Realistic Game

Chapter 17: A Realistic Game

Even three days later, Zhao Xu still hadn't recovered from what Antinoa had told him.

The impact of this news was even more profound than the shock of being transmigrated.

Transmigration was merely an opportunity; Arthur's complexity meant Zhao Xu could do almost nothing.

Even if he had managed to convince his parents to invest their entire fortune into Arthur early on, with the scarcity of resources for early players, he wouldn't have been able to obtain anything substantial.

Zhao Xu had only just transmigrated himself, so he could only think through things roughly and clarify his future direction.

After lying in bed that night, reflecting on the day's events before logging off to sleep due to drowsiness from reading magic tomes, he silently realized he had stumbled upon incredible luck for a second time.

Zhao Xu's two roommates had logged out of the game before him. His dorm leader, Zhang Qi, had chosen Warrior. The +2 Strength Belt from his previous life was what Zhang Qi had half-sold, half-gifted to him.

As of when Zhao Xu logged off, Zhang Qi still hadn't recovered from the shadow of the Warrior training course.

Essentially, the Warrior training course that night was the same for all players. It began with a show of force; the instructor wielded a wooden stick, and the Warrior trainees dodged.

The non-fatal bruises left Zhang Qi utterly bewildered.

Zhao Xu couldn't persuade Zhang Qi to switch to a more powerful profession.

In his previous life, Zhang Qi's Warrior character had cautiously saved his remaining four Resurrection Stones, all of which were lost in the Battle of Falling Star Lake two months later.

That battle was the first large-scale engagement led and participated in by players, and its grandeur had ignited the first wave of excitement after Arthur's launch.

Zhang Qi had changed professions later, but none of them brought him the same satisfaction, so he eventually returned to playing Warrior.

Essentially, everyone who logged off that night was complaining about Arthur's training system.

Many had gone to the game forums to criticize TC for being too arrogant and pretentious, daring to treat players like that.

Arthur's game rating had also been dragged down by player reviews over the past few days.

It wasn't until the third day that a tide of players finally began emerging after completing their training courses. The constant stream of negative reviews and players quitting the game only calmed down slightly after players could venture outside.

TC had also remained unusually silent, not offering any explanations. Instead, they began promoting their other major titles.

It was as if Arthur was just a beautiful accident, not the core of the group's gaming series.

Essentially, after its first night, Arthur's popularity gradually entered its own period of calm.

On the second day, before Arthur had been open for 24 hours, Zhao Xu told a white lie to his parents, asking them to register an account and log in just enough to reach the character creation screen before exiting.

Naturally, Zhao Xu wouldn't foolishly say he had transmigrated from ten years in the future, that Earth would be destroyed in a year, and everyone would have to seek sustenance within Arthur.

If he had, his parents would have immediately driven him to a psychiatric hospital.

Even if Zhao Xu's examination was normal, he wouldn't be able to play this game again in this lifetime.

So, Zhao Xu simply claimed he saw the game's development potential and suggested his parents spend some money to collect accounts, as they would appreciate in value later.

Before logging in last night, Zhao Xu himself had planned to acquire some test accounts.

But when he discovered his test account had directly encountered Arthur's top organization and triggered a significant main storyline, he chickened out.

Just as many doctor parents don't want their children to become doctors – not because being a doctor is bad, but because they'd prefer their children to have less income if it means a more peaceful and safe life.

When Zhao Xu's parents heard his suggestion about collecting accounts, they weren't initially concerned about the accounts appreciating in value.

However, this was their son's first display of his collecting acumen, so they naturally gave him their full support. Forget paying 299 to register an account; they wouldn't even hesitate to pay 2999.

For the remaining two days, Zhao Xu was completely immersed in the game Arthur. He basically logged in every day at 8 AM and stayed until 4 AM the next morning.

He only logged off two or three times in between to eat.

Players in Arthur, as projections, did not need to eat.

The consequences of this would only erupt a year later during the global transmigration.

Zhao Xu's reckless behavior, essentially skipping class, somewhat shocked his roommates.

However, others weren't his parents; they could only offer advice and cover for him occasionally.

Zhao Xu wasn't exactly courting death; it was just that he believed time was extremely tight in the early stages.

This might also influence the evaluation of him by the organization Final Scroll, so Zhao Xu basically spent all his time in Arthur, except for meals, diligently studying the magic tomes provided by Antinoa at night.

During the day, he would occasionally attend magic lectures held in the Floating City, mostly selected by Antinoa.

However, Antinoa had not yet allowed him to interact with spell models or learn how to cast spells.

Zhao Xu could also see that Antinoa was training him in the same way Arthur trained its native mages.

She wasn't using the standardized, rote-learning teaching method common among players, where insufficient casting ability was compensated by system mechanics.

Most of those magic lectures were too profound for Zhao Xu.

