Building a Gaming Empire From Scratch

Chapter 836: Chapter 795: This is What You Call a Running Game!

“Mountain and Sea Scroll!” This was the reaction of ordinary players.

“Fuck, Zou Wu!?” This was the reaction of players who had studied the Classics of Mountains and Seas and knew about its mythical creatures.

What shocked them was the record of Zou Wu in the Classics of Mountains and Seas:

[In the Kingdom of Lin, there is a rare beast, as big as a tiger, with splendid colors, its tail longer than its body, called Zou Wu, which can travel a thousand miles in a day when ridden.]

The Zou Wu in the photo was still in its cub state, so naturally, it wasn’t as big as a tiger; however, the colorful and dazzling patterns all over its body were already strikingly clear, and the creature appeared both gorgeous and adorable.

But that wasn’t the most crucial point, for Zou Wu was one of the fastest mythical creatures in the Classics of Mountains and Seas!

No wonder the brother who posted the information couldn’t catch up with it…

It would be normal if he couldn’t catch up, only if Cloud Dream took care of him could he catch up.

It was perfectly fitting for Zou Wu to carry the “Mountain and Sea Scroll”—the most valuable items were the hardest to obtain. This was simply too reasonable.

Everyone could guess what would happen next:

All players took action, searching for Zou Wu, chasing Zou Wu, and trying to capture Zou Wu!

Never mind the valuable items it carried; even just for the adorable appearance of Zou Wu, they wanted to take it home and raise it!

Even players who couldn’t spare the time were constantly refreshing posts and searching for live broadcast rooms, hoping to get the latest news as soon as possible.

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In their view, even on a workday, Cloud Dream could still gather at least millions of Daxia players.

A million people trying to capture a single pet, wouldn’t it be a piece of cake?

But the development of the situation didn’t match what everyone imagined—

Indeed, there were more and more Zou Wu sighting cases, but there wasn’t a single successful capture.

The reason was simple: Zou Wu really ran too fast!

It couldn’t be caught up with at all.

The state of the players quickly changed from boiling blood to panting exhaustion, from being worn out to cursing in frustration.

The complaints of outdoor players and those who enjoyed watching the excitement were mixed together, creating a lively scene:

“Why the fuck make a running game in Wild Island! This Game, haha, this fucking thing is a running game!”

“Chase, chase, chase my ass! It’s impossible to catch up!”

“Zou Wu: That’s only a few steps? Are you up to it?”

“Any experts in running can tell me how to run fast and save energy?”

“I’m not an expert in this area, but I still want to express my opinion. After carefully examining your question and thinking for a long time, I still don’t know how to answer. As I said at the beginning, I’m not an expert in this area.”

“?!?!”

…

In addition to the physical exhaustion, sometimes there were even more frustrating situations:

“Damn it! Zou Wu ran into the freaking bird park! Do I have to buy a ticket to get in? A ticket costs 120 yuan! Are they out of their minds?”

“I advise you not to go in. You probably won’t be able to catch it even if you do, haha… Just wait for it to come out after it wanders around or find the next one.”

“Yeah, otherwise your pay-to-win money isn’t even spent on Cloud Dream, which would be a bit unreasonable…”

…

Yi watched Zou Wu running farther and farther away, and was panting and sitting down helplessly, coughing continuously, feeling like his mouth was full of rust.

He glanced at his wristwatch, and the display showed that he had taken an enormous 10,240 steps over the last hour or so.

That’s over six kilometers!

For him, this was already an off-the-chart exercise.

“Oh my god, it feels like I made up for half a year’s worth of exercise in just one day!”

“Why aren’t bicycles allowed in this park?”

He couldn’t use skateboards or roller skates, and cars and motorbikes weren’t allowed in the park, so he could only think of using a bicycle.

The problem was that the park nearest to his home didn’t even allow bicycles, and only walking was allowed!

This was just unbearable.

They couldn’t catch up with it, let alone challenge Zou Wu’s Level 3 strength.

Yi had some foundation, and running ten thousand steps in a short period was already very impressive, but Captain Strawberry was even more impressive, with 16,833 steps!

However, her stride was relatively small, and she had just barely made it to 10 kilometers.

But once that threshold was reached, Captain Strawberry was pleasantly surprised to see that Zou Wu’s speed had slowed down!

