Chapter 191 - -

Chapter 191: Chapter 189 - "Su Ming’an Will Not Fail" (Additional update by Helmsman "Youyou Nai Yezi")

Su Ming’an had long known that at the end of the one-year game, if the total human Points were insufficient, there would be an annihilation of all humanity.

But she had never been clear whether this assessment was based on a processional value or the final value.

Now it seemed that it was the final value, the sum of the Points and Combat Power of all players still alive at that moment, including those of Adventurer Players who had entered the game and those who had not.

Upon death, their Points would be reset, and they would return to the Main God Space. They had to undergo a series of tasks in the Main God Space, such as creating strategies and watching livestreams, before they could re-enter the game with no initial abilities.

Of course, they could also choose to become , and only by obtaining this status noted in their personal information page, could they acquire Points through part-time professions and low-level strategies. However, once they decided to become again to participate in World Replicas, all their achievements had to be reset before they could re-enter the game.

If it was an Adventurer Player who chose to take a break from a World after experiencing several Worlds, they could not gain Points through the missions available to Casual Players, nor did they need to have their abilities cleared before re-entering the game.

Some of these were rules explicitly announced by the rabbit boss during the opening ceremony, and in later experiments, they were gradually supplemented by forum members.

Thus, having definitively given up their identities to become , Su Ming’an and Qin Ze gradually lost the mindset to re-enter the game—they had hardly earned so many Points and did not want to risk losing everything by venturing again.

And now, the progress bar also told her—the final reckoning was based on the final value.

In other words, the Points that were cleared along the way did not count.

"What are you thinking?" Su Ming’an raised her head.

"Solidification," Qin Ze said. "This way... more and more people will be unwilling to enter the game. Many will return after surviving one or two Worlds with a few hundred Points, and not re-enter the game—because once they re-enter, they might lose everything due to death. They would prefer to keep the Points they earned from venturing into one or two Worlds and safely accumulate them as Casual Players."

"—But I’m more worried about something else," he said. "During the opening ceremony, the rabbit boss mentioned that the higher the Points, the greater the weight in the calculation. I wonder, if a top-ranked player fails in any World, how much the progress bar would lose..."

"That won’t happen," Su Ming’an said. "Su Ming’an won’t fail."

"I know that. I’m talking about other players," Qin Ze said. "In the Fifth World, the top-ranked player Iris failed and lost everything. I don’t know how much that impacted the progress bar."

"I’m afraid the organizers might play dirty," he continued. "They look at the final progress value, and if the last few Worlds are extremely difficult, leading to the failure of all the top-ranked players—that progress value could plummet instantly..."

Su Ming’an suddenly realized.

Her back broke out in a cold sweat.

Although the current progress bar, at 20%, seemed very optimistic. There were more than three hundred days left until the end; plenty of time to push the Points up to 100%.

But it calculated real-time Points, and the higher the ranking, the greater the weight.

If there was an instance where top-ranked players collectively faced a Waterloo...

"The organizers wouldn’t likely do such a thing," Su Ming’an wiped the sweat from her forehead, her gaze trembling slightly, "From everything shown, it seems fair enough not to set traps in the final instance."

"Who knows?" Qin Ze shrugged, "In their eyes, we are just ants. Have you ever seen children stop playing because of fairness?"

"If there are absolute rules outside of the organizers that could restrict them..." Su Ming’an pursed her lips, and then suddenly relaxed as if comforted.

She looked out the window where the sky was a brilliant blue, the weather was nice, and from here one could see the entire CBD’s diamond-like buildings shimmering under the daylight.

"Forget it. These things are beyond our imagination—how could humans of this caliber possibly oppose the organizers? We can only follow their rules." She gazed out at the scenery, watching the people who looked as tiny as ants on the street, and smiled, "Rather than worrying, I should think about what to say when I meet Ming’an."

She brushed a stray hair behind her ear; her ear tips and cheeks flushed with a light rosy hue, seemingly letting go of the previous incident where Qin Ze had offended her. She returned to her seat and clicked open the World Forum.

Whenever big events are about to unfold, the World Forum is always the first place people visit.

The World Forum appeared to have been "renovated" by the organizers, and looked less rigid than at the start. Upon entering, a brief loading screen appeared, and a deliberately beautified chibi version of Boss Rabbit smiled a seemingly innocent and friendly smile at the players.

The scale briefly swayed on its belly, then everything dispersed, revealing the entire interface of the World Forum as the fog seemed to clear.

On the homepage, the most conspicuous were the series of hot posts titled .

People are very adept at keeping up with real events; apart from the numerous posts, a newly added in the bottom right corner of the World Forum was also constantly filled with people chatting:

Su Ming’an quickly scanned through the discussions.

Since the progress bar had only just appeared, many were inexperienced and even though the discussions were fervent, they had not yet considered the issues Su Ming’an and Qin Ze had just mentioned. However, soon, some hot posts began to summarize the situation.

