Chapter 322: Third Test! Start!
The game "Alien World" has as much presence on the Chinese Internet as a big star has to ordinary people.
Ordinary people all know that there are big stars, and they often see news about big stars on the website and on TV. They may also hear celebrity gossip from time to time, see someone claiming to know a certain celebrity and come out to reveal the news, or hear that a certain celebrity went to a certain place to record a program or shoot a movie and was witnessed by many people... But in real life, it is almost impossible for ordinary people to see the celebrities themselves.
The same goes for the game "Alien World". Many ordinary netizens know that such a game exists, and they can often see screenshots, videos, and emoticons of "Alien World" on social networks. You can also unexpectedly see people in some pretentious forums analyzing the mysterious origin of "Alien World", a game that claims to be VR but is actually Zenith Technology's holographic technology. Or you may hear that a well-known figure on the foreign Internet has come out and demanded that the Chinese government has an obligation to share the mysterious alien technology with its fellow earthlings... But when surfing the Internet, it is almost impossible for ordinary people to come into contact with the true face of the game "Alien World".
The official website of "Another World" released information about the third test, claiming that 30,000 internal test places will be drawn from the application list in an absolutely fair and just random manner, and announced that the application channel will be opened in one day - for netizens, this is no different from ordinary people suddenly receiving a notice from a big star's audition assistant.
On that day, the screenshot of the announcement of the official website of "Another World" spread rapidly on various social networking sites, discussion sites, and chat groups. Countless people quietly added the official website page of "Another World" to their favorites.
The next day, half an hour before the official website of "Another World" opened the application channel, due to too many people refreshing, the official website, which only had a simple background page, a few lonely update announcements and forum entrances, and a player video screenshot display entrance, crashed several times...
Several major video sites in China even had many anchors live-broadcasting the official website freezing screen, and they were crazily complaining about "Alien World", a game company that shocked the entire network but exuded a sense of poverty from its official website.
The same crazy complaints also appear on major social networking sites, chat groups, and discussion sites.
“Is it okay if I can’t browse the website using 100M fiber?! Is this gaming company using bandwidth from the last century?”
"The child can't open the official website, save the child!"
Some gamers who are good at fancy operations even shouted for a booster: "Is there a booster who can help me fill out the application information?"
Another young man from a game studio complained: "Even the power leveling can't open the official website, how can this game still work!"
When the application channel was opened...the official website of "Another World" crashed directly, and countless netizens who had been waiting for a long time kept seeing 502 no matter how they refreshed the page.
Countless anxious netizens rushed into the forum and cursed... Within two minutes, the player forum also crashed.
In a suburban house in City A, Province G, Yang Qiu, who was slurping up snail noodles, had to put down the bowl and restart the official website server...
While waiting for the server to restart , Yang Qiu sent a text message to "Director Lu" of the expert group: "Is there a hacker attacking my website? Why does it keep having problems?"
"Director Lu" on the other end almost choked to death when he saw the text message... Can your poor little website withstand tens of millions of people logging in at the same time without you knowing how to count? !
Half an hour later, a group of lucky players finally found the official website of the game "Alien World", squeezed into the application channel, and left their real names, mobile phone numbers, ID numbers, and real addresses with great anticipation - after all, the game account was obtained by mailing a helmet, and no one could care about privacy at this time.
At this time, the problem arose that some people were unable to apply... To fill in the application information, a residence permit number was required, and people without a Chinese residence permit could not even pass this hurdle.
Those who once had an ID card but cancelled it after immigration will naturally not be able to pass the application.
Soon, cursing voices appeared on social networking sites. It was not uncommon to see people who went abroad to study in primary and secondary school, immigrated to get a fake foreign university diploma, and then ran back to China to make a living. These people usually regard themselves as foreign guests, but when they are unable to take advantage of the benefits that only belong to Chinese citizens, they are not necessarily willing to accept the reality.
There are also some cunning people who use other people's ID numbers to apply and then leave their own addresses in an attempt to get through - these people are almost working in vain, after all, the screening of game accounts still needs to be reviewed by an expert group; if the mobile phone number and the ID number don't match, they will be filtered out first.
Two hours later, a large number of insults against the Chinese government suddenly appeared on the Internet...
This time, the Chinese government was really shot even when it was lying down.
Screenshots and videos of the game "Alien World" have long been uploaded to the Internet. Countless foreign players are curious about "Alien World" and various discussions about it have never stopped.
There are even hardcore foreign players who hand-made a one-to-one plaster model of Phoenix. As the most popular female NPC in the entire game and one who is quite in line with the Eastern and Western aesthetics of the earthlings, Phoenix's popularity is much higher than that of Yang Qiu's Lord Yang.
