Chapter 343: Chapter 218: The Family Tree Relies Entirely on Counting Growth Rings (Part 2)
"Is this so kind of joke?"
Yao Mao was genuinely exhausted at this point. After all, with no hope in sight, it was hard to stay motivated.
What he didn’t know was that in the underlying code of "Ancestor Tree," the tree would only bear fruit if the ancestor possessed a skill or an item in their lifeti.
You need to have sothing first, only then can the Ancestor Tree produce it; it can’t create sothing from nothing!
But Yao Mao wasn’t aware of this. He was just curious why this Ancestor Tree had grown so tall; it should logically have started flowering and bearing fruit by now. So why was there still nothing?
[Help! Why has the Ancestor Tree grown so big but still isn’t flowering or bearing fruit?]
After posting his confusion on the Tianba Community, Yao Mao quickly received a barrage of replies.
"Whoa! Such a huge Ancestor Tree?"
"Dude, what did you do? Why is your Ancestor Tree so massive?"
"In a past life, it must have been a Jade Emperor for the Ancestor Tree to grow that tall, right?"
"Not just that, it must be at the Three Pristine Ones level!"
Almost everyone was shocked at the "giant" Ancestor Tree Yao Mao posted; no one seed to care about its lack of flowering or fruiting.
When Yao Mao replied in the post, explaining that the Ancestor Tree had grown so big because he had been selflessly providing it nourishnt, everyone was speechless.
"Wow, I thought it required the death of a Three Pristine Ones level giant to grow such a tall Ancestor Tree, but it turns out you’ve braved the courage of a hundred generations!"
"A hundred generations of nourishnt, is this tree’s annual ring your family tree?"
"The family tree annual ring, that’s hilarious, but it’s not wrong—a single tree carrying the lives of a hundred generations!"
"Can this tree still be cultivated further?"
"What are you planning to do?!"
As expected, the thread soon diverged from its original purpose. Originally seeking help, Yao Mao had provided everyone with a "family tree annual ring" gaming .
Instead of getting the answers he wanted, he was bombarded with questions from other users asking if the tree could be cultivated any further.
"I don’t know!"
Yao Mao was speechless. He just wanted a shortcut, to make each revival easier, starting with a guaranteed legacy from the Ancestor Tree.
How was he supposed to know that the tree doesn’t bear fruit at all?
As for whether this tree can continue to be cultivated... it probably can, right?
"Then keep cultivating it. Maybe quantitative changes will lead to qualitative ones. Another hundred generations, and the tree might finally bloom and bear fruit!"
The user’s suggestion seed like a terrible idea, no matter how you looked at it, but Yao Mao actually took it to heart.
He thought it made sense!
Quantitative changes leading to qualitative ones, even though the tree hasn’t blood or borne fruit and was completely useless at the mont. But he had provided so much nourishnt; who knows, maybe it would bear fruit if he continued to nurture it?
The main thing is...
He’d already invested so much in it; not getting a single fruit out of it felt unacceptable. It seed like all his previous efforts would go to waste.
With that, he closed the community and continued nurturing the tree!
Primitive era, tribal era, feudal era, interstellar era...
Nurturing away, Tree Treasure donned an exoskeleton armor, transforming into a spacefaring being. The Ancestor Tree beca so tall it was out of sight, covering two-thirds of the computer screen with just its trunk.
Yet, still no results!
"I’m really starting to believe this! What the hell is this tree? A thousand generations, and single-cell organisms have evolved into cosmic superhumans, yet you still don’t lay an egg?"
Yao Mao was duped.
This Ancestor Tree simply couldn’t lay an egg; it was totally unreliable. With that ti spent fiddling around, he might as well have played the ga properly and probably cleared it by now.
Utterly disappointed, Yao Mao stopped dreaming and decided to focus on clearing levels to acquire items and skill rewards, no longer hoping to achieve success overnight.
This ti, he did quite smoothly.
Using the strategies he had seen in the community and with the existing Ancestor Tree, he reached level twelve.
Unfortunately, there was a particularly fierce monster at level twelve, capable of hacking him to critical health with a single blow, and he had already used up his supply of items and potions.
