In a simple carriage, [ Good Times Don't Last ] and [ Shit Appraisal Master ] are enjoying the genuine joy that the game brings.
Although the "horse's" rear end had split open, revealing a half-rotten body and parts replaced by plant tissue, and although the carriage beneath them was just a large piece of spliced wooden plank with two wheels, without railings or a canopy, this did not prevent the two from being completely absorbed in it.
They chose their direction according to the map, letting the fairly docile horse roam freely across the wilderness. Then, the two of them leaned against the box of fruit behind them and began to enjoy life, swaying gently in the breeze.
[ The Good Times Don't Last ]: "Just a week ago, I never dreamed I'd be able to play a game like this... With this kind of technical skill, this company will succeed at anything."
[ Shit Appraisal Master ]: "You're right. Before getting access to the closed beta, I initially thought it was just a reskinned version or a product from a scam company, but... how should I put it..."
He was speechless for a moment. The affluent life in the real world made the spiritual world of Yu Yun, the " Shit Appraisal Master," feel somewhat empty. Even though he was now extremely satisfied, he always felt that he could not express himself and could not describe his true thoughts.
He truly immersed himself in the role, imagining that perhaps hundreds or even thousands of years ago, countless similar people in his world, whether in the East or the West, were traveling along similar trade routes, and he found the game incredibly engaging.
[ The Good Times Don't Last ]: "I don't know if you feel the same way, but although the game added those quest systems and other systems, I actually feel that the game is more realistic."
[ Shit Appraisal Master ]: "I have a similar feeling. It's probably not just because of that. Even in real life, we have tasks, it's just not shown like in the game. As for currency and banks, we can't live without them. Before, this game felt a bit like a utopia or a primitive society to me. I know that kind of model can't last forever, there will always be a day when things change. Fortunately, I'm very satisfied with the current optimization."
[ The Good Times Don't Last long] He nodded in strong agreement:
"It's this sense of realism that makes me feel a little... oh dear!"
After a brief moment of being lifted into the air, the two felt something was wrong with one side of the carriage, but before they could react, they fell to the left and tumbled off the carriage side by side.
The sudden impact left the two somewhat dazed, initially thinking that enemies or Aberration had appeared around them.
But looking at the clear [neutral zone] indicator in my field of vision, I felt that things were not quite as I had thought.
[ The Good Times Don't Last ] Seeing the cart had turned into a sloping platform, he quickly bent down to check it.
What happened?
[ The Shit Appraisal Master ] rubbed his neck and asked. The impact seemed to have twisted his neck, and he was trying to twist it back into place himself.
"Well."
[ The Good Times Don't Last ] He stood up with a gloomy face and complained:
"I didn't expect a place like this to be so realistically recreated..."
"What's going on down there? My neck is twisted and I can't see."
"My axle broke. Do you know how to fix a car?"
"..."
The Shit Appraisal Master," who had been rubbing his neck, froze in mid-air, as if about to hurl a curse, but ultimately only uttered a sarcastic remark:
"Wow, awesome."
[ The Good Times Don't Last.] After rearranging the scattered fruit, he picked up two axes from the cart:
"It doesn't seem like a big problem. We can just find a suitable tree, cut it down, and graft it on."
The [ Shit Appraisal Master ] took the axe and casually asked:
"Okay, but can you tell the difference between a tree and a monster?"
"No problem. I spent all night looking at the encyclopedia yesterday, and I even know what time the ' Boxing Champion ' encyclopedia entry is updated. That entry was later modified by ' Muninn,' which is the official alt account. There must have been some inaccuracies in it."
"Really? I remember he said he added the [ Rat King ], right? What's it written there?"
[ The Good Times Don't Last. ] His eyes rolled upwards, darting around aimlessly, as he recalled the entries he'd seen the night before, and he said—
"[00007 Rat King ]: A composite monster composed of a large number of 00006 Thorn Rat. It has high attack power and a considerable maximum health. It has no blind spots and a keen sense of smell. When fighting, it approaches its prey by rolling and then bites and scratches. It will gnaw on its target at a high attack frequency. It has been confirmed that iron weapons cannot survive the bite."
"Suggested combat strategy: 3-6 person team combat, use terrain advantages to set up traps and pits, the person with higher physique should lure the Rat King into the trap and continuously deplete its health. If there are no paralyzing weapons, it will take many repetitions to kill it. The target has extremely high health, so you need to pay attention to kiting during the battle (Editor: Great Wei Boxing Champion )"
" Rat King Habits: A single Rat King will only exist for one night. It usually appears after complete darkness and disperses spontaneously at dawn. Its main prey consists of carrion and slow-moving creatures, and it is difficult to catch agile prey."
" Rat King Summoning Conditions: There is a chance that Rat King Core will be generated when there are rat swarms distributed within a four-square-kilometer area and the number of medium to large-sized animal corpses exceeds four. This will induce the Rat King to appear. Increasing the number of corpses can increase the probability and level of the Rat King's appearance."
"Hazard level: Medium, Grade: 3-8, Distribution: Sparse woodland area (Editor: Muninn )."
In a world that has not yet fallen into chaos, the young man in front of the computer continued to scroll down the mouse wheel and found that nothing had changed. Only then did he realize that he had scrolled to the end of the entry.
"There's something there..."
The young man scratched his head and muttered to himself:
"It borrows the concept of the European ' Rat King ' phenomenon, but it fits the worldview perfectly, and there's nothing out of place about it."
"Although it is a rat, the birth process of the Rat King is somewhat similar to that of Swarm and an ant colony. The Rat King Core is clearly modeled after the queen bee and the queen ant."
"So what exactly is the logic behind this behemoth's actions? Does it follow the core's instructions or act independently?"
"No, it's impossible for them to act independently, otherwise thousands of rats would never be able to coordinate their actions... But what if these rats were to discuss things together? That would be terrifying... Basic democratic behavior has even emerged within the rat colony..."
The young man scratched his head again, his mind filled with conflicting thoughts.
As a researcher who had some free time recently, he inevitably came across that viral puzzle video while browsing videos these past two days, and like many other viewers, he was drawn to this website.
He wasn't a puzzle enthusiast; he had only intended to bookmark it as a fun website, but he ended up accidentally clicking on the official website's biological encyclopedia.
During the day of boredom due to the server shutdown, players who had their photo system enabled had already uploaded real photos of monsters 00001-00007.
The young man was greatly shocked after seeing the photographs, which were not drawn.
The reason is simple: he's a biology major, and the creatures in these photos... are a bit too crazy.
Driven by impulse and curiosity, a young man Li Yu began to carefully fill out the questionnaire for obtaining beta test eligibility.