Dark Magician Isekai: Return and make Fantasy World into a VR Game

Yang Qiu, who was seamlessly sitting among a group of internet cafe regulars sleeping in various postures, successfully turned on his computer and started surfing the Internet.

Entering the keywords, Yang Qiu searched for a bunch of online articles about a phenomenon called "Otherworld Gaming" that he had heard his classmates discuss before crossing over. He opened them one by one with a serious look, learning from their experiences.

That's right, although the Earth was indeed his rear base, it was almost impossible to obtain believers on Earth to anchor himself like in the magical plane.

Of course, believers were not the only ones who could serve as anchors. As long as there was enough trust between each other, and intelligent creatures with stronger souls and spirits who could open some spiritual "back doors" to each other, they could all anchor each other.

For example, among magicians, the first commandment upon entry was "Do not pray to God". Many of them were anchored by each other as master and apprentice, some did it between couples, or comrades, increasing each other's resistance to spiritual pollution.

Considering this point of view, Yang Qiu could actually consider debuting as a "real" magician or something like that.

Try his best to improve his social status and popularity, and gain loyal fans who had a certain degree of trust in him. These loyal fans could become his anchors.

When he encountered the torrent of mental pollution from the ancient gods, his die-hard fans, as anchors, could enhance his mental resistance and allow him to maintain his sanity longer so that he wouldn't lose control at the mere glare of the ancient gods.

But this was just a deduction. If he really did this, it would be a bit of a thin defence... First, he could not come up with an identity that could stand up to scrutiny; second, the so-called die-hard fans based on "love for a stranger's talent" were actually unreliable.

Just as he who was anchored could attack the ancient god's tentacle, the anchor point could be released, freed from, or even attacked by it.

Why were all good gods, evil gods, and ancient gods so keen on assimilating and brainwashing believers? Why did spellcasters work so hard to "cultivate themselves" when they could clearly anchor each other? It was because believers who had not been assimilated or just straight out brainwashed were too unstable...not to mention the relationship that was only built on trust or even the even cheaper "I like you".

Under these difficult circumstances, the most feasible method that Yang Qiu could think of was the Isekai game type of online writing that was quite popular among his classmates.

Using the "spiritual imprint" present in magic tricks, combined with the power of space rules absorbed from the ancient god's tentacle, the souls of the Earthlings would be "borrowed" to the magic plane. When the souls of Earthlings were active in the magical plane, the spiritual backdoor was fully open and unguarded to Yang Qiu, who was the "time and space intermediary", and was the most reliable anchor point.

The more Earthlings' souls he could keep at a "high online rate" in the magic plane under the guise of "playing games", the safer he would be...

After spending a whole morning in the internet cafe and referring to the operations of a large number of online writers, Yang Qiu thanked the brother who provided the access and left the internet cafe.

Then, he went to the stationery store to buy some odds and ends, ran back to the pedestrian street in the commercial area near the Redwood Community, and stood on the roadside to perform street magic.

His image already had the temperament of a wandering artist, and the difficulty of a magician performing street magic was not too much. Soon, a large number of young people gathered around him.

By taking advantage of the opportunity of frequent light physical contact with young people, Yang Qiu easily collected sample data on the soul strength of ordinary people on Earth today.

The magic trick of "spiritual imprint" could open up a consciousness channel for the soul of an intelligent being that was different from the rules of the material world. The principle was somewhat similar to the transmission of electromagnetic waves, but the operating rules were much simpler.

In the process of transmitting the soul spirit to another place through the channel of consciousness, there would be a consumption rate. That is to say, in this process, the mental power of the organism was in a state of continuous consumption.

For the caster, this consumption was negligible, and the caster's naturally recovered mental power was enough to pay for the consumption, with some left over. But ordinary people certainly could not compare with the caster's spiritual power.

If Yang Qiu wanted to achieve "sustainable development," he had to weaken the intensity of the "spiritual imprint," or at least reduce the consumption generated during the transmission process to a level that would not affect ordinary people.

After collecting enough samples, Yang Qiu said goodbye to the reluctant audience with a smile. Before leaving, he went back to take a look at the Redwood community.

Before he even got downstairs, he saw his mom and sister running down from upstairs in a hurry. Yang Qiu quickly turned around, pretending to be an indifferent passerby, and only secretly glanced at his two relatives out of the corner of his eyes.

"Yang Qiu hasn't called back yet?"

"No! I called several of his classmates, but he wasn't at their house! No. 2 Middle School also said he didn't go to register! I was so worried!"

Yang Qiu's heart was filled with warmth and he couldn't help but want to jump out to recognize his relatives.

"Yesterday morning, a psychopath knocked on our door and said he was Yang Qiu! I was so pissed! I should have called the police. That psychopath might have known where Yang Qiu ran off to!"

Yang Qiu's head drooped weakly.

Watching his mother and sister anxiously running out of the community, Yang Qiu was both moved and embarrassed. He had been "missing" for two days, and even his sister, who usually wanted to beat him three times a day, was so anxious that she was jumping up and down.

But even if he stood in front of them now, Yang Qiu doubted whether his mother would recognize him.

With a sigh, Yang Qiu left the Redwood community sadly. Forget it... He would think of a way to let them know he was safe later, at least so they didn't have to worry about him all the time.

Finding an inconspicuous corner to "open the door" and return to the magic plane, Yang Qiu summoned the undead horse and modified the "Magic Trick·Spirit Brand" while on the road.

