Gamers Are Fierce-Chapter 769 - 767 Forum

"The forum is really bustling."

Sitting in front of the computer screen, Li Ang scrolled the mouse wheel, marveling.

In another hour, the registration for the Gate Contest would close.

Over the past ten days or so, the number of active accounts on the forum, as well as the volume of posts and replies, had grown almost exponentially.

Popular threads with hundreds, even thousands, of replies were everywhere. New posts were quickly buried at the bottom of the page, forcing the forum administrators to create more sub-forums to manage the traffic.

These posts could essentially be categorized into the following types.

Chit-chat type.

Posts like "Post the seventh photo in your phone gallery, I'll kiss them!"

"Got any pictures that'll make people die laughing at a glance?"

"What's your take on the forum's recent trend of 'How do you evaluate XXX' posts?"

"My sister-in-law has leveled up to Lv20. Do you guys think I should persuade her not to join the Gate Contest?"

These posts could basically be categorized as lifestyle content, similar in quality to traditional forums, and sometimes featured scandalous stories of dubious veracity.

Stories like meeting a Goblin Elf beauty produced by the Demon Scientist Alliance on a blind date app;

Breaking up with a girlfriend he had been through thick and thin with for many years, only to find out her father, brother, and younger brother were all Lv20 players who claimed they'd break his legs on sight;

During a wedding, the bride's parents suddenly demanded a dowry of half a million. The fiancée, both embarrassed and furious, knelt before her parents in desperation. Amidst the awkward scene, the grandfather, who had been paralyzed and wheelchair-bound for years, suddenly stood up. He slapped down a Citibank black card, declaring he was a Guest Elder at Prometheus Laboratory Company and proclaiming there were ten million US dollars on the card for the young couple to spend as they wished.

The content of these posts reached the heights of absurdity, ninety percent falsehood mixed with a speck of truth, leaving readers gobsmacked and irresistibly hooked.

Then there were the bragging type.

"What's it like for a Lone Wolf Player to climb to the 60th floor of the Sky Fighting Arena? I'll use my personal experience to prove that all the inequalities in the world are due to a person's own lack of ability."

"I got to dine with a high-ranking member of the Demon Scientist Alliance, and we had a chat about the current power dynamics among the major forces."

"Take a good look, everyone, Gen-Sys Biotech Company is definitely going to shine in the Gate Contest. Their foundation is no weaker than any other guild."

These posts didn't fundamentally differ from the previous ones, except they sprinkled in some content from the dueling game itself.

Despite the poster's efforts to elevate their coolness by adopting an "I know a lot of secrets that you don't" attitude, or an "I'm not awesome, but I know lots of awesome people" stance, they would still reveal their weakness in the details, leaving loopholes.

For instance, one poster might claim in the first comment to know Prometheus Company's high-ups, only to be contradicted in a subsequent reply by the real person asking, "Who the hell are you?" This, in turn, would trigger a cascade of ridicule and laughter from the commenters below.

All they could do was stubbornly persist, declaring things like, "Those who know, know. Those who don't, won't understand even if told, so it's better not to say."

"Don't ask me what's going on. The interests involved are too great; talking about it won't do you any good. Just pretend you don't know."

"All I can say is that the waters are deep here, with many big figures and guilds involved. It's very hard for you to find detailed information on your own; most of it has been wiped from the internet."

The result was just more mockery.

Of course, as a forum with massive traffic, some normal, professional strategy posts were still produced.

For example, "The Fastest and Most Reasonable Method to Level Up in Sixteen Days, Also Applicable to Lone Wolf Players."

"Recommendations for All Kinds of Conscientious Shops in the Square, with the Immaculate Furnace, Dreamweaver Hat Shop, and Qiqiao Hall Added on the 18th."

"Recommendations for the Most Cost-Effective Equipment Easily Acquired."

"In-Depth Analysis of Equipment Special Effect Synergies: Most Efficient Use of Every Point of Spirit Energy Value."

"Space-Saving Tips for Your Inventory—Rational Use of Extraordinary Food."

The titles of these posts were plain and simple, and the content was very practical. Even Li Ang would occasionally take a peek.

Of course, the collection of guides occasionally included some posts disguised as strategy threads but were actually quite nonsensical.

For instance, "The Adaptation Relationship Between the True Dragon and Tiger Nine Immortal Sutra and Modern Weapons."

That post claimed that the Taoism Cavern contained a scripture called the True Dragon and Tiger Nine Immortal Sutra, in which there was a passage: "Refine essence into the sword, wander through the four realms, able to repay kindness and avenge wrongs, he is called a martyr."

This could be regarded as a primary textbook for the art of sword flight.

Traditional Sword Immortals would refine swords and daggers. The sword moved with their will; when their intent moved, the sword moved. Eventually, they reached the level of flying swords thousands of miles to behead demons or riding the sword themselves.

If you were to replace the sword or dagger with a ballistic missile, flying while standing or sitting on it, then you could significantly reduce the consumption of Spirit Energy Value during sword flight and greatly enhance the killing and intimidating effects of the flying sword.

The issue would be that Sword Cultivators themselves might need to take wind protection measures and possess a robust constitution to survive the blast wave when the missile sword hit its target.

The question then arose: if said Sword Cultivator could withstand the Mach 10 wind impact during flight and ignore the shockwave produced by a ballistic missile's explosion...

With that kind of physique, why wouldn't they just charge forward and smash the enemy's head into their chest with a single punch?

There was also, "A Rational Discussion: If One Forsakes All Other Attributes and Only Increases Charm, Can a Lv20 Player Pursue a Summoning Path?"

In this post, the author discussed the feasibility of a Charm-based character build.

If a Lv1 newbie player was naturally beautiful, they might start with 7 Charm Attribute points.

By the time they reached Lv20, they would have 20 free attribute points. With Traits, nicknames, and equipment bonuses, their Charm Attribute could probably break the 30-point barrier.

Such players would naturally have very weak combat abilities.

But what if one took a different approach, pursuing no combat abilities and relying solely on ultra-high Charm to kidnap the final boss in storyline missions?

Some story worlds had native powerhouses not inferior to Lv20 players.

Players with a Charm Attribute over 30 points could, theoretically, rely on their divine beauty, combined with various Charm Skills and items like PokeBalls and Dragon Man Slave Collars, to directly capture the final boss and even bring them out of the story world to serve as their own guards and summons.

Even against monsters that lacked intelligence and aesthetic sense (such as Zombies), they could release a large number of guards to clear all obstacles for them.

This Charm path (or Recruitment path, or Freeloading path, as some might call it) sounded somewhat plausible. One could find a few reliable teammates for help in the early stages, muddle through until Lv10, and then start trying to recruit scenario bosses.

Once developed in the later stages, a player could just toss out ten PokeBalls and release ten strong hitters comparable to Lv20 players, becoming basically invincible. Even players in the top hundred of the leaderboard would probably fall victim.

However, the Charm path had a fatal flaw: the great power did not truly belong to oneself.

If one encountered a storyline task that sealed equipment or item slots, they might as well find a place to dig their own grave.