The Arrival of a New Era

Xiao Yu was startled, wondering what was going on.

Xiao Yu: "Who is that person?"

Little Black: "I don't know, but that person seemed like a professional, someone who specializes in investigating people. He even had a formal detective license. I didn't say much, just that I met him in the game and he didn't know your specific information, and that's how I got rid of him. But it seems like he won't let it go so easily, so I think it's necessary to remind you."

Xiao Yu: "Thanks, buddy."

Who could it be? Xiao Yu thought, looking at the computer screen. He didn't seem to have any enemies, except for—

Little Black: "Hey, you didn't make an enemy of someone, did you?"

Xiao Yu typed a message with a cold smile and sent it, "I think I already know who it is."

Xiao Yu thought to himself, who else could it be but Long Ao Jiutian? This Long Ao Jiutian's resurrection plan was ruined by him, so he probably holds a grudge. He's also a rich and powerful guy, so it's normal for him to have someone investigate him. Damn, this really is a case of a gentleman taking revenge after ten years, while a villain takes revenge from morning till night.

Xiao Yu was somewhat annoyed and worried. He thought to himself, "Could this guy be planning to have a real-life PvP battle with me since he can't beat me in the game? If he sends a professional assassin to kill me, I'll really be caught off guard."

But then he thought again that he was already terminally ill, so what if he dared to fight him? At worst, they would both die. Besides, he was a big and powerful man, so he could expose this matter and make him pay.

Xiao Yu was like someone who wouldn't be bothered by a lot of troubles, since Ren Yi only had a year left to live anyway, so he simply ignored it and figured he could deal with whatever came his way.

After closing his contacts with Little Black, Xiao Yu continued browsing the forum.

After reviewing the information on the powerful heroes in the Hero Hall, he opened the official homepage of the Sky World to check the latest update.

When Sky World was first launched, it was just an ordinary holographic virtual reality online game. Although the quality was decent, it wasn't particularly outstanding. It wasn't until the first update, the release of patch 1.10, that things changed. This patch opened up two VIP templates for players: the BOSS template and the Hero template. It also changed the players' regular characters to the Adventurer template, introducing the concept of multiple types of role-playing for the first time.

It caused quite a stir at the time. After all, compared to the previous games where players could directly sell equipment, gems, and wings, the hero bosses and the like felt much more high-end. At that time, many wealthy RMB players flocked to these two templates.

Ultimately, however, only a minority of players can afford to buy hero and boss templates. Despite the hype, most people are just watching the spectacle.

Initially, everyone thought this was just a special program for wealthy players, but soon after, the game company released patch 1.20. This update added free templates to the game, including monster templates, citizen templates, and various other free templates. It also added story events, story-driven deaths, and other related settings. Monster templates could be upgraded into BOSS templates, and soldier and mercenary templates could be upgraded into hero templates. And all of this was free to play, giving hope to players who didn't have much money.

This immediately made the game a huge hit.

"So what will be added this time?" Xiao Yu wondered with anticipation.

Upon opening the official homepage, the first thing you see is a large promotional poster, but clicking on it leads to a promotional video.

The New Era Arrives - Creating a Realistic Fantasy World

As soon as the video started playing, a very magnetic male voice rang out.

For a long time, online games have faced the problem of how to make a game more realistic. Players always hope that games will be more immersive and realistic, but due to limitations in technology and other issues, this goal has been difficult to achieve. Even Sky World only came close to reality. But now, everything is about to change.

To provide players with a more realistic gaming experience, this game has undergone comprehensive system optimization and upgrades.

[A brand-new physics engine has been added, making scene interactions more realistic and natural. The combat system has also been enhanced, abandoning the old digital combat mode. The new combat will be incredibly close to reality.]

During the narration, the screen split into two, showing the game world before and after the update.

[In the new Sky World, the environment will have a very significant impact on players.]

In the old version of the game: In the scene, a mage floats in the water and fires a fireball. The fireball travels a distance in the water and accurately hits a shark not far away. This scene is actually quite jarring, but since it's a game, most people are used to it.

In the new version of the game, the updated visuals show a mage launching a fireball into the water. The fireball shrinks as it travels through the water and disappears after a short distance, extinguished by the surrounding seawater.

The scene then shifts to a duel between a mage and a Warrior.

In the old version of the game: In the scene, the Warrior slashed the mage's neck with his sword, and a large red number appeared. He then stabbed the mage in the heart, and another large red number appeared. Then, with a sweeping attack, the sword blade cut the mage in half, leaving another large red number.

Although the mage was hacked down, he only lost half his health, so he was still alive and kicking.

In the new version of the game: In the updated visuals, the Warrior strikes the mage's neck with his sword—then the mage's neck breaks, and the mage dies.

The scene shifts, this time showing a sword piercing the chest, and the mage dies again.

The scene shifted again, showing a sword slicing the mage in half at the waist. This time, the mage didn't die, but his body was cut in two, looking quite gruesome.

