Player Surge

After logging out, Li Tianxia was still in disbelief.

He had actually had his monster stolen and been killed?

A surge of anger rose within him, and he immediately chose to log in again.

Dear player, you have died in the game and entered a three-hour resurrection cooldown!

"Holy shit, which idiot game developer designed this feature? What the hell is wrong with them?!" Li Tianxia was completely dumbfounded.

Focusing his mind, he suddenly realized how immersed he had become in the game.

Li Tianxia took a deep breath. He discovered that this game was truly terrifying. Even a veteran game developer like him had unconsciously immersed himself in its world.

He opened Platform173's homepage and clicked into Battle Online again. This time, he found that many player reviews had appeared beneath the game.

Crayon_Shinchan: Terrifying. I actually got to experience a game with one hundred percent realism in my lifetime. Voted without hesitation. Gotta keep grinding now.

Jedi_Knight: The CG is so hype! Looking forward to it being made into a movie!

PasserbyABCD: Where are the game developers? Can someone explain what the hell this three-hour resurrection timer is?

FortifiedByUsingCash: Damn it, I got killed by another player in the game. Monster stealing is way too insane. Is there no GM to manage this?!

StarWarsGuild_LanLan: Our guild has officially moved into this game! Recruiting capable players to explore the wilderness together~ Charge!

Strike_Gold: Just as I expected, it's a sure thing for NO.1. Also, Great Dragon Guild is recruiting capable players. I've already reached level 12.

Skip&Run replied to Strike_Gold: Big bro, please carry me! I'm online all the time!

AsSilentAsSnow replied to Strike_Gold: Holy shit, level 12 already? Big bro, you're way too fierce! Please take me along to kill Wandering Souls and clear the beginner quest!

Watermelon_Taro replied to Strike_Gold: Big bro, may I ask which class is stronger? I'm stuck at the class selection screen and can't decide. This is painful, QAQ.

Peppa_Boar: Cast a vote. Hope a good game doesn't get buried. Exploring the game now and looking for companions.

Seeing the densely packed game reviews, Li Tianxia fell silent.

With a sigh, he moved his mouse to the voting section in the upper-right corner and cast a vote for Battle Online.

This time, he was completely convinced. He had originally been full of confidence in Natural Evolutionary Calamity, which his team had spent years developing, but after experiencing Battle Online and comparing the two, he felt that the game his team had developed was complete trash.

After exiting the secondary page and returning to the homepage, he opened Natural Evolutionary Calamity's page. Li Tianxia found that it, too, had received a great many positive reviews, but he could not feel happy at all. He knew that if these players experienced Battle Online, they would never come back.

Facing an opponent like this was undoubtedly tragic. Li Tianxia felt immense pressure and had no idea what to do.

At this moment, Lu Wu and Bei Li were staring intently at Platform173's homepage, their emotions surging as they watched the vote count continuously climb.

Meanwhile, the divine artifact was constantly relaying information about players logging in. Since there was too much information, Lu Wu simply enabled a filter and retained only the display for the number of online players.

Less than two hours after its official release on Platform173, the game had reached a total of 30,213 logins, with 29,864 players online. According to the divine artifact's statistics, those who were offline had basically all been forcibly logged out after dying.

In other words, the game had achieved a terrifying one hundred percent player retention rate after being experienced.

This undoubtedly delighted Lu Wu and Bei Li.

Lu Wu could not imagine how terrifying an Undead Legion he would possess once millions, tens of millions, or even hundreds of millions of players appeared in the game. By then, reclaiming all of Bei Qi would take no effort at all.

At that moment, Lu Wu's phone rang. He picked it up and discovered that Wu Guoyi was calling.

"Brother Wu, what's the matter?" Lu Wu asked curiously.

"Little brother, you have to help your big brother this time!"

Hearing his serious tone, Lu Wu thought something had gone wrong with the game and hurriedly asked, "Did something happen?"

"Ugh, it's infuriating. There were few players before, so when I logged in, I could at least kill some Wandering Souls. But today, with this huge wave of people, someone actually stole my monster while I was killing Wandering Souls, then killed me too. Tell me, can I put up with that?"

Lu Wu did not know whether to laugh or cry. He had thought it was something serious. It turned out that Wu Guoyi had had his monsters stolen and been killed in the game.

"So what do you mean, Brother Wu?"

"Soul Coins. I need Soul Coins. Can you give your big brother some so I can buy a few decent pieces of equipment? I want revenge! That's not hard for you, right?"

Lu Wu was stunned. To be honest, he had not planned to issue extra Soul Coins in the game, since they were also very useful to him. But Wu Guoyi had helped him so much that he felt too embarrassed to refuse.

"Brother Wu, to be honest with you, once this game gets on track, Soul Coins can only be obtained from killing monsters. Even our development team can't do anything about that. But before the game launched, I kept 100 Soul Coins for myself. I'll give those 100 to you, but there won't be any more after that!"

Wu Guoyi was delighted upon hearing this and quickly agreed.

"But little brother, from the way you put it, once your game gets on track, your development team won't be controlling anything anymore?"

"That's right. Aside from its extremely high realism, everything in the game develops freely. Even we don't know what will happen next, so please understand, Brother Wu!"

Wu Guoyi was stunned by this. After taking a deep breath, he said, "Little brother, find a chance to introduce me to your development team. I really want to see what kind of monsters have such incredible abilities!"

After chatting a while longer, Lu Wu hung up. He glanced at Bei Li, who was munching on cookies, then closed his eyes.

At that moment, Lu Wu had over 2,000 Soul Coins. After searching for and locking onto Wu Guoyi's name, he immediately sent him 100 Soul Coins.

After the three-hour resurrection cooldown, Wu Guoyi logged into the game again. To his surprise, he found an extra 100 Soul Coins in his backpack. He immediately opened the shop and bought a blue weapon worth 100 Soul Coins—the Python Sword.

Wu Guoyi still vaguely remembered the people who had killed him. A fierce look entered his eyes as he gripped the weapon flashing with blue light and once more headed toward the Ghost Mountains.

By coincidence, he encountered Li Tianxia on the way, who was also preparing to seek revenge.

After talking, the two discovered that the people who had killed them were from the same group. They thus traveled together toward the Ghost Mountains, determined to take revenge.