Why the bug I wrote became a core gameplay mechanic?!
Chapter 655 - 638 Natural True Man

Chapter 655: Chapter 638 Natural True Man

Inner Sect Disciple of Erosion Spirit Heavenly Palace, Instructor Ding, died during a wrestling match with the Night Comet Dragon due to an uncontrolled elixir poisoning that led to body explosion, becoming the hottest topic in the cultivation world recently.

This incident has finally raised awareness about the toxicity of Nine Dragon Elixirs on the viscera.

Actually, players discovered the toxic nature of Nine Dragon Elixirs soon after the game "Reverse Heaven" launched, but this knowledge was quickly thrown to the back of their minds.

The reason is simple: so what if you know there’s toxicity? Can you not cultivate?

Those players who avoided using Nine Dragon Elixirs due to toxicity concerns were diligent in their logins and consumed all sorts of compliant elixirs, but they could never catch up with the progress of those taking Nine Dragon Elixirs.

Even in ordinary sects like Henggang Sect, they couldn’t even manage to become an outstanding disciple.

Apart from a very few players who decided from the beginning to take it easy, how could everyone else bear this grievance?

Take it!

If everyone else is taking it, why shouldn’t I?

Anyway, the money for the Nine Dragon Elixirs is borrowed, and the toxicity won’t show up in the short term, so what’s there to be afraid of?

If the sky falls, the taller ones will hold it up. Even if someone explodes to death, it should be those whales who treat Nine Dragon Elixirs as their daily meal that explode first, right?

But now, the first case of dying from body explosion has appeared, and everyone suddenly panicked.

The sky did fall, and the tall ones got crushed to death!

For players like Chen Tingquan, who don’t spend money, it’s okay. They couldn’t afford that many Nine Dragon Elixirs anyway, and the small intake doesn’t matter much considering the body’s automatic detoxification each day; they don’t need to worry about exploding in the short term.

But the whales, who are at a similar level to the grind enthusiasts, are much more panicked.

"What the hell is this game, you spend money and yet you die faster than others?"

"What happens after you explode? Is your account ruined?"

"Not exactly. After exploding, you can be reborn and re-cultivate, losing some cultivation in the process, but most of it can be quickly regained."

"Damn, that’s still a loss! The cultivation loss was bought with real cash for Nine Dragon Elixirs!"

"Well, there’s no other way. Just reduce the dosage; instead of one pill a day, make it one pill every two or three days."

"Then what about my cultivation progress? Heavenly Pride is out of reach for me."

"Do you want to live, or do you want cultivation progress? It’s not like you can have both."

"Fine, fine, this game is really unfriendly to spenders. I’ll spend less."

Many whale players chickened out, reducing their daily intake of Nine Dragon Elixirs, and their cultivation speed naturally slowed down as well.

Of course, they weren’t really afraid of dying; they were mainly afraid of wasting their money.

In this regard, the settings in "Reverse Heaven" are somewhat similar to those in other pay-to-win games with equipment enhancement systems.

For instance, enhancing equipment comes with a failure rate. Failure might cause the equipment to decrease in level or even explode completely.

An exploded +15 piece of equipment could represent thousands or even tens of thousands of real currency gone to waste.

"Reverse Heaven" is similar. If a character dies from body explosion, the player will definitely lose some cultivation, and the higher the original level, the greater the loss.

This cultivation loss is also actual money.

However, unlike equipment explosion games, body explosion in "Reverse Heaven" is relatively controllable.

In equipment explosion games, you either enhance or don’t enhance, no in-between.

But in "Reverse Heaven", players can adjust their cultivation speed based on their toxicity levels.

If they stop taking Nine Dragon Elixirs altogether, their cultivation might plateau or even regress slightly, but they can use this opportunity to cleanse the toxicity.

Compared to games where equipment explodes upon failure, this is a fairer system.

Initially, players thought that after Instructor Ding, another body explosion case would soon follow.

After all, "Reverse Heaven" is very popular, with a large player base, and there are many whales who have been heavily spending on elixirs since the game started.

With Instructor Ding exploding, others should follow soon.

But surprisingly, three or four days passed without a second body explosion case.

Instructor Ding felt somewhat speechless, making him seem dumb.

Apparently, others learned from Instructor Ding’s lesson, and when their toxicity levels approached critical, they stopped taking elixirs, allowing them to survive longer.

Of course, without anyone exploding, no one succeeded in becoming a Heavenly Pride of the Six Major Sects either.

The Heavenly Pride assessment is quite challenging. It has dynamic difficulty, meaning the challenge doesn’t ease up no matter how much you improve after reaching the threshold.

To pass, you either gamble with your life like Instructor Ding by taking clearance waste pills aggressively, or you must own superior skills—maximizing all operations, proficient in all defense techniques, GP, and wrestling.

Nobody dared to take the first path short-term due to the high risk of body explosion death.

The second path is also tough.

The monsters in the Heavenly Pride assessment are random. In the final wave, you might face a Night Comet Dragon or another Nine Dragon or demon beast.

Moreover, attempts are limited to once a month.

