Why the bug I wrote became a core gameplay mechanic?!
Chapter 648 - 631 President Li’s Nest Building

Chapter 648: Chapter 631 President Li’s Nest Building

Back at the sect, Chen Tingquan used up the last bit of high-efficiency cultivation time and then logged off.

After logging off, the character can still automatically cultivate, so there’s no need to feel particularly anxious.

He could even choose to play for just two or three hours a day and make full use of the high-efficiency cultivation time.

Without heavily using Nine Dragon Elixirs, the cultivation speed wouldn’t drop significantly.

But since he’d just started playing, Chen Tingquan felt a bit hooked. Although the cultivation process itself wasn’t particularly enjoyable, just the increase in stats was enough to keep him going.

"You have to admit, this goddamn game is pretty unique once you get into it."

Chen Tingquan didn’t log off immediately. Instead, he opened various forums to check other players’ feedback on "Reverse Heaven" and to see if anyone had found other loopholes.

To his surprise, the player reviews were better than he expected.

It’s not that there was no criticism. People were still bashing it hard, especially about having to spend money to buy stats. It wasn’t unjustified hate.

But a lot of players didn’t really mind this aspect. Some even thought the experience for free-to-play players was quite decent.

Of course, there were heated debates online between these two groups, but after the discussions, everyone found that the latter group had some valid points!

In the character creation interface, "Nitiandang" practically had "I want you to pay" written all over it. Just choosing an identity cost 648 currency units, which was unheard of and naturally led to a lot of complaints.

But after a couple of days, players found the game was actually better than expected.

Although there was a huge gap in combat power between players who spent money and those who didn’t, and a spender could easily obliterate a non-spender with a single burst of power, in most cases, the two groups rarely interacted.

The game had a sort of soft matchmaking mechanism. Spenders were in great sects, competing with other spenders, while free-to-play players were in small sects, competing with other free-to-play players.

Moreover, within clans like the Henggang Sect, players were distributed into different branches based on their cultivation progress.

In the Barbaric World, spenders and free-to-play players basically didn’t affect each other. Spenders would gradually venture deeper into the Barbaric World to fight powerful demon beasts, while free-to-play players could just gather resources around the outskirts.

If they teamed up, free-to-play players could pick up scraps from spenders. Although the large share of any loot was forcibly given to the spender, this also somewhat prevented large accounts from carrying small accounts.

Not only that, but spenders couldn’t kill free-to-play players at will. If they did, they’d be fined, with the penalties increasing the more they killed.

So spenders ended up competing within the great sects, making the survival environment for free-to-play players fairly decent.

Besides, there was another important reason why free-to-play players had a good experience: the game was indeed playable without spending money.

Even though the store was filled with various enticing packages requiring payment, the existence of "Cultivation Loans" meant free-to-play players didn’t actually spend their own money.

Whether it was Nine Dragon Elixirs, flying swords, or magical treasures, most of it was loaned.

With the loans, they could still play well, and they could even use "Time Loans" to borrow future cultivation.

As long as they didn’t spend actual money, everyone could accept it.

Of course, the Cultivation Loan had a certain limit, and it could burst.

Players had to repay the loan every year in the game. While it was possible to delay repayment for a while, prolonged delinquency would break their credit, causing sects like Henggang Sect to take special measures such as directly confiscating all the player’s assets.

If it reached that point, the account could essentially be reset and reborn.

However, in practice, it’s not that easy for a Cultivation Loan to burst. Players could earn a lot by completing sect tasks, gathering herbs, and mining in the Barbaric World. The income was usually enough to repay the annual loan, with even some left over.

The remaining resources could be used to speed up cultivation, sold in the auction house, or used as capital for trading and other side businesses to earn more money.

So, while "Reverse Heaven" was a stat-based game where spending money made you stronger, the system also protected the general player experience to a large extent.

At least in the beginning, free-to-play players in small sects could still find some enjoyment, and their desire to improve their stats wasn’t completely crushed by the powerful spenders.

