Qing Shi slowly raised his massive right hand, palm facing upward.
Inside his body, [Item 099: God's Pouch] was spinning madly. The "cheat device" he had stolen from the Grey Tower finally revealed its fangs.
A quantum signal, invisible to the naked eye, instantly pierced through the dimensional barrier and locked onto a distant technological world named "Blue Star."
Over there, just a few minutes ago, on a federal underground hacker forum named "Deep Blue," a heated discussion about a "Virtual Reality Game" was taking place:
[DefaultUser114514]: "I'm new here, just got my net account. Asking for a friend: Why don't we explore the stars? Is it because we don't want to, or because we can't?"
[StarrySkyDepression]: "Finally, my turn to answer! Hahaha! Of course, it's because we can't and we dare not! In this day and age, who dares to use their flesh and blood to withstand radiation? Is there any way to explore unknown worlds without a high threshold?"
[CameraZhao]: "Photo taken. Selling popcorn and drinks in the front row."
[TopTierTestTaker]: "I know this one! You can have anything in your dreams! (Facepalm) Current VR helmets are just toys. It's boring."
[GreenTeaSunIce]: "Speaking of which, does anyone have info on that legendary new game with 50% realism? Has anyone received a closed beta invite?"
[NoPants]: "If it's real, I'm willing to be the first guinea pig. I can't live another day in this crappy reality. I want to go somewhere I can run wild, even if it means moving bricks!"
At this very moment, a mysterious account named [Realm Builder] (the Protagonist's alt account) posted the final pinned reply under that hot thread. Every word was precious:
[Realm Builder]: "No surgery required. No memorization needed. Pain sensation lowered. Physics engine 50% realistic. Do you want to run wild? Do you want to rebuild civilization with your own hands in a world abandoned by gods? We have magic, we have dragons, and more importantly... we have the 'reality' you crave."
"Server, Open."
Back on Earth, out of 50,000 eager applicants, only the 50 lucky players who secured the first batch of closed beta spots were lying inside their silver-white Virtual Gaming Capsules, anxiously waiting for the "Server Open" indicator light to turn green.
"Come on, my first batch of mad dogs. Let me see what you're made of."
Whir—!!!
The armor plate on Qing Shi's abdomen slid open, and a miniature spatial teleportation array lit up.
The light was faint at first, then expanded rapidly, turning into fifty blinding beams of white light shooting out. Like a meteor shower falling from the sky, these beams landed precisely in the open space of the camp, accompanied by the shrieking sound of tearing air.
The surrounding blizzard was instantly scattered by this massive energy, forming a temporary vacuum zone.
When the light faded, the air was filled with the smell of ozone, like burnt electrical wires.
Fifty figures appeared.
They were not mighty warriors, nor mysterious mages. They were fifty little goblins (Player Beginner Clones) standing only 1.2 meters tall, with tender green skin, wearing system-issued coarse yellow cloth boxer shorts.
But the look in these little creatures' eyes... was all wrong.
It wasn't the ignorance of newborn creatures, but a mix of curiosity, excitement, and a kind of "lawless" fanaticism. They looked like a pack of huskies that had been locked up for ten years and suddenly saw a vast grassland.
Before Hong Yu and Lan Xuan could ask anything, this group of newly embodied "laborers" exploded into chaos.
"Holy sh*t! I'm in! I'm really in! No queue for login?"
"This graphics! This lighting! Look at the physics feedback of the snow landing on my body! The melting water marks are so real! My graphics card is burning!"
"Hiss—so cold! It's really freaking cold! The pain system and temperature system are real! I feel like my snot is freezing! This is too hardcore!"
These little goblins completely ignored the dumbfounded NPC leaders and started jumping around the camp.
Some lay on the ground eating snow frantically, shouting, "This snow tastes like fresh water!" whilst eating. Others, to test the physics engine, picked up stones and smashed each other's feet, then hopped around screaming in pain with faces full of excitement. Some even got close to the terrified Jin Pan, trying to pull his beard to see if it was just a texture.
"What... what the hell are these things?"
Jin Pan covered his painful chin and scrambled behind Qing Shi, his voice trembling. "This is the perfect labor force you mentioned? These are clearly a bunch of suicidal mental patients! Do they have no basic fear?"
Just as the situation was about to spiral out of control, the player with the ID [NoPants] suddenly did something shocking.
He stood on a rock in the center of the camp and shouted, attracting the attention of all players:
"Brothers! Don't play yet! As a senior reviewer, to verify if this is a game from a legitimate big company or an alien kidnapping, I must perform a crucial test—The 'Pants Drop Test'!"
"As we all know, freedom is the only standard to measure an open-world game! If the pants can come off, it means this game is improper (or too proper); if they can't, it means there is an All-Ages Lock! It's a legit army!"
"Makes sense!" "Big bro, try it! We'll cover you!"
Under the gaze of the crowd, [NoPants] took a deep breath, centered his energy, grabbed the waistband of his coarse cloth shorts with both hands, and pulled down with all his might.
"What are you doing?!"
Hong Yu's face instantly turned black. As a female leader, she had seen bloody battlefields, but she had never seen such a perverted and obscene scene. Her horse-chopping saber unsheathed again, murderous intent boiling, her grip on the handle creaking:
"Shameless low-life creature! How dare you perform such filth in front of the Lord! I'm going to chop him up!"
However, the next second—
Ding!
(System Notification heard only by players: All-Ages Lock Active. According to Article 404 of the Interstellar Federal Cybersecurity Law, private equipment cannot be unequipped.)
No matter how hard [NoPants] pulled, his face turning the color of pig liver and veins popping on his forehead, the tattered shorts seemed welded to his skin. They didn't move an inch. Let alone taking them off, he couldn't even pull open a gap, as if it wasn't fabric, but part of his body.
"Phew..."
[NoPants] let out a sigh of relief, wiped the sweat from his forehead, turned around, and gave a thumbs up to the other players, solemnly announcing the test result:
"Safe! The pants are locked! Although the physics engine is real, the bottom line is still there! This is absolutely a legitimate holographic game reviewed by the Federation! Not some black market workshop! Everyone, feel free to grind!"
"Ohhh! Conscience company! Safety sense maxed out!" "Since we can't do lewd stuff, we can only focus on construction!" "Understood! Going to move bricks now! My big blade is already thirsty!"
Watching these lunatics cheering over a pair of pants with such bizarre logic, Lan Xuan, who was known for his wisdom, froze. His hand pushing his glasses stopped in mid-air.
He turned his head and looked at Qing Shi, his tone filled with deep suspicion and despair—the sound of a worldview collapsing:
"Qing Shi... this is the perfect labor force you talked about? Were their brains squeezed by the portal? Or frozen? We are relying on this bunch of perverts who want to take off their pants to save the world?"
Qing Shi (the Protagonist) looked at the scene, holding back his laughter. Data streams flashed in his electronic eye as he spouted nonsense with a straight face:
"Don't mind these details, Lan Xuan. This is... an ancient loyalty ritual from the other world. It represents their absolute loyalty to the organization, swearing to defend the bottom line to the death, and never betraying (and it's impossible to quit)."
He paused, looking at the players who had already started studying how to dismantle the camp gate, and said faintly:
"Trust me. Just give them a quest bar and a pickaxe, and they'll scatter the ashes of the Ancient Gods."