The Fourth Calamity: People in High Martial Arts, Gods in Games

Chapter 3: Don't panic, everyone. I'm familiar with this process.

"All tests are complete."

"Troublesome, we'll have to do it all over again later."

Lin Qi watched as Fang Zhen slowly dissipated and turned into ashes on the ground, and couldn't help but sigh. Being an NPC is really not easy. Then he glanced at the time displayed on his wrist and added a few words to the Fang Zhen column in his notebook.

The maximum time is 2 hours, 23 minutes and 14 seconds.

Bodily perception: Poor.

Overall rating: Pre-senior class of kindergarten.

"Without protection, this is about the limit of their resistance to contamination. It seems necessary to purchase a batch of protective equipment." Lin Qi thought of the few bits he had left, and his head started to ache.

The dangers in the wild are not just monsters, but also many places contaminated by radiation. Generally, without the ability to withstand radiation contamination for five or six hours, it is difficult to survive in the wild.

In addition, people with keen senses about their physical condition can survive for a long time in the wild.

These individuals can quickly move away from contaminated areas the moment they enter, thus avoiding long-term radiation poisoning.

Players like Fang Zhen are clearly not included in this category.

He had previously borrowed 30,000 bits from the Gorilla Gang. After deducting the cost of purchasing weapons, repaying Luo Qi, and operating the martial arts school's generator, 18500 bits were gone.

In addition, the food and water he needed to recover over the past few days cost another 495 bits.

In addition, the hospital provides 2500 bits per month, bringing the total to 21495 bits.

If you let players farm, you have to take care of their daily food and drink. The minimum daily food and drink consumption for a player is a box of high-protein biscuits and a bottle of water, which is about 3 bits a day. The daily cost for one person is not much.

With the money he has now, he could easily support ten players, or even twenty or thirty, until they watched him go to meet those gorillas.

But growing blood rice is a different story.

The required land area for planting one plant of Blood Essence Rice is 4 square meters, and one plant can produce 10 grams of Blood Essence Rice.

To produce one pound of Blood Essence Rice, you need 200 square meters of energy land.

To earn 30,000 yuan a month, you need to cultivate at least 30,000 square meters in the wild. If you plant in three separate batches, that would require 10,000 square meters. And that doesn't even include the cost of seeds and water.

There are very few energy-rich areas in the wild that are relatively safe. The energy-rich areas closer to the city are almost all controlled by the major gangs of the City of Light. The few remaining ones are fought over by countless undocumented immigrants, so it is very difficult to find hidden energy-rich areas.

In areas closer to the city, the planting area is either very small or scattered, making it easy to spot but difficult to manage.

In areas far from the city, monsters are very active, and the risk of traveling back and forth is extremely high. If you get robbed along the way, you'll have nowhere to turn for help.

Adding another piece of protective equipment would undoubtedly increase the risk for players farming and making money. If a player dies in the wild, the protective equipment is essentially useless. However, without protective equipment, it's difficult for players to operate in the wild, making it a dilemma.

"Good heavens! A set of second-hand wilderness protection equipment costs 3000 bits?" Lin Qi glanced at the price displayed on his watch, and almost without hesitation, he turned it off. Feeling offended, he took out his notebook and flipped through it. "Looks like we can only execute Plan B. Although we'll die many more times, it's safer."

Obsidian Martial Arts Academy was originally the city center of the City of Light, but it became an abandoned area due to the battle against the beast tide and various forms of radiation pollution.

Although most of the abandoned area is polluted, as the former city center, it still contains many energy veins underground. Even though they have long been dug out, the energy contained underground is still abundant.

It can be said that as long as one is willing to spend time and manpower to develop underground planting, even if many places are polluted and unusable, the income from those places that can be planted is not low.

At least personally, he thinks it highly, even though it's less profitable and takes longer than planting in the wild.

"Next is the reward system that drives those players."

Thinking of this, Lin Qi couldn't help but touch the pockets of his clothes. As the founder of a game technology company, Lin Qi knew all too well what players were thinking. It was impossible to get players for free, but he could offer decent rewards.

