Back in the 2000s, a meme image was extremely popular online. The text roughly said, "Do you want to be a coward for life, or a hero, even if only for a few minutes?" This statement is quite romantic, akin to the theme of hot-blooded shonen manga. That courage of "going forward even against thousands" can easily pierce through the cautious pragmatism most people are accustomed to—
But honestly, romance is romantic precisely because it often hides in real life and only holds true within the conflicts of stories.
Many stories need heroes.
To prompt the emergence of heroes, authors often need to provoke human nature, making them abandon some inherent cowardice and stand up against crises that seem impossible to overcome. There are many such characters: Upham in "Saving Private Ryan," Jack in "Fight Club," Doss in "Hacksaw Ridge," Arthur in "Red Dead Redemption 2"... They are all insignificant heroes crafted by authors, yet great enough to earn the admiration of ordinary people.
But I always feel that no one likes being a hero.
Over a month ago, "Project Hail Mary" became a hit. I didn't like the movie that much; that optimism, reminiscent of a golden age revival, always makes me feel detached in today's context. However, there was one aspect of the film that I found interesting—the diligent hero scientist Grace initially had no intention of sacrificing himself for humanity. He was knocked unconscious, sent onto the spaceship, and forced into the position of saving mankind.
Placing the romance of heroism on cowardly ordinary people is something terrifying. Grace's sudden retreat amidst that romance is the most perfect part of this story.
People always need to mutter a few words about "it cannot be done."
Perhaps that is why when "doing what one knows is impossible" appears in real life, it adds weight to the story—
However, I didn't expect such a story to appear in Justice Online Mobile.
Our old friend, Justice Online Mobile, needs little introduction. It is famously a game for jokesters. Thus, since its inception, Justice Online has pulled off countless stunts that shocked and amused its community.
Therefore, in the major event "The Demon Lord's Return," when the former raid boss Muye Mi won his resurrection match, no one took it seriously. It was just another way to grind dungeons. "Let Muye Mi give me some good luck items, and I'll agree to let him burn things."
After all, before "The Demon Lord's Return," the officials promoted it as a relaxing nostalgic event for the May Day holiday, meant for easy grinding. Since it was supposed to be easy and fun, why not enjoy it even more?
Therefore, when Muye Mi made his comeback as a world-level BOSS, turning the moon over Bianjing into a blood moon overnight, many players showcased their 150k-value luxury outfits, covering the blood moon spectacle with city-wide effects. It was like setting off fireworks to entertain the BOSS.
It's no wonder players acted so recklessly. Everyone assumed the Justice Online Mobile developers were just messing around. This time, they weren't just joking within the game, but also played with META elements outside of it.
On one side, the official WeChat account was directly possessed by Muye Mi, changing its profile picture to his and using his tone to post tweets and reply to comments.
On the other side, Muye Mi invaded the auto-chess gameplay mode. His synergies were so numerous they barely fit on the screen, single-handedly breaking the game balance.
Thus, in the early stages of "The Demon Lord's Return," players were still the same jokesters who daily shouted "Die, you unfilial son!" They still felt the game was in a casual, playful phase, making memes about war generals with Muye Mi while asking in world chat for Muye Mi to distribute more stamina so they could collect their rewards. When Muye Mi impersonated the official team to send reward emails, everyone was laughing so hard their jaws nearly dropped.
But no one expected that the Justice Online Mobile developers would actually arrange a BAD END package for this major event. In just a few days, Muye Mi killed gods and Buddhas alike, marching from the borderlands straight into the heartland of the Great Song. Of the four major battlefields, Guanshan and the Song-Liao border fell one after another.
While players still thought this was just another routine game plot, they discovered that the scenes of burning camps were not game CGs, but events actually happening in the game. Game scenes filled with player footprints and memories were all turned into seas of fire after being conquered by Muye Mi.
The battlefield was littered with the final letters of senior disciples who had fought there. Many in-game friends, who used to interact closely with players, also went silent during this campaign. The grim atmosphere, where "one sword strike kills an immortal, half a chapter wipes out everyone," caught players completely off guard.
Before players could react, the last gateway to Bianjing, the happy home of the Blood River sect, "Bixue Camp," also faced an urgent military situation. When players, who usually slacked off and just wanted to idle on Hongqiao Bridge every day, saw that their home might really be gone, they began to feel that something was wrong.
Actually, from the beginning, everyone had associated this battle with the possibility that it wouldn't depend on the players' will. Many players only cared about various event rewards. Because in their view, once this frontline was drawn, it would inevitably follow the event flow, leading to a final showdown in Bianjing. This is also a rather awkward aspect of narrative design in large-scale multiplayer games.
So, facing the potential fall of Bianjing, players either believed it was just a stage performance, and life would go on as usual after the event ended; or, they took the most realistic view, treating all battle reports as "reward progress," or even waiting for the fun of watching Bianjing burn.
However, players are ultimately not cold brick-moving machines. By immersing themselves in this world, they formed an inseparable connection with it. Especially those senior disciples in Bixue Camp and Wuyang City, who were turned into drug puppets, were memories touched by countless players when they first encountered Justice Online Mobile. And when these familiar scenes were burned to ashes, when former NPC acquaintances died one by one, and when they saw the final letters of their fellow disciples, those who used to listen to music in the brothels brushed off their pants, picked up their weapons, and walked towards the destined ending of "the wind blows bleakly, the Yi River runs cold."
Unfortunately, this "Demon Lord's Return" event was indeed as players suspected: the script was set from the beginning as a decisive battle in Bianjing. No matter how hard players tried, they likely couldn't truly change the tide of the battlefield. Even though countless fellow disciples joined the fight after seeing "Bixue Camp" in crisis, choosing to build a defense line with their lives and turning "Bixue Camp" into a video game version of the "Verdun Meat Grinder," the cold increase in the fall percentage still felt somewhat hopeless.
