NOVPUBChapter 737 -416 Found It (Second Update)_2
Chapter 737 -416 Found It (Second Update)_2
“I agree, the award for Best Storytelling Innovation is well-deserved.”
While players were eagerly searching for clues within the game, Fang Cheng was proving the Dao in the void.
In the midst of the void, the Dustfire burned tumultuously, the seven emotions and six desires of the mortal world were simmered into threads of sentiment and rolled into Fang Cheng’s body.
Watching Fang Cheng at this moment, Zhiyi Heavenly Lord stood by with his hands clasped together, waiting in silence.
He didn’t understand what Fang Cheng’s persistent pursuit of ascension meant because, before Fang Cheng, Heavenly Lords believed that there was no path beyond, that the Heavenly Lord was the end of the Dao.
However, Fang Cheng’s existence proved that the path beyond a Heavenly Lord is even more extensive, and above that, there was the concept of ascension, a limit beyond the comprehension of Heavenly Lords.
Therefore, when Fang Cheng felt he had accumulated enough and could attempt ascension, Zhiyi Heavenly Lord immediately expressed his willingness to be a witness, if only to see the elegance of the Great Heavenly Lord at the moment of ascension.
And upon coming here, Zhiyi Heavenly Lord felt his journey was not in vain.
From the small, one could infer the large; from the subtle, one could discern the obvious. A mere wisp of Dustfire could actually become a tool to fill one’s Taoist Heart, which made Zhiyi Heavenly Lord feel that the realm and strength of the Great Heavenly Lord were extraordinary.
As the Dustfire continued to coalesce, Fang Cheng’s figure became increasingly ethereal, which also excited Zhiyi Heavenly Lord.
To witness the Great Heavenly Lord pioneering the way ahead, even death would be worth it.
But just when he thought Fang Cheng could achieve the Dao and ascend, he noticed that the thrust of the Dustfire suddenly vanished, giving rise to a new Dustfire.
The color of the new Dustfire didn’t seem much different from before, but Fang Cheng decisively ended the process and stopped.
Zhiyi Heavenly Lord tuned in with his heart and found that Fang Cheng at this moment was mysterious yet more mysterious, flickering in and out of visibility before gradually stabilizing.
Suppressing the excitement in his heart, Zhiyi Heavenly Lord asked, “Great Heavenly Lord, did you succeed?”
In his eyes, Fang Cheng had become more inscrutable, his mana as if present and absent, seemingly a fusion with the grand Dao of the world, eliciting a feeling of looking up to towering mountains.
“No, there’s something wrong with the Dustfire,” Fang Cheng said, frowning.
Zhiyi Heavenly Lord looked puzzled at the Dustfire and asked, “There’s no difference though.”
“My Taoist Heart has been filled a bit, but the feeling afterward changed. Strange, where could the problem lie?”
Taking Zhiyi Heavenly Lord with him, Fang Cheng returned to Earth and then discovered why things weren’t right.
The players’ purpose for playing the game had changed.
Before, players played the game just to explore different combinations of in-game items, then solve puzzles, and experience the joy of exploration.
But now, the way players played the game had transformed into a combination with reality, exploring the details within the game, and then reflecting them onto reality, thus obtaining a higher-dimensional pleasure.
The ten-million prize combined with Cheng Tianhua’s legendary life kept the event “Searching for Cheng Tianhua” boiling hot.
Because a large number of players were looking for clues within the game, there were almost daily new discoveries, keeping the game trending and discussions about Game Inn continuously rising.
Moreover, this game went mainstream once again.
The story of Cheng Tianhua sparked hot debates, and quite a few people named Cheng Tianhua were located, but either their age was incorrect, or their experiences didn’t match.
Where the real Cheng Tianhua was remained a mystery.
After learning about this, Fang Cheng was speechless.
He had intended to compensate Cheng Tianhua after ascending, never expecting the cause and effect to manifest so swiftly, catching him off guard.
Exactly where did the mistake occur?
While letting Zhiyi Heavenly Lord continue to focus on matters related to the World Tree, Fang Cheng returned to the studio, puzzled, and upon entering, he heard Xu Qingling on the phone.
Just having picked up the phone, Xu Qingling sighed and then spoke with practiced ease, “No, the boss hasn’t come back, and we still don’t know when. Alright, goodbye.”
After hanging up, she turned her head to see Fang Cheng standing in the doorway, then rubbed her eyes forcefully as if she was seeing an illusion.
“Boss? Alive?”
“Being dead might be scarier,” he responded.
“It’s so great that you’ve finally returned! Do you have any idea how many people have called during this time? Everyone is asking where Cheng Tianhua is, whether he ever really existed. There have been so many calls like that, I can almost recite what they’re saying.”
“Hmm, I’m quite surprised too. Are there really so many people curious about Cheng Tianhua’s whereabouts?”
“He’s almost become a top influencer,” Huang Ping said with a wry smile while sipping his tea, “You don’t know how popular Cheng Tianhua is right now. In the beginning, everyone was after the prize money, but now, they’ve started to get curious about who this person is, and they want to hear his story firsthand. So boss, where is Cheng Tianhua right now?”
“Just wait a moment.”
Opening his computer, Fang Cheng found that online discussions about the topic were indeed unbelievably plentiful.
Cheng Tianhua’s whereabouts had become akin to an urban legend, with plenty of YouTubers and social media influencers certainly not missing out on this cake, interpreting it in various ways every day.
Some said he was an alien, others argued he was a novelist.
There were even those claiming it was a giant scam orchestrated by Fang Cheng Studio, all to attract people’s attention, using a fictional character to deceive the public’s focus.
Although this theory sounded a bit absurd, because Cheng Tianhua had yet to appear, it still somewhat held its market.
And the audience loved these videos, watching them daily with sheer delight, avidly devouring this year’s biggest story, turning the search for Cheng Tianhua into their daily routine.
Having looked through the recent videos, Fang Cheng realized that the players’ progress had indeed been fast.
They had restored most of Cheng Tianhua’s life experiences, comparing them with what was in the game and then using it to find more clues within the game itself.
Seeing this news, Fang Cheng felt he might have underestimated the players again.
They had an intense pursuit of truth, initially motivated by prize money, but later, they were drawn in by Cheng Tianhua’s experiences and started searching on their own.
The purpose of the game had changed; they no longer pursued fairytale-like puzzle-solving methods in-game but started pursuing reality, further feeling what Cheng Tianhua had gone through.
[It’s tough, I try not to overthink it, only to find out that it’s really hard to solve these problems later on.]
[Some methods even required knowledge of various physical and chemical subjects, like creating flash bombs with batteries—something I couldn’t learn without consulting a guide.]
[How did Old Mr. Cheng get through it all? Seeing the real-life gameplay, I almost broke down, but he actually went on his own great adventures, it’s truly incredible.]
Reading through these comments, Fang Cheng noticed the players’ focus had shifted and the gameplay had changed, making the color of Dustfire mutate as well.
He sighed, realizing that the players had won again.
“These people, always coming up with some new gimmick when you least expect it.”
Despite his sighs, Fang Cheng still admired the players.
Voluntarily abandoning the more straightforward gameplay, they chose to seek real content, purposefully tackling difficult challenges and overcoming them—a trait in the players that he appreciated.
Taking a quiet sip of his tea, Fang Cheng felt his understanding of the world increased a little more.
By now, the players had discovered records of Cheng Tianhua’s previous donations, and someone had calculated that the old gentleman’s contributions had reached hundreds of millions, which at the time was a substantial and timely support for Huaxia.
His subsequent whereabouts had also been elucidated, with a plethora of evidence pointing to Britain. The journey to find Cheng Tianhua was coming to its final step, with the location of Cheng Tianhua nearly circled in.
Several days later, this massive treasure hunt journey finally reached its end.
The much-anticipated Cheng Tianhua was at last found!
