The Holy Spirit was trending in the forums, but what surprised Jiang Qiao the most was that it wasn't the game itself that was trending, but a female NPC who wasn't that important in the game.
More than half of the posts in the VR online gaming section of the forum were discussing the NPC, Doll Girl.
The initial post by Stars Bookmen had more than 1,200 replies. This text-based player didn't bother with any research, but instead focused on digging up the plot related to the female doll, or using props to tease the female doll.
If it wasn't for the fact that Holy Spirit players would be punished and warned for doing something outrageous to the NPC, these players would have played the Holy Spirit like an 18X game.
The Holy Spirit's popularity skyrocketed, forcing the administrators of the player community to open a new Holy Spirit area.
Jiang Qiao spent the entire night reading the posts in the Holy Spirit area. Whether it was the players' posts, complaints, or guides, Jiang Qiao read every single one of them seriously.
These were the most direct feedback from the players, and Jiang Qiao was able to understand the areas that needed improvement in the Holy Spirit area.
Most of the complaints were about the lack of activation requirements, and the inability to enter the server. However, the number of guides for the Holy Spirit area increased.
One of the posts was posted at eight in the morning, and the ID of the editor was Yu Zhongqu.
The title of the post was "[Original by Vivacycore Guild] About the Fairy Wardrobe's stats and the fastest way to exchange for items in the new Holy Spirit dungeon."
Jiang Qiao hadn't read the content of the post yet. Jiang Qiao scrolled to the bottom to read the comments. The players on the forums were very familiar with the Vivacycore Guild and the editor of the post.
"Yu Zhongqu posted personally?
The Upper City Core Squad is going to enter the Holy Spirit? "Respondent: Community Warmth.
"Is the Nucleus Guild in the Holy Spirit still accepting people?" Respondent: Priest Tying Shoelaces.
The Leap Core Guild was one of the largest player guilds in China. The guild was present in all VR online games. At the same time, the Leap Core Guild also had an esports club that performed extremely well in the Dispute event. Unfortunately, due to personnel changes this year, they did not manage to enter the finals of the Dispute event.
However, the popularity and fans of the Upper City Core Squad were still the top in China, and the Vivacycore Guild had a huge fan base among the players.
It was very common for the players to spread their fame to their in-game guilds. There were about seven or eight guilds in China that had their own professional guilds. The most popular guilds were The Monarch Descends and Leap Core. There was also a guild called the Abyss Temple, whose professional team, Strife, was one of the most popular in China.
The name "Abyss Temple Guild" might sound a little chuunibyou, but the professional team under the guild, Strife, was even stronger than The Monarch Descends, and the Abyss Temple Guild was nicknamed the "Evil Faction" by the players.
Now that the Vivacycore Guild had posted a guide regarding the Holy Spirit, and it was even personally posted by an experienced member of the guild, Yu Zhongqu. This undoubtedly gave the players a lot of room for imagination.
Firstly, the Vivacycore Guild was definitely going to enter the Holy Spirit. Secondly, it was equivalent to publicly issuing a challenge to the other competing guilds.
Pioneering a new game with potential was very important for the club to recruit new blood. The other guilds would definitely be interested after seeing the potential of the Holy Spirit.
Jiang Qiao skimmed through the replies below the guide and focused on the content of the post.
The content of the post was a detailed analysis of the equipment exchange mechanism of the Fairy Merchant, Leazrui. It included that the Magic Stones could be obtained from disassembling equipment in the Trial Tower, and could also be dropped by the monsters in the Trial Tower.
However, the efficiency of obtaining Magic Stones using these two methods was too slow. It would take at least a week to exchange for a new set of clothing. The rarest Rainbow Unicorn Headpiece in the Fairy's wardrobe would take at least half a month if one was lucky.
Therefore, the main point of Yu Zhongqu's post was to accept employment quests from NPCs outside the Trial Tower, or directly extort those NPCs to obtain additional Magic Stones.
"This day sure came quickly."
Jiang Qiao had already expected the players to do this. The 'NPCs outside the Trial Tower' mentioned by Yu Zhongqu were not NPCs placed by Jiang Qiao, but the original inhabitants of the Trial Tower.
Jiang Qiao read through the contents of the post in detail. He wanted to see how Yu Zhongqu communicated with the original inhabitants of the Trial Tower.
"Every once in a while, there will be one to ten NPCs outside the Trial Tower. There is no pattern. The NPCs themselves are not fixed, and their identities are not fixed. However, they only have one goal, and that is to challenge the Trial Tower. While clearing the Trial Tower, they hope to obtain a higher ranking.
We can try to negotiate with these NPCs. They will offer a certain amount of Magic Stones to join our party. Some NPCs with poor equipment will only need to pass the Trial Tower. A small number of rare NPCs want to leave their names on the Ranking Stone Stele. The Magic Stone reward for both parties is not fixed. The system will not provide detailed information. The higher the Charm and Eloquence attributes, the higher the price the NPCs will offer. Also, a reminder: some of these NPCs might go back on their word. Don't trust them so easily. "
Jiang Qiao did not feel anything when he read the description. The players were not impressed by the high intelligence of the original inhabitants. This was because the NPCs in the Holy Ghost World were like this. The excessive preset dialogue made the players used to the NPCs acting like real people.
Moreover, the Eloquence and Charm attributes were not limited to the NPCs in the Holy Ghost World. These two attributes were also useful in the real world. The specific effect was similar to the Charm of the Succubus, which could subconsciously make people feel good about them!
"So they're having fun."
Jiang Qiao took a look at the screenshots that Yu Zhongqu had sent him. The screenshots were of the original inhabitants of the Trial Tower either looking conflicted or admiring as they handed a bag of Magic Stones to the players. In short, they had complicated expressions as they faced this group of strangers that had appeared out of nowhere.
"What are we playing?" Hai Lan had been watching from the side, but she did not understand the part about the strategy guide.
"It's a new activity. I should create a guild to join in the fun."
As a member of the Holy Ghost World, Jiang Qiao did not intend to miss out on such an interesting activity.
Most importantly, the activity of helping the original inhabitants of the Otherworld to clear the Trial Tower was not planned by Jiang Qiao himself.
"What's the name of the guild?
Hai Lan's expectant tone made it seem like she really wanted Jiang Qiao to name the guild Hai Lan's Church.
"Nameless. Since I can't think of a name, I'll just leave it as a guild for fun."
Jiang Qiao did not play the Holy Ghost World to fight anyone. He simply wanted to enjoy the game, even if it was his creation. And now … a system activity that Jiang Qiao did not deliberately appear in the Holy Ghost World, and Jiang Qiao felt the need to join in the fun.