Chapter 410: Chapter 397: Games Can Make People Violent! (Combined Chapter)

Jiang Qiao popped open a can of cola and sat down on the couch, while Hai Lan was lying on the same couch, clutching her stomach as she digested her food.

In this battle, she had swallowed nearly half of the resources from the Black Tide Island and was now busy processing these resources into actual items within the game.

Given Hai Lan’s processing speed, it might take her about half a day. During this time, Jiang Qiao sorted out the aftermath he needed to deal with.

The first thing Jiang Qiao did was… restoring the stronghold that had been destroyed by the Magic Thieves of the Black Tide Island.

This restoration did not include the crops from other worlds that the players had planted, as for livestock like the Lukewarm Milkcows and Blazing Ducks, Jiang Qiao had preemptively relocated them to the true world of the Holy Spirit before the enemies attacked.

Although the stronghold was restored, the lord-level giant dragons that descended on Biland Island from Black Tide Island had settled there.

The Beheading Squad, after slaying Denghis Xisi, obtained half of the control over Black Tide Island, while the other half of the control was in the hands of the last Island Master of Black Tide Island.

But this wasn’t a problem, because the last Island Master of Black Tide Island was neutral and also lacked the power to offer more resistance.

The result of this was… the lord-level giant dragons from Black Tide Island also switched from being hostile to neutral at the outset, somewhat like the dragons on Biland Island.

If the players didn’t provoke them, they wouldn’t trouble the players.

From the perspective of game operations, this was acceptable. Players could still continue exploring Black Tide Island, which was still home to many hostile enemies, such as the void, the abyss, and the lurking Legion of Oblivion.

Yet Black Tide Island itself could no longer bring an apocalyptic disaster to the real world or to Biland Island.

This campaign also brought benefits to Jiang Qiao, the greatest of which was the official increase of the player level cap to sixty, and the server capacity limit was raised from three hundred thousand to five hundred thousand in one breath.

Although this number still looked rather modest, it was already a commendable figure for the Holy Spirit.

Jiang Qiao wasn’t in a rush to release these additional two hundred thousand player slots, instead, he was considering… Whether it was a bit too unfair to determine Holy Spirit player qualifications solely by drawing lots.

This was something Jiang Qiao would think about later, followed by the increase in reserves of Creation Energy.

In this campaign, Jiang Qiao had lost 1.3 million points of Creation Energy to revive players, but after Hai Lan consumed a third of Black Tide Island’s energy, Jiang Qiao had also gained a large amount of Creation Energy income; his current Creation Energy balance was… 700,000 points.

“Why do I feel like this thing is never enough?”

Jiang Qiao glanced over the long list of Creation Energy expenditures in the system’s book, like repairing strongholds, allocating Fureya’s memories, daily player activity expenses, and the monster respawn expenses of the Holy Spirit’s true world.

With the increase in Holy Spirit players, Jiang Qiao’s demand for Creation Energy had also surged. Originally, server maintenance fees of twenty to thirty thousand a day were sufficient, with the majority being spent on monster respawn in the Holy Spirit’s true world, as well as refreshing the gear acquired by players.

But now the daily maintenance costs had risen to 120,000 points, and this included a new item “Black Tide Island Fallen Player Revival” and “Fureya’s Nutrition Fees”, which came with hefty expenses.

And Jiang Qiao’s current income from Creation Energy was… 100,000 points, which was quite a bit less than before!

“Stay calm, the monsters of Black Tide Island can no longer devour the Creation Energy that constitutes the players, so this major expense should be able to be scratched off.”

With this in mind, Jiang Qiao started to console himself. Compared to the imbalance of operational revenue and expenditures in the game, Jiang Qiao had another minor trouble in the real world.

That was…

“This Game ‘Holy Spirit’ Turns People Violent!”

Jiang Qiao looked at the latest…news headline on his laptop, and his expression became extremely subtle.

Hai Lan, lying on the sofa behind him, even showed a look of disgust.

The societal attention brought on by the final showdown on the Black Tide Island…was just too overwhelming, having transcended the scope of the game ‘Holy Spirit’ itself.

This led to some experts starting to criticize the game ‘Holy Spirit’, claiming that it could make people violent, which was just one of the hottest topics at the moment.

The expert analysis in this news article was quite convincing.

One of the statements read, “‘Holy Spirit’ features extremely realistic graphics and experiences, and killing is a common element in the game, which means that violence in ‘Holy Spirit’ acts as a rehearsal, a practice for violence in reality! Once you get used to killing in ‘Holy Spirit’ and become numb to the act of killing, you’re likely to replicate the same behavior in the real world.”

