Setting Up the Server

Action speaks louder than words. Once the direction was set, Bei Li (the little loli) led Lu Wu into the ruins of the Bei Qi King's Palace. She pulled open a hidden door beside a charred pillar, revealing a passage that led deep underground.

Upon entering, Lu Wu realized the space below was unimaginably vast, essentially an underground palace.

It was filled with all sorts of bizarre instruments, appearing much like a laboratory.

Under the little loli's explanation, Lu Wu finally understood that this was where their ancestor had developed the divine artifact, and Bei Li, as the ancestor's sole assistant, had participated in the research and development of this artifact from start to finish.

Stepping into the laboratory, the little loli's expression turned solemn. After asking Lu Wu to wait a moment, she donned a full-body metallic suit. Taking the Battle Ring Lu Wu handed her, she began darting back and forth between the various instruments.

During this time, Bei Li used hammers, electric drills, brushes, and all manner of tools to conduct a comprehensive inspection of the ring. Afterward, she performed what looked like a shamanic dance and chanted incantations, leaving Lu Wu stunned and bewildered.

After about two hours of tinkering, Bei Li removed her metallic helmet, looking pale and weak as she handed the modified Battle Ring back to Lu Wu.

"Is it done?" Lu Wu asked, finding it hard to believe.

"Adding these functions wasn't difficult. The server to ferry players has been built, and the internal Datafication settings are in place. It is ready to be put into practice."

Lu Wu put the ring on his finger with skepticism, and the divine artifact's manual appeared before his eyes once more.

Seeing the contents, Lu Wu was astonished. This was exactly what he wanted, and Bei Li had set it up even more comprehensively than he had imagined, even planning out how to ferry players from the mortal realm.

Excitement surged in Lu Wu's heart: "Thank you for your hard work!"

"Hmph, I told you, I'm the best! Let's go test the functions!" Despite her exhaustion, Bei Li said excitedly.

The new features gave Bei Li hope; she believed that with this, Lu Wu would surely be able to restore the glory of the Bei Qi King.

"Alright, let's go!"

As he spoke, Lu Wu took Bei Li's small hand in his.

Bei Li, who had been acting quite carefree and mature, felt her face flush instantly. She pulled her hand away from Lu Wu and scurried to the side:

"I need to change out of this lab suit. You—you wait for me!"

A moment later, Bei Li returned to Lu Wu's side, dressed in a black short skirt and looking like a gothic loli.

Seeing the lingering blush on Bei Li's face, Lu Wu smiled to himself. He took her hand again and activated the function added to the Battle Ring: travel between the Yin and Yang realms.

A black vortex formed before them. This time, Lu Wu did not panic, instead letting himself be drawn in naturally.

Opening his eyes again, the bright sun hung high in the sky. Lu Wu subconsciously took a deep breath of the mortal realm's air; the encounter just now felt like a dream.

He looked down at Bei Li, who was holding his hand and looking quite shy, and smiled gently.

Afterward, Lu Wu brought Bei Li back to his home in the Jialan City District, a three-bedroom apartment.

Although he lived alone, Lu Wu kept his place tidy, and his room was far from messy.

After bringing Bei Li into his room, Lu Wu started his computer and opened his small gaming website.

"Xiao Li, can you connect the Battle server to my small gaming website?"

Bei Li nodded, climbed onto Lu Wu's chair, and began operating the computer. She had Lu Wu open the website's management backend, where she input the code for the divine artifact server and added an image.

The image was of a circular array filled with various runes, looking incredibly mysterious.

After she pressed enter, Bei Li nodded: "Done!"

"It's that simple?" Lu Wu asked, surprised.

"Of course. The key is that this Soul Ferry Array Diagram is connected to the Battle server. As long as a player downloads this shell of a game and loads it into their virtual helmet, the Soul Ferry Array Diagram will automatically appear in their mind. Their soul will then be drawn into the Battle server, and from there, the server will send them to the underworld."

This left Lu Wu in complete awe of Bei Li. Such a method was truly safe and reliable; players would never discover the existence of the underworld and would only believe it to be a game with exceptionally high realism.

In this era of rapid technological development, the birth of virtual helmets had led all games to pursue realistic experiences, constantly refining the details within their worlds.

Lu Wu only needed to claim that his game had near-perfect realism, and no one would ever find anything amiss.

"What do you think we should name this game?" Lu Wu asked expectantly.

As the true developer of the game, Lu Wu felt the naming rights should belong to Bei Li.

Bei Li froze for a moment; Lu Wu's consideration warmed her heart.

"Then let's name it after the divine artifact. Let's call it 'Battle Online.' This was also the ambition in the heart of the Bei Qi King."

Lu Wu nodded firmly. He lifted Bei Li off the chair, opened the management backend, added an icon for the game, and typed the words "Battle Online" into the name field.

Soon, the game went live on Lu Wu's small gaming platform.

To attract visitors, Lu Wu pinned his game to the top of the website's homepage.

Then, the two of them simply waited.

One hour, two hours, and soon three hours passed. Bei Li turned to look at Lu Wu:

"Why hasn't anyone downloaded it to try?"

This made Lu Wu feel slightly awkward, as he knew the traffic on his small gaming website was indeed dismal.

