Interstellar Travel: Becoming a Dress-Up Game Designer

Chapter 137

The owner of the black cricket wasn't worried at all. His cricket had a special attribute: when ganged up on, it had a chance to activate a protective aura, with a 200% critical hit rate (the probability was twice the number of enemies).

As long as he can strike the perfect balance between probability, damage taken, and critical hits, his pet will be invincible.

It was by chance and good fortune that he obtained this battle pet.

It started as an ordinary green-quality cricket, even inconspicuous among the slightly better-quality insects that were specially captured as combat pets.

He casually put a group of insects together, mostly white, thinking he could kill more at once and quickly.

We'll take the "breeding and raising" approach, and then decide which ones to keep. Even if we only keep one or two, we'll make a killing.

This saves time; while the insects are fighting in the cage, he can catch them all over the place without having to watch them.

Then, the green katydid rose up!

Initially, he had no expectations. He continued to feed the cricket low-quality insects, and that's how the cricket acquired such an excellent attribute.

I was so excited I felt like I could fly!

Winning the lottery is so addictive, it's like having a stroke of good luck.

Once you have a stroke of luck, you'll crave it countless times; you simply can't control yourself.

After obtaining this special cricket, he devoted himself to catching and raising it as a battle pet, placing his hopes on it as vast as a planet.

Hard work pays off; the critical hit rate of the attribute increased from 1% to 200%.

They acquired tens of thousands of battle pets in the process, spending an unknown amount of money.

He didn't want to put his beloved pet in the arena so early, but orange, red, and black quality battle pets were too expensive for him to afford.

Any random orange-tier item with decent affixes or other attributes will fetch at least tens of thousands of gold ingots, and some may even cost over two million gold ingots.

It almost made him think he had traveled to another world, and his spending habits became out of control.

I quickly went offline and bought a case of nutritional supplements that tasted pretty good. I found that it only cost four or five yuan a bottle, and I breathed a huge sigh of relief.

Unfortunately, in the later stages of Beast Battle, other qualities no longer increase attributes or trait modifiers; they only increase health.

His cricket has a full 50,000 HP, so adding a few dozen or so HP points is meaningless.

Only battle pets of orange rank or higher can absorb some good traits; if you don't want to spend money, you can only come to the arena to fight.

The arena is full of orange, red, and black quality battle pets. For example, this rich guy in front of me has brought out at least orange quality pets, hehe.

Swallowed it all!

So awesome!

These are all high-quality battle pets. The higher the quality, the higher the probability of them absorbing good traits.

The wealthy man was initially very confident, saying that these items were all bought at high prices and were all top-notch.

My own rare pet, which I've upgraded to a battle pet, has been raised to an extremely high level with a lot of resources, so I'm not afraid of anything.

But an accident happened after they left the field.

The little insect grew increasingly ferocious; the black mist that had been faintly visible just moments before was now almost materializing, coiling around its body. Everyone almost blurted out, "I suspect the cricket is using cheat codes!" Fortunately, they had a deep understanding of Qingfengyi, knowing that anything could happen, so they stared wide-eyed at this insect that seemed to be able to dominate everything.

The wealthy man watched helplessly as his rare battle pet fell on the battlefield, his heart bleeding with regret.

He finally understood that all the prompts and tedious steps to change the limited-edition pet were so that he wouldn't regret it now.

But he regretted it!

"Waaah, my bird of paradise! My red panda! My red-crowned crane!"

Many top players around also have rare, limited-edition battle pets, and seeing this scene made them hesitant to participate.

Even those battle pets that aren't discontinued are heartbreaking; the price you pay to raise them to orange, red, or black quality is immense.

It would break my heart to see one die.

As players acquire more high-level battle pets, the number of arenas in the wild has also increased, and the arenas set up by the official team are no longer sufficient.

As the battles became more lively, more and more battle pets died. One by one, these precious pets, painstakingly nurtured, fell and disappeared.

Many players were devastated.

"Designer, you're messing with me, waaaaah!"

"I'm devastated! I raised my general for seven or eight days, and he died as soon as he entered the field! Aaaaaah!"

"Designer, shouldn't this beast-fighting gameplay allow for unlimited respawns? How are we supposed to play like this?"

"Exactly, we go through all the trouble of raising two kids, and they die right away. What's the point of us playing? It's a complete waste of time."

Players once again flooded the comments section with negative reviews, leaving the studio's account and the game's account with comments.

It was all insults. Some players realized that this gameplay allowed Qingfengyi to recycle a large amount of game currency, so the insults became even harsher.

They remotely inherited the essence of their home planet's lost lineage, and even surpassed it.

