Ji He fought to keep the corners of his mouth under control as he scrolled to the bottom of the chat and saw the timestamp on the latest message-an hour ago.
"Ding."
A new message appeared:
"Bro, if you've got a gas leak at home, type 1 and I'll come save you. Granted, I don't know where you live, but luckily, I haven't gone anywhere either."
Ji He raised his eyebrows. Clearly, his friend had already... lost his mind.
He considered it for a few seconds before finally sending a meme:
[Seriously bro, you're being a real turnoff.jpg]
That was fast! [Chief Shit Appraisal Master] replied right away:
"Bro, you're not dead? Did you just wake up, or were you gaming all night?"
Ji He wanted to fire back at the first sentence, but the question in the second stopped him short-what he had just experienced might really have been a little bizarre, so bizarre that perhaps no one would believe it.
After organizing his thoughts, Ji He replied:
"What if I said those two things were essentially the same thing? Would you believe me?"
[Chief Shit Appraisal Master]: "How about you spell it out?"
[Do Some Farm Work]: "Meaning, I got to play a fully immersive game."
"(Shark fin.jpg), you think your daddy's that gullible?"
"Believe it or don't. (Melodious hometown profanity)."
The next test wouldn't open until eight that evening. By the time [Howling Pothos], Chang Nie, finished everything he had on hand, it was only just noon.
Thanks to the existence of World of Disorder, the hundreds upon hundreds of games in his library now felt dull. Chang Nie would rather conserve his energy for that evening's test than spend it on those games.
While listlessly scrolling through videos, he suddenly thought of somewhere he could get more information.
As everyone knew, before wikis and communities existed, the information on official websites was all players could get. Some games even took it a step further, adding strange little puzzle elements to their websites for players to uncover themselves.
Aside from being redirected to the questionnaire when he signed up, Chang Nie had never taken a close look at World of Disorder's official website.
To keep himself among the top tier of players, Chang Nie decided to deepen his understanding of the game a little and acquire more game-related knowledge, so he wouldn't throw his life away like [Good Times Don't Last] once he entered the game.
With that thought, Chang Nie quickly went back into work mode, clicking the link on the game's library page to open World of Disorder's official website.
He had already prepared by opening his screen-recording software, and he wished he could engrave every frame into his mind.
The entrance animation on World of Disorder's official website was exquisite and eerie. As it loaded, everything seemed to gradually resolve out of chaos, like a hatchling breaking out of its shell and seeing the world outside for the first time.
Considering the game's setting, the developers probably really wanted to convey the feeling of an ancient soul regaining a body.
Aside from the basic background, the most prominent part of the website, right in the center, was naturally the conspicuous pair of [Sign up] and [Closed beta questionnaire] sections. It didn't look much different from any normal game website.
Below the concept art was some basic setting information, broadly the same as Ed's lines during the tutorial, differing only in phrasing and narrative person.
Scrolling down, Chang Nie saw two new sections, [Map] and [Bestiary], and immediately raised his eyebrows-
Although he hadn't looked closely when signing up last time, Chang Nie had keen observational skills as a former professional player. He remembered that these two entries hadn't been there when he glanced over the webpage before.
In other words, the entries hadn't existed before testing began. These two sections had only appeared afterward.
A possibility suddenly occurred to Chang Nie, and he eagerly began checking it.
He clicked the [Map] section, and a yellowed scroll slowly unfurled before him.
The animation was extremely lifelike, and combined with the game's medieval fantasy setting, it fit the average person's stereotypical image of this kind of work even better.
Once the map unfolded, the first thing Chang Nie saw was the conspicuous shattered castle icon right in its center.
This was obviously the castle where they had all logged in. Whether they called it a respawn point or a fountain, that shattered castle floating in midair had certainly left an extremely deep impression on all four of them.
Next, Chang Nie compared what he had seen and heard while playing against the map, matching the symbols around the castle with his memories one by one.
Then he really did discover some issues-or rather, "Easter eggs"-
Leaving aside things like rivers, which the current players couldn't change yet, Chang Nie could still see one distinctly unusual symbol on the map: a simple drawing of a pile of logs, something that would never appear on an ordinary map.
Needless to say, these were the logs the four of them had personally chopped down, dragged over, and piled together a few hours earlier. There were also several monster symbols around the woodpile, but they had already been marked with an "×," their locations corresponding exactly to the Deadwood Vines they had killed.
"It's actually a real-time map?!"
Now Chang Nie was genuinely shocked. No wonder the clearly displayed area on the map was so small, with such abrupt edges. It turned out that the areas they hadn't set foot in were still covered by the fog of war.
If this thing updated daily-or, going a step further, in real time-it might even let people screen-peek. That really would make for an interesting memorable feature.
After all, there were so many games these days. Getting more people to play required not only polished production but also a few widely recognized little "memes" to make recruiting new players easier.
After thinking for a moment, Chang Nie left the [Map] section and clicked into [Bestiary] instead.
He had already guessed what would be displayed inside.
Sure enough, only three kinds of creatures appeared in the [Bestiary] section:
[Tree]: A normal, living perennial aberration that does not attack people and can produce a small amount of timber. Danger: none, level: /, distribution: extremely widespread. [Deadwood Vine]: An omnivorous aberration that accepts any plant matter but prefers sucking blood from animals. It lurks inside dead, hollow tree trunks, ready to deliver a lethal strike at any moment. Danger: low, level: 1-3, distribution: extremely widespread. [Vine Sheep]: An omnivorous aberration that generally feeds on grasses, but will also opt for an extra meal when a lone animal approaches its herd. Danger: low to moderate (depending on numbers), level: 1-3, distribution: open wilderness regions.
After reading the three bestiary entries, Chang Nie continued scrolling down with his mouse. Unfortunately, all the monsters below were only black silhouettes, and the rest of their information was obscured by garbled text.