Drunk Gang

Emperor's Tomb Village.

Underground space.

Qi Sheng sat cross-legged atop the Origin Altar. Information from the real-world internet kept flashing through his mind as he searched for suitable recruits.

He already had a clear idea of what kind of targets to choose for the third round of recruitment.

The players who had entered Monster World in the first and second batches all had one thing in common: they never spent money on games, or spent very little. Some even had to earn a living through games.

This was especially true of the Grind Emperor group. Its players had to rely on games to make a living while they played.

So this time, he planned to recruit a group of players who could afford to spend money, making the in-game ecosystem more complete while boosting the circulation of items and Sacrificial Power.

Only by solving the real-world problems of the Bricklayer players could they continue playing with peace of mind and generate more Sacrificial Power for him.

11 p.m.

Fog Lamp City.

The city stood by the sea and was an important port for the Human Federation. When the city was first built, the sea was often shrouded in thick fog, and ships needed lighthouses to guide them. That was how it got its name.

The night was hazy, but someone was having trouble sleeping.

Inside a luxurious villa in the northern district of Fog Lamp City, a graceful woman in her pajamas held a tablet in her hands, her eyes fixed on the countdown on the Dark Land official website.

"Please, please let me get in this time."

With her hands clasped together, Li Siyu prayed fervently.

As time passed, her expression grew more and more tense. Even her palms began to sweat.

Just then, the countdown on the official website reached zero.

Li Siyu's poised fingers were like a machine gun pulling its trigger, tapping furiously in a blur. But a message popped up on the webpage:

[This round of qualification purchases has ended. We're sorry, but you did not obtain the purchase qualification for Dark Land.]

"Damn it!"

Overcome with frustration, Li Siyu hurled the tablet onto the bed.

This was her third attempt to get a qualification to buy Dark Land, and she had failed every time. She hadn't even made it to the payment page.

She had been looking forward to Dark Land for a long time.

Before the game went on sale, she had sold her Conquest account at a low price, ready to devote all her time and energy to Dark Land.

She hadn't expected to fall at the first hurdle: the purchase process.

The Human Federation had a total population of two billion. Even with a price tag as high as 128,888, demand far outstripped supply.

Most importantly, sales were handled directly through the official website under the Moon Eclipse Clan's supervision, so there was no way to get a qualification through connections.

Buyers also had to bind their ID before making a purchase, so the qualifications couldn't be resold.

That meant having money wasn't enough to guarantee a copy of the game. Luck was what mattered.

After venting her frustration, Li Siyu picked up the tablet again, tapped the contacts list in the bottom-right corner, and opened her group chat to complain.

[Drunk Gang (online: 21 members)]

Wosinie Die: (#｀Д´) I didn't get a purchase qualification again. How did it go for you guys?

Stay Up Late and Supper: How do you think it went? My eyes are practically crossed from staring at the screen. I started tapping like crazy a minute early, and then it told me my application failed this round. I almost crushed my fists.

Shrimp Heart of Pork: (╬) They're stingy as hell with the qualifications. The Moon Eclipse Clan's virtual servers could easily support more players. This scarcity marketing is seriously disgusting.

Is This Okay: Going to bed, going to bed. I didn't get in again, and the next round won't be for days. By then, we'll be a week behind the first batches of players. Big sis's dream of building a top-tier guild is slowly falling apart.

Word Duck: Fine, limit the qualifications, but you have to bind them to your ID too? There's no way to buy one through other channels. They're leaving us no way out. Why is it so hard to play a game?

Lazy Salted Fish: Trash game. I've waited years, and I can't accept this result. I'll try ten more rounds at most. If I still don't get in, I'm going back to Conquest.

While the group members were furiously berating the Moon Eclipse Clan for its hunger marketing, a stranger suddenly joined the chat.

[Welfare Officer joined the group.]

The notification left the group members stunned.

No one new had joined Drunk Gang in two years, because the group was set to block strangers from joining.

Seeing a newcomer appear out of nowhere, with no indication of who had invited them, left everyone puzzled.

Before anyone could say anything, the newly joined Welfare Officer sent a message:

Welfare Officer: I heard you want to play Dark Land. I've got a free cracked version for you to download. I've posted the link in the group. Help yourselves if you're interested (link: ...)

Before anyone could ask questions, Welfare Officer swiftly left the group.

The whole group was completely baffled by this.

Their first thought was that this scammer named Welfare Officer was absurdly impatient. They'd barely joined before sending a phishing link. It was practically an insult to their intelligence.

No one would fall for that.

But the group owner, Li Siyu, had a different idea.

After Welfare Officer left the chat, she opened their profile and found that no IP address was listed.

In this age of identity verification across the entire internet, users' IP addresses were public. There was no way to hide them.

More importantly, she had enabled search blocking for her chat group. There was no way for outsiders to find and join it.

The fact that Welfare Officer had easily bypassed the group restrictions maintained by the Moon Eclipse Clan proved that their technical skills were exceptional.

"Could it really be a cracked version of Dark Land?"

The absurd thought had barely crossed Li Siyu's mind when she shook her head.

As far as she was concerned, there was no way the Moon Eclipse Clan's technology could be cracked.

None of their previous virtual games had ever been cracked online, let alone Dark Land, which used upgraded technology.

Still, Welfare Officer had succeeded in making her curious.

With nothing else to do, Li Siyu decided to investigate.

After turning on her network protection, she clicked the link.

The webpage that opened was extremely crude, almost entirely blank. The only thing on it was a downloadable archive at the center of the page.

The crude webpage and the scam that practically treated people like idiots only made Li Siyu more curious.

She wanted to know why Welfare Officer had done this. Was it just a prank?

She clicked the download icon on the webpage.

A download notification and progress bar immediately appeared in the top-right corner of the screen.

It was now midnight.

Ding!

The archive finished downloading. Li Siyu swiped across her tablet and wirelessly transferred the extracted files to the limited-edition Black Obsidian game pod in the corner of her room.

Three minutes later, the game pod's green light came on, indicating that the setup was complete.

Li Siyu got out of bed.

After changing into a gaming suit, she climbed into the pod and pressed the "Start" button. The translucent lid slowly lowered.

"Let's see what this thing actually has inside!"