Building the Server

Once they had settled on a direction, Bei Li, the little girl, immediately led Lu Wu into the ruined Bei Qi King's Palace. Beside a charred pillar, she pulled open a hidden door, revealing a passage leading underground.

Only after entering did Lu Wu discover that the space below was enormous, practically an underground palace.

It was filled with all kinds of strange equipment and appeared to be a laboratory.

Through the little girl's introduction, Lu Wu learned that this was where her ancestor had developed the divine artifact. Bei Li had been her ancestor's only assistant and had participated in the artifact's development from beginning to end.

The moment she stepped into the laboratory, the little girl's expression turned exceptionally serious. After telling Lu Wu to wait a moment, she changed into a metal suit that covered her entire body. Taking the Battle Ring Lu Wu handed her, she began running back and forth between the various instruments.

During that time, Bei Li gave the ring a thorough inspection using all sorts of tools—hammers, electric drills, brushes, and more. Then she started performing rituals and chanting spells, leaving Lu Wu completely dumbfounded.

After roughly two hours of tinkering, Bei Li removed her metal helmet and weakly handed the modified Battle Ring to Lu Wu.

"It's done already?" Lu Wu asked in disbelief.

"Adding these functions wasn't difficult. The server for ferrying Players has already been set up, and all sorts of Datafication settings have been added inside. It's fully ready for testing."

Lu Wu put the ring on skeptically, and the divine artifact's manual appeared once again.

Lu Wu was startled by what he saw. This was exactly what he wanted, and Bei Li's setup was even more comprehensive than he had imagined. She had even figured out how to ferry Players from the world of the living.

Lu Wu was thrilled. "Thanks for your hard work!"

"Hmph, I told you, I'm the best! Let's go test it out!" Though exhausted, Bei Li still spoke excitedly.

The new function had given Bei Li hope. She believed that Lu Wu could surely use it to restore the glory of King of Beiqi.

"Alright, let's go!"

As he spoke, Lu Wu took Bei Li's little hand.

Bei Li, who had been acting carefree and mature, instantly blushed. She pulled free from Lu Wu's grasp and hurried to the side.

"I need to change out of my lab clothes. Y-you wait here!"

A moment later, Bei Li returned to Lu Wu's side in a black short dress, dressed like a gothic little girl.

Seeing that the blush had yet to fade from Bei Li's face, Lu Wu smiled to himself. He took her hand again, then activated the Battle Ring's newly added function: traveling between yin and yang.

A black vortex formed before them. This time, Lu Wu was no longer panicked and simply let himself be drawn inside.

When he opened his eyes again, a brilliant sun hung high in the sky. Lu Wu instinctively took a deep breath of the air from the world of the living. Everything that had just happened felt like a dream.

Lowering his head, he looked at Bei Li, who was holding his hand with a shy expression, and smiled faintly.

Lu Wu then took Bei Li back to his home in Jialan City District, a three-bedroom apartment with a living room and bathroom.

Though he lived alone, Lu Wu cleaned regularly, so his home was not messy at all.

After bringing Bei Li into his room, Lu Wu turned on his computer and opened his casual game website.

"Xiao Li, can you connect the Conquest server to my casual game 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, then entered the divine artifact server's code and added an image.

The image was a circular array filled with all kinds of runes, giving off an air of mystery.

After pressing Enter, Bei Li nodded. "Done!"

"That simple?" Lu Wu asked in surprise.

"Of course. The thing connected to the Conquest server is mainly this Soul Ferry Array Diagram. As long as a Player downloads this empty-shell casual game and loads it into their Virtual Helmet, the soul-ferrying array diagram will automatically appear in their mind. Their soul will be drawn into the Conquest server, then sent to the underworld by the server."

Lu Wu was completely impressed by Bei Li. This method was truly safe and reliable. Players would never discover the existence of the underworld and would only think they were playing an extraordinarily realistic game.

In this age of rapidly advancing technology, ever since the invention of Virtual Helmets, every game had been pursuing a more realistic experience and constantly improving the details within their worlds.

Lu Wu only needed to claim that his game's realism was nearly perfect. No one would ever notice anything wrong.

"What do you think this game should be called?" Lu Wu asked expectantly.

As the true developer of this game, Lu Wu felt that Bei Li should have the naming rights.

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

"Then let's name it after the divine artifact. We'll call it Battle Online. That was also King of Beiqi's grand ambition."

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

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

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

Then the two of them waited.

One hour, two hours—soon, three hours had passed. Bei Li turned to glance at Lu Wu.

