The developers still haven't forgiven the players.

Click!

shuh~

The tree, as thick as a bowl, shook violently, its leaves fluttering down, yet it remained steadfastly standing.

"I'm not playing anymore, chopping down trees is too tiring."

Shang Jun threw away the large rock in his hand and sat down on the ground with a thud.

Old Kuai wiped his sweat, then put his hands on his hips and panted heavily: "This job is really tiring."

It took nearly an hour to knock down two trees.

Fortunately, the game characters have strong basic physical abilities; even the kid could lift a 200-pound boulder to smash a tree. Otherwise, they would probably have had to give up on the idea of ​​chopping down the tree in the first place.

After all, such immersive virtual games mean that players have to do everything themselves, unlike in Minecraft where you can chop a tree into a block with your bare hands in a few strokes.

Once the initial excitement wears off, we have to face reality.

Old Kuai turned to ask, "I was thinking, how about we get some handy tools first? What do you think, Keyun?"

"I've told you so many times, call me by my full name!" But even when she left, she seemed a little impatient.

"I'm sorry everyone, I admit I was being presumptuous. This is an unprecedented game, and I shouldn't have brought my past gaming experiences into it."

Peng Zhi took the initiative to admit his mistake: "But since this game is made so realistically, it should conform to normal logic in all aspects."

He turned to look at the charred ruins: "Even a small village ravaged by war should have some things left behind in the ruins, right?"

Upon hearing this, the boy immediately perked up and rushed into the village without saying a word.

"Old Kuai, Keyun, let's go look for it. Maybe we can find some weapons, axes or something."

Peng Zhi chose a stone house near the village entrance and walked straight there.

Ke Yun was very unhappy, but couldn't find a reason to refute it, so she could only stubbornly insist: "Anyway, don't call me Ke Yun."

Old Kuai grinned and put his arm around Keyun's neck: "Alright, alright, I know, let's go, Keyun."

It is worth mentioning that these stone houses in the tribe were severely damaged, and it can be seen that many of them had already been forcibly demolished before being burned down.

Stone houses that managed to retain their architectural outlines also perfectly meet the criteria for dilapidated buildings.

At first glance, it looks like a cyberpunk landscape simply used to create a tragic atmosphere, which is why players didn't initially think of going in to scavenge for trash.

……

The stone house that Peng Zhi chose is located near the entrance of the village, and its structure is relatively well preserved.

The wooden door was almost completely carbonized. He just used a little more force, and the whole door collapsed, causing the roof beams above to sway slightly and make a creaking sound.

"Thankfully it didn't collapse."

Peng Zhi breathed a sigh of relief and stepped into the stone house.

The first thing that catches the eye is an animal skin hanging on the wall, its color suggesting it has been around for a long time.

There were also some stone jars piled up in the corner, but unfortunately they were all broken, and it was unclear what they were originally used to hold.

After scanning around, it could be estimated that the interior of the stone house was at most twenty square meters. Apart from the stove, bed and other necessary living areas, there was not much space left to move around, which meant that it would be difficult to hide anything in this house.

He planned to go to the next room and turned to leave, but suddenly his steps froze, and he turned back to stare intently at the animal skin hanging on the wall.

Why wasn't this animal hide burned?

In the games I've played before, interactive objects would glow to alert the player, but in this game...

As Peng Zhi thought this to himself, he reached out and took the animal hide off the wall.

"I must say, this is absolutely a groundbreaking game. Every detail is done perfectly, even the feel of rubbing animal hide with your fingertips is so realistic."

He sighed silently, turning the animal hide over to reveal a whole side of patterns: "They actually created an entire script? That seems a bit unnecessary, a thankless task."

I haven't finished complaining yet...

【Ding! 】

[Player has acquired the Yellow-level Military Manual "Tiger's Fury Technique". Do you wish to learn it? (Note: You can only level up after learning the military manual.)]

Seeing the pop-up notification, Peng Zhi's eyes widened: "Holy crap, how come there are prerequisites for leveling up in this game?"

……

Meanwhile, Sweetheart One-Strike Bull and his two companions were struggling to make their way deeper into the mountains.

Unable to find a road into the mountains, the three had no choice but to forge their way forward through thorns and brambles.

In addition, the vegetation in the mountains and forests was so dense that their movement was incredibly slow.

