Alright!

MMO online games are really powerful. With any event set up, the revenue goes up rapidly, which is something other single-player or non-MMO games can’t quite achieve.

However, speaking of which, "Cultivation Fantasy" being able to rank third, besides the hot sale of the Spring Festival limited skins, thanks also to Chen Ba for creating the "Merit White List" mechanism.

Competitors indeed spared no expense!

The biggest spender has to be the game "Brother, Come Chop Me," which imitates Legend where one hit does 999 damage.

This game spent a huge amount to get a spot on the Merit White List from Tianba Studio, just to attract more players to play their game.

Talk about being generous...

Anyway, Chen Ba was shocked by their extravagance. Even though the game was poorly made, they’ve been playing the "one hit 999 damage" trick all these years, he still included them in the Merit White List.

No choice, the offer was too tempting!

The release of the Merit White List, combined with the hot sale of Spring Festival limited skins, directly pulled "Cultivation Fantasy" out of the loss-making operation quagmire.

Not only avoiding loss, but it also took advantage of the Merit White List to heavily profit from the competitors.

The only pity is... 𝕗𝐫𝐞𝕖𝕨𝐞𝗯𝚗𝕠𝘃𝐞𝚕.𝐜𝗼𝚖

Perhaps because "Cultivation Fantasy" has a bug that hasn’t been fixed, the ways to earn Merit increased, and players are upgrading their strength at an unusually fast pace.

The set of cultivation realms of Qi Cultivation, Foundation Establishment, Golden Core, Nascent Soul, Divinity Transformation, Integration, Returning to Void, and Mahayana was initially intended for players to play for a lifetime.

But shortly after the game launched, within months, the top sect list of each server basically broke through to Divinity Transformation Stage through Merit.

Chen Ba was instantly awkward.

No way, is everyone cultivating immortality so fast? Others are struggling, and you’re here playing a speedrun?

"At this rate, it’s just a matter of time, within half a year, top players will breakthrough to Mahayana Stage."

Chen Ba lamented, "Originally, the cultivation realm was prepared to play for four or five years, but it’s suddenly compressed to half a year or a year, isn’t this pace too fast."

High cultivation is one thing.

The key is that there is plenty of Merit, and players are willing to spend Merit to refine various magical treasures and artifacts.

As everyone knows, in the game "Cultivation Fantasy," anything related to Merit is never simple.

Merit treasures and Merit artifacts, each one is more powerful than the last, and with players using such level of divine weapons, their combat power naturally exceeds expectations...

During the Spring Festival at home, Chen Ba felt that the game progression was being stretched out very fast, and the remaining content of "Cultivation Fantasy" probably won’t last much longer.

So he came up with a solution.

Which is when players increase their cultivation level to the Mahayana Stage, change the gameplay and realm system for Mahayana Stage players.

"No more early, mid, late, and perfect stages of Mahayana Stage. Let’s start anew and create an entirely new realm system to forcibly control the game pace..."

Chen Ba proposed several concepts.

Three Calamities and Five Tribulations, Five Decays of Heaven and Man, Nine Difficulties of Becoming Immortal, etc., can be extracted from these concepts for improvement, then added into the game for Mahayana Stage players to continue cultivating.

Taking the Three Calamities and Five Tribulations as an example.

After players breakthrough to Mahayana Stage, they have to experience the tests of Three Calamities and Five Tribulations to become immortal. These Three Calamities and Five Tribulations are actually eight different realms.

This way, the game progression can be controlled, preventing players from speedrunning "Cultivation Fantasy" within half a year and ascending into immortality!

Immortal what?

"Cultivation Fantasy" hasn’t developed any content for the Immortal Realm at all. Chen Ba never planned for players to become immortal within a short time, without struggling for four or five years to become immortal? Dream on!

"I get your point."

Lu yawned and said, "Adding a few transitional realms will prevent players from speedrunning, but I think your worry is quite unnecessary."

MMO online games have severe polarization, and "Cultivation Fantasy" is no exception.

Currently, the top players in the game, that is, the leaders from various sects, their cultivation realms are roughly in the early stages of Divinity Transformation.

