It has been one day since the launch of Palworld.
Unlike the previous illusion realms, this time Lu Ze published announcement posts across all his realms simultaneously, drawing in hundreds of thousands of cultivators on the very first day.
As he had predicted, player retention was remarkably high.
Games are picky about their audience.
Some people love strategy, others prefer story, some just want to fight, and others are all about relaxation...
But Palworld—that Frankenstein's monster of a game—just so happened to fuse together elements from more than a dozen different genres.
In Lu Ze's previous life, how absurd was this game, exactly?
It was made by a no-name indie studio, the graphics looked rough and shoddy, some assets were even stolen from free public repositories.
And yet, this game sold over a million copies within eight hours of release, and five days later, it had moved seven million units.
Now, with Lu Ze at the helm, the game had been launched simultaneously across multiple realms with synchronized marketing, and the buzz had gone through the roof.
Even the once-dominant Shen Yuan Continent Ops had been edged out by Palworld.
Nine out of ten forum threads were all about Palworld.
“Fellow cultivators, why won’t my Chicilly help me craft Pal Spheres?”
“Chicilly doesn’t have the Handiwork skill. You gotta assign it to the right job!”
“Why can’t Pengullet lay penguin eggs? This is unfair!”
“Old Demon Lu, compensate me for my base!! Why did you put a Mammorest right at the entrance of the starting plateau?!”
“Is no one else here who thinks Blazamut is really cute? I want to take one home as my daughter. Hehe, hehehe…”
“Brother up there, wake up! You’re about to fall into the demonic path like that!”
“Grintail is way too clingy, keeps sniffing my neck. I feel kinda awkward about it…”
“Brother, you smell nice!”
“Anyone want to team up? I keep getting lost in the dungeons.”
“Top-tier builder available, 3 spirit stones for a large-scale base construction. Message me for commissions~~”
“Holy shit, Ascended Guardians are getting re-employment on the Palpagos Islands??”
Lu Ze browsed the forum on day one. The discussions were still fairly wholesome, a beautiful and thriving atmosphere all around.
But when he thought about how these players would behave in just a few days, he couldn’t help but smirk.
He glanced at his quest bar.
Neither the Pals defeated counter nor the Pal resentment meter had moved much at all.
But Lu Ze wasn’t worried.
On the first day, players were mostly catching Pals, not killing them.
At this point, the players still had a shred of conscience left.
Give it three more– no, just one more day, and the times would change.
Then, when players started willingly sending their maxed-out Pals to the dismantling machine, both quest bars would skyrocket simultaneously...
...
...
Lingxiao Sect, Qingfeng Pavilion.
Zhong Yi and his three companions gathered once again, all entering Palworld together.
“Let’s go, let’s go! Today I’m definitely going to catch a shiny Pal!”
Zhou Yue swore fiercely as his figure materialized at the base.
“My little darlings, I’ve missed—ugh???”
The moment Zhou Qiaoling landed, she was stunned into silence by the scene around her.
Pals were sprawled out in disarray on straw mats. The only one still working was a Dumud stuck on the ore node, but its eyes were bloodshot and it looked mentally unstable.
Up in the top-right corner of the base interface, one status notification after another scrolled past:
【Pengullet King (Starving) (Depressed): Its health condition is extremely poor. It seems unable to do any work anymore……】
[Cat-Bat Monster (Empty Stomach) (Severely Injured) (Dying): Its health is in terrible shape. It seems it can't do any work anymore...]
[Faceplant Catfish: Its eyes are bloodshot, and it radiates a dangerous aura...]
...
"Holy crap!? Our Pals are about to bite the dust!!!"
...
Fifteen minutes later.
"Senior Brother Zhong's campfire therapy is really something else!"
Zhou Qiaoling marveled as she watched the Pals return from the brink of death.
Zhou Yue and Mu Yawen exchanged glances. They still couldn't quite accept such a gruesome scene.
"What's with that look, Lao Zhou? You're a master of fire techniques. Isn't it a piece of cake for you to burn away the illnesses inside mortals' bodies?"
Zhong Yi said cheerfully, trying to enlighten Zhou Yue.
"If you put it that way... Pfft! Don't twist the argument, alright?"
Zhou Yue shot Zhong Yi a dirty look.
"It's just an illusion, don't take it too seriously... Look how peaceful they look standing in the campfire!"
Zhong Yi pointed at the last Faceplant Catfish on the fire.
"Senior Brother, you look really familiar right now... Like I've seen you somewhere before?"
Mu Yawen stared at Zhong Yi, lost in thought.
"Where?"
Zhong Yi was puzzled.
"I remember now! Back in the days when we played Minecraft, when you were researching how to make villagers breed!"
Mu Yawen slapped her forehead, suddenly enlightened.
Zhong Yi: "..."
The four of them tidied up the base.
Although all their Pals had collapsed, there were still some gains overall.
They had more ore and ingots than before, and enough high-quality Pal Spheres for the four of them to go out and explore.
