Fang Yue tapped on the thread and read it word by word. He studied it carefully for almost 10 minutes before he finished reading the thread that contained just over 50 words.
No matter how he read it, he only understood one thing from the contents: the thread was aggrandizing him.
The thread glorified him boundlessly, but the contents and writing were beautifully crafted, so much so that Fang Yue felt enticed and happy after reading it. He moved his mouse to the top of the thread and gave it an upvote.
Upvote!
Unfortunately, when he scrolled down the thread, the contents were all mocking him.
"NightDawn? Which punk is that? I've never heard of him."
"You didn't log into Blue Ocean today, didja? That punk got first blood on some Wicked, and the whole forum is idolizing him as a god. Disgusting.'
"The world's top braggart! I got a lucky gift from the watch and had a great start in Blue Ocean, but my martial arts practice is progressing like a snail. I can't even kill the weakest Wicked out there, so how did that punk even get first blood? He must have used some trickery or shortcuts!"
"So much jealousy from you, dude! Anyway, it has only been 2 hours plus since the server started. No matter what kind of super martial arts you practice, the best it can do is to boost 0.1 to 0.5 Control or Block. It's freaking slow. I don't believe someone can kill a Wicked with raw strength."
All the replies in the thread doubted Fang Yue's achievement.
The instincts and keen eyes of the pro gamers allowed them to quickly grasp the concept of the game and understand how the stats worked, hence fueling their doubts about Fang Yue.
Theoretically speaking, they were right. If it was not for the extra 32 points from [Night Breathing], Fang Yue was no match against even the weakest Newborn Wicked.
As for the others, even if they had the talent like Superstrength or a headstart in cultivation, they might not even achieve 10 points in their stats. Without at least 10 points in their stats, killing a Wicked was impossible.
Therefore, the only way to kill a Wicked in the current stage was to resort to trickery or rely on their quick wits. There might be only a handful of other players that killed a Wicked as Fang Yue did with his bare hands.
Fang Yue could not bear the doubts in the replies. Annoyed, he returned to the main page of the forum and looked at the other threads.
The opening of Blue Ocean's server, a brand new game that transcended beyond technologies and generation, was the perfect timing for pro gamers to be active online.
Therefore, most of the content on the main page was about Blue Ocean. Some were simple guides whilst some were rules that players found out through exploration.
There were also threads asking about the game's lore and background, so all kinds of content flooded the forum and refreshed quickly.
A lot of the threads were locked behind a paywall, thus one had to pay to access the content.
Fang Yue also started a thread himself. He basically listed down the information that he had sold to Shi Wuliao and the others, the Full Guide of Attributes, in the forum and locked it with a price of 0.1 yuan. It was basically free.
After posting his thread, he continued surfing the forum. More specifically, he went for those analytic threads that were free so that he could get more information himself.
He was looking at a thread about character creation.
All players did not have a character creation session when they entered the game. When they logged into the game, they were randomly given a body to start as though they reincarnated into someone else's body.
However, the random start was not actually arbitrary. The game collected data on the players and matched them with the most suitable background and body.
Female players who were attractive in real life would usually get a female body with a similar level of beauty. In other instances, children in real life would usually get the body and identity of a child in the game.
In order to make sure everyone had a normal body to start the game, they were randomly placed in different locations or villages.
Most of the players went into the game as refugees.
The 'refugees' fled to their starting location due to some catastrophic events. Therefore, their backgrounds were basically blank slates. No one would be able to find out where they came from.
A handful of players with the lucky gift from the watch would start the game with a special status or identity.
Other than that, if the refugees in a certain village were all children and elderly folks, the game would not send a player there because it did not match the criteria.
Of course, there were also mistakes in matching. Some male players would get the body of a female in the game or vice versa. However, the game did not mention a way to solve it yet. Still, it was just the beginning, so there ought to be bugs and errors everywhere.
Nevertheless, Fang Yue was not overly concerned by the little mistakes. He spent more attention on how to start practicing martial arts and how to effectively increase his stats.
Unfortunately, most of those guides required money and were quite pricey as well.
At the early stage of the game, such guides were usually the most valuable.
After hesitating for a while, he decided to buy access to a trending thread about martial arts. Fortunately, his money was well spent because after reading the thread, he got a lot more understanding of martial arts.
While riding on his own excitement and the bonus he had gotten for the night, Fang Yue bought access to two more threads, but the following contents were rather lackluster. He got angry and roasted the owner of the threads, but the forum silenced him for 24 hours.
Annoyed, he was forced to be mute for the next 24 hours. He continued searching for free threads on the forum.
When the alarm on his phone rang, Fang Yue went off the forum and wanted to go back into the game.
It was then that he noticed the parchment that he had put on the table.
A quick thought later, Fang Yue held the parchment in his hand, and a line of words appeared.
[I made money in Blue Ocean. The parchment is right.]
[As long as I believe the parchment, I will become a millionaire!]
[Now, I have to go back into the game and continue to get stronger.]
[Blue Ocean has just started and time is valuable. I shouldn't spend too much time in real life.]
"This thing is asking me to go back into the game…Does it mean there are more opportunities in the game for me?"
Excited, he put down the parchment and climbed into his bed. He tapped on the round screen on his watch.
"Log in!"
After Fang Yue went back into the game, a new line of words appeared on the parchment.
[Why is this idiot out here? The game! The game, you idiot! Go back in!]
[Doesn't he understand that time is valuable in the game now? Hmph, a pro gamer?! You must be faster than the others to maintain the lead, you stupid imbecile!]
[Argh! I'm so annoyed! If you don't work hard now, you will regret it later!]
Even though they were just words on the parchment, the tone was clear—the parchment was rather angry.
Annoyed, the parchment deleted the words, but unlike the fading effect from before, the words were chopped off like biscuits, disappearing with soft crunches around the edges.
It seemed like the parchment was expressing its own emotions.
…
Back in the game, Fang Yue opened his eyes. He was still in the same position from when he left, but he no longer felt numb in his legs. They felt warm instead.
He looked up into the sky and found that the rain had stopped.
The guards, who had umbrellas opened when he left, had kept the umbrellas away.
The oil-paper umbrellas seemed expensive because there was barely anyone holding an umbrella on his way here. Only the patrolling guards held umbrellas.
Other than that, the buildings in the village seemed to block the rain perfectly. Most of the villagers stayed indoors during the rain.
A while later, Lord Han arrived. "It's almost time. How are you feeling?"
Fang Yue stretched his legs. Even though there was still slight numbness, it was a lot better.
"I feel a lot better."
"Great."