"Strife Continent: Arrival", "Strife Continent: Glory", "Strife Continent: Dragon's Disaster", "Strife Continent: Far Frontier", "Strife Continent: God Descends", "Strife Continent - Embers".
The Earth Federation's super-popular fantasy game, the "Conflict Continent" series has been one of the top ten most popular full-immersion games since it was launched simultaneously across the galaxy nine years ago, and has topped the list several times. With its sophisticated production and perfect numerical values , with interlocking plot chains and a huge world view, the Continent of Dispute has had 180 million registered users, 40 million permanent players and nearly 9 million logging in at least every day since the third version [Dragon Disaster]. Four hours of die-hard players, and then as the version changed, some players left and more players joined. This number continued to expand to double the previous level. There are millions of players playing all the time. Explore and adventure in this war-torn world.
In the era when Joshua lived, the world was united and materially abundant. Human beings began to colonize space. Almost all low-difficulty manual labor was replaced by intelligent machines. Except for working four hours a day, most human beings did no more than four hours a day. They can only rely on various entertainment or extracurricular learning to pass their time. In this context, industries including games, live broadcasts, music variety shows, religions, and novels have begun to flourish, and [Conflict Continent] can be said to be the leader among them.
In addition to the super-class production, the extremely detailed, real-world-like background is also part of its appeal. In the game, no plot and important items are isolated. They are interrelated and connected to each other, like a nameless iron. The sword may be the sword of a sword master hundreds of years ago, and it can lead to a huge task chain, and a seemingly ordinary murder case may involve the blasphemous cult priest behind it. The player plays a role in this world. Adventure means continuous surprises. You can choose to travel to the continent and witness the customs and customs, or you can become a soldier and fight on the battlefield. Anyone can find the game they want as long as they are willing.
Generally speaking, this kind of game with a huge world view requires hundreds of copywriters and professional designers to complete and fill in the settings, and even this may not be enough. In fact, for most large-scale similar games , every time the version changes and a new world plot unfolds, it means that some of the original settings have been overturned, which is what players commonly call eating books. This kind of thing is common in the industry, and everyone is even used to it. , because human abilities have limits, and it is almost impossible to weave a perfect and self-consistent worldview from beginning to end. Even if it can be done, it will take a long time to deliberate, and the gain will not be worth the loss.
But the Continent of Dispute is different. Advent, Glory, Dragon Scourge, Far Frontier, God's Advent, and Ember. The six version changes not only did not destroy the original settings, but also expanded the world view time and time again. The transitions were like flowing clouds and flowing water, without any stagnation, just like it was a The real world.
In fact, if it is just this point, it is not surprising. After all, as long as it is willing to spend more money and time, any first-class company can push the quality to this point. But what really shocks the industry and even the entire federation is that the design The person behind all these plot settings and numerous vivid characters is actually just 'one person'.
one person.
Is this possible? No one dares to believe this kind of thing, no matter how arrogant they are, they dare not say that they can design and perfect all the world views and background settings of a game like "Strife Continent" on their own, not to mention the person who does not want to be named Mr. ’s also arranged corresponding relationships, plots and task chains for tens of thousands of characters and forces. This kind of workload is calculated in T for the text alone. Even if a person devotes his entire life to it. It's impossible, it's 'mission impossible'. To this end, the First Federal News Channel even specially produced a program to interview the designer who did not want to be named.
Joshua has forgotten a lot about the content of the interview at that time. After all, most of the time was spent in boring chatter. The mysterious designer did not reveal any information about how he came to play the game "Dispute Continent", but only There was a passage that he remembered clearly, which was a conversation that appeared at the beginning of the interview.
"Construction, design? No... How dare I say that? It's not so much that I designed [Conflict Continent], it's better to say that 'it' came into my mind -" The mystery of using avatars to receive interviews in the online world The designer murmured with a wry smile: "Even if it is inspiration, it is too far-fetched. I feel that I am just retelling, yes, 'retelling' a world, and it will run naturally, and then it will fall into place, and that's it." "
"Maybe he wasn't lying."
