Walking down the huge corridor only seen in the highest temples of the heaven, Qin Hong realized it would take forever to walk there.
Ignoring the gazes of others, he did a quick look at Chen's memories before figuring out how to fly. Activating [Fly Mode] which was located in the status interface at the corner of his vision, his body flew off the ground.
Using mental control, he joined the traffic in the air and quickly approached the [Arrow] located above the door.
While doing so, he could hear faint snickers and gazes from people all around, with occasional sighs. Silently shaking his head mentally, he ignored the players who thought that he was another arrogant rich boy.
Qin Hong pulled out of the traffic and stopped in front of the door he was looking for.
The door looked just like the other doors, in that it was just a portal embedded into the wall with pitch black on the other side. Above the portal was the name 'Cultivation Realm (Classic)' in blue letters that changed language every second. This was ranked 6-Stars.
With some faint anticipation, he moved forward and went into the portal.
As soon as the blackness encased him, his vision went dizzy for a second before light entered his eyes once more.
Looking around, he was in a familiar medieval-style town. Most of the NPC's wore poor medieval clothing with the rest wearing rich clothing. Carriages with beast-like animals pulling them were on the streets while the poor gave way.
Stalls were lined up on the streets as people bargained and conversed loudly, giving the place a lively atmosphere.
You could tell who the players were, as they all had their username above their head. They all wore basic scholarly clothing as new players. Plus, they all looked rich compared to the poor.
All of his senses were active, and he felt nostalgia hit him as if he had returned home. If it wasn't for the absurd-looking armor that some players wore, he might've really believed that he had returned home.
Using his divine sense, excitement was on his face for a second before turning into a frown and disappointment.
At first, he had picked up spiritual energy in the air, which he thought was real for a second. However, he senses something was off and immediately detected the subtle differences.
'Remarkable. I was almost fooled into thinking there was actually spiritual energy here. The creators managed to deduce and represent spiritual energy to a near accurate level. Unfortunately, they couldn't deduce Qi and the heavenly dao, or I might've been fully tricked.'
Once again, he was impressed by technology.
An interface appeared in front of him.
[Welcome to the Cultivation Realm (Classic)!]
[Would you like to go through a basic tutorial? Yes/No]
Qin Hong wasn't going to blindly jump right in, so he clicked [Yes].
The first part of the introduction went through the basics and concepts of cultivation, quite similar to his past life and somewhat accurate. The second part went on about his current location and leveling in this world.
Right now, he was in a beginners town called 'Pendle', located on the boundary between two Northern and Southern medium-sized sects called the 'Zaborg Sect' and the 'Nifitis Sect'.
Most of the names were randomly generated a long time ago from the creators of their country.
The Cultivation Realm is based on a random combination between sects, clans, kingdoms, empires, and dynasties created by the players. Nobody operating them is an NPC.
Each one has different borders affected by the topography of the map.
There's also 'forbidden territories', hidden realms, and spiritual veins which are also present in the real Cultivation Realm.
Not only that, but wars are common between them all and it's not surprising if one is destroyed and disbanded while another one takes control or rises.
Monster clans are also common as some players don't want to be human. They can either be evil or good. Devil clans exist in another realm that occasionally opens, and players can be the invading force attempting to gain territory.
This all happens all the time in 'Sandbox' mode which means one can free roam, accept missions, gain higher cultivation, make guilds, and make their own country.
As for the campaign, the settings usually stay the same, and one plays by themselves on a quest to save the world with everybody being NPC's.
Beginner towns like 'Pendle' are scattered across the Cultivation Realm and are for novices who have just joined. They are generally "safe-havens" for new players for up to a month in-game time, but those who violate the laws placed are kicked out early.
However, beginner towns are excluded from the Gaming Reality EXP system which means you can't level up at all unless you leave.
New players generally can leave and come back for up to a month, while being given easy missions for them to level up their cultivation using the in-game leveling system. Beginner towns are the only places that have NPC's.
Players cannot return to beginner towns after the 1-month time limit. Not even the most powerful cultivator-players can override this option.
While it seems to be a sandbox-type game without laws, that is not true.
The realm is closely monitored by an AI administrator, making sure everything runs smoothly and nothing bad happens.
Moderators are scattered across the lands in order to maintain basic rules, such as stopping torture or bullying towards others. At the same time, ensuring safety, fairness, and good competitiveness.
They are the "knights" of this world that keep the Realm from turning into a cruel place similar to the real Cultivation Realm, where the negative sides of humans are fully exposed.
It can be understood as to why this is 5-Stars, especially for Qin Hong who's experienced the real deal. If it wasn't for those "knights" maintaining basic rules, this game would likely be an 8-Star scenario or even higher.
It can also be understood why they would keep moderators here anyway. If they tried to make it as similar to the real Cultivation Realm, its effects would likely affect the real world in a negative way, causing a cycle of hate and revenge.
Either way, he didn't plan dwelling too much into this game. He only wanted to see how similar it was to the real life one.
'After exploring a little bit, I'll try those other Cultivation games...'