Version update

With the 13 million Sacrificial Power Ice Blade had given him.

Qi Sheng promptly launched the third recruitment round. This time, he planned to release ten thousand player slots.

His primary targets were still players who wanted to experience the Darklands but were held back by the game's price or the difficulty of securing a copy.

Promoting it as a new game would clearly make recruiting new players difficult.

No matter how dazzling the description, players would only consider it false advertising, so he still had to keep using the name "Darklands" to bring in new players quickly.

That evening, the game link Qi Sheng was promoting appeared in many gaming groups.

The vast majority of those groups chose to kick him out, considering him an online scammer.

Still, quite a few players chose to download it and give it a try, then promoted the game further and brought in more players.

All ten thousand slots were claimed through downloads in less than two hours.

Large numbers of players began logging into the game around nine that evening.

The previously empty Respawn Point in Emperor Tomb Village was instantly packed with players.

As white light flashed continuously, newly arriving players could only spawn throughout Emperor Tomb Village, no longer confined to the Respawn Point.

"Holy shit, this game feels so real. That 128,888 was money well spent."

"Stayed up for three rounds of sales, and I finally snagged it! Hahahaha!"

"Solo player looking for a party! Any Pay-to-Win big shots taking on lackeys?"

Emperor Tomb Village was as bustling as a marketplace.

Many players started pulling strange stunts the moment they entered the game.

Eating dirt, running, self-harm (pain feedback testing)... they evaluated the game's realism through all sorts of methods.

The feedback left the players exclaiming in disbelief.

While marveling at the game's realism, the players recruited in this round all tacitly avoided mentioning the download link when talking to one another.

They believed exposing the pirated link might harm the "Perks Officer" who had given them the game, and might also get their access revoked.

They instinctively assumed the other players around them had paid real money for their copies, so many took the initiative to boast during conversations that they had been lucky enough to win the right to purchase the game.

Under Qi Sheng's watchful eye, the players recruited in this round learned the game's basic settings from the Guides beside them, then left Emperor Tomb Village to explore.

Once the player army reached a sufficient size, it began to show its fangs.

The Cursed Soldiers reviving along the way became the players' preferred leveling targets. Most were pounced on like prey beneath hungry tigers before they could even stand.

Competition over Cursed Soldier kills sparked all kinds of disputes between players, and curses flooded the regional chat channel.

In a corner of the northern Ancient Battlefield, three Black-Armored Snakes had a player tightly coiled in their grip.

"Guys, I was wrong. Let me live."

"That's what you get for stealing our monsters. Die and go back to the starter village!"

In the eastern Ancient Battlefield, a player whose starting form was an Eagle-Headed Demon sprinted madly, flapping his wings, with a group of players close behind.

"Brothers, that's the bastard! Don't let him get away! You like ambushing monsters for the last hit, huh? If we can't kill Cursed Soldiers, we'll kill you!"

In the western Ancient Battlefield, two teams of players erupted into a monster battle over the right to kill Cursed Soldiers.

In just ten minutes, more than a hundred players had been sent back to the starter village by players from their own faction and entered the respawn cooldown.

The new players also brought a little more life to the Ancient Battlefield.

Strength in numbers was on full display.

When the first batch of players, including Li Zheng, had entered the game, they had explored with utmost caution throughout, afraid of suddenly encountering several revived Cursed Soldiers and becoming surrounded.

But the players arriving in this recruitment round had the exact opposite mindset.

Their only fear was not getting a Cursed Soldier. Too many Cursed Soldiers was not a concern at all.

Whenever a Cursed Soldier rose, nearby players pounced from every direction like cats catching the scent of fish.

Their numerical advantage let the new players turn early-game exploration into a sweeping advance that left no ground untouched.

Watching behind the scenes, Qi Sheng did not know whether to laugh or cry.

The players' performance also validated his preliminary idea.

To build a fearless super army with limitless potential that would help him sweep through the various entrenched monster factions, contain Primordial Power, and reclaim the lost node territories.

Just then, Guide suddenly appeared beside him:

[Boss, Yan Ming reports that the Testing Space is complete.]

A Light Screen then appeared before Qi Sheng, with Yan Ming looking at him expressionlessly:

"My task is complete. I've added many known Primordial Abilities to the testing database as well. Although they may not necessarily be found at this stage, they might prove useful in the future."

"Thanks for your work."

Qi Sheng nodded and summoned the Challenger System with a wave.

Amid interweaving light and shadow, countless mysterious characters enveloped his body.

Among those numerous, complex characters was a new string composed of blue characters.

Yan Ming spoke from the Light Screen:

"Little Qi, the content is complete, but we still need a medium to help players enter the Testing Space."

After hearing this, Qi Sheng thought briefly, then nodded:

"Then build a functional structure in Emperor Tomb Village to connect players to the Testing Space."

"Understood." Yan Ming nodded, and the Light Screen dissipated.

Half an hour later, a Challenger notification rang out in the minds of all online players:

[Challenger notification: The game will soon update to version 1.1. Update details are as follows]:

1. A new functional building, the "Testing Tower," has been added to Emperor Tomb Village. Players can run simulations in the Testing Tower to test Star Meridian Inlay configurations, Body Tempering levels, ability combinations, and item use. Each test costs 1 point of Sacrificial Power.

2. The "Forum" feature has been added to the game's Function Panel. Players can create posts on the Forum to communicate and share guides. Additional features include post tipping and game livestreaming (players can still access Forum features through the virtual interface after entering Death Cooldown).

(This is a live update. Players do not need to log out and wait.)

As the update notification sounded, the ground in Emperor Tomb Village shook violently.

A tall tower rose from the ruins in the western district.

The tower was built from a black substance, its surface covered in a blue-violet glow. Its sharp peak soared toward the clouds, and a massive crystal orb slowly rotated above it.

This structure was the Testing Tower Yan Ming had completed.

The tower contained the power of spatial laws that automatically created separate spatial layers. Different players entering the tower would enter different layers, ensuring that other players would not affect their tests.

The new building quickly sparked heated discussion in the regional channel, which then spread to the newly launched Forum section.

The veteran players exploring the Dark Cavern were particularly eager for this update's content.

They were all at the stage of choosing their second or third Life Soul for Star Meridian Enhancement and needed the Testing Tower to simulate their future growth paths.