A week later.
In a group chat.
"Guys, the person in charge up top said the number of beta slots is limited, first come, first served. You can invite others, but the IP address has to be in Shancheng City. For now, it's only being tested at a fixed location in our Shancheng City."
Only people in Shancheng City could log in. The reason was simple.
Zhu Zhengwei's "Mobile Dream Network" barely covered this area for now.
"Could it have been developed by a company in our city? Then our city's on the rise! What kind of game is this?"
"A game for contemplating life. It's called Mortal World. You play as a plant. It's a very peaceful game where you look at scenery. Apparently, the company's main focus is assisting sleep."
"Huh? You look at scenery from a plant's perspective on the game screen, then put on a VR headset and fall asleep?"
"Holy crap! This game looks like it has nothing to offer! You can't even move. What a flop!"
"Nothing you can do about that. It isn't a game from a major studio. They're probably going for an artistic VR scenery game. It should suit scenery fans and casual players."
"I work in the game industry. After hearing that description, I can state outright that this has no competitive edge. 3D Desktop for Elderly Sleep Aid was exactly this sort of thing—a beautiful game where you looked at scenery. Their scenery simulation cost a fortune to make. They poured tens of millions into it, ambitiously creating a virtual landscape with movie-quality effects, soothing audio, and a beautiful fairy-tale aesthetic. It was aimed at elderly people in cities, advertised as 'A Nature-Filled Sleep Journey in the City.' They thought about charging for monthly subscriptions. How big could the elderly market be? If every elderly person bought one, they'd make a killing, right? But most old people are frugal and had no habit of spending money on this sort of thing. In the end, the game lost everything."
Many people weren't optimistic.
There had already been a failed example. This company was unusually stubborn.
Besides, who were they looking down on?
They'd made another 3D Desktop for Elderly Sleep Aid, trying to turn us all into health nuts?
Still, some people entered the game.
Ding!
"Welcome to Mortal World"
"Beta Version 0.2"
"Current Expansion: Chives' Descent."
"Current Online Players: 514."
"Chives?"
Many people were stunned.
Good grief, this really was something.
This game was downright honest!
Soon, people began playing, and the various reactions were exactly as Zhu Zhengwei had imagined.
The response was extremely "astonishing," yet also so "ordinary."
Zhu Zhengwei casually opened a game review.
"Big production! A super big production! Guys, you absolutely won't regret getting into this! The graphics are insanely stunning! This is freaking incredible!"
"Compared to other VR games, it's the difference between 480p and ultra-high definition!"
"Every frame is wallpaper, every frame a blaze of money! You can imagine how seriously this game company took making a sleep game for the elderly! (Laughing and crying)"
The moment they entered, countless people were shocked.
The graphics were simply absurd.
Absurd to a terrifying degree.
The previous dynamic artistic-scenery game had spent tens of millions creating over a dozen dynamic environments. It advertised high image quality and realistic wonderlands, recreating Mount Hua, Mount Shu, and Zhangjiajie from reality. Yet this game's environments completely outclassed it. Hadn't they spent hundreds of millions? Had they hired the top technical teams at home and abroad?
What kind of brain-dead company would waste money like that?
But setting the money aside, the game's quality was still worthy of praise.
Handsome Man: "Ahem, ahem, ahem. Now for a formal quick review. First, the expansion is called 'Chives' Descent,' which is pretty ridiculous. The game's content is this: when we're born, we become a plant—chives, dandelions, weeds, wheat, and so on—randomly growing in various places. After living out a plant's life, we're randomly reborn as another plant and begin reincarnation all over again."
"The gameplay is very simple. I was born on a plain, and there are some ruins of buildings in the distance."
"Wow! The scenery is super, super beautiful! The dynamic environments are incredibly lifelike! Sunsets and sunrises are just like something out of a fairy tale!"
"More importantly, our visual environments aren't limited to one location. I talked with the group briefly, and every one of us was born in a different environment. There are coastlines, cliffs, hills, and deserts!"
"There was even one lucky person who said they were born as a weed beside a stone-paved road and occasionally saw uniquely dressed travelers! My god, there are even 'hidden scenic environments' with characters appearing in them! I have no idea how many of these 'sleep environments' the game company prepared, but they really put in the effort. What a rich, shameless tycoon!"
