Chapter 4: From Virtual to Reality (1)
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Outside Sky Sword City,
a rookie village teeming with players,
a sea of faces, crowded and chaotic.
Poor little wild monsters outside the village were being chased down by a dozen players at once, instantly turning into smoke and disappearing without a trace.
New players, desperate to flee the rookie village, were giving it their all.
But alas, with so many wolves and too few sheep, it had been days, and the rookie village was still jam-packed.
The forums buzzed with questions from newbie players,
which made the veteran players distinctly irritable.
“Seriously? Can’t you just look at the sticky posts? Don’t you know how to use the search function?”
How annoying it was to see the same simple questions popping up again and again!
“Ugh, why does it feel like an endless stream of new players has arrived this week? Did the game developers launch some sort of massive promotional campaign?”
Surely, those game pods couldn’t be that cheap.
Eventually, someone posted the official advertisement in the forum, and the veterans finally understood what was happening.
It turned out, the developers had come up with a new technology!
They had replaced the pricey game pods with cheap gaming glasses.
And the advertisement claimed that logging in through the glasses would provide an experience just as good as the game pod.
As a result, many players who had been hesitating rushed in to take the plunge.
In just a week, over a hundred million new players joined the game.
Not only in the human territories, but there were also newbie villages popping up near both demon and monster territories to accommodate the surge of new players.
Most players’ first reaction upon entering the game was,
“Whoa, this holographic simulation game is so freaking real! It’s practically just like a second life!”
Their second reaction? “Ha! Those poor suckers who bought game pods! I got these glasses for a hundred bucks, and they’re just as good as those multi-thousand-dollar game pods. I’m practically robbing them blind!”
This immediately annoyed the veteran players.
They collectively @the developers, demanding, “Why are their hundred-buck glasses performing so well? Refund, refund! So it seems the only difference is that those broken game pods let you sleep while the glasses don’t!”
“Can’t I just wear my game glasses and lie down in bed?”
Why do I need your broken game pod?
Soon after, the game’s official announcement revealed that players with game pods would receive generous rewards, guaranteed to make it worth their while. Finally, the veteranos calmed down—for now.
But one day, all players who had logged into the game received a message from the game officials.
“Please make sure to log into the game by 10 PM tonight, as the game will undergo a major update at 10:30 PM. All online players will receive unexpected surprises.”
On this same day, the game officials announced another promotion for the gaming glasses, originally priced at a hundred, now just sixty bucks. This move was like a shot of adrenaline, drawing in even more players.
Both new and old players believed this update would surely exceed everyone’s expectations.
At 10 PM, nearly 96% of registered players logged into the game, eagerly anticipating the updates and rewards.
A few players, for various reasons, couldn’t log in right away, feeling immense regret. Some even wished they could rush their slippery partners out of bed, cursing their own stamina that night.
However, just half an hour later, their regret turned into relief—and then pure jubilation.
Because at that moment,
all players logged into “The Way of Inquiry” mysteriously disappeared.
And poof! They vanished without a trace, leaving no sign behind except for the game pods or glasses.
What does it mean when the global population suddenly drops by nearly a hundred million?
Let’s not even get started on the chaos and panic gripping the real world. Meanwhile, the players blissfully enjoying their virtual reality remained blissfully unaware of their fate.
Five minutes past the scheduled update time of 10:30 PM,
the players suddenly realized the eagerly awaited updates and rewards were nowhere to be found, as the game officials had gone completely silent.
Some players who only intended to log in for a quick reward found themselves caught in the developers’ devilish trap. “Eh, I’ll just log in tomorrow for the reward,” they thought.
At this moment, panic set in.
They suddenly realized the system interface had transformed into a ghostly gray, rendering everything unusable.
Players erupted into chaos.
Panic spread like wildfire among the player base.
The forums exploded with thousands of questions, flooding in all at once.
Everyone seemed to be asking the same question,
“Why can’t we log out of the game?”
What the heck is going on here?
Is it because the game is updating in the background? Could you at least give us a heads up before you pull a prank on us?
At this point, it had been a full ten minutes since the anticipated update.
Everyone’s retinas were suddenly assaulted by one last message from the system.
[Game system update complete.]
Congratulations, you have obtained a genuine second life!
In other words, you are now almost indistinguishable from the native NPCs on Asking Dao Continent.
If you d*e, it’s for real.
You are no longer a player who can respawn infinitely.
Of course, if you’re still alive two years from today, we’ll send you back to reality.
At that time, the Taoist principles and martial arts you’ve learned will come with you into the real world.
From now on, the system will enter sleep mode and will no longer respond to your requests.
The live streaming room function will be disabled.
Forum features will remain, but each player will be limited to posting a maximum of 10 messages daily (including creating threads and replies).
Ps: Special benefit for game pod players—a life-saving charm! Wear this charm, and you’ll get one chance to be immune to fatal attacks.]*
At this point, the entire place fell eerily silent.
Moments later, chaos erupted across the Asking Dao Continent, filled with frantic shouts, curses, and terrified cries all mixed together in a chaotic “buzz.”
“This must be an official prank; today is April Fool’s Day, right?”
“Ahhh, I left my instant noodles on the stove! If I don’t get back soon, they’ll burn dry!”
“d*mn it! Let me out! Tomorrow is my last vocational exam! If I can’t find a job because of this, I’ll show up at the game company with explosives and take them all down with me!”
“…Hey, great! No classes tomorrow, finally free from being yelled at by the teacher!”
“Two years? I’ll just chill through them. Perfect time to learn a skill and return to flex in reality!”
“Who knows if this is real! They might find out in a few minutes, and the government would raid the game company, and we could log out!”
“Yeah, guys, no worries. With so many people disappearing, you think the government just stands by?”
In a moment, everyone had their own theories. Even with the posting limits, the forums skyrocketed, refreshing dozens of pages in a single second.
As the confused players faced the new dawn, they realized they didn’t receive the official apology they had anticipated, nor did any government rescue appear promptly.
For a full ten hours, they had absolutely no reason not to find the game company’s location.
Could it really be that they were trapped in this game world forever?
…
Ps: If nothing unexpected happens, there will be four updates today.