But does this represent all players?

The majority of players haven’t broken through to Golden Core Stage yet, most are still stuck in the Foundation Establishment Stage!

So Lu believes that Ba’s concern is a bit too far-fetched. As long as most players’ cultivation levels don’t increase that fast, the game is hard to speedrun.

As for a few big spenders, tireless grinders, or technical masters, it’s normal for them to speedrun the game; after all, they spend far more effort and time than ordinary players.

Maybe when these few top players reach Mahayana Stage, the mainstream majority will only be in the Divinity Transformation Stage...

"Indeed, but adding the Three Calamities and Five Tribulations is still necessary, just in case!"

The first meeting after the holiday ended here, the basic discussion was done, so Chen Ba made a summary, then switched the topic to the new game "Mountain Village Memories."

The new game’s license is hard to obtain!

This is the result of the theme; Chen Ba tried to gather information and found out that the authority seemed to be full of disdain and prejudice against such "supernatural" games.

"The game ending needs to be changed!"

"Change the ending?"

Yang Dong was surprised and said, "Isn’t the ending where Hu Xi uncovers the truth, eliminates the resentment and demonic Qi from Santong Village, and lays the villagers to rest?"

"Yes, but on top of this ending, we need to add a follow-up!"

Chen Ba said helplessly, "After the protagonist Hu Xi finishes all this, when the game is about to end, Hu Xi wakes up from a dream with the sun shining brightly outside."

Everyone: "..."

Are you joking?

Ba, you’ve changed! You used to hate this kind of "waking up, it was just a dream" ending the most, why are you adding it now?

"Then what do you suggest we do?"

Chen Ba was angry and said, "Of course, I know this kind of ending is annoying, but with so many demons, ghosts, and supernatural elements, you can’t say it’s a dream, can you say these are real?"

Truth and falsehood, reality and illusion!

Anyway, they can’t admit that Hu Xi’s experience was real, nor can they confirm it was a dream.

In the worst case, make an open-ended conclusion, leave Hu Xi unable to distinguish what’s true or false, and players won’t know whether Hu Xi is alive or already dead?

"That’s a good idea!"

Yang Dong nodded and said, "This approach is a bit more reliable than just dreaming, and can be more acceptable to players."

"Then let’s do this, the protagonist Hu Xi solves the village’s problem, but also falls deeply into illusions..."

Chen Ba pondered and said, "He doesn’t know whether all he’s experienced is real or just a delusional fantasy after becoming mentally disturbed."

"Likewise, players with a god’s perspective also won’t know whether the protagonist Hu Xi is still alive or has become another bizarre entity!"

Let the players guess.

Anyway, Chen Ba does this to avoid suspicion, preventing criticism that the game promotes superstitious banned content...

"Then in that case, there seems to be room to leave a clue for the sequel ’Mountain Village Memories 2’!"

Luo Ji’s imagination ran wild and said, "Hu Xi resolved the problem in Santong Village but is deeply trapped and unable to save himself, eventually becoming the new village guardian and bizarre entity."

"To unravel the mystery of Santong Village’s strange demise, a beautiful reporter goes to the already abandoned, overgrown Santong Village site to set up camp for investigation..."

"And then meets Hu Xi?"

Chen Ba curled his mouth and said, "Old Luo, you really get it, you figured out the sequel!"

No wonder he’s been a veteran in the gaming industry for so many years; within a short time, he crafted a framework for "Mountain Village Memories 2."

The key is that the sequel storyline proposed by Old Luo has hardly any flaws. If "Mountain Village Memories 2" does come out, the plot would most likely be as he said.

Then let’s do it this way!

To avoid suspicion and to ensure the game passes review smoothly for obtaining a license, slightly modify the ending and hint at the "real ending."

Anyway, players aren’t dumb. Seeing this ending, they definitely won’t believe it’s simply Hu Xi being mentally distressed after learning of his foster father’s death, leading to delusions.

Anyone who believes that is genuinely naive; the true ending has already been hinted at before this scene.