Chapter 135:

The forum was as lively as during a festival.

Previously, the forum had launched a “Test Preview Access” mode, nicknamed “Satisfying Curiosity”, which allowed not only the 60 little players who successfully booked testing slots, but also nearly 200 other players who didn’t get slots to enthusiastically participate in the discussions.

There were two main points of discussion: the seemingly unscientific sleep connection feature.

But this was mainly of interest to engineering students, led by the middle-aged brothers Dump Truck Iaido and Bulldozer Man, along with a group of people from who knows where, but they all seemed very knowledgeable and were arguing heatedly in another thread.

More people were focused on the game content itself, specifically the new “vampire” race mentioned in the announcement.

InvincibleTyrannosaurusCheche: 【My goodness! The hidden quest Niuniu and I did before was about this. It was Lady Tris’ secret experiment, where she seemed to use some special potion to re-weave our spirit projections, instantly transforming us from human mode to vampire mode.】

SisterPomegranateUprootsTheWeepingWillows: 【Who understands the spirit principle behind it! Just say how it felt?】

FeelYouPoor: 【@Sister Pomegranate Uproots The Weeping Willows, not working and playing games here huh? I’ve been undercover for days and finally caught you slacking!

Cow Pomegranate! Private chat!

Immediately!】

SisterPomegranateUprootsTheWeepingWillows: 【Ah! Who are you? Sheesh! Don’t call out real names in the virtual world okay, you jerk, watch me beat you up. Private chat then, who’s afraid of who!】

After that, Sister Pomegranate and that mysterious Feel You Poor disappeared from this thread.

This was immediately noticed by the highly vigilant student Ah Yuen, who promptly called Niuniu on his phone.

After all, everyone knew Sister Pomegranate was Niuniu’s cousin, so this kind of “online family reunion” or “information doxing” drama needed to be reported.

However, others were still interested in discussing the vampire race itself. The thread kept getting new posts, and at others’ request, Cheche shared a short screenrecording and screenshots from when he and Niuniu tested the vampire template.

Posts with images and proof were popular, and the discussion around Cheche’s screenshots and videos became even more heated.

Don’tNeedHandstoShowOff: 【Whoa! Are these character stats for real? 40 points in racial initial values? That’s a full 10 points more than our current human template? No wonder we got stomped by them in the Blood Vulture Halls!

Is this even playable?

Over 25% higher initial stats, did the devs balance this with their feet?

If this race is really convertible, what’s even the point for human players?】

EastRiverLion’sRoar: 【Right! And the character card explains that all transcendent races have 40 initial values? So humans are just the weakest and most pathetic?】

WestValleyWolf’sProwl: 【The worst part is, we are that pathetic chicken! Not fair! This is a totally malicious stat bug, it has to be fixed! Come on, feedback flood the forums!】

AhYuen: 【You guys are just looking at the meat and not seeing the beating, read the whole screenshot properly.

Yes, the vampires have higher initial racial values, but look further down!

Look at the racial traits, there are six of them!

Humans only have three!

But three of those six traits are negative.

Especially this ‘Day’s Curse’, when fighting in daylight it reduces damage by 30%, recovery rate by 50%, and direct sunlight causes an undispellable burning effect!

Doesn’t that mean if you convert to a vampire you’re basically giving up playing during the day? No wonder the vampires in-game only come out at night, except for the eccentric Lord Murphy who roams around in broad daylight.】

TigerLeopardRider-Bing: 【What kind of eye do you have, Lord Murphy doesn’t just “roam around”, he walks the streets like a mummy, haha.】

Heaven’sChosenGrayman: 【Right, he’d rather wrap himself up like a zongzi dumpling, which shows Lord Murphy is also affected by Day’s Curse penalties, but the devs probably made concessions for playability as a main quest NPC.

I mean, how would it work if a major NPC only refreshed at night?

Ah, poor Lord Murphy, having to give us quests while suffering such severe penalties.

My heart goes out to him.】

FatalOrchidHuahua: 【Meow King’s analysis is indeed very reasonable. Previously in-game, I used the Computation Bead to translate some in-game texts, and it’s basically consistent with Meow King’s guesses.

Because the proliferation of vampires is built on the weakening of other races, it represents an irreconcilable existential conflict between the blood clans and all other life.

In other games, this could just be treated as background story flavor. But in this game world striving for 100% realism, any background setting will be reflected in the actual gameplay experience.

We only saw the vampire’s overpowered potential before, but overlooked their role positioning in the real world.

Just the penalties from the “Eternal Sin Descendant” racial trait alone are heavy enough.