From the evening of May 6th to the morning of May 7th, despite 400,000 players holding the line and over a million dying, the fall percentage of "Bixue Camp" still rose uncontrollably from 28.8% to 76.978%, a surge of nearly 50%. At that point, there were still 36 hours left until victory for defending "Bixue Camp." Given this rate of increase, it seemed like an impossible task.
The huge disparity in combat power and the unstoppable army of Muye Mi drove the players defending "Bixue Camp" to despair. Even though everyone fought without rest, they couldn't alleviate the situation at "Bixue Camp." The cold numerical increase was ultimately difficult for players to overcome... From a realistic perspective, it seemed more likely that abandoning "Bixue Camp," going with the plot flow, and winning the final battle in Bianjing would be the better approach.
But at this moment, the players didn't think that way.
They thought: I didn't act when Guanshan fell, I didn't act when the Song-Liao border fell. If I don't act now that the flames have reached Bixue Camp, my home will be gone—
"Since we are of the Blood River, we fight to the death without retreating!"
In hot-blooded shonen manga, protagonists always shout slogans about friendship, dreams, and partners before charging at the final boss, then win through all sorts of unreasonable temporary power-ups. The same happened in the "Bixue Camp" battle. Everyone shouted "fight to the death without retreating," and they truly did fight to the death without retreating.
On the morning of May 7th, the fall value of "Bixue Camp" hovered around 70%. But by the evening of May 7th, a million players entered "Bixue Camp." Many players who had quit the game returned to their accounts, standing beside their fellow disciples, fighting to the death without retreating. Against fate and powerful enemies, they forcibly pushed the fall value back down.
This day was almost the most united day in the history of Justice Online Mobile. The world chat had only one voice left—support "Bixue Camp," fight to the death without retreating. Everyone was either on the battlefield or on their way to it.
Players of all types, who usually pursued their own diverse interests, formed battle groups over these few days, just to push back the fall percentage of "Bixue Camp" even a little bit.
The various sects, which usually loved making memes, achieved an unprecedented reconciliation during this impossible campaign. Everyone called for Xuanji to bring out entire mechas or guided missiles to take down Muye Mi.
But human effort could not match destiny. By the morning of May 8th, "Bixue Camp," where over five million had died, still fell to the brink of collapse. The fall value approached 98%, leaving "Bixue Camp" in imminent danger.
Countless players cursed at this result. They did not want their days of bloody fighting to end up merely as a "twist" in a tragic script.
But despite the cursing and fighting, whether feeling disappointed or mentally exhausted, beneath the discouraging comments in public chats, players repeatedly echoed the phrase "fight to the death without retreating."
Under the gradually increasing fall percentage, they refused to acknowledge the predetermined script. As long as the fall percentage wasn't full, "Bixue Camp" was considered a great victory.
By the evening of May 8th, the "Bixue Camp" battle had already lasted for over forty hours, yet the number of players joining the fight continued to rise. If you opened the world chat at that time, you would see almost nothing else but uniform calls for support for "Bixue Camp."
Everyone tried every possible method to withstand Muye Mi's pressure. Some operated multiple alternate accounts simultaneously, others called upon friends, pulling many who had been AFK for a long time back into the battlefield. Some even held the front line without retreating a single step since the start of the "Bixue Camp" battle, playing through the entire 48-hour campaign.
More and more players joined the battle, and the number of deaths increased... Until the last 18 seconds before the battle ended, the number of participating players exceeded 1.2 million, and the number of deaths surpassed 11 million. It was arguably one of the bloodiest battlefields in the history of online games.
With a million players participating, the fall level of "Bixue Camp" never reached the danger zone. As the countdown hit zero, the battle was concluded—
Victory at "Bixue Camp."
Just like that meme from the 2000s, in this battle, players faced an almost certain defeat. But no one was willing to accept the fated script. They firmly raised their hands, and with the same reckless attitude they had when making memes, they walked towards enemies they could hardly defeat.
I don't know if the developers were also moved by such unity—at least I was. This outright "plot kill," supported by tens of thousands of lives, saw the so-called calm numerical scale shift due to the players' passion and solidarity.
In the end, a result that even the developers hadn't anticipated emerged. Players broke through the official script and numerical limits. The developers chose to respect and appreciate the players' efforts, announcing the players' victory in advance and modifying the reward process to distribute the final rewards directly. This tragic ending, which should have been filled with despair, was completely reversed by countless players who acted as heroes for just a few minutes.
Players who finally saw the dawn of victory after days of bitter struggle gathered together, repeating over and over—
"Welcome the triumphant return of Bixue Camp!"
We can still view this story from a very realistic perspective. It was just a limited-time game event. There were no truly burning cities, no truly bleeding heroes. Those shocking casualties were just numbers constantly jumping around in the server.
Yet, it possessed an unparalleled romance, the kind we usually thought only existed in works of fiction.
Even looking back from today, I don't think many people truly believed that "Bixue Camp" could be held. Players threw themselves into that impossible battlefield one after another, simply because they refused to accept such a powerless defeat.
Everyone had grown accustomed to "the plot demands it" and "it cannot be done."
But everyone did it anyway, knowing it was impossible.
Usually, players of Justice Online Mobile are chaotic creatures keen on finding fun. But when the flames of war truly reached their "doorstep," they radiated an extremely brilliant heroic glow.
Even though human effort could not match destiny, they "fought to the death without retreating."
Therefore, they won.
It is so, and it should be so.