Building a dream blockchain world, developing civilizations, exploring the supernatural, seeking a world testing ground for eternity, and mining Dream Coin—all of it required Mining Machines.
To be honest, Zhu Zhengwei was beginning to feel that this model was much better than before!
It was far better than sneaking around and ambushing "young ladies" in alleys.
He had clearly been running a perfectly respectable sleeping business, but after being hypnotized, they followed reality and made random dreams, ruining his reputation everywhere and earning him the title of "peerless hunk." There were even rumors that he had unified the surrounding university towns?
Ridiculous!
The most important point of all was this:
Some people remembered more fragments of their dreams after waking up. They were special anomalies, so making them believe it was a game perfectly solved this problem.
That way, there would be no more people like Zheng Linshou, who confused reality and dreams.
"But the only thing I need to take care of is the mood of these Chives players."
Zhu Zhengwei silently calculated,
"After all, this is an extremely niche VR game. Making them become plants and Dream Miners, watching wallpaper and scenery, is far too boring! Even if they say history is interesting now, it's only a temporary burst of enthusiasm!"
But he would wait and see.
As for the development of the entire vast Four-dimensional world of the Blockchain, Zhu Zhengwei could never stop, no matter what.
The Mining Machines had to keep growing, or the world could not expand!
"According to the current structure, if humanity is the lower-level Mining Machine world, then that place must be the upper-level higher-dimensional world."
He took off his helmet, and the two Roll Kings beside him were already discussing excitedly.
They were even planning to make a post on the forum and were preparing a first draft.
Zhu Zhengwei glanced over. The draft was titled <Prophecy: This Game Will Definitely Go Viral—If It Doesn't, I'll Stand on My Head and Have Diarrhea!>
Clearly, his two roommates were ruthless toward themselves.
Zhu Zhengwei was quite confident in his positioning of the game as a niche title that would "not go viral."
But as programming students, the two of them might work in this field in the future. They immediately began analyzing the game's structure and the developer's approach.
Zhu Zhengwei glanced at the general contents:
"It's clearly a game for watching scenery, yet it has a story mode. That's novel—it's a major selling point!"
"The Development Team handled it ingeniously. Those who like scenery can watch scenery, while those who like studying the story can study the story!"
"A story-oriented desktop landscape, like a grandmother telling me a bedtime story while I sleep!"
"This is practically like following an anime or drama! It lets players sit in front of the television and follow an excellent TV series! And judging from the story, it's incredibly compelling. The Development Team clearly put a lot of effort into this aspect."
"History has always been difficult to write! And this is an alternate history in an era of feudal civilization, yet what we're seeing feels incredibly real, full of flesh and blood, as though they're all genuinely alive. There's tremendous potential here!"
"Taking a completely different path, I boldly predict that it will definitely go viral and shake up the existing game market!"
The two kept researching and praising the game, practically becoming its most devoted fanboys.
Zhu Zhengwei: "."
The corner of Zhu Zhengwei's mouth twitched slightly. He really hadn't thought that far.
After listening to these netizens' in-depth analysis, they had managed to turn watching beautiful scenery into a grand epic serial drama?
That was utterly absurd!
Sigh.
He had originally wanted to make the game less dull.
Since things had turned out this way, he might as well let them continue watching scenery.
They could admire beautiful scenery while mining and training their minds. No matter how he looked at it, it was a win-win situation for them.
"By the way."
The two roommates turned toward Zhu Zhengwei. "This company is unbelievably impressive. Can you introduce us? We want to intern there after graduation, so we'd like to learn more about it now."
You two had only finished half a semester of your first year, and you were already thinking this far?
They were truly born perfect wage slaves.
Zhu Zhengwei coughed twice. "This company is very mysterious. I only took a temporary job from them, helping recruit people. And it isn't just the few of us who were recruited—there are already several thousand people."
The two thought about it and agreed.
A company capable of such a massive production would certainly be packed with formidable people and have deep pockets. There was no way graduates like them could get a turn.
