Chapter 146-1: The Crack Is the Real Official Version, Pressure and Fun (1) |
“This is the Earthspring Star you mentioned?”
Pointing to the flowerpot placed beside the computer desk, Tian Bei was full of disbelief.
In the flowerpot was an Earthspring Flower that was dry and curled, with yellowing edges, looking like it had been withered for some days.
Pointing at the withered blossom, his finger involuntarily trembled, and Tian Bei’s joy turned into anger.
A second earlier he had still been looking forward to witnessing with his own eyes the birth of a newly discovered spirit plant not yet recorded. The next second he realized he had been deceived.
So there was no such thing as an Earthspring Star. The S-rated trainee in his eyes was simply a liar.
“I’m sorry, Professor Tian.”
Knowing his falsification had been completely exposed, Meng Yuan decisively bowed his head to admit fault, inwardly prepared to enter the virtual gold farming industry, which had limitless prospects for the future.
Just as Tian Bei was about to reprimand him, a question occurred to him.
So where exactly had the other party copied the material from?
Setting aside that assessors could not search for material through the Starnet, even if permission in this area were opened, what Meng Yuan had written was content not even found in the database.
Could it have been copied from the Lunar Eclipse race’s spirit plant database?
Aside from the Lunar Eclipse race, Tian Bei could not think of any other channels that could provide material in this area.
“Meng Yuan, where did you copy your material from?” Tian Bei withdrew the finger pointing at the withered spirit plant, pushed up his frames, looked at Meng Yuan and asked in a low voice.
“From the library in the game.” Meng Yuan straightforwardly confessed the truth.
“Game? Library?”
“Right. In the newly released Dark Land there is a library that stores material. Inside it are records of the growth cycle changes and cultivation methods for various types of spirit plants. The data on the Earthspring Flower is recorded there in great detail. I copied it from the library.”
Like a schoolchild who had made a mistake, Meng Yuan, under Tian Bei’s gaze, confessed truthfully.
Hearing Meng Yuan’s answer, Tian Bei fell into contemplation.
How could he not know about the game Dark Land?
He had tried to snap up a qualification every round they were issued, but every time he failed.
His parents and in-laws had also participated in the rush to buy game qualifications.
But not only was the qualification issuance cycle long, the number of qualifications released each time was also very small. No one in the family had succeeded so far.
What puzzled him was why the Lunar Eclipse race would put technology that had not been opened to the Human Federation for free in the library inside the game.
Thinking of this, Tian Bei immediately decided to report this discovery.
If there really were large amounts of technical material in the game that did not exist in reality and were provided free of charge, that would definitely be a good thing for the Human Federation.
“Professor Tian, what should I do?”
Seeing Tian Bei lost in thought, Meng Yuan, standing to the side, asked guiltily.
“The S rating is canceled. I will give you another chance.”
Hearing that he had received an extra chance, Meng Yuan let out a long sigh of relief in his heart.
But for some reason, he suddenly felt a touch of regret.
It seemed he actually kind of wanted to take the broad road of game gold-farming.
—
One day later.
Earth, Rising City.
A high level Human Federation video conference.
The participants of this meeting all attended by projection, establishing connections through the Starnet.
Twenty-eight minutes into the meeting, Bai Chen pressed the control panel on the rostrum, and a plant appeared on the light screen on the participants’ desks.
This was precisely the spirit plant recorded in the material submitted by Meng Yuan: the Earthspring Star.
“According to the material submitted by the investigations of various cities, we can now be completely certain that Dark Land and the cracked version of Dark Land are two entirely different games.”
“The Weapons Development Division and the Gene Modification Division of the Skyvault Technology Research Center have provided us with a large amount of game content related to the cracked version.”
“After comparing with the version officially released by the Lunar Eclipse race, it can be found that whether in scene modeling or physical presentation, the cracked version is already no different from reality. It can be said that the cracked version is the real Dark Land, while the official version publicly released by the Lunar Eclipse race can only be regarded as a simplified modified version of the cracked version. Only in the single monster type of Evil Entities is there a relatively similar setting, and even then the completeness of the setting is far from comparable to the cracked version, with many blank contents that cannot be explained.”
