Online and Waiting, Urgent!

Diablo III Bar.

Crackle, crackle~

Pu Shenqi finished typing the last word and posted the thread.

"What should I do after leveling up and clearing the campaign? A self-sufficient transition guide."

"Hmm, this should mean a lot fewer people @ me tomorrow."

As a conscientious junior moderator, Pu Shenqi routinely answered all sorts of questions from fellow bar members.

Especially newcomers.

To cut down on repetitive answers, he had written this thread.

After posting it, he casually checked the comments on another one of his threads and replied to a few serious questions.

"New players starting out, come in. This thread will show you how to truly get into this game."

After replying, he cleared out his private messages as well.

Next, it was time to browse the bar and see what fresh threads had appeared.

Though he had immersed himself in Diablo-style games for years and possessed extensive build-crafting skills—Build here referred to character build combinations—there were always wildly imaginative threads each day that made his eyes light up. Or go dark.

"Huh? Someone posted bait?"

A newly posted thread read: "Our company has developed a fully immersive virtual post-apocalyptic game. Are any users willing to join the closed beta?"

"100% virtual reality technology! An open world, fully randomized and diverse professions, an incredibly rich range of skill and equipment combinations. Development is currently 98% complete. The company needs a few veteran hardcore gamers to volunteer and log in to test bugs. Would any bar veterans be willing to honor us with their presence? Test helmets will be mailed free of charge."

"Oh, right! Because it uses a fully randomized open world, the game's first tutorial storyline has gotten stuck for some unknown reason. We urgently need three elite players to log in, resolve the bug, and restore the tutorial storyline. First come, first served!"

"Online and waiting, urgent!"

"@African Thin Dog @Lin Tang @My Style is My Own @Picking Girl's Little Mushroom @Ghost Face Demon Fox"

After reading the thread, Pu Shenqi said, "I can tell. It really is urgent. He made four consecutive posts in one breath."

"Damn, a bait thread and he still dared to @ so many big shots in the bar. He even @'d three junior mods and moderators. He really isn't afraid of dying!"

"But..." Pu Shenqi's lips curled slightly. "He knew to @ me first. Sensible~"

For this kind of obvious bait thread, Pu Shenqi usually deleted it outright.

100% virtual reality technology was simply impossible!

He was a top-tier veteran player who had dabbled in games from both China and abroad, and he was extremely well-informed about industry news. Yet he had never heard of any company capable of developing a 100% virtual reality game.

Unless the company had kept its head down on research and development all along, never leaking a single scrap of news!

"But would a company capable of keeping quiet like that come to a forum bar to find closed beta testers?"

He glanced at the thread's author. What a coincidence—he knew him!

'Sentinel.'

A notorious freeloader in the bar!

Whenever someone put together a new build, he would definitely say, "That awesome? Give me a copy!"

Whenever someone farmed some good materials, he would say, "That good? Share a few with me?"

Whenever someone got an exceptional piece of equipment they did not need for the time being, he would say, "This is way too perfect for my build. If you don't need it, give it to me first!"

He never thought for himself, only liked copying other people's homework, asking for materials, and asking for equipment!

A famous freeloader in the Diablo III Bar.

But since he was an acquaintance, Pu Shenqi naturally had to ask before deleting the thread.

He commented, "Sentinel, did your account get hacked? Come on, answer a code phrase. Who in this bar mooched off more than two hundred guides without ever making a single guide-sharing post?"

Sentinel replied instantly, "#SweatingBean, Big Bro Thin Dog, stop making fun of me. I know my previous image was just a tiny little bit bad, but! You have to believe me. I was gathering material to make a game! On the surface... I'm a despised freeloader, but in reality, I'm a virtual reality game designer!

See? I thought of you brothers the very moment the closed beta started! Big Bro Thin Dog, when it comes to overall gaming ability in this bar, you're the strongest. Hurry up and register on the official site! I'll arrange for someone to mail you a helmet right away!"

Pu Shenqi scratched his head.

"Huh? He could tell I'm the strongest in the bar... It should be Sentinel himself. At the very least, he's a seasoned Diablo III Bar member. Then... this is interesting."

While Pu Shenqi was thinking, several of the people who had been @'d had already come to reply.

Ghost Face Demon Fox: "Interesting. It's been a long time since anyone fished this seriously. The atmosphere in the bar has been a little bad lately. Instead of talking about games, everyone flames each other every day. A bait thread is more interesting. Sentinel, give me the link. I'll help you make up the numbers. (PS: As long as it's not a money scam.)"

The mature and steady Ghost Face Demon Fox had always been the most even-tempered person in the bar, and what he hated most was seeing people argue.

Picking Girl's Little Mushroom: "100% virtual reality? Open world? Fully randomized professions? Sentinel, are you writing an online game novel? Does clicking in take us straight to Qidian, where you want us to bookmark it?"

My Style is My Own: "Fake news. Next."

Lin Tang: "Little Sentinel, put the virtual reality game aside for now. Come try the new mod I made. It adds twelve new professions to Diablo 3. It's absolutely fun! I swear, this time it definitely won't crash after installation!"

