Waiting Online, Urgent!

Diablo 3 Tieba.

Click-clack, click-clack.

Pu Shenqi typed the final character and hit post.

"What to do after hitting max level and clearing the game? A self-sufficient transition guide."

Hmm, this should cut down on the number of people tagging me tomorrow.

As a dedicated junior moderator, Pu Shenqi spent his days answering questions from fellow users.

Especially the newcomers.

To avoid repeating himself, he had written this guide.

After posting, he took a look at the comments on his other thread and replied to a few serious questions.

"Newbies starting out, come in. This post will tell you how to truly get started with this game."

Once finished, he cleared his private messages.

Next, he scanned the forum for any fresh posts.

Though he had been immersed in Diablo-style games for years and possessed rich build-crafting capabilities, he often found himself enlightened—or blinded—by the wild ideas in the daily posts.

"Huh? Is someone posting bait?"

A newly published thread: "Our company has produced a fully immersive virtual reality apocalypse game. Any users willing to participate in the closed beta?"

"100% virtual reality technology! Open world, fully randomized multi-class system, extremely rich skill and equipment combinations. Current development progress is at 98%. The company needs a few veteran hardcore gamers to volunteer and test for bugs. Any Tieba big shots willing to do us the honor? We'll mail the test helmet for free."

"By the way! Because it uses a fully randomized open world, the game's first tutorial quest is stuck for unknown reasons. We urgently need three elite players to log in, resolve the bug, and fix the tutorial. First come, first served!"

"Waiting online, it's urgent!"

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

After reading the post, Pu Shenqi remarked, "I can tell. It really is urgent, tagging four floors in one go."

"Good job, daring to tag so many forum big shots in a bait post. You only tagged three junior mods and staff members—you really aren't afraid of death!"

"However," Pu Shenqi's lips curled slightly, "knowing to tag me first, you're a sensible one."

Pu Shenqi usually deleted such obvious bait posts immediately.

100% virtual reality technology was simply impossible!

As a top-tier veteran player, he had dabbled in games both domestic and abroad and was well-connected in the industry. He had yet to hear of any company capable of developing a 100% virtual reality game.

Unless that company had been working in total silence, never leaking a single shred of news!

"But would a company that patient come to Tieba to find beta testers?"

He Took a Look at the poster. Coincidentally, he knew him!

'Sentinel'.

A notorious leech on the forum!

As long as someone else put together a new build, he would inevitably post: "That strong? Give me a copy!"

When someone farmed good materials: "That good? Give me a few, won't you?"

When someone found a top-tier item they didn't currently need: "This is way too perfect for my build, give it to me if you aren't using it!"

He never used his own brain; he just liked to copy homework, beg for materials, and beg for gear!

A well-known leech on the Diablo 3 forum.

But since they were acquaintances, he had to ask before deleting the post.

Comment: "Sentinel, did you get hacked? Come on, give me the secret code. Who in this forum has leeched over 200 guides without ever sharing a single post?"

Sentinel replied instantly: "#SweatingEmoji, Big Bro Thin Dog, don't tease me. I know my previous image was a tiny bit bad, but! You have to believe me, I was just gathering material for my game! On the surface, I'm a despicable leech, but in reality, my identity is a virtual reality game designer!"

"That's why I thought of you brothers the moment the closed beta started! Big Bro Thin Dog, in terms of comprehensive gaming quality, you're the best on this forum. Hurry to the official website and sign up! I'll arrange for someone to mail you a helmet immediately!"

Pu Shenqi scratched his head.

"Huh? Being able to recognize that I'm the best on the forum... it should be Sentinel himself, or at least a mature Diablo 3 user. Well, this is interesting."

While Pu Shenqi was pondering, several of the tagged individuals had already replied.

Ghost Face Demon Fox: "Interesting. It's been a long time since someone baited so earnestly. The atmosphere on the forum has been poor lately; no one talks about games, just bickering all day. It's better than a bait post. Sentinel, give me the link, I'll go help you fill the numbers (PS: No money scams allowed)."

The steady and composed Ghost Face Demon Fox had always been the most even-tempered person on the forum; he hated watching people fight more than anything.

Picking Girl's Little Mushroom: "100% virtual reality? Open world? Fully randomized classes? Sentinel, are you writing Online Game Novels? Are we going to be redirected to Qidian Chinese Network the moment we click, so you can get our follows?"

My Style is My Own: "Fake news, next."

Lin Tang: "Little Sentinel, put the virtual reality game thing aside for a second. Come try the new mod I made. It adds 12 new professions to Diablo 3. It's absolutely fun! I swear, it won't crash the system this time!"

