Server Maintenance and Withdrawal Symptoms

The massive Crimson Fleet surged forward through the golden-red energy Star River.

For the players standing on the Crimson Boat, this was an interstellar journey at faster-than-light speeds. The surrounding vessel walls were as vast as the firmament, and the torrent of energy beneath their feet roared and surged.

"Too slow."

Gu Yuan, viewing from a higher dimension, shook his head helplessly as he watched the progress bar crawling along like a snail.

His divine body was simply too vast. For the "cells" at the microscopic level, traveling from the heart to the lungs was no different from an interstellar expedition. Even drifting along with the arterial blood flow required a lengthy cycle.

"I can't keep them drifting forever; the players will get bored and quit."

Gu Yuan's gaze swept forward. Not far from the exit of the heart, there was a crucial pass—the [Pulmonary Valve].

Due to long-term energy accumulation, a natural "transit station" had formed there.

"Let's establish the first outpost right there."

[Server-wide Announcement: Approaching transit station—"Sighing Corridor".]

[Hint: The star journey is long; for the sake of resupply and preparation, all kin are requested to dock at the corridor.]

Following the system broadcast, the players saw the endless Star River ahead suddenly diverge. A magnificent, breathtaking white giant gate stood between heaven and earth.

It was an arterial valve composed of three translucent, giant leaflets emitting a soft, holy light. Each leaflet was like a Himalayan mountain, towering and majestic, intercepting and diverting the rushing blood flow.

"This modeling... I'm going to kneel."

Feng Xing Tian Xia looked up at the giant gate, a sense of megalophobia and awe rising in his heart simultaneously.

The starship slowly docked. This was not the lungs, but a white landmass formed by calcified deposits.

At this moment, a lonely figure was already standing on the land.

It was a giant, three meters tall, clad in tattered golden heavy armor, holding a broken long spear. Beneath his helmet was a void of black mist, with only two points of ghostly blue soul fire flickering.

This was a guide NPC created by Gu Yuan using his divine power and residual immune memories—[Ancient Watcher Zero].

The players swarmed ashore, immediately surrounding the only NPC.

"Holy crap! An NPC! A live one!"

"Big brother, give us a quest?"

Dali Chu Qiji gathered his courage and poked the giant's armor with his bone hammer.

Clang—!

With a crisp sound, the giant turned his head abruptly, his ghostly blue eyes staring fixedly at Dali Chu Qiji, scaring the burly man into taking three steps back.

The giant emitted a hoarse voice like metal grinding:

"Newborn... kin?"

"Too weak."

"You don't even have the qualifications to survive that catastrophe."

Although he mocked them, a large golden question mark lit up above the giant's head.

[Story Quest: Clear the Corridor Silt]

[Issuer: Watcher Zero]

[Description: The gate of the Sighing Corridor is blocked by "Void Dust". This has obstructed the shipping lane to the Storm Star Domain. As recruits, this is your only value.]

[Objective: Clear the "Hardened Silt" near the gate (0/1000).]

[Reward: Unlock "Corridor Teleportation Point", gain Bio-energy +50.]

"Tch, so it's just a chore quest."

Dali Chu Qiji curled his lip, but his body was honest as he accepted the quest: "Whatever, as long as there's money to be made. I'm dying to buy that skill book."

For a time, the once-silent corridor became bustling with activity.

Although it was just a dull mining and cleaning task, this group of players managed to make it interesting. Some competed to see who could dig faster, while others studied whether the silt could be crafted into equipment.

In the higher dimension, Gu Yuan watched the bio-energy pouring into the system and nodded with satisfaction.

After several hours of frantic killing, exploration, and cleaning by the players, his bio-energy reserves finally broke through the threshold.

[Current Bio-energy Reserve: 12,000 points.]

[Heart Core Shield Energy: 0.05% -> 0.08%.]

"The energy is enough." Gu Yuan's eyes narrowed, "The first batch of one thousand players is useful, but the number is too small. Facing the billions-strong virus legion in the lungs, this force isn't even enough to fill the gaps between their teeth."

"I must expand recruitment."

But there was a problem. Gu Yuan's divine soul was currently extremely weak, and maintaining the real-time high-dimensional connection for these 1,000 people was already consuming the vast majority of his computing power. If he wanted to introduce more players, he had to disconnect, using the energy on hand to perform a deep repair and expansion of the server (which was his own divine soul network).

"I'll have to wrong these guys for a moment."

Gu Yuan waved his hand and pressed the server-wide kick button.

[Global Announcement: To all dear kin.]

[In view of the fact that the Sighing Corridor area has been cleared, in order to accommodate more warriors descending, this world is about to undergo a "version update and server expansion."]

[Estimated maintenance time: 8 hours.]

[Countdown: 10, 9, 8...]

"What the hell? Server maintenance?"

Dali Chu Qiji, who was in the middle of digging mud, froze. "Don't do this! I only need one more piece to have enough money for a skill book! Give me one more minute!"

