Filial piety: the supreme emperor

Unlike regular tests, the public beta is no longer subject to quota restrictions and is open to all virtual reality participants.

This means that once the public beta is launched, all cloud experiencers will be able to step into the super-dimensional universe called "Honghuang", rather than being limited to the Xiaozizaitian area and only being able to experience part of the content as is currently the case.

So the question is, how many people are using cloud computing today?

It is not 1 billion, nor 1.4 billion, but far more than that, reaching 4 billion!

The reason behind this scale is actually simple and clear. Since the opening of the super-dimensional universe server of "Honghuang", millions of years have passed in virtual time and space, which is equivalent to a thousand years in reality. In the context of the general extension of human life span by dozens of times,

The population of Dragon has doubled or tripled in the past thousand years, from the original 1.4 billion to more than 4 billion today. This is normal and can even be considered a bit conservative.

The mortality rate has almost reached the lowest point, and all newborns are considered net growth. When the game was first launched, the number of newborns born in Dragon Country was more than 10 million per year. If the fertility rate remains unchanged, the new population should reach 10 billion a thousand years later. However, the current situation is that the actual number is less than one-third of the expected number. The root cause is that people's lives are too long, and the need to have offspring is naturally reduced accordingly.

In short, including all players in the cloud, the total number of players of "Honghuang" is currently about 4 billion. Despite this, the number of internal beta players has remained at 480 million, and has not changed since the last version update, and has always remained at this number.

The reason lies in Styx, the creator and manager of the super-dimensional universe. At that time, the maximum number of players that his Blood God Son magical power could accommodate was 480 million. Any more would lead to an imbalance in resource allocation.

However, things are different now. Minghe's cultivation has reached a breakthrough, and more importantly, the small reincarnation system he controls is more complete. Now, he can use the small reincarnation system to revive all players and complete the rebirth process, including the reconstruction of the Blood God Son's body and the recovery of the player's strength.

In this way, efficiency is significantly improved and consumption is greatly reduced. The upper limit of 480 million has become history. With the current capabilities of the Styx, it is not a problem to increase the player carrying capacity by dozens of times. Therefore, the public beta has the foundation for implementation, which is also the reason for the delay until now.

After careful consideration, Minghe began to prepare for the public beta test. Compared with the internal beta test, the public beta test involved a much larger group of players, and since it was the first time, it would take some time to prepare. This preparation period actually lasted for tens of thousands of years. When everything was ready, Minghe issued an announcement at the right time.

Since it is a public beta, the form of the announcement has also changed. It is no longer a monotonous system voice prompt, but is accompanied by a vision, which is extremely shocking. Golden clouds are rolling, purple air is surrounding, and the auspicious signs of the three major races of dragon, phoenix, and unicorn are intertwined; red lotus, purple lotus, blue lotus, and golden lotus bloom one after another, and fairy music is ethereal and boundless.

Both internal test players and cloud experiencers can witness this wonder. For a moment, all players were stunned by the scene before their eyes, not knowing what was happening. But then, the golden clouds in the sky split apart, and a golden list surrounded by colorful divine light suddenly appeared.

It was clearly visible to every player. Then, the gold list slowly unfolded, with lines of text appearing on the paper. Although the list was far away, every word was as clear as if it was right in front of them.

The players were instantly excited and talked about it:

"What's going on? Is this an announcement for a new version update? This is too fancy! But to be honest, it's really cool!"

"Is there something wrong with the authorities? Instead of adjusting the balance between professions, they waste time on things like this? How can we who use knives, guns, sticks and clubs compete with those who use swords?"

"Isn't this what the authorities did right? Isn't the reason why the Sword Immortal profession is so powerful because there are a large number of Sword Immortal players and there are many big guys who are good at developing gameplay? If you want to surpass the Sword Immortal, go develop a new profession yourself, don't blame the game for being unbalanced."

As soon as the announcement was released, the discussion about the balance of professions became a hot topic. Styx has understood the mysteries of 300 laws. Although not all players have created new professions, the total number of professions has reached more than 200.

However, the dominant position is still the sword immortal, and the rest of the professions combined barely match it. It goes without saying that there are users of traditional weapons such as swords, spears, bows and halberds, and even players who use fists and feet to fight, truly realizing the flourishing of a hundred flowers and a rich variety of career choices. More importantly, players can independently comprehend a second or even third profession after changing their first profession.

Although it is difficult, there is enough time, as long as you spend 100,000 years, you can always comprehend the second profession. Therefore, even if there is no "loophole" like Zhulong that can be exploited, the number of players with a second profession is increasing day by day.

However, this leads to a new problem: there are differences in strength between different professions, and when different professions are combined, this difference is magnified. Even if the cultivation and equipment are the same, the combat effectiveness can vary greatly, with some combinations differing by two or three times, and some even by more than ten times! In the "Honghuang" super-dimensional universe, there is no setting for deleting an account and starting over or "resetting points", so it is inevitable that players with lower combat effectiveness will feel dissatisfied.

Styx had foreseen this and decided to give players a benefit: a chance to change their profession for free. After all, when players become stronger, the ultimate beneficiary is still him, the ruler of the super-dimensional universe.

As for why such benefits were not distributed before, the reason is very simple: first, the company's own strength was insufficient at the time; second, the distribution of benefits should only be meaningful when major versions are updated. If they are distributed frequently on weekdays, players will easily get used to it. Once they stop being distributed one day, it will cause disgust.