Even though Antinoa selected lectures focusing purely on conceptual approaches for him, he still found them confusing.

Yet, Zhao Xu dared not be inattentive. Several of the lecturers' names he saw on stage were people he had encountered in historical records of magic.

It was entirely possible that one of the esteemed individuals giving lectures was actually the leader of the current Final Scroll.

Zhao Xu hadn't lied to his two roommates about his profession choice; he only said he had been teleported to Mistral.

Then, he recalled content from mage tutorials he had seen online in his previous life and broadly recounted it.

Aside from his roommates giving him looks that said, "So mages have it rough too," they somewhat understood Zhao Xu's hardship of spending all his time gaming except for deep sleep these past few days.

Most of it was to prove a point.

Faced with a game that tormented players, some people simply gave up.

Others endured it, only to later blast the game as trash and unenjoyable.

Right or wrong didn't matter; it was just that everyone had different choices.

Even Zhao Xu didn't know when he'd finish reading his magic tomes.

He could only suppress his impatience and quietly observe any movements on the forums.

For those leaning towards melee, as long as they were online consistently, some players had already completed their training and successfully taken up a Level 1 basic profession within three days.

In fact, the Warrior and Barbarian classes even saw a small peak today, with players completing their training in almost every town.

However, after completing their training, everyone realized there were no novice NPCs to give them quests, like the kind where you kill the weasel at the village entrance for Aunt Wang.

The entire continent of Arthur seemed to treat them as if they didn't exist, or rather, as if they were just native inhabitants.

The fact that players weren't special was something some people were starting to realize.

Some self-proclaimed national strategists on the forums were analyzing it, believing it was a move by TC to develop a new game concept, undoubtedly hinting at some future trend.

Zhao Xu, who knew the future, naturally scoffed at these armchair strategists.

How could a player, who hadn't proven themselves, didn't have a reputation, was staying in a relatively safe town, and lacked any special channels, get so many quests?

Once players made a name for themselves half a year later, these things wouldn't be problems.

Every time Zhao Xu ate, he wouldn't waste a single minute, constantly browsing the forums. Arthur did have some places that issued newspapers.

Finally, after Zhao Xu finished his last farmer's stir-fried pork and was about to throw the takeout container into the trash to go online, he suddenly noticed a post that had been pushed to the top, and it had been posted less than 20 minutes ago.

Zhao Xu quickly clicked on it to take a look.

The post's title was already highlighted and bolded—"Everyone be careful when taking quests; this game has no novice maps."

"My roommates and I are all melee types. Taking advantage of everyone just finishing their training, we decided to go out into the wild to hunt monsters together. Who knew, we happened to hear fighting, so we naturally rushed towards the quest that came to us."

"At that time, we encountered ten goblins, six with spiked maces and four with javelins. They were surrounding and attacking a merchant caravan. Upholding our belief that humans and monsters are irreconcilable, we charged forward directly."

"Who would have thought that after the four of us, working with the caravan members, finally managed to defeat five goblins."

"Damn it, suddenly hundreds of goblins appeared from nowhere, some riding wolves, and swarmed towards us all over the mountainside."

"Those caravan members we helped were also sly; they ran off without a word, not even shouting for us."

The main problem is, if they put hundreds of monsters around the novice village, how are we supposed to level up? Won't all players have to hold hands and gather a hundred people before daring to leave the village?

Zhao Xu looked at the player's message and remained silent.

There were people asking in the comments how they ended up, which was obvious—they had to pay with resurrection stones.

Currently, some players in the game still thought this game had a novice village.

Even after three days, they still held onto illusions.

As for the native inhabitants in the game, let alone fleeing before battle, betrayal or even reneging on promised quest rewards for players wasn't uncommon.

This was because the game had evil factions.

Basically, players would have to suffer losses for a week before reaching a consensus on this.

This was also why everyone later preferred to accept quests from reputable major guilds or organizations.

Or from NPCs whose factions and professions were trustworthy.

However, quite a few players commented below that the game was incredibly realistic.

Zhao Xu could only force a smile. In his previous life, it was so realistic that his family was destroyed, so the realism was definitely top-notch.

However, after Zhao Xu finished reading that post, he suddenly noticed another post that had been pushed up as well—"Help, I was imprisoned after killing an NPC. I deleted my character and re-registered, but I was directly locked into the Chaotic Evil alignment. I can't play the Druid faction I wanted to play, what should I do?"

Thank you to Fengmo Jianke, Book Friend 140913182907024, Hedeborg, Xianji, Naerxin, Xiego, Huanyue Tianyou, Outlook Under the Starry Night, Book Friend 20180510211319189, Moshang Ren Ruyu, So Handsome It Startled the Party Organization, Mengmeng Lemon, Book Friend 160516221115586, and Book Friend 201907001153336626 for their recommendation votes.