Chapter 954: Trial Play
On December 7th, *Jianghu* officially launched its trial play.
Zou Zhuo was wandering around the VR gaming experience area, looking for a game pod to hop into, when he heard someone greeting him from behind.
“Yo, running into a gay bro here, my friend. You here to pass the flame?”
The corner of Zou Zhuo’s mouth twitched slightly. He didn’t even need to turn around to guess who it was…
That mouthful of Great Qin dialect—there was no one else but Old Qin.
Zou Zhuo turned around and sure enough, it was Old Qin. This guy was also apparently looking for a game pod, probably here to try out *Jianghu* too.
“Not passing it, scram! Speaking of which, Old Qin, you’re a rare guest here. Come on, let me buy you a drink.”
Zou Zhuo, while firmly and righteously rejecting Old Qin’s invitation to pass the flame, walked over to a nearby beverage shop and bought Old Qin a large cup of mango green tea.
The two chatted while searching for an empty VR game pod.
To be fair, the VR gaming experience area was pretty packed today. Normally, empty pods were everywhere, but today they actually had to hunt for one.
“Aren’t you supposed to be busy recording *Dark Sword 22*? Why are you slacking off here?” Zou Zhuo asked.
Old Qin sighed emotionally. “*Dark Sword 20* just came out the day before yesterday, and *Dark Sword 21* came out yesterday. Even a high-output content creator needs a break. Besides, I’ve always been a staunch supporter of Chinese-style games. I heard *Jianghu* has some Souls-like combat in it—how could I not come and experience it?”
Zou Zhuo couldn’t help but retort, “What the hell do you mean *Dark Sword 20* came out the day before yesterday? Are you living on heavenly palace time? One day up there, a year down here?”
Old Qin shot him a glance. “Heh, what right does a lazy fish like you, who goes AWOL every two or three days, have to criticize me?”
Zou Zhuo: “…”
How did they suddenly start… hurting each other?!
…
The two found two game pods close to each other and each climbed in.
First, they logged into their Thunder Game accounts, entered *Oasis*, and searched for the entrance to *Jianghu*.
The entrance was… a horse.
Under a tree not far from a luxurious mansion, a magnificent white horse was leisurely grazing. A longsword and a gourd of wine hung from the saddle—elements so rich in Chinese style that they were instantly recognizable.
Zou Zhuo and Old Qin were now in a party state and could chat freely.
Zou Zhuo mounted the white horse and galloped off into the distance.
After a moment, the white horse stopped in front of an inn.
The inn’s name was also quite interesting: “There’s an Inn.”
Zou Zhuo looked back and realized that at some point, the entire virtual world had changed. His mansion in *Oasis* was gone, leaving only this inn, standing alone.
Zou Zhuo pushed open the door and entered.
To be honest, the inn was quite lively. From the outside, it didn’t look big, but inside it was actually quite spacious. Square tables were filled with martial artists, all drinking wine, eating meat, and chatting loudly.
Some martial artists sat in corners, wearing wide bamboo hats to conceal their faces, sipping their wine quietly and saying nothing.
But no one reacted to Zou Zhuo’s arrival at all, including the busy waiter, who was frantically attending to customers, completely ignoring Zou Zhuo as he walked in.
Clearly, this was an independent scene. As a player, Zou Zhuo wasn’t participating in this scene; he was merely an observer.
“This should be the initial scene of *Jianghu*, right? Hmm… there are descriptions: this one’s a Beggar’s Sect disciple, this one’s a Wudang disciple…”
Zou Zhuo looked around curiously.
The martial artists in the inn wore different outfits, each with their own characteristics. When Zou Zhuo’s gaze moved to a particular martial artist, some introductory information would automatically appear in his field of vision. For example: Wudang disciple, specialties: Tai Chi Fist, Tai Chi Sword; advantages: sword techniques, light-footed skills, etc.
This simple introduction was mainly to help Zou Zhuo quickly recognize the attire, clothing, and traits of different sects.
Although players’ combat power was roughly the same when they were born into various sects, the combat methods and specialties of different sects varied. For instance, Wudang had advantages in sword techniques and light-footed skills, Shaolin had advantages in internal energy techniques, and Tang Sect had advantages in poison and hidden weapons. While everyone’s initial combat power was similar, leading to at most a fifty-fifty fight, this determined players’ different development paths and strategies against enemies, so it was worth understanding.
The sect uniforms were actually easy to remember because their features were very distinct. Wudang wore Daoist robes, Shaolin wore kasayas, Beggar’s Sect wore tattered clothes, and the Moving Flower Palace were all beautiful young ladies…
Most players could remember about eighty to ninety percent of them just by going through this once.
Zou Zhuo continued walking deeper into the inn and found a training ground with a weapon rack.
But for now, the weapon rack only held basic weapons for each sect, such as Shaolin’s long staff, Wudang’s longsword, Bagua Sect’s blade, Tang Sect’s throwing darts, and so on. There were many empty spots on the rack with no weapons placed. Zou Zhuo deduced that these needed to be unlocked—only after obtaining a weapon in the game would it appear in this inn.
Zou Zhuo walked up to the weapon rack and took down a Wudang longsword.
At that moment, basic Wudang sword techniques automatically appeared in his field of vision.
It was similar to the training area in *Monster Hunter*, except these sword techniques all had their own names, like “Playing the Flute on the River,” “Swallow Piercing the Willow,” “White Crane Spreading Its Wings,” and so on.
The difficulty of the controls was basically similar to *Monster Hunter*—easy to pick up but certainly hard to master.
A basic technique like “Swallow Piercing the Willow” was essentially a straight thrust of the longsword, while the body lunged forward and automatically executed a small-scale dodge, like a swallow slipping through the gaps between willow branches. Unlike *Monster Hunter*, these techniques, though simple, generally came with a slight extra effect, like a small increase in dodge chance.
This was actually quite reasonable because traditional martial arts emphasized countering moves with moves. There were rarely suicidal techniques; most moves left some room for maneuver.
To reduce the learning cost for players, the number of techniques wasn’t large, but different techniques could be seamlessly linked. For example, after using “Swallow Piercing the Willow,” a player could continue with the same move to pursue, or use “White Crane Spreading Its Wings” to parry an opponent’s attack.
Whichever sect’s weapon you chose, that sect’s basic martial arts would automatically appear for the player to practice.
Zou Zhuo tried out all the sects and found that the differences were quite significant. Sects like Shaolin leaned toward head-on confrontation, Tang Sect favored kiting and ambushing, and as for the Heavenly Dragon Sect… maybe the more you killed, the stronger you got?
This was a classic “easy to learn, hard to master” combat system, and the presentation was very impressive.
After experiencing the game’s combat system, Zou Zhuo continued wandering around the inn.
But he had a question.
This game didn’t feel like an RPG, nor did it seem like a single-player game focused on story.
This scene, however, was somewhat similar to the ruins scene from *PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds*.
:。: