"You can slowly explore the martial arts arena's functions," the cyan-shirted man said. "I'm going to brief you next about the combat space in the game world."
Xu Jingming nodded.
Life Evolution's world was mainly divided into three main components: personal space, mission space, and combat space.
Whoosh.
The cyan-shirted man waved his hand, and an image appeared in front of him—five figures were choosing weapons and armor.
"The combat space allows five people to choose weapons and armor… They will subsequently enter the map and engage in a life-and-death battle with five members from the opposing team. One side wins when everyone from the other side is all dead." The cyan-shirted man waved his hand again as he spoke, and the scene turned into an ancient town.
It was drizzling in the small town.
A total of ten people were scattered around the town.
Swish!
An arrow tore through the rain and shot at the enemy.
The enemy hiding on the roof sensed the disturbance, but the arrow was so fast that the enemy didn't have the time to react other than turning his head. The arrow pierced through the enemy's head, and the moment it did, the enemy turned ethereal and dispersed, leaving the map.
"Die!" A valiant man ran over to the archer who had shot the arrow while throwing his short spear.
He repeatedly threw out one short spear after another! On his back were two quivers of short spears.
The archer was so frightened that he shot his bow and arrow back as he fled. It was obvious that his aim wasn't accurate at all in his panic; he failed to touch the other party.
Halfway through his escape, he was stabbed in the chest by a short spear. His leather armor was penetrated, and the archer turned ethereal and dispersed.
"All of you only know how to attack from afar. How boring." A stout 2.1-meter-tall man wearing heavy armor that only revealed his head sat in the middle of the town. He held a wine jar and drank as his voice echoed throughout the town. "If you have the guts, come fight me one-on-one."
"You silly bear, I'll fight you." A female swordswoman in red light armor strode out.
...
The scene of metal-meets-flesh combat—arrows, short spears, axes, spears, swords… made Xu Jingming's heart race. Weaponry combat—the most dangerous kind of combat in his first 20 years of life—was the scene in front of him!
There are all kinds of safety measures in real-life weaponry combat. How can one fight to their heart's content? Xu Jingming was thrilled. This was the most suitable stage for him.
"The combat space allows five teammates to fight the other five opponents with weapons," the cyan-shirted man said. "You can choose heavy armor, but your movement will be greatly affected. Choosing light soft armor will result in weak defense. You can decide on what suits you best."
"Long-range attacks, melee attacks, ambushes…" The cyan-shirted man smiled and said, "Because the game has just begun, their combat standards are relatively weak. This battle in front of us is already quite a good fight that was live-streamed, but there are still many problems. When it's 5v5, what's most important is teamwork."
"Of course, if you are strong enough, you can wipe out all five people yourself. That would be impressive." The cyan-shirted man smiled and said, "But high-level combat will only be composed by the best experts on Earth. Weaponry combat techniques, combat strategy, and teamwork are all very important."
Xu Jingming nodded. "5v5? There's no 1v1?"
"Not yet." The cyan-shirted man said, "This virtual game's core game mode is to have five people team up and fight with cold weapons."
Xu Jingming understood, but his eyes burned.
Every professional gladiator yearned for such a cold weapon brawl the most. Moreover, the best part was that a successful kill in-game would only result in the loss of a round.
"Every player is divided into different levels depending on their strength," the cyan-shirted man said. "From weakest to strongest, it's Starry Sky, Silver Moon, Radiant Sun, and finally Divine.
"A Starry Sky player is a newbie.
"The basic combat strength threshold for Silver Moon players is 150.
"The basic combat strength threshold for Radiant Sun players is 400.
"The basic combat strength threshold for Divine players is 1,000."
"There are two ways to raise your level. The first method is to max out the stars for the prior level and reach the basic combat strength threshold, allowing you to advance. The other method is to attain 120% of the basic combat strength threshold to participate in the preliminaries. After the preliminaries… you can directly attain the new level."
"For example, a new player's basic combat strength is 480. He can participate in the Radiant Sun preliminaries in his first fight. Once he passes, he will immediately be a Radiant Sun player. There's no need for him to slowly rise up the ranks from Starry Sky," the cyan-shirted man explained.
Xu Jingming nodded slightly and looked at his personal combat strength interface.