"This game actually has server maintenance?"

Feng Xing Tian Xia was also caught off guard; he had just been preparing to explore the dark areas deep within the corridor.

But the system was ruthless.

[3, 2, 1.]

[Connection lost.]

Everyone's vision instantly went black.

Blue Star, the real world.

It was already late at night.

Magic City, Cloud Apartment.

The lid of the life-support pod slid open slowly.

"Hoo..."

Feng Xing Tian Xia (Chen Feng) took off his neural connection helmet and sat up abruptly.

An intense, nauseating "sense of heaviness" struck him instantly.

In the game, he was a hunter with 12 points of agility, capable of scaling walls and leaping over roofs, his body as light as the wind;

But here, as his consciousness returned to his flesh, he felt like a drowning man wearing hundreds of pounds of lead. His fingers were stiff, his reactions were sluggish, and even breathing felt like a chore.

"This feeling..."

Chen Feng raised his hand, wanting to reach for the water glass on the table.

His brain issued the command: reach out, grasp.

In the game, this action would be completed with lightning-fast precision.

But in reality, his hand reached out tremblingly, his fingertips brushing against the side of the glass.

Clatter.

The glass tipped over, rolled onto the floor, and water spilled everywhere.

Chen Feng froze in place, maintaining his reaching posture, staring fixedly at his disobedient right hand.

Everything that happened on Star River just now felt like nothing more than an incredibly realistic dream.

Chen Feng smiled self-deprecatingly and bent down, struggling to pick up the glass.

Although his reason told him it was just a game, the massive sense of loss from "having once possessed a perfect body" gnawed at his nerves like a drug addiction.

He didn't want to stay in this useless shell.

He wanted to go back.

Back to that world where he could control everything, where he could wield bone blades to tear monsters apart.

Chen Feng lay back down in the life-support pod, staring fixedly at the countdown displaying "Server Maintenance."

"8 hours..." he gritted his teeth, his eyes bloodshot, "hurry up..."

At the same time, Jingdu City.

Inside a special care ward.

Li You (Yun Zhong You) took off her helmet; it was the first time she had been forcibly logged out of the game.

The ward was quiet, save for the ticking of medical instruments.

Subconsciously, she tried to lift her leg, just as she had done countless times in the game.

But this body remained motionless.

Stiff, cold, and completely devoid of sensation.

Li You froze for a few seconds, then suddenly covered her head with her blanket, and muffled sobs emerged.

"Why... why did you make me wake up..."

The more real the feeling of running and jumping on Star River had been, the more cruel the reality of lying on this bed felt now. This wasn't a game at all; it was the most beautiful dream woven for someone like her, and also the most cruel punishment.

She glanced at the time.

There were 7 hours and 59 minutes left.

Li You wiped away her tears, her gaze turning somewhat obsessive.

She wouldn't sleep anymore.

She wanted to watch this countdown; she didn't want to be even a second late to enter.

In the high-dimensional space, within the Titan Divine Body.

Gu Yuan had no idea what kind of withdrawal symptoms his "server maintenance" had caused for the players.

At this moment, he was using those 12,000 points of bio-energy to make a massive gamble.

"System, invest 10,000 energy points to repair the divine soul network nodes."

"Invest 2,000 energy points to incubate new thrall shells."

[Command confirmed.]

[Constructing new soul connection channels...]

[Estimated capacity expansion: 10,000 people.]

As the energy was injected, Gu Yuan felt his previously muddled consciousness clear up slightly. The constant, splitting headache that had plagued him eased a little as well.

"Very good, server upgrade successful."

Gu Yuan looked at the new announcement deduced by the system, a curve forming at the corner of his mouth.

Since he was going to play, he might as well play big.

Those viruses had likely already sensed the activity near the heart and were currently gathering their forces.

Then he would prepare an army of ten thousand for them.

He typed out a new announcement on the official website:

[Titan: Genesis Second Beta is about to begin!]

[Version Update: Eve of the Storm]

[Additional slots: 10,000 people.]

[New race/class branch added: Flame Prison Guard (Divine Guard advancement).]

[The place we are going is a sea of stars, and also a deep abyss of purgatory.]

The internet world of Blue Star completely exploded following the release of this announcement.

Those who hadn't grabbed a spot in the first batch and had originally mocked it as a "virus pop-up" were now regretting it bitterly after seeing the gameplay recordings released by the first-batch players, featuring "Galaxy Drifting," "tearing monsters apart by hand," and "chitin lighters."

On the forums, discussion threads about Titan instantly flooded the page.

"Begging for an activation code! I'll pay ten thousand!"

"Get lost, the guy above, I'm offering fifty thousand!"

"This physics engine, this lighting—is this really something human technology can produce right now?"

"Stop talking nonsense, who else wants to form a team? I'm a professional commander, I'm definitely getting in for the second beta!"

A storm known as the "Fourth Calamity" was gathering strength, preparing to sweep across Gu Yuan's entire divine body world.