"Honestly, how detailed is it? When a gust of wind blows, we can even see ourselves swaying with it. It's so beautiful! If we could move around in here, it would be a supergame world spanning the century—a true 'Elder Scrolls world.' Unfortunately, we all know we can't. This is just a scenery-viewing game, a game of pure visuals that sacrificed gameplay. You look at scenery as a plant."
"At first, I thought it would be boring, but after settling down, it's actually pretty interesting. It lets me experience a plant's life. It's calming, almost like sitting in meditation and cleansing the mind and body. It's an incredibly healing game!"
"Officially, it's still in testing, but in reality, it's already astonishingly complete. The scenery in every aspect is flawless. I haven't found a single bug yet."
"That concludes this brief initial review."
"Summary: The simplistic gameplay was predetermined from the start. This is a niche game with beautiful scenery, designed for sleep and aimed at people 'looking to enjoy their retirement' and 'young ladies who love scenery.' Its main focus is sleep. Just think about it: put on a virtual headset, listen to the wind and rain, and watch the sun and moon alternate. Isn't it beautiful? It relieves modern people's stress and helps them fall asleep. The scenery is extremely beautiful, but I can already imagine getting bored after watching it for too long."
"Recommendation: Five stars. A niche, underrated masterpiece! (I've already recommended this sleep-aid desktop scenery game to my grandma and grandpa. They love it and said it was so beautiful it didn't seem human.)"
Zhu Zhengwei scrolled down.
The comments were overwhelmingly positive.
Someone commented, "Ah, I absolutely love it! It really helps me sleep. I've been suffering from insomnia lately, but I fell asleep in no time."
How could they not fall asleep?
It was a new second-generation remote hypnosis technology.
Although the hypnosis wasn't strong enough, it was more than enough to aid sleep and draw people into the Mobile Dream Network.
Someone commented, "Yay! This really is a sleep miracle. It's so good for your health. I've been using it these past few days, and it really calms me down. It's like meditation. Even my mind feels clearer, and my study efficiency has improved! I'm going to recommend it to my girlfriends!"
It exercised your brain every night.
How could brain-training equipment like this not be effective?
Zhu Zhengwei grew more satisfied as he watched the response:
"Excellent. It's exactly as I expected—a niche hypnosis-scene game. It's like Minesweeper: simple, practical, and unlikely to arouse suspicion. There's nothing strange about it. Other game developers will only think, 'What idiot burned money making a game where you stare at scenery? And they called it Chives' Descent? The real chive here is the developer himself.'"
That was the beauty of it.
Everyone thought I was a philanthropist, so I hid myself perfectly.
Even if someone noticed something suspicious, I could still withdraw unscathed, because no one could trace my origins or where I came from.
Zhu Zhengwei checked the number of players. Adding the four hundred Servers from before, it had already reached the maximum capacity: 1,000.
It was niche, but with the population base, reaching this number was easy.
His "Mobile Dream Network" was gradually becoming more capable, but once the number exceeded 1,000, Zhu Zhengwei felt he couldn't support it yet.
So he stopped letting people in.
Quite a few people began complaining:
"Ugh, why can't I get in?"
"It's full? What about my afternoon nap? I'm addicted! I want to listen to the sounds of nature! Please, I'm begging for a slot!"
"Ah, understandable. The image quality is too ridiculous. Even a scenery game can't handle that many people entering at once. The Servers can't bear the load."
"So young. You're the Servers." Zhu Zhengwei glanced at it, then ignored it.
His main goal was to draw people in. Everything else was irrelevant.
This method really was viable!
Another six hundred Servers had been added, and the computing power of the entire world had risen once more. His plan could officially begin.
"Computing power has surged. I'll go to a few kingdoms and scatter some seeds of civilization." Zhu Zhengwei lightly stamped his foot and entered the entire world.
In a desert.
Zhu Zhengwei stepped on withered leaves. After more than a century, he had truly entered this world again.
"The old era has ultimately passed. The entire world has become unrecognizable." A refined, scholarly man with a mole beneath his eye and an air of mystery stood in the desert and raised his head. He looked at a massive stone city surrounded by a towering formation of enormous standing stones as the yellow sand drifted gently around him.
Clop, clop, clop.
The Giant Elephant carried its traveler along the yellow-stone road.
Along the desert route, windblown sand and broken stones exuded a heavy sense of desolation.
Zhu Zhengwei recalled the giant city mentioned countless times in the Longevity Diary and couldn't help saying softly, "That is the Slave Dynasty's City of a Hundred Stones. Every massive stone is stained with elephant blood and human tears."
Before you continue