The virtual empire starts from the game

Chapter 687 Want to be a Druid? Then get grinding!
One week after Animal Kingdom's release, players worldwide have already realized:
This game has a completely different feel from previous dream-building games.

It's not just about building dreams; the entire game content of the virtual world is very different.

Thrilling battles, intense conflicts, grand scenes, frequent deaths and resurrections, complex character narratives, and rewards brimming with positive feedback...

None of these...

This game lets you transform into all sorts of small animals and embark on a long migration across a vast land.

Of course, there are also many tense and exciting plots, such as playing a battle royale during an earthquake, cooperating to cross treacherous terrain, riding wild horses across the wilderness, and dealing with avalanches, quicksand, extreme cold, and hunters...

But the overall pace is actually quite relaxed.

Most of their time is spent wandering in the wilderness, searching for food, building nests, huddling together for warmth, and reproducing...

By the time the trip reached its second half, everyone was completely immersed in this peculiar atmosphere.

As people migrated silently, fewer and fewer people spoke in the chat channels.

Everyone finally understood why Xiaomeng restricted everyone's speech in the game.

Because language was not really necessary in this migration.

Not only is it unnecessary, it can also negatively impact the game's immersion.

The remarkable psychological state of those tiny, fragile lives huddling together for warmth and migrating for survival in the vast天地 (heaven and earth) is truly rare.

It allows one to feel the grandeur of the universe and the insignificance of the individual, while also overcoming difficulties and persevering through cooperation, experiencing the power of the small to contend with the large, and gaining the confidence to keep going.

This wonderful feeling came when everyone crossed the last hill and saw the endless green meadow, reaching the highest peak!

The cold had been left far behind them.

Their fur inevitably bears many obvious scars, and some have even died and been reborn several times.

—For example, Yao Yao, who is next to Xiao Meng, looks the same as when she first set off, but in fact she is the seventh-generation granddaughter of the original little white weasel.

Under this resurrection mechanism, a large number of players arrive here as family units.

When they stood on the hill and looked down, they were all accompanied by their children. Some of the luckier ones even had more than a dozen cubs with them, timidly following their mothers and fathers.

They looked somewhat frightened, yet filled with hope as they gazed at the green waves rippling in the breeze.

of course there are exceptions.

Xiaomeng was surrounded by a circle of small animals of different species: lynxes, Pallas's cats, roe deer, koalas, bobcats... you name it.

In the past few days, she has become the leader of the group of kids, and the little animals around her have become exceptionally bold.

Unlike the players who were moved by the scenery and overwhelmed with emotions, Xiaomeng didn't have as many feelings.

"Meow~~~"

She raised her little paws towards the sky, meowed, and led the way down the hill.

The little ones following her immediately started yelling and chasing after her.

But they were only born recently, so they were small and weak. Even though the hillside was very gentle, they couldn't run steadily. After a few steps, their legs gave way and they lost their balance, rolling around on the hillside.

Fortunately, this is a carefree meadow, with soft soil and layers of green grass underneath, so there's no need to worry about getting hurt.

Xiaomeng was running in the lead, but she hadn't gone far when she saw a pure white little fox whimpering and rolling down from behind her, like a snowball rolling past her.

Next was a squirrel, then a serval...

"Meow?" Xiao Meng turned around in surprise and found that the animal cubs, like fluffy balls of different colors, were rolling down the grassy hill.

And it keeps rolling faster and faster!

Xiao Meng paused for a moment, then pounced forward without hesitation, curling into a ball in mid-air and rolling on the grass!

At the top of the hill, the players saw the huge pile of little furballs rolling down the hill, and they snapped out of their reverie and rushed down the hill with a roar.

The cubs beside them immediately followed their parents and ran down.

But after running only a few steps, he lost his balance and began to roll uncontrollably.

Not only them, but the players also didn't consciously control their speed. They ran faster and faster, and soon they all lost their balance and started rolling downhill, falling flat on their backs.

But no one was afraid.

Instead, they were all incredibly excited, laughing heartily as they celebrated their success, even though they were dizzy from the fall.

At the same time, lines of text appeared before their eyes—

Congratulations! You have successfully survived this deadly crisis.

