Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

The breaking news caught Li Yao’s attention.

It was not that the shooting itself was strange. In the hegemonic country on the other side of the ocean, guns were everywhere, extremists were everywhere, and there were ambiguous interests between the leadership and the arms dealers. The ‘Gun Control Act’ was often aborted, and similar shooting incidents happened from time to time. This year alone, Li Yao had heard of at least three to five shooting incidents with heavy casualties. There was even a concert in which there were more than five hundred casualties. It was an out-and-out massacre.

In the beginning, there were still people who considered the shooting case to be a negotiation. They were in high spirits, and their saliva was flying everywhere. As similar incidents occurred more and more frequently, more and more people stopped caring about it. To this day, however many massacres there were, it was still not big news.

Li Yao was only concerned about the location of the shooting.

Although he was not very interested in games, he knew that ‘T3 Game Exhibition’ was one of the three traditional games exhibitions in the world. It had everything from console games to online games to cutting-edge gaming platforms and technologies. Every year, it would attract hundreds of thousands to millions of tourists and fans of games to participate. Of course, first-rate video game producers and distributors would also take part in the exhibitions. Countless important works would be released in this place. It would even attract a large number of fans of animations and fantasy entertainment to play their game characters, enjoy themselves, and enjoy themselves. The lively scene was ten times grander than the Sky Horse Lake International Animation Festival that Li Yao and Yu Xin went to a few days ago.

It was not hard to guess that the security measures of the exhibition hall, which was packed with people, must be very tight. However, as long as the gunmen had a way to bring the deadly fully-automatic guns into the exhibition hall and start slaughtering, the damage they could cause would certainly be very serious.

Watching the TV, Li Yao saw shaking pictures on the news.

The blood-drenched crowd was still in a state of shock. The special police, armed to the teeth with loaded guns, and the shrieking alarms were mixed with what sounded like gunshots. It was like the end of the world.

“According to the latest news, John Garriott, the ace producer of the ‘Grey Island Game Producer Company’, known as the ‘Father of the Star Ring’, was also assaulted in the shooting incident. The status of his injuries is unclear…”

The news reported.

Li Yao was dazed for a moment.

He had never heard the name ‘John Garriott’ before, but he had played the game ‘World of Stars’ before, and he had heard a thing or two about ‘Father of the Stars’.

‘World of Stars’ was one of the most successful and influential games in the industry over the past ten years.

It was no longer a simple game but one that lived up to its name. With the joint efforts of John Galiot and countless other game players, it was built into a world that was close to reality and became a memory of a generation of youth.

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In the beginning, ‘Battle of the Rising Star’ was just a shooting game, but it was well-received because of the real-life rendering of the world outside and the vivid depictions of the alien species. Later, ‘Star Ring: The Darkest Hour’, ‘Star Ring: The Supreme Throne’, ‘Star Ring: Children of Liberty’, ‘Star Ring: Brotherhood’, and a series of other games, including multiple platforms and games of various genres, were released. Almost every sequel or expansion was very successful. A lot of novels, cartoons, and doujinshi were born out of it, too. Last year, the first movie adaptation of the game was released. Although it was mediocre in quality, it earned a lot of box office sales with the help of more than ten years of popularity.

Last year, Li Yao, Zhao Kai, and Yu Xin had gone to watch the movie adaptation named ‘Star Ring: Origin’. They had played a few games about the ‘World of Star Ring’ before, so they knew a thing or two about it.

It was said that, in this year’s ‘T3 Game Show’, ‘Father of the Rings’ John Galiot was going to reveal more details about ‘Star Ring World’s’ latest heavyweight work, ‘Star Ring: Final War’. The completion rate of the entire game had exceeded 70%.

Not only had he and the “Grey Island Game Producer Company” worked hard for ten years to produce this masterpiece, but it had also already cost several hundred million to produce. It exceeded the cost of Hollywood’s heavyweight special effects blockbusters and was no less than a gamble. It was also the undisputed ace masterpiece of this year’s “T3 Game Exhibition”. Although it was not 100% completed, it had already attracted countless “Star Ring fans” to come and “accomplicate their dreams”.

No wonder the gunman chose to take action near the booth of the ‘World of Stars’—this would indeed cause the most damage.

‘World of Stars’ had a lot of forums in the country, too. Li Yao thought for a moment and opened one of them on his phone. As he expected, all the posts on the homepage were discussing the bloody shooting that had just taken place in ‘T3 Game Show’.