Then there is no one in the whole world more insane or more dedicated to grinding than players.

However, Lin Qi searched for a long time but couldn't find anything decent, especially since he was a martial arts school owner and couldn't be too shabby.

Just as Lin Qi was about to open his watch and search for secondhand goods, he suddenly caught a glimpse of elementary school textbooks scattered on the floor of the passageway.

Fitness breathing techniques!

"Great! This is it!" Lin Qi strode over, picked up the half-broken fitness breathing technique, and nodded in satisfaction. "Luckily, the players don't understand the language in this world. All I need to do is copy it down and change the name to 'Surprising Breathing Technique.' If they can't practice it well, then it's a matter of their talent."

……

In Fang Zhen's live stream, Fang Zhen stared at the "High Martial Arts Descend" icon displayed in the virtual pod, lost in thought for a long time.

"Brothers, was I just playing 'High Martial Arts Descend'?" Fang Zhen couldn't help but ask the viewers in the live stream, completely unable to believe it was real.

That texture! That feel!

And that stinging sensation in my body!

It looks exactly like the real thing! It's so realistic!

"Zhen-ge, you're such a good actor. Tell me, did the game company pay you?"

"Brother Zhen, your performance just now was absolutely amazing! I thought you were really kidnapped."

"The streamer is amazing. This is the first time I've ever watched a live stream. To watch someone do squats for two hours without even breaking a sweat, that stamina is truly enviable."

The viewers in the live stream, seeing Fang Zhen's surprised expression, couldn't help but tease him, thinking that Fang Zhen was too pretentious. It was just a game, but he was making it seem like a real one.

"Zhen-ge, you've been doing squats for two hours now. How's the virtuality of this game? Is it realistic?"

"You, Brother Zhen has been doing squats for two hours, isn't that convincing enough?"

"But this game is a bit difficult at the beginning. It starts with two hours of squatting. Brother Zhen died before he even left the room. The game developers are definitely doing this on purpose. They just don't want people to refund their money."

The audience, seeing Fang Zhen still in a daze, asked him questions out of curiosity.

Live streaming virtual games is like watching a movie; viewers can't be truly immersed in the experience. There are only two perspectives: a third-party perspective and a player's perspective. You could say that apart from the picture quality, you can't really feel anything.

"Virtuality? Is it really that real?" Fang Zhen looked at the screen and his eyes grew brighter and brighter. His voice even trembled slightly as he said, "Brothers! I can only tell you, I've never played such a realistic game before. The realism is truly unprecedented. I can't praise it enough. This game is definitely the masterpiece of the year, and it will definitely become a global phenomenon in the future!"

"Other masterpieces with a virtuality of over 75% do a good job in terms of gravity and motion systems, but they are far inferior to High Martial Arts Arrival. I can even feel the fatigue in my body every time I do a squat, especially the sharp pain in my body when I die, which is very clear and just like the real thing. Saying that the virtuality is 100% is not an exaggeration."

"However, this game also has some flaws. For example, there is no tutorial or game window. I didn't even know how to log off after I entered. There is also no character customization system. The appearance and body shape are 100% restored right from the start, giving you no chance at all."

"Also, the game is too difficult for beginners. There are two thousand squats right from the start. Players without enough perseverance probably can't complete it. We need to ask the developers to rework it properly, otherwise it's too discouraging for new players."

As Fang Zhen spoke about his experience with the arrival of high-level martial arts, he also pointed out some of its shortcomings. Although he mentioned quite a few shortcomings, Fang Zhen's gaze grew increasingly intense as he spoke.

Second spring!

Fang Zhen felt like his second spring had arrived!

The professional esports player's career is very short, generally ending around the age of thirty. Only those top-tier professional esports players can stay until the age of thirty-five, making a fortune.

The latest novel is first published here!

Fang Zhen started playing the currently most popular mech combat game, "Mech Continent," quite late, and due to his advanced age, he struggled to get into it. The professional league teams in Mech Continent are now on the verge of being optimized, making it clearly unlikely that he can achieve anything in the game.

But the arrival of Gao Wu has given Fang Zhen an opportunity.