"Brother Dog, I suspect this game didn't even have time to create monsters, otherwise how come we haven't seen a single ghost after searching for so long?"

The surrounding environment was still so quiet, and the three of them were worried that they were doing something useless.

"It's not impossible, after all, the game has only just started testing."

Dog looked around and said, "When the official open beta launches, hundreds of thousands or even millions of players will flood in. With this monster density, even a small monster will probably be fought over by dozens of people."

"There is another possibility."

Sweetheart One-Strike Cow, walking at the front of the group, suddenly interjected: "That's because the game map is bigger than any of us could have imagined."

Before Dog could answer, Cow added in a leisurely tone.

"Dave Arnesen and Gary Gekkos designed a board game in 1974 called Dungeons & Dragons. One of the features in this game was named Hit Point by Arnesen, which is the precursor to the game we gamers know as HP."

From then on, combat in games incorporated more considerations of resource management and strategic choices. It can be said that this ingenious design laid the foundation for the role-playing game genre.

At this point, Brother Niu reached out and pulled away a thorny vine: "From Atari's many arcade games to Ozmar Wars, and then to Roguelike in 1980, many game designers tried to digitize the concept of HP. The first game with a health bar in the modern sense can be traced back to Dragon Slayer released by Namco in 1985."

"Brother Niu, how does what you're saying relate to what we're discussing now?"

He was completely bewildered, all he knew was that the Dragon Slayer Sword was given away with a click.

"In the history of video games, as machine performance has improved, the overall design direction of games has always been about adding features: adding mana bars, stamina bars, hunger bars..."

Even methods like Dead Space, which integrate UI elements such as health bars into the game's narrative, primarily aim to satisfy the need for immersion. However, this is far from sufficient because there is always a barrier between the player and the game. Therefore, there is an inherent conflict between immersion and ease of use.

Brother Niu stretched out one of his hands, and you could see several messy bloody scratches on his palm.

His tone gradually became fervent: "Aren't you moved? What we're playing now is a truly revolutionary game. Players can judge their level of injury and fatigue based on their physical sensations. I'm sure this game company has even hired medical professionals."

Dog Brother stared at him, somewhat stunned. He almost suspected that this guy might have some kind of masochistic tendency.

"I don't think a game developer like this would forget to build a wilderness ecosystem. At least so far, I haven't found any obvious flaws in this game. Everything is already very well done. It's like serving up a whole feast and then not giving us chopsticks? You know that's impossible."

"Excuse me for asking, Brother Niu, what do you do in real life?" Brother Gou didn't hide his surprise.

"I'm just like you, a test player of this game. I just worked as a game magazine editor for a few years."

Brother Niu glossed over the topic, clearly not intending to discuss it further: "So you two understand, right? I really, really want to try out this game's combat system right now..."

Before he could finish speaking, he was interrupted by a roar.

Old Qu and Dog Brother noticed the huge black shadow that appeared behind him almost at the same time, along with a nauseating stench.

Holy crap!

"Brother Niu, behind you!"

Brother Niu subconsciously turned his head and immediately felt his hands and feet turn ice cold. Even though he told himself that this was just a game, he couldn't hide the fear in his heart.

It was a dark red beast with all four limbs on the ground, resembling an enlarged version of a cheetah, but much more ferocious.

Its height is estimated to be over three meters, and its length, including its tail, is nearly ten meters.

The muscles bulging beneath the dark red fur leave no doubt that it possesses explosive power.

Brother Niu stood rooted to the spot, his heart filled with indescribable shock.

His lips twitched slightly: "Don't panic, we're in the early stages of the game, and the difficulty curve usually transitions very smoothly."

Dog asked blankly, "What if it's a Souls-like game where the opening is designed to discourage you from playing?"

"Wow, buddy, you even know about soul wandering?"

"Don't let my age fool you, my gaming experience isn't just about dealing 999 damage with a single hit."

Brother Niu gave him a thumbs up: "Don't worry, even a novice teacher at the beginning of Soul Journey can still find a way out as long as the operation is good enough."

The crimson cheetah seemed to be assessing the threat posed by the three, slowly approaching them, making the stench it emitted even stronger in the air.

Noticing the ferocious beast drawing ever closer, Dog's voice trembled involuntarily: "Bull, can we win?"

Brother Niu: "We will win."