Dinner Drunkards

Emperor Tomb Village.

An underground space.

Qi Sheng sat cross-legged atop the Primordial Sacrificial Altar, information from the real-world internet supplied by Guide continually flashing through his mind as he searched for suitable recruits.

He already had a clear idea of whom to target for the third round of recruitment.

The first two batches of players to enter Monster World shared one trait: they never spent money in games, or spent very little, and even needed to earn money from gaming.

The players in the Hardcore Grinder Group, in particular, had to make a living from games while playing them.

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

Only by resolving the real-world problems of players who farmed for a living could they keep playing more effectively and generate more Sacrificial Power income for him.

11 p.m.

Foglamp City.

Bordering the sea, the city was an important port city of the Human Federation. When it was first established, dense fog rolled in from the sea year-round, making lighthouses necessary to guide ships, hence its name, Foglamp City.

Night lay hazy, but someone was struggling to sleep.

Inside a luxurious villa in northern Foglamp City, a woman with a graceful figure wore pajamas and held a tablet, her eyes fixed on the countdown on the Darklands Official Website.

"Please, please let me get it."

Pressing her palms together, Li Siyu prayed devoutly.

As time passed, her expression grew increasingly tense, and sweat even seeped from her palms.

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

Li Siyu's poised finger became a blur, tapping frantically like a machine gun with its trigger pulled, but a notification popped up on the webpage:

[This round of purchase eligibility claims has ended. Unfortunately, you have not obtained eligibility to purchase "Darklands."]

"Fuck!"

Her emotions erupted, and Li Siyu hurled the tablet onto her bed.

This was already her third attempt to secure eligibility to buy Darklands, but every attempt had ended in failure without exception. She had not even managed to reach the payment page.

She had been looking forward to Darklands for a long time.

Before the game's release, she had sold her Conquest account at a low price, preparing to devote all her energy to Darklands.

She had never expected to stumble before she even began, stuck at the purchasing stage.

The Human Federation had a total population of two billion. Even at a price of 128,888, purchase slots fell short of demand.

Most importantly, the game's distribution and sales platforms were directly connected to the official website and operated under the Eclipse Race's supervision, leaving no possibility of obtaining a slot through connections.

Purchases also required linking an ID beforehand, making resale impossible.

As a result, even having money did not guarantee being able to buy the game. Luck was the key.

After venting for a while, Li Siyu picked up her tablet again, opened the contact list in the lower-right corner, and found the group chat to start complaining.

[Dinner Drunkards (online: 21)]

Woshnidie: (#｀皿´) Didn't get a purchase slot again. How did you guys do?

Late Nights and Midnight Snacks: How else could it have gone? I stared until my vision blurred and started tapping like crazy a minute early, only to be told my application failed this round. I'm clenching my fists so hard they're about to shatter.

Shrimp with a Heart: (งᵒ̌皿ᵒ̌)ง⁼³₌₃ They're so stingy with the slots. The Eclipse Race's Virtual Server could easily support more players. This scarcity marketing is seriously disgusting.

Is This a Beaver: Going to bed, going to bed. Didn't get one again. It'll be several more days before the next round, and by then we'll be a week behind the first few batches of players in development. Boss's dream of building a top-tier guild is slowly falling apart.

Word Ma Ya: Limited slots are bad enough, but they're also tied to IDs, so we can't buy them through other channels. They're leaving us no way out. Why is playing a game so hard?

Bailan Xianyu: Trash game. I've waited years, and I refuse to accept this outcome. I'll try ten more rounds at most. If I still don't get one, I'm going back to Conquest.

Just as the group members were furiously criticizing the Eclipse Race's scarcity marketing, a stranger suddenly joined the group.

[Perks Officer has joined the group.]

The notification instantly stunned the group members.

No newcomer had joined the Dinner Drunkards group in two years because the group had been set to block strangers from joining.

Suddenly seeing someone new join, without a prefix indicating who had invited them, left the members deeply puzzled.

Before anyone could speak, the newly joined Perks Officer took the initiative to send a message:

Perks Officer: Heard you guys want to play Darklands. I've got access to a free cracked version for download. I'll leave the link here in the group. Help yourselves if you need it. (Link: ...)

Before anyone could ask any questions, Perks Officer promptly left the group.

This sequence left all the group members utterly bewildered.

Their first thought was that this scammer named Perks Officer was far too impatient. Posting a phishing link immediately after joining was practically an insult to their intelligence.

No one could possibly fall for that.

But the group owner, Li Siyu, thought differently.

After Perks Officer left the chat group, she opened the detailed information page to check and discovered that this person had no IP address displayed.

In this age of internet-wide identity verification, every internet user's IP address was public, with no possibility of hiding it.

More importantly, she had enabled the setting that hid her chat group from searches, so outsiders should have had no way to join.

Being able to easily bypass the group chat restrictions maintained by the Eclipse Race proved that Perks Officer possessed a very high level of technical skill.

"Could it really be a cracked version of Darklands?"

The absurd thought had barely entered her mind before Li Siyu shook her head.

As far as she was concerned, there was no possibility of cracking the Eclipse Race's technology.

There were no cracked versions of its previous virtual games online, let alone Darklands with its upgraded technology.

But Perks Officer had successfully piqued her curiosity.

With nothing else to do, Li Siyu decided to investigate, driven by curiosity.

After enabling network protection, she tapped the link.

The webpage that opened was extremely basic, almost entirely blank, with only a downloadable compressed file in the center.

Such a crude webpage, along with a scam that practically treated people as idiots, only deepened Li Siyu's curiosity.

She wanted to know why Perks Officer had done this. Could it just be a prank?

She tapped the download icon on the webpage.

A downloading notification and a percentage progress bar immediately appeared in the upper-right corner of the screen.

The clock reached midnight.

Ding!

The compressed file finished downloading. Li Siyu swiped across her tablet, wirelessly transferring the extracted files to the Obsidian Limited Edition Game Pod in the corner of her room.

Three minutes later, the Game Pod's green light came on, indicating that adaptation was complete.

Li Siyu got out of bed then as well.

After changing into a gaming suit, she entered the Game Pod and pressed the "Start" button. The translucent pod lid immediately began lowering slowly.

"Let's see just what's inside this thing!"