Chapter 161-4: Official Site Goes Live, World Craze (4) |
In addition to campaign videos and screenshots, the details were divided into three parts.
They were: campaign location, highlight moments, and Heroes List (players with outstanding campaign performance).
The design on the chronicle was full of interactivity. When the mouse slid over text, the text glowed faintly and was accompanied by a low sound effect, such as the pounding of war drums, or the clash of blades, or the roar of magic.
When clicking a dynamic illustration, the image enlarged and played a short GIF, such as a player swinging a weapon to slay a monster.
The View button was designed like a medal. Clicking it emitted a crisp metallic clink.
Every page of the Honor Album recorded a battle. The page background was a dynamic battlefield scene; burning forests, skeletal battlefields, snow-swept canyons. Each scene’s display, from the screenshots alone, made Tong Xin’s blood boil.
He wished he could enter the game right now and charge into battle.
But such good fortune clearly would not fall to him.
Taking a deep breath, Tong Xin’s eyes were full of envy.
Exiting the Honor Album function, he clicked the last option: Player Forum.
This was Monster World’s built-in forum, now fully opened to interface with the outside world. Inside were strategy posts published by players who had obtained qualifications, as well as various other exchange posts.
Scrolling through player discussions, envy and jealousy were written across Tong Xin’s face.
At this moment he clicked the Post function.
[You Destined Ones who obtained closed beta qualifications really deserve it.]
But after clicking send, a prompt popped up.
[Prompt: The identity account is in guest status. You can only browse forum posts or post 2 reply posts per day. You cannot post a thread in the forum.]
Seeing the prompt information, Tong Xin could not help feeling grief well up.
If he had seized the opportunity at the time, he would now be standing at the top of the virtual gaming circle’s hierarchy of disdain, surveying the mountains, with countless players below looking up with envious expressions.
The wind at the mountaintop was cold and aloof, blowing away the clamor, leaving only the silence that belonged to a king.
“You really deserve it.”
Thinking of how the kindergarten group brothers who had once stood with him were already on the summit while he still gazed up from the foot of the mountain, his emotions could no longer be held back.
Flipping through the forum information and looking at the exchanges between the Destined Ones, sorrow flowed through his heart.
After a long time, Tong Xin entered the virtual game pod.
Through the virtual game, he went to the Monster World official site to view related content.
Especially those videos that could only be clicked through the virtual game pod.
He entered the official site and clicked on a video.
The scene before his eyes instantly pulled him into another dimension. The wind of Monster World howled past his ears, carrying the dampness of soil and the stench of decay. It felt as if he truly stood upon that desolate land. The ground beneath his feet was solid and rough. With every step he could feel the texture of gravel and blades of grass. He could even hear the faint sound of players’ shoes stepping on the ground in the footage.
“As expected of a perfect virtual game. Compared to you, Dark Land is really a pile of crap.”
The sight before him made Tong Xin involuntarily voice his praise.
Looking up, a blood moon hung in the sky. Moonlight spilled onto rotting plants, casting long shadows. The view zoomed in on a forest shrouded in mist, where God King was leading the player legion toward the forest.
Gazing toward the forest, the branches twisted and menacing. Dense black mist rose from the depths of the forest. Countless hideous Evil Entities were gestating in the darkness, raising goosebumps on Tong Xin’s skin. The strong sense of immersion made him feel as if he were in danger.
The subsequent battle scenes were even more spectacular than a special effects film.
The dazzling spells cast by spellcaster players, the overbearing might of Gargoyle-build players holding the line and sweeping aside Evil Entities, the exquisite coordination of support-build players, it was like a gorgeous visual feast that set Tong Xin’s blood ablaze.
After finishing one video, still unsatisfied, Tong Xin continued browsing other campaign videos.
During this, he discovered that the weather system in Monster World also completely crushed Dark Land.
Even in observation mode, he could feel changes in the weather system.
When torrential rain poured, the cool sensation of raindrops hitting his face.
When the wind howled, his hems, as an observer, were whipped and fluttering, and his body could even feel the resistance of the wind.
When thunder and lightning raged, lightning tore the sky, thunder was deafening, as if the whole world were trembling.
Every change in weather had a gradual process. On close observation, Tong Xin found that even details like raindrops falling onto soil and seeping underground were rendered to perfection.
“This is what a game should be.”
He knew that the brothers who had obtained Monster World qualifications were feasting.
But he had never imagined that they were eating this well.
The quality of this game far exceeded what the No. 1 governor had described at the briefing.
It even gave him an illusion that the colors in the game were more vivid than in reality. The blazing of flames, the chill of frost, the dazzling of lightning in the campaign videos were all magnified to the extreme, as if the entire world had been infused with life.
Even the perception of sound was more three-dimensional. The roars players let out in battle, the footsteps during movement, the rumble of spells were distinct in layers, placing him within an epic symphony of war.
The feeling the video footage gave him was more real than reality, more splendid than a dream.
After a long time, the game pod cover opened. Tong Xin stepped out of the game pod and changed clothes.
A strong sense of contrast rippled in his heart.
Although he had returned to reality, his heart was still immersed in the imagery of Monster World, as if what he had just experienced was not a virtual observation but a real traversal.
“Sigh.”
A thousand words finally turned into a sigh.
All of this had originally included a share for him.
Thinking back to how he had been sleeping soundly that night, he wished he could slap himself.
With that one sleep, he slept away a brilliant world.
“I really deserve it.”
Sitting back down at the computer desk, Tong Xin’s mindset completely changed.
He had originally thought that if he really could not obtain a Monster World game qualification, he would play Dark Land as a stopgap.
But after observing and experiencing the scenes of Monster World, he had only one thought.
What garbage Dark Land was.
If he had never experienced the ultimate, he could have tolerated the mediocre.
But now, he could not endure it.
The quality of the two games was simply not on the same level. It would not be an exaggeration to call it a dimensionality reduction level crushing.
Even if he continued browsing the Monster World official site and the videos posted by players on the forum, he no longer wanted to play Dark Land.
Constantly scrolling through forum information, Tong Xin felt like a sewer rat.
He could only observe the prosperity of the upper world through the gaps in the manhole cover. The splendor he saw seemed within reach, yet was forever out of reach.
And he could only curl up in a dark corner, listening to the bustle and joy coming from above his head, while a sourness welled up in his heart.
Because that prosperity did not belong to him.
But he also knew that he could no longer be satisfied with the dark environment he was in.
Immersed in the forum environment, time slipped by without his noticing.
Just as Tong Xin clicked on a post published by an exploration-party player, the forum page automatically jumped to the Monster World official site homepage.
This immediately puzzled Tong Xin.
The official page happened to change at this moment.
The page background collapsed. Behind the cracked screen surfaced a dark abyss. Magma spurted from the fissures, dyeing the page a blood red.
When the blood color had completely tinted the official site, a huge circular timer appeared at the center of the page. With each burning tick of the numbers, it seemed they were being devoured by flames, and every change of the numbers was accompanied by a deep toll of a bell that struck the heart.
Below the timer, a line of large characters suddenly emerged from the blood color:
[Qualification Battle, countdown remaining: 23 hours 59 minutes 52 seconds.]
“Damn.”
Seeing the text, Tong Xin suddenly realized something. The Starnet would issue Monster World qualifications when the 24-hour countdown ended.
His low mood instantly turned to excitement.
Sharing Tong Xin’s feelings were the players of all races in the Earth Alliance, as well as the leaders of the various races.
Like Tong Xin, they had carefully browsed the Monster World official site and were all shocked by the perfect quality of this game.
The immersive sense and emotional impact brought by the video experience imagery were too strong.
After exiting the game imagery, the shock in their hearts lingered for a long time.
At this moment, seeing that the Monster World official site was actually going to issue game qualifications to the public, the entire internet boiled.
The top spot of the popular rankings of the Starnet forums of all races was occupied by the topic of Monster World’s imminent qualification issuance.
According to the No. 1 governor of the Lunar Eclipse race, netizens of all races were well aware that Monster World did not have the possibility of issuing more than one million qualifications in a single round like Dark Land. The number was extremely scarce, and the probability was slim.
But no player wanted to miss this opportunity.
As long as one could snatch a game qualification, one could have a dazzling new world. This was a temptation that was hard to resist for members of all races.