Human Federation, Night Lantern City.
Fishing and Hunting Neighborhood, 5 a.m.
The sky was turning pale. Horns sounded as a large fleet of fishing boats returned, lights crisscrossed outside the window, and the fishing harbor bustled with activity.
Rubbing his slightly sore eyes, Jiang Zhou shifted his gaze from the window back to his computer desktop.
A notification in the upper-right corner showed that the archive had finished downloading.
He loathed online scammers because he had once fallen victim to an online scam himself.
After the group owner, "Kindergarten Principal," kicked Perks Officer out of the group, he had intended to delete the scam link, but Jiang Zhou stopped him.
He believed reporting it was the proper way to handle it.
Perhaps his actions could save quite a few innocent youngsters who would otherwise be deceived.
But before reporting it, he needed to gather information about the scam link.
The Federation's cyber police handled enormous numbers of reports and complaints every day. Collecting and organizing the evidence before submitting it would reduce their workload and help them deal with the scam more quickly.
He clicked the shield icon on his computer desktop with his mouse, putting the computer into network protection mode.
Then he used Safety Shield to scan the archive downloaded from the link for viruses.
To his surprise, there were no viruses in the archive.
"Could it be a prank?"
As for the archive actually containing a cracked version of Darklands, he absolutely refused to believe it.
The scammer's intentions were far too obvious.
Not only had they revealed what they were after within just a few exchanges, but the website behind the link was also incredibly crude. They had not even bothered downloading a website template. It was completely amateurish.
Besides, no technology could breach the Eclipse Race's powerful network technology.
Puzzled, he opened the archive and began extracting its contents.
In less than a minute, the extraction was complete.
Since the contents required a virtual Game Pod to run, Jiang Zhou transferred the files to the Game Pod connected to his computer and pressed the compatibility button.
Before long, the game's compatibility setup was complete.
Jiang Zhou stood up and entered the Game Pod.
After the neural connection tubes automatically attached to various parts of his body, darkness gradually engulfed his vision. When it cleared again, he was facing a virtual desktop.
There were sixteen game icons on the desktop. Each game held memories of a stretch of his childhood, but he had quit most of them.
At the very bottom of the desktop was the game downloaded through the link. Its icon depicted a monster engulfed in scarlet flames.
Although no viruses had been detected in the game, Jiang Zhou still enabled the protection feature to be safe.
The introduction of this feature dated back to the technological boom when the Eclipse Race first arrived on Earth and brought humanity advanced virtual technology.
The advent of this new technology had brought forth a flood of virtual games, including plenty of horror games.
Someone had once used the Virtual Engine Library Assets released by the Eclipse Race to create a small horror prank game, causing a player who downloaded and tried it to suffer a sudden, fatal heart attack.
After that incident, all virtual Game Pods were required to have safety monitors installed. These could assess a player's condition through changes in hormone levels and heart rate. In an emergency, the built-in safety alarm system would immediately send a distress call to a nearby medical station.
He clicked the game icon, and a blazing scarlet formation appeared in Jiang Zhou's mind.
An intense wave of dizziness followed, as though an invisible vortex were devouring and tugging at his consciousness.
When the weightless sensation faded, the scene before him left Jiang Zhou dumbstruck.
A sky covered in pitch-black cracks, endless volcanoes spewing flames, terrifying monsters roaming the land... With each breath, the smell of scorched earth and sulfur traveled through his nose into his lungs, bringing a faint burning sensation.
The rapidly advancing aerial view was so realistic that he was instantly immersed.
The terrifying apocalyptic scene also sent his heart racing.
His view suddenly plunged downward toward a ruined village on the surface.
The intense weightlessness made Jiang Zhou cry out involuntarily.
Just as his view was about to reach the ground, darkness suddenly engulfed it.
Then a massive, gridded wall of blue crystal appeared before him, stretching endlessly to either side and soaring into the sky.
Most of the wall's spaces were empty. Three hideous monsters were imprisoned in the starting cells at the very bottom.
A notification then sounded in Jiang Zhou's mind:
[Welcome to Monster World, Challenger. Please begin creating your Initial Character.]
At that moment, Jiang Zhou completely lost his composure.
It felt as though he had pinched his nose, ready to take a small bite of something disgusting, only to discover that it was a delicacy he had longed for and dreamed of.
The enormous contrast sent his emotions surging, and he could not help exclaiming:
"Holy shit! Holy fucking shit!"
Fifteen minutes later.