More than ten years later, the warrior who was no longer far away from his former hometown closed his eyes in the stargazing fortress in the void. Joshua's ears still echoed what Israel said to him a few seconds ago. if.
The seal of the abyss, the earth beneath your feet, the era of falling stars, and the refuge from a thousand years ago—these are news that were blocked by the Diamond royal family and many legendary powerful men. In the past life, those enthusiastic research party players had actually caught some signs of it. If If it wasn't an abyss invasion, they might have found out the truth behind it. In any case, the two are so similar that one can't help but wonder.
Regarding the truth behind all this, Joshua has long guessed. He has lived in the current Mycroft continent for a long time, and he is completely sure that this is a real world. For a warrior, all this is different from To say that he came to the world in the game, it would be better to say that the information from the previous game came from the world of Mycroft.
There is a connection between the world and the world. The knowledge from the sages in the Azure Orb tells many mysteries about the initial fire, existence and the world. In the multiverse, countless stars are releasing their own 'ripples' to the outside world, and the endless ripples stir each other. The chaotic void turbulence was born, which blocked the connection between most worlds, but also made the connection between some worlds deeper.
Projection, link, twin, differentiation - and more common information transmission, such as a sage in one world accidentally created magic, and a sage in another world suddenly understood the mystery of magic. Raccoons learned to wash their food with water, and other raccoon tribes across the world learned the same skill. This connection cannot be explained by logic. It comes from a deeper source, from the resonance of existence.
Joshua usually doesn't think about these issues deliberately, because he has more important things to care about than these things, but now, the warrior seems to understand the reason why he is here, but as he continues to think deeply, he discovers the reason and untenable. Soon, Joshua swept away these scattered thoughts in his mind. He knew that caring about what had happened in the past could not change the present and the future. The only thing worthy of his attention now was Israel Diamond. He was about to be told the secrets, the deepest truths about the world.
"Speak, Your Majesty the Emperor." He said: "I am listening carefully."
"Here, in the void, you can't understand." Israel moved his eyes away from Mycroft's continent beneath him. He raised his head and looked at Joshua: "You don't seem to have any idea at all. Not surprised—but that’s right, it’s you after all. What’s more, you still have the heritage of a sage.”
"Don't worry, although the Void Observatory is a distant fortress for the empire to observe the outside world, it is also an intermediary between the Fairy Country and the place where you and I are going." As Israel said, a stream of waves Powerful energy fluctuations began to overflow from the walls of the secret conference room in this star observatory. The powerful energy caused the emperor's dark golden hair to fly, and it also made Joshua's clothes fly. The two of them Looking at each other, Israel nodded, then looked above her head: "Queen, start teleportation."
"It's up to you." A slightly cheerful female voice sounded from all around, and Joshua also felt a familiar aura—the aura belonging to one of the elf queens that he had felt in the elf town not long ago.
At the next moment, with an incomparably powerful traction force, a door glowing with ink-colored black light opened in the middle of the conference hall, and a dim light that could not be explained in words shone on Israel, making this legend The strong man's figure disappeared in an instant. Joshua allowed the same light to shine on his body. He felt the power of time and space with an ancient aura shrouding his whole body, seeming to lead him to A distant and deep space. Different from previous teleportations, this time it seems that the warrior does not need to actively enter, but only needs to be passively pulled.
But here, something went wrong.
"Crack-"
After completely covering Joshua's body, the dim light that was about to teleport him away like Israel suddenly flickered for a moment, and then turned into scattered light sand all over the sky and dissipated. Joshua had already closed his eyes. He opened his eyes, but at this time he opened his eyes in confusion, and the unknown fairy queen raised her voice in surprise: "Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee? How is it possible?! The realm opened by my power The magic circle can't teleport you away?! It's impossible. Israel and the old mage from not long ago can both teleport together. Your energy level cannot be higher than the two of them!"