"I knew your connection wouldn't work. We'll post our own analysis and make the company appreciate the two of us, Wolong and Chufeng!" they suddenly said smugly.
After sending those two fellows away, Zhu Zhengwei once again turned his attention to developing this world.
"Huh? The emperor of the Slave Dynasty actually managed to reach this level?"
New Era 0331.
The Slave Dynasty's Stone Light Great Emperor Zhizheng began to exert his full strength.
Over the next few years, his combat power soared. With astonishing strength, he defeated two Kings alone and demanded their submission, establishing the Three Allied Kingdoms to resist the seas.
Everyone found it utterly inconceivable. He had only begun cultivating in middle age—could he be the Chosen King?
New Era 0334.
The war at the front grew intense. The four Sea Beasts known as the "Sons of the Sea God" repeatedly attacked the coastline, causing countless deaths and injuries.
Stone Light Emperor Zhizheng, leader of the Three Allied Kingdoms, issued an order:
"Summon craftsmen from across the land and build a wall of ten thousand stones along the coastline!"
"Every country, city, and town is to build one giant stone. The person in charge must carve their name into it. Anyone negligent will be executed."
One elephant after another was put into service as transport. The construction of a true stone wall, unprecedented in history, began.
The ruler of the Slave Dynasty was actually imitating the first Tyrant, intending to build a circular high wall along the coastline and enclose the entire continent within a "City of Ten Thousand Stones."
In an instant, millions of able-bodied young men were conscripted for corvée labor at the front. They made up a full fifth of the population of the entire era!
"Tyrant!"
"Another Tyrant!"
"The Slave Dynasty has never had a Wise Ruler!"
Nearly every able-bodied young man was dragged to the front to build the stone wall.
Another day, Stone Light Emperor Zhizheng announced that an old Immortal had granted divine authority to someone in a dream and bestowed Three Hundred Immortal Herbs, allowing them to enter the path of the Blessing Shaman.
"Heroes from across the world, come here and be tested before this hall. Those with extraordinary talent shall enter this path! There can be three hundred of them!"
For a time, the entire world was thrown into an uproar.
Countless people who considered themselves extraordinary traveled to the Royal Capital, longing to consume qi and attain the Dao.
New Era 0336.
Three hundred Blessing Shamans appeared, known to history as the "Three Hundred Immortals."
The Stone Light Great Emperor ordered the three hundred Qi Consumers not to go to the front. Instead, they were to travel together to Bronze Jingshan Temple and develop Shamanic Artifacts.
Meanwhile, countless ordinary soldiers continued fighting at the front.
For a time, resentment filled the world.
"The Immortals with overwhelming power are hiding in the rear while we ordinary people are sent to die!"
"A thoroughgoing Tyrant!"
The people's support vanished, but under the harsh and despotic rule, they dared to be angry but not speak.
New Era 0351.
After exhausting the strength of the entire population, the Wall of Ten Thousand Stones was initially completed.
The number of sea disasters fell significantly, and the pressure on the front lines dropped sharply.
That same year, Bronze Jingshan Temple developed a huge ship, the Bronze Immortal Seeking Boat. The enormous ocean machine was docked at a harbor behind the Wall of Ten Thousand Stones and began its final inspection.
Three years later, a piece of news was announced to the world, leaving everyone utterly shaken:
"That year, the Immortal Master in my dream told me that the Immortal Herbs that allow people to become Immortals are in the Ocean Kingdom, guarded by the Sea Giant Beasts. That is why they grow stronger by the day!"
"If the Immortal Root is not with our human race, then we shall seize it! Fight for it! Take it!"
"Do everything within human power, and contend with Heaven's mandate!"
On this day, Stone Light Emperor Zhizheng stood atop the vast Wall of Ten Thousand Ages, gazing down at the blue sea in the distance, and announced to the world that the expedition would begin immediately.
Everyone looked at this powerful emperor, whom the people universally recognized as a god. He seemed like an ordinary man, having reined in every trace of his aura, yet he inspired awe in everyone!
Beneath the sea, within the kingdom.
A Giant Octopus lay upon a massive stone throne.