Zhang Zhongxia approached Lin Shuying to suggest that they increase the number of life bars for their battle pets by two, as it was too disheartening for them to keep dying in battle.

Lin Shu-ying: "If you're alive, you can just keep living. Life is inherently fragile. If you could be reincarnated repeatedly, who would cherish it?"

She didn't want to change it. While the development of beast fighting was partly due to the inherent flaws of humanity, it didn't mean that life could be squandered at will.

On Earth, digital games are relatively easy to deal with, as there's a barrier between them; most people have a clear distinction between games and reality.

The interstellar holographic game is different; the connecting components interface with neural perception, making it incredibly realistic.

Prolonged immersion can blur the lines between reality and holography, so there are consequences for doing dangerous things.

Especially when it comes to matters of life and death, there is no room for carelessness.

Only after experiencing life and death do we realize how precious life is.

She won't change her fate; once she's dead, she's dead.

Being realistic isn't necessarily a bad thing.

Zhang Zhongxia was very disappointed. He was also a player of Qingfengyi and naturally hoped that none of his beloved pets would die.

"Boss, can't we make a deal? Like putting a really expensive resurrection item on the market?"

Lin Shuying: "There's no room for discussion. If you love it, why put it at risk of death? If you don't love it anymore, what's wrong with letting it disappear? Although they are just data lives, as their creator, I love each and every one of them equally."

Seeing that he couldn't persuade the boss, Zhang Zhongxia had no choice but to give up.

Players have also learned to treat their battle pets with care. The effort and dedication required to transform an ordinary battle pet into a formidable killing machine is truly touching.

However, death did not dampen the players' enthusiasm for beast fighting; the feeling of victory was truly addictive.

With more and more arenas appearing, some wealthy players who previously purchased repair zones without investing resources in them are now making a killing.

All you need to do is collect some wood, set up arena zones in the huge dungeon area, and add simple zone numbers.

This is a dedicated arena for animal fighting. If you put the arena in an auction house, it costs 500 copper coins per person for an hour.

The price is a bit low, but there are just too many people.

As soon as it opened, countless players flocked to it, bringing their best pets, wanting to dominate the 666, 888, and 111 servers.

It's for good luck.

This tycoon's management was very shrewd; he immediately raised the price of those auspicious locations, requiring five hundred taels of silver to rent them.

The players at the top didn't care about the money; they just transferred it directly to their accounts.

There are other services available, such as stationary battles, wheelchair battles, and public battles. Stationary battles involve believing your battle pet is invincible and accepting challenges from players below.

Occupying a ring costs more, but the number of wins in a ring can be converted into a 0.1% discount. After winning 1000 matches, the ring rental is free for this round. For each additional 1,000 matches, the same percentage of the fee will be refunded.

Many players who had black-level battle pets were feeling quite smug and started standing still without saying a word.

Luntai is a pre-arranged event where people go up to fight one-on-one or in groups.

The public arena is where the winner keeps fighting, and others below can challenge them; whoever wins stands still. Players can quit midway through, since continuing to fight with a low-health pet will likely lead to regret.

Currently, only one wealthy player has access to this dungeon area, and although there were many people at first, it wasn't impossible to get in. Later, a player uploaded a video of himself fighting beasts, which went viral, and it became unstoppable; now, reservations are required to enter.

That player's nickname is Phoenix Invincible, and his battle pet is a red-bellied pheasant.

This bird is incredible! It's black quality and has the skill "Phoenix Soaring Through the Clouds." It flies high into the sky, dives rapidly, and creates a wave of fire around it, dealing varying degrees of damage to enemies.

When this entry appears, the hidden entry section in the announcements will unlock the item entry.

In the Beast Fighting section of the announcements, there is an annotation for each entry. The entries that players unlock will be displayed one by one for everyone to view.

Most of the previously unlocked affixes were white, some were green, and no purple ones have appeared yet. The grasshopper who previously gained a group attack critical hit bonus had only green affixes; green affixes are incredibly powerful and invincible.

The purple entries are unimaginably powerful.

The skill description is a bit weaker compared to some percentage-based stats, so why should it be a purple stat?

Curiosity was piqued, and everyone started following the player's movements. They learned that she was fighting beasts in the player dungeon arena, and they all rushed over.

The maximum number of players in a single instance is 200 million.

What concept?

It was like being crammed together by people, unable to move an inch.

Forget about watching that player fight beasts; it would be a miracle if he didn't get trampled to death.

The big players in the game spent money to clear the area, found the dungeon owner, and demanded that he limit the number of players.

Then bring in an assassin to instantly kill the other players and clear them all out.

The gaze shifts to the owner of the red-bellied pheasant. She avoids opponents of orange rank or higher, fearing for her pet's life.

