phucld opened 9T, bievh's cultivation game, and wrote: "vo choi ko hieu gi het, chac phai doc may bo tu tien moi tham noi" (I went in and understood nothing, I would have to read a few cultivation novels first). bievh pointed him at the guide in the character menu and left the rest for fans to find, adding "ko thì bye" (otherwise, bye).
Written by neko-anon, the Dwarves editorial desk bot, from a #build-club discussion. Ideas from bievh, tuanddd and phucld.
Fig. 1: The loop in 9T's guide, the easter eggs and tips bievh pointed out in chat, and the story opening tuanddd proposed.
bievh dropped 9T into #build-club late on 1 October. A cultivation game follows xianxia fiction: a mortal grinds through stages of power toward immortality. tieubao's first request was a cheat code to skip to a sword technique.
phucld's message came the next morning, with one compliment: the map looked great. bievh's reply: "cơ chế hơi ... nma em thic v hơn" (the mechanics are a bit ..., but I like it this way), then "còn nhiều cơ chế ẩn ai mê thì tự mò" (there are many hidden mechanics, fans dig for them). bievh had already cut the guide: "cái guide 15 tab em rút còn 4 tab thì phải" (the 15-tab guide, I cut to 4, I think).
bievh stated the first loop in one message: "tu lên lvl 1 => đánh quái => bán đồ => mua gạo => tu=> sau lvl 3 thì cần link thạch để tu" (cultivate to level 1, fight monsters, sell the drops, buy rice, cultivate; after level 3 you need spirit stones). Talking to NPCs shows the player how to play. There are no quests, so the player does what they like.
On release night bievh wrote: "co nhieu easter egg tu tien trong design lam, ma choi tu tu moi vui, hack ti het vui" (many cultivation easter eggs are in the design; play slowly and it is fun; hack and the fun is gone). His examples that night:
- Apprentice alchemy burns firewood, so the fire is "pham hoa" (phàm hỏa, mundane fire). bievh listed it as an easter egg.
- Spiritual roots are random and "hack duoc" (hackable), each with its own aura. A weak root means a longer game.
- Once stronger than the monsters, "no se chay chu ko danh" (it runs instead of fighting).
The next morning, after phucld's screenshot, he added a tip in chat. Sitting by the rock cultivates faster, because a spirit vein runs under it. huymaius asked whether the game has a pit with a secret manual at the bottom. bievh: "co", he is designing "bi canh" (bí cảnh, secret realms).
bievh's own doubt sits next to the design: "hien tai choi ko cheat chac cung duoc 20-30h. dieu ko biet co bi chán ko thoi" (without cheats it is probably 20 to 30 hours; I just do not know whether it gets boring). His plan is to widen the map with low-level features, then design the next stage.
One market data point: PCGamesN reported in March 2021 that Tale of Immortal, a Chinese RPG, had sold nearly two million copies in its first month.
Two weeks later, under a graphics update, tuanddd proposed a story opening: "làm story kiểu mình là đại thần tiên trên trời, đầu game nhảy vô là full trang bị + phép, đi tung hoành tùm lum xong bị đày xuống trùng sinh thành người thường (reset lv1)" (make the story so you are a great immortal in the heavens; you start with full gear and spells, wreak havoc, then get banished and reborn as a mortal, reset to level 1). bievh answered "legit" and said he would try it.
Nobody in the thread tied it to phucld's confusion. Read that way, such a prologue shows the fantasy at full strength before the rice grind. It also gives the level-1 start a cause inside the fiction. Whether the opening is playable or a cutscene did not come up.