Chapter 57: Dark Land, Activate! |
“Damn it, the monsters outside are way too strong. It’s practically impossible for new players to survive. Luckily, I’m nimble enough to barely escape from the blood corpses. Before entering Emperor’s Mound Village, I even turned around to spit at the blood corpse that chased me for ten streets.”
“Looking for a team. Any high-level brothers willing to take me exploring? The outside is too terrifying.”
“This game is insanely amazing. The touch feedback when holding my girlfriend’s hand feels so real. I can barely tell the difference from reality. Definitely worth the 128,888 I spent on it.”
“Looking for veteran players to guide me. I’m new and don’t understand anything. Can any big brother teach me how to match my Star Veins?”
“Haha, I turned into a little fire chicken. This Star Vein switching is pretty fun. Time to start my Golden Winged Roc cultivation plan!”
New players kept pouring in, and the respawn point in Emperor’s Mound Village quickly became crowded.
With this revolutionary game, new players all behaved similarly upon entering, trying all sorts of ways to test the game’s realism and look for potential feedback bugs.
Some players even overdid it and rolled around on the ground in pain.
Others got into conflicts while testing the realism on each other, which escalated into violent brawls and wrestling matches.
Unlike the previous wave of players, this batch of recruits had arrived in the Emperor’s Mound Mountain Range under the Waning Moon scenario.
There were no lower-level Evil Entities like Cursed Soldiers wandering outside; the hunt difficulty was far higher than in the Crescent Moon scenario, with no gradual learning curve.
The weakest blood corpses outside were all at least level 10, giving the rookie players a harsh wake-up call.
As a result, many players returned to Emperor’s Mound Village to recruit teammates, hoping to explore and hunt by forming groups.
Some rookies followed advice given by veterans in the regional voice channel and headed to the Shadowed Cavern entrance south of Emperor’s Mound Village to mine and accumulate startup funds.
The major guilds also took this opportunity to recruit newbies, providing them with mining picks for just 1 sacrificial power, and even leading them on early hunts to lure them into joining, thereby strengthening their guilds’ power and influence.
The addition of these 2,000 new players made Emperor’s Mound Village especially lively.
Watching from behind the scenes, Qi Sheng eagerly anticipated the income growth these new players would bring.
Though these newbies couldn’t yet hunt on their own due to their low monster levels and had to rely on grouping or veteran escorts for exploration, Qi Sheng wasn’t worried.
The profits were even negative at the moment, since dying cost 10 sacrificial power.
But he believed that with enough growth time, these players would soon adapt to the Waning Moon difficulty.
As they progressed, his daily sacrificial power income would also grow from these new contributors.
As for the sacrificial power loss caused by newbie deaths early on, Qi Sheng didn’t care at all.
The sacrificial power consumed for death respawns was ultimately deducted from the players themselves once they had enough sacrificial power accumulated, so the only real cost was the initial investment of 1,000 sacrificial power per player.
While Qi Sheng monitored the new player activity.
In the real world, Yelan City.
Awakening from his sleep, Tong Xin felt a splitting headache and full-body soreness.
The night outside was hazy. Glancing at the bottom right corner of his computer screen, he was shocked to discover that he had fallen asleep at his desk for 28 hours straight.
Huh?!
At that moment, he noticed a popup window in the upper right corner.
[Download complete – 100%]
“Holy crap, it succeeded?!”
The surprise came so suddenly that the drowsy Tong Xin was instantly wide awake, staring wide-eyed at the completed download message.
The frustration, envy, and resentment in his heart all vanished, and tears of joy welled up.
After this brief emotional surge, he transferred the game file into the game pod, then walked over to initiate file adaptation before returning to his computer.
Opening the Kindergarten group chat, he excitedly typed.
Kindergarten Principal: @everyone Brothers!!! Your Principal is about to enter the battlefield. Gather up and help me level up!
Kindergarten Principal: @everyone Once again, hurry up and gather to help me level up and make money. Take me with you!
After posting, Tong Xin anxiously waited, already having changed into his game suit in preparation.
After a while, the game pod’s green light indicated successful adaptation, and he quickly entered the pod, pressing the start button.
One minute later, lying inside the pod, Tong Xin entered the virtual desktop.
The desktop layout was simple: aside from the official game, a few less-than-wholesome games were tucked away in hidden folders.
But Tong Xin’s attention was laser-focused on the flaming monster icon.
“Dark Land, activate!”
As his consciousness touched the game icon, Tong Xin was already imagining the joyful gaming experience ahead.
At that moment, a popup suddenly appeared.
[Since you failed to enter the game within 24 hours, your access qualification has been revoked. The game file has been shredded. You must redownload to enter!]
Staring at the prompt, Tong Xin’s eyes gradually glazed over.
Moments later, the game pod lid slowly opened, but Tong Xin remained curled up inside, unable to stop his tears.
“Ugh… this is so cruel. How can they bully me like this?”
“Nobody should be bullied this way… ugh…”
Half an hour later, the previously silent Kindergarten group suddenly came alive again as members who were in respawn cooldown started pinging the group owner.
Iron Hammer: Principal actually got the slot? Congrats! We’ll be online in an hour to power-level you.
Drunken Milk: Haha, Principal finally returns. The team’s been waiting for you to take charge again. We’ll hand over the guild leader position to you. Congratulations! The Kindergarten Gods are back, it’s time to rise!
Black Ball: (flower petals) (flower petals) Principal, go mine in the caverns first. Once our respawn cooldowns end, we’ll come level you.
Seeing that the Principal had secured a slot, the group members all offered their congratulations.
When the Principal didn’t reply, they naturally assumed he had already entered the game and started playing.
Meanwhile, the player who had lost his qualification was still curled up sobbing inside the game pod, eventually crying himself unconscious from exhaustion.
—
4 hours earlier.
Emperor’s Mound Village, Primordial Altar.
[Boss, one of the Challenger slots issued this time has not been activated.]
Hearing the system’s report, Qi Sheng frowned slightly.
He had distributed these slots to bring in players who would generate profits for him in Monster World. Occupying a slot while doing nothing was unacceptable.
He turned to the floating Guide beside him.
“From now on, if any newly issued slot isn’t activated within 24 hours, revoke it. Reallocate unused slots to other players.”
[Understood.]
Comments 9