A New Era, The True Meaning of the Game

"You have killed the Level 26 BOSS, Stingfish King, and gained 2600 experience points."

"You have obtained Sting of the Fish King (Blue)."

Damn, it's the same as last time, no good drops at all.

This Sting of the Fish King could be used to forge a new spear.

As expected, I need to grind a lot, and grind for a long time to get good drops.

After killing the Stingfish King without taking any damage, Gao Linzhi felt refreshed and walked towards the village.

He clenched his fists. This was the feeling of having power in his hands!

Others had to rely on strenuous training, their strength fluctuating, their output unstable, their defenses inconsistent. One wrong move and they could be backstabbed;

But he relied on the game system's stat points. His strength was solid, his output stable, he could deal as much damage as he wanted, his defense was constant, and he wasn't afraid of surprise attacks.

Thinking this, Gao Linzhi walked faster and faster.

Dust billowed around him, his steps were so fast.

Finally, he was moving forward by stepping on the air!

"They say if you go fast enough, you can step on air and fly. It's true after all."

Gao Linzhi thought of his recent experience killing the Stingfish King, and his heart stirred.

He felt the dense air beneath his feet and increased his stepping speed.

Because his speed was fast enough to break the sound barrier, the air beneath his feet had solidified like iron.

He subconsciously changed direction slightly, and sure enough, he moved upwards, as if stepping on lotuses!

He could fly!

This made him feel incredibly elated. Looking down at the ground, the scenery grew smaller and smaller.

East Wolf Village in the distance also became smaller, everything was beneath his feet.

Stepping on my left foot with my right foot won't get me to the sky, even if I crush it.

But stepping on air is different.

As long as you step on the air fast enough, you're applying pressure to the gas, which is like stepping on water.

It's like skipping a stone on water; it won't sink until its speed drops.

The volume of gas changes, creating elasticity.

The elasticity of air depends on its density and the local speed of sound.

As long as you break the sound barrier, the seemingly soft air beneath your feet will be solidified.

When the elasticity is great enough, you can step on air and fly.

Water is much denser than air. To run on water without sinking, you only need a speed of 110 kilometers per hour.

But to step on air, you need to approach the speed of sound to fly.

Gao Linzhi was flying now!

Soon, he arrived near the village.

Below him, a group of Xu Corporation players who were heading out to grind monsters were staring up at him in astonishment.

"Holy crap, am I seeing things?"

"You're not seeing things, someone's actually flying! Did they learn some kind of magic?"

"It doesn't look like magic, more like just stepping on air to fly. Look at his feet, rumbling like that, that's a sonic boom!"

"How much Constitution do you need to have this kind of speed? I'd rather believe he learned some kind of flying skill."

"There's nothing like that in the village, but maybe the Great Elder has it. There's still a lot for us to discover in this village."

However, Xu Qi, the leader of the Xu Clan, saw this and his expression changed drastically. He quickly handed over the monster-grinding quest to someone else and turned to run back to the village.

Gao Linzhi excitedly played around for a while, almost forgetting to return to the village.

He still wanted to explore the potential of East Wolf Village further.

Since the Great Elder wanted him to be cannon fodder and fulfill others' wishes, he certainly wouldn't just leave like this.

He discovered that flying in the air like this wasn't actually faster than running on the ground.

The only benefit was probably not having to worry about crashing into people...

Another problem with flying like this was that it was too cumbersome.

It wasn't tiring, but both feet had to move like a whirlwind, stepping frantically.

It was neither elegant nor smooth.

He would have to learn a flying spell in the future.

Gao Linzhi subconsciously opened the shop and searched for flying spells.

"Basic Flying Technique: 5 million Skyfall Stones, requires Level 100 Basic Wind Skill."

"Basic Wind Skill: 1 million Skyfall Stones, requires Level 100 Intermediate Wood Skill to unlock."

Wind belongs to Wood in Bagua, so that checks out.

Skyfall Stones aren't a problem. As long as there's a clear number and not an infinite exponent, he can gather enough.

With strength, why worry about gold?

West Wolf Village, which he's trying to win over, is controlled by Corporate Players, so there's plenty of gold.

The problem is the Intermediate Wood Skill. He checked the game's help section.

"At Level 10, transfer to the Mage Profession to learn Intermediate and Advanced magic skills."

He definitely wouldn't level up.

Currently, after dying at Level 1, the respawn cooldown is 24 hours, which can be cleared with 1 Skyfall Stone.

If he reached Level 10, he wouldn't know what the death penalty would be.

There's no way to ask others about this. Most people only have one life, and the dead can't answer questions.

Are there other ways?

"Defeating BOSSes has a tiny chance of dropping Skill Stones that ignore level restrictions... These Skill Stones cannot be purchased from the shop."

Damn...

After Gao Linzhi cursed, he felt it was reasonable.

Clearly, this was the developers encouraging economic circulation – letting big spenders hire regular players to defeat BOSSes for Skill Stones.

This way, regular players could also share in the big spenders' wealth through cheap labor, thus continuing to strive in the game.

This is the so-called game stickiness.

A game that doesn't allow regular players to share in the wealth of big spenders is destined not to last.

Many long-lasting games essentially have big spenders supporting the game platform and regular players, while regular players provide emotional and labor value to the big spenders.

And the game provides a platform for conversion and showing off.

In a sense, a good game can easily achieve the wealth distribution challenge that "society's mechanisms" struggle with.

It can be said that those who despise games and slander them as "electronic trash" are the real trash themselves.

They are narrow-minded – they simply don't see the great significance of wealth redistribution.

And the rich, who own ninety percent of the wealth, often have nowhere to spend it – this can be seen from the mountains of cash in their rooms.

We should vigorously develop games with strong stickiness and addiction, stimulating big spenders to play games – only games can absorb unlimited real-world wealth for redistribution.

Clearly, Skyfall Game has achieved this.

This is the "true real-world significance of games." The so-called "indulgence in pleasure leads to downfall" and "neglecting one's proper occupation" are merely the views of short-sighted people.

Truly wise individuals can see it from a higher perspective.

No wonder there are so few high-level items in the shop, only various basic consumables.

Thus, Gao Linzhi had a new goal: to acquire a large number of Skill Stones.

He then returned to the village and directly found the Fourth Elder.

He saw the other party still smiling, as if nothing had happened.

"Fourth Elder, does the village have any Skill Stones?" Gao Linzhi asked directly.

"Skill Stones?" The Fourth Elder frowned immediately, then his brow unfurled, "Yes, they're with the Great Elder. I'll take you to get them right away."

Gao Linzhi found this amusing.

Did the other party think he was an idiot?

Last time he asked about magic skills, the other party said it required a lot of contribution and the Great Elder's permission.

He considered that normal.

But now, when he asked about Skill Stones, which are clearly much rarer than magic skills, the elder actually said they had them.

Even without the early warning from the West Wolf Village leader, he would have found something suspicious.

Of course, the Fourth Elder and the Great Elder wouldn't know that he wasn't someone they could control.

This is the new era – even seemingly humble commoners have the possibility of a comeback.

No one can be 100% sure of dictating another person's life.