Compared to this disadvantage, the advantages vampires possess are honestly not even worth mentioning.】

TigerLeopardRider-Lin: 【So, according to this perspective, the devs made a very clever trade-off in terms of game balance? By boosting individual strength, they sacrificed some gameplay convenience.

From a more macroscopic view, this gives players a lot more to consider when faced with the choice of race conversion.

Moreover, after hearing the descriptions from Meow King and Orchid Huahua, I have an ominous feeling. What if the devs plan to introduce new races later, will they adopt the same approach? Not weakening the individual strength and potential of those transcendent races, but imposing restrictions on gameplay convenience?】

ElectronicSuccubusOldTune: 【Whoa! You make a good point, it’s quite possible! But as you all said, these limitations are built around gameplay and don’t negate the fact that vampire players will still be significantly stronger than human players in individual strength.

In other words, the vampire race is actually quite suited for solo players, power-gamers, and PVP enthusiasts, if this game does eventually introduce PVP content?】

HalfOffWithFullCoverage: 【PVP is definitely coming! It would be such a waste for a game this realistic not to have player versus player combat. The devs won’t miss out on such a major feature, but given their current design approach for new races, I reckon this game’s PVP won’t need to worry about balance.

With the current vampire template, plus the “Night’s Blessing” racial trait and the “Bat Heritage” escape technique, a skilled player in a night environment could easily take on three opponents alone.

Of course, if a vampire dares to strut around brazenly in broad daylight, don’t blame other players for showing no mercy.】

LikeATigerCanEdgeWood: 【No no no, combat is no fun if you just look at stats. If stats = victory, we might as well just play card games, wouldn’t that be more enjoyable?

Although I haven’t gotten a game headset yet, I’ve been lurking on the forum for several days now. Summarizing the information you all have shared so far, in a situation with realism on par with the real world, I’m confident enough.

Even if you have 25% higher stats than me, I can still take you down unscathed.

Of course, that’s assuming this game is truly as realistic as you say.】

HalfOffWithFullCoverage: 【??? Brother, you’re that confident? The combat skills in this game are no joke, the Blood Vulture Sword Arts alone are enough to give me a headache.】

NorthForestDog’sPaddle: 【@TLike A Tiger Can Edge Wood, Brother Mao! Is that you? Brother Mao! Wow, you came too? @Half Off With Full Coverage, don’t underestimate Brother Mao, he’s a top-level expert in our circle. Even when the four of us went all-out, he could still handle us alone. A true technical master.】

SouthMountainTiger’sHowl: 【Bowing to Brother Mao! Weren’t you recently abroad for a competition? Are you back in the country now?】

LikeATigerCanEdgeWood: 【Nah, still in the Middle East, but I’ll be back in two days. With some luck I might even snag a game headset, then we can all play together, hahahaha.】

EastRiverLion’sRoar: 【No way! If Brother Mao is coming, the four of us brothers are teaming up with you. But how did you find out about this forum? Thought you weren’t really interested in online stuff?】

OnboardJoyStick: 【Heheh, how did Brother Mao find out? Of course I brought him in! The brothers are preparing to form a big guild, a scene legend like Brother Mao has to be utilized properly, it’d be a waste of years of friendship otherwise.】

DumpTruckIaido: 【Game headsets are definitely available, I’ve basically figured out this game’s system. The number of test invitation codes distributed is clearly related to the population of Lord Murphy’s territory. Remember the 20 slots released all at once before the Blood Vulture Halls raid?

That coincided perfectly with when the survivor’s camp finished their population census. I haven’t figured out the exact ratio yet, but the rollout of the administration system and jobs is obviously laying the groundwork for this.

So if we want more brothers to join in, we’ll have to play as ‘slave traders’ in-game.

The more territory population, the more player slots.】

LikeATigerCanEdgeWood: 【??? Wait, why did a courier just deliver something to my hotel room? Damn, that’s insane service! Let me open it up and see.】

AhYuen: 【@Precipitation Niuniu Is Not Afraid of Difficulties, Niuniu! What’s the situation with Sister Pomegranate? Did you get in touch with her? Was she doxed? Hurry up and say, the brothers and I are ready to call the cops anytime.】

PrecipitationNiuniuIsNotAfraidofDifficulties: 【It’s fine, I got in touch with her. That ‘Feel You Poor’ isn’t a bad guy. Uh, it’s her boss. Don’t know how he also got into the forum, caught my sis red-handed playing the forum while at work and wearing the headset.

She’s negotiating her resignation now.

Damn, unlucky.】

Everyone on the forum: 【Moment of silence】