Whenever you want to check your phone, the interstellar person makes a pre-set gesture, and it will automatically fly in front of you to unfold a virtual screen or perform 3D projection, perhaps projecting the image of the person making the call, or a dynamic map.
Paying is no longer as troublesome as taking out your phone. Every store in reality is equipped with a batch of shopping terminals: as soon as a customer enters, it automatically flies behind the customer, connects to the customer's account through facial recognition, and then records the cards the customer flips over - that is, the things they want to buy.
Customers can come in empty-handed, select items, and leave immediately.
The terminal will automatically pack the items, connect to the network, deduct payment online, and then notify the drone to deliver the items to the customer's selected shopping address.
In this context, playing mobile games becomes a more relaxing form of enjoyment.
For example, Mini Heroes allows players to keep their phones unfolded as virtual screens, occupying their peripheral vision to display their chat channels in Heroes—just like the experience in a VR online game.
If you want to play the Hero Cards game, open the dedicated Hero Cards interface, select a known card-playing NPC on the map, let your character automatically navigate there, and once you arrive, open the card-playing interface that is exactly the same as in Hero Cards.
Of course, this process will still consume the game time of Xia Ke Xing, but it will only be one-third of the login time of the PC game.
In this way, players who originally wanted to play a game of "Xia Ke Xing" no longer need to find a VR device, lie down in it, log in, and then go to find the NPC.
They could easily take a quickie on their phones during spare moments like waiting for a bus, eating, or using the toilet.
In the game of Xia Ke Pai (侠客牌), if both sides play their cards quickly enough, it is entirely possible to finish the game in 5 minutes.
"Mini Heroes" also has a built-in player matchmaking system. Based on the player's past performance in battles against NPCs and the average level of the cards in their deck, it can directly match them with an "evenly matched opponent".
Such games usually go very quickly because StarCraft players are still very entertaining; most of them rely on luck and intuition and rarely make serious calculations.
If players don't like PVP, they can also choose an NPC on the map to fight.
The speed at which an NPC plays cards depends entirely on their personality.
Generally speaking, younger NPCs play cards more casually, while older players tend to think things through more carefully...
The forum made a famous "Old Man Playing Cards" a popular figure; he was a card-playing NPC in Yujing City.
Players have calculated that he spends an average of 150 seconds per round before playing a card, using reasons such as: drinking tea, picking his toes, a sore butt, going to the toilet, going home to collect laundry, going home to discipline his grandson, the food is burnt, there's a fire, buying snacks, it's hot, it's cold, the scenery is too beautiful, the scenery isn't beautiful...
A textbook example of a gambling addict who refuses to pay; he even tries to secretly break the rules of the game!
If this old man played cards like that in real life, he would probably have gotten beaten up long ago; but in the game "Xia Ke Xing", curious players enthusiastically made him famous.
They actually kept going to this old man who played cards to experience it, and after being beaten to the point of questioning their existence, they found it particularly amusing and went back to the forum to share their experiences... and then they all laughed and laughed.
Modern gamers are truly baffling.
With the launch of "mini Xia Ke Xing", Xia Ke Xing has once again become a hit on social media.
The main expansion pack, "The Rise of the Mohist School," was also launched simultaneously. It is currently in the 2.0 pre-patch version, and there haven't been any major developments yet, but it's filled with an atmosphere of impending doom.
In the novel *The Wandering Swordsman*, members of the Mohist sect appeared all over the country. They mostly used long staffs, fists, and palms, and wore very simple cloth clothes and straw sandals, or simply walked barefoot.
Their slogan is: Non-aggression and universal love, and a world of great harmony.
These NPCs all behave in very simple ways: some just read books, some walk around making maps, and some live in rural areas teaching farmers how to use new farming tools...
Players cannot join the Mo Sect yet, but some information can be gleaned from their words and actions: the headquarters of the Mo Sect is located in a natural and dangerous place, and the leader of the Mo Sect is called "Grand Master". He holds a sword called Tianwen Sword, which is a wooden sword that advocates "not killing and not hurting", but is listed as "the number one sword in the world".
From what we can see, the Mohist sect is very skilled in long weapons and hand-to-hand combat, and also possesses a very fashionable "mechanical device technique" that can make plants, trees, metals and stones walk.
Players are also very enthusiastic about exploring more details about the Mohist sect.
They were filled with curiosity about Mohism, mainly because—
[Holy crap, I heard the Mo Cult headquarters has an invincible, gigantic humanoid mechanical robot. Is this for real or not a mecha?]
The Earthlings are amazing! They had the concept of mecha in ancient times, more than three thousand years earlier than us.
[I'm more curious about the legendary bird-shaped mechanical puppet. Could it be used as a mount for the Mohist sect in the future? I wish the game could enter an era where everyone can fly!!!]
[Please, official team, release version 2.1 quickly! I want to join the Mo Cult, I want to build mechanical puppets, I want to take them apart to see if there are circuits inside, and if there are, are they the same as what I learned...?]
[So the "wooden ox and flowing horse" originated from the Mohist school! My apologies! When will we see the Mohists build trains, airplanes, and yachts?]
The interstellar people are already used to various magical civilizations, and their unfamiliarity with Earth's culture means they have no sense of "fantasy chivalry" at all. They just think Earth is awesome, without feeling any sense of incongruity.
Some amazing interstellar players have already started getting excited and have created competition threads on the forums—
They wanted to have a competition to see who could create the first mechanical puppet!
Who else can be the first to build the first computer in the world of Xia Ke Xing!
Unfortunately, players' hopes may be dashed.
Because Blue Star Studio already had a way to deal with these mischievous monkeys, and they were on high alert, determined not to let them ruin the worldview of Xia Ke Xing.
The mechanical art of the Mohist sect is based on a principle called "qi," which is a fictional concept in the novel *Xia Ke Xing*.
It is the core of martial arts and also the core of mechanical puppets. It has a set of operating rules similar to those of an electrical circuit—in short, it is a kind of energy. The specific rules are handled by the main AI of the Xia Ke Xing system, and the player has nothing to do with it.
Mingyan: Go ahead and tear it down, I'll admit defeat if you can learn anything from it.
Once version 2.1 is released, the main storyline of the new version will officially begin.
A member of the Mohist sect will wield the Tianwen Sword to assassinate a high-ranking official of the imperial court—the reason, of course, is that the official has embezzled a huge sum of money, but this will also attract the attention of the imperial court.
Amid a series of unexpected events, the imperial court will issue an arrest warrant for the leader of the Mohist sect, leading to clashes and battles between the two sides in various regions.
During this period, players can be employed by either the imperial court or the Mohist sect, either to carry out suppression and revolution, or to appease and mediate.
Whether the Mo Sect will ultimately become a righteous faction or be relegated to the ranks of evil cults depends on which side the players support.