He was currently located east of the Napalm continent, within the territory of the Rhine Kingdom. The Kingdom of the Rhine was not a vassal state of the Holy Church, and the influence of the Holy See here was not very strong. But the Rhine Kingdom believed in the righteous god of money and trade, the Lady of Gold... In other words, this country had no moral integrity from top to bottom. As long as the crazy people in the Inquisition were willing to pay the toll, the Rhine royal family would open its doors to allow those knights to stay. If they showed enough gold they could probably even rent out the royal palace.

Even if you were not afraid of being entangled by those crazy people in the Inquisition again, it was not a good idea to open an "Earth Players Playground" within this kingdom.

The reason was still the same: the Rhine Kingdom really had no moral integrity.

Just imagine what kind of chemical reaction would occur if the players of the Fourth Calamity, Earth, who treated this world as a playground, hooked up with this group of indigenous "NPCs" with no moral integrity... Yang Qiu felt dizzy.

For example, there was the steward Bafu, who bought his refurbished old clothes at a super low price (compared to this world). Although he was just a steward who managed the land for a country landlord, if he was paid enough, he would definitely sell the village and all the villagers, pack up his belongings and abscond with the money.

What if the players on Earth took this as a way to gain game bases and NPC "followers" and studied it... well, then Yang Qiu would have to prepare for a territory war with the local nobles with a frown on his face.

He himself was once a player and didn't underestimate the professionalism of players in researching game loopholes!

Ten hours passed quickly while on the road.

After traveling hundreds of miles under the moonlight, Yang Qiu finally arrived at his destination.

Tarantin, the lawless zone between the Kingdom of the Rhine and its neighboring countries, was a thousand-mile wasteland consisting of hills, swamps, and primeval forests. In addition to the official name of Tarantan, this wasteland was also called the Ancient Battlefield, the Land of Exile... In short, this was a wild wilderness that had not been officially declared occupied by any official organization.

"This is it."

Yang Qiu looked around the valley in front of him, put away his undead horse, and walked into it. In this valley surrounded by mountains on three sides, there were still hundreds of scattered, dilapidated wooden houses.

Dried-up wells, broken clay pots, and wildly growing lush vegetation that had squeezed the wooden houses to the point where they had almost lost their footing... no matter how you looked at it, it looked like a Starter Village that had been magnified several times.

Of course, compared with the usual Starter Village, this place was much worse... At least the houses in Fengmen Village were still very solid. After cleaning up the garbage left by curious tourists, the houses could still continue to serve as shelter from wind and rain.

As for these wooden houses... They were only good for firewood.

"It seems a bit too much to ask players to build their own 'spawn point'… Never mind, let's keep it. Players are not real people anyway, they won't mind how bad the spawn point is."

Yang Qiu walked through the ruins left by the exile army, selected the center location, and took out the dragon bone staff. Magic power surged out of his body and gathered behind him, forming a huge magic array with a diameter of about five meters.

"Forbidden magic: Withering and decaying."

With a slight wave of the staff, black mist surged out from the huge magic circle behind Yang Qiu and rolled in all directions. Under the erosion of the black fog, the lush vegetation that blocked the road and filled the valley with almost no place to stand quickly withered and died. The green branches and leaves turned yellow and decayed within seconds, turning into black mud and merging into the earth; the trunks and branches disintegrated into debris and fell to the ground.

When the black fog dissipated, only wooden houses, mud walls, and other dead objects were left standing in the valley covering an area of about 1.5 square kilometers.

"That's pretty much it for the 'birth point'." Yang Qiu nodded with satisfaction.

Next, it was time to create a resurrection point. Yang Qiu took out a bag of magic powder, grabbed a handful and threw it into the air.

In addition to common magic tricks, spellcasters of different systems needed the assistance of magic powder as a casting material when they wanted to cast magic across systems. Yang Qiu was a dark magician, and he could cast black magic spells at will. If he wanted to use earth magic however, even the simplest earth-gathering array required magic powder.

"Reformed Spiritual Brand Core."

The magic powder fell to the ground, the ground shook slightly, and some soil floated up to form a large magic array.

"Reinforce it into a semi-permanent spell and use it as a resurrection point... Well, bake it into a porcelain state and seal it with a protective shell."

Behind Yang Qiu, a huge, suspended, slowly rotating magic array was emitting heat, covering the soil that formed the magic array. Black magic could also generate heat energy...you could save some magic powder that way.

The formation diagram made of soil was solidified, and more soil floated up from the ground, forming a giant bottle cap shape, which was inverted on the core formation diagram of the spiritual imprint.

"Okay." Yang Qiu clapped his hands and dispersed the formation diagram.

Now that they had the "birth point," he also needed to prepare a carrier for the souls of Earth players to attach to...that is, the "game character."

Coming out of the valley of the "birth point," Yang Qiu summoned the undead horse and searched around for traces. After searching for about an hour and running about ten kilometers, Yang Qiu came to a huge swamp with no visible end.

Standing at the edge of the swamp, Yang Qiu summoned the magic circle and raised his staff:

"Forbidden magic: Resurrection of the dead!"

The muddy sewage in the swamp began to churn. Dozens of seconds later, human heads in varying degrees of decay emerged from the churning mud and water. One by one, incomplete corpses, dragging various rags, waterweed, and damaged armor, crawled out of the swamp...