He was so shocked that he muttered to himself for a long time. Joshua could even imagine that the fairy queen was spinning anxiously. But then, the queen seemed to have found the key. She asked a little cautiously: "Excuse me, is this...his name is Joshua? Please tell me, how much does he weigh?"
"—Probably, more than 100,000 tons."
Since he had fought against the Demon King Helm not long ago, Joshua was a little unsure of how much of his mass had been evaporated by the opponent's stunts. However, during the rest and recovery in the past few days, he had already relied on the strength within the Great Ajax Mountains. The resources have recovered a little, so there must be 100,000 tons. After all, his body is a solid body of steel.
"...You'd better go in by yourself..."
After being silent for a long time, the Fairy Queen said in an incomprehensible tone: "No wonder the magic circle shows a giant void beast hundreds of meters high... I can't send you there."
When Joshua took the initiative to contact the ink-colored space-time door and disappeared in the transmission, a faint voice came from nowhere: "It turns out that he is the type who dresses to look thin..."
Unaware that he had been judged strangely by a certain Fairy Queen, at the end of the transmission, Joshua opened his eyes and looked around, and found that he had arrived in a strange space.
With the red light, the scorching heat, the rumbling roar, and the magma rushing rapidly around the space everywhere, it only took Joshua a fraction of a second to understand where he was. He raised a hand and smashed a thick arc of energy that had just leaped from his side, then turned to look at Israel beside him: "Deep in the earth's core?"
"Yes." Not caring why Joshua arrived later than him, His Majesty the Emperor nodded: "A special space opened around the center of the earth—to be precise, it is a sealed node."
After a brief exchange with Israel, Joshua continued to observe the surrounding situation. This is undoubtedly around the center of the earth. Under the influence of high temperature and pressure, the viscous lava at the bottom of the earth is flowing at a crazy speed that is unimaginable to ordinary people, just like a river rushing down from a snow-capped mountain. Here, the coke will be Compressed into diamonds, fine gold will also lose its shape. Except for legendary strongmen, even the ultimate level existence will have a hard time surviving here. However, in such a harsh environment, there is a huge spherical shape. Although there are energy arcs thousands of meters long in the empty space from time to time, it is enough to prove its magic.
Israel stood in the center of this space filled with the light of red magma. He raised his left hand. On his wrist, a simple gray bracelet was shining. One after another, there were runes containing infinite mysteries. The arcs along the bracelet lit up one by one. Just by seeing these runes, Joshua subconsciously knew their pronunciation and meaning. The existence of this powerful ancient language transcends logic and represents existence. It is the divine word that circulates among gods.
All the runes lit up, and Israel clenched his left fist. The gray bracelet took off from his wrist, and then automatically floated in the air. The ancient patterns on it were coming out one by one, towards Spreading in all directions of the space, the chaotic energy arcs originally scattered throughout the space were guided by these runes and turned into straight lines. Within a few seconds, a huge three-dimensional matrix array filled the entire empty space. , extremely powerful seal pressure came from it, even making Joshua frown in alarm.
"What is this, Israel?"
"This is a legacy from ancient times."
Facing the soldier's inquiry, His Majesty the Emperor lowered his head and stared at the center of the earth not far away, covered by countless golden-red magma. He said in a low and calm tone, completely devoid of any emotion: "The resonance begins."
As soon as the words fell, they seemed to resonate. Suddenly, three almost identical huge magic circles lit up in the distance. They were also surrounding the center of the earth, but the distance was so far away that they seemed to be separated by half a continent. There were four in total. The huge sealing array occupies all four directions, as if surrounding the entire center of the earth. Between them are streams of magical light that span tens of millions of kilometers, connecting each other. Each huge rune shines with sacred brilliance, completely Close the center of the earth.
