Jiang Qiao arrived in the relatively spacious living room, took out his phone, and opened the latest version of the game app.
This version of the app was unique to Jiang Qiao, while other players' apps only had one function to log into the game...
But Jiang Qiao's app had a bunch of new functions created by the creator, Jiang Qiao himself.
The most important of these functions was the 'Abyss Rift'.
Jiang Qiao clicked on the Abyss Rift option, and a map of Jiang City, the city where Jiang Qiao was located, instantly appeared on the screen. The map currently showed nothing.
When the spatial rifts of the invading dimension opened on Blue Star and monsters began to invade the city, the map would show the location of the spatial rifts.
Then came the core gameplay, Abyss Hunting!
"Hai Lan, lift my summoning restriction," Jiang Qiao said.
"It's already lifted, but the world barrier of Blue Star is still very stable. Summoning your character here will consume a lot of energy," Hai Lan said.
Hai Lan walked out of Jiang Qiao's kitchen with a basket of strawberries, warning him while munching on them.
"How much energy will it consume?" Jiang Qiao glanced at his phone screen.
In the Abyss Rift interface, the only summoning option turned from gray to yellow, indicating that Jiang Qiao could use the summoning option.
"About three hundred units of energy. That amount could build a city in my world," Hai Lan said with a pained expression, though she kept stuffing strawberries into her mouth, making her voice sound a bit muffled.
Jiang Qiao felt a bit heartbroken seeing her nearly finish off the big bag of strawberries he just bought, but what hurt him the most was…
"Three hundred? Why don't you just rob me? No, why doesn't Blue Star rob me instead!"
Jiang Qiao had experienced the creator state and knew what three hundred units of energy could create.
The daily maintenance cost of the game was only fifty units of energy, with the biggest drain being the daily refresh of monsters and equipment.
Currently, tens of thousands of monsters were active on a 240-square-kilometer map, each consuming only about zero point zero zero zero one units of energy.
Energy consumption only spiked significantly when creating new monsters, new equipment, or new cities.
"Because your character knows magic! Blue Star has no magic! When the invading dimension tears this world's rule barriers apart, summoning game characters near the spatial rifts won't consume as much energy," Hai Lan said.
"So it's a rift-exclusive feature? Let's give it a try first; I need to ensure there are no problems," Jiang Qiao said.
Jiang Qiao sat on the sofa and clicked on the summoning option, feeling his consciousness immediately being stripped away. When he opened his eyes again, he saw himself sitting on the sofa.
"I was mentally prepared, but to actually summon it is still unbelievable…"
Jiang Qiao looked incredulously at his own hands, wearing the Spirit Light Gloves dropped by the Wild Boar King.
To further confirm, Jiang Qiao went to the floor-to-ceiling mirror in the living room to check his appearance… It was indeed the summoner character who had hammered the Wild Boar King with Water and Fire Spirits in the game!
The mysterious inscriptions on the light blue robe emitted a dim glow. The face under the hood looked more delicate than Jiang Qiao's real appearance, with dark gray hair.
Jiang Qiao could still see the game interface in his view; health, mana, experience, inventory, and other options were all there, though the mailbox and some social functions were grayed out.
Simultaneously, Jiang Qiao felt a special power flowing within him—this was probably the so-called magic power.
Water Spirit Summon!
Jiang Qiao's left hand manifested complex runes, and about five seconds of chanting later, a blob of azure liquid appeared beside him, suspended in mid-air with two eyes staring blankly at Jiang Qiao.
"This feeling is really… exhilarating," Jiang Qiao said with a smile as he looked at the floating Water Spirit, which also smiled back, blowing a bubble.
At that moment, Jiang Qiao felt a subtle connection with this elemental creation.
If this were in the game world, Jiang Qiao would feel nothing special, but having magic powers from the game in the real world was an experience every player would yearn for.
This made Jiang Qiao quite fond of his 'summoner' character's body. He sat back on the sofa in this form, sitting next to his real-world body, placing his Magic Wand aside, and picking up a bottle of cola from the table to open it.
"Three hundred units of energy just to stay in the real world for ten minutes," Hai Lan said, suddenly appearing in front of Jiang Qiao, snatching the cola from his hand. "If you stay any longer, it will cost even more!"
"I'm just trying to perfect this function further. Besides, those strawberries you're eating are quite expensive," Jiang Qiao said.
Jiang Qiao signaled the Water Spirit to extend a tendril and retrieve the cola from Hai Lan. Hearing the word 'strawberry,' Hai Lan guiltily stuffed a few more into her mouth and stopped criticizing Jiang Qiao.
"First, we need to make sure game characters can't touch objects in the real world," Jiang Qiao said, shaking the cola without drinking it. Game characters didn't have taste perception—they were set as 'Spiritual Bodies,' heroes existing to purify evil beings.
"Why do that?" Hai Lan asked.
"Not all players controlling game characters are good people, and suddenly having such power in the real world can lead to losing oneself," Jiang Qiao said.
Jiang Qiao summoned another Fire Spirit with a wave, but quickly dismissed it. If a fire started, he'd have nowhere to live.
Having such powerful abilities in the real world, without worrying about exposing identity, could easily turn any MMORPG into a robbery game.
Also, many player skills were AOE; if they harmed ordinary people, the public reaction would be very negative.
"We should modify attack and attack-type skills to only affect invading dimension monsters, but should healing skills be modified this way too?" Hai Lan asked, placing the empty strawberry basket on the table.
"Healing actually works?" Jiang Qiao immediately realized the impact this game could have on modern society.
It might lead to an era where everyone practices cultivation… no, levels up.
"Yes, but don't think Resurrection Technique will work on people from this world. I don't yet have enough energy to alter Blue Star's reincarnation rules; it might work for fragments of other worlds, though," Hai Lan said.
"Regular healing is enough! Healing effects don't need to be changed! Also, when players want to use their game characters to save people… this requires a complex determination system. I'd better modify it in the creator state," Jiang Qiao said.
Jiang Qiao discussed until he concluded this summoning. When his consciousness returned to his original body, the summoner had disappeared, and the Water Spirit had turned into an ordinary puddle on the floor.