'No, you're that detailed?'
'Qin Shi Huang would call you a true insider!'
'This fire, it must have come from the King of Fire.'
...
The king's familiar sense of déjà vu forced the audience to recall a great emperor from Blue Star's history.
"Haha..." Sanren chuckled awkwardly. "I know what everyone is thinking, but please don't overthink it."
"Because this story is very dark."
"Let's continue."
Sanren brought up another picture, a description of the new map upon entering the game. "The hint said that water and fire seem to coexist in this cave, a mystery that even alchemists couldn't unravel."
"He believed it originated from the ubiquitous rubies found throughout the cave, and in all alchemical legends, there existed a mythical substance – the Philosopher's Stone."
"Thus, the king began dispatching people to mine the red crystals in the cave to forge the Philosopher's Stone. However, the cave contained not only red crystals but also poisonous gas and monsters."
Another picture describing the cave appeared. "Different difficulties of the same map provide different prompts. I got this insight from Bai Zhiyuan's video."
Sanren had only tried it out of curiosity, never expecting that the prompt information for the first and second generation on the same map would indeed be different, like layered descriptive information.
The greater the game difficulty, the larger the amount of information provided.
This was one of the reasons Sanren found immense joy in tackling challenges in the game, and it was this inspiration that led him to the idea of creating a world-building puzzle.
As PTT displayed one map after another, the audience was completely awestruck.
'You old fox, playing games on stream and collecting mobile footage offline, right?'
'Holy crap, I'm incredibly impressed!'
'Amazing, I'm kneeling in awe!'
...
Suddenly, gifts surged upwards.
"The large-scale mining of the cave and the research into the Philosopher's Stone not only caused widespread public discontent but also made the giants feel a sense of unease," Sanren narrated immersively, completely oblivious to the surge of gifts in the background.
"Later, the giants must have tried to dissuade the king, but it seems the king didn't listen. The giants were even dispatched to guard the main gate, which shows the king's arrogance at the time."
"This makes it understandable why the giants would mock us, because we are that arrogant king. As for the reason, let me explain it in detail."
"Without any obstruction, the research for the Philosopher's Stone did not seem to develop in a good direction; in fact, it worsened."
"Initially, the Collector directly used the red crystals on corpses, but the corpses showed no reaction."
"So, the Collector dumped the piles of corpses and red crystal waste into the graveyard. It was this act that initiated the disaster."
"These details would cause confusion when we passed by the graveyard; the mixture of corpses and red crystal waste began to infect the plants in the graveyard."
"Then, the plants continuously spread and gradually permeated into the Sleeping Sanctuary, and the plant sap also seeped into the sewer system. The seeds of plague began to take root and sprout."
The explanation, accompanied by pictures and text, was well-founded and highly logical, leaving the audience exhilarated.
Sanren continued, "So, many of the monsters we encounter in the game actually originated from the Collector's experimental wastewater. Although I can't definitively confirm the Collector is the true villain yet."
"But based on the known clues, I think it's highly probable. In this world, only the Collector could conduct such experiments. And with such a vast laboratory, you don't think it was just for modifying blueprints and upgrading equipment for the protagonist, do you?"
"At that time, they likely hadn't realized the severity of the problem. Since experiments on the dead yielded no results, the Collector shifted his focus to the living."
"However, such inhumane acts could not be performed casually, even by the king. Thus, death row inmates in the prison became experimental subjects."
"You're all familiar with this sentence, right?"
PTT once again displayed a picture, the initial description of the prison for the incarcerated: The prisoners' status was even lower than that of stray dogs and rats.
'I have only one word to describe this: brilliant!'
'Damn, no wonder Sanren said the later parts were dark and couldn't be linked to reality. I get it now.'
'Then this king and the collector both deserve to die!'
'Madmen, utter madmen!'
...
The audience was shocked. This conception was too audacious.
"Let me clarify first, this is all personal speculation. The specific situation will be based on the official release. Don't take my theories as gospel truth."
Realizing the potential impact of his words, Sanren immediately shielded himself with multiple disclaimers.
After doing so, Sanren continued to play the PTT: "While live human experiments were underway, due to the circulation of tree sap and the mixture of various wastes being dumped into the sewers."
"This place began to breed mutated monsters. The Big Eye monsters and Tentacle monsters were gradually born from the mutation of insects."
"The mutated Big Eye monsters and Tentacle monsters happily played in the prison, and their mutation caused the plague to mutate as well, making it effective on corpses."
"After the rampage, the king sensed something was wrong. However, for some reason, the king did not kill the Big Eye monsters, merely locking them up in a secret location. This is the Swollen Eye Demon we encountered later in the Vomit Cellar."
"My personal guess is that the king wanted to extract some experimental material from the mutated monsters. That clump of green goo might be related to them."
"Then he also ordered the warden to guard the Black Bridge, the only road connecting the village and the prison. But the king didn't expect the warden to be not only greedy but also slippery."
"This guy not only accepted bribes from villagers to let them visit but also frequently neglected his duties, leading to the villagers being unknowingly infected and carrying the plague back to Fog Harbor."
"As a port city with high foot traffic, the epidemic quickly broke out, and the warden naturally couldn't escape his fate, becoming the boss permanently guarding the Black Bridge – the Keeper... no... the Giver of Nothing!"
At this point, the audience had pierced through the fog and witnessed a corner of the true world.
Even this small corner left them stunned and deep in thought.
'To be honest, the streamer has put in real effort. Collecting these shots must have been very difficult...'
'The Sword Saint of the Ossuary, the Boxer of the Sanctuary, the Vivid Blue Cat Cow – these elite monsters were born during this period.'
'Big Eye Girl, Chains, Basement, Binding...'
''Rebirth Cell Man': So I'm the H-game myself?'
'Huh? Why did my barrage turn yellow?'
...
(Can't hold on any longer, going to sleep. Tomorrow is another busy day.)
(︶︹︺)