316: Is there really a place for professional players in the fantasy world?

Jin Cui, Sect Leader of He Shui Sect saw Ye Chun standing silently, knowing he hadn't let go of his knot, and couldn't help but sigh.

The state-stabilizing seal is truly a clever method.

"Ye Chun, you're not just bothered by being schemed against, are you? You scheme against me, I scheme against you—in the Xuanhuan World, or your world, isn't this common?"

"How can anyone have their Dao Heart collapse and stop progressing just because they were schemed against?"

"I've heard about your world; from a young age, you study, take exams—elementary school, middle school, university—then work, marry, and have children."

"Life is so methodical. If you look at it from a different perspective, aren't you also being schemed against and orchestrated by the so-called 'modern society'?"

"But even under such schemes, different people still lead different wonderful lives. Even if they attend the same school, the same class, different people experience everything differently."

"How could everything be schemed? How could everything be controlled? People have too many choices. If you were to rush directly at the state-stabilizing seal now, regardless of everything, or even issue a bounty in your world to rally players to besiege the state-stabilizing seal, how could he have predicted it?"

"You should know this principle, so what exactly are you afraid of?"

Hearing these words, Ye Chun not only felt no relief, but became even more uneasy.

He looked at Jin Cui, Sect Leader of He Shui Sect, his eyes filled with deep unease:

"You're lecturing me, you're educating me, you're talking to me about life's great principles."

Jin Cui, Sect Leader of He Shui Sect was surprised: "I am your teacher, your Master, can I not educate you?"

Ye Chun suddenly laughed: "But you're a game NPC! This is a game!"

Jin Cui, Sect Leader of He Shui Sect frowned: "So what? Even if this really is a game, and we really are game NPCs, can't we lecture?"

"I've specifically inquired, and there's never been a rule that games can't lecture. In fact, many of your games have educational significance, even pure text-based games, where players gain insights into life's principles from the story."

The smile on Ye Chun's face was somewhat distorted. He looked at Jin Cui, Sect Leader of He Shui Sect's puzzled eyes and said, somewhat distraught:

"Since you've asked other players, you should know that games are categorized, right?"

"In story-driven games, players enjoy the immersion brought by the visuals and music, they enjoy the storyline, and are even willing to accept the lectures hidden by the designers within the game."

"In skill-based games, the important thing is human-computer interaction, from ancient pinball games to last century's button-mashing games, and even most current VR combat games, the focus is on the player's operation, not the story."

"The point isn't whether you lecture or not, or whether games are allowed to lecture, but rather—games are categorized, and different games have different audiences and different ways of playing."

Jin Cui, Sect Leader of He Shui Sect was, after all, just a native Cultivator, not a true Blue Star person, so he couldn't quite understand what Ye Chun was thinking.

He only knew that Ye Chun was very agitated right now, and his Dao Heart was on the verge of shattering, which was extremely dangerous.

"Speak slowly, don't rush."

Ye Chun's speaking speed, however, remained extremely fast:

"For example, you are now a professional e-sports player, and the game you love is a 5V5 competitive game. You spend more than ten hours every day practicing game skills."

"You're practicing how to accurately kill minions to earn gold, how to correctly grasp leveling times to achieve an advantage, how to judge if enemies are ambushing based on their movement..."

"After practicing so many game skills that you deem necessary, you enter a match."

"You're more focused than ever, performing better than ever, but suddenly, you find that the opponent's equipment and Rank are all better than yours, because they somehow triggered a setting that guaranteed gold at fixed intervals."

"Even without this gold income, you suddenly realize that even if you don't use your full power, just by choosing the correct build, you can achieve a winning streak."

"At this moment, you suddenly understand that all your practice has been manipulated by the designers."

"Were your past glorious victories due to your skill? Or was it because the current version was unbalanced, and you just happened to use a powerful build?"

"How much of your effort was truly meaningful? And how much was merely being toyed with by game data and mechanics?"

Jin Cui, Sect Leader of He Shui Sect thought for a moment; he probably understood what Ye Chun was saying:

"I understand. Let me give you an analogy: you mean you're a talented scholar who studied from a young age, hoping to pass the imperial examinations. On the day you topped the imperial examination, you suddenly discovered that the reason you became the top scholar wasn't because of your exceptional talent."

"It was merely because your Physique was special, and you could be used by the emperor for Alchemy."

This analogy was somewhat bizarre, but it was inexplicably similar to what Ye Chun wanted to convey.

The reason Ye Chun was so troubled, to the point of his Dao Heart collapsing, was because he had a complete "professional gamer" mindset.

When he entered a game, he had to strive for first place, he had to find the optimal solution for the game, he had to find a path to the Peak.

Subconsciously, he overlooked that he was actually constantly progressing on a path set by the designers, always competing for first place within the fixed framework of the game—this is what almost all professional players do.

Comparing reactions, strategies, tactics... everything was within the game's framework, everything was limited by the game's design philosophy and values.

Professional players like Ye Chun were accustomed to striving within a framework, accustomed to frameworks with various established standards, to the point of subconsciously overlooking: games are designed by people.

But now he discovered that the Xuanhuan World was not right.

The Xuanhuan World actually conveyed a concept to players through various bizarre mechanisms: there is no design here, everything is free.

At this point, being pulled back to a terrifying reality, knowing that the Xuanhuan World had no fixed gameplay, no optimal route left by designers, Ye Chun was completely lost.

He knew that the Xuanhuan World was not a traditional game, nor was it a competitive game where a winner and loser could be determined; it was a second life.

He couldn't find a definite "gameplay," nor could he find an optimal solution within the gameplay.

This was the reason for his confusion.

It was an issue that ordinary game players wouldn't care about, that casual players who don't play games wouldn't care about, but only high-level players, and even professional players, would care about.

This was a very strange, very personal, and arguably somewhat overly sensitive issue.

But the establishment and collapse of the Dao Heart are like this: very personal, and very baffling to outsiders.

One could say Ye Chun was overthinking, but he had to find his own way out.

Jin Cui, Sect Leader of He Shui Sect thought for a moment and said:

"How about this: don't focus on Cultivation for now. Go wander around the Immortal Dynasty, look at other players, especially those ordinary, low-level players, and see how they 'play the game.' How does that sound?"