The corner of the Emperor's Tomb Village library.
Xie Yu ran his fingertips across the light screen, browsing the post he'd just published.
It was getting far more attention than he'd expected.
Replies were pouring in. Some players reminisced about the companionship of 734 and Atu, others were shocked by the cruelty of the civilization's destruction, and fans of the Detailed Study Faction were discussing how the martial arts system had developed in the Small World.
Clearly, plenty of players were interested in the background lore.
That was one of the unique charms of Monster World.
Unlike the realistic games of the early days, Monster World had no central storyline, and its background lore wasn't forced on players.
There were no NPCs players had to approach and talk to, only to keep clicking through dialogue.
There were no endless cycles of being told to go kill a certain number of monsters, then return to turn in a quest.
Then you'd move from a small map to a bigger one, kill stronger monsters, and get even better rewards for turning in quests.
In Monster World, from the moment they were born, players were free spirits.
They could experience everything however they wanted.
Every corner of the map held a story, waiting for players to discover it.
A story might begin with a pebble a player kicked by accident on the roadside, or with an unmarked tombstone they glimpsed while passing through a certain place... Stories waited quietly, ready to be uncovered.
That was fundamentally different from the games of the past.
The game never forced anything on you, yet whenever curiosity struck, it had the key to the next part of the story ready for you.
Absolute freedom was difficult to achieve, in Xie Yu's view.
It demanded meticulous worldbuilding, but