Her stamina was still abundant – for the sake of her live broadcast, she had participated in a half-marathon before and managed to run the entire 25 kilometers without pausing.

Now, it was just an intermittent 10-kilometer run with break times – a piece of cake.

Captain Strawberry caught up with Zou Wu.

Captain Strawberry initiated combat.

——Battle Begins——

[Fuzhu Lv.2] launched an attack on [Zou Wu Lv.3].

[Fuzhu Lv.2] fell.

[Whistling Snake Lv.2] launched an attack on [Zou Wu Lv.3].

[Whistling Snake Lv.2]] fell.

[Chenghuang Lv.1] launched an attack on [Zou Wu Lv.3].

[Chenghuang Lv.1] fell.

——Battle Lost——

“???”

Captain Strawberry looked confused as Zou Wu finished off the trio, leaving it with a tiny bit of health left before it escaped, wagging its tail.

She really wanted to run after it and scratch away that last bit of health herself!

Unfortunately, Masters were unable to join the battlefield, and the headband could not allow her to touch the spirit beasts.

She had other spirit beasts—she had caught six wild spirit beasts before, but each combat only allowed three, and once they all fell, the combat would end.

—To lower the game’s difficulty, Cloud Dream has changed the starting config to use three spirit beasts at once without needing to unlock them through leveling up the Master.

Now, the Master’s level mainly unlocked the number of spirit beasts that could appear simultaneously, increased the capture success rate, and reduced the probability of spirit beasts running away.

The latter two were fairly limited, though; the main function was still the first one.

Imagine a level 100 Master walking with 100 spirit beasts – what kind of scene would that be?

Although they couldn’t participate in combat, they looked cool!

However, the players only leveled up quickly for the first ten levels. After that, the speed would gradually decrease. To achieve level 100 with a hundred spirit pets, one would have to put in a tremendous amount of effort – it couldn’t be done in just a few months’ time.

Captain Strawberry rallied her spirit and took out three Spirit Pills, feeding them one by one to the fallen spirit beasts.

After that, she didn’t rush to continue chasing Zou Wu but instead decided to level up first.

Otherwise, she might lose her temper if she continued to pursue and got wiped out.

*

Cloud Dream set a challenge threshold for Zou Wu – a 10-kilometer exercise distance.

But this was not meant to exhaust the player to death, as the distance could be accumulated, and the event would last for a whole week.

As long as the player had completed 10 kilometers within a week, they could easily catch up to Zou Wu and initiate combat.

Even if they hadn’t completed the distance in a week, they could still continue the challenge the next month.

“Mountain and Sea Scroll”, as an essential part of the game, would be re-released every month, ensuring that future players could also obtain it.

Under this setting, depending on players’ fitness level and game enthusiasm, the time to initiate battle against Zou Wu would vary.

The fast players, like Captain Strawberry, began their battle with Zou Wu before noon.

Those who were slower started their battle with Zou Wu less urgently in the evening.

Camille Victoria managed to “catch up” to Zou Wu at 4 o’clock in the afternoon, and after three challenges, she successfully captured Zou Wu and obtained the “Mountain and Sea Scroll”.

“Fina!lly!” She sat, utterly exhausted, on a park bench, unable to resist clenching her fists and shouting, “I’m! Free! Now!”

Using her proficient technique of “cradling the air,” she held up the scroll dropped by Zou Wu—

It was a dynamic traditional blue-green landscape painting. The green trees on the mountain gently swayed with the breeze, and the water silently flowed along the scroll, occasionally stirring up tiny waves.

The painting had magnificent peaks, competing streams and waterfalls, swirling mists, lush plants, and was poetic and dreamy.

However, the painting was somewhat lifeless, as it lacked people, birds, and beasts.

Camille Victoria stared at the painting for a few seconds, and the system introduction popped up:

“Mountain and Sea Scroll”: A lost treasure from our ancestors. Due to the great changes in the world, it has returned to its homeland.

Effect one: Unlimited number of spirit beasts can be consecrated into the painting.

Effect two: If the user has a Mirage, they can also enter the Scroll World and interact with all the spirit beasts in the painting.

“?” Camille Victoria was confused, “What does that mean? Can I have up to 10,000 spirit beasts in the virtual world?”