Naturally, the information on the forum was much more abundant than on the news.

Many fans of ‘Star Ring’ were on the other side of the ocean, participating in the series of experience activities in the booth of ‘World of Stars’, and interacting with the game producers such as ‘Father of Stars’.

They had sent live posts about the live stream with the intention of showing off and sharing. They did not expect that they would encounter such a tragedy.

Through the introduction of some posts, Li Yao had a deeper understanding about John Garriott, the ‘Father of the Rings’, as well as the entire world of the rings.

Ever since the entertainment form of video games was invented, it had been closely related to the concepts of science fiction, outer space, and alien creatures. From the earliest ‘space intruders’ to the later ‘Soul Douluos’ and ‘demonic beasts’, everything had been associated with science fiction, fantasy, and magic.

Before the world of space rings, there had been countless games describing space wars, alien species, bizarre-shaped aliens, and even the ultimate mysteries of the universe.

But the ‘World of Stars’ series was based on the detailed descriptions of the extraterrestrial species, the solid deduction of the extraterrestrial history, and the soul-stirring and reasonable plot… It was a bloody road through countless similar works.

It was all thanks to the gold medal producer, John Garriott, who had painted a splendid, bloody new world for the public with his extraordinary imagination and solid knowledge in physics, biology, and astronomy. He was the well-deserved soul of the world of the rings.

Many game critics even said that they suspected that John Garriott was an alien pretending to be a human being. If there were not such a ‘star ring’ in the depths of the sea of stars where tens of thousands of species coexisted, and he was one of them, how could he have painted such a world?

Even John Garriott said that he once had countless bizarre dreams in which a circular city larger than the entire solar system appeared in which countless alien species were living. He was enlightened by the dreams and created such a game—no, a world!

“I am like a mirror.

John Garriott once said, “Or rather, an ‘observer’ who did not know himself reflected all the information that the universe sent to my brain.

Li Yao sighed.

After all, he had played other people’s games and watched remakes before. It was truly regrettable that such a talented game producer had met with misfortune.

After refreshing the webpage, a new thread popped up. If Li Yao was not mistaken, there were hundreds of replies after only three minutes.

It was a video thread. The title of the thread was ‘Straightforward, ‘The Father of the Ring of Stars was shot in the Moment’!

Li Yao’s curiosity was aroused. When he clicked on the video, he found that it was a short video shot by a fan of the Star Ring on the spot. The camera was aimed at the booth of the World of Stars, which was splendid and full of futuristic and sci-fi feelings. In the middle of the booth was a middle-aged man wearing a promotional t-shirt and jeans. He looked casual, but his eyes were extremely deep. Naturally, he was John Garriott, the father of the Star Ring.

Li Yao’s English was not very good. Besides, there was too much noise in the hall. Nobody could hear what the father of the space ring was talking about clearly.

Thankfully, someone had already thoughtfully translated the video into Chinese. Even if there were some mistakes, one could still make out the general meaning.

“I have a dream that I’ve been having for twenty years and has become part of my life.

John Garriott pointed at his temples and said, “Some people say that I’m an alien who has crawled into the skin of an earthling. I have the same feeling myself. In the deepest part of my brain, there is always a voice that is screaming, roaring, and urging me to tell you everything I know and share my dream with you. It is not just for me but for thousands of people to dream together.

“Therefore, ‘World of Stars’ was created.

“The dream that lasted for twenty years gave birth to countless works about ‘star rings’. But instead of dimming and dispersing, it became clearer, clearer, and larger. I even felt that a ‘star ring’ larger than the solar system would jump out of my brain one day!

“The ‘Battle of Terminus’ is such a great work made of real dreams. It will lead us to the ultimate mysteries of the rings and even the universe. I promise you—”

BAM! BAM BAM BAM BAM!

When the video reached this point, gunshots suddenly rang out behind the cameraman.

The crowd was suddenly in chaos. The cameras were shaking crazily, too. In the moment of the shaking, they saw that John Galiot’s chest was bleeding, and he fell backwards in shock.

The video ended there.

Li Yao was soaked in cold sweat.

For some reason, he felt that the bullets did not just hit John Garriott’s chest but also his heart.

With trembling hands, he refreshed the webpage again. A new thread with a bold title popped up in front of his eyes.

The latest news.

John Garriott, the ‘Father of the Star Ring’, was declared dead in the local hospital because of the serious gunshot wounds!