Why the bug I wrote became a core gameplay mechanic?!
Chapter 628 - 611: The Minor Test to Enter the Sect

Chapter 628: Chapter 611: The Minor Test to Enter the Sect

Originally, killing monsters could increase attributes like physique and spirit. Although it didn’t increase much, there were clear values, and changes could be seen over time.

But after the organs shriveled, not only did the values stop increasing, they even gradually decreased.

Upon discovering this, Chen Tingquan was shocked and quickly made his character gobble up the hunted beast meat.

Afterward, he found that eating meat seemed to create a positive cycle: when full, the cultivation speed could slightly increase; and as the physique attribute improved, the maximum amount of meat one could eat would also increase.

In short, this aligned perfectly with the old saying, "Three parts training and seven parts eating."

Initially, Chen Tingquan hunted some beast meat and stored it in his bag, feeling that he had an abundant supply of food. However, after realizing this, whenever his character felt a bit hungry, he ate, and eventually risked running out of food.

He had to go to the village to ask about areas where wild beasts frequently appeared in large numbers to continue hunting.

Sometimes, when it was urgent, he had no choice but to spend money to buy meat from the village.

"Isn’t the cultivation speed a bit too slow?

"I’m constantly hunting and gathering beast meat just to barely keep my character from starving, but I can’t really stockpile much in the way of resources."

As he continued playing, Chen Tingquan felt something was off and began to vent his frustrations to his viewers.

Unexpectedly, the audience found it amusing.

"Can’t eat full but won’t starve? You must be talking about the game, right?"

"Isn’t this a very reasonable setting? Cultivation is indeed against the heavens; just look at the name of this game!"

"It’s rich literature and martial arts. It means only the rich can practice martial arts; you need to be a super tycoon to cultivate. After all, even a single Elixir Pill from an Immortal is something that would bankrupt a wealthy merchant in the Human World."

"Who told you to choose a villager? I saw Little Ding went for a USD 648 top-up and became an Inner Sect Disciple of a Great Sect, getting all kinds of Elixir Pills daily, his cultivation speed totally crushing yours."

"Hahaha, is this game really that realistic? Well, it’s definitely not for someone broke like me."

Seeing the barrage of comments, Chen Tingquan also found it absurd.

What? Instructor Ding just went for a USD 648 top-up and already started serious cultivation?

I’m not even in the door yet! Do free players have no rights whatsoever?

He paused the game and sneakily watched Instructor Ding’s livestream for a while.

It’s scary when people are compared to one another. In comparison, it felt like Chen Tingquan and Instructor Ding were playing entirely different games.

For Chen Tingquan to cultivate, he could only rely on hunting and eating meat, which improved very slowly. It only ensured his character wouldn’t starve, not causing major setbacks in cultivation, but the progress was negligible.

After a lot of hard work, the cultivation progress hadn’t increased significantly.

Meanwhile, for Instructor Ding? He directly entered a Great Sect, didn’t need to hunt at all because the sect provided benefits, regularly receiving Elixir Pills, and even his attributes would soar just by being idle.

Comparing the attributes of their characters, Chen Tingquan almost thought his character was missing a digit.

And this was just the beginning; as time went by, the gap between them would only grow wider, never to be bridged.

"I can accept that pay-to-win players get more rewards, but I can’t accept that free players don’t even get a chance to join a sect for cultivation!

"At least let me join a Small Sect?" Chen Tingquan complained.

The barrage of comments replied: "Joining a Small Sect requires a USD 198 top-up."

Chen Tingquan was speechless: "I was wrong. Nitiandang really is defying fate. Can I just top up now, please?"

However, after looking for a while, there was no charging interface.

"Wait a minute, didn’t I see a dedicated charging interface on Instructor Ding’s side?"

Chen Tingquan scratched his head, puzzled.

On Instructor Ding’s side, there was a very eye-catching recharge button on the main page, with flashing effects, opening up to various Elixir Pill combo packs.

On Chen Tingquan’s side? There was no such button at all.

"So even free players don’t have the right to recharge? Is this normal! Nitiandang! I want to report this game has a bug!"

Luckily, just when Chen Tingquan was considering whether to delete his account and start over, a turning point appeared.

For some reason, a special storyline was triggered, and an Immortal descended from the sky, saying he wanted to take him into the sect and lead him on the path of cultivation.

This Immortal looked very "Immortal-like."

He was an old man with a white beard, exuding an ethereal air, most importantly, completely without any bloated dead muscle, looking lean and otherworldly, perfectly matching Chen Tingquan’s impression of Immortal aesthetics.

A screen appeared with options: one was to become a disciple and join the sect with the Immortal, the other was to refuse.

There was also a prompt on the screen stating this was a major point that would affect the game’s storyline and should be chosen carefully.

"What is there to think about? Of course, join.

"It seems Nitiandang isn’t so defying after all, there indeed is a way out for free players.

