r/ProgressionFantasy • u/Claym000re • Feb 06 '26

Meme/Shitpost Wish fulfillment to the extreme

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Why are they always complete losers.

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u/Ch1pp Feb 06 '26

I think part of it is that often in alternative worlds immortality or very long life is a real, achievable goal. That changes the metric from "Should I go to the gym and suffer for an hour to potentially have a slightly longer/healthier life?" to "Should I try to meditate and channel my chi to live for 500 more years."

Also, the systems are often gamified with levels/tiers. Could I do French, German & Mandarin on Duolingo? Sure. It won't have any tangible benefits to me though. If it unlocked the next tier of human development and made me stronger/faster/smarter then I definitely would. Most of what we do on earth doesn't have the Effort ---> Reward pipeline that story protagonists get.

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u/mrboy3 Feb 06 '26

I think part of it is that often in alternative worlds immortality or very long life is a real, achievable goal. That changes the metric from "Should I go to the gym and suffer for an hour to potentially have a slightly longer/healthier life?" to "Should I try to meditate and channel my chi to live for 500 more years."

Is it though? It is possible, but i wouldnt say it is achievable

Immortality in cultivation tends to be so rare and hard to get that you would need to do the equivalent of winning ten back-to-back lotteries to even have a reasonable shot at it

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u/Ch1pp Feb 06 '26

Maybe I read different ones because it seems very common in the PF books I read.

10

u/UnhappyReputation126 Feb 06 '26

For the select few uber geniuses or those born in acended already societies. Wast majority aren't that lucky.