Virtual World: Close Combat Mage Chapter 4

I’ve gotten chapters 1-7 from Logaste Translations so I’ve edited the terms used and posting them here for easier reading.

Translated by: Quentin

Edited by: Sietse (Valici)

Chapter 4: Restructuring

Parallel World had a total of five basic attributes: Vitality, Strength, Agility, Intelligence, and Wisdom, and for every level-up, five stat points would be awarded. Without the slightest hesitation, Gu Fei promptly added all the points awarded into Agility. Soon after doing so, he waved his fist and sure enough, his fist was several times faster than before. He wildly rejoiced in his heart; this way he wasn’t only able to obtain his speed from real life, but also, thanks to this being a game, he could continue to add points so much so that he could reach speeds he could never reach in real life. However, he didn’t want to undergo a huge change – he just wanted to return to his original state; afterwards, he would focus his stat points on Strength until that stat was also similar to his strength in reality.

Since this was a game, the beaten low level monsters would certainly have loot for the taking. Gu Fei distributed his stat points and then began to search their bodies. Searching through them he found two small butchering knives and six purses. Low level monsters would not be especially rich and each purse had only about a dozen copper coins. He put all of it into his own purse, after which he scraped some rust off the small knives, lifted up his robe and stuck the semi-rusted butchering knives on his waist.

In order to make Parallel World completely realistic, there were no limits to what kind of weapon a person could carry based on his or her occupation. Some equipment did have a requirement for certain attributes, but for the most part, the qualifications were related to the amount of strength a person had. For the small butchering knives in question, they had no requirements and could be equipped by anyone.

He finished packing everything, after which he turned toward another mountain top and set off.

In the next valley he stumbled upon another group of six brothers who were sitting around a campfire. However, before he had the opportunity to see if they were identical to the previous group the system uttered a prompt: Dear players, the game will shut down in ten seconds. Please move to a safe area. 10, 9, 8…

After the countdown ended, the game shut off and the virtual scenes disappeared. Gu Fei looked around himself and realized he was back in his own room.

“What’s going on?!” As this thought was on his mind, he went to the official website for an answer.

At that moment, the developers and operators of Parallel World were sitting together at an overnight emergency meeting discussing the many problems that were revealed during the first day of the public beta test.

Because this was history’s first VR game, in order to keep it secret, Parallel World was developed in secret up until the internal beta test phase began, at which point they abandoned the secrecy to garner a lot of attention. As for the internal beta test, as the name suggested only the staff had had access to it, during which time everyone’s main focus and energy was directed toward the characters, tasks, skills, equipment, and so on – basically, all the conventional major gaming characteristics. Yet, today’s first day of public beta testing had revealed a great pile of problems, practically all because the realistic environment produced by the VR technology left people unable to come to terms with certain things.

Currently, the most common complaint was the issue regarding the beginner leveling areas’ monsters being too cute. Female players were really worked up about this and the male players were scared that the female players would despise them for cutting down these cute monsters, making them even more worked up than the female players.

In addition to that, the unitary and repetitive images that the NPCs, buildings, trees, etc., had in the game could be forcibly resolved through the use of the available technology. The matter that really made the game officials feel as though it were a thorn in their side was the issue caused by those people like the four chaps Gu Fei had ran into.

The public beta testing had only been released for half a day, but violent incidents continuously broke out within the game, truly causing the game officials to feel extremely helpless. Human sensory simulation was the core of the whole VR game. Yet, it was practically impossible to resolve the violent incident that had occurred exactly on this most fundamental framework through technological modifications. After conducting repeated researches, they eventually decided to categorise these types of fights as being in the nature of PK, while increasing the limit of PK-protection to Level 10. As for whether a player would brandish their weapons and activate their game skills with their right hand while their left hand beckoned the autonomous development of the “monkey steals the peach” 1 to execute a sneak attack during PK battles in the future, they could only wait and see for now.

“It’s fine! This is reality! Hah, as we wanted, the game is super realistic!” A senior level staff member at the meeting consoled everyone.

Nevertheless, there was another problem that could not be left aside due to its offensiveness: female players being sexually assaulted by male players.

The game staff did not expect that VR technology would completely expose the dark side of players like this. However, because sensory simulation was a complete set as a system, the company did not have the technology to remove the X-rated simulation from the game. Besides, in reality, this was the game’s hidden selling point and the high-level board members were unwilling to take it out.

