Chapter 13: The Dinner Gang | Monsters Are Coming
Emperor's Mound.
Underground chamber.
Qi Sheng sat cross-legged atop the Primordial Altar, as streams of real-world network data provided by the Guide flashed through his mind, searching for suitable recruitment targets.
For this third wave of recruitment, he already had a clear direction in mind.
The first and second batches of players who entered Monster World all shared a common trait: they never spent money on the game, or spent very little, and many even needed to earn money from the game.
Especially the players in the Grind Kings group, they had to rely on the game to make a living while playing.
This time, Qi Sheng planned to recruit a batch of players who were actually capable of spending money, to further improve the in-game ecosystem and enhance the circulation of items and sacrificial power.
Only by resolving the real-life financial concerns of the gold-farming players could they continue playing effectively, generating more sacrificial power for him.
11:00 PM.
Foglight City.
The city was located by the sea and served as an important port city of the Human Federation. When the city was first established, dense fog would frequently roll in from the sea, requiring lighthouses to guide ships. Thus, it was named Foglight City.
Under the hazy night sky, some found it difficult to sleep.
Inside a luxurious villa in the northern district of Foglight City, a curvaceous woman sat on her bed in pajamas, holding a tablet tightly as her eyes locked onto the countdown timer on Dark Land's official website.
"Please, let me get in this time."
Her hands pressed together in a sincere prayer as Li Siyu's face tensed with nervousness, beads of sweat forming on her palms as the countdown ticked down.
Finally, the timer hit zero.
Her poised fingers moved like a machine gun's trigger, tapping the screen furiously like a blur, but the webpage immediately popped up with a message.
[This round of access purchase has ended. Unfortunately, you did not obtain purchase rights for Dark Land.]
"Damn it!"
Frustrated, Li Siyu threw the tablet onto the bed.
This was already her third attempt at purchasing access to Dark Land, but once again, she had failed. She couldn't even get to the payment page.
She had long been looking forward to playing Dark Land.
Before the game launched, she had sold off her Conquest account at a low price, intending to focus entirely on Dark Land.
But her plan was stalled at the very first hurdle, purchasing access.
With the Human Federation's population at two billion, even at the steep price of 128,888, the game access slots were still in short supply.
Most importantly, sales were handled directly through the official website, under the supervision of the Lunar Eclipse Race, leaving no way to pull strings or obtain access through connections.
Furthermore, identity verification was required before purchasing, binding each account to an ID, making reselling impossible.
In the end, having money wasn't enough; luck was the decisive factor.
After venting her frustration, Li Siyu picked up the tablet again, opened her contact list, and entered a group chat to complain.
[The Dinner Gang Chat Group (Online: 21)]
Vosnidia: (#｀皿）Failed again. What about you guys?
Staying Up With Midnight Snacks: Same result here. My eyes are going blurry from staring at the timer. I started clicking like crazy one minute before launch, but still got the message that this round failed. My fists are about to break.
Shrimp Heart Pig Heart: (皿) They're being stingy with these access slots. The Lunar Eclipse Race's virtual servers could easily handle more players. This scarcity marketing is disgusting.
Is This a Beaver?: I'm going to bed. Failed again. The next release won't be for several days, and by then we'll already be a week behind the first players. Sis's dream of founding a top guild is gradually crumbling.
Word Duck: Limited slots are bad enough, but they also bind it to real IDs. No way to buy from other channels. They're not giving us a chance. Why is it so hard just to play a game?
Giving Up Like a Dead Fish: Trash game. I've waited years for this, and now this is how it turns out? I'll give it ten more rounds, if I can't get in, I'm going back to Conquest.
As the group members angrily vented about the Lunar Eclipse Race's scarcity marketing, suddenly a stranger joined the chat.
[Welfare Officer has joined the group.]
Everyone froze at the notification.
The Dinner Gang hadn't added any new members for two years, and the group settings blocked strangers from joining.
Seeing a stranger suddenly appear, with no invite prefix, left everyone feeling suspicious.
Before anyone could speak, the newly joined Welfare Officer sent a message.
Welfare Officer: I heard you guys want to play Dark Land. I've got free cracked access codes. The link is posted here, take it if you want (link: …)
Without waiting for a response, Welfare Officer promptly left the group.
This bizarre action left everyone completely dumbfounded.
Their first thought was that this so-called Welfare Officer was obviously a scammer, impatient to the point of instantly dropping a phishing link. It was practically an insult to their intelligence.
No one in their right mind would fall for that.
However, the group owner Li Siyu had different thoughts.
After Welfare Officer exited, she opened the detailed info page and found that this person's profile displayed no IP address.
In this era of full-network identity authentication, users' IP addresses were public and couldn't be hidden.
More importantly, her group had enabled search shielding, meaning outsiders should not have been able to join at all.
For someone to so easily bypass the Lunar Eclipse Race's chat group restrictions proved that this Welfare Officer had exceptional technical skills.
"Could it really be a cracked version of Dark Land?"
The absurd thought briefly crossed her mind, but she quickly shook her head.
In her view, the Lunar Eclipse Race's technology was virtually uncrackable.
None of the previous virtual games had ever been successfully cracked, let alone the technically upgraded Dark Land.
Still, Welfare Officer had successfully piqued her curiosity.
With nothing better to do and driven by curiosity, Li Siyu decided to investigate.
Activating her network protection measures, she clicked the link.
The webpage that popped up was extremely simplistic, nearly blank except for a single clickable download link in the center.
The page's crude design and childishly obvious scam tactics only made Li Siyu even more curious.
She wanted to know the Welfare Officer's real purpose. Was this just a prank?
She clicked the download icon.
Instantly, a download notification and progress bar appeared in the top-right corner of the screen.
Midnight arrived.
Ding!
The compressed file download completed. Li Siyu swiped her tablet, wirelessly transferring the extracted files to the obsidian limited edition game pod in the corner of her room.
Three minutes later, the game pod lit up with a green light indicating compatibility was successful.
At that moment, Li Siyu got up from the bed.
After changing into a game suit, she entered the pod and pressed the 'Start' button. The semi-transparent pod lid slowly lowered.
"Let's see what's really inside this thing!"