"Alien World" has launched its third beta test, and hardcore players from many countries have learned from the Chinese to "climb over the firewall", relying on translation tools to climb onto the official website of "Alien World" and register for the application.
Then I was stuck with the Chinese mobile phone number and Chinese national ID card.
Just wanting to play an online game, you have to disclose your personal privacy information. What’s even more hateful is that it is not open to external players. This is really too much!
These foreign players cursed and swore, and when they got emotional, they simply cursed the Chinese government as well. Anyway, some underworld media have always used sarcastic remarks to criticize China, so it would be cheap to copy them.
And then... China, which is used to being criticized internationally, doesn't care about this kind of minor attack at all.
After being hacked for so many years, our resistance buffs have been stacked to the ceiling. We can even laugh and talk about the hellish media, without any defense being broken at all.
On the contrary, some Chinese players who successfully submitted their applications had the leisure time to happily engage in verbal battles with these international friends, digging up various past records of games discriminating against Chinese players - anyway, foreign game companies have done a lot of such shit, such as blocking Chinese IP addresses, refusing to approve registrations that look like Chinese names, or directly blocking accounts, etc. How many times have these happened over the years!
Amid the fierce war of words, the number of people whose applications were approved by the official website reached 3 million.
After eating the snail noodles, Yang Qiu took a shower and changed his clothes, then closed the application channel and quickly sent the application information to the expert group. He also announced on the official website that 30,000 internal test players would be randomly selected within five days. Players who have passed the application are requested to pay the helmet material fee in time after receiving the text message.
After finishing the chores on Earth, Yang Qiu returned to the other world and continued to set up the magic circle in his magic tower.
Yang Qiu was busy with other things, but the storm he caused on Earth was not going to stop...
Not to mention the outcry from netizens at home and abroad who were unable to submit their applications in time for various reasons, the three million players who successfully submitted their applications were not calm either - what does it mean to choose 30,000 from three million? ! One in a hundred!
The topic "If you are not the chosen one, you are not worthy of playing games" was once popular on social media, making the game "Otherworldly" popular again.
A large number of cloud players also flocked to the player forum and started to swipe the screen.
"I want to play games! I want to be a happy little skeleton!"
"Let me see the Queen. I want to be her licker!"
"To the 99 brothers and sisters who are competing with me for the same internal beta account, I beg you to be possessed by the god of misfortune!"
"Seeking an unbound helmet at a high price! Brothers and sisters who have applied, please contact me!"
"I once owned a first-rate helmet, but I didn't cherish it... You bastard who lied to me that this game was a scam to cheat foreigners, come out here, I promise to beat you to death!"
"Does anyone know when this game will be publicly tested? I've never been popular, so I can't be the chosen one!"
"Please let me be chosen. I am willing to not eat vegetarian food for three months to fulfill my vow..."
Old players have become accustomed to the player forums being "flooded" with messages. Those who cannot play the game due to work, school or other reasons can happily face it when they find time to check the forums.
Until one day later, some outrageous posts asking for accounts appeared on this player forum where one can register and speak without having a game account...
"Hello everyone, I'm American XX. I like Chinese culture and I also like this game developed by the Chinese. I really want to be friends with you all..."
"I'm XXXX from Nipen. I've loved the Three Kingdoms since I was a kid, and I also love traveling to China. I love this game so much, and I want to play with Mina-san too..."
"I am English XXX..."
Not only Chinese people can do these cool things, but people from other countries can do them too.
Knowing that although the account application process for the game "Alien World" is very slow, the game helmets can still be traded before the account is bound, some foreign players have found ways to get into the player forums, play the international friend card, set up a persona that promotes Chinese culture, and spend real money to ask for helmets to be sold.
It has to be said that this trick of "asking for an account indirectly" is indeed very useful - veteran players know that posts asking for an account will not last long and will be deleted and banned within 48 hours, but there are still many people who reply to the posts asking for an account from these international friends.
At this time, Yang Qiu was still working hard on his mage tower formation and did not notice this situation.
But the expert group that has been keeping an eye on the player forum for a long time has already noticed it.
Professor Yin Zhengliang, who took over the forum account of "Director Lu", frowned and read a few posts claiming to be about yearning for Chinese culture and seeking accounts for friendly exchanges with international players. He instinctively felt that something was wrong.
There are indeed many international friends who are friendly to China both inside and outside China. These international friends are indeed very enthusiastic and persistent in speaking for the Chinese on the foreign Internet. When the underworld media slanders China, you can always see these international friends defending China.
But... the Chinese are a nation that attaches great importance to gratitude. Even if the Chinese do not publicize it on the surface, they remember very clearly in their hearts who their friends are.
These "international friends" who go to game forums to sell their characters are not within the scope of international friends that Professor Yin Zhengliang knows.
In order to confirm whether there was something wrong with his memory, Professor Yin Zhengliang contacted the relevant departments on the spot for verification - the result of the verification was that there was no such person.
Professor Yin Zhengliang sneered and immediately contacted the national security department that Zhao Zhenzhen belonged to...
Soon, the "international friends" active on the player forum collectively disconnected from the Internet and no longer actively communicated with the enthusiastic and friendly Chinese players.
The department that Zhao Zhenzhen belonged to took action, not only banning the login IP addresses of these fake international friends, but also investigating the origins of this group of people the next day.
When Yang Qiu, who had been working hard to build the magic network, returned to Earth to take a breath, he saw the email from "Director Lu".
"XX Biopharmaceuticals across the sea?"
Yang Qiu was a little surprised to see the pharmaceutical company that "Director Lu" had reminded him to be careful of.
He is just a game producer on Earth and has nothing to do with the pharmaceutical industry. Why would foreign biopharmaceutical companies target him?
Looking down further, Yang Qiu finally realized…it turned out that the problem was caused by the login helmet.
The process of logging into "Another World" is the process of projecting the soul of an earthling into the brand matrix of the other world.
The soul projections of earthlings are active in the other world through the transfer of the imprint matrix, which is equivalent to doing "fitness" in the other world in the form of soul projection - the longer the active time, the more the soul strength can be improved.
This is also the reason why players can improve their levels (potential values) even if they do not kill monsters or complete quests, as long as they stay online - otherwise why would Yang Qiu have to rack his brains to motivate players with monster killing rewards and quest rewards.
The plane rules of the earth are different from those of the other worlds. The strength of the soul cannot greatly feed back to the body, but the improvement of soul strength still has self-evident benefits for the people on earth. The most direct benefit is to increase the activity of brain waves and produce benign stimulation to the diseased brain functional areas.
For example, Lao Liu, a road and bridge engineer who was paralyzed by a stroke, worked diligently as an online GM for half a year (in another world), and miraculously recovered some of his language abilities and could communicate with his family members in a simple way.
For example, for teenage players, after using their sleep and leisure time for gaming, the function of their pituitary gland to secrete hormones will be slightly improved, and their metabolism, growth, and development will be better than their peers.
Not to mention the beneficial effects on the micro-EEG of vegetative patients - this was also the additional function of the login helmet that was first discovered by the expert group.
Even though the people on Earth cannot directly observe the effect of soul strength due to the impression of the plane rules, they will instinctively discover the benefits of soul strength to people... No matter which culture of the Earth civilization, they will use words such as energetic and vigorous to describe a person's health and vitality.
Under Yang Qiu's strenuous cover-up and the national team's tacit protection, it is difficult for foreign countries to confirm whether "Alien World" is a game or a real world for the time being, but the long-term benefits brought to users by the helmets that flow into the public will inevitably be leaked.
If it weren't for the fact that bound helmets cannot be activated or used by others, there might have been several cases of helmet thefts in China...
The expert group does not object to Yang Qiu sharing the landing helmet with domestic players. After all, the value of the helmet is not small, but not big either. As long as the meat is rotten in the pot and the beneficiaries are all compatriots, the expert group will not interfere too much.
However, the expert group cannot tolerate the outflow of helmets, especially the fact that the leaked helmets are likely to end up in that magical country on the other side of the ocean.
The bulk empire across the ocean has no bottom line in doing things. The pharmaceutical companies that openly promote the proliferation of opioids and harm the next generation for the sake of making money are extremely despised by the Chinese people; if the login helmet falls into the hands of these people, who knows what they will do? !
Coincidentally, Yang Qiu and Professor Yin Zhengliang have the same attitude.
He was able to let his Chinese compatriots enter the other world because he knew that young Chinese people (who could withstand political review) had a bottom line.
He can cooperate with the country in a limited and cautious manner because he knows that the Chinese government has a bottom line.
The country has a bottom line, and the people also have a bottom line; if the upper beam is straight, the (normal) lower beam will not go too crooked.
But once you go abroad and look around...to be honest, among the more than 200 countries and regions on Earth, there are really not many that can proudly pat their chests and say that they are more advanced and civilized than other worlds.
Especially the anti-human gang on the other side of the ocean - Yang Qiu must have eaten too much to make it possible for this gang, which has been barely "civilized" for more than two hundred years, and has launched dozens of foreign wars of varying sizes during these two hundred years, bombed civilians of other countries and even their own civilians countless times, conducted human nuclear tests in their own country and in Bikini, and committed brutal massacres on the Korean Peninsula and Vietnam, to have contact with the alien world.
"Don't worry, this kind of thing will not happen." Yang Qiu gave a clear reply to Professor Yin Zhengliang, who was disguised as "Director Lu", and then turned around and immediately issued a new official announcement.
"Dear players:"
"In order to avoid online fraud after the 30,000 third-test accounts were leaked and to prevent the possibility of players' login helmets being defrauded, the production team, after careful consideration, decided to preset the factory status of the third-test helmets after completing the random selection of accounts."
"The third-test helmet has added an applicant identity verification procedure when logging in to bind an account for the first time. If the user's identity does not match the applicant's, the helmet will start the blocking procedure and enter a banned state, and it cannot be used again."
"The helmet for the third test cannot be reissued, please cherish the helmet for landing."
"——"Otherworld" game production team."
The purpose of this announcement is very simple... If an applicant who has passed the political review transfers the helmet to someone else, not only will the person who bought the helmet be unable to log into the game, but the helmet will also be unable to be used again.
To complete this identity authentication, Yang Qiu only needs to add a filtering function to the anchor point newly added to the matrix - input the identity information of the 29,000 third-test players screened out into the magic network in advance. When the players project their souls to the other world through the matrix imprint installed on the helmet, all those who are not within the permitted login range will be kicked out, the anchor point will be turned off, and the helmet will be useless.
He couldn't do this when Yang Qiu himself was the core of the matrix. Now that he has the magic network to use, adding such a function is nothing more than consuming a few magic cores, a drop in the bucket.
As soon as the patch announcement came out, the frantic number of posts requesting accounts on the player forum subsided instantly.
Some rich bosses are willing to spend money to get an account because they want to play the game and enter the magical game world that can only be seen in videos and pictures; since the official has clearly stated that this helmet cannot be used by non-applicants, then there is no point in asking for an account.
The same goes for the middlemen who try to make a quick buck by speculating on helmets - yes, because there are people everywhere asking for accounts, and the fact that the game went viral during the first and second beta tests because of the login helmets attracted scalpers as well.
In the next two days, although there were no more posts asking for numbers, there were more prayer posts... Yang Qiu and the expert group were too lazy to care about these.
Yang Qiu was busy speeding up the construction of the magic net. After all, the third test could not be launched until the magic net was completed. Not only did he ask his teacher Kingsley to help, he also did not let go of Brother Lowell who was lurking in Westram.
Even though he was so busy, Yang Qiu still had to pay attention to the Kenyan investigation team that had sneaked into the territory of Innaderi. These people listened to Walton's advice and behaved themselves after entering Innaderi, so Yang Qiu had no reason to arrest them in advance and give them on-the-job training or something.
While Yang Qiu was busy, the expert group was not idle either. Screening the identity information of 300,000 people was no small task. Even with the assistance of various departments, it was still very difficult for this group of experts who were studying "The Other World".
The most important thing is... in addition to fulfilling their promise to Yang Qiu, the expert group will not let people with criminal records or religious beliefs (black magicians are reserved even about religious people who have a true God to worship, and certainly will not like religious people who worship false gods) into the other world. They also have to secretly add some screening conditions - healthy applicants will be moved back a little, and people with disabilities will be given priority.
"Login game" not only allows hemiplegic stroke patients and bedridden patients to jump around in the other world, but also allows people with visual impairments, hearing impairments, and speech impairments to experience the visual and auditory abilities of normal people in the other world. In the eyes of the Chinese people who value humanistic feelings, people with disabilities need this login qualification even more.
After a few busy days, the list of 299,000 candidates screened by the expert group was sent to Yang Qiu. Yang Qiu spent two hundred yuan that day and found a college student to write a random selection program, and drew out 29,000 lucky players... This process was truly fair and just, without any shady dealings. Even Yang Qiu himself didn't know who would be drawn and who would not.
In mid-July of 1032 in Another World time, on Saturday, April 11, 2020, Earth time, the much-anticipated third test of the game "Another World" was officially opened.
Normally, there are only about thirty high-level NPCs and more than a hundred civilian NPCs in the Exile Town. More than twenty fully armed operators were transferred from Westram, Everlook Town and Innadri City Hall in advance to maintain order. The main task of this group of operators is to decisively kill the rebellious new players in public and deter other newcomers.
A group of senior NPCs including tailor Anthony, who had been in Exile Town for more than ten months, sharpened their swords and stared at the areas they were responsible for with a covetous look.
At 8:00 AM on Earth time, and 3:00 PM in the other world, the third-test players who got the helmets were finally able to activate the spiritual imprint on the helmets and project their souls into a distant other world...
