Chapter 52: Chapter 52: Design of Death Penalties and Rewards
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Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Jiang Qiao brought Hai Lan to the place where players of Holy Spirit come most often… the Resurrection Cathedral.
The interior of the Resurrection Cathedral was an independent space. Here, no player would encounter anyone else, so when Jiang Qiao walked into the Resurrection Cathedral, the noisy sounds from the street were completely cut off, leaving only the sound of quiet air flow.
Sunlight streamed through the church’s stained glass, falling on the ‘holy platform’ where players were resurrected. Sitting on the stone steps leading up to the platform was the Cathedral’s sole NPC, Guardian Spirit·Fureya.
She wore a simple light gray robe, sitting all alone in the vast church, staring at the palm of her hand…
Unlike other NPCs in Holy Spirit, like the newbie mentors in Lionheart City, who often got overwhelmed by a flood of new players, Guardian Spirit·Fureya was an exclusive NPC for each player. This meant that each player’s Guardian Spirit·Fureya was a unique individual.
This gave Jiang Qiao the idea of making some ‘modifications’ to her… or rather, to them.
“Kind Holy Spirit, you have returned.”
Jiang Qiao’s Guardian Spirit·Fureya saw Jiang Qiao walk into the Resurrection Cathedral. She slowly stood up from the steps and then gently placed her hands in front of her chest. Jiang Qiao had purposely set her to be like the ‘virtuous wife’ type of character to players.
“Let me see, first I’ll remove the touch restrictions for NPCs.” Jiang Qiao walked up to the Guardian Spirit and removed some of the touch restrictions players had with NPCs.
In Holy Spirit, players couldn’t actually touch NPCs. The most they could do was touch their hand. If they were allowed to touch more, Jiang Qiao thought an 18+ version of Holy Spirit could be introduced in the future.
But for now… Jiang Qiao was experiencing an 18+ exclusive version of Holy Spirit.
Jiang Qiao reached out and pinched Guardian Spirit·Fureya’s cheek. She remained expressionless as she looked at Jiang Qiao.
Fureya’s cheek felt very real, just like a person in reality, except without any warmth.
All the NPCs in Holy Spirit were created by Jiang Qiao in creator mode, so he now needed to confirm some of the finer details about these NPCs.
Including what it felt like to touch an NPC and whether they had any special reactions when touched in certain areas.
“What can I do for you, Great God?”
When Jiang Qiao touched her, Fureya instantly switched her language mode, identifying Jiang Qiao as a GM and not an ordinary player.
“So even conversations with a GM are preset? Tell me, how many players have tried to talk to you so far?”
Jiang Qiao let go of Fureya’s cheek and began to inquire about her current popularity among players.
“Three thousand four hundred twenty-one people. Many of the young Holy Spirits engage in long conversations with us. Most of them share personal matters from their real lives. I am often seen as a role between a lover and a psychological counselor, even to female Holy Spirits,” Fureya said, her voice still devoid of any emotion. This soft and gentle tone indeed… made people feel very comfortable.
“With around four thousand players online on the server, I should say you definitely deserve to be our mascot?”
Jiang Qiao opened a web browsing tool, and in the Holy Spirit section of the player forum, discussions about Fureya still dominated the majority.
This game’s initial popularity was mainly due to Fureya-related posts, and it was only after players obtained activation codes that they began to discover other joys of Holy Spirit through exploration.
In the forum, most Holy Spirit players habitually referred to Fureya as ‘wife’.
“Though I said I’d make changes to you all, actually doing it is quite difficult, but this punishment system requires your cooperation.”
Jiang Qiao came here to design a new punishment system for players.
Holy Spirit’s death penalty was not very severe. When a player died, their equipment durability decreased slightly, and even their experience points were not deducted.
This type of death penalty was very common in online games.
Jiang Qiao did not intend to change the death penalty of Holy Spirit’s original plane, as the original plane of Holy Spirit was essentially a large ‘novice village’ for players. After leveling up to the maximum in Holy Spirit’s original plane, the game would truly begin.
Jiang Qiao aimed to increase the death penalty in the ‘Hai Lan Divine Plane Fragment’ instance, so that players would not be too reckless when fighting Queen Mei.
“Penalty? Jiang Qiao, you’re not going to…”
Hai Lan couldn’t bear to finish her sentence, making a gesture of slicing her neck with her hand.
“If I actually killed off Fureya, it’s likely that players would come after me instead of Queen Mei,” Jiang Qiao said, having some self-awareness. The NPC Fureya was indeed the soft spot of most players.
Poking at players’ soft spot with a needle might be tolerable, but breaking it off would probably land Jiang Qiao in trouble.
“Is there no other way?”
Seeing Jiang Qiao was serious about doing something to Fureya, out of compassion for her creation, Hai Lan stood up to plead for Fureya and all the players.
“If the death penalty isn’t intensified, players will completely throw caution to the wind in your Divine Fragment plane. Haven’t you seen players use corpse runs to progress when an instance is too difficult?” Jiang Qiao said.
“I’ve seen it, but what do you mean by intensify?” Hai Lan had watched countless times as Jiang Qiao raided instances on screen.
Every phase during instance raids was a struggle, with guilds or teams dying repeatedly, progressing inch by inch.
Jiang Qiao would not restrict the corpse running strategy; instead, he wanted players to use it wisely rather than die recklessly.
“When players die three times in the Divine Fragment plane, Fureya will lose her life and return to a doll-like state,” Jiang Qiao explained.
“Isn’t that still killing her?”
Hai Lan seemed ready to protect Fureya from Jiang Qiao’s imagined blade, fearing he would chop her down.
“It’s just a status of being mute,” Jiang Qiao explained. “In the game’s setting, the resurrection power of Holy Spirits comes from Guardian Spirit·Fureya, and enemies in your Divine Fragment plane can strip players of this resurrection power. This is the storyline in the game. After dying three times in your Divine Fragment plane, Fureya will weaken and become an ordinary doll. Players need to kill the monsters that previously defeated them to break this curse.”
“What if the number of consecutive deaths exceeds three times?” Hai Lan whispered, “Some players might not care about Fureya.”
“Starting from the fourth death, players will not be protected by Guardian Spirit·Fureya. Each death after the fourth will incur a 50% experience reduction, and the fifth death will directly decrease their level by one. This curse will persist until enough monsters are killed to lift the curse,” Jiang Qiao elaborated on a death penalty severe enough to make players want to smash their keyboards.
“However, once the curse is lifted, the lost experience will be restored, and Guardian Spirit·Fureya can be revived, continuing until the second curse begins.”
“Doesn’t it get progressively harder? Are you sure players will still help us fight Queen Mei with these penalties?” Hai Lan wondered, feeling the penalties might provoke a player rebellion.
“High risks come with high rewards. I’ll design a series of irresistible rewards, and the first reward will be unlocking the second phase of affections with Fureya,” Jiang Qiao’s gaze shifted back to Guardian Spirit·Fureya, who, sensing something, brought her fingertips to her lips, tugging slightly to form a somewhat awkward smile.
This reminded Jiang Qiao of something: “Quickly say you like him, so he can recharge another ten thousand dollars.”