Chapter 9 - COG Chapter 9
T/N [Edit 2022/06/27]: This project was dropped due to difficulties translating traditional phrases/terms. But the good news is that COG will be translated by mourningcrow, so you can continue the journey with Dugu Zhuo and Ye Zhuo here!
Thank you for reading and supporting.
-komorebi
Having experienced the mobile game era, which was once sluggish, game companies knew that holographic games have great shortcomings in portability and time allocation. As such, they had to use various methods to attract players in order to be successful on the market.
For this reason, the “Nine Heavens” holographic online game breaks the tradition and had a new way of playing. In order to make the game closer to the real world of Xianxia, artificial intelligence is specially part of the main system of the game.
As long as basic instructions are written, the host system will make its own choice according to those instruction.
Like other artificial intelligence software on the market which can write poems, lyrics, arrange music, and so on based on topics, the strong decision making autonomy greatly reduced the burden on programmers.
The fact that players can create skills is also a new type of gameplay designed by game planners. This kind of gameplay allows players to have a higher degree of freedom, and the stickiness of the game is also greater than that of traditional game systems. The game planner will enter certain standards for the artificial intelligence. As long as the standards are met and the difficulty of the game itself is not exceeded, the main system can review and publish it by itself.
When Dugu Zhuo uploaded the jade slip, the main system scanned his data three times and concluded that the data was normal, and passed the array formation after reviewing.
During this period, the operation speed of the main system was slowed by 0.001 seconds, which was too short to be discovered by anyone.
Dugu Zhuo knew nothing about what happened in the background. He was a little surprised that he could actually write the methods he knew before without problems.
This means that as the injury gradually recovers, he will be able to perform more and more tricks, and his freedom in the game world will also increase.
Dugu Zhuo looked at the jade slip in his palm that recorded the Wandering Array, thinking about the “Five Elements Sword Art” he used to deal with those Karma Forest monsters, that did not trigger a system prompt.
The biggest difference between the two is that “Wandering Array” deals with players, and “Five Elements Sword Art” deals with NPCs, false characters that can be resurrected at any time.
Even if it was not recognized by the system, he can still use the “Five Elements Sword Art” against monsters. Is there any difference between recognized and unrecognized skills?
As Dugu Zhuo was deep in thought, the players in the game had already exploded.
“Creating your own tricks and abilities? This game is good, are there so many ways to play?”
“There is no prompt before the name of ‘Dugu Zhuo’ saying if the player is an NPC, nor anything saying if this is a game ID. There is no player without an ID.”
“Yes, the creator must be a player.”
“The setting of not distinguishing between players and NPCs is really tricky. I created an account with my friend. I’m human, he’s a demon. I thought he was the one who appeared with me in Novice Village after the account was established. We met to fight monsters together, and then ‘he’ bit me to death in one bite. Later I found out that this was not my friend at all, it was the target of the ghost exorcism mission in Novice Village!”
“Still the same sentence – “not necessarily a person – the game planners really are dogs!”
“I checked for a long time and could not find Dugu Zhuo. Unable to bear it, and called customer service.”
Many players exited the game to call customer service, to inquiry about gameplay methods, but they all received the same response without any extras.
Long@Aotian, who was following Dugu Zhuo, also hung up and went offline. On the side, Qingyue saw Dugu Zhuo’s contemplative expression and did not dare to disturb him.
Dugu Zhuo was originally studying the jade slip. Seeing Long@Aotian’s spirit leave his body, he hurriedly came to check his pulse.
Long@Aotian’s pulse is weak when his soul is out of his body. Only a breath is left inside, and the entire person is dull and silly.
Dugu Zhuo patted his face curiously. He didn’t expect they could still leave the same with their souls.
“He left the game,” Qingyue explained. “You just triggered a new gameplay. He guessed that you might be confused, so he went offline to find information.”
Dugu Zhuo poked Long@Aotian’s forehead, causing him to fall on the ground like a tumbler and bounce up again.
It was also the first time that Qingyue saw someone’s avatar hang up in a holographic game. Thinking it was quite fun, she followed Dugu Zhuo to poke Long@Aotian’s face.
“It turns out that when people hang up in holographic games, it’s like this. It’s not the same as keyboard games, which you can’t poke.” Qingyue smiled.
Dugu Zhuo thought of someone saying that this game was the first time he played this kind of game, so he tentatively asked: “The heartbeat is almost gone, and the breathing is very light. Why does this happen?”
Qingyue thought for a while and said: “Probably It’s because the holographic helmet can read a player’s physical information and simulate it in the game. Now he takes off the helmet but does not shut down and go offline. The body and the helmet are separated, and the helmet cannot read his information.”
“Perhaps.” Dugu Zhuo said.
It turns out that the holographic game uses a magic tool worn on the head to transmit human consciousness into this world similar to the mysterious realm.
At this time Long@Aotian came back, and he said angrily: “The customer service call is too difficult to make, and it has been busy. But Xiaoyao got through, and he sent me a customer service reply.”