It was not until the official launch of the interstellar public beta of "Cosmic Primordial" that the organizational structure within the game truly changed.

Prior to this, all "alliances" were formed spontaneously by players and were never recognized by the official Star Alliance. However, after the public beta, the concept of "alliances" became a thing of the past, replaced by interstellar sects!

When more than four billion novice players poured into this vast universe, those veteran players also began to actively explore the secrets of the new version, especially the sect system, which attracted great attention from everyone.

However, it is not easy to create an interstellar sect, and one must at least reach the Star Realm. Therefore, at the current stage, there are only more than a hundred players who are capable of establishing a sect, because they are all elites in the Star Realm. This includes some "lonely travelers" who are used to exploring the universe alone, such as Feihua Zhuyue.

Feihua Zhuyue had no intention of establishing a sect. However, most of the players in the Star Realm were eager to try, especially those who had formed an interstellar alliance before, who were unwilling to miss this opportunity.

The big monkey was one of them. The moment he took a glimpse of the sect system, he decided to establish his own sect.

He quickly left the Buzhou Star Region and returned to the Blood Ocean Galaxy through the wormhole. In order to establish the sect as soon as possible, he chose to "return instantly" without hesitation, even at the cost of sacrificing some of his cultivation.

First of all, the name of the sect had already been decided in his mind - Blood Kitchen Sect! This was a sect that focused on cultivating blood energy.

The next step is to choose the location of the sect, which is also the berthing point of the sect mothership. Although the available area is limited to the periphery of the Blood Ocean Galaxy, there are actually many planets to choose from. On the one hand, the Blood Ocean Galaxy is extremely vast; on the other hand, thanks to the absorption of the spiritual veins and life source roots of half of the Western Milky Way, the current Blood Ocean Galaxy is not inferior to the Kunlun Galaxy. Therefore, no matter which planet is chosen as the sect's resident, it can be called a treasure land. Of course, the differences in advantages and disadvantages between different planets are also obvious, which is why the big monkey is eager to use "teleportation return" - he must seize the opportunity.

The next issue is recruiting members. Although the player base is huge, the sect cannot accept anyone at will. Candidates must be strictly screened, otherwise the sect's mission progress will lag far behind others in the future.

The appeal of the big monkey should not be underestimated. After he selected the sect's base and paid 10 trillion interstellar coins for construction, he immediately received a large number of applications from players.

However, the Great Monkey did not rush to approve these applications, but instead studied the sect system in depth: "Under the sect master, elders and disciples can be established. Elders include supreme elders, worship elders, guest elders, as well as great elders and ordinary elders. Disciples are divided into inner disciples, outer disciples, and personal disciples."

As the big monkey studied the sect system, he gradually realized: "Although there are many positions, I can set the cultivation level required for each position, and even... recruit AI intelligent life to join the sect."

The Great Monkey has a clear plan for the selection of disciples: he believes that only players who have reached the Celestial Immortal level are eligible to become outer disciples, players who have reached the True Immortal level can be promoted to inner disciples, and players who have reached the peak of the Mysterious Immortal level can serve as elders. As for the personal disciples, to some extent, it is similar to the master-disciple relationship, and each elder has the right to personally select them.

The reason why the Great Monkey set these thresholds is simple: creating a sect requires a lot of resources, whether it is the selection of the sect's location, the payment of rent, or the distribution of benefits after recruiting disciples, each item requires huge expenses. The initial establishment of a sect is bound to incur huge costs, but in the long run, there will definitely be rich returns.

In the internal management level of the sect, the Great Elder is the most powerful elder, responsible for the actual operation of the sect, such as the Law Enforcement Elder, the Divine Power Elder, the Alchemy Elder, etc. These positions require at least the initial stage of the Star Realm. Of course, the number of players in the Star Realm is limited, and it is impossible to fill all vacancies immediately. But as the player level continues to rise, this day will always come. Therefore, the Great Monkey decided not to lower the standard for the time being, but to leave everything to time to prove.

So far, all high-level positions in the sect have been held by players. However, at the next level, the situation is different. The big monkey has a bold idea: the sect system does not clearly stipulate that these positions cannot be held by AI intelligent life, which means that it is possible to try to recruit powerful AI to join.

In his conception, there is an essential difference between guest elders and dedicated elders. The word "guest" in the term "guest" indicates that they are not completely affiliated with the sect. They are more like experts and professors who are invited to give lectures in other colleges in reality, and their interests are not closely related to the sect. The dedicated elders are different. The sect will provide them with resource support. They do not need to bear too many responsibilities on weekdays, but they can provide assistance to the sect at critical moments and even directly participate in battles!

At this moment, the big monkey was no longer considering the position of guest elder, but the position of serving elder. He had already thought of the right person - the great wizard Kuafu!

As the first Wu Clan AI to come into contact with the giant monkey, Kuafu had a very good relationship with him. It was even Kuafu who recommended the giant monkey to the ancestor Wu AI, which led to the changes in the Wu Clan. Kuafu often went to the giant monkey's base to eat and drink, and over time, the two sides established a deep friendship. The giant monkey was confident that he could persuade Kuafu to become the elder of the Blood Kitchen Sect.

As mentioned before, the Elders will receive resource support from the sect. So the question is, what kind of valuable resources can the Blood Kitchen Sect provide to the Great Witch AI?