A regrettable defeat!
With the growth of a new Ancestor Tree, Yao Mao’s resurrection countdown ended as well, and without much thought, he clicked on imdiate revival.
A flash of white light...
"Uh? Where am I?"
After clicking revive, the black-and-white screen returned to color, but Yao Mao realized he was still on the sa map, not back at the starting point.
Not only that, his character was nowhere to be found!
That’s right...
The entire screen had no trace of the Tree Treasure character anywhere.
"Did I glitch?"
Suspecting a ga glitch, Yao Mao frantically clicked his mouse everywhere, slamming his keyboard, trying to find a way to get himself out.
By sheer luck, he clicked on the Ancestor Tree that had grown after his death, and then he discovered his main view had switched to the Ancestor Tree.
"What’s going on?"
Yao Mao was puzzled beyond belief. What kind of state was this? Was he stuck in the internal view of the Ancestor Tree? Or had he revived inside the tree?
At the sa ti, while randomly smashing keys on the keyboard, trying to free himself from this state, he accidentally hit a key that switched his view again, this ti to the Ancestor Tree on a different map.
"Y?"
Yao Mao looked down at the key he had just pressed and tried hitting it again, and sure enough, his view switched once more.
Switching again and again, his view quickly moved to the volcano map, and as he was about to switch further, a glimpse of a figure caught his attention.
Wasn’t that Tree Treasure?
Hey, hey, hey!
He hadn’t done anything; where did this Tree Treasure co from? And from the looks of it, was he jumping over a river of lava?
With curiosity, Yao Mao watched for a mont.
It was indeed Tree Treasure!
This Tree Treasure, for whatever logic he was following, appeared clumsy. Jumping and rolling were slow.
However, from his actions, it seed he was trying to clear the level himself? Without a player controlling him, he was going through the level by himself!
Is this for real?
Yao Mao was startled by his own speculation. How could Tree Treasure run levels on his own?
But the fact was right in front of him. Whether he believed it or not, he had to accept that this Tree Treasure, most likely bot-controlled, was attempting to clear levels in a clumsy manner.
So here’s the problem...
If the real Tree Treasure is clearing levels, then what does he count as, stuck with that perspective bug and trapped inside the Ancestor Tree? An observer or a battlefield journalist?
Who am I, where am I, what am I doing?
After asking himself these three existential questions, Yao Mao shook his head and decided to use the in-ga channels to report this strange phenonon to Tianba Studio, to Ba.
This was definitely a bug!
If his perspective was glitched, what else could it be if not a bug?
But since it was a bug, it was likely that Ba would be slow to fix it, if it even got fixed at all.
If that was the case, then there’s no rush to
report it right away. Instead, he decided to docunt Tree Treasure’s progress through the level, to see how he was playing and if he at least reached fifty percent of a player’s level.
"Hey, co on, jump!"
"Don’t... Oh, I just said it, and you walked right into the trap. Walking without watching, huh? Well, great, now you’re at critical health..."
Watching, Yao Mao also felt anxious about Tree Treasure’s actions.
Too clumsy, just too clumsy!
Forget reaching fifty percent of a player’s level, this slowpoke couldn’t even match his grandma’s skills!
With such a poor Tree Treasure, death was inevitable, so it wasn’t long before this Tree Treasure fell into lava and perished.
Right on the spot, a new Ancestor Tree sprouted!
Yao Mao tried clicking with his mouse and was indeed able to switch to this Ancestor Tree’s view.
Click, click, click, and this ti, Yao Mao switched to the starting map, the "giant" Ancestor Tree he had painstakingly cultivated.
Once there, he discovered the recently revived Tree Treasure. A click of the mouse, and a magical scene unfolded...
He escaped that mysterious Ancestor Tree perspective and regained control over Tree Treasure. The previously unresponsive control keys were working again.
"Oh! So does that an..."
Yao Mao was stunned to find out that by clicking on Tree Treasure, he could indeed switch back to the original perspective and regain control of his character.
So does this an the entity controlling Tree Treasure during the level runs was the Ancestor Tree behind him?
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