[Kindergarten junior class passionate chat group (online: 32)]
Xiao Ban-Black Ball: Honestly, I think the Eclipse Race's arrival was a good thing for humanity. Their base is on the moon, so they don't affect our living environment. They're much better than troublemaking factions like the Blazing Flame Race that came here as refugees.
Xiao Ban-Iron Hammer: Yeah, the Eclipse Race brought us humans loads of new technology and improved our quality of life. They've never oppressed us either. They're a very friendly alien faction, really. It's just their damn pricing!
Just then, Jiang Zhou returned after his long absence.
Xiao Ban-Drunken Milk: Guys, we have a serious problem!
Cute Kid replied to Xiao Ban-Drunken Milk: Got scammed again because you didn't turn on safety protection?
Junior class-Iron Hammer replied to Junior class-Cute Kid: Have you considered the possibility that Drunken Milk downloaded the real game? (smirk.jpg)
Faced with his groupmates' teasing, Jiang Zhou immediately typed a line and pressed Enter:
Xiao Ban-Drunken Milk: I really downloaded a genuine copy of Darklands. The game really does have the hundred-percent Virtual Reality advertised. It feels incredibly real. Hurry up and download it. Once you've installed it, we can explore it together.
Seeing Drunken Milk's reply, his groupmates responded with smirking emojis.
Xiao Ban-Marble: Do you believe Drunken Milk, or do you believe I'm Qin Shi Huang reincarnated? (smirk.jpg)
Iron Hammer replied to Marble: Of course I believe you're Qin Shi Huang reincarnated. I'll send you 50 in a bit. What title you grant me afterward is up to you. (smirk.jpg)
Faced with their disbelief, Jiang Zhou typed another line:
Xiao Ban-Drunken Milk: I swear on my dick, I'm absolutely not messing with you this time. Go download it. We can finally have fun playing together again.
As Jiang Zhou repeatedly assured them that they really could download Darklands, his groupmates' attitudes shifted slightly.
Junior class-Cute Kid: Holy shit, could this actually be real?
Xiao Ban-Iron Hammer: Knowing Drunken Milk, I don't think he'd joke about something like this.
Though they found it hard to believe, they still chose to trust their longtime friend and clicked the link to download the game.
Half an hour later.
Messages tagging group members and all kinds of "holy shit" flooded the chat.
Because the link Perks Officer had provided really did let them download a genuine copy of Darklands.
At that moment, Tong Xin, the kindergarten group's owner, was awakened from his sleep by the incessant notification sounds from being tagged.
Reaching under his pillow for his phone, he began scrolling through the group chat, still groggy from sleep.
"Principal, wake up! Something huge happened!"
"Principal, how can you still be sleeping at a time like this..."
Growing more alert with every message, Tong Xin abruptly got up, hurried to his computer, woke the screen, and clicked the pinned web link.
The screen switched to the download page, and he clicked "Download" without hesitation.
A notification popped up on the page:
[The game has reached its download limit. The publisher has not enabled further downloads. Unable to continue downloading.]
The pop-up instantly shattered Tong Xin's composure.
He immediately typed a line into the group chat:
Kindergarten Principal: Guys, why does this link have a download limit? It won't let me download anymore.
Xiao Ban-Drunken Milk: No idea, but I'll observe a second of silence for you.
Xiao Ban-Black Ball: Hahahaha, that's what you get for sleeping in. You even managed to miss a freebie worth 128,888. I can picture you gritting your teeth at your computer right now.
Xiao Ban-Iron Hammer: Sleeping ruins everything. At our age, we should be staying up all night. Look, we all got the night-owl perk, and you didn't.
Junior class-Cute Kid: Principal, only Perks Officer can save you now. Hurry up and kowtow in apology.
Kindergarten Principal: You guys are the worst... I'm going to find Perks Officer and get on my knees to apologize.
On the verge of a breakdown, Tong Xin promptly opened his system message list, found the information for Perks Officer, who had been kicked from the group, and selected "Add." A prompt appeared:
[Add "Perks Officer" as a friend?]
Below the prompt was a field for a message.
After a brief moment of thought, he typed an apology several hundred words long into the field, acknowledging his mistake to Perks Officer and expressing sincere remorse, hoping Perks Officer would be magnanimous and let bygones be bygones.
Tong Xin felt that even the essays he had written in school had never received such sincerity and care.
After repeatedly revising his wording, he pressed "Send request," filled with anticipation.
The next second, a notification appeared:
[Perks Officer has enabled blocking of friend requests from strangers. Friend request failed!]
Seeing the words in the notification, Tong Xin completely lost control of his emotions and slammed a fist onto the desk:
"Fuck!"