Beta Testing Begins (Damn, This Chapter Is 3,000 Words)

Tianhe City Police Department.

After finishing her routine patrol for the day, Qi Lin had just returned to the station when someone called out to her.

"Qi Lin, you have a delivery." A colleague stopped her.

"A delivery?" Qi Lin took the package with a confused expression and checked the name on it. It was indeed hers.

"I always have my deliveries sent to my apartment complex. Why was this sent here?" Qi Lin returned to her desk, holding the package in puzzlement.

Seeing Qi Lin's confused look, another female colleague couldn't help teasing her. "Maybe some male colleague secretly has a crush on you, Qi Lin. He was too embarrassed, so he used this roundabout way to confess." After saying that, she let out a villainous three-part laugh.

Qi Lin helplessly glanced at her colleague, picked up the utility knife on the desk, and carefully opened the package.

As Qi Lin unpacked it, every male officer in the station stared intently at her, each glaring fiercely at the others.

Qi Lin was the police flower of the Tianhe City Police Department. No one knew which bastard had made the first move.

At that thought, the male officers in the station ground their teeth in hatred.

Qi Lin slowly reached a hand into the box.

At that moment, all the men in the station fixed their eyes on her hand as though staring hard enough would let them cut the person who had sent Qi Lin a gift into a thousand pieces.

Under everyone's watchful eyes, Qi Lin pulled a helmet from the package. It looked incredibly futuristic.

So it was only a helmet. That dumb brute probably had no chance after all. Everyone withdrew their gazes, as though they had never been nervous about someone confessing to Qi Lin in the first place.

"Ah! Isn't that the game helmet for World Tree, the virtual game that was incredibly popular a while ago?" A female officer beside Qi Lin immediately recognized its purpose because she was standing close by.

She said enviously, "Qi Lin, you're so lucky. I can't believe you got picked for the beta test. They only selected five hundred spots out of several million people."

At those words, the male officers who had been pretending to be serious all stared eagerly at the virtual helmet in Qi Lin's hands.

They completely and utterly ignored the police flower of their department.

What a joke. This was the first virtual reality game. Was a girlfriend more important than a game?

Qi Lin noticed that nearly all her male colleagues were looking at the helmet in her hands as though it were an unparalleled treasure. From beginning to end, she herself had been completely ignored.

Qi Lin swallowed nervously and hurriedly searched for something that could save the situation. Otherwise, she was certain they would all pounce on her.

After searching for a while, Qi Lin finally found a note in the virtual helmet's manual: This account has been bound to Ms. Qi Lin's identity and is unique.

She hurriedly read the notice aloud. Only then did the male officers calm down. They looked at Qi Lin with envy before returning to their seats and resuming their work.

The female officer beside her had also been frightened by that scene. She patted her chest. "Qi Lin, you didn't see the looks in their eyes just now. They were never that attentive when looking at you before."

"Heh heh." Qi Lin gave an awkward smile.

Suddenly, the office fell silent. Qi Lin glanced toward the doorway from the corner of her eye.

A very familiar figure stood outside the door. It was Qi Lin's direct superior. The moment she saw him, her heart skipped a beat.

It was like playing on your phone under the desk back in school, when the classroom suddenly went quiet. Just as you looked around in confusion, you turned toward the nearby window and saw your homeroom teacher staring at you intensely from outside.

Her superior swept his eyes across the office before looking at Qi Lin. "Qi Lin, come out for a moment. I need to talk to you."

Hearing that, Qi Lin's palms began to sweat. She could only follow her superior to the end of the hallway outside.

"Do you know?" her superior asked first.

But Qi Lin was too nervous and heard it as, "Do you know what you did wrong?"

So she replied with utmost sincerity, "Sir, I know I was wrong. I definitely won't let other matters interfere with my primary duties..."

"???" Her superior looked utterly baffled. Why is her imagination so active? I never noticed before.

Seeing Qi Lin go further and further off track, her superior quickly interrupted her. "Comrade Qi Lin, I can see that your attitude toward admitting your mistake is very sincere, but that isn't what I meant."

"Ah." Qi Lin opened her mouth slightly and looked at her superior with a dazed expression.

Seeing her like that, her superior understood. He explained, "Qi Lin, I heard you were selected for World Tree, the virtual reality game developed by the state?"

Qi Lin nodded, indicating that it was true. There was no point denying it anyway; her colleagues had all seen it earlier.

When her superior saw her nod, he said, "There are some things I can't say outright, but this game is an important national project. Qi Lin, you should participate actively."

