The captain's words were like a soft knife, his tone polite, but his meaning clear, please leave.
Notch understood right away and didn't say anything more.
In fact, this conversation with the captain had taught Notch a lot.
Even though it hadn't ended well, and had even turned a bit sour, at least he had gained a better understanding of what some players truly thought and wanted.
Moreover, by observing the player captain's way of thinking and attitude, Notch could roughly infer his views on the rules of the rainforest region.
Obviously, the player captain wasn't completely submitting to the rules.
Maybe in the beginning, he really did choose to submit to these rules out of fear of the rainforest's powerful forces.
However, during his time with the Bread Sheep, he gradually accepted the rules deep down. Not only that, Notch could feel that the player captain even hoped the same rules could be implemented in the Overworld.
What Notch was certain of was that there were many players who shared the same idea as the player captain.
Although the player group was often seen as a bunch of people driven purely by profit, that didn't mean they were cold and heartless.
After all, humans are emotional creatures; they can't completely escape emotional influence.
Many times, the conflicts within players' hearts came from the clash between profit and emotion.
This made Notch truly understand the subtlety of the rainforest's rule system.
Before this, he had racked his brain trying to figure out how to cleverly remove the hostility between players and native creatures.
However, no matter how hard he tried, he could never find an ideal solution.
There were two main problems in front of Notch.
First, the main way for players to obtain resources was by killing these native creatures.
This setting was one of the game's basic rules, players could only get resources by defeating animals, monsters, or villagers.
If this base-level code were changed, the entire game would undergo an earth-shattering transformation.
Second, right now, the local creatures were hostile toward players, and it was very difficult for players to tell whether these creatures had self-awareness or not.
This was especially obvious among monsters, because regardless of whether they had developed consciousness, they were still hostile toward players.
When a monster came charging at them, players could hardly tell whether it was a conscious monster or not.
Notch had once considered making some distinctions between regular data-based creatures and those that had developed self-awareness, like changing their appearances or giving them different names or something.
However, that idea was quickly scrapped, for a simple reason.
Those conscious native creatures didn't just appear out of thin air, they evolved from the game's data itself.
Therefore, trying to separate them at the data level was completely pointless.
Since the game's settings couldn't be changed, resolving the hatred between the two sides truly became a tricky problem.
However, the rules of the rainforest region had cleverly solved this issue.
Here, animals, monsters, and villagers would take the initiative to trade with players.
That way, players no longer needed to kill the native beings to fulfill their material needs.
This not only protected the players' interests but also avoided unnecessary conflict.
In addition, such active trade also effectively distinguished the conscious native beings from the ordinary respawned ones.
However, that was just the most basic and easily understood part of the rule.
On the surface, it seemed like the rule only catered to players' desire for profit.
It didn't completely erase the hatred between both sides, it merely maintained a temporary peace.
But in truth, the deeper meaning behind this rule was the key to resolving the hatred between players and those native beings that had developed self-awareness.
It subtly built an emotional bridge between players and native creatures.
Gradually, it awakened the players' emotional, empathetic way of thinking, and that was the most crucial part.
Driven by profit, players accepted the rule.
While following it, they inevitably came into contact and interacted with those self-aware beings.
As those interactions increased, their emotional thinking also gradually expanded.
Just like the player captain, at first, he only followed the rule to obtain food resources.
He never expected a Bread Sheep would mess with his thoughts.
The change in the player captain's mindset came because his emotional thinking had already surpassed his desire for profit.
Once players' emotions surpass their pursuit of gain, they begin to truly accept the rule wholeheartedly.
They no longer submit to the rule, they recognize it from the heart, even wanting to promote it themselves.
Once both sides fully accept the rule, their hatred completely disappears.
Thinking of this, Notch couldn't help but sigh from the bottom of his heart.
"To be able to come up with such a rule and carry it out so perfectly…"
"HIM really isn't simple…"
Coming up with such a brilliant rule was already hard enough, let alone putting it into practice flawlessly.
To successfully implement it, the first challenge would be to convince those native beings who had already developed self-awareness.
Under this rule system, players were actually in a rather passive position in the beginning.
The most crucial step in establishing this rule was persuading the self-aware native creatures.
Notch certainly knew how deeply those conscious beings hated players.
Back then, he had risked being bombarded by the "spit machine gun" just to barely get Stephen to lower his guard.
And even convincing Stephen, a single llama, had taken him a huge amount of time and effort.
Changing one person's mind might be relatively easy, but changing an entire group's way of thinking was as hard as climbing to heaven.
Yet HIM had somehow managed to change the mindset of every being in both the animal and monster camps.
Notch couldn't imagine how HIM had convinced all those conscious native creatures.
But one thing he was sure of, HIM definitely hadn't done it through intimidation.
Thinking of this, Notch quickly caught up to the player captain. As he gazed out over the rainforest, his eyes were filled with nervousness and anticipation.
'Looks like I'll have to find a way to meet this 'mysterious' HIM…'
Notch's goal this time was to meet HIM no matter what.