[The new damage calculation formula means that health is no longer the absolute standard for victory. When a unit delivers Critical Strike blow to a target's vital point, there is a certain chance to trigger Execute effect. Execute ignores the target's health, achieving an instant kill. For example, for humanoid creatures, decapitation has a very high chance of triggering the Execute effect, while stabbing has a certain chance of triggering the Execute effect. Limb destruction effects have also been added.]

The scene continued to shift. This time, the mage cast an Ice Barrier beforehand. The Warrior slashed at the mage with his sword. In the past, this spell only increased armor and slowed the attacker. But this time, the Ice Barrier completely blocked the sword. What should have been just a light and sound effect shield was actually quite tangible, blocking the Warrior's sword. A blue light spread along the sword to the Warrior's hand, and it was clear that the longsword in the Warrior's hand was covered in frost. The Warrior also shivered.

Magic has become more powerful; protective magic can effectively prevent the caster from taking damage, instead of reducing some of the damage as before. Of course, protective magic also has a limit to its tolerance.

In the scene, the Warrior continued to swing his sword. When the third sword was swung, the Ice Barrier cracked with a snap, and then shattered into pieces with the fourth sword strike.

[At the same time, the effects of spells are no longer merely reflected in the numerical changes of damage, but rather in their actual, tangible impact on the target.]

The mage unleashed a Dragon's Breath on the Warrior, instantly setting Warrior ablaze. Normally, burning would only cause continuous damage, but in this scene, the Warrior screamed and rolled on the ground in agony.

[In addition to its Execute effect, it also has a crushing attack.]

This time, the scene changed to a three-meter-tall Tauren fighting a dwarf.

In the old version of the game: the Tauren was holding a large hammer and smashed it down on the gnome's head, then a red damage number appeared, but the gnome was still alive and kicking.

The new version of the game: Below is the updated screen. The Tauren smashed down with his hammer, knocking the dwarf to the ground, where he lay there unable to get up.

[Crushing attacks can deal massive damage and inflict critical wounds or death on the target, rendering them unable to move or perform any actions. Healing spells can remove these effects. Crushing attacks are more likely to be executed when a large creature attacks a small creature, and powerful spells can also produce similar effects.]

[Of course, large creatures also have their weaknesses; we've made some modifications to counter area-of-effect spells.]

In the old version of the game: In the scene, a mage casts a Rain of Fire on three monsters: a Kobold one meter tall, a human two meters tall, and an ogre three meters tall. All three lose health. Since the ogre has the highest health, it doesn't die, while the Kobold, having the lowest health, is burned to death.

The new version of the game is different this time. When the Kobold are attacked by the Rain of Fire, they take the least damage, while the humans take normal damage, and the ogres take significantly more damage.

[As shown in the image, each flame in the Rain of Fire deals damage individually. Because larger creatures cover a larger area when attacked by area-of-effect spells, they will take more damage. Smaller creatures take less damage and may even be able to avoid the damage altogether.]

The screen constantly changes, showcasing a comparison between the game before and after the update.

Xiao Yu was increasingly surprised as he looked at the game. He thought to himself, "Good heavens, this is incredible!" He had always felt that some of the game's designs were problematic and completely different from those in the novel. For example, in the novel, if a strong man chopped someone on the head with an axe, he would definitely die, even if he was Varian Wrynn.

However, the introduction of health bars in the game changed many things. As long as the health bar wasn't empty, you wouldn't die, which often resulted in very awkward scenes during battles. But now, all of that seems to have changed.

However, this was actually good news for him, because elemental creatures only have their elemental cores as their vital point, and these cores are hidden within the elemental body, making it extremely difficult to deliver Critical Strike. In contrast, humanoid creatures are at a great disadvantage and are easily Execute.

The subsequent content also largely focuses on making the game more realistic.

He continued watching the video and could see that the new patch included a lot of detailed updates. For example, a strike to the arm could cause a crippling effect, reducing attack power; a strike to the leg could cause an amputation effect, reducing movement speed. In short, everything was moving towards a more realistic direction.

Of course, a game is a game, and not everything can be the same as in reality. For example, the health system hasn't been removed. At least for adventurers, depleting the health bar is still the most reliable way to kill a boss.

A ranking system also exists. Although ranking is no longer the sole criterion for measuring combat strength, it can at least objectively illustrate the issue.

Before we knew it, the video had come to an end.

[Since this update may affect the actual effects of some skills, all players will receive a free skill reset upon returning to the game. You can redesign your skill set and welcome back to continue your adventure in the Sky World – endless wonders await you!]

Hmm, that's good news. Xiao Yu was already quite impatient.

Finally, the maintenance time arrived, Xiao Yu couldn't wait to crawl into the game pod and put on his life support device.

One last look at the familiar surroundings of the room, goodbye reality, I'm off to fight again. I've come to the Sky World, I hope you really are as fun as the videos claim.

PS: This is the last chapter in the public chapters. Starting tomorrow, this book will be officially available for purchase. I hope my dear readers will support the author.

Writing is really not easy. It took two months of hard work to get this book published. I hope readers can understand the author's hard work, subscribe to this book, and support the original version.