The Invisible Players

Lister spent a total of five days in the Imperial City.

During those five days, he was summoned by Yongping Emperor a total of six times.

This surprised the court officials, as envoys from allied countries had never received such special treatment before.

Ultimately, it can only be attributed to Lister's exceptional personal abilities, which led Yongping Emperor to want to win him over.

However, the actual meeting between Lister and the emperor was not at all what these ministers had imagined.

When Yongping Emperor first interacted with him, he chatted with him about everyday matters and inquired about the Merick Family.

But soon the topic will turn to the Kingdom of Lucian, including the current strength of the king and royal family, and who the strongest individuals in the country are.

Information such as the number of ordinary martial artists, that is, Class Holder, and so on.

Even after Lister had left the palace, Yongping Emperor would summon him to inquire whenever he suddenly thought of him.

The intention to wage war and invade was practically out in the open, yet what was actually signed with Lister was a rather ironic alliance treaty.

Until the sixth time, which is today.

They've already started sending people away, hoping he'll return to the Kingdom of Lucian soon, and that an envoy from the Great Chu will be waiting for him in Jiangling Prefecture, to accompany him.

Lister simply made an excuse that he would rest in Jiangling Prefecture for a while, after all, his own mission had not yet begun.

However, after he said this, Yongping Emperor's previously enthusiastic attitude towards him immediately turned cold, his change of expression was extremely fast.

This is why he packed his bags that night and left the city early.

Following the original route, after another half month of travel, Lister finally returned to Jiang Province, the outskirts of Jiangling Prefecture.

I've been learning the three visualization techniques I have on hand through fragmented moments while traveling, but the total study time is too short, resulting in poor effectiveness.

Only the Yellow Court Saber Art Visualization Method seems to have a foundation in pseudo-visualization methods, allowing it to be learned and mastered ahead of time.

The remaining two passive skills can only be learned once we are inside Jiangling Prefecture.

In the past two weeks since the server opened, Lister has been keeping a close eye on the Auction House, and so far, three passive skills have been released.

Unfortunately, all three books are passive skills related to strength, which are useless to Lister.

Ultimately, when they were listed at the Auction House, they were all sold for less than 2 gold coins in less than a day.

This put Lister at ease; at least in this first act, people didn't seem to care much about passive skills, just as he had expected, and they were also very cheap.

His biggest headache right now is the issue of leveling up experience. If things go smoothly as he expects, he will have at least ten passive skills.

Each level up requires a massive amount of experience. He was already struggling with just the three passive skills, and had even temporarily given up on improving Will Breathing Technique.

If there are more than ten passive skills, then the experience points are simply not enough, Lister is already starting to have a headache about where to find monsters to grind!

The most crucial point is that the monsters he has killed do not respawn.

Suddenly, a question that he had subconsciously ignored came to mind.

The game has been online for over half a month, and even during the first act when there were the fewest players, there were still over 60 million players officially logged in.

With so many players, how could anyone level up if the monsters didn't respawn?

Lister's expression grew increasingly grave as he scanned his surroundings.

Even though we've already reached the territory of Jiangling Prefecture and are gradually getting closer to the prefectural city, why is it so quiet around us?

According to his memory, during the first act, the area outside the city was the main area where players lived.

Aside from buying medicine, trading, learning skills, or doing quests, they rarely stay in the city.

Therefore, outside the city, there may be more than one group of players every few hundred meters, and they may even attack and kill each other.

As he looked around, he saw a silent forest, devoid of any human presence, as if the game had never even begun its public beta Open Beta.

The moment I realized what was happening, I stopped moving forward and quickly opened the system's public chat.

"Coordinates 2xx, 1xx, spotted a Minotaur. Anyone want to team up and help out?"

"Selling a damaged iron armor, F-grade quality, +9 defense. DM me if interested. Can be Auction House or outside the city."

"Coordinates 1xx, 1xx, team needs a healer, any DPS players are available."

The public chat was buzzing with activity, messages flooding in like a river, with only the megaphone icon managing to stay visible.

Lister scrolled through a lot of messages and found that countless players had reported their coordinates, many of which were near him, and one was even just three meters in front of him at his current coordinates.

But in his line of sight, there was actually no one there; not even a ghost could be seen.

A strange suspicion began to form in my mind.

Could it be that he and the player live in two different worlds?

He's in the real world of "Divine Revelation," while the players are actually in the real game world?

The idea was suppressed by Lister as soon as it came to mind; it's unlikely.

After all, during the closed beta, he had contact with players in the inner city and even assigned them quests.

But upon careful reflection, another point of doubt came to mind.

He arrived in Jiangling Prefecture after the closed beta test began, and he didn't see any players outside the city either, but he didn't suspect anything at the time.

There were only 300 beta testers in total, so it's normal not to encounter them in such a large area outside the city, but things are different now.

Could it be that this strange phenomenon actually existed back then?

A strong sense of unease arising from the unknown enveloped Lister's mind.

Try to calm down and brainstorm.

Could it be that the closed beta was wiped because the data was deleted during the closed beta?

Because of this bug, a new game was started for the Open Beta?

A series of guesses flashed through Lister's mind, but none of them could withstand his careful scrutiny.

"Rest time complete, time to return to the city!"

The biggest question surrounding Lister lies in his interactions with players during the closed beta.

Logically, the contact should have been foreseeable, so why does it feel like we're in two mirrored worlds, like projections?

Quickly assemble the troops and rush towards Jiangling City.

All judgments could only be drawn after they were made within the city.

If there are still no players in the city, then Lister can believe that he and the players are in two completely separate mirror worlds after the Open Beta.

After galloping for an hour, we finally arrived at the Jiangling Prefecture.

The familiar guards and the crowds gradually entering the city all looked like locals; none of them resembled players.

Ignoring everything else, Lister tossed a gold coin over and led his team past the queue, through the city gate!

Finally, the scene before him eased Lister's unease considerably.

Upon entering the outer city, one finds it teeming with players, their clothes tattered and rusty, gathered at the city gate forming teams.

On the public chat, the player IDs corresponding to a series of messages could be matched one by one with the players in front of him.

In an instant, Lister dismissed the conjecture about two completely separate mirror-image projection worlds.

Many of the players stopped what they were doing and stared at Lister with surprise and curiosity.

Clad in silver standard leather armor, with a heroic and extraordinary appearance, and followed by an entire red-armored cavalry unit, he was quite eye-catching!

Holy crap! A super hidden boss?!

"Damn it! Is this the Marquis of Courage and Resolve? Why is my screen full of question marks? This is the first time the system has given me a 'extremely dangerous' warning!"

In just a short while, Lister's picture had been screenshotted and posted on the public screen.

The highest level NPC in the city is currently only level 20, so players can at least glean some information from them.

Lister, however, is different; all his attributes far surpass those of the current level, making it impossible to detect any of them.

It was at this point that "War God of Jiangling Prefecture" spoke up in the public chat to explain.

"This is an envoy from the Kingdom of Lucian, Count Merrick. I encountered him during the closed beta."

"It should be a neutral NPC. There used to be side quests for them, but it's hard to say now."

Since no loudspeaker was used, the message flashed by in the public chat.

Of course, many people also saw the news and joined in sharing it on social media.

Before Lister could continue to ponder, another system notification arrived.

System notification: