Four Split Personalities

The ratio of time in a virtual simulation to real world time stands at 2:1.

Not only is this the case for [Realm of Innocence], but for a majority of similar products as well. Human thought and consciousness can’t truly be expressed in reality, but if converted into a set of data, they can theoretically be "fast-forwarded," improving cognitive efficiency to the fullest extent.

However, this milestone discovery encompasses a vast scope. To avoid going off on a tangent and never finding our way back, let’s return to the main story.

Not long after doing simple calculations, Motan came to the conclusion that something was amiss with the time ratio between reality and the game. According to normal logic, it should have been around five in the morning, but his phone was displaying seven...

"Did I lose some time, or is there something wrong with my device?" Motan pondered. He was currently under the influence of his most normal personality, thus his thought process was relatively conventional.

But after a brief moment of deep contemplation, the still baffled Motan decided to whip up something to eat first. He hadn’t eaten since the previous afternoon and was starting to feel quite peckish.

He didn’t forget about this matter, he just set aside this question temporarily. When he had time, he would ponder it again.

Although there were very few things in existence that Motan couldn’t comprehend, if there was something he couldn’t explain instantly, he wouldn’t stress over it. After all, intense thinking was a troublesome matter, and lots of questions remained unsolvable even after finding an answer. So why bother?

Motan’s home wasn’t large. It took less than ten seconds to walk from the living room to the kitchen. He whipped up a simple bowl of noodles for breakfast. Including the water boiling and carrying the bowl to the computer took less than five minutes.

Cooking skills were essential for any bachelor. Although Motan’s life wasn’t exactly dull, he still had decent cooking skills that fell within the standard domestic scope. Despite not being able to prepare a meal that cost over two hundred yuan, he mastered the art of budget meals. One of his few friends had even remarked, ’I tasted happiness in your poor man’s noodles and white rice porridge! Could you please go mainstream?’

While booting up his computer, Motan slurped his noodles and browsed the [Realm of Innocence] forum. Despite the low-key marketing, this new game had garnered a solid fanbase on the first day of launch. Even gamers like Motan, who initially vowed to return the game after the 24-hour trial period, were enamored with its charm.

Compared to mainstream games where the freedom was extreme and a small amount of pay-to-win or grinding could let you stomp on NPCs, [Realm of Innocence] offered players no face at all.

Apart from some character modification and naming, aspects like faction, race, birth place, and talent weren’t decided by the player. The NPCs in the game were anthropomorphized to a great extent and were extremely strong. If your attitude was a little off, they would not only ignore you, but in some cases, beat you up or even draw their weapons.

Humans have always been like this, yearning for freedom while being shackled by countless rules. But once ’freedom’ truly arrives, they start longing for restraints and limitations.

[Realm of Innocence] is a world full of rules, yet it gives you a different kind of ’freedom’.

In this game, instead of feeling like a player, you would feel like you were part of the world itself.

While browsing the forum, Motan casually made comments while eating his noodles, exclaiming, ’So human nature is indeed despicable~~’, ’There’s no [Realm of Innocence] during the day, die and I’ll see!’, ’Damn! The death penalty is so harsh!’ and so on...

Yes, the death penalty in the game is incredibly severe. It’s not as simple as running back to your corpse, dropping a coin, or waiting for a few seconds to revive on the spot.

About the penalization of deaths, an aspect not announced by the game developers beforehand, countless players personally experienced it last night. If their words were to be summerized, one sentence suffices—The game experience is appalling!

When you die, apart from certain innate skills and soul bound items, all professional ranks, properties, and the like are all reset. Then you respawn randomly in a part of [Realm of Innocence] unacquainted to you, and start again.

"Isn’t this akin to deleting the account and starting over!" commented Motan, surprised. Although he had expected that the game ’death’ wouldn’t be simple, this was a bit too... intense...

However, this is the only way for players to value their lives more, additionally unveiling their true selves. After all, if death to some players simply meant walking back to their corpse, it wouldn’t affect their decision to pose as a martyr, sacrificing themselves, acting fearlessly over their popularity value within the game.