Chapter 13 Open Beta
Earth, Saturday, October 5, 2019.
During the National Day holiday, netizens are extremely idle.
When people are idle, they tend to look for trouble. Even when there is no wind, there will be waves, not to mention that there is already trouble...
Qin Guan got up after seven in the morning. Without even opening his eyes, he reached for his phone and swiped the screen… On all the social media apps, the messages were still filled with bright red 99s.
If it were a few days ago, Qin Guan, who had always been tepid, would have been so happy to see this kind of performance that he was "popular". But now... he would rather not have been popular...
Three days ago, after discovering that he was being mocked by the entire network, Qin Guan angrily posted the six-hour live video of himself re-entering the game online without any cuts (only the part where the three people exchanged real contact information was blocked).
This is undoubtedly a powerful slap in the face to the conspiracy theory of "fake black technology games to deceive the feelings of the Chinese people and cut the leeks of foreign investors"... However, public opinion has not reversed.
The reason is very simple. Too many people are only willing to gloat over the sudden fall of the grassroots, and have no interest in being slapped in the face. The long video that Qin Guan released later was not effectively spread at all...
On the 3rd, "Another World" was openly delayed without any explanation, and they were too lazy to even make up an excuse that it was due to force majeure. They also ignored all the new questions, inquiries and insults on the message board...
It is easy to imagine the pressure Qin Guan felt during these two days.
The production team was inhumane and they were too lazy to even update an announcement on the official website to explain the delay. One reason was that netizens complained for a long time but received no feedback at all; the second reason was that the 290 internal test qualifications and login helmets that were originally ignored were only accepted by players after Qin Guan released a recommendation video.
In fact, the day after the game was delayed, Qin Guan was invited to have a chat because many netizens from other places called to report it... If he really didn't do anything but post a promotional video to promote a niche independent game and didn't have any "unidentified property" income, he might have to spend the night in the detention center...
In short... Qin, the anchor who had endured too much at a young age that was unbearable for his age, had calmed down a lot after the one-day trip to the police station. He sat up from the bed with panda eyes, opened the app, casually browsed the reply entries that insulted and mocked him, then closed it, opened the browser as usual, and refreshed the official website.
The official website, which had been unresponsive for several days , still had the server launch announcement that seemed to be mocking everyone, especially him, the top user.
“?!”
Qin Guan shuddered and woke up instantly, staring with bloodshot eyes close to the phone screen.
It was indeed a server launch announcement, not the server launch postponement announcement that had been hanging for four and a half days without any movement.
"N-N-N-N-N-" Qin Guan's whole body began to tremble. He couldn't tell whether it was the excitement after his injustice was vindicated or the sudden outburst of grievances accumulated over many days. He pressed his fingers several times before he clicked on the right place to open the server launch announcement.
《Server Launch Announcement》
"The game "Otherworld" will be open for closed beta testing at 8 a.m. on October 5th."
"Synchronous Update Patch Version 1.02"
"One: Open the job transfer system. Players who reach level one will be able to choose to transfer to a life job or a combat job."
"1: The choice of life profession or combat profession depends on the high-level NPC with relevant guidance functions that have been opened."
“2: The optional life profession or combat profession is unique and cannot be changed after the profession is selected. Players should carefully decide the path of job change.”
"Two: The first batch of high-level NPCs in Exile Town will be released, totaling 20 people."
“1: Open the high-level NPC personal reputation mode. Players can obtain the reputation value of the NPC by completing the tasks issued by the high-level NPC.”
“2: Players who adopt an 'immersive role-playing' approach when interacting with high-level NPCs and behave in accordance with their role positioning will be able to gain more high-level NPC personal reputation.”
“3: If the player fails to act or angers a high-level NPC when interacting with it, the player may be attacked by the NPC, with consequences including but not limited to death.”
“4: High-level NPCs are unique. If a high-level NPC dies, the NPC’s reputation will be reset to zero. If the high-level NPC is a functional NPC, all players born in Exile Town will permanently lose the service function.”
“5: The first batch of high-level NPC list: Undead race resurrection instructor: Yang. (If Yang dies, the player will permanently lose the ability to create an undead race character. All undead will not be able to be resurrected after death, and the magic apprentice job transfer path will be permanently lost.)”
"Weapon Master: Charlie Rex. (If Charlie dies, the player will permanently lose the Warrior job transfer branch, the Weapon Master advanced path, and the Life Profession Hunter job transfer path.)"
“Master Walker: Hal ‘Razor’ Maxwell. (If Hal dies, the player will permanently lose the Walker job branch, the Assassin advancement path.)”
“Ranger Tuttle Joe. (If Tuttle dies, the player will permanently lose the Walker Job Transformation Branch, the Ranger Advanced Path.)”
“Butcher Manan. (If Manan dies, the player will permanently lose the skinning profession and the butcher job path.)”
"Treasure expert..."
After reading the several thousand words of the server launch and update announcement, Qin Guan was simply stunned: "If you offend the NPC, you will be killed by the NPC... That's fine! If the NPC dies, will the function and service be permanently lost?! If this Yang dies, the undead will be exterminated immediately?! Compared with you, Queen Xi and King Va are nothing. Old Wang and Old Xie both lose!!"
While he was ranting, Qin Guan jumped out of bed, ran to the toilet, and washed himself in one go. He then quickly boiled water to make oatmeal, staring at the time nervously as he did so… It was already 7:30! It was almost 8 o’clock! He had to be online as soon as possible!
Qin Guan, who had been suppressed by Tao Tao's scolding for several days, couldn't wait to go online, not to mention those players who bought helmets after seeing the video, and who had been influenced by public opinion in the past few days, and who still insisted on their positions in hesitation and anxiety, holding on to a glimmer of hope that the game could be launched; as soon as the launch announcement came out, the number of inquiries and venting messages on the official website message board dropped sharply.
As for those who didn't buy the helmet, or had already sold it, they were madly posting comments on the screen to question and ridicule. Anyway, they just didn't believe that the game could really be launched normally. They insisted that the production team was just playing a delaying tactic, and that when the time came, there would definitely be another surprise and delay...
Yang Qiu's sister Yang Ying, from the beginning, didn't have much confidence in her brother who was fooled into playing some crappy game. Even though Yang Qiu kept saying that everything was fine on his side on social software, Yang Ying still left dozens of messages a day urging Yang Qiu not to act stupid and to go home and return to school.
The result... Yang Ying never expected that not only her brother was tricked into making some game, but the production team of this game was also mocked as liars by the entire network - she, who never cared about games, actually saw the discussion of the game "Alien World" on her Weibo homepage!
Yang Ying was absolutely against her brother dropping out of school to make games. If she hadn't seen Yang Qiu, she would have beaten Yang Qiu up and dragged him home, forcing this unreliable brother to go to school. But even if she didn't support it, she would not accept it if a bunch of strangers who didn't even play the game said that her brother was hanging out with scammers and that he was a member of the scam production team. She would not go anywhere during the National Day holiday and stayed at home every day to engage in verbal battles with netizens on the other end of the network cable.
This morning, I found out that the official website of the game had been updated and the production team I worked for had issued a server launch announcement. Yang Ying, who didn’t even play mobile games, quickly took out the helmet from the cardboard box in the corridor and prepared to go online to take screenshots and record videos to continue fighting with those netizens…
"Really, really, the official website has announced the server launch, it must be true, I'm getting ready to go online now, come and take a look!"
Tang Jia, a sophomore student, did not sell the helmet. Although there was an uproar online, Tang Jia had confidence in the UP host Vanilla Pudding and felt that this equally poor host would not cheat poor students. So she held on to her helmet all the time. After the helmet arrived, she immediately delivered the one she had ordered for her childhood friend to him personally.
Of course, the biggest reason why Tang Jia didn't resell it was that there were people who had offered high prices for it except on the first day. After the public opinion exploded and Vanilla Pudding's reputation plummeted, those who were willing to buy the helmet quickly lowered the price. As of last night, someone even offered a recycling price of 88 yuan per piece...
Tang Jia lost 100 yuan without playing anything. She was so particular about even the numbers on her meal card that it would be hard for her to accept this!
It was two minutes before eight, and Tang Jia went to the bathroom for the last time. She reminded her roommate that she was going to play a VR game and not to touch her casually. Then she lay down on the bed, put on the helmet, plugged the USB into her mobile phone, connected to the official website, and activated her account.
At exactly eight o'clock, Tang Jia, who was browsing her phone in an awkward lying position, tilted her head.
The roommate opposite: “?!”
During the long vacation, Tang Jia's roommate, who did not go back to her hometown to save on transportation expenses, quickly jumped out of bed, ran to Tang Jia's bed and observed her carefully... and found that she was just asleep and snoring softly, so he touched her chest and stepped back.
After entering the game, Tang Jia found that this game was different from what she expected.
"Didn't I get to choose my game character freely? Why can't I choose..."
After searching for a long time without finding the interface to change character selection, Tang Jia had no choice but to choose the only available character.
This skeleton character ... looks a bit dirty, and there's a fist-sized hole on the chest ribs, which makes Tang Jia very dissatisfied... But there's nothing she can do, she can't just stop playing because she's stuck on character selection.
After selecting a character and experiencing the magical "perspective fusion", Tang Jia entered the game world.
And then... when she opened her eyes, she saw skeletons standing densely and closely together on the ground.
In places where you can step, there are skeletons sticking out from the ground...
Thinking that she also emerged straight from the ground in the same way, Tang Jia couldn't help but yelled "Oh my God". When she looked up again, she found that there was an even dirtier skeleton standing face to face with her. Tang Jia yelled "Oh my God" and subconsciously stepped back.
"Damn it, stop pushing!"
The other skeleton that was bumped by her made a dissatisfied sound and turned to see Tang Jia... This brother also retreated as sharply as Tang Jia and bumped into another skeleton.
“Fuck!”
"ah--!"
"Don't push!"
"Oh my god, it's all skeletons!"
"Stop screaming! You're all just skeletons and you still hate each other!"