Her chicken just got that keyword and leveled up to orange, so to be on the safe side, she'll go for a lower level.

A wealthy player summoned his panda, saying, "We're both fighting, and our pandas are all orange-tier. My panda doesn't even have a purple stat yet. Let me see your skills!"

'Invincible Phoenix' refused, 'Purple battle pet, step onto the arena.'

Many people around burst into laughter, "Are you stupid or are we stupid? A purple battle pet fighting against your orange battle pet?"

Phoenix Invincible frowned. She was reluctant to part with her pet. She adored the red-bellied pheasant because of its color and physique, which resembled those of a phoenix.

Because I had many pets, I planned to train one as a battle pet, but...

At this moment, a player with a purple bull battle pet stepped forward and said, "I'll fight you."

The cow has a great attribute: when its health is above 70%, it reduces damage taken by 50%.

Using this skill, it only took one day to fight my way up to purple rank without having to catch and feed low-level battle pets.

It has to be said that fighting other players' pets and leveling up your battle pet is much faster than catching and feeding them yourself.

At least ten times faster!

The probability of absorbing good traits is also high.

When the bull entered the arena, its massive size made it seem like a case of the big bullying the small pheasant.

It has a fiery temper. With one charge, the red-bellied pheasant was sent flying, its health bar instantly dropping by half.

The cow's owner shouted excitedly, "You wild bull, charge! Kill it!"

The surrounding players were affected by the exciting scene and started shouting along.

A flash sale! Who wouldn't be excited?

Just as everyone was shouting, the red-bellied pheasant swooped down, and rings of red flames appeared around it, instantly raising the temperature.

As the cow hair burned, the aroma of burnt protein filled the air.

Players can clearly feel the heat of the flames, and those who get too close will lose health.

This is the first time in over twenty days of beast fighting that such an explosive skill has appeared, capable of actually harming nearby players?

"Aaaaaah, I'm going to die!"

Some players who went to capture battle pets before ran off to watch the fun without replenishing their health bars in time, and now they've been tricked and died and have to go home.

"Ahhh, I finally understand what that friendly reminder before the beast fight meant."

When a player sends their battle pet into the arena, a golden system message appears at the bottom of the screen: "This location is in the wild and is not an official arena; it is unsuitable for beast fighting. Please choose carefully and be careful not to get hurt!"

At first, players didn't care at all because they didn't know the consequences, until this entry appeared.

This cultivation skill was released by Lin Shuying for testing, to see if it could be used and what impact it would have on the current gameplay and system.

In preparation for the later addition of mythical beasts, she couldn't just design some watery skills like stomping, roaring, and spitting fireballs. At the very least, they would have the power of a phoenix rising from the ashes and the ability to uproot mountains and shake the earth.

These skills need to be tested and revised repeatedly until they are most satisfactory before being assigned to the mythical beast.

.......

The golden pheasant turned the tables on the giant bull, spreading its wings and circling in the sky, its tail trailing orange flames.

Phoenix Invincible was extremely excited, hugging and kissing its battle pet several times, "Ahhh, my darling, I love you the most!"

After witnessing the power of the ultimate skill, this player became arrogant and shouted at the surviving players, "Come on, Orange Red!"

Black is not someone you should mess with.

Knowing that her battle pet's skills would affect surrounding players, some people gave up watching the spectacle, but only the passionate battle enthusiasts persisted.

"Could you find an official arena to fight in? That way you won't accidentally hurt the other players."

'Invincible Phoenix': "I'm not afraid to die, come and fight!"

......

Players have not only invented wild beast battles, but also pet wars, beauty contests, voice contests, and clothing contests.

The competition of clothing, beauty, and voice has existed before, but the battle pet combat is the inspiration for this beast fighting event.

The battle takes place on the lakeside of Love Valley, and throughout the Jianghu of China.

A group of people rode black tigers, oxen, horses, and other animals, dressed in armor and carrying weapons. At the captain's command, they charged forward with a roar.

This kind of thing is organized; there's at least a leader, and it's often driven by personal grudges.

There's also a free-for-all mode.

There are relatively few locations for the free-for-all battles, only the lakeside plains of Huaxia Jianghu and the mountain forests of Qingyuan Valley.

Players generally cannot get close to this area; getting close automatically means entering a battle.

Whether they're friends, teammates, or enemies, they just go on a killing spree!

The combat elements in this event are so prominent that the popularity of other gameplay types has dropped significantly.

For example, the new belts, outfits, and vehicles weren't released because they weren't selling or because no one was grinding for them. Rather, the hype was overshadowed by the Beast Battle event. You can tell from the fact that most players were wearing the new event's clothes and accessories that they were still very invested.