The game Mingchao, especially the cultivation materials list of the five-star resonator Xia Kong, makes people feel extremely complicated at first glance, as if it is an endless hard labor and test. Tide-eroded sail core, burning phosphorus bone, crystallized phlogiston, from impurities to high purity, to the rare purchase-restricted materials like golden wool, all kinds of rules and regulations are layered, which can’t help but remind people of the heaviness and helplessness of real life. The game is originally a pastime, but this cultivation system is like an invisible shackle, tightly binding the players and also binding us in reality.
Yu Hua’s novels often describe the helplessness and struggle of ordinary people in the face of fate, and the cultivation materials in this game are like countless thin threads of fate, tightly entangled with Xia Kong, as if no one can escape from a cage. Players are not enjoying the game, but are tortured by the quantity and quality of materials, slaying monsters, collecting, and upgrading, as if trapped in an endless mechanical cycle, endless. Just like the town described by Yu Hua, day after day, the years slowly pass by, but people cannot escape the arrangement of fate.
“Stuffed meat tofu”, a dish that can improve the efficiency of material drops, seems to bring a little convenience to players, but it also reminds people of the short-term comfort and false hope in life. It cannot fundamentally change the predicament, but is only a prescription to temporarily relieve the pain. We are often like this, seizing every little opportunity and fluke, thinking that we can escape the tricks of fate, but in fact we are getting deeper and deeper.
What is more intriguing is that the “Golden Fleece” is limited to 15 pieces, and it is carefully distributed, as if it is a rare resource, symbolizing the scarcity and unfair distribution in contemporary society. Players scramble for these materials, just like people scrambling for resources and opportunities in reality, exhausted physically and mentally but unable to resist. Everything in the game is no longer just entertainment, but silently reveals the reality and cruelty of society. People are led by interests and rules, gradually lose their original intentions, and even forget why they are fighting.
The classification system of “crystallized phlogiston” with impurities, crude extraction, distillation, and high purity also reminds people of the complex levels of real life. No one can easily achieve “high purity”, and most people can only struggle in “impurities”. This makes people sigh: the so-called success is often the minority who struggle to break through in the chaotic reality. Behind their purity is the compromise and forbearance of more people.
The name “Iris Blooms Day” is poetic, just like a blooming flower, but it is mixed in the heavy cultivation system and looks particularly abrupt. This reminds me of the absurd and sad atmosphere in Yu Hua’s works: the beautiful moments in life are always short and fragile, and are often diluted by the cruelty of reality. Players may also want to stop and enjoy a moment of tranquility, but they have to continue to invest in endless material collection and cultivation.
The complexity of this cultivation material is nothing more than a metaphor for the spiritual distress of modern people. Each of us is like a player in the game, limited by the rules, time and energy in reality. We must keep working hard and accumulating, but we don’t know where the end is. The rules, pressure and competition in life, like the materials for development in the game, have become a burden that we cannot get rid of.
In Yu Hua’s world, absurdity and reality are intertwined, and pain and hope coexist. The designer of this game may have accidentally created a mirror that reflects the desolation of modern people’s hearts and the impermanence of fate. We are all the “Xiakong” of life, entangled by materials and restricted by rules. Only in these virtual developments can we find some self-comfort and a sense of existence.
This development list in the game is so complicated that it is suffocating, but it is also a true portrayal of our current society. It reminds us: no matter how difficult the reality is, no matter how many complicated rules and regulations bind us, life still has its beauty and hope. Only by facing difficulties calmly can we find the meaning of life in absurdity.