"Four shelters, four seals. Three hundred years after the loss, countless survivors walked out of the closed shelters. What they faced was their hometown that had completely transformed into an alien world, and the crazy attack of monsters."
Watching the end of all the changes, Israel whispered, not just to himself, but also to Joshua: "After a hundred years of fighting, four major human gathering places appeared on the earth one by one. The beliefs of the seven gods of the human race It also spread unknowingly. At that time, my ancestor, the founder of the Diamond family who almost unified the entire northern gathering area, met the Fairy Queen and the God of Justice who came to the mortal world. He supported my ancestors in establishing the largest kingdom on earth. But correspondingly, my family must also bear responsibility."
"Is this the sealing formation deep in the earth's core?" Joshua naturally knew what Israel was talking about. He frowned and asked, "What is it about, a seal? Wait..." Joshua Ya suddenly remembered something: "Yes... the sage used the corpse of the Evil God of Fertility as the foundation to reshape the Mycrof continent, is it possible?!"
"It's not that. How could a sage leave such hidden dangers? But it's not far different. For humans, it's even worse."
With a soft laugh, Israel raised his head and looked around at this empty space that still had a place deep in the earth's core and had not been destroyed for thousands of years. He seemed to be motivated by the fact that he was finally able to confide this heavy secret to outsiders. Feeling relieved: “Behold, Joshua.”
His Majesty the Emperor stretched out his hand and pointed at the solid core that was emitting high temperatures and the countless ancient runes that vaguely appeared around it: "This is the seal left by the gods of the previous generation."
"It distinguishes us from heaven and earth, and locks the will of the world firmly in the center of the earth. Since that day countless years ago, the star belonging to Mycroft fell, and it disappeared into the multiverse, until You lit it back up not too long ago.”
Joshua's pupils shrank slightly, and he finally understood what the doubt that had been lingering in his heart was! That is the will about Mycroft's world! He had communicated with Kallis and talked with Ilgnar. Even in the extinguished world of Grandia, the nascent world will once prayed to him for salvation. He is the King of Burning Souls, the intermediary between the world and life. As long as he exists, it should not be impossible to detect the Steel Python in Mycroft Continent!
It’s not that Joshua has never thought about similar issues before, but one after another events interrupted every time he thought deeply. In addition, the Mycrof continent is a dead world, and the warrior felt that maybe the will of this world might have been around for a long time. Dead - but Kallis proved with himself that the tenacity of the world's will surpasses any imagination of life. Even its steel python, which has been almost exhausted for a thousand years, can be revitalized by the injection of new flames, then Mycroft's world, which has received all the flames of Grandia's world, should never remain silent.
It is also very strange that all the gods of the previous generation have fallen silent. The Father of Nature can survive for so long in such difficult circumstances. Why, as the victors, have all the gods of the Glorious Era disappeared, leaving only the apparently new ones? A generation of gods
Until now, the mystery may have been revealed.
"The gods of the previous generation sacrificed themselves... and sealed the will of the world?" Joshua tried hard to digest this information. He shook his head. This did not mean that he did not believe it, but simply found it unbelievable: "Since it is not the evil god that corrodes and corrupts, then What other reasons would make the gods and tribes seal their mother?"
The answer is simple. In fact, Israel didn't need to answer. The soldier had already thought of the answer himself.
If this mother hadn't taken the lead, then why would the gods and the various races that inhabit this earth bother to seal the will of the world they live in
"That's it. Maybe it thinks that all disasters originate from human beings. Maybe it thinks that the existence of life itself is the source of destruction. Or maybe it knows that it is dead, so it wants to fall into the abyss - there are thousands of reasons. Ten thousand, but there is only one result. This mother of all things wants to erase everything on the earth and restart the ecological cycle."