A post with high popularity appeared in her view, its title format nostalgically reminiscent of a highly popular post from the early days of the world game.

Upon opening, it was indeed posted anonymously; this player seemed to prefer doing good deeds without leaving a name, quietly leaving very insightful analyses on the forum.

The progress bar had just appeared, yet this player had quickly posted an exceedingly detailed message—Su Ming’an didn’t understand how this person managed to summarize so quickly.

She scrolled through the post, starting to read.

[Hello, everyone.

Just now, the world game issued an update alert, the much-feared "total points inadequacy leading to a mass wipeout" mechanism is gradually becoming clear to us.

The organizers seem not to have completely hidden it but have instead displayed it openly to everyone—does this also mean that our fears of "upsetting the gameboard" and "the organizers just playing with humanity" might have a turnaround?

A game is only worth looking forward to if it has clear rules and conditions for winning.

And now, we are anticipating this game’s endgame.

I believe, given the current progress, even if there are some crises, what will likely greet us in the end is the victory of all humanity—let me first congratulate us, even if it’s just my hopeful expectation.

Of course, faced with such mechanisms and progress, we should remain vigilant in our excitement...]

Subsequently, Su saw that this player had listed several recommendations for alerting players, exactly matching what she had just thought of.

They also suggested that those suited to go down should become Adventurer Players, and those who are not should peacefully accumulate points as Casual Players without continuously switching roles, as that would needlessly erase many points each time.

They also pointed out, since it’s unknown how points are weighted between Casual and Adventurer Players or how Combat Power is calculated, it is recommended that those who can should participate, at least experiencing one or two worlds and returning with some Combat Power.

At the same time, they concluded, "from now on, the scenario of moral coercion will likely decrease," because people clearly understand that top Adventurer Players are indeed critical, and those defeated by them are simply "not suited to be Adventurer Players."

They also mentioned, since the weighting mechanism is currently unclear, these recommendations will later be adjusted to help everyone better push the progress bar forward.

After all, every person, whether participating or not, after this mechanism was introduced, is working to earn points for all humanity, and there should be no distinctions of high or low, noble or humble.

Additionally, they also proposed a brand-new perspective...

"A progress bar for all humanity?"

Walking, Su Ming’an quickly looked up, seeing the rapidly scrolling comments and also the blood-like progress bar within his view.

"Progress at twenty percent?"

He was somewhat surprised.

But soon, he would rapidly summarize many details from the detailed descriptions in the comments, including some phenomena not mentioned in the comments.

—This twenty percent didn’t seem very optimistic.

Although many people in the Main God Space were thrilled by this, celebrating the future of humanity, and everyone seemed instantly to have found their guidepost, excited about the past efforts, he knew that all was not so simple.

and .

Under this mechanism, those who originally struggled with adventures would only feel more at ease with comfort, although, for their own final ranking, they would still try everything to improve themselves. Without the constant threat of global annihilation hanging over their heads, humans would gradually relax.

...Although for him, this was good news, this mechanism automatically helped people self-locate, filtering those suitable for adventure. Instances of moral coercion would also diminish, and the focus on him would grow more intense.

But under such a mechanism, the pressure on the top-ranked players would be extremely great, because once they failed, it was a significant setback for the entire progress bar.

For those ranked lower, however, the pressure dropped sharply because even if they failed, they could try again. Without the eradication pressure, they could take a more relaxed stance towards this "game world".

Like a shuttle Otherworld game with the pain of death, people might fear the pain but would not feel the heavy pressure and intense fear as before.

He still remembered how people behaved in the First World—fearful of their first death, they struggled frantically to survive, and as time went on, their attitude towards instances became increasingly casual.

Once, while browsing the forum, he even stumbled upon many "Experience Death Organizations," "Extreme Sports Organizations," "Otherworld Parkour Organizations," going crazy in suicidal actions or engaging in high-altitude extreme sports to experience the thrill between life and death. They recorded their own deaths and uploaded the videos to the forum, gaining many fans, and even created polls asking fans "how they would like to see them die next".

Some people used various methods to summon the boss rabbit, perform big rituals, set up altars, chop down plaza statues, self-mutilate, disembowel themselves, jump into plaza fountains to drown, or even loudly insult the organizers; they acted as if they had let go of themselves, completely fearless of death, and could still laugh loudly in the face of pain.

Humans are always full of variety.

In such a world, anything could happen.

Su Ming’an rubbed his temples, contemplating the changes this progress bar might bring.

Then, he saw some comments:

, exactly what the organizers hoped for...]

He was stunned.

Then, as if controlled by an internet army, similar comments started appearing one after another. Though these comments weren’t noticeable among the numerous discussions, once their numbers increased, they became easy to spot.

Su Ming’an watched these comments, then shifted his gaze.

Under a withered banyan-like tree in his line of sight, a youth with blood-red butterflies perched on his shoulders was quietly watching him.