Moreover, a very interesting situation arose: more victims of Time Loans appeared.

Setting Core Formation as the goal for a Time Loan was a complete trap.

Players who tried to use Time Loans to reach Core Formation faced three scenarios:

The first scenario was what Chen Tingquan saw in the sect: they fell just short of Core Formation but exceeded a hundred years of age, resulting in being expelled from the sect.

The second scenario involved borrowing beyond their longevity to reach Core Formation, leading to an immediate Heavenly Tribulation that would strike them dead.

A normal player preparing to reach Core Formation would have the corresponding magical treasures, magic artifacts, cultivation techniques, or be prepared to withstand the tribulation.

But those using Time Loans to reach this level had no preparations and would naturally die under the tribulation.

The third scenario saw some players thinking outside the box, attempting to borrow enough cultivation to withstand the tribulation head-on, by reaching the Fifth Layer of Core Formation, which was mid-period and above.

Theoretically, this was feasible. The Fifth Layer of Core Formation could indeed withstand the tribulation, but the character would immediately die while repaying the Time Loan.

The Time Loan calculated repayment based on the player’s current cultivation level. The lower the cultivation level, the longer the repayment period for the same amount of borrowed cultivation.

Borrowing from the Qi Refinement stage directly to the Fifth Layer of Core Formation meant exponential growth in the repayment period, leading to instantaneous death upon reaching Core Formation.

Every stage of a player’s lifespan was limited. To extend it beyond Core Formation, one needed to break through to Nascent Soul, which was impossible to achieve with a Time Loan.

The cultivation required far exceeded the Time Loan limit. Players could only borrow up to mid-period of Core Formation before their lifespan ran out.

Thus, players who crashed because of Time Loans were naturally upset. Though the game allowed for rebirth, it wasn’t without loss:

If a player had used a Time Loan, upon rebirth they wouldn’t retain any loaned cultivation from their previous life. Time Loan used the lifespan of the previous life, with no relation to the new life.

So, rebirth only carried over cultivation achieved with their own skills, and even then, only a portion was retained.

The higher the level, the greater the loss incurred upon rebirth. By the late game, avoiding rebirth was ideal since the loss each time could be significant.

Additionally, standard Cultivation Loans wouldn’t die with the player’s character but transferred to the new character.

The new character inherited part of the old character’s cultivation, much of it acquired by purchasing elixirs and loans.

Not to mention spells and magical treasures bought with Cultivation Loans.

Inheriting the cultivation meant inheriting the debt, though there would be some reductions.

The only way to avoid repayment was to abandon all cultivation and start over, akin to deleting and restarting the account.

Thus, the three unavoidable aspects of life in the Cultivation World of "Reverse Heaven" were: birth, death, and repaying loans.

For top spenders like Instructor Ding, the game experience was also enjoyable.

As an Inner Sect Disciple of one of the Six Major Sects, he was envied wherever he went.

Moreover, the spending rate in this game wasn’t very fast compared to others where ten minutes of spending could exhaust all funds with a major purchase.

In "Reverse Heaven," character cultivation speed was limited. The concept of internal toxicity meant they couldn’t consume all the Nine Dragon Elixirs at once.

By consuming them regularly, daily spending had an upper limit, unlike other stat-based games which were bottomless pits.

And other in-game purchases like flying swords and magical artifacts were generally tied to the player’s basic cultivation level.

Players could only buy flying swords and magical treasures suitable for their cultivation after breaking through a new realm.

Upon entering the Barbaric World, spenders had an even better experience.

Not only could they hunt Nine Dragon hatchlings that other players could hardly face, but also team up with ordinary players, sharing a little bounty to earn their gratitude, fulfilling emotional value as well.

Clearly, players were only in the early stages of this game, and this was just President Li’s "baiting" phase.

Though signs of internal competition were emerging, they were still restrained, preventing players from being scared off immediately.

As players developed mental habits, the game’s more devious aspects would gradually surface.