Conquering OtherWorld Starts With a Game

Previously, Yang Qiu had watched numerous game-related videos while preparing for the game's launch on Earth. Through these videos, he discovered that popular MMO content creators and streamers often emphasized the concept of a "sense of belonging."

His observation of the three veteran players during the closed beta testing further confirmed that the player community did indeed pursue spiritual fulfillment when it came to games.

It might sound exaggerated to claim that playing games was a pursuit of spiritual fulfillment, but at the very least, it could be categorized as a psychological need.

Mainstream MMORPG games on the market featured opposing factions, and the conflicts between these factions provided players with a strong sense of belonging and a shared language. In other words, for a game to generate high player engagement and increased time spent online, it had to foster a sense of "belonging to a collective" among players.

However, Yang Qiu couldn't implement the straightforward approach of having opposing factions. He could only use skeletal remains as "game character vessels" and couldn't accommodate too many players in the short term. Splitting a mere three hundred players into two factions was simply ridiculous. Therefore, he had to focus his efforts on the background setting of the playable undead race.

Taranthan was a massive thousand-mile wasteland nestled between the Duchy of Shiga and the Rhine Kingdom. For hundreds of years, both countries had dispatched pioneering teams in attempts to conquer this desolate land, all of which ended in failure.

The reasons for their failures were apparent. Despite the existence of this relatively easily accessible wasteland, trading caravans still preferred the risky route through Sorensen. The desolate wastelands of Taranthan had been untouched for over a thousand years, and it harbored all sorts of demonic monsters and beasts, along with unstable void rifts.

Sending a few thousand pioneering settlers into this place was akin to throwing rabbits into a lion's den. Not only was establishing dominance impossible, but even surviving was considered a small miracle.

The small town Yang Qiu selected, hidden away in a valley, had indeed belonged to a group of settlers several decades ago. However, nobody knew for sure whether they were from the Rhine Kingdom or the Duchy of Shiga.

Of course, this wasn't important. What mattered was that the downfall of this settlement was indeed due to idolatry.

Shortly after clearing the surface vegetation, Yang Qiu discovered the remnants of sacrificial altars and arrays hidden in the underground tunnels, along with a large pile of human remains. With one look, he could easily imagine the brutal fate that had befallen the original inhabitants of this town.

Though for Yang Qiu, this phenomenon wasn't surprising at all. This world wasn't like China, where they could send troops to the vast deserts of the northwest to colonize and settle. In this world, when there was a political need for colonization, the conventional approach would be to gather prisoners from the jails and form an army of exiles. Then, grant a civilian officer with a massive ego the title of general while providing some supplies as a casual gesture of support.

In other words, colonization in this world was either a political show or a means of dealing with explosive prisoner numbers; it was never about territorial expansion. If countries truly sought expansion, they wouldn't bother with a desolate wasteland that needed to be rebuilt from scratch. Wasn't it more enticing to go to those lands beyond the continent, where indigenous populations had already developed large-scale farming and cultivation?

And to make matters worse, the majority of the prisoner population in most countries included cultists and heretics.

Such deployments were often harsh and a great challenge for those involved. 𝘣𝘦𝘥𝘯𝑜𝑣𝘦𝘭.𝘤𝘰𝑚

Of course, Yang Qiu couldn't allow players to "inherit" the honor of a band of exiles composed of criminals; there was simply no such honor to inherit.

Thus, Yang Qiu came up with the plotline of a "border guard team that came to save people." He then transformed the zombie king he had retrieved from the marshes into the "righteous and resolute General Lancelot Edgar."

"Born from chaos, but longing for order," "conceived evil that yearns for the light"—this faction with an antagonistic facade yet committed to righteousness perfectly embodied the core socialist values!

Furthermore, what appealed to Earthlings was a dose of "contrast cuteness." Take a video, for example. A righteous protagonist with thick eyebrows and bright eyes sternly shouted, "Release that old lady!" would probably result in most viewers watching it blankly and skipping the scene. However, if it were a bald man wearing a flashy shirt with a gold chain on one side and roaring, "Release that old lady!" those same viewers would cheer with enthusiasm.

This was what made Yang Qiu's game appealing.

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This extremely hideous zombie general, who didn't issue manual labor quests, was usually disregarded by players. But as the plot progressed, the zombie general's attributes of "righteousness and determination" were slowly exhibited, which would increase players' favorability toward him.

Considering the original setting of the town, Yang Qiu decided not to include characters with the identity of prisoners or heretics. Drawing from his observations during his travels in this messed-up world, he slightly modified and created characters such as "General Charlotte," "Morris," "Anna," and "Yarlyn."

In conclusion, the players' discontent with the healing-style plotline was not a deliberate attempt by Yang Qiu to provoke them. It was simply a result of this dark magic plane where too many unfortunate individuals, whether by family, friends, neighbors, comrades, or even strangers, were afflicted, and being driven to insanity was the norm.

Unlocking the dialogue with the zombie general plotline marked the completion of the quest's second phase. The next part involved an escort quest: After learning that the players had discovered the corpse of "Yarlyn," the zombie general personally descended into the underground tunnel to retrieve his body. During this period, the players had to protect the Zombie General as he entered the underground shelter while also exploring the consequences of the townsfolk uttering the name of the evil god.

This particular consequence was the "cult sacrificial site" deliberately left behind by Yang Qiu when he cleared the underground tunnel. Of course, he had eliminated the excessively brutal elements, leaving behind only a few mutilated corpses and remnants of the sacrificial altar.

The players remained rather calm and unaffected on the outside as the zombie general led them to the site. After all, compared to the dusty remains of fragmented bones piled up in the corners, the zombie general, even when accompanying them, had a more horrifying effect.

Apart from the exploration, the players also had to face the test of being attacked by a "miniboss," which was a corpse ghoul that Yang Qiu had specially kept when cleaning up the underground tunnel.

This corpse ghoul was likely summoned by the cultists during their sacrificial rituals. It had high physical attack power, extreme speed, and the ability to lurk in the shadows. Yang Qiu's estimates were that it would eliminate about half of the players; after all, an epic-level quest without casualties wouldn't be a proper quest.

Of course, Yang Qiu had no intention of letting the players who had worked so hard be wiped out. Once half of the players died, the zombie general, as the leader of the undead race, would receive the "Fury" buff due to the "excessive deaths of his fellows" and would then eliminate the corpse ghoul.

The zombie general was a heavyweight among the zombie NPCs after all, and Yang Qiu had spared no expense when crafting it and imbued it with numerous runes.

As expected, when the group followed the zombie general into the underground shelter, before they even had a chance to move "Yarlyn's body," Blossoming Strokes, who stood in the middle of the team, was struck by a claw from the emerging undead monster and disappeared in a white light.

"Why is it always this poor lady with bad luck?" Yang Qiu sighed as he watched with a mix of both laughter and sadness while observing via the imprint matrix.

Other than Yang Ying, this group was made up of experienced gamers. Upon accepting the quest and knowing they would have to fight monsters, they had deliberately arranged their formation, placing the members who weren't particularly adept at combat in the center—Blossoming Strokes, Brother Lahong, and Unceasing Entropy.

However, they never imagined that the spawning location of the monster was off. The corpse ghoul appeared right in the middle of their formation and instantly caused a whole lot of chaos.

Blossoming Strokes was reduced to a white light, and Brother Lahong, who couldn't escape in time, met the same fate. At a critical moment, Unceasing Entropy pulled Yang Ying away, narrowly saving both their lives.