“So our previous speculation that the Lunar Eclipse race is experiencing internal problems has increased in probability.”
“Recently there is a new piece of material that can prove this view.”
“The documents submitted by the Spirit Plant Cultivation Center in Cloudveil City indicate that the main city library in the cracked Dark Land actually allows one to access technical material not publicly disclosed by the Lunar Eclipse race. This clearly does not align with the Lunar Eclipse race’s behavior. If they wanted to make the material public, they could have made it public directly on the real world Starnet. Why choose to make it public inside the cracked Dark Land?”
At this point, Bai Chen paused, organized his words, and continued:
“So it is highly likely that the cracked version was developed and produced by the Starnet without the permission of the Lunar Eclipse race’s upper echelons, and it even made the Lunar Eclipse race’s confidential material public in the game. It can be seen that the Starnet is already completely out of control.”
“Remember that Administrator Xiao of Ironwall City once proposed a hypothesis that the Starnet created the cracked Dark Land to imprison the Lunar Eclipse race, allowing the game world to replace reality as the primary world. Coupled with the series of recent behaviors by the Lunar Eclipse race attempting to exchange currencies, the probability of this hypothesis has greatly increased.”
“I now have reason to believe that the Lunar Eclipse race has completely split internally, and the Starnet’s behavior…”
“What we need to do is prepare as much as possible in advance, accelerate the pace of purchasing the cracked game currency, and have room to respond when unknown circumstances occur.”
—
Moon, Lunar Eclipse City.
Supreme Conference Hall.
With the appearance of a little boy, the Starnet analyzed recent developments with a solemn expression.
“Based on the material records read on the Human Federation’s Starnet, this player named Meng Yuan obtained a technical document from the game created by that mysterious existence. According to the conversation between Meng Yuan and Tian Bei, it can be confirmed that a large amount of similar material also exists in the game.”
“In other words, entering the game ahead of time not only allows one to lead in development, but also to lead in technology. The in-game library also stores a large amount of technical material that can be applied to reality to aid real world development.”
After hearing Starnet’s analysis, the Lunar Eclipse race governor in seat one raised his head.
“Starnet, but right now we do not even have a single game qualification. We are already far behind the humans.”
Hearing this, Starnet immediately corrected.
“Besides the humans, it is certain that the Gill-Fish race and the Abyssal Mermen have also obtained game qualifications. This can be seen from changes in their foreign-exchange income. The foreign-exchange earnings of these two groups mainly come from exports of seafood and virtual network income. Starnet can trace both of these transactions, with only offline transfers unable to explain the specifics, so it is basically certain that these two races have also obtained quite a few game qualifications.”
“Secondly, I suspect the Skyfeather race has also obtained a batch of slots recently.”
Hearing this, the Lunar Eclipse race high level present all looked vexed.
They learned the truth in advance, yet no matter what they could not obtain game qualifications. Even getting started was difficult.
At this time, the governor in seat three looked to Starnet and said.
“Starnet, the Human Federation has refused the currency exchange application. This clearly does not fit the humans’ usual behavior. It may be that they have already noticed something.”
Starnet nodded upon hearing this:
“Your actions were too aggressive. Proactively requesting a currency exchange in order to obtain game currency will inevitably arouse suspicion from the Human Federation leadership. The correct approach should have been to first purchase a batch of human resources, then wait for the Human Federation to take the initiative to propose a currency exchange. You must understand that the Human Federation submits such applications every year on its own. There is no need to rush. Turning passivity into initiative will actually make us even more passive.”
“But do not worry about this issue. Although we cannot exchange for human currency, we also have large reserves of Earth credits, which are universal in the Earth Alliance, so there is no need to worry about being unable to buy game currency after obtaining game qualifications.”
After Starnet finished speaking, the governor in seat eight interjected.
“Starnet, I am curious about a question and need your answer.”