"As long as I can join a sect, at least cultivation is on the right track, not relying daily on eating beast meat like some hunter."

This was practically a free pass, as Chen Tingquan had realized that even the worst sect was better than having no sect at all.

Because even a lousy sect would provide some basic mental methods and Elixir Pills, which are way better than beast meat.

If he didn’t join now, who knows when the next disciple recruitment storyline would trigger. If relying solely on eating beast meat for cultivation every day, he would never catch up to even a strand of hair of an Inner Sect Disciple of a Great Sect in his lifetime.

Better join a sect first, shore up the basics, and then slowly climb upward.

"Good disciple, follow me, then!"

The Immortal waved his hand and took Chen Tingquan soaring on a flying sword, as the scenery below quickly receded.

Shortly after, the flying sword descended at the foot of a small mountain.

"Oh? There’s a sect so close to where I live? Had I known, I could have walked here myself.

"But it might also be that the flying sword was so fast it misled me about the distance."

Chen Tingquan thought they would fly for a long time because, from his private explorations, the game map felt exceedingly vast and empty, with villages far apart, let alone truly powerful cultivation sects, which should be even rarer.

However, he didn’t think much of it, after all, not every aspect of this game would be realistically detailed, so having a Small Sect nearby wasn’t that outrageous.

"Cultivation is the path against the heavens, first enduring trials of the mind, fatigue of the body, hunger of the flesh, and deprivation, to then defy fate and comprehend the Great Dao.

"This is the small trial I set for you.

"In this mountain lies a spirit mine, containing only low-grade Spirit Stones, but it’s still of significant help to your cultivation.

"You shall join other disciples to mine Spirit Stones here, handing over fifty percent to the sect, you may keep the other fifty percent."

The screen showed options:

One was: Fifty percent to the sect? That’s too much!

Another was: I can keep fifty percent? Thank you, Master!

Clearly, for the same situation, different people interpret it differently.

Chen Tingquan didn’t think too much and chose the first option.

The Spirit Stones he worked hard to mine, and he had to hand over half? This is treating us like slaves!

The Immortal old man coughed lightly, "Insolent disciple! What are you saying?

"These Spirit Stones handed to the sect will be converted into necessary cultivation resources like Elixir Pills, spirit beast meat, Magic Artifacts, and Magic Weapons, ultimately returned to the disciples."

Chen Tingquan realized, "Oh, is that so? Then this sect is quite conscientious."

He then stopped fretting and proceeded to mine.

Inside, there were many other NPCs, looking similar to him, all wearing ragged villager clothes, working diligently.

"Are these all my fellow disciples? Everyone’s working so hard, I must not fall behind."

If hunting earlier was a little hunting minigame, then this was like a mining minigame.

This mine was extensive, stretching into the mountain; the mining method was somewhat like some construction games, where digging into the earth randomly produced dirt, stones, and minerals, and only in rare cases, Spirit Stones.

Outside, NPCs wearing Outer Sect Disciple outfits supervised and occasionally shouted, sometimes encouraging and other times mocking, all aiming to motivate the novice disciples to work harder.

Every so often, there was a rotation to eat, but the problem was the quality of meals varied; some were free, some bought with money earned from selling non-Spirit Stone minerals, and some required Spirit Stones to eat.

Different meals, of course, varied in energy restoration.

After digging for a while, Chen Tingquan vaguely felt something was off.

"My luck is terrible, lots of random minerals but not many Spirit Stones! Plus, the free meals aren’t enough; if this goes on, forget cultivation, my stats will even regress.

"I need to eat more.

"Forget it, better buy the slightly pricier meals."

If a player wasn’t so attentive, they might not even notice their stats declining slowly, since it wasn’t noticeably obvious, and they wouldn’t constantly check the stats panel.

Chen Tingquan was sharp, and noticed early.

The game’s character consumption was intense, resembling muscle gain in fitness, needing plenty of good food first for attribute advancements to occur.

Free food only prevented starvation, but stats consistently declined.

Chen Tingquan didn’t know what would happen at the lowest levels, whether it’d lead to death or stabilize at the lowest, but either way, all the attributes he painstakingly built up through eating meat would be wasted, which was utterly unacceptable.

Though buying better food cost money, it was after all earned from mining, and spent on his cultivation, and he could still save a little—certainly the most reasonable choice he could think of at present.

The more expensive meals requiring Spirit Stones to purchase were a bit impractical, as whether he could mine enough Spirit Stones depended on luck.

Chen Tingquan buried himself in hard work for another ten minutes.

During this time, he mined quite a bit of ore and Spirit Stones, but after turning in half, and buying plenty of food to maintain his body, not much was saved.

But gradually, he began to feel more uneasy about the situation.

"This mining is at best a minigame, five minutes of play should suffice, right? Why am I still mining after more than ten minutes?

"They said it was a trial, that upon completion, I’d be accepted into the sect. When would this so-called trial end?

"There’s not even a countdown!"

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