—African Thin Dog replied: "Brother Lin, please go terrorize Diablo 2 instead! Your mods have already blue-screened and forced more than a hundred bar members to reinstall their computers. Sometimes I wonder whether your real job is computer repair?"

Pu Shenqi broke out in a cold sweat. Lin Tang was also an Unusual Person. Every day, he made all kinds of bizarre mods, adding professions, skills, equipment, and monsters to the game. If all the content he made were put together, it would practically be a whole new game!

To be fair, aside from making computers lag, freeze, crash, and blue-screen, his mods had plenty of content.

Pu Shenqi was baffled. With that kind of creativity, why not just make a brand-new game directly?

Make a Diablo-style game of their own for Chinese players!

As more and more people joined the discussion, Pu Shenqi decided to privately message Sentinel.

"Brother, what's going on? Is this bait or the real deal? Are you really a game designer?"

Sentinel: "It's real! African God! Big Bro Thin Dog! Please hurry and register on the official site. There are only three slots in the first batch. I really am thinking of you brothers, and I'm mailing you the helmets for free. What could I possibly be scamming you for?"

African Thin Dog: "That's true enough. Fine, no matter what, since you said so, I'll register. By the way, you should talk more with Lin Tang about game design. This kid really has a lot of clever ideas."

Sentinel: "Okay, okay, okay! I'm privately messaging him right now. Hurry and register, I'm online and waiting, this is extremely urgent! The guide in my game somehow got trapped in the Mutant Tribe. If I can't figure out a way to get him back, I'm as good as dead as a designer."

African Thin Dog: "That sounds like it has way too many things to complain about. Forget it, I'll register first."

Pu Shenqi opened the website Sentinel had sent him. It was very bare-bones.

Game title: "Apocalypse OL"

Below was the registration application page for the closed beta.

After filling in his personal information and address, it showed that he had reserved a closed beta slot.

It was simple to an absurd degree.

"Tsk~ This is way faster than getting a Pinduoduo cut."

The moderators and veteran bar members had a QQ Group.

African Thin Dog posted a screenshot of his registration in the group. "There's nothing wrong with Sentinel's website. Anyway, it doesn't cost money. Everyone, help him out. Just think of it as boosting his performance."

My Style is My Own: "Not filling it out. I'm afraid he wants my address on purpose so he can come screw me."

Ghost Face Demon Fox: "Huh? Sentinel hooked Thin Dog? Interesting."

Shadow Night God: "No way, no way? Someone actually believes this? The last wave of metaverse hype didn't fleece you people enough, so now you're insisting on volunteering to be fleeced? I can see through this kind of trick at a glance.

First, they trick you into registering and getting your personal information. Then they call and say they've already sent the helmet. Finally, they say the product is free, but you pay shipping. You think that sounds right—after all, they gave you the helmet for free, so paying the shipping yourself seems reasonable. But when it arrives, they tell you the helmet can't be produced domestically and was shipped directly from overseas, so you have to pay not only the shipping but also customs fees. In the end, all sorts of miscellaneous charges add up to several hundred yuan. You open it to inspect it, and it really is a helmet. It can even be plugged into a power source and network cable! You think it's real, happily pay the shipping, then go home and plug it into the power and network. Daddy's daddy is called Grandpa, Mommy's mommy is called Grandma~~~"

Everyone: "."

Picking Girl's Little Mushroom: "Fuck, are scam methods this sophisticated now? A combined online-and-real-life scam??? Damn, why does the internet have assholes like you? I'm out, I'm not filling it out."

Ghost Face Demon Fox: "Huh? Then if I refuse delivery directly, wouldn't I make the scammers lose money on shipping? Interesting. I'll register one."

Lin Tang: "Forget Little Sentinel's thing. Do whatever you want. There's something more important now, brothers! The epic moment that will change the Diablo 3 landscape has arrived!"

Lin Tang uploaded a new file: Ultimate Fun Frenzy 12 New Profession Diablo 3 Mod

"If you're brothers, come help me test the new mod!"

In an instant, every group member who had been passionately discussing just now turned gray.

The group... went cold.

Lin Tang: "???"

But on that bare-bones website, the number of people who had reserved Apocalypse OL closed beta slots gradually reached eight.

African Thin Dog, Ghost Face Demon Fox, Lin Tang, and Shadow Night God were all among them.

A dark Dungeon.

The stench of rotting corpses assaulted Cheng Shaofeng's nose.

He opened his eyes, returning from the virtual online world to reality.

"Sigh, I hope they receive the helmets soon."

Cheng Shaofeng had transmigrated just an hour ago.

He had died the moment he arrived.

He had only managed to pick up a watch from the ground. The moment he put it on, a group of barbarians glowing green all over rushed over and captured him. They were so strong that he had not even had a chance to resist.

Tied to a thick tree trunk in the pose of a skewered suckling pig, he was carried away and casually thrown into a filthy, foul-smelling Dungeon.

When he looked at his wrist again, he found a red dot the size of a needlepoint above his artery.

The watch he had picked up... was gone.

The next second, a voice sounded in his mind.

"Calamity Nano Base deployment complete. Welcome back, Master."