Prepare to Welcome New Death Seekers

Ruan Wenbo was currently being tightly protected by the Players in the rear half of the formation. Like some precious fragile object, he was only allowed to follow the main force forward a short distance after the scouts ahead had confirmed that the dozens-of-meters-long passage contained no threats whatsoever.

For commanders who liked to personally visit the front lines and fight alongside their soldiers, such a situation was undoubtedly incredibly frustrating. But for Ruan Wenbo, it was not entirely without benefits.

At the very least, remaining in such an absolutely safe environment for so long gave him ample time and energy to consider matters crucial to the Death Seekers' development. For example, whether they should plan ahead and establish clearly separated regimental and battalion structures; and whether he should write a guide on how Players of every level could make the most efficient use of merit.

The former was not urgent. Before the Death Seekers Company's strength truly expanded to the scale of a battalion, no matter how thorough the plan was, it would only be empty talk on paper.

The latter, however, was better released sooner rather than later. A detailed guide to using merit would help every Player—whether a battle-hardened veteran or an incoming new recruit—use merit more efficiently to strengthen their combat ability. And improvements in the combat ability of individual Players would ultimately be directly reflected in the strength of the entire company.

But Ruan Wenbo knew perfectly well that something this important could not be rushed. He had to ensure that every passage could withstand scrutiny, was logical, unambiguous, and completely correct—at least, completely correct at the current stage of the game.

To that end, he needed to ask around and compile every Player's experience with their equipment. This was still the early stage of the game, and the Players' curiosity and desire to explore were at their peak. Someone had bought every type of equipment to try it out, which made it easier for Ruan Wenbo to collect data. He would not face the awkward situation where certain equipment had never been used, leaving no combat experience to support it.

Just as Ruan Wenbo was immersed in his thoughts and outlining the paper, [Name? Haven't decided] quietly nudged him with an elbow. He immediately snapped out of his thoughts and instinctively went on alert.

"What happened?" he asked in a low voice.

Aside from that subtle exchange between the two of them, the surrounding Players appeared completely normal. They continued to maintain their defensive formation as though nothing had happened. After all, if they made a fuss and crowded around now, wouldn't that be the same as using a loudspeaker to tell any enemies lurking in the shadows: our commander is here, come focus fire on him!

[Name? Haven't decided] offered no further explanation and simply said, "Company Commander, check the forum. The official team posted a new announcement."

Ruan Wenbo's heart tightened at those words, and he hurriedly opened the Player forum through his retinal interface. At a glance, he saw the red pinned post published by the official planner, Bit—Necessary Notice Regarding the Third Closed Beta.

The moment he saw that title, Ruan Wenbo's heart sank. Was the Third Closed Beta starting already? They were still carrying out a critical rescue mission in the game! Whether they could rescue that Tech-Priest concerned the company's future artillery support and equipment production. It was their top priority. If the game suddenly forced an update now and kicked everyone offline... the planners had better not screw them over at a time like this!

However, once Ruan Wenbo's gaze swept over the main text, his taut nerves instantly relaxed, and he let out a long breath.

The announcement was clear and straightforward, with three main points:

First, to provide a smoother gaming experience, this update would use a no-downtime update model. Furthermore, beginning with this update, all future version updates and content iterations would prioritize no-downtime updates.

Second, to ensure the integration experience of new recruits and maintain the stability of the current battle situation, the qualification distribution model would be adjusted. The thousand slots for the Third Closed Beta would no longer be distributed all at once. Instead, based on Earth time, between ten and twenty slots would be issued each day until all one thousand slots had been distributed.

Third, to prevent qualifications from being hoarded or wasted, all Players who received testing qualifications had to activate them and create characters within twenty-four hours of receiving notification. Otherwise, their qualifications would be automatically reclaimed by the system and returned to the distribution pool.

Ruan Wenbo read through the announcement word by word, and all his worries had long since vanished, leaving behind only surprise and delight.

It could be said that every item in this announcement was entirely beneficial to the Players. No-downtime updates completely solved the problem they feared most: interrupted missions. It ensured that Players online during the Closed Beta could freely control their own gaming time, no longer needing to worry about being forcibly kicked offline in the middle of playing.

Distributing qualifications in small batches also minimized the chaos that an influx of new Players might cause. With only ten or twenty newcomers arriving each time, it was entirely within the company's capacity to absorb them. Each squad could take one or two, with veterans guiding them step by step. By the time the next batch of new Players arrived, the new recruits from the previous batch would have been tempered into veterans familiar with the battlefield.

This way, the Death Seekers Company could expand with incredible smoothness, steadily transitioning from a company into an infantry regiment of initial scale.

At the very least, there would not be another situation like when the Second Closed Beta had just begun, when the command system had been nearly crippled and they had relied entirely on the Players' immortality to hold things together.

The joy brought by this announcement had barely lingered in his heart before his gaze continued downward, landing on the exact time the Third Closed Beta would officially begin.

The announcement stated: the Third Closed Beta would officially begin on July 3, Earth time.

Converting based on the 3:1 flow rate between in-game time and Earth time, the first batch of new Players would arrive in a little over two days.

He glanced at the bottomless dark tunnel ahead of the team and was utterly certain that this operation was obviously not something they could finish in two days. At this level of combat intensity and pace of advance, it would be perfectly normal for them to remain out here fighting for another ten days or half a month.

Thinking of this, Ruan Wenbo suddenly remembered a crucial question, and his face could not help darkening—would the newly arrived Players come with a basic set of body armor and Lasgun, or would the Death Seekers Company have to issue them equipment on the spot?

If it was the former, then everyone would be happy, and countless problems would be avoided.

But what if it was the latter? Given this game's usual hardcore style and its tendency to emphasize player community self-sufficiency, the latter was probably highly likely. The game's official team might very well give new Players nothing but bare characters, then dump the equipment problem directly onto the Player collective to solve.

If it was the latter... then as the Company Commander, a huge chunk of his merit would probably be spent again.