"That mysterious figure on land has finally made a move."
"What else could he want besides these thousand Immortal Herbs beneath my sea?"
The Immortal Herbs before it had been collected from all over and gathered in this place. They shone brightly, radiating wisps of beautiful Five-Colored Rosy Qi.
At that moment, it was like the Dragon King of the East Sea in its Undersea Dragon Palace, admiring the mountain of treasures and wealth piled up before it!
"Wow, what's going on?"
"Are we gradually being gathered together?"
"I smell poverty!"
"Everyone, stay calm. It's probably a problem with the company's Servers. The other beautiful wallpaper scenes can't be used, so they've put us all in the same underwater scene."
"Awesome, a bug."
Everyone remained remarkably calm.
Unlike players in other Beta Games, they did not shout and panic. Instead, they displayed an unexpected tolerance for bugs.
In fact, the Beta Game players felt a little relieved: Thank goodness! The game had finally fixed the bug where there had been no bugs during the beta!
The Giant Octopus before them remained perfectly calm, gazing with satisfaction at its wealth.
It naturally knew the purpose of those "Immortal Herbs."
But it simply refused to eat them.
Because it knew that if it ate these Immortal Herbs, they would randomly regrow somewhere else in the world, and might very well grow back on land.
That mysterious figure on land had plucked all the Immortal Herbs there over the years, taking one every time one grew. The ones growing under the sea had not been harvested, and over time, all one thousand Servers had appeared beneath the sea. The land no longer had any Immortal Roots.
By the time the other party realized the pattern, it was too late for regret!
"Now that all the Immortal Roots are growing beneath the sea, how could I possibly pluck and eat them, giving them a chance to randomly grow back on land?" The Giant Octopus's human head shook back and forth.
After all, not eating them also served a major purpose.
They were "Spring Eyes," emitting an endless stream of the qi of Heaven and Earth. Cultivating beside such a spiritual root would not bring an instant boost like eating one, but it provided a continual, thin source of power that accumulated over time.
Splash!
A giant ship sailed slowly across the blue waters.
Three hundred Ancestral Shamans stood on the deck, ready for battle.
Stone Light Emperor Zhizheng looked down and spoke:
"Starting today, we will counterattack the Ocean Kingdom and exterminate the Monster Civilization of the deep sea. After decades of maritime disaster and war, we humans will once again welcome a true and lasting peace!"
These words stirred everyone's emotions.
Everyone gazed at the man before them with immense longing and reverence.
They all knew that countless subjects compared him with the first Stone Light Emperor Changheng. He was likewise known as the Tyrant Close to God, but the two were completely different.
This hardline man bore the infamy and the crime of working countless laborers to death, yet he had built humanity a truly miraculous high wall—the Wall of Ten Thousand Stones!
That miraculous stone wall had become a massive barrier protecting them from sea disasters along the coast.
It looked as though hundreds of thousands of slave laborers had died, but that had been a necessary sacrifice.
Without it, humanity would have endured sea disasters for a prolonged period and would have had no possibility of counterattacking.
Only a decisive and immense sacrifice could resolve the long-term, continuous suffering.
How could those shortsighted ordinary people understand?
In fact, they were not shortsighted. How could they not know that they were building a wall for future generations and resisting invasion? They simply did not want to sacrifice themselves.
Countless Blessing Shamans dropped to one knee.
"May the King's glory be eternal as a giant stone!"
"May the King's breath shine like the morning glow!"
Their heroic voices resounded across the entire coastline.
"Raise the sails! Set out!"
"We are the last hope. If we cannot defeat the Ocean Kingdom, we will drown at the bottom of the sea!"
"We have come only to seize the Immortal Root for humanity. This is a true test from the gods themselves!"
The enormous sails were raised.
The Steam Giant Ship belched thick smoke as it sailed along the coastline.
"I seem to hear the God of Destiny whispering. At last, I understand the mission of my life." Stone Light Emperor Zhizheng's eyes already revealed the marks of age. He gazed at the giant ship beneath his feet, as though he could feel the entire era setting sail at this very moment.
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