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"Sealing... a place for players?"

Chen Qing looked at the other person, feeling an inexplicable thud in his heart, "Is there... such a place?"

Tianji gazed at Chen Qing and, after a long time, responded, "It seems you’re indeed new here; you know nothing about what happened later in this world."

As the other spoke, they drew a simple diagram on the ground with a stick.

Chen Qing could tell at a glance that the other was a bare-headed expert at drawing, the very chief modeling designer from the original game whose hand-drawn sketches came effortlessly.

Whenever they discussed maps, based on his and his colleagues’ ideas, he could provide Chen Qing with a rough sketch, asking, "Is this roughly what you had in mind?

" He was unsurpassed in hand-drawing skills among all the people Chen Qing had worked with.

"I told you before, those pioneers occupied a large number of top ancient beings, didn’t I?"

Chen Qing nodded, "Are you finally willing to talk about this? I’ve been dying to know for the past six months."

"It’s not that I didn’t want to..." Tianji looked at Chen Qing, "Your identity is just too mysterious. If you’re Pu Yunchuan, then who is the guy who has been leading us all these years? When he gathered us, the development team, nobody suspected his identity. His habits, actions, and understanding of the game mechanics all proved that he was the chief designer who created this world. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have been able to lead us and almost truly sealed all the ancients under such disadvantageous conditions! "

Chen Qing fell silent upon hearing this. He was actually quite curious about this as well, sealing the ancients?

How did the other manage to do that?

He himself was the chief designer of this world, yet for the life of him, he couldn’t figure out how, with the capabilities of the first version of demons, he could attempt to seal the ancients?

It’s just not at the same level...

But now he guessed that even if he asked, the other wouldn’t tell him. Even after spending half a year together, Chen Qing could still tell that this person was defensive around him...

"Let’s talk about the matter at hand..." Chen Qing said quickly, "What exactly is this place of players’ seals?"

"It’s literal," Tianji sketched on the map.

"After those pioneers found that they could replace the ancients, an unprecedented cooperation among players began.

This information came from one of the statues we sealed at the time.

According to it, players were united like never before, just so they would not continue to be prey.

But even when talking about unity, they still had their own factions. .."

"How were the factions divided?" Chen Qing was a bit curious.

Players are all transmigrators; normally, they wouldn’t all be acquainted before the transmigration, right?

"Guilds!"

"Ah?"

Chen Qing was stunned; this he truly hadn’t expected. Player guilds actually continued to exist here?

"I, together with the King of Qin and others, also studied the characteristics of this group of transmigrators and tried to figure out what it meant for our group to be sent here. Currently, we’re clueless, only aware that the first to come in were those beta test players!"

"Beta test players?"

"Right, do you remember before the game started, we invited many guilds to test it?" said Tianji, looking at Chen Qing.

Chen Qing nodded, "Yes, for testing the playability and fun of the game, we did invite guilds, but to prevent the game from being monopolized by the gaming guilds, those we invited were reputable high-skilled guilds, so the beta test was actually quite small."

"Have you ever noticed that after the game went live, many of those initial guilds involved in the game disappeared without a trace?"

"Really?" Chen Qing widened his eyes.

"You might not have noticed..." Tianji said gravely, "The scale wasn’t large when we invited the guilds for testing.

After your game launched, it became wildly popular, and a massive influx of players made few pay attention to the activities of those guilds.

After all, the gaming market was so developed at the time, and there were gaming guilds beyond counting. .."

Chen Qing nodded slightly: he recalled that, during the development of the game, the Federation had already rolled out the third version of complete automation.

A vast number of people had been laid off, causing the gaming industry to thrive.

The Federation citizens, supported by high welfare, had no concerns and could live well without working, leading to unprecedented demand in the gaming market.

By the time the Federation’s population had grown to forty billion, the market had already surpassed any other entertainment sector.

Guilds were becoming more and more numerous by the day.

There were no fewer than ten thousand large-scale guilds on the market, not to mention the smaller ones.

After my game launched, it quickly became one of the top three best-selling games at the time.

The number of guilds that poured in afterward was more than a hundredfold.

I was so busy at the time, how could I have paid attention to what those guilds from the beta test were doing?

"You mean, during that time, those guild members from the beta test came in here?"