There was another reason as well: nowadays, even small games were tens or hundreds of gigabytes in size.

Some games with over 50% realism were data packages measured in terabytes, while his shell of a game was only 800MB. At a glance, it didn't look like something worth experiencing.

After pondering for a moment, Lu Wu logged back into the management backend and typed a line of introduction into the game's description.

"This game has been meticulously developed by this website over the course of ten years. Its realism has undergone numerous tests, reaching nearly one hundred percent. Furthermore, this website explicitly declares that there are no recharge portals within this game."

After typing out this summary, Lu Wu and Bei Li waited with bated breath, filled with anticipation.

One hour... two hours...

Just as the two were looking dejected and about to brainstorm other methods, the divine artifact suddenly flashed, and a message entered Lu Wu's mind.

Ding! Player Wang Damang has logged into Battle Online!

Seeing Lu Wu's expression, Bei Li immediately grabbed his hand and closed her eyes, joining him in observing the arrival of the new player.

10 minutes ago.

Wang Damang had just logged out of the game "Atlantis" in boredom as it began maintenance.

"Atlantis" was one of the hottest games currently on the market, boasting a massive player base and an 8% market share. With an extremely high realism rating of 55% and rich, varied content, it had a wide audience, and Wang Damang was one of its professional players.

After exiting the game, he found some food in the refrigerator and returned to his computer. He opened his browser folder and clicked randomly on one of the dozens of mini-game websites, intending to kill time until the maintenance ended.

Coincidentally, the one he clicked on was Lu Wu's mini-game site.

Scanning the countless game icons scattered across the site, Wang Damang looked at the most prominent icon on the homepage and clicked it.

"Pfft! Cough, cough!"

When his eyes swept over the game summary, the food in Wang Damang's mouth sprayed out, and he couldn't help but cough.

An 800MB game with nearly one hundred percent realism, guaranteed by the website, and no microtransactions.

Wang Damang's eyes widened: "Is the owner of this site out of their mind? Why didn't they just add 'one hit equals 999' to the description!"

Shaking his head, Wang Damang was about to click the 'X' to close the webpage when his hand paused. He remembered that there was such a thing as reporting false game information.

Apparently, you could even get a reward for reporting it.

A sly smile crept into Wang Damang's heart. He decided to experience it for himself, then write a report on the false content to send to the cyber police.

And so, by a twist of fate, Wang Damang pressed the "Download Game" button.

With current internet speeds, the 800MB game finished downloading in a second. After shoving the rest of his food into his mouth, Wang Damang put on his virtual reality headset and donned his gaming suit.

Suddenly, a row of game icons appeared before his eyes—these were all the games he had downloaded and played.

He swiped his hand, the icons blurring past. Finding the icon for Battle Online, Wang Damang smiled to himself, already prepared to endure the visual shock.

After clicking "Start Game," Wang Damang's physical body in reality suddenly went limp.

Within his field of vision, an icon of a magic array appeared, followed by a sensation of weightlessness. When he opened his eyes again, he was completely stunned by the scene before him.

Under a hazy blood-red moon, the sky rained blood, and gusts of ghostly wind swept through the surroundings, as if he were standing in the depths of hell.

Everything before him was far too real. Wang Damang subconsciously pinched his own arm; although the pain was dampened, he still nearly believed that all of this was real.

"How is this possible? How can an 800MB game be this realistic? Could this game just be this one scene? But the construction of this scene alone couldn't possibly fit in 800MB!"

Wang Damang was utterly dumbfounded by what he saw. He bent down to pick up a fallen leaf from the ground, and looking at the veins on the leaf, the near-perfect detail left him in a stupor once again.

At this moment, the plot set by Bei Li emerged before Wang Damang's eyes.

The ten-thousand-year catastrophe has descended. The Netherworld Governor, King of Beiqi, sacrificed his life to resist the natural disaster, saving the billions of souls in the land of Beiqi. However, after the King of Beiqi died, his subordinates collectively rebelled, dividing and occupying the entire land of Beiqi. As the only heir to the King of Beiqi, it is time for you to embark on the journey to restore the glory of your ancestors!

After the plot text faded, a prompt appeared in his mind once more:

Please choose a class!

Then, three class templates appeared before Wang Damang.

A strength-based warrior wielding a greatsword, a long-range DPS mage wielding a staff, and an explosive assassin wielding daggers.

Despite his shock, Wang Damang reached out and tapped on the figure holding the daggers.

Suddenly, light erupted around the figure Wang Damang had selected. It rose slowly like a blooming lotus, and the entire character instantly became vibrant, as if it had come to life. Then, the short blades in the figure's hands flew off on their own, circling the body as a sharp, murderous intent surged forth in an instant.

"Born in darkness, walking in darkness, dancing upon the scythe of the Grim Reaper, blooming in death for a fleeting eternity—I am the Hidden Assassin!"

The figure's cold voice rang out, causing Wang Damang's mouth to hang open in surprise, as if the person were standing right in front of him.

"This is... this is freaking cool!"

Even Lu Wu, who was observing Wang Damang's every move through the divine artifact, was stunned by the class template Bei Li had created.