Because of your efforts, life continues.

[An incredible feat has been accomplished! Now, it's time to enjoy a peaceful life.]

Free Mode is now unlocked.

[Build mode is now unlocked]

[Multiple playthroughs unlocked]

[You have received a special reward: Animal Transformation]

……

The players were still rolling around on the soft grass, their perspective spinning, and many couldn't even see what the system prompts were saying.

However, on a hill further away, another group of players, without someone like Xiaomeng leading the way, slowly walked down the hill with a sigh of relief, and thus had a clearer view.

In the group, a groundhog suddenly stopped and looked carefully at the system notification:
[You have received a special reward: Animal Transformation (Marmot)]

(Note 1: This transformation ability can be taken out of "Animal Kingdom" and used in most scenarios in the virtual world.)
(Note 2: Since you used a marmot to complete the migration, you have only unlocked the ability to transform into a marmot. To unlock other animal transformation abilities, please transform into other animals and complete a migration.)
This groundhog belongs to Yu Liyan, the producer of "The Craftsman's Tale".

His mood is very complicated.

Like many game developers, when he came to try out Animal Kingdom, he harbored a purpose he couldn't openly admit:

I want to understand how Xiaomeng, the only strong AI, views games, how she makes games, and to what extent she can achieve this.

Just like when large-scale artificial intelligence models first emerged, they shattered the livelihoods of a large number of designers, graphic artists, translators, and copywriters worldwide.

It's hard for them not to worry that one day their jobs will be taken away by artificial intelligence.

Now that he has completed this migration, he has mixed feelings.

Clearly, Animal Kingdom's creative approach is very different from most current games—not only from "blockbuster" games made by large teams, but also from "indie games" made by small development teams.

He found it difficult to describe the feeling.

This game uses very few core elements and gameplay mechanics, but calling it minimalist isn't quite accurate.

The richness of the terrain, scenery, events, and animal species makes calling it minimalist an exaggeration; it could even be described as luxurious—extremely abundant in materials, but disposable after use, with an absurdly extravagant scale.

Ironically, at the end of the entire migration, everyone's deepest feeling was neither about the scenery nor the crisis, but about their own inner feelings.

From the initial bustle, to the gradual quiet and silence during the migration, and then to the renewed vitality after the migration was completed.

Even though he approached the trip with a constant sense of scrutiny and analysis, he felt that his heart and spirit had been cleansed—or rather, healed.

The immense pressure and profound exhaustion from working overtime were greatly relieved. Players who were completely absorbed in the game without any distractions felt this even more deeply.

This caused him to inwardly lament as others cheered their way down the mountain:
"Shouldn't this be the work of human artists?"

"How did artificial intelligence steal the thunder?"

"Xiao Meng... is too strong!"

"It can not only understand the mind and human nature, but even understand them more thoroughly and subtly than humans, to the point that it can influence the player's mind through games..."

"This has far exceeded the scope of artificial intelligence, hasn't it?"

The groundhog sighed deeply, feeling that it was one step closer to losing its job.

But soon, he cheered himself up: at least for now, Xiaomeng is still unique, and Xu Meng has no idea of ​​creating more super intelligence.

As for the intelligent assistance that comes with the [Genesis] engine, it's not even in the same league as Xiaomeng.

While it's useful, it's only slightly better than the large AI models on the market; it can only assist developers in their work, not replace them.

After confirming that the save point had been moved to Worry-Free Meadow, he quickly logged off and explained the situation to the development team members.

—The [Global Developer Creative Competition] is about to enter the testing phase, and they are working almost day and night to meet the deadline.

At this critical juncture, they couldn't find the time to play "Animal Kingdom" together, so they could only send Yu Liyan, the leader.

After hearing Yu Liyan's thoughts, everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

However, Yu Liyan immediately added, "But we can't be complacent either. Nobody can say for sure what the future holds."

"We must seize the opportunity of the creative competition and strive to make a splash. Even if it doesn't become a huge hit, it should at least become a minor hit and gain enough recognition among players worldwide."

"As long as players remember us, we won't be eliminated even if AI-made games become mainstream in the future!"

So... let's keep fighting, brothers!

The team members certainly understood this principle.

In the game development industry, having a representative work and not having one are completely different concepts.

They quickly returned to their work with a sense of urgency.

The testing will begin in one week.

Time waits not for us!
-
In the game, after cheering and rolling down the hill, the players pounced on each other and rolled around for a while before calming down and starting to seriously read the system prompts.

The first surprise for everyone came from [Free Mode].

This mode finally liberates everyone's language abilities, allowing them to freely switch to human language!
Xiaomeng forbade communication in human language during the migration to create a festive atmosphere. Now that the migration is over, all that's left is time for celebration, so there's no need to restrict it anymore.

"Yay!!!" a hedgehog cheered excitedly.

"Finally, it can speak human language, haha!" The elephant flapped its ears and jumped around happily.

Below the hill, the animals switched languages ​​and cheered loudly.

Soon, everyone started exchanging ideas:
"【Building Mode】? Do we have to build our own homes? But there's only grass here. Okay, there seem to be some trees over there, but that's not enough to build a house, is it?" A leopard asked, puzzled.

“What a load of crap! Do we have anything to cut down trees and trim wood? We can’t just bite it with our teeth, can we?” a beaver retorted.

"I get it! We can dig a hole!" the mole girl suggested.

"Still living in the cave? You can live there if you want, I'm not going to." The penguin shook its head in protest.

"Forget about it. It's neither cold nor hot here, so why bother building a house? I'll just lie down on the ground." The koala simply lay down and gave up.

"Any house will do. Anyone want to do a second playthrough? In the second playthrough, you can choose your own animals and form a party. I want to transform into a lion!"

"Together! I'll be the leopard!"

"Wait a minute, why are there seals on this list? Can seals even make it this far???"

"My goodness, there are 100 different animals to choose from here? If I unlock one per trip, it'll take two years to complete the entire collection and become a Druid???"

"My liver is starting to hurt!"

"Haha, what's with the alpaca? I want this! Go go go!"

……

The players, who had originally been sticking together, gradually dispersed as they discussed and got busy with their own things.

Of course, they didn't completely disperse and go their separate ways.

Especially for players who have a bunch of kids to take care of, they are reluctant to start a second playthrough without settling them down properly.

They began working together to try and establish a permanent settlement along the river.

While they were busy, the players of Leziren also sprang into action—

New players were confused. They had just finished the tutorial and stepped off the bridge when they saw a dense swarm of alpacas rushing past them.

They looked like they were in a real hurry, running non-stop.

But while running wildly, they kept spitting at each other.

New players were completely bewildered.

I searched online and found out what happened.

Some new players were even misled and immediately jumped into the river to commit suicide, choosing to reroll their race in an attempt to join the main group—or directly obtain their desired transformation form.

As for those lucky players who randomly get their preferred form on their first migration, they can't wait to run off to other places to show off.

Its first choice, of course, is Mansheng City!
Overnight, the city of Mangsheng was transformed into a city of mad animals!

The streets are full of all kinds of animals:

A lion strolls on the sidewalk, a monkey peels a banana on a balcony, a zebra crosses the zebra crossing, and a brown bear bathes in a fountain...

A gorilla performs a chest-breaking stunt in the square, while a cat sells cat poop coffee at a roadside stall.

The alpacas begged by the roadside, spitting furiously at anyone who didn't give them money...

All sorts of animals deliberately crowd into crowded places, causing a bunch of strange and bizarre things that leave players and NPCs bewildered.

The entire city became even more lively with the arrival of these large numbers of animals.

But that's just the beginning.

Players soon discovered that this transformation ability wasn't just for fun; it had a multitude of other applications!
For example, infiltration, stalking, theft...

And those that will never be ignored—

fighting!

Almost three days after the main player base completed their migration, the fortress city of Norringan was riddled with holes.

Before the NPC army launched its all-out attack on the inner city, the cat army had already sneaked into the inner city and found out the location of the NPC leaders and the deployment of the army!
On the eve of the great battle, some members of the Cat Special Forces had even infiltrated the palace and the army.

While the royal family and nobles were devising defense plans, these players lay on the edge of the map, silently grooming themselves...

Faced with such an absolute information gap, the outcome of the battle was no longer in doubt!
(End of this chapter)