Zhou Yue and Mu Yawen each built a stove and busied themselves cooking vegetable salads for the base's Pals.
Zhong Yi and Zhou Qiaoling each stood on one side, looking up at the starry sky, seemingly lost in their own thoughts.
It was already late. All the Pals except the Dark-type ones had gone back to their straw mats to sleep.
"Senior Brother, what are you thinking about?"
Mu Yawen asked curiously.
"I'm thinking... how to make the campfire therapy run automatically."
Zhong Yi answered, pinching his chin.
"...Lao Zhong, have some decency."
Zhou Yue's mouth twitched, then he looked at Zhou Qiaoling with confusion.
"Little sis, what about you? What are you thinking?"
"I'm thinking..."
Zhou Qiaoling stared at the stars in the sky, frowning deeply.
"Why do humans need to sleep?"
"Huh???"
Zhou Yue thought he'd misheard, then stammered for a moment before saying:
"We're cultivators. We don't need to sleep..."
"Exactly! Cultivators don't need to sleep!"
Hearing this answer, Zhou Qiaoling's frown suddenly smoothed out.
She grinned and looked at the Pals sleeping soundly on the straw mats.
"So..."
"Why do Pals need to sleep?"
Zhou Yue: "???"
for mindless slaughter, this isn't for you.] My name is Ye Shu, and I'm a transmigrator. It seems I'm supposed to be the protagonist, but that feels pretty unlikely. This world has been invaded by a system. The antagonists on the other side have suddenly become pure, flawless saints. The female leads have been force-fed the so-called "original plot," making them think they've been reborn. Now, everyone thinks I'm scum. Including the old lady in my ring. And here I am, in the Monster Beast Mountain Range, braising pork. To put my situation in perspective— It's as if, the moment Xiao Yan stepped into the Monster Beast Mountain Range, the Soul Emperor already knew he would become the Flame Emperor, and Yao Lao had been turned to the enemy's side. I have nothing right now. Oh wait, that's not true. I do have a white-haired loli child-bride who's the Heavenly Dao, and her only skill is acting cute. So, tell me guys... what are my chances of making it to the end?
nd fell into a coma while saving his younger sister from an out-of-control car. He became a vegetable. No one knew that his consciousness had crossed into a world of cultivation. Over the course of sixty years, he began as the lowest kind of mine slave, struggling to survive amid mountains of corpses and seas of blood. By sheer chance, he eventually obtained the complete memories of a fallen Immortal King. Alchemy, medicine, formations, feng shui, physiognomy, artifact forging… Every great inheritance of the cultivation world was now his. But when he opened his eyes again, he discovered that ten full years had passed in the modern world. To pay for his treatment, his father had sold the family’s shop and house, leaving himself covered in lasting injuries and illness. His mother had cared for him day and night, and more than half of her hair had already turned white. His younger sister, who had been only fifteen back then, was now twenty-five. To help repay the family’s debts, she had been forced to lower her head and put on a smiling face in places of glittering lights and endless revelry. Only then did Chen Xuan understand that what he had lost was not merely ten years. He had lost the life his entire family was meant to have. The good news was that he had brought back the memories of an Immortal King’s entire lifetime. The bad news was that his soul had returned alone—his cultivation had not come with him. Spiritual energy was scarce, resources were depleted, and the modern world still had firearms, surveillance, capital, and laws. If he wanted to protect his family, break free from everyone’s control, and become truly invincible beneath the heavens, he would have to start all over again.
transmigrates into the role of a villainous rich second-generation kid in an urban fantasy novel, and gets bound to a god-tier choice system. Right at the start, he catches the female lead stealing exam papers! This triggers the villain's choice options! [Choice 1: Pretend you didn't see anything] [Choice 2: Loudly call her out, drawing everyone's attention] [Choice 3: ...] And thus, a twisted villain is born. To avoid getting killed by the protagonist, he has no choice but to take down all the protagonists first. Jiang Che: Nobody understands being twisted better than me!
s the Eldest Princess, renowned for her cold and aloof detachment, became the most docile of lambs, obeying his every command without question. But when the final move was played on the chessboard, as Gu Chenghan seized everything and ascended on the verge of apotheosis, that very Princess suddenly embraced him from behind, her tone carrying a dependence never heard before: "Wait... you haven't yet... commanded me to love you forever." Gu Chenghan froze abruptly. She... hadn't been hypnotized?! ... [The Eldest Princess's Diary] [When my soul was extracted, becoming the sole spectator outside my own shell] [At first, there was overwhelming fury, until I saw] [How he used my sword to effortlessly shatter my inescapable doom] [How he wielded my authority to eradicate fatal conspiracies I had never even detected] [Like a deity, he rescued me from the deep mire I was trapped in] [If not for those annoying vixens, he and I would be a match made in heaven] [I think I am ill, gravely ill] [My deity should belong to me alone] ... "Hypnosis? Oh, it succeeded, my dear Master." "Only this time, it's my turn to hypnotize you."
