Chapter 587: Trial Play
After seeing this video, the players of *Dark Souls* instantly exploded!
Although the video wasn't very long, clocking in at under four minutes, the information it contained was incredibly rich.
The original *Dark Souls* CG had already briefly touched on the story of the First Flame. In that CG, it was simply mentioned that people found the Lord Souls and used the power of fire to defeat the ancient dragons that ruled the world. But the specific details of that battle were never clearly explained.
In this new CG, many mysteries were unveiled.
The ones who defeated the ancient dragons weren't just Gwyn, the Lord of Sunlight, alone. It was three people, including Nito, the Gravelord, and the Witch of Izalith.
There was also a dwarf whose face was never seen. He never showed up in the great battle from start to finish, but it was obvious that he also possessed a Lord Soul and was definitely a very key figure.
In other words, this CG officially defined the war between the gods and the ancient dragons for the first time, and also introduced the fact that there were actually four Lord Souls.
Beyond that, many people inferred even more from this CG.
Since the First Flame brought order to the world, what kind of world was it before the First Flame appeared?
Many players suspected that souls existed from the very beginning of the world, but they were chaotic. The order and differentiation brought by fire separated souls according to their different natures.
A massive aggregation of souls, presented in a certain form, became the powerful Lord Souls.
And the beings who obtained the Lord Souls beside the First Flame were later called the gods. They also changed their forms because of the Lord Souls they obtained, becoming beings with divine power, akin to gods.
As for that dwarf, many players were very puzzled, because there was no such thing as a "dwarf" in the setting of *Dark Souls*.
In response, some "Soul Scholars" speculated that "dwarf" might refer to ordinary humans. In *Dark Souls*, both gods and giants are very tall, and the shortest beings are humans.
Since this was a legend from ancient times, "dwarf" most likely referred to the ancestors of humanity.
Of course, these were all just player speculations. Chen Mo had no intention of clearly explaining the entire story in an official capacity.
The mysteries of the entire world were scattered throughout the game, waiting for players to slowly explore and deduce on their own.
However, from these main gods, players could still see the shadows of some later settings. For example, the power of sorcery came from Seath the Scaleless; the power of faith came from the gods, meaning the Lord Soul holders led by Gwyn; and the power of pyromancy came from the Witch of Izalith.
Clearly, this was a series of stories with a very high degree of completion. Chen Mo hadn't just had a sudden whim to make a prequel because *Dark Souls* had good sales.
The plot of the prequel had already been in his head for a long time.
Although this video contained a lot of information, it only explained some details of the ancient war. Many players speculated that the story of the *Dark Souls* prequel took place much earlier than the timeline of *Dark Souls*. But exactly how much earlier, and what stories happened in between? That was anyone's guess.
Moreover, there was no mention of the Lords of Cinder in the entire video. Did that mean this battle wouldn't involve fighting the Lords of Cinder?
If not the Lords of Cinder, then what would they fight? Chaos demons? Or the ancient gods?
This video sparked the interest of countless players. Obviously, the plot of the *Dark Souls* prequel was even more epic than the main game, and it got closer to the truth of the ancient war.
Many unresolved plot points from *Dark Souls* might find their answers in the prequel!
This time, domestic and foreign players reached a consensus, just expressing it in different ways.
Domestic players said: "Say no more, I'm buying it like crazy!"
Foreign players said: "Shut up and take my money!"
...
In the experience store, Chen Mo looked at Zou Zhuo with a half-smile.
Zou Zhuo had a pained expression on his face. "Store manager, can I wait until the official release to play?"
Chen Mo smiled and said, "Other people are scrambling to play new games, but you're trying to get out of it? Isn't it a great honor to play the *Dark Souls* prequel before everyone else?"
Zou Zhuo wiped the cold sweat from his forehead. "Store manager, don't fool me. I know that the first batch of players to explore a new game will die horribly! Players who come later can at least look up guides, but the first ones are just asking for trouble!"
Chen Mo chuckled. "Isn't that the fun of *Dark Souls*?"
Zou Zhuo: "...Alright, I'll be the first guinea pig! Maybe I'll even write the first guide for the *Dark Souls* prequel."
Zou Zhuo reluctantly entered the game pod, becoming the first player of the *Dark Souls* prequel.
This was the only game pod in the experience store that had the *Dark Souls* prequel installed. The other pods wouldn't get it until tomorrow. According to Chen Mo, this was special treatment for Zou Zhuo...
Although he was a bit scared, being the first person in the world to play the *Dark Souls* prequel still made Zou Zhuo feel very honored. He could brag about it later.
After entering the game pod, Zou Zhuo quickly found the icon for the *Dark Souls* prequel and started the game.
The opening CG was the same as the one Chen Mo had released earlier, and it quickly led to the title screen.
Zou Zhuo was a little nervous. After all, this was the *Dark Souls* prequel!
The original *Dark Souls* had already made Zou Zhuo suffer plenty. It was said that the prequel was even harder. Just how difficult could it be?
"Calm down, calm down. I already beat *Dark Souls*. What's a mere prequel? With the foundation of *Dark Souls*, playing the prequel will be a piece of cake. I won't suffer!" Zou Zhuo comforted himself. "Besides, I even played *Outlast*. What's there to be afraid of!"
After entering the game, Zou Zhuo found himself in a pure black environment. At this point, his perspective was a free camera, allowing him to observe the character in front of him from all angles.
The person in front of him should be his own character.
Creating a character was no different from *Dark Souls*. It was basically the same process. He could choose gender, origin, starting items, and customize the face.
Moreover, Zou Zhuo was logged in with his own Thunder Game account, so he could directly import his *Dark Souls* face customization data into the *Dark Souls* prequel. This saved a lot of trouble.
Zou Zhuo imported the beautiful female character he had created and then, with a show of bravado, chose to start as a Deprived.
This successfully created a ragged-looking female character.
"Hmph, I'm a veteran player after all. Starting as a Knight is for cowards. A high-end player like me definitely chooses Deprived!" Zou Zhuo thought.