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

Lu Wu felt somewhat embarrassed. He knew that his casual game website's traffic was indeed pitifully low.

There was another reason as well. These days, even casual games were tens or hundreds of gigabytes in size.

Some games with over fifty percent realism even came in terabyte-sized data packages. His empty-shell game, however, was only 800MB, so naturally no one would be interested in trying it.

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

"This game has been painstakingly developed by this website over ten years. After repeated testing, its realism has reached nearly one hundred percent. Furthermore, this website solemnly declares that there are no payment options in this game."

After typing that description, Lu Wu and Bei Li waited again with eager anticipation.

One hour... two hours...

Just as the two were looking dejected and considering another solution, the divine artifact suddenly flashed. Then a message entered Lu Wu's mind.

Ding! Player Wang Damang has logged into the Conquest server!

Seeing Lu Wu's expression, Bei Li immediately grabbed his hand, closed her eyes as well, and observed the new Player's arrival with him.

Ten minutes earlier.

Wang Damang exited the game Atlantis, which had entered maintenance for an update, with a bored expression.

Atlantis was one of the hottest games of the day. It had countless Players, held eight percent of the market, boasted an impressive fifty-five percent realism, and had rich content with an extremely broad audience. Wang Damang was one of its professional Players.

After exiting the game, he found something to eat in the refrigerator. Returning to his computer, he opened his browser folder, casually clicked one of the dozens of casual game websites, and planned to pass the time until the maintenance ended.

By coincidence, the website he clicked was Lu Wu's casual game website.

After scanning the countless game icons displayed on the site, Wang Damang looked at the most prominent icon on the homepage and clicked on it.

"Pfft! Cough, cough!"

The moment Wang Damang saw the game description, the food in his mouth sprayed out as he started coughing uncontrollably.

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

Wang Damang's eyes widened. "Did this website owner go crazy from wanting money? Why not add some one-hit 999 nonsense to the description too?"

He shook his head and was about to click the X to close the page when his hand suddenly paused. He remembered that people could report false game information these days.

It seemed he could even get some money for reporting it.

Wang Damang chuckled to himself and decided to give it a try, then write a report about its false advertising and send it to the cyber police.

Thus, through a strange twist of fate, Wang Damang pressed the "Download Game" button.

With current internet speeds, the 800MB game finished downloading in a second. After stuffing the food in his hand into his mouth, Wang Damang put on his Virtual Helmet and gaming suit.

A row of game icons immediately appeared before his eyes. They were all games he had downloaded and played before.

With a swipe of his hand, the icons slid past. After finding the Battle Online icon, Wang Damang grinned, already prepared for the visual shock.

The moment he clicked Start Game, Wang Damang's body in reality suddenly went limp and collapsed.

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

Beneath a hazy blood moon, bloody rain poured from the sky while chilling gusts of yin wind swept through the surroundings. It was as if he had entered hell.

Everything before him was far too real. Wang Damang instinctively pinched his own arm. Though the pain had been weakened, he still nearly believed all of it was real.

"How is this possible? How could an 800MB game be this realistic? Could this game only have this one scene? But even building this scene couldn't possibly take only 800MB!"

Wang Damang was utterly stunned by what he saw. He bent down and picked up a fallen leaf from the ground. The nearly perfect details in its veins left him frozen once more.

At that moment, the storyline Bei Li had set appeared before Wang Damang.

A calamity that had not occurred in ten thousand years descended. King of Beiqi, Netherworld Governor of the underworld, sacrificed his life to resist the heavenly disaster and saved countless beings across Bei Qi. Yet after King of Beiqi's death, his subordinates collectively rebelled, carving up and occupying the entire land of Beiqi. As King of Beiqi's sole heir, it is time for you to embark on the path to restore your ancestor's glory!

After the story text faded, another prompt appeared in his mind.

Please choose a class!

Then three class templates appeared before Wang Damang.

A strength-based warrior wielding a greatsword, a ranged mage wielding a staff, and a burst-damage assassin wielding daggers.

Though shocked, Wang Damang still reached out and tapped the figure holding daggers.

Suddenly, light burst from the figure Wang Damang had selected. Like a blooming lotus, it slowly rose to its feet. The entire character instantly became full of vitality, as though it had come alive. Then the short sword in its hand flew free on its own and circled around its body as a chilling killing intent erupted.

"Born in darkness, moving in darkness, dancing upon Death's scythe. Blossoming into an instant of eternity within death—I am the Hidden Assassin!"

The figure's cold voice rang out, leaving Wang Damang's mouth slightly open in shock. It felt as though the person was standing right before him.

"This is fucking cool!"

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