Chapter 223: Hey, Is Everyone Here?!
Before entering the game, new players must customize their avatar. However, Mike had already played the early access trial after the holidays, so his avatar was already created, so he simply loaded the previous saved game.
Luckily, someone on the server had just left. Mike waited outside for about ten seconds and, when the game screen went black, he entered.
When the game screen appeared on the monitor, Mike was startled to see the crowd. There were a lot of players, with all kinds of appearances and costumes, and a bunch of IDs floating everywhere.
Mike, a little dazzled, blocked the IDs above the players' heads in the options, which immediately calmed him down.
"Mike, you're here!".
"This is great! I'll show you everything from the beginning," Tom and Sarah said on the voice channel.
Meanwhile, in the game, Mike saw Tom and the others' characters appear next to him.
On the open server, all players had no physical collision with each other and could fly freely, just like in Creative Mode, even adjusting their speed with specific commands.
"If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, I wouldn't have believed it! This Firelink Shrine is exactly the same!". Hearing the words of Tom and the others, Mike also noticed his location.
At first, he was a little bewildered.
But now, upon closer observation, he saw that this was exactly the Firelink Shrine from Dark Souls. Of course, it was not the open-air Shrine of the First Age of Fire, but that of the End of the Age of Fire. Almost everything was recreated!. There was even a bonfire, and next to it, the Fire Keeper, a cubic figure! There was also the Desperate Brother sitting on the steps, legless Rhoads, the old woman with ashes, and the blacksmith.
"Yes, we were also shocked when we came in!", Tom said with emotion.
"Who would have thought that this was a pixel art game!", Ethan exclaimed.
Meanwhile, many players inside the Firelink Shrine were enthusiastically commenting on the presence of the Fire Keeper through the game's open microphone.
"By the way, have you guys finished your visit?", Mike asked.
"No, I just visited the riverbank scene of the Harvest Festival. They logged in before I finished, so I'm taking them," Sarah said.
"Let's go!". Mike was a little impatient.
He knew how to explore, as there were instructions floating in the sky.
He approached the central bonfire, ignoring the group of players surrounding the Fire Keeper. In Dark Souls, this guy wanted to see the Fire Keeper from various angles, which was fine. After all, he had seen her before, and she was incredibly beautiful.
But in Minecraft, in front of a pixelated figure, all the players wanted to see the Fire Keeper from unique angles. 'Is she even human?'.
Upon reaching the bonfire to activate the teleportation, the screen went black for an instant, and then the scene appeared on Mike's screen.
Mike finally saw that dreamlike scene. He was born in the streets of the capital.
The NPCs, dressed in distinctive ancient costumes, surrounded him. The rest of the cubic figures were clearly normal players.
In the chat in the lower left corner, messages flooded the screen like crazy.
Mike's eyes widened as he contemplated this pixelated version of the bustling scene from a thousand years ago. The bustling streets, the taverns, the pleasure boats, the attics, and the merchants and tourists that filled the streets and alleys made Mike feel as if he had traveled to another world.
He remembered the small dark room that he and Sarah had built. Then he looked at the bustling city.
Suddenly, Mike wondered if he was playing the same game he was seeing now.
'What a huge difference!'.
At that moment, Sarah and the others also teleported.
"Incredible! How about we build a similar complex?", Tom exclaimed, contemplating the beautiful landscape.
Silence invaded the voice chat, as everyone silently controlled their characters to fly forward.
'Build a similar complex?'.
Mike silently observed the painting "Along the River During the Harvest Festival." The sun shone brightly, and you could even see a white fog over the river. The lights that hung from the eaves swayed gently with the breeze.
With the imposing city tower as the center, rows of houses lined the streets on both sides. There were tea houses, taverns, shoe stores, butcher shops, temples, government offices...
Even the stores sold a variety of silks, jewelry, and spices, all represented by Minecraft items. For example, silks were represented by wool and jewelry by emeralds.
In addition, there were services such as cart repair, fortune telling, and facial treatments, offering a wide variety of services to residents.
The streets were full of people, shoulder to shoulder, with merchants doing business, nobles enjoying the view of the street, men and women, young and old, scholars, farmers, merchants, and all walks of life.
There were also many means of transport, including palanquins, camels, ox carts, rickshaws, etc., which vividly represented the prosperous scene of a commercial city.
With such a large scale, you said you wanted to build something similar?.
Sorry!.
Although it is a game, the group of people did not use the flight mode, but walked together through the streets on both banks of the river. Appreciating the beautiful landscape in the game is like traveling. There are many players like them.
Even through the open microphone voice channel, players who did not know each other began to chat.
"It's incredible! Nebula Games is absolutely amazing! Have you noticed that, although it's pixel art, it's so well reproduced?".
"That's right, it not only looks alike, but also in spirit. It perfectly portrays the crisis that hides behind the prosperity!".
"Yes, yes, and there are also these NPC events. Look ahead!".
A tax collector in the corner pointed to a sack and said a desired number, immediately causing the discontent of the surrounding merchants. A cartwright opened his mouth frantically and shouted, so loud that the night watchman on the wall looked down.
Meanwhile, two four-horse carriages swerved and sped down the street, ramming into passers-by before they could dodge.
These actions were, naturally, the result of AI technology. Several random events appeared as players walked through the scene. To ensure a unique experience on this street of the Harvest Festival scene, Alex had gone to great lengths to implement numerous random events.
"Perfect! It perfectly represents the customs and daily life of the people, and even reveals the secrets hidden beneath the surface of commercial prosperity. It's an image of prosperity and danger, with a sense of crisis!".
Hearing the chatter of the other players, Mike, Sarah, and Tom were silent.
"Hey, is everyone here?".
They all played and visited the game, and they all praised it equally.
'Why are they so ostentatious and able to say so many things? And he only said "Wow, how cool!" and "Wow, how beautiful!".'
Hearing the conversations of the players next to him, he always felt that he was a bit vulgar.
So Mike decided to deactivate the voice chat.
As long as he couldn't hear it, he wouldn't feel too vulgar.
'The world fell silent!'.
Upon deactivating the voice chat, feeling the tranquility of the world, Mike smiled.
Another place, the same action.
Sarah and the others also silently deactivated the public voice chat channel.
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