“Xiaoyao is also offline,” Qingyue replied. “Why didn’t you reply to the help message sent to him just now?”
Aotian said, “Don’t mention it, he is a willow tree demon, the big tree at the entrance of the village. I called customer service to ask how to upgrade, and he didn’t receive my message at all.”
“It’s too miserable.” Qingyue said with emotion, “Fortunately, I chose the human race at the beginning.”
“It doesn’t matter, I told him that he can practice with Yue at night.” Aotian said.
“Monster, spirit, and human races can move in Novice Village. What about the demon race?” Dugu Zhuo inserted into the conversation between the two seamlessly.
“My friend also chose the demon race. He said that the demon novice village is different from ours. It is said that you can only go to the main city after reaching level 20.” Aotian replied.
Dugu Zhuo: “How did the customer service explain the jade pendant?”
Long@Aotian: “The customer service gave a few conditions. First of all, it must be a skill that does not exist in other games in the world. This is to avoid the problem of plagiarism; secondly It is in line with the current game world background. For example, a craftsman cannot build mechas, nor can he use skills such as magic fighting spirits. It can be accepted only if it conforms to traditional Xianxia culture. Finally, it must be usable by players and has to take effect before being recognized as being successful.”
“Then what are the characteristics of recognized skills?” Dugu Zhuo asked.
Long@Aotian: “It can be traded, imparted, and gifted. Skills created by oneself can be copied on other jade slips. Copying requires the consumption of spirit stones, the player’s vitality, spiritual power, etc. Self-created skills of different levels can be copied a different number of times. Low-level skills can be replicated many times, and more advanced skills can be replicated less.”
Dugu Zhuo: “Why is there a limit on the number of times?”
“The customer service explained that according to the traditions of the cultivation world. The more advanced skills are hidden, and will only be passed to one or two disciples. Also, self-created skills can only be purchased from the creator, and cannot be resold again.” Long@Aotian explained.
Dugu Zhuo glanced at the note on the Wandering Array, which showed that it could be copied a hundred times.
Wandering Array is the lowest-level formation, which can only trap a cultivator. It cannot stop cultivators who can fly with swords. In his world, any disciple or cultivator with good arithmetic ability can use this formation. No wonder it can be copied so many times.
“Next, I have to ask, Great God, how did you create this formation?” Long@Aotian did not hesitate to call Dugu Zhuo ‘Great God’. He is worth it!
This question really stumped Dugu Zhuo. He couldn’t explain his identity, and could only briefly say: “I am good at arithmetic and Go, and the formation method is learned from that.”
Qingyue and Aotian fell silent upon thinking of mathematics. They determinedly gave up how to create them, and asked: “That… Great God, how many copies can you make? Can you sell one to us?”
Dugu Zhuo carefully said: “A hundred times. I can also give it to you.”
“Total of 100. Can it be enough?” Qingyue clutched her heart. “Do you know that hearing the word “limited” makes me want to chop your hands?”
Aotian is rather calm. One hundred is not too much, nor is it too little. It seems that the game company wants to control the power of the player’s own skills within a relatively special range, which can encourage player’s to create their own skills and increase retention, but also limit the number of other players and prevent them from creating skills that dominate the game and affect the skills in the game itself.
Aotian said: “Great God should set a price. I remember that this skill prevented the black cat from getting out of the woods. When everyone’s level is low, it is a good skill. We are embarrassed to pay nothing.”
“Yes. It’s the first one in the entire game!” Qingyue also nodded.
Dugu Zhuo’s choice of gifting is also a test of their behavior.
If the two accept it without burden, then Dugu Zhuo can part ways with the two from now on, no matter what. And if they show gratitude, and even thought for Dugu Zhuo, they could be friends.
After all, he understands the world is limited. He still needs to get information from players.
“It’s okay, you two can provide blank jade slips.” Dugu Zhuo said.
Unexpectedly, Qingyue and Aotian met a great god with a good temper. They rushed to the spiritual tool shop in Novice Village, spent some low-grade spirit stones and bought two blank jade slips.
There are two kinds of coins in this game. One is ordinary copper coins and silver coins. Players can buy some daily necessities, such as steamed buns, tea, and other items. The other is spirit stones, which are used to purchase weapons, equipment, jade slips, spirit tools, talisman, and other items.
It is conceivable that the use of silver in the later period will be very limited. If the game has real currency exchange, real money should also be exchanged for spirit stones.
Dugu Zhuo recorded the Wandering Array silently on two jade slips. The number of remaining copies of the original slip became 98.
Aotian and Qingyue received the jade slips and said enthusiastically: “Let’s go to kill the monsters and try the power of the formation!”
“No hurry,” Dugu Zhuo’s eyes fell on the tea shed in the corner of the town. “Let’s go drink a bowl of crude tea first.”
Again, this is the last COG chapter from me. Please visit mourningcrow’s site as they have asked to pick up this project going forward.
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