If you travel to the Barbaric World and memorize all the monsters’ techniques, it significantly increases your assessment success rate. However, the game "Reverse Heaven" has a deep combat system, memorizing all the techniques would take an incredibly long time.

So, there hasn’t been a second person daring to challenge Heavenly Pride.

The previously blazing cultivation community suddenly became cautious, with everyone valuing their lives more, greatly reducing the sales of Nine Dragon Elixirs.

...

"Is this the live stream of Instructor Ding, the first half-step-perfection Heavenly Pride of Erosion Spirit Heavenly Palace?"

Seeing the comment in his live stream, Instructor Ding’s mouth twitched slightly, finding it hard to hold back.

There’s no denying that body explosion is a hot topic, attracting many new viewers in recent days.

But starting cultivation from scratch again was indeed painful.

After rebirth, Instructor Ding specifically sought out the NPC from the Elixir Room, the one who promoted the clearance waste pills to him.

He expected some unique dialogue to be triggered, such as his character reprimanding the NPC, the NPC apologizing, and then offering him discounts on Nine Dragon Elixirs.

But unfortunately, nothing of the sort happened.

The NPC treated this encounter as a first-time meeting, just selling the usual elixirs.

Instructor Ding initially felt pissed, thinking the game lacked sincerity!

But on second thought, it made sense. After all, he had been reborn.

The one who died from body explosion was the first life of Instructor Ding, and what does it have to do with the second life of Instructor Ding?

Since he literally died, it’s natural he wouldn’t approach the Elixir Room NPC to settle scores.

Moreover, when the NPC gave the clearance waste pills, he did mention the toxicity and advised against ingesting more than five pills.

It was Instructor Ding who decided to push the limit with ten pills.

Upon reflection, he couldn’t really blame anyone else.

Instructor Ding continued buying Nine Dragon Elixirs and resumed his cultivation, progressing much faster than before.

His current rapid progress was due to reclaiming his previous life’s cultivation; once this stage ended, his cultivation speed would return to normal.

Theoretically, if players didn’t mind the loss from rebirth, they could keep using Nine Dragon Elixirs to the max, restarting their cultivation whenever they died.

However, this wouldn’t guarantee the fastest progression and would be quite wasteful.

As Instructor Ding found himself somewhat bored, he suddenly noticed a new voice transmission appearing in his info box.

This wasn’t from another player but from the system.

"Your talent is exceptional, it seems you are destined with our Nine Dragon Pill Path. Could you visit the Wuxiang Pill Alliance for a discussion?"

At the same time, a new task box appeared on Instructor Ding’s screen.

"Huh? What’s this?"

Instructor Ding was curious; he had never seen this task before, nor had any other player shared anything about it online.

As for whether the Wuxiang Pill Alliance disciples get this task, Instructor Ding was unsure.

Judging by the task’s priority, it seemed fairly important.

"What does this mean? Am I too excellent and triggered a cross-sect recruitment storyline?

"Is the Wuxiang Pill Alliance trying to poach me as an Inner Sect Disciple? Or maybe, make me a direct Heavenly Pride?

"In that case, what about the extra True Qi gained from Erosion Spirit Heavenly Palace, would I have to return it, or would there be interest?

"Well, forget it, why overthink, let’s just go and see."

Instructor Ding could choose to abandon the task, but curiosity about what the Wuxiang Pill Alliance wanted won over, thinking it might benefit him somehow.

He promptly rode his flying sword towards the quest destination.

Soon, he arrived at Wuxiang Pill Alliance.

Being one of the Six Major Sects, Wuxiang Pill Alliance, like Erosion Spirit Heavenly Palace and Time Wheel Zen Sect, had its unique niche, allowing disciples from other sects to freely visit.

However, such visits were usually limited to the sect’s periphery, casually speaking, the admin office areas.

Only Wuxiang Pill Alliance disciples had access to the sect’s core.

Instructor Ding found the NPC who sent him the transmission at a small hill on the edge of Wuxiang Pill Alliance, with many details hidden by question marks, hinting at profound strength.

Visually, it was a robust white-bearded old man with a pretty interesting name, "Natural True Man".

Instructor Ding found it hard to maintain his composure.

"Emmm... Natural True Man? Sounds legit, like Dao resonates with nature.

"But in this game, something feels off.

"What? Hit him to test his strength?

"Are you kidding? His muscular appearance screams terrifying power!"

By this point, Instructor Ding had fully grasped the combat evaluation method in "Reverse Heaven".

Generally speaking, it’s all about muscles.

Big muscles might not imply power, but small muscles definitely indicate weakness.

Besides that, age also counts.

Take this white-bearded old man for example, still so muscular at his advanced age; what does it suggest?

It implies he consumed loads of Nine Dragon Elixirs, managed to stay alive till now, indicating unfathomable strength!

If he were slightly weaker, like Instructor Ding, he’d have exploded and reborn by now, making an old age impossible.

Controlling the character, he moved forward and initiated a dialogue.

Natural True Man’s first line left Instructor Ding utterly shocked.

"I have a new batch of Nine Dragon Elixirs and am looking for new clients. How about you consume some? Rest assured, internal discounts, the more you buy, the better the deal."

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