"Yes!" Mister Tianji nodded. "The clues we have at present suggest exactly that. Many of their gameplay tactics originated from the beta version. It’s because of these bugs that the boss.

.." He looked at Chen Qing weirdly when he mentioned the boss and then continued, "found some bugs and seized a lot of power from the sealed players. "

"So, the profound ice he obtained that time was from the sealed players?" Chen Qing asked curiously.

"Pretty much..." Mister Tianji nodded. "According to our investigation, the pioneers who joined forces back then indeed managed to kill and replace many ancients.

Initially, we thought it would herald a Golden Age for the Human Race, but the reality was different.

The human heart is unpredictable. Upon becoming top-level Demons, their initial mentality changes.

The first change is the craving for human flesh; this desire is inherited when one becomes a Demon, and very few can resist the temptation. "

"The next change is the struggle to control the desire for power, and the longing for longevity.

.." Tianji sighed and continued, "This world has limited resources. As more and more powerful ancients were unlocked, and players began to control more ancients, they quickly realized there wasn’t enough resources.

The more powerful the Demon, the greater the energy requirements, and this world cannot sustain a large population of top-level Demons coexisting. "

"So, that led to a civil war?" Chen Qing immediately thought of the subsequent development.

"Yes!" Tianji continued. "It started with only small friction, but as it escalated, they began to limit newcomers from acquiring top-level Demon channels.

But the newcomers also wanted to climb up the ranks, so how could they easily be contented?

As time passed, the conflict became irreconcilable, ultimately leading to a great war. "

"Since it was a war, there were winners and losers, but one characteristic of this world made the victors very troubled, and that was that the Reincarnating Demons of this world cannot be killed!"

"But you said one could replace them, right?" Chen Qing was puzzled.

"The premise for replacement is that you’re willing to.

.." Tianji said with a chuckle, "For instance, if I am already a very powerful Demon and I kill you, why would I want to replace you? I’m most accustomed to my own talents and abilities.

Unless you are much stronger than me, what benefit do I have in replacing you? "

"Fair point..." Chen Qing stroked his chin, then quickly realized why some players were sealed.

The reason was simple: after a powerful Demon was killed, they would reincarnate, and naturally, they would come back to seek revenge endlessly...

If you were up against a very powerful one, you couldn’t even be certain they wouldn’t successfully take revenge eventually, because in Chen Qing’s Demon design, although Demons had extremely strong talents, there was a limit to their potential.

Otherwise, how could players hope to stand against these monsters if the Demons could just keep growing indefinitely?

In other words, once you reach a bottleneck, it becomes tough to progress, while the reincarnated ones could return to their peak in just a few decades or a century and continue to hassle you.

You can’t always assume you would win, can you?

If you want your authority and rule to be stable, then sealing those defeated players is the sensible course.

Once sealed, the opponent can’t reincarnate, and is somewhat more controllable...

"So, this place could be the Land of Seals of a certain player?" Chen Qing looked around, wondering.

"It likely is..." Tianji stood up and said, "Haven’t you noticed the world map has changed from before? That’s because many areas have been turned into Lands of Seals by that group of pioneers. When we were initially looking for these sealed pioneers, we used the differences between the old map and the current incomplete map to slowly find some. Actually, I suspected half a year ago that we were transmitted into one of the Lands of Seals. I didn’t say anything because I was observing the terrain to figure out which one. .."

"Oh, and here I thought you were just dragging me around for a casual stroll..."

"I’m not as idle as you are!" Tianji shot Chen Qing a glare.

"Then do we have any leads?" Chen Qing asked seriously. "Where could this place be?"

"If I’m not mistaken, this should be a piece of the missing land of the Southern Barbarians because the terrain and biological traits here are very similar to those of the Southern Barbarians.

According to the intelligence we’ve gathered earlier, there are three Lands of Seals in the Southern Barbarians.

Let’s hope we’re not in the most troublesome one right now. "

"The most troublesome one?" Chen Qing’s heart skipped a beat as he stood up and looked around. "Which one is the most troublesome?"

"One of the most unreasonable monsters you designed..." Tianji said grimly looking at Chen Qing, "The Land of Seals of the Sparrow Bee Queen!"

Chen Qing: "....."