Chapter 350: The Truth About Recognition Power
The first official collaboration between humans and soul beasts had begun.
The emergence of Contract Soul Masters marked an epoch defining moment.
This event signaled that the history of the Douluo Continent was about to enter a brand new era.
The soul beasts selected by the Silver Dragon King for this event varied in strength, but they all had one common trait: outstanding bloodlines and immense potential.
Since this was the first collaboration between humans and soul beasts, it was essential to set a solid foundation. This was not just a one time transaction there would be future alliances. Ensuring a smooth start would pave the way for even greater cooperation.
Whether it was to resist the Abyss invasion in the future or to secure the survival of soul beasts, being enemies with humanity was not a viable option. The only way to achieve mutual success was for both sides to work together.
Ye Cheng fully supported this approach. Although, due to his system upgrade, he no longer feared anyone in this world, he was still far from being an omnipotent existence who could do whatever he pleased.
More importantly, in Ye Cheng's view, using his intelligence and strategies to reshape this distorted world into his ideal version was far more interesting than simply crushing the existing order with brute force.
If reality were a story driven game, then for a player, the experience of playing the game was far more valuable than simply skipping all the dialogue and jumping to the ending. A game without its journey had no soul.
After a period of selection, the humans Ye Cheng had brought finally chose their ideal soul beasts.
With their Contract Stones, they performed the ritual under a dazzling glow of mystical energy, forming equal contracts with their chosen soul beasts!
With that, the first major collaboration between humans and soul beasts had successfully concluded.
Among the people Ye Cheng brought, aside from White Cloud City's high ranking members and the Spirit Hall delegation, there were also students from White Cloud Academy.
Many of these students were "exchange students" from other factions. These individuals had yet to be fully influenced by White Cloud City's ideology their loyalties still lay with their respective forces.
Ye Cheng was well aware of this, yet he deliberately brought them along.
His goal was simple: to display the superiority of White Cloud City and implant a message in their minds White Cloud City is the future of humanity!
If they didn't want to be left behind in the great changes ahead, befriending White Cloud City or better yet, joining it was the wisest choice.
Ye Cheng's strategy was a form of psychological conditioning.
The logic was similar to the late Qing Dynasty, when the backward and ignorant braid wearing people of China witnessed the power and advancement of the Western world. They eagerly imitated foreign customs, blindly accepting Western civilization while devaluing their own.
After this event, the world entered a period of relative stability.
The major factions remained dormant, focusing on their own development.
During this time, objects from the "future" continued to appear sporadically across the world, falling into the hands of various fortunate individuals.
Some of these objects were beneficial such as fragments of divine corpses, incomplete divine artifacts, and advanced soul tools.
Others were disastrous such as demonic corpses and corrupted artifacts, all of which carried corruptive and assimilative properties.
Whenever these demonic relics descended, catastrophes followed.
Some people even willingly embraced the Abyss, choosing to fall and become demons.
After all, some people were simply born to be demons.
Six years passed in the blink of an eye.
Even though the Abyss had yet to invade, the future artifacts that had descended upon the Douluo Continent had already begun altering the world's energy levels.
In fact, the rate of energy increase far exceeded what had been shown in the future video of the Abyss invasion!
The most noticeable effect was a surge in naturally talented individuals.
Over the past few years, the number of children awakening with innate soul power had skyrocketed.
Additionally, the number of powerful soul masters had also risen dramatically.
Another phenomenon had emerged people from other continents had begun smuggling themselves into the Douluo Continent.
They came seeking knowledge, hoping to bring advanced teachings back to their own nations.
Meanwhile, White Cloud City had firmly cemented its position as the undisputed number one power in the world.
It had become the holy land of soul masters!
[Disguise System 2.0 Create a persona. The more people believe in this fabricated persona and feel emotions such as awe, admiration, or fear, the more real this persona will become!]
Current personas being played:
Daughter of the Sun Keli (100%)Golden Horned Beast (65%)Abyss Sovereign (20%)
Past personas played:
Twin Martial Souls Ye ChengMaster of Water NeptuneKing of Medicine Sun ZhongjingDivine Soul Master Ye ChengSoul Engineer Xuanji
External Plugin:
Live Broadcast Spoiler System 58.4% absorption progress
(With only low level permissions. Currently able to pose questions, fabricate and alter videos, and set rewards and punishments for the Q&A, but cannot receive Q&A rewards. Full control over the system can only be achieved at 100% absorption.)
These persona progress levels were the results of Ye Cheng's efforts over the past six years.
Staring at Keli's 100% completion rate, Ye Cheng realized something crucial.
He had likely been misunderstanding how personas were solidified.
Recognition power wasn't just about how many people believed in a persona or felt emotions toward it.
It must also involve something else.
For example… Real world impact?
Ye Cheng couldn't fully explain the mechanics, but ever since Keli had been manifested into reality, she had done many things and appeared before countless people.
She had become world famous.
As a result, her completion rate had skyrocketed!
In just six short years, she had reached 100% completion.
This made Ye Cheng realize that this might be the true function of the Disguise System.
By playing a persona and making a real world impact, the system would likely draw power from the world's source or perhaps tap into some mystical force to solidify the persona into reality.
By contrast, fabricating personas through videos without personally appearing or causing real world effects was essentially a shortcut that went against the true nature of the system.
That's why, no matter how much a persona influenced the world through videos alone, its completion rate barely increased.
If the system hadn't upgraded to Version 2.0, allowing personas to be manifested, Ye Cheng felt he might never have discovered this truth.
However, he didn't regret his past actions.
After all, absorbing the Q&A system's broken plugin had been an unexpected stroke of luck.
And more importantly, it was thanks to the Q&A system's ability to fabricate videos that he had been able to rapidly amass great power in the early stages.
Even if he could restart from the beginning, Ye Cheng would still have chosen to fabricate videos first.
It had been the safest, most effortless path to power.
If he had personally acted out his personas from the start without strength he would have been exposed too easily.
And worse… he could have died.
(End of Chapter)
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