--African Thin Dog replied: "Brother Lin, I beg you, go wreak havoc on the Diablo 2 forum! Your mods have already caused hundreds of users' computers to blue-screen and require reformatting. I sometimes wonder if your real job is fixing computers?"

Pu Shenqi broke into a sweat. This Lin Tang was also an Unusual Person, Every Day making strange mods, adding professions, skills, equipment, and monsters to the game. If you combined all his content, it was practically a new game!

Truth be told, aside from causing computers to lag, crash, or blue-screen, the content was actually quite rich.

Pu Shenqi was baffled. With this kind of creativity, wouldn't it be better to just go make a new game?

He should make a Diablo-style game for us Chinese players!

As more and more people joined the discussion, Pu Shenqi decided to send a private message to Sentinel.

"Brother, what's going on? Are you fishing or is this for real? Are you actually a game designer?"

Sentinel: "It's real! African Thin Dog! Big Bro Thin Dog! Please, go register on the official website. There are only three spots in the first batch. I'm really looking out for you brothers, and I'm sending you the helmets for free. What could I possibly be scamming you for?"

African Thin Dog: "That's true, I suppose. Fine, whatever. Since you asked, I'll go register. By the way, you should talk to Lin Tang about game design; that kid has a ton of wild ideas."

Sentinel: "Yes, yes, yes! I'm messaging him right now. Come register quickly, I'm online waiting, it's super urgent! My game guide got stuck in the Mutant Tribe for some reason. If I can't find a way to get him back, my career as a planner is dead."

African Thin Dog: "That sounds like it has way too many plot holes, but whatever, I'll go register first."

Pu Shenqi clicked the website Sentinel sent; it was incredibly crude.

Game Title: "Apocalypse OL"

Below was the interface to apply for the closed beta.

After filling in his personal information and address, it showed that he had successfully reserved a spot for the closed beta.

It was suspiciously simple.

"Tsk~ This is way faster than a Pinduoduo slash-price."

They had a QQ group for the forum moderators and old-timers.

African Thin Dog posted a screenshot of his registration to the group: "Sentinel's website seems fine. It doesn't cost anything anyway, so everyone help out. Just consider it boosting his performance metrics."

My Style is My Own: "Not filling it out. I'm afraid he's just fishing for my home address so he can come over and screw me."

Ghost Face Demon Fox: "Oh? Sentinel actually reeled in Thin Dog? Interesting."

Shadow Night God: "Are you kidding me? Does anyone actually believe this? The last wave of Metaverse scams didn't harvest you leeks, so now you're lining up to be harvested? I can see through this trick at a glance.

It's nothing more than tricking you into registering, getting your personal info, then calling you to say the helmet has been shipped. Finally, they say the goods are free, but you have to pay for shipping yourself. You think, 'That's fair, they already gave me a free helmet.' But once it arrives, they'll tell you the helmet can't be produced domestically and was shipped directly from overseas. Not only do you have to pay shipping, but also customs fees. It adds up to several hundred. You open the package and check—it really is a helmet, and it even has a power cord and ethernet port! You think it's real, happily pay the shipping, and finally get home to plug it in. And then... [insert nursery rhyme about family tree]."

Everyone: "."

Picking Girl's Little Mushroom: "Damn, are scam tactics this deep now? A combination of online and offline fraud??? Damn, how did internet trash like you guys even get here? I'm out, I'm not filling it out."

Ghost Face Demon Fox: "Oh? Then I'll just refuse the delivery. Wouldn't that make the scammer lose money on shipping? Interesting. I'm going to register."

Lin Tang: "Enough about Little Sentinel's thing. Do what you want, but there's something more important now, brothers! The epic moment that will change the landscape of Diablo 3 is here!"

Lin Tang uploaded a new file: Ultimate Fun-Explosion 12 New Profession Diablo 3 Mod.

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

In an instant, the avatars of the group members who had been passionately discussing turned gray.

The group went cold.

Lin Tang: "???"

But on that crude website, the number of people who had reserved a spot for the "Apocalypse OL" closed beta 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 network world back to reality.

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

Cheng Shaofeng had transmigrated just one hour ago.

He was dead on arrival.

He only had time to pick up a watch from the ground, and the moment he put it on, a group of green-glowing barbarians rushed over and grabbed him. They were so strong he didn't even have a chance to resist.

He was tied to a thick tree trunk like a roasted suckling pig and carried back, then tossed into a filthy, foul-smelling dungeon.

When he looked at his wrist again, he found a needle-sized red dot above his artery.

The watch he picked up was gone.

The next second, a voice echoed in his mind.

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