The King of Black Fog

...喜欢.

"Regarding background, my current knowledge is also limited," Master Huang continued, "The foundation of breakthrough is a full value, but there is a difference between having one full value and two full values, because the number of Attribute Points is different—'Charm' and 'Intelligence' are also included, so everyone's background is destined to have highs and lows."

"So what does it mean to have a high or low birth? This relates to another thing—Ability."

"What is Ability? It's like the metaphor of the fetus again, breaking the limit, leaving the womb, and upon gaining a background, the player has become an official resident of the new world, with the rights of an official resident. This right is Ability."

"And this Ability, for those who have not obtained the identity of a new world resident, is simply an omnipotent force."

The crowd's breath was hot, their hearts thumping.

Master Huang smiled, "There's no need to get excited, calling it an omnipotent force, it's actually similar to the 'Mana' mentioned in Daoist legends. What 'Mana' can do, I assume everyone is clear on that as I am."

"To prolong life, enhance physical quality, heal wounds, and strengthen the power of Skills and items."

"And the amount of 'Ability' is determined by one's 'background'."

"A low background entails low Ability, a high background entails high Ability, and moreover, as the Value Level increases, the Ability attained is different—a low background gains 1 point of Ability per Level, a high background gains 10 points, or even 20 points."

"Therefore, within your capabilities, it's better to enhance your Attributes as much as possible. The importance of one's background can be felt even by those who are not players."

"Children of impoverished families, beloved offsprings of ordinary families, descendants of elite families, and the scions of immensely wealthy and noble houses—the gap between high and low backgrounds in the future will only be greater than these."

"Of course," Master Huang's tone shifted, "life is the most important. If one bets on their background and loses their life, it's not worth it."

"I won't lie to you all, among those present, it is very likely that a large number will become 'stillbirths', so if there is a chance, you should still try to break through and live as an ordinary citizen."

"Moreover, the better the background, the more difficult the tasks will be in the future."

"Time is limited, I'll stop talking about 'background' and 'Ability' here. If you're interested, for example, if you want to know what background I have, you can buy this book."

Master Huang picked up a book, its cover brand new.

"I wrote this. Inside, there are some instances I've experienced, players I've encountered, how to match Skills, and some matters after breaking through. After the lecture, you're welcome to purchase it."

"How much is it?" someone in the audience asked loudly.

"It's not expensive," Master Huang smiled, "1 Game Coin. I hope everyone can support generously and that this book can help you all."

In a corner.

Li Changzhou whispered to the other two, "See that? This is how to dominate the early market. In a month, no one will buy his book."

"I heard from Zheng Qing that Master Huang plans to give lectures all over the country. Imagine how much money he's going to make!" Li Qianxia said enviously.

"Everyone is trying in their own way," Yang Qinglan sighed.

"Brother, why don't you also give lectures? Something like that Bull Horn Babbling Power, surely people will want to learn it."

"Firstly, my reputation isn't significant; secondly, it's better to spend Money to directly buy a Skill than to learn this; lastly, it's Bull Horn Spiral Force."

"Hmm—, that's true, I don't really want to learn that Bull Horn Babbling Power either, mainly just to amuse you."

Regardless of the impending sibling showdown in the corner, Master Huang promoted his book for a while longer and then continued to speak.

"Next let's talk about the instance after breaking through."

The commotion caused by 'background' and 'Ability' just now quieted down instantly, each person's eyes shining brighter than the light bulbs overhead.

"Talking about instances, first we need to discuss the main idea behind value games."

"To eliminate the existing world and create a new one; but for a measure of fairness, a part of people are given the identity of 'struggler' with a Black Card."

"Before the breakthrough, everyone is in the womb, killing each other, a bit like spermatozoa fighting for the ovum."

"Those who succeeded in getting the ovum, are basically ready to be born, but such a fetus is the player with the lowest Ability. Those who got the ovum and still remain in the womb to develop, enhancing their Attributes, will have stronger Ability upon birth."

"However, being born early also has its advantages, allowing one to gain a time advantage, as even the weakest new resident is stronger than the vast majority of fetuses."

"We're getting off topic. Let's get back to the instance,"

"Being born is just the first step for us Black Card players to survive. Next, we need to prove something—that natural selection can make mistakes, and we Black Card players can survive."

"How do we prove it? Go back to the past and change the choices that nature made."

"Specifically, in the hands of White Card players, we prevent certain things that should have happened from happening, or we make something else happen."

"For example, 'natural selection' led Qin Shi Huang to build the Great Wall, but as Black Card players taking a train back to the past, we must prevent the construction of the Great Wall to complete our task! Meanwhile, White Card players will do their utmost to build it!"

Someone couldn't help but shout, "Doesn't that make us the bad guys?"

Master Huang looked at that person, then slowly scanned all the people present.

"It depends on your perspective," he said, "In the eyes of nature, we are the bad guys because nature wants to eliminate us, and we resist its will, not wanting to be eliminated. But from our point of view, we're just trying to survive."

"Personally, I don't want to destroy history either. But so-called history is actually natural selection, and natural selection wants to exterminate us!"

"To survive, we must prove: natural selection is wrong, and history can be changed!"

"My teammates and I take the train back to the past, and every time we say to each other: Man can conquer nature!"

Master Huang was very excited; he said all of this in one breath, and it took him a moment to calm down.

There was some silence in Ming'en Hall.

For many people, knowing that they were the "bad guys," and that those White Card players who were perpetrating massacres were the defenders of history, the choices of nature, was a great shock to the conscience.

Master Huang smiled disarming the tension:

"Don't worry, the history we change is only in the instance; nature will not allow us to directly alter its past choices. Even if you truly stopped Qin Shi Huang from building the Great Wall, the history of Xia Country would not change."

"Moreover, the higher-ups at the Special Warfare Bureau believe that natural selection is ultimately 'survival of the fittest,' no matter if it's White Card or Black Card. There's no intrinsic good or bad, just two natural choices; either path is fine."

"Oh, and I should mention this: players born into higher status change major events, like building the Great Wall; those of lower status just need to do minor things, like making Van Gogh rich or preventing Beethoven from becoming deaf."

After saying that, Master Huang picked up his water cup and started drinking, giving everyone time to digest and think.

"Bro," Li Qianxia looked over. "What will you do?"

'Yeah, what will I do?' Li Changzhou was thinking about this very question.

If history changed, White Card lost; he lost.

If history didn't change, Black Card lost; he lost.

It seemed he lost either way.

But there was another possibility—he could win either way.

'Thinking this way, wouldn't I be like nature itself? Whether you're a White Card or Black Card, you're all working for me!' Li Changzhou felt a surge of pride, his mindset immediately becoming that of an observer, detached and above worldly concerns.

"No one can tell him the answer to this; he has to try it for himself," Yang Qinglan said pensively.

"Then let's do a Black Card mission for the first time," Li Qianxia said immediately. "Work with us, be our underling."

"...," Li Changzhou.

He didn't care anymore about whether he was on an equal footing with nature; he just hoped he wasn't 'always going to lose,' but rather 'always going to win.'

Otherwise...

The future looked too dark.

Master Huang put down his teacup, tightened the lid, and continued, "We've talked about 'birthright,' 'ability,' and 'instance'; now let's discuss 'skills.'"

[Last two days for monthly tickets, I have a small dream—3000 tickets~]