Player: Xu Jingming
Genetic Evolutionary Method: Heavenly Python Evolution (Basic 5%) (982 days of practice. No room for improvement)
Physique: 63
Technique: Spearmanship (Lv. 2 71%), Footwork (Lv. 2 11%)
Basic Combat Strength: 756
"My spearmanship and footwork?" Xu Jingming was a little surprised.
"When you were practicing your spearmanship at the martial arts arena, the virtual game automatically determined your spearmanship and footwork," the cyan-shirted man explained.
"How is the basic combat strength of 756 counted?" Xu Jingming asked.
"The stronger the body, the higher the Physique index. 'Technique' represents all kinds of combat techniques. A strong body coupled with powerful combat techniques determines one's basic combat strength," the cyan-shirted man explained.
Xu Jingming nodded slightly and looked at Spearmanship on the interface. He was confident in his spearmanship. A top ten spearmanship in the history of the world is only at Lv. 2, 71%?
Spearmanship can only be improved slowly through actual combat training. It's not that easy. On the other hand, I've only practiced 'Heavenly Python Evolution' once. There's still a lot of room for improvement. Xu Jingming started practicing again.
He repeatedly practiced Heavenly Python Evolution. The game guide, the cyan-shirted man, stood silently to the side.
After practicing for some time.
"Li Miaomiao extends you an invitation." He suddenly received a notification.
Xu Jingming stopped. He was a little tired from practicing, so he tapped gently and accepted the invitation.
Whoosh.
Xu Jingming appeared on a beach and saw a beautiful building in front of him.
Li Miaomiao walked barefoot on the beach and smiled. "Jingming, how is this? This island is mine."
"How much did it cost?" Xu Jingming asked with a smile.
"100,000," Li Miaomiao said. "I specially chose a small island; otherwise, it would be even more expensive."
"It's been six hours since we entered the game, so you should've figured out most of the game, right? Have you watched the live broadcasts?" Li Miaomiao asked.
"Not yet," Xu Jingming said. He had been seriously practicing Heavenly Python Evolution. As a professional gladiator, it was very normal for him to spend hours practicing his stances and various moves. Heavenly Python Evolution was much more powerful than any stance—it fundamentally changed the muscular and skeletal structure, as well as one's order in life. His lifespan could even be doubled, so he was naturally fervent and focused.
"You have to watch the live broadcast." Li Miaomiao brought Xu Jingming to the viewing platform.
A large number of live broadcasts were broadcasted on the viewing platform.
"The live broadcast is very popular," Li Miaomiao said before tapping open one.
An elder sat there and spoke in a composed and confident manner, but there were countless seats below. At this moment, hundreds of people were listening.
Xu Jingming and Li Miaomiao appeared out of thin air and sat in two spots.
With a whoosh, some members of the audience would disappear. People would come and go—a very normal sight.
The elder sat on the podium and said, "Human society changes every time there is a technological change. This is also the time when many people can change their fate, and this time, the birth of a virtual world game will change things even more thoroughly than in the past. For example, live broadcasts… In the past, live broadcasts were about watching videos. Now, I'm the one speaking here onstage while everyone is listening from below. We can even interact in close quarters with each other."
"The martial arts arena allows for any setting. It can be set to a study, a stage, or a concert hall. This will completely revolutionize the live broadcast market and the education market. This is an extremely extensive industry," the elder said.
"Let's go." Li Miaomiao disappeared into thin air with Xu Jingming, while other players entered the live-stream.
In another live broadcast.
Xu Jingming and Li Miaomiao appeared out of thin air. They were sitting in empty seats, and hundreds of players were watching a battle. There was snow in front of them.
In the snow, ten people were fighting to the death with cold weapons.
"We can watch the battle outside the snowy battlefield. We can use magnification and zoom in on the battle scene," Li Miaomiao said.
Xu Jingming tried the function, and he quickly zoomed in on one of the battle scenes. When he zoomed in close, it was like he was three meters away from someone else's fight.
Clang.
A woman blocked an ax with the shield on her left hand and stabbed the sword in her right hand into her enemy's throat. The enemy turned ethereal and dissipated, leaving the map.
"How exciting." Xu Jingming was surprised.
The World Martial Arts Tournament had nothing so thrilling.
"This is what I call a live broadcast." Li Miaomiao sighed with emotion. "Listening to songs will now be like listening to a singer live. When attending class, it's like sitting in a lecture hall and listening to a teacher give a lecture. Watching a fight is akin to being right there and watching up-close."