Soulborne

What kind of UI a game should provide players required different considerations for different genres.

For example, first-person FPS games only placed small informational icons along the edges of the screen, ensuring players could focus on real-time battlefield information.

MMORPGs, even with dozens of skill icons to display, still tried their best to keep the center of the screen clear.

By the age of holographic games, game UIs had become even more deeply hidden.

Because the Holographic Simulation Helmet read players' brainwaves and required no button inputs, games hid their UIs to reduce textual information outside the scene itself.

Generally speaking, unless players specifically enabled it, they could not even see their own health bars in some games, much less information about others.

To distinguish players from NPCs, most holographic games gave players and NPCs drastically different art styles.

That was why the experienced players, already accustomed to it, subconsciously mistook the human on the ground for a player.

"Is this an NPC?"

As the elf spoke, everyone finally noticed the human lying on the ground.

Name: Li Li
Race: Human

Class: Creator God
Level: 1

Rank: None
Traits: ???

Attributes: ???
Skills: ???
Favorability: 0

"Seems to be a god's incarnation."

The Half-Winged Celestial named Golden Wind fluttered his single radiant golden wing.

"Creator God... What version's NPC is that? Never heard of one like this."

Another elf player asked.

Qian Peng glanced at the livestream chat and found that the viewers did not recognize him either.

So he opened an external webpage, searched for a while, then said:

"He should be a newly added NPC. There's no character like him in Despair Expedition."

"Li Li... I remember him. He wrote the recruitment letter on the game's original pre-registration page." The shadow race player named Lost a Leg stepped forward, walked up to the elf, and held out his hand. "Let me give him a heal and see?"

The elf hesitated before reluctantly handing Li Li over, muttering under his breath:

"Fine. Let's not get ourselves killed yet."

Lost a Leg took Li Li from the elf's arms and thrust his ink-black hand into the shadow on the ground.

The next moment, darkness as viscous as crude oil flowed down from his fingertips.

You used Dark Offering on Li Li, applying 10 points of health restoration.

Due to your healing, Li Li's favorability toward you increased by 10.

"Looks like the shadow race's racial traits are the same as in the original game."

Golden Wind, who had been observing from the side, turned to the Wind Elemental player and asked curiously:

"Brother Wind, what about you? Can you fly?"

Level 8 Great Gale howled, "I can't even fucking stand steady!"

Only after using up his five daily Shadow Points did Lost a Leg finally stop healing. Refreshed, he said:

"Not bad. Didn't spend a cent and earned 14 favorability with a gold-tier NPC."

As a shadow race member, his body had originally looked like the faceless black silhouette from Detective Conan. After exhausting his daily Shadow Points, however, skin identical to a human's appeared on his body.

Not long afterward, Li Li opened his eyes and groggily sat up.

He looked like someone who had pulled several consecutive all-nighters at work, then been forced by his wife at home to fulfill his marital duties. His entire body radiated bone-deep exhaustion.

"Did it work?" he muttered, rubbing his eyes.

"Of course." Golden Wind placed his right hand over his chest and gave a slight bow. His broad golden wing spread open, covering the left half of his body as he performed an impeccable Celestial salute. "Honorable Creator God, on behalf of the Golden Wind Guild, I greet you."

As soon as he finished speaking, another human female player who looked like an elementary school student stepped forward. Lifting a nonexistent skirt hem, she curtsied.

"Magical Girl Li Yuan, answering your call. I will cleanse all evil and reclaim the world's brilliance."

Qian Peng looked at the two inexplicable people, suddenly thought of something, and followed with a somewhat awkward knight's salute.

"I am Amulet Owl. I look forward to clearing the obstacles from your path."

You introduced yourself to Li Li. Li Li's favorability toward you increased by 1.

Just as expected!

Qian Peng's eyes lit up.

Over ten major versions of Despair Expedition OL, there had been fewer than fifty living NPCs in total, so there had been no favorability system.

But Glorious Expedition was different!

As Qian Peng secretly congratulated himself, the Dragonkin beside him, who had been playing with his tail, suddenly cried out:

"Saluting gives favorability too? Big Bird, that's too damn sneaky! Why didn't ya tell us?"

His loud shouting made the other players realize it as well, and they hurriedly introduced themselves.

"Why does everyone have a nickname..."

Only after everyone had finished introducing themselves did Li Li recover slightly. Supporting himself against the wall, he stood up and tossed something out.

"Amulet Owl, catch. Because of this thing of yours, I nearly got drained dry."

Qian Peng caught the object thrown at him. It was an hourglass the size of a thumb.

Embers (Amulet Owl)

Item Effect: After use, restores all the power of Time Palace Knight Amulet Owl for 1 hour.

Item Description: It was said that a knight who conquered time descended into this world at the cost of setting himself ablaze.

Even burned-out firewood still retained embers.

But this was the last of it.

"Gold-tier item!"

The Dragonkin started shouting again.

Qian Peng's mouth twitched, and he suddenly felt the urge to shut off the livestream.

"Alright, alright."

Li Li clapped his hands, drawing everyone's attention, then explained:

"There's only one of these for now. As for everyone else's embers... we'll discuss that after I recover my strength."

Several consecutive days of all-night experiments had used up more than 300 of Li Li's faith. After subtracting another 100 points spent creating ten bodies, he had kept nearly 1,400 faith in reserve.

However, when he summoned the first soul projection, Li Li unexpectedly discovered that the soul projections of these Blue Star people contained some unknown power.

He tried to materialize that power, only for it to instantly exhaust all his stored faith and begin drawing power from His origin, nearly draining his body into a mummified husk.

At that thought, Li Li's heart sank.

Without faith in reserve, he would not be able to revive these people...

And these ordinary people, ruined by modern society, probably would not even be able to hold a sword without dying several times in a row.

That was why he gave the embers to these newly arrived Blue Star people, hoping they would make good use of that power and help him seize enough starting capital.

Taking a deep breath, Li Li surveyed these Blue Star people of all shapes and forms, then recited the speech he had prepared:

"I believe you should know that I am the one who summoned you into this world. And the reason I summoned you was to employ you to clear away this world's contamination."

"As for the means of clearing that contamination—"

"It is slaughter."

"Beyond the Alliance's borders, countless monsters wander the wasteland. They will all become achievements carved by your blades."

"Each monster you defeat will yield corresponding faith. Once you gather enough faith, you may return to me or seek out my saintess. We will transform that faith into power and make you stronger."

"Can you understand it that way?"

Everyone nodded.

Standing at the very front, Qian Peng stepped forward to ask a question after being prompted by the livestream chat:

"If we accidentally get killed, what happens to the faith we've stored up?"

"It will dissipate. But if you can bring the corpse back, I can still recover that faith," Li Li answered.

Now everyone truly understood.

Kill monsters to collect souls, find the saintess to level up, and die to lose your accumulated resources.

—It was a soulborne.

Someone come check this out already.