The Boss Behind The Game

Bai Ze had set a trend for beast-taming after taming Little Kun successfully.

As a matter of fact, the hype of beast-taming when Battle Online just launched its server did not last long.

As the players got stronger, monsters like zombie wolves were not much of a use for them. On the other hand, the difficulty to tame an advanced beast exceeded monsters like zombie wolves tremendously. Taking into account the effort required, although it was still possible to tame advanced beasts, the gains would not make up for the losses.

Therefore, there were not many players who were into beast-taming aside from Bai Ze, the recognized master of beast tamers.

However, Little Kun’s Attributes Menu had motivated many players this time.

Lu Wu activated the game update to insert a new gaming feature when the beast-taming trend was still going on.

[Server Announcement: The new Closeness System will be released in the new update]:

Update Notes: The Closeness System will be implemented after the update. The system applies to all monsters in the game, players excluded. Three different paths will be available which are Pets, Lovers, and Brothers.

Checkpoints for Pets: Hostile, Indifferent, Stranger, Friendly, Favorable, Loyal

Checkpoints for Lovers: Hostile, Indifferent, Stranger, Friendly, Favorable, Fondness

Checkpoints for Brothers: Hostile, Indifferent, Stranger, Meeting by chance, Acquaintance, Close

All players are welcomed to explore around as there will be some hidden paths in the Closeness System after the update. Players who complete every path will be rewarded with a mystery reward and the following special modes upon reaching the limits will be unlocked.

Pets with Closeness Level reaching ‘Loyal’ shall unlock Taming Mode and an Equivalent Contract.

Lovers with Closeness Level reaching ‘Fondness’ shall activate Wedding Mode (Yet to be released, time of release unknown!)

Brothers with Closeness Level reaching ‘Close’ shall activate Sworn Brothers Mode (Yet to be released, time of release unknown!)

Official Message: The area of the Closeness System is extremely wide so players are welcomed to explore other functions. The Closeness System between players will not be released for now. Stay tuned and happy gaming!

…

The players were having lively discussions in the forum upon reading the details of the new update.

Watermelon_Taro: “I can’t believe that the Closeness System is only applicable to NPCs and not the players in the game. (wiping blood from nose emoji) I guess it’s time to bond with the ladies from the Wood Spirit Clan.”

Crayon_Shinchan replied to Watermelon_Taro: “Can’t you see that the Wedding System isn’t released yet? Based on my experience in lurking in the forum and my understanding of the officials, I’m guessing that the Wedding System is not going to be available in the foreseeable future. (laughing emoji)”

Xueli_The_Strongest: “Sigh, I thought I could find a boyfriend and get married in the game to obtain some bonus reward. Why aren’t they releasing the system for players? Are they forcing me to flirt with the cute guys from Wood Spirit Clan? (slightly embarrassed emoji)”

Crayon_Shinchan replied to Xueli_The_Strongest: “You’re still eyeing the reward? They’re considered lenient for not suspending your account. I’m guessing that the members of the Wicked Mob are all singles. (laughing emoji)”

Roasting_Chang’e_While_Hugging_Jade_Hare: “It’s a pretty good update, this is like activating a pet system. Although we have to go one step at a time to get close to the beasts, they’re going to be our pets after all. Those who capture beasts to subdue them and force them to participate in battles aren’t treating them as pets, those are just slaves without any emotional connection. Pets will not be pets without any emotional connection, this update is humanizing! (double thumbs up emoji)”

Invincible_Loneliness: “I went online to look around and realized that there is a special column in my Closeness List. I clicked in and saw that the Demonic God and I are on the Master-Apprentice path. (Tong Gua with arms akimbo.jpg)”

…

Reading through the players’ comments in the forum, Lu Wu smiled lightly.

The update this time was not a huge one, it was only an optimization of the game.

Yet, the players were very excited about the Closeness System as it would enrich their gaming experience.

A professional player even started a closeness summary post in the forum to collect information regarding the issues the players faced and the difficulty of increasing the Closeness Levels with each NPC to provide a complete guide for the players’ use.

His post received feedback from many players. Most of them shared their Closeness List and discussed the issues they faced while working on the Closeness Levels.

The player spent five days’ time to sort out the Closeness Lists and comments by the others before making another analysis post to help them have a better understanding of the NPCs.

The post also attracted Lu Wu’s attention. He was immensely amused especially when he saw the author’s comments to each of the NPCs.

Tong Gua – Carefree attitude, materialistic, alcoholic, hates fake people. You need to throw money at him or have a similar attitude with him to get close to him. There’s a condition though, you have to be good at drinking. (Difficulty: Five stars)

The Rock Ghost King – Lesser info, but he has been nice to players ever since he officially became a member of Beiqi, better than Tong Gua at least. Since he is a mature and reliable type, you should think twice before you try to get close to him to get the final reward. (Difficulty: Seven stars)

The Sea King – Exceptionally lots of info. However, he is hostile to all players, none of them even passed the indifferent checkpoint. Don’t even think about this one. It’s impossible to get close to him even though he’s very popular. (Difficulty: 1,000,000 stars)

The Hydra King – A quiet one, pretty cold and indifferent toward players. Though there are still a small number of players who are friendly with him, difficulty to get close to him cannot be certain due to the lack of info. (Difficulty: Set temporarily at seven stars)

Ladies from Wood Spirit Clan – Very enthusiastic. Gone bad from interacting with us players for too long, they even learned how to complain. These ladies’ enthusiasm and warmth seem to indicate their friendliness. Based on my statistics, it will be extremely difficult to advance into lovers with them. It can be said that it’s almost impossible as a biracial marriage is not in the Wood Spirit Clan’s tradition. (Difficulty to advance into lovers: Nine stars) Nonetheless, you can choose to go with the Brothers’ path regardless of gender. The difficulty is just two stars.

Demonic God – It seems like he only has a connection with Gu Yu. He’s not having a Closeness Bar with any other players at all. (Difficulty: Infinite stars)

Xiao Tian: …

Brothers of the Nine Luminaries: …

Little Sha: …

…

The post collected the information of more than 300 beings in the Underworld in total and conducted an initial statistic to their attitudes toward the players. There was also a scale of 1-10 stars to compare the difficulties to increase the Closeness Level with these NPCs.

The professional player’s post provided a big helping hand to the players, so soon enough, some players with the same interest volunteered in helping to conduct the statistics which required a huge amount of effort and time.

Lu Wu was genuinely comforted while looking at the players helping each other.

There were numerous times when he had seen players asking one same question to those creators who willingly compiled statistics, guides, cartoons, and maps by themselves under their posts.

Why are you making this arduous but fruitless effort?

Yet, their answers were pretty similar. For passion, of course!