Bizarre Voyage: Summoning The Fourth Crisis

Although a small number of players were still exploring, overall progress had temporarily ground to a halt.

However, player discussion about the content of the two dungeons hadn’t died down one bit.

”There isn’t much gear on this map. I wonder if that Tasolomo thing drops better equipment. Has anyone found any clues or leads?”

”Bros, I didn’t stick with Yina and went off to explore some other areas... To be honest, the Skeleton Forest map feels a bit empty, but damn, the art is so fucking good. It looks completely real.”

”No shit. Try eating a chunk of flesh from one of the Corpse Bone Trees. The taste is pretty damn realistic too. *picks nose*”

”...They poured resources into the art like money was no object. It’s insane. You can go basically anywhere on this map, no dead ends, just like real life. But for a game, that makes it feel a little barren.”

”Yeah, I spent hours searching every nook and cranny and didn’t find a single Treasure Chest. Did they have to make it so realistic? *sulks*”

”Treasure Chests? Have you already forgotten about the piles of smelly clothes in the chests on Exile Island? LMAO!”

”This game obviously leans toward realism. Gameplay and realism have always been two things you can’t have at once. It really just comes down to personal preference.”

”Well, I for one really like this realistic style of gameplay. It’s a virtual game, so this level of realism just makes it more immersive. I get a huge sense of accomplishment every time I kill a monster.”

”Same here!”

”I’m different. I just like watching the monsters gush blood, hehe!”

”I feel like the game’s maps are getting darker and darker. And with this level of immersion... they’re going to lose a lot of players if they keep this up.”

”That’s true. I’ve already seen a few newbs quit.”

”Let ’em quit. There aren’t many spots to begin with. Time to kick out the guys hogging the toilet without taking a shit and make some room for the people on the forums.”

”Chill out. The devs aren’t panicking, so why the hell are you? Besides, it’s just the closed beta.”

”Fair enough...”

The players chatted idly on the channel, and the atmosphere was quite pleasant.

As for the players’ discussion about the so-called ”realism”...

Luo Ge could only say one thing: ’Nice headcanon!’

It was a well-known fact that as long as you built the basic framework of a game, players would come up with their own reasonable explanations for anything they encountered.

This was the so-called principle of: ”Launch the game, and the players will justify your design for you!”

Luo Ge quite enjoyed watching the world chat channel.

Besides watching the players discuss dungeons and lore, he also got to see plenty of jokers posting memes or getting into passionate flame wars. It was highly entertaining.

And aside from Luo Ge, another group was also frequently active on the chat channel.

That, of course, was the fishing crew.

”These youngsters are really full of energy...” Sitting beside Brother Yu, Old Yan couldn’t help but smile as he watched the chat channel, a nostalgic look on his face. ”This reminds me of when we used to pull all-nighters playing games. We’d spend all day looking up guides online and never get tired, haha.”

At that, Brother Yu chuckled and teased, ”Aren’t you pulling an all-nighter right now?”

”...” Old Yan paused. ’Wait... he had a point!’

...

As the saying goes, it takes all kinds.

And as the player base continued to expand, all sorts of oddball players naturally began to appear.

And so, the players on Candle Island recently noticed a particularly eccentric individual.

A player with the ID ”Tie Chu” would log on at the same time every day, then silently begin his daily grind against the Fishman Coach.

His routine raised a lot of eyebrows among the other players.

One player, returning from Exile Island, saw this and just couldn’t take it anymore. He couldn’t help but walk over and strike up a conversation.

”Dude, you’re almost Level 20. Why aren’t you grinding levels on Exile Island?”

He remembered seeing this guy, Brother Tie Chu, when he had first started the game. Back then, he himself was still a newb.

Now, he had followed the guides, obtained the Resentment Ghost Giant Monster, cleared several dungeons, and gotten a whole new set of gear.

He had assumed Brother Tie Chu would be tackling dungeons by now, or at the very least, grinding levels in the Exile Island prison. He never expected to find Brother Tie Chu still here, getting all chummy with the Fishman Coach...

”Exile Island?” Hearing the question, Brother Tie Chu deftly dispatched a Fishman and scratched his head. ”I checked it out, but I couldn’t beat the Defender Captain. So I figured I’d grind a few more levels before trying again. These Fish People are easier to kill anyway.”

”...” The player couldn’t help but laugh. ”Bro, are you trying to become the Ten-Mile Slope Sword God or something?”

”Take my advice, bro. Go get the Giant Monster, then head to the prison to grind. If you keep hitting the Fishman Coach like this, you could grind all its scales off and your leveling speed still wouldn’t catch up to anyone else.”

”Look, even my Level is about to catch up to yours.”

”Even if you want to be a grinder, you’ve still gotta do it efficiently.”

Hearing his advice, Tie Chu smiled, scratched his head, and seemed lost in thought.

’The player had a point,’ he thought. ’Constantly grinding Fish People really was too inefficient.’

’Maybe it’s time to move on to a new spot?’

...

The Xiaojuncais were growing stronger every day.

And the ”tax” that Luo Ge collected was naturally increasing as well.

Before long, he would even have enough Wax Oil to upgrade the Spirit Candle’s Tier again.

The only problem was that to upgrade the Spirit Candle’s Tier again, he still needed to find the all-important ”Broken Core.”