looked at it, the latter was too absurd; how could crocodiles survive in the Martian environment?

But some also questioned, believing that the crocodiles were not ordinary crocodiles, but Demonic Beasts, or even Yao Beasts, or possibly Spirit Beasts, in any case, they could survive on Mars.

These external public opinions rose and fell, never reaching a unified consensus.

Meanwhile, inside Mars.

These crocodiles displayed extreme aggression, constantly attacking Ye Hei and others, and their lethality was extremely high; flesh and blood simply couldn't withstand them, and many players were instantly killed by small crocodiles burrowing into their bodies if they weren't careful.

Facing a life-or-death crisis, Ye Hei and others had no choice but to dismantle the temple, picking up ancient Buddhist artifacts from within, and even tearing down the plaque to use as a shield, fighting and retreating from the crocodiles.

Finally, they left behind many player corpses, even players who were “truly embodying” were left behind.

Only then were Ye Hei and others able to return to the ancient coffin, finally leaving Mars and heading into the vast starry sky.

Now, the nine dragons coffin pull had arrived at its destination once again and stopped.

However, after the life-or-death crisis on Mars, everyone dared not open the coffin rashly, fearing the appearance of another terrifying enemy similar to the crocodiles.

Even Little Cabbage and This Time Bu Ge dared not be the first, only wanting to follow behind the crowd.

As everyone hesitated, the coffin lid opened automatically.

It was as if an external force was at play, completely exposing the entire coffin to the sunlight.

At this point, no matter how panicked they were inside, they had to face reality and step out of the coffin.

“Eh?”

Soon, the first player to step out of the coffin let out a surprised sound.

Because what he saw was not the red land of Mars, nor the desolate land of space he had imagined.

Instead, it was a lush green forest, with beautiful flowers and seemingly delicious fruits.

This place seemed to be... a safe place?