Jiang Qiao himself was convinced by this analysis, but he couldn’t deny there was a bit of truth to it, which was why he handled the bloody effects of PK in ‘Holy Spirit’ very harmoniously. It was only slightly shy of having players slash at each other, with wounds spouting rainbows and sparkly dreamy glows.

However, this article was just, someone’s first strike against ‘Holy Spirit’. The follow-up beat for ‘Holy Spirit’ didn’t stop there, with another article popping up…

“When Playing Video Games Can Buy You a House, Is There Still a Need to Study and Work? A Child Ruined by Gaming.”

Below this article was a video report about a high school student who skipped classes to go to an Internet cafe and play ‘Holy Spirit’ right before the college entrance exams, all for the advertised property certificate in the game. The interviewee was the student’s mother, who was all tears and snot as she accused the game of ruining her child.

“Aren’t you angry?” Hai Lan sat up from the sofa and entered a state of indignation.

“Why get angry with fools?” Jiang Qiao sipped on his chilled cola through a straw, his heart…extremely calm.

To Jiang Qiao, these reports were irrelevant. What he truly paid attention to were the analyses on various gaming forums, especially those concerning Denghis Xisi’s lines.

“I always feel like Denghis Xisi’s lines aren’t what you’d expect from a BOSS’s preset script but rather like they’re speaking to us?” Poster: Shengun De.

“Analysis of the Beheading Squad’s instance, speculation on why the player Black Pot Meat escaped ahead of time.” Poster: Bai Yueguang.

The Beheading Squad operation was streamed live, and some veteran forum users started to feel something was off about the BOSS Denghis Xisi’s lines…

Yet these analyses were still theoretical, including those and the news rhythms.

Jiang Qiao’s decision was…to play dead.

The customer service for ‘Holy Spirit’ was the coldest and most ruthless–or rather, ‘Holy Spirit’ had no customer service at all.

Besides analyzing who exactly Denghis Xisi’s speech was addressing, another topic took over the ‘Holy Spirit’ forum–cloud players.

“Woo woo woo woo, after a whole year of drawing accounts, I can finally get a glimpse of the world of ‘Holy Spirit’, although only as a little light orb.” Poster: Deep Sea Seal.

“Is the cloud player version just a photography game? Why can’t I go to places like Biland Island, Black Tide Island, etc., as you people mentioned?” Poster: Front Row Holy Spirit Test Rights Recycler.

After Zhao Mingwei’s online play-along became a hot topic last night, the number of registered ‘Holy Spirit’ cloud players had exceeded three million.

These three million cloud players would roam the worlds of ‘Holy Spirit’, both the main and the secondary, as little sprites or orbs of light.

They couldn’t do anything; at most, they could just enjoy the scenery in the game. They also couldn’t enter Biland Island and Dark Tide Island, since these two areas are parts of the real world beyond the Saint Spirit’s own realm.

After some thought, Jiang Qiao considered whether to start the distribution of the Saint Spirit test qualifications with these cloud gamers. But while he was pondering this… Jiang Qiao received a message from his own dad.

‘Hey, Jiang Qiao, have you played that very popular game called “Saint Spirit” recently?’

‘Why do you ask?’

If Jiang Qiao remembered correctly, his dad was also somewhat of a gamer, but he was too busy with work to actually play games, at most fiddling with his phone during breaks.

‘There’s been some talk from above about establishing a Saint Spirit major at Wuda, not really a major… I’m not quite sure how to describe it.’

‘I don’t understand…’

Jiang Qiao sent a string of question marks, knowing that Wuda had an ‘Esports Management and Operations Major’, which is common for universities to have in this era. After all, the popularity of the dispute had surpassed that of what’s-its-name conclave, but to establish a major specifically for Saint Spirit? What the heck was that about? That seemed quite abrupt.

‘There’s a professor at your school working on a scientific research project that contains some potentially dangerous elements. He seems to be a player of Saint Spirit as well, and he found out that the game can be used for testing. But he’s getting on in years and isn’t the quickest when it comes to leveling up, so he was wondering if we could find some young people to help out.’

‘This feels like you’re pulling my leg?’

This was Jiang Qiao’s first thought; even as the game’s planner, he felt like his dad was joking. However, given his dad’s identity, it clearly wasn’t a joke.

