The Third Round

"Everyone, take a look. This is something the country has mobilized many experts to research and develop over the past week or two—a New Sleep Life-Support Pod."

The interior lights cast cold, hard patches of light across the open cabin.

A bald, middle-aged man in a white coat smiled and pointed inside the cabin through the "glass" beside him.

A crowd gathered around, looking at him from his angle.

As you can see, this isn't some sci-fi capsule cabin you might imagine, but rather a device that looks more like a combination of a high-end medical bed and VR equipment, encased in this thin, transparent "egg shell."

All the cables and interfaces inside and outside the cabin are now neatly stored in the slots on the main side. Despite the extremely short development time, it is still evident that the specific craftsmanship and level of completion are quite good.

In these twelve light-colored life support pods, which were kept at an angle and whose mechanical supports were not yet fully flat, the lights inside each pod were on through the transparent pod covers, indicating that they were powered on.

Especially when viewed from one end to the other across this distance of several tens of meters, these large creatures look like a row of giant "cocoons" evenly arranged in various locations inside the sterile room.

"Many people may not know this, but this is Type-II Sleep Pod created by experts who further adjusted the system based on Baseline Human Life-Support Technology."

"It can be used to ensure the stability of everyone's physical and physiological conditions during the login process and to aid sleep. On the other hand, it can also monitor some of everyone's physiological indicators to ensure that in the event of any unexpected situation, there can be timely remedial action through external personnel."

Without any hint of bureaucratic jargon, the bald, middle-aged man spoke quite frankly.

"Tonight, someone will arrange for everyone to experience these improved sleep pods in advance, and also to fine-tune some individual matching data details to ensure that everyone has a relatively familiar expected effect when logging in tomorrow."

"Well, what preparations are needed before testing this?"

Among the "audience," some raised their hands to post messages like elementary school students, seemingly quite curious.

The bald man in the white coat waved his hand, "No need, no need. The technology involved in this cabin isn't actually that advanced. The main research and development difficulties lie in 'universality' and 'technology integration.'"

"In terms of simple use, it's actually quite convenient, far less demanding and complex than something like a 'Deep-Dive Life-Support System.' There will be people to teach everyone how to use it step-by-step."

No sooner had he finished speaking than someone else raised a question.

"But Director Lao, there are only twelve sleep pods here, aren't there? There are so many of us, it's not enough to go around."

The person who said that was clearly just joking.

The group of forty people being "visited" suddenly erupted in several low chuckles.

The middle-aged man in the white coat, addressed as Director Lao, chuckled and scratched his head. "It's mainly because of the situation during the last login process where people were scattered across the platform after logging in and out. Many of you should still remember that."

"Therefore, the researchers' proposed strategy this time is to break the group down into smaller teams of twelve people each, in order to maintain the accuracy of the positioning when returning to the platform, and to ensure that manpower can be used to handle any situations that may require it."

"Furthermore, I would like to remind everyone that if you encounter any desired upgrade or enhancement items on the platform later, please wait patiently for the relevant personnel to analyze them and provide suggestions before making a decision..."

The short half-day passed quickly.

The view stretched as far as the eye could see, with only a vast, dark mass of people now standing firm on the Azure Platform.

As the white light flashed incessantly, new figures disappeared into it.

These guys, all holding the same Level-One Main God User status, were so noisy it was almost unbearable, yet few were willing to leave the crowd, or rather, leave the location of that "orb of light" high in the sky!

Feeling these restless gazes, regardless of nationality, culture, race, or skin color, mostly filled with eagerness, greed, longing, hostility... sweep over me briefly.

Tang Yuyang didn't react much to the subtle hostile gazes from those blond-haired, blue-eyed people, or the "black bastards."

Given the additional "exclusive session," perhaps for certain purposes or through the calculated manipulation of certain individuals, a subtle trend targeting domestic users has clearly begun to emerge among the current user base.

But those weren't things he needed to think about too much.

As a relatively rare "first-round user," this young man simply used the friend contact function of the Main God ID to confirm that most of his team members were indeed scattered nearby due to the previous deliberate offline location adjustment, and then tried to quickly gather the team together.

As for the two who couldn't be found, they were clearly completely lost in the crowd, and they couldn't even tell where they were right now.

After all, even if these so-called "national team" members have received some short-term training and adjustment, they are still in the same boat.

But in the end, most of them, just a few days or ten days ago, were just ordinary people living ordinary lives, just like Tang Yuyang.

We shouldn't expect too much.

With a sigh, Tang Yuyang, the "veteran" temporarily serving as the captain of the twelve-man squad, abandoned the idea of continuing the search and instead began preparing for the last bit of "time" that was about to pass in the next seven days.

"Captain, I still have my emergency rations, but my tactical knife, the small pistol hidden in my simplified combat suit, and the emergency treatment kit are all gone."

"Captain, considering the magnetic stripe and instruments connected to the sleep pod, there's no suitable place to carry a firearm in my new combat suit, so I'm not equipped with a pistol. But my dagger is also missing; only the emergency treatment kit remains..."

"Captain, all the small monitoring equipment I personally carried is gone. It must be due to some restriction from the Main God..."

The ten people present quickly assessed the situation, took stock of the "arms" and supplies, exchanged information, and waited for the last bit of time to pass.

Soon, the countdown ended, accompanied by a familiar heart-pounding feeling!

Watching the even larger swarm of illusory "Light Fish" emerge nimbly from between the Azure Platform, passing through the bodies of these users without any hindrance, like a rising tide of light, they soared into the high heavens!

The vast majority of people were so shocked by this scene that they stood frozen in place.

--Here it comes!

At the same time, Tang Yuyang's eyes suddenly narrowed.

[... The interval has been reset to zero. If needed, you can now choose to enter one of the following five random Mission World-- ]

[Special Category Large- Mission World: A Chinese Ghost Story??? (Difficulty: One Star/Medium-Legendary?)]

[Offshore Casino (Difficulty: 1 star/Low)]

[Hanging Coffins of Chu (Difficulty: Two-Star /Medium)]

"Captain, a strange quest has randomly appeared here. The Main God told me it's a special large-scale Mission World, and the name even has a question mark in it."

"Is it the one that starts with 'A Chinese Ghost Story'? I have one here too!"

"Captain, I have the same problem here! It's marked 'Legendary' for difficulty and has a question mark next to it."

Once the count was completed, it was confirmed that a total of five people had successfully completed this "random task," Tang Yuyang began to feel uneasy.

But seeing that the "mission name" was clearly different from the other missions, the young captain finally gritted his teeth and said, "Those who have this 'A Chinese Ghost Story' mission should choose it first; the rest can choose freely."

"Elbow, come inside with me and see what's going on!"