In the end, the plan to resolve the issue was only to design an option that respected the desires of both parties. However, this plan baffled the staff members in the Technology Department. Imagine if, in the middle of a warm and soft atmosphere, a pair of lovers who were unable to control their intense urges were about to take their feelings a step further… when a prompt frame suddenly popped up with a – woang – sound, stating: So-and-so has invited you to perform X-rated actions, do you accept? Even if a person selected “YES”, the original passionate atmosphere would have turned into a big “NO”.

Beside this matter, how would they even define X-rated actions? Where would they put the line? At a kiss? A touch of the hand?… So and so is about to touch you, do you accept? When a few people pointed out these hypothetical scenarios during the staff meeting, everyone attending felt like throwing up.

“In any case, just execute it and later on we can make changes according to the players’ reactions or suggestions,” the big boss decided.

They continued discussing many other issues and finally after the meeting was dispersed, each department left to work upon the previously agreed upon next step. The public beta test had only been open for half a day yet it was already being restructured, an absolute miracle in the history of gaming. Fortunately, they had the excuse that since this was the first VR game, they were running into unexpected problems, however everyone was undoubtedly under a lot of pressure.

The big boss watched as everyone hastily bustled around and nodded his head with satisfaction. Currently, he was rather contend, yet there was still one person watching him while laughing freely.

Once everyone had left, the big boss spoke up, “Xiaowu, do you have something to say?”

“The boss knows me so well!” Ye Xiaowu spoke as he stood up and randomly pulled a chair over while walking to sit in front of the boss.

“Say it then!” The boss watched him. This Xiaowu was a staff member of the planning department and a core member of the entire game’s manufacturing team.

“Uh today I witnessed some things that made me think that certain problems could arise from our game,” Xiaowu said.

“Oh?”

“Because it is a virtual reality simulation, people are able to bring skills from real life into the game environment; in this way, they will be able to have an innate advantage over other players in the game. This will make things quite unfavorable toward our original goal for the game in establishing balance!” Xiaowu declared.

“What kind of skills could impact the game like that?” The boss asked.

“Well for example, Kung Fu!”

“Kung Fu?”

Xiaowu nodded, “Today within the game, I witnessed an unarmed and defenceless Mage, simultaneously beat up three knights. This person is quite clearly trained in martial arts.”

“A person like that exists?!” The boss frowned.

Xiaowu spoke, “Think about it, police officers, soldiers, martial arts people, and I could go on… all of them can create a kind of imbalance within the game!”

“Then what should we do? We cannot just stop people from playing our game simply because of their real life occupation,” the boss responded.

“Then there’s no helping it.” Xiaowu shook his head.

The boss, however, laughed, “If there isn’t any helping it, then you wouldn’t have stayed behind just to tell me about it.”

Xiaowu laughed as well, “It’s just that the person I met in-game gave me a kind of enlightenment.”

“Speak.”

“Everything is centered around fighting in traditional games. However, we are now putting forth a virtual reality stimulus-type of gaming. Shouldn’t we increase our efforts in development so that we also strengthen the other functions of the system other than just fighting? We can make it so that people who are proficient in a particular field can also bring this personal strength of theirs into the game and exhibit it in a similar manner. In this way, we can more or less balance out the current issue even if by just a bit!” Xiaowu stated.

“You speak about this idea like it’s very simple, yet in actuality it’s very difficult to develop.” The boss replied.

“Could we at least try it?”

“Okay, you can make a concrete design or plan and the next time we have a meeting we can have a discussion on it,” the boss relented.

“Great!” Xiaowu was completely delighted, “Then I’ll leave first.”

“Wait!” The boss stopped him, “You… you entered the game again? Don’t tell me that you don’t know the game’s rules and regulations? Those that are part of the gaming corporation are not allowed to enter or play the company’s game, these are the the strict rules of the company – even a family member will probably be prohibited from playing!”

“I never agreed to this statement one bit. Game developers such as us, who came out to create this game, obviously love playing games. Why would we agree to you taking away our hobbies like that? Don’t worry, I am a very self-disciplined game staff worker – in the game, I’m just an ordinary player,” Xiaowu explained.

“With your understanding of the game, how can you be ordinary?” The boss scoffed.

“Don’t worry! I won’t touch a single one of the hidden treasures.” Xiaowu said.

“I’ll find someone to monitor you. What’s your character name?” The boss asked.

“MortalSmile!” Xiaowu smiled and left the meeting.

1: “Monkey steals the peach”: is an expression that means distracting an opponent with one hand and seizing his testicles with the other.