With a virtuality of up to 100%, you can tell from the name that it's a fighting game. Once it becomes popular, it will definitely form its own professional competitive league. At that time, it won't be a big problem for its popularity to surpass that of Mech Continent, which only has a virtuality of 75%.

As one of the first players to experience the arrival of high-level martial arts, if he can seize the opportunity, it is not impossible for him to become a top player in the professional scene in the future.

"Brother Zhen, although you've given a lot of helpful advice to the newcomers, is there a possibility... that the newcomers simply won't get in?"

"I've already paid for this game a while ago, and it's still telling me I'm in a connection queue."

"No way, 4999 yuan, and you've already paid?"

"What 100% virtuality? It's fake! This is definitely a scam orchestrated by the game developers to have streamers beat the game. They're just lying to people. On the surface, they limit the number of players to ten, but they don't restrict more people from buying and queuing. What else is this but a scam? Real players can't play anyway, so these streamers can hype it up however they want."

"This is obviously the streamer trying to generate buzz. If it were 100% genuine, I'd rave about it."

"Newbie here, is this game real or fake?"

"I don't believe it! Unless you let me play for free!"

As Fang Zhen continued to promote the arrival of high-level martial arts in his live stream, many viewers wanted to try it out. At the same time, many players jumped out and said that Fang Zhen was in cahoots with the game company and was deliberately tricking people into buying the game, which was actually unplayable.

For a time, the live stream was filled with constant arguments, and the popularity continued to rise, subtly challenging the top ten positions in game live streams. This made Gao Wu's fame grow, and the number of players who questioned and were overjoyed also increased.

"Listen to me, everyone. This game is still in the beta testing phase. It's still available for purchase now, so I guess more slots will be released later. If you don't believe me, that's fine. I'm innocent and have nothing to hide. I'll continue streaming this game." Fang Zhen looked at the audience who were constantly shouting and mocking him, and stopped explaining. He decided to strike while the iron was hot. "Family, let's continue. Today, I'm just starting out and I'm not ending the stream."

After saying that, Fang Zhen recharged 648 yuan, and the "High Martial Arts Arrival" icon lit up immediately, no longer being dark gray.

Inside the dimly lit basement, a cold wind still howled, and wailing continued.

"Are there two more people this time?"

Fang Zhen opened his eyes and found that there were two people beside him, a man and a woman wearing gray T-shirts.

The two were both quite young. The man looked to be under twenty, with a somewhat shy student air about him. The woman was twenty-three or twenty-four, with fair skin, long flowing hair, and a touch of heroic spirit between her brows, like a female knight-errant.

The two had just woken up and were somewhat bewildered by their sudden surroundings. They looked around blankly, especially when they saw Lin Qi sitting at the iron table, holding a notebook in one hand and a pen in the other. Their expressions turned somewhat panicked.

Looking at the two flustered people, Fang Zhen felt, for some reason, that his previous depression had vanished and he even felt a sense of accomplishment.

"Don't panic, everyone." Fang Zhen stood up, brushed the mud off his pants, and calmly looked at the two men, saying, "I know this procedure well!"

Upon hearing this, the male student and the female knight-errant calmed down considerably and looked at Fang Zhen, the older brother with a thick beard, as if they had found their pillar of support, completely dispelling their previous anxiety.

"Name?"

"Fang Zhen!"

"age?"

"29!"

"You're getting on in years."

"I believe I still have potential! I can prove it!"

For a moment, Lin Qi and Fang Zhen exchanged questions and answers, and Fang Zhen's responses were all firm and powerful, neither humble nor arrogant, clearly demonstrating the demeanor of a veteran player.

"Alright! Since that's the case, let's prove it." Lin Qi looked at the confident Fang Zhen and nodded in satisfaction. This was a role model for players; his cooperation hadn't been in vain. Lin Qi then picked up an alloy shovel from the ground and threw it directly in front of Fang Zhen. "Turn right at the passage ahead. There's a small warehouse over there. You have two hours and twenty minutes to dig five meters down into the ground and create a 10-cubic-meter space. You can begin!"

During the new book period, Old Cat will update twice a day.

(End of this chapter)