‘I’m serious, there’s a lot I can’t tell you about Saint Spirit, but you like playing games usually, and you’re a student at Wuda. If you have the qualifications for Saint Spirit, maybe you could get in touch with that professor. If not, it’s no big deal. It is indeed tough to get your hands on those qualifications.’

‘I am playing Saint Spirit, but I might not be much help.’

Jiang Qiao didn’t mean to hide anything; presently there were three hundred thousand players, and that number would soon increase to five hundred thousand. Even if there really was a problem, Jiang Qiao still had his trusty method of escaping into the game.

‘Do you know any players from the game who live in Jiang City? It’s fine if they don’t. I remember Saint Spirit’s rating is 13+, have you come across any high school seniors in there? Their college entrance exam must be approaching, ask them if any of them are considering Wuda.’

Do you think I’m Jiang Qiao the Dreamer?

Looking at all the requests from his dad, Jiang Qiao figured his dad probably only knew him as a player of Saint Spirit, so he wanted to ask Jiang Qiao about his connections in the game to find some appropriate players who could help.

But… high school seniors…

Jiang Qiao scrolled through the messages that Wan Xiang had sent him; lately, she really had been texting him every day, asking about this and that–a part of it was about in-game content, while another was discussing life ambitions.

Jiang Qiao felt quite annoyed, so each time he didn’t chat long before sending a “You should go to sleep.”

‘Why does it have to be someone from Jiang City?’ Jiang Qiao messaged and asked.

‘It doesn’t have to be from Jiang City; they can settle in Jiang City later. The research project over there is quite interested in the potential of conducting experiments in Saint Spirit. They’re just really short on manpower, extremely so… it would be best if they were Wuda students.’

‘… I’ll try to find out.’

Jiang Qiao sent a message back to his dad and looked back at the mother on his laptop screen who was loudly protesting that “Saint Spirit has ruined my child!”

Jiang Qiao had been inquiring about the case of the young man called Magic Thief, but his subpar grades being overlooked for Wuda admission because of Saint Spirit surely seemed unfair to the earnest candidates.

But that didn’t mean he couldn’t audit classes… become an auditing student!

At most, he’d just be without a diploma. His achievements in Saint Spirit were enough for him to live well without necessitating a diploma from Wuda.

Finally, there was Wan Xiang. It was certain that the girl would have no problems getting into Wuda, but her mother’s wish was for her to attend Qingda.

Jiang Qiao thought for a while and then sent a message to Wan Xiang.

‘Got home yet?’

It was eight o’clock on a Monday night; Wan Xiang should have been home from her cram school sessions.

‘Got home.’

Wan Xiang replied to Jiang Qiao promptly.

‘Got time?’

‘I have time, but I need to take a bath.’

‘…’

She’s doing this on purpose, right? Jiang Qiao glanced over the previous chat history, most of which ended with “It’s late, you should sleep,” or “You have class tomorrow, better sleep early.”‘

Now that Jiang Qiao was the one reaching out to Wan Xiang, she decided to use this method to get back at him.

‘This is important, do you really want to go to Wuda? Will your mother agree?’

‘She won’t agree, so I want to go,’ Wan Xiang replied.

‘Then I’m looking forward to becoming schoolmates with you when school starts.’ Jiang Qiao replied.

‘Okay.’

After this, Wan Xiang chatted with Jiang Qiao about many things until he, under the subtly watchful gaze of Hai Lan, sent another message urging Wan Xiang to go to sleep, ending the conversation.

“Human social relationships are so complicated,” Hai Lan muttered to herself, resting her chin in her hand while looking at various news reports.

“But they’re simple enough if you know how to handle them.” Jiang Qiao mused for a moment before deciding to inform his father about Magic Thief, though he didn’t share much, only what he’d seen from a friend of a friend’s perspective.

Everything about Magic Thief, including articles titled “Saint Spirit Can Make People Violent” and “When Playing Video Games Can Buy a House, is There Still a Need for School and Work? A Child Ruined by Gaming,” had already been covered in detail by the news, which was getting quite a bit of attention.

Jiang Qiao just needed to send the links of those news articles to his dad, letting him make the contacts and do the search.

“The Saints have given so much for Biland Island and everything in their world; we should prepare a grand award ceremony,” Hai Lan suggested somewhat indignantly.

“That’s… actually a good idea, I’ll think about it… It can tie in nicely with the subsequent plot developments, although I need to know what those developments are.”

What Jiang Qiao needed to do next was to communicate with the Creator, to see if She had any more news on the Divine Fragments and how to restore the Divinity in the one that had lost its Divine Power.