Even if Notch hadn't already been curious about HIM before, the events leading up to now would have been enough to make him determined to meet him.
Just the fact that HIM had conceived such a rule, and implemented it so perfectly, was enough reason for Notch to seek him out.
Although Notch had only experienced the trading process once with the player captain, just seeing the rule from a player's perspective was enough to make him deeply admire HIM's design.
He even hoped to introduce this rule into the Overworld.
So he had to meet HIM, he had too many questions he wanted to ask.
If possible, Notch even hoped to cooperate with HIM, to work together to refine the rule in the Overworld.
However, Notch also clearly understood that everything depended on HIM's opinion.
He wasn't sure whether HIM's intentions in creating this rule were really what he thought, to dissolve the conflict between players and native beings.
Notch knew very little about HIM, so he couldn't really grasp what HIM's true motives were.
Normally, people act with some kind of motive or purpose, but no matter how he thought about it, Notch couldn't figure out what HIM's ultimate goal was in making these rules.
Resolving the conflict between players and native creatures didn't seem to benefit HIM in any way.
Moreover, that player captain had mentioned that the rainforest provided food resources that players could trade for using materials they didn't even need.
Notch himself had studied the Trial Grounds before, and while villagers also spawned there, they were different from those in the Overworld.
In the Overworld, players could use useless materials to trade with villagers for emeralds, and then trade those emeralds again for other goods.
But in the Trial Grounds, villagers never traded items with each other, the only universal currency there was emeralds.
From that, it was clear that the materials useless to players were equally useless to rainforest creatures.
In other words, creating this rule didn't bring HIM any real benefit or profit.
Those who joined the Trial Grounds all wanted to win the trial, and HIM surely shared that goal.
Yet his actions not only didn't help him win the trial, they even seemed to strengthen the players' side.
Through trading, the players' food supply problem was completely solved, allowing them to focus all their energy on improving their combat strength.
Could HIM be hoping that this rule would somehow spiritually transform the players and make them abandon fighting altogether?
Clearly, that wasn't the case.
Though Notch didn't know HIM well, judging by his intelligence and strategy, HIM would never put all his hopes on something as unpredictable as the players.
Even if he had complete faith in his rule, he wouldn't stake his chances of winning the trial on something so uncertain.
Since this rule didn't benefit him, then what was the reason behind his actions? It was truly puzzling.
But if HIM and Notch were to switch places, if HIM were the game's creator, then everything HIM was doing would make perfect sense.
As the creator, one would naturally want to fix the problems of the world they made, to make it better.
Under that premise, creating this rule made perfect sense.
But the problem was, HIM wasn't Notch. He wasn't the creator of this game world, so his intentions surely weren't the same.
That was exactly why Notch wanted to meet HIM, he wanted to understand what HIM was really thinking.
As Notch followed the player captain's group toward the rainforest, he kept pondering.
Stephen, who was walking beside him, noticed that Notch had been silent for a while. A puzzled look crossed his face as he couldn't help but ask, "The rule here is perfect!"
"It's because of this rule that the relationship between players and us has improved so much…"
"This is clearly a great beginning…"
As he said that, Stephen's gaze unconsciously fell on the player captain leading the group. After staring at him for a moment, he continued, "But they're about to destroy this rule…"
Then he turned back to Notch.
"Why not stop him?"
"Also, I can tell he's developed feelings for the Bread Sheep. If we try persuading him, maybe he'll give up the idea of attacking the rainforest."
"That way, the rainforest's rule could still be preserved, couldn't it?"
Stephen wasn't as deep a thinker as Notch, but he had personally experienced the peace of the rainforest region.
He knew it was only temporary, after all, the player captain had already made it clear that they would attack the rainforest and break this peace.
But no matter what, the peace before him was like a precious spark of hope to Stephen.
He also knew Notch felt the same way, both of them admired the rainforest's rule system.
He himself had been clumsy with words and had argued with the player captain. He had thought Notch would step in and continue trying to persuade him.
But to his surprise, Notch said nothing.
Stephen wasn't blaming Notch, he just couldn't understand why Notch chose to remain silent.
The rainforest's rule was the very blueprint both he and Notch dreamed of, yet while that spark of hope was about to be extinguished by the player captain, Notch did nothing.
Hearing Stephen's words, Notch shook his head and sighed deeply.
"The problem lies within himself."
"His emotional side has already taken over, but he refuses to admit it."
"At this point, saying more won't help."
Notch could see it clearly, the player captain's situation was a bit different.
While other players struggled between profit and emotion, the player captain's conflict wasn't about profit at all.
His problem was the clash between others' opinions and his own emotions.
At times like this, no amount of words would help, only realization could.
[T/N: It SEEMS my 2nd Account has been suspended 😞. I can't operate it anymore. But, if you search, you can see it still there. Novels are all there. I have made another account("Ambi_Guy") for now and will shift the novels as soon as possible. It may take 1-2 days, so I ask your all understanding. I have also sent an email to WebNovel and asked regarding the situation. As soon as I get an update, I will let you all know. Have a great read~ 👍😄👍]
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