Purpose

As a groundbreaking, fully Immersive Virtual Reality Online Game that previously only appeared in novels, Jianghu has garnered immense popularity. Moreover, because the game allows for recording and live streaming, its authenticity was thoroughly confirmed during the first closed Closed Beta.

In the mouths of media outlets and Self-Media chasing trends and traffic, there are talk of hope for solving the energy crisis, a revolutionary second world, a way to extend life, and twice the time...

It's all about making empty promises and exaggerating. They hyped up the metaverse before, and now they're hyping up the game just the same way. But compared to the metaverse, which we can't even see the edges of, this game is truly amazing.

As capital began to intervene, and with the interpretations of various content creators, more and more people realized that the issues were not simple. By the time the second Closed Beta began, not only game enthusiasts, but even people who don't play games much were paying attention to this game, which had been hyped up by major media outlets during its month-long maintenance.

They followed players who had switched careers to become streamers after obtaining Closed Beta activation codes, and they followed various forum discussion threads. Then, they saw a post on the forum—

<On the first day of the second Closed Beta, a miraculous artifact appeared in a certain Beginner Village!>

Posts in this format are everywhere, and theoretically, they shouldn't be enough to attract the attention of gamers and casual viewers. However, as this particular post gained popularity, some people eventually couldn't resist clicking on it out of curiosity. And then, they discovered that this thing actually seemed to be real...

"This game is really popular! It seems like it's not the kind of game that's only popular within a small circle..."

Feeling the [consciousness] constantly surging into her body, Feng Xue narrowed her eyes slightly. Although it wasn't enough to form Weird Tale, judging from the amount, it was basically certain that this so-called Real World also existed.

After confirming this, Feng Xue's plan became increasingly clear.

He wants to create a Weird Tale that circulates in the "Game World" but is recognized by people in the Real World. If he can do that, he can try to use the Real World Rules to jump from the Game World to the Real World.

Although both the Real World and the Game World are "Benchmark World" where real people exist, his current goal is no longer about Supernatural Tale Entry and knowledge.

Compared to the kind of thing where you can easily snowball your savings once you have them, he's now more concerned about why Infinite City would provide such a world.

If it were just a random mixture, that would be one thing, but according to Old Li and the others, the Tower of Babylon only shows traces of Weird Tale above the fiftieth floor, which clearly indicates that some mechanism of the Infinite City is at work.

All he could think of was the existence of some kind of implicit "qualification".

For example, one must reach a strength of at least level 50 to be qualified to survive when there is a first-mover advantage in other Weird Tale, or one must reach a strength of at least level 50 to be qualified to understand certain things.

From the underlying rules of the Infinite City that Cain told him, Feng Xue could be certain that the Infinite City was purposefully urging powerful supernatural Weird Tale to higher levels.

He didn't know if this was truly a classic "divine artifact choosing its master" storyline or a conspiracy-style "Evil Spirit choosing its body" plot, but in any case, the Infinite City must have some purpose in sending these Weird Tale, who were qualified to ascend to the fiftieth floor, to such a world.

Since it was a purposeful act, Feng Xue naturally wouldn't treat it as an ordinary world. The difference between this world and the Benchmark World behind the lower-level gate was most likely the source of this "purpose."

So, what's the difference?

Weird Tale.

Although she didn't yet know what secrets these Weird Tale held, since even the Infinite City wanted to know about them, Feng Xue naturally became curious as well.

The source of the Weird Tale in this world has now been identified: the players, or rather, the game that sent the players to this world. However, Feng Xue cannot access the "game" itself, the Main Body of the Weird Tale, in this world. Therefore, she must go to another world.

"Senior..."

Just as Feng Xue was pondering his next plan, he heard a familiar address. Looking up, Feng Xue saw it was another player. Although it was a woman, thanks to the influence of the Gynomorphic Filter, Feng Xue's resistance to beautiful women had reached a very high level. While the character's appearance was well-done, he only glanced at it before grabbing a Wooden Sword from the corner and saying:

"Ten coins, one per person, grab it and leave quickly, don't bother me."

"No, I didn't come to buy Wooden Sword." The player shook his head, neither taking the sword nor paying. Feng Xue was slightly surprised upon hearing this, stopped what she was doing, and looked at the player with a half-smile, saying:

"Don't want a sword? Then what do you want?"

"I want to buy a musical instrument." The player looked at Feng Xue earnestly. Upon hearing this, Feng Xue's eyes narrowed slightly.

"Erhu ten taels of silver, guzheng fifty taels, guqin one hundred and twenty taels, and a single silk string costs one mao. If you want a custom-made one, the price will triple."

"Ah, this..." Hearing that even the cheapest Erhu cost ten taels of silver, the player couldn't help but look troubled, but at the same time, she also felt a bit excited.

Although most players now regard this NPC as a merchant selling early-game artifacts, she clearly remembers that his real job was making musical instruments, and everyone was initially attracted by his Erhu bowed instrument).

A Wooden Sword can cut through iron like mud, even if it gets weaker with use, is still far superior to an iron sword that costs one or two taels of silver in Blacksmith Shop before its power is exhausted. And such a weapon is given away for only ten coins.

But the musical instrument was just an Erhu, yet the other party was asking for ten taels of silver. Although the price didn't sound high, it was a thousand times less than the ten coins for the Wooden Sword!

"As expected, buying musical instruments is the way to start this NPC quest."

She thought for a moment, then said:

"Senior, do you teach people how to play musical instruments here?"

"Quite clever..." Feng Xue chuckled inwardly, but her expression hardened as she said:

"I don't have time to teach newbies who know nothing."

After saying that, she ignored him completely, giving him an attitude of "take it or leave it."

But this only strengthened the player's suspicions, and he thought to himself:

"I don't teach complete beginners; in other words, I'm only willing to teach those with a certain foundation. But is that foundation martial arts or musical instrument skills?"

The player took a deep breath, gritted her teeth, and tentatively asked:

"Senior, I studied the guzheng for two years."

"Oh?"

Feng Xue showed a hint of interest, and without a word, turned and went into the thatched hut. The player, seeing this, was immediately excited; one second, two seconds...

It wasn't a very long time, but perhaps because the NPC hadn't made a sound after entering the room, it felt as long as a calculus class.

Fortunately, the wait wasn't actually too long; about two minutes later, she saw the NPC carrying a guzheng and a qin table out.

"Play one of your best pieces for us."

Hearing the NPC's words, the player suddenly felt a headache coming on, not because she was bragging, but because the NPC hadn't offered her a chair!

The part about the protagonist digging out the Coffin board isn't a metaphor; it's a real Coffin board.

Making musical instruments (of course, if you only plan to use them for a few years and don't care about sound quality) requires old wood that has been dried for a long time. This is why the apprenticeship and family tradition of making musical instruments in ancient times were particularly solid (the same is true for coffin shops, although coffins also had reasons for not being well-regarded). The wood stored by the family itself was a guarantee for the business, since opening a shop required drying the wood for several years, which immediately increased the initial cost.

For those just starting out in this industry, the early sources of timber were typically shipyards and coffin shops, as these places also needed dried, old timber and stockpiled it in large quantities. Coffin shops were the best option because they would cut the timber into suitable planks for you (of course, this was much more expensive than slowly stockpiling timber at home)...

Incidentally, in modern times, because many high-end woods are hard to find, some top luthiers will go to the beams of old houses to make their instruments. There are even legends of digging up graves to find old Coffin board, but of course, these are just legends and should be taken as stories.