Before the Server Opens

"Despair Expedition OL is getting a nostalgia server."

"Really?"

"Yeah, the game's almost ten years old, so it's about time they released a nostalgia server to milk the old players for cash."

"Boring. MMORPGs like this are more tedious than working a full-time job in the late game. The only good part is grinding gold when it first launches, working like a slave for a couple of days to earn some private cash."

"Probably not this time. The requirement to pre-register for the nostalgia server is level 200 on the official server, and I heard that if your pre-registration is successful, your character data on the official server will be deleted."

"It seems like pre-registration can't be canceled. Don't be careless and click it, everyone in the group."

"?"

"?"

"?"

Earth, Jinghai City, inside an apartment.

After echoing a question along with a chorus of other players, Qian Peng closed the "Streamer Mutual Aid Group" and opened the official page for "Despair Expedition OL." He stared blankly at the words "Pre-registered."

He had clicked to pre-register the moment he found out "Despair Expedition OL" was getting a nostalgia server.

Who would have known it was such a scam!

Deleting official server character data after successful pre-registration, seriously?

And it couldn't be canceled!

His account had over 3 million worth of equipment and items!

Although Qian Peng had claimed to quit, his level 200 Time Palace Knight, with its instant-cast time stop ability, had become an integral part of the arena, the very foundation of its logic.

He would still occasionally log in to play a few PVP matches for fun.

However, as a game streamer who focused on single-player games, Qian Peng's fans didn't like "Despair Expedition OL."

After all, the graphics in "Expedition" were terrible; the characters were just blocky figures that could move, and since it was a holographic game, you could only watch it at triple speed without a helmet.

But there was no choice. The "Holographic Simulation Helmet" wasn't originally designed for gamers in the first place.

Its primary application was for office work, allowing programmers to complete three hours of work in one hour. It was a cybernetic torture device used by capitalists to exploit workers.

Thinking of this, Qian Peng picked up the helmet on the table, a look of love and hate on his face.

Before "Despair Expedition OL" burst onto the scene, holographic simulation helmets were prohibitively expensive, generally only provided to programmers in large corporations.

But after "Expedition" launched its open beta and generated tens of billions in revenue within a year, all sorts of holographic simulation games of varying quality began to sprout up like mushrooms after a spring rain.

This also forced the holographic simulation helmet market to shift towards the mass market.

Nowadays, holographic simulation helmets didn't require surgery or implants. You could dive into cyberspace just by wearing one, and they were very affordable, costing less than 2000 yuan.

But the trade-off was mediocre performance.

According to old-school gamers, the best holographic games of this era barely approached the visual quality of "Greasy Sisters."

This was because holographic helmets not only had to read the player's real-time brain data but also had to calculate the triple-speed brain acceleration effect.

The resources available for running the game had to be squeezed further and further.

This resulted in even minor improvements in graphics requiring an exponential leap in technology.

Games like "Despair Expedition OL," which only old-timers played, were "dead games" that couldn't attract young people in the new era.

In any case, since the pre-registration couldn't be canceled, the immediate priority was to give his valuable equipment to trusted friends.

It would be hilarious if he ended up being randomly selected!

After adjusting the helmet's settings, Qian Peng took a deep breath and logged into the game...

[Iris scan complete. Amu, welcome to the world of "Despair Expedition OL."]

[Loading data...]

[You have successfully pre-registered for "Glory Expedition OL" early access. Your account data has been reset. Please log in again after 71:31:21.]

Jinghai City, High-tech Industrial Zone, within an office building.

Lunch break.

Xiao Wang slid his office chair over to Xiao Zhou's desk and whispered mysteriously, "The boss just called Baldy away. Is he getting fired?"

Xiao Zhou's interest was immediately piqued. "Is there such good news? What did Baldy do wrong?"

"You don't know?" Xiao Wang was taken aback.

"Know what?" Xiao Zhou asked, dumbfounded.

Seeing that Xiao Zhou wasn't pretending, Xiao Wang looked around before prompting:

"A nostalgia server suddenly appeared, and our department didn't get any notice. Isn't that serious dereliction of duty?"

"Oh, you mean that." Xiao Zhou waved his hand. "He'll just get yelled at and it'll be over."

"How is that possible!" Xiao Wang exclaimed. "This is 'Expedition'!"

Xiao Zhou shrugged and pulled out a folding bed from under the table. "You need to realize that the nostalgia server was suddenly created by the AI. Our department is just the scapegoat."

"Scapegoat? What are you saying, that the AI can make decisions for the company now?"

"This damn company is like that. There isn't a single R&D position. All the game content is generated autonomously by the AI."

"That's technically impossible!" Xiao Wang retorted. "AI can only generate assets of varying quality. The finished game must be assembled by humans!"

Xiao Zhou yawned.

"I know, I know. You want to say our company has cheap outsourced labor... Anyway, my salary is at the standard of a major tech company."

Xiao Wang was certain. "This sudden appearance of a nostalgia server must have been done by some executive using outsourced labor, and they didn't even inform the main department. They're all about acting first and reporting later."

"Big brother, don't spout nonsense if you're not sure," Xiao Zhou said, patting his folding bed, practically giving him the boot.

"Who changed my recruitment letter?"

Li Li, with dark circles under his eyes, sat in a recently rented warehouse, flipping through information on his "mirror" during a break.

He had previously modified the website in the mirror and posted a recruitment letter on it.

The letter was simple, essentially recruiting brave warriors from another world to help cleanse the pollution in this one.

In return, he would copy their souls after they died in their world, allowing them to be reborn in this one.

Although the copied souls would have the philosophical issues of the Ship of Theseus... given that they were separated by a world, this was already the best offer he could make.

However, his heartfelt recruitment letter only attracted a few thousand souls.

It wasn't until his recruitment letter for warriors was changed by official personnel from the game's official website into a reservation for a nostalgia server called "Despair Expedition OL" that things changed.

In less than a few hours, over a hundred thousand souls had left their soul imprints on the website.

For Li Li, this was a happy problem.

He had actually seriously considered whether to disguise his own world as a game.

If he did, the souls he summoned wouldn't have moral constraints, and their destructive power would increase by several notches.

But who wasn't a fool?

A real world versus a game world designed by humans.

Could the details be the same?

Li Li planned to purify the entire world, a process that might take decades.

He might be able to fool the Earthlings in the short term, but there would always be a day of exposure.

At that time, when the Earthlings discovered that the killings they committed in the game weren't just changing a few lines of code but had led to real tragedies.

What would they think of him?

Therefore, rather than planting a trust bomb that was destined to explode in the future.

Li Li chose to be upfront from the beginning and make a mutual choice with the Earthlings.

He wouldn't do something like advertise it as a beautiful girl game and then have it filled with short-shorts-wearing little boys after launch!

"Forget it, I'll explain it to them again when they arrive," Li Li muttered to himself.

Even before the website was changed, he had already selected the ten brightest soul imprints and scheduled to summon them ten days later.

At least these first arrivals saw his recruitment letter before leaving their soul imprints on the website, so they shouldn't mistake this place for a game world.

"There's still 1 day left until the scheduled time..."

"The bodies I've created can already react to the projections, but the joint sensitivity still needs some adjustment..."

Li Li yawned and continued his work on modifying the Divine Army.

The rent for this warehouse, as well as other supporting facilities, was sponsored by Aer.

In less than a week, he had emptied his own saintess's savings.

This put immense pressure on Li Li.

Although Aer's small face showed no emotion, her red and dark striped tail was no longer wagging much.

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