I summoned the Fourth Scourge in Warhammer

Chapter 12 The Concept of Players

Just as everyone was pondering the issue of offline security, Ruan Wenbo couldn't help but interject, "Um... Bit's planner, could you give our characters a simple AI after we log off? After all, everyone has things to do in real life. If you go out for a meal and come back to find that the character you've worked so hard to level up is gone, that would be too frustrating. Looking at the game's backstory, it seems there's no absolutely safe place to log off on Peditia right now..."

Ruan Wenbo's words prompted Bit to think.

In an instant, His thoughts no longer focused on the tiny player souls before Him, but drifted to a deeper level, landing on the first weapon He had created with His own hands—[Aliens Must Die].

In fact, it was never a simple, finely crafted chainsaw sword. It was Bit, the god of information, making its first attempt to use its power for aggressive creation.

That chainsaw sword was essentially a conceptual weapon.

Its destructive power doesn't stem from common applied physics or biology principles—such as the rotational speed of the saw teeth, the hardness of the material, or the efficiency of tearing flesh. The reason it can so easily cut through cultists who have abandoned their humanity is because, from the moment of its creation, it was endowed with the core concept of "causing immense harm to non-human beings." The chainsaw sword is merely a manifestation of this concept in the material world.

However, even Bit himself hadn't anticipated that after Ruan Wenbo used the sword, a vague consciousness would naturally emerge. This consciousness was inherently filled with hatred and a bloodlust for the aliens, and this pure will, in turn, further amplified the already powerful "concept." The Church of the Machine God might simply categorize it as a "machine soul," but Bit, who understood its essence, clearly wouldn't think so.

A bold idea flashed through Bit's mind.

What if he tried to give these players a core concept? For example, the concept of "player" itself.

No. Bit's thoughts deepened instantly. This concept didn't need to be conjured up by him; the moment he made the decision to "summon players," the instant these otherworldly souls responded to the summons and descended here, the entirely new concept of "player" was already born. Perhaps a blurry reflection of a "player" already existed in the projection of the subspace, though he had never noticed it before…

Concept... Concept...

What began as a spur-of-the-moment act gave him a completely new and revolutionary understanding of his power as the God of Information. Bit was increasingly grateful for his decision to summon the player. Had he continued to wander aimlessly in that boundless warp, he probably wouldn't have experienced such a precious burst of inspiration even in ten thousand years.

Bit naturally harbored no ill will towards these players who had inadvertently provided significant inspiration for his research. He brought his thoughts back to the present, and facing the expectant gazes of the crowd, he replied, "This is not a simple task, and I cannot give you a definite answer right now."

After truly realizing what he was doing, Bit decided to proceed with extreme caution. This was by no means a simple matter of attaching an AI script to the body of every offline player; it involved defining and shaping a new concept, and the consequences of any misstep were unpredictable.

Upon hearing this vague answer, the players' faces showed disappointment. It seems that logging off will require more careful planning in the future. Perhaps the best solution is to form a fixed team, taking turns logging on to keep watch and taking turns logging off to rest.

As a result, the game's appeal to casual and moderate players with irregular playtime has undoubtedly decreased once again.

Just as Bit and the players were having this cross-dimensional Q&A, on a distant Earth, the atmosphere in a chat group called "Soft Doctor's Direct Radio Station" was somewhat strange.

[Slacking Off Pioneer]: "Strange, why hasn't Brother Bo said anything all day? Has he been lurking all day?" [Did You Update Today?]: "Yeah, he's usually out chatting a lot at this time, but today he's as quiet as a fake account."

[I will always love Brother Bo]: "I can understand that he hasn't updated his videos, since urging him to update won't help. But not posting in the group for a whole day is definitely not normal! I went through all his social media platforms, and the last post was yesterday's 'I won a closed beta test for that new Warhammer game, going to try it out. Is that game that fun?"

The fans in the group were buzzing with discussion. For Ruan Wenbo, a gaming content creator known for his approachable nature and high level of interaction, not updating a video for a day is normal, but not saying a word in the core fan group for a day is practically an anomaly.

Meanwhile, Ruan Wenbo himself, who had been the subject of much discussion among fans, finally felt that sense of detachment return after the Q&A session ended. The bizarre and fantastical scene before his eyes quickly faded, and his consciousness plummeted like a kite with a broken string, eventually settling back into his familiar body.

"Click."

The game pod's door opened automatically, letting in soft indoor light. Ruan Wenbo slowly sat up and climbed out of the game pod.

The moment his feet touched the ground, a strong, strange sensation swept over his entire body.

My limbs... are so weak.

He tried taking a couple of steps, feeling as if he were carrying a hundred-pound burden, each step heavy and sluggish. He took a deep breath, but his chest felt like a broken bellows, his lungs working at a pitifully low efficiency, far less relaxed and free than in the "game".

He quickly realized that this was a side effect of the game being too realistic.

Although an ordinary Astragalus soldier is insignificant in the brutal Warhammer universe, a mere cannon fodder, his rigorously trained physical abilities make him an all-around superhuman compared to this typical 21st-century, untrained "lazybones." Having grown accustomed to the strength and endurance of that body, returning to his own was a stark contrast that left him struggling to adjust for a time.

"Wow... this game is amazing." Ruan Wenbo exclaimed again at the extreme realism, but then he didn't forget his job as a game content creator.

He shook his head, forcing himself to adjust to his "weak" body, and quickly went to his desk and turned on the computer.

The short three days he spent on the planet Pedidia provided him with an unprecedented, almost overflowing, source of inspiration for video production. From the intimidating atmosphere of the hive city that immediately put them in their place, to the bloody battle against the cultists for the first time, and the conversation with the planner "Bit," every segment was epic material.

He had to immediately record these inspirations and memories and compile them into a manuscript.

Ruan Wenbo had an incredibly strong premonition that the video he was about to produce would definitely go viral on the internet!
(End of this chapter)