"Sir, are you saying I can play games while I'm at work?" Qi Lin asked uncertainly.

Her superior immediately laughed. "Qi Lin, you're pretty, and you dream beautifully too." With that, he waved his hand and left.

After speaking with her superior, Qi Lin felt somewhat dazed.

Only after she returned home did she realize that everything that had happened today had begun with that delivery.

She turned on her computer and logged into World Tree's official website, where she found people already showing off their game helmets, followed by rows upon rows of envious reaction images.

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Today was May 1st. According to the information on the official website, the virtual reality game's beta test would begin at eight o'clock that evening.

There was still plenty of time. After dinner and a shower, Qi Lin casually browsed the World Tree game forums. Because of her superior's words that afternoon, she intended to take this game seriously.

At 7:58 p.m. on May 1st, Qi Lin put on the game helmet and lay down on her bed.

She watched the final two-minute countdown...

The final ten seconds. Nine... five... two, one, zero.

She entered the game. After a perfectly ordinary loading screen came character creation.

The only available race was currently the Elven Race, followed by the face customization system.

Qi Lin had originally thought this game might have cross-gender characters and the like, but apparently she had overthought it.

The gender of an account was bound to the player's real-life gender, so there would be no cross-gender characters like in other games.

Qi Lin even felt that the face customization system was completely unnecessary. There was no need to customize anything—the default appearance was already stunningly beautiful.

"This can't be a celebrity face, can it?" Qi Lin couldn't help thinking. This model is so beautiful.

"I have to say, is this what it means to be an Elf?"

After fiddling around for a while, Qi Lin discovered an option to import her real face and blend it with the default one.

With one click, the character's face became that of a female Elf who looked very much like Qi Lin.

Qi Lin nodded in satisfaction and set her name as Tianhe Sheriff.

That was also Qi Lin's username on the World Tree game forums.

Then she entered the game.

In a daze, a sudden sensation of weightlessness caught Qi Lin off guard, and her mind went completely blank...

When Qi Lin regained her senses, she felt as though she were standing in the starry expanse of the universe.

The scene shifted, and an enormous forest appeared before her, along with a World Tree that blotted out the sky and sun.

Accompanied by an ethereal and beautiful song, the majestic World Tree, the unique civilizations of the seven nations, and the vast world of the Elven Race appeared one after another...

This time, Qi Lin was more like a spectator, quietly observing it all.

"This seems like a cinematic." As a young person of the modern era, Qi Lin had played games before and understood such things.

Although it was not her first time seeing it, every time she watched the promotional video, she felt inexplicably shaken.

This was the opening ceremony Cheng Jue had put together. These scenes were drawn from records within Cheng Jue's World Tree, meant to subtly instill certain information into the players.

That was, to help the World Tree and the Elven Civilization develop in this Primordial World.

Cheng Jue had put considerable effort into this opening cinematic. It was at least far better than the previous game trailers, all so everyone would watch it carefully.

It seemed Cheng Jue's plan had succeeded. Qi Lin did not skip it, instead watching it through with great focus.

The opening cinematic ended quickly, yet Qi Lin still wanted more.

It could not be helped. The opening cinematic was simply too exquisite.

As the background music changed, Qi Lin's field of vision changed as well. This time, she discovered that she had regained control over her body.

She curiously raised a hand. Before her were slender, pale, delicate fingers rather than the hands that had developed calluses from firearms training at the military academy.

She touched her body and felt an incredibly real sensation. Qi Lin even jumped curiously, and every bit of feedback felt exactly as though she were still in her room. If not for the endless white surroundings reminding her that she was in a game, she might have thought she had transmigrated.

"This is simply incredible."

As she spoke, Qi Lin pinched her own arm.

"Hiss!" A remarkably clear sensation of pain shot through her, just like a real body. Fortunately, Qi Lin had visited the forums before and knew that the pain level could be adjusted.

Pain simulation could be freely adjusted from 100% to 0%.

Just as Qi Lin was about to proceed to the next step, an ethereal voice sounded before her.

"Welcome, Traveler from another world."

The voice was ethereal and pleasant, warm and friendly. Hearing it made her want to draw closer, as though stepping forward would bring peace to her soul.

Qi Lin looked up at once and was captivated by the person before her.

She felt as though a goddess radiating an aura of peace had appeared before her.

She wore a magnificent divine gown, her long and silky black hair cascading to her waist. Her eyes, like black gemstones, seemed to conceal endless wisdom.

For a moment, even Qi Lin, as a woman herself, could not find words to describe her.

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