Israel's tone returned to calmness, and he said in an indifferent tone: "Compared to us, it loves the Black Forest and the monsters that were bred when we were still in the shelter, except for the ones from the Earth Mother Goddess of the last era. A series of remnants of divine blood, we are no longer regarded as their children by it... But I can't say anything, because millions of people cannot accept that the ground under their feet is actually their enemy."
"If one day the seal is lifted, then we have only three choices: kill our mother, be killed by our mother, or leave this world."
"An abandoned race..." Listening to Israel's helpless voice, for some reason, Joshua suddenly thought of the astral dragon. Whether they are five-color dragons or metal dragons, they are all powerful races from other worlds. Their worlds once encountered a catastrophe, so they had no choice but to escape. The warrior suddenly said: "They also know this, otherwise they would They will not launch a dragon disaster so inexplicably and wantonly attack the human and elven alliance that is stronger than them."
It seems that this is it. The existence of the will of the world, the whereabouts of the gods, the many ruins buried in the earth, and the origin of the Starfall Era. All seemingly complex mysteries actually started from a simple thing. : The mother of creation no longer loves her former children, that's all.
Although the lost three hundred years of history have not received any explanation, the remaining questions have been answered in unpleasant ways.
"Yes, the five-color dragons knew this at some point. They want to compete with the abandoned us for dominance in the world, and then try to become the leader of Mycroft's world and be completely accepted by it."
Israel showed a sarcastic expression: "Unfortunately, they failed, so they had no choice but to escape to the abyss. On the contrary, the metal dragons that had always been opposed got the right to continue to reproduce in this world. It is really funny."
After saying that, His Majesty the Emperor took a step towards the center of the earth. The high-temperature and high-pressure environment seemed to be completely non-existent for him. The clothes on his body did not seem to be in the underground with thousands of degrees of high temperature, and there were no scorch marks. As Israel walked, he said: "That's why I disdain those people who are so stubborn. They don't know anything. This land has no value in conquering at all."
Israel kept getting closer to the center of the earth, and Joshua walked side by side with him. Israel did not stop. There was a fire in his eyes, hotter than the surrounding magma: "This earth It has cultivated our ancestors, and it has also cultivated you and me. This is our hometown, but in the final analysis, it is not the destination for us and our descendants."
"Joshua, I look at you differently."
Turning his head suddenly, Israel looked at Joshua. He said bluntly: "I am the emperor and need to manage this country. Before looking for future possibilities, I need to be responsible for the present of my people. I Trapped in this land, I want to go to the stars, but I can't break the bond... But you are different. You have traveled to other worlds several times and completed your goals perfectly. You know how to find a world with life. We also understand what is the environment we humans need.”
"I got you."
Joshua narrowed his eyes slightly, and he couldn't help but think of the information Kallis told him: there are many world wills that need his help to eradicate the seeds of chaos parasitic in their bodies. There is no doubt that this is a job that requires traveling between various worlds. In addition, it is not difficult to find a future land for the many races in the Mycroft continent. Thinking of this, the warrior couldn't help but shook his head. He felt that everything seemed to be running according to a certain trend, just like what the mysterious designer who was interviewed by the government said in the Earth Federation, everything seemed to be running naturally and then everything fell into place. .
"I have to say, Israel, you are the least emperor-like emperor I have ever seen." Having reached the center of the earth, feeling the scorching temperature, Joshua suddenly laughed for some reason. He was calm. He said: "What you think and pursue is completely different from what I knew before. Perhaps this is the difference between reality and illusion - I really admire it."
"Indifferent and timid people never know what success or failure is." Above the center of the earth, Israel, who did not understand what Joshua said, also laughed in the same way. He closed his eyes, and then Open it again: "Those who dare not take action will be ridiculed by heaven."
"And I am a warrior after all. Courage and victory are my creeds."
"Even if the opponent is this world?"
"also the same."
7,000 words, I added it in yesterday’s update, and will send it out together. Please give me a monthly vote, and I will revise it later.
(End of chapter)