Chapter 539: Version Update

Nearly three weeks had passed since the 【Reset to Zero】 mission; the system broadcast ringing out now meant some player had been trapped somewhere within a Killing Field entity for twenty days—a truly unfortunate soul.

Guilds could confirm whether members had died by checking if corpses were teleported back from transmission points and whether avatars in friend lists had turned gray.

However, in rare cases, players were still alive but trapped somewhere within a Killing Field entity, having lost consciousness and control over their bodies.

The Killing Field System stipulated that players could not hide indefinitely in Backstreets to seek refuge; it would forcibly eject those Transcendents who had not returned to real Earth for a long time, with this threshold set at fourteen days.

Those who failed to show themselves for over fourteen days would be listed as MIA (Missing in Action), triggering procedures for funerals, family compensation, and insurance payouts.

If someone suddenly rose from the dead after their funeral had already concluded, one could hardly avoid a hellish joke scenario straight out of a Hollywood movie: an American soldier eagerly returning home only to find his family believed him dead, his wife having met a new love at a psychological support group and instructing the children to call the new man "Dad."

Li Cheng was quite curious about the system update, while the crowd from the Special Affairs Bureau wore solemn expressions and crisply packed away all their custom-made props.

Director Xing Hechou said, "Brother Pi Fu, we'll head back to the Bureau first; we'll send over the next batch of cultural relics in a few days. Let's stay in touch."

"Leaving already? Why not stay for a meal? I happened to cook too much to finish it all."

Li Cheng spoke politely, casually pulling tray after tray of suspiciously sourced, washed large intestines, two-meter-long femur bones, and pork belly with skin from the freezer.

The young agents of the Special Affairs Bureau screamed wildly in their hearts, 'Holy crap, dude, why does this pork belly have tattoos?!'

"Rest assured, this is just meat from a pig demon that achieved sentience."

Li Cheng smiled faintly, rubbing his chin with slight puzzlement. "According to the customer who sold me this slab of meat, that pig demon cultivated for several hundred years to achieve sentience and assume human form; it possessed immense strength, which was no small feat."

"It's just unknown why over a hundred muscle-building and strengthening veterinary drugs like clenbuterol and ractopamine could be detected in the pork. A mosquito sucking a single drop of its blood would instantly mutate into a Carboniferous giant mosquito."

Why, indeed? So hard to guess.

The crowd from the Special Affairs Bureau offered awkward, apologetic smiles, filed out of the office one by one, and hurriedly shut the door.

Swish.

Hearing the sound of the closing door, Hui Yu somewhat confusedly and blankly removed his headphones. "What was that sound? Did a thief break into the house?"

???

Did you not see all those Special Affairs Bureau agents present just now? Did you devote your entire brain to prediction betting?

Li Cheng's eye twitched; he flicked Hui Yu on the forehead, producing a crisp sound.

The first order with the Special Affairs Bureau had provided him with a large amount of game currency, but this was not the time to settle accounts. Li Cheng sat at his computer desk and quickly browsed the forum.

All players had heard the Killing Field broadcast just now, and notification emails were clearly visible in the mailboxes of their personal panels.

The last so-called version update occurred at the junction between the first batch of Pioneers and the second, directly creating the current landscape where major guilds carve out territories and stand in opposition to one another.

Now facing another version update, forum traffic surged instantly; webpages lagged, and repeated clicks to refresh still displayed the previous hot posts.

【100 Suggestions for Newbies #55: After killing someone, place a bowl of snail rice noodles at the door to mask the smell of the corpse】

【Real-name report: A 4S shop under the Thousand-Throated Beast Guild is rigged; they forcibly evolved my Green Caterpillar into Rayquaza】

【Seeking clicks, seeking follows: Personal mission record #23, Full-Time Expert and Reincarnated Without a Job same-series mission—Reincarnated Without Duty; I, detained for holding two jobs, continue my journey of corruption in another world】 Reincarnated Without Duty seemed a bit too outrageous,

but when posting, players could opt into the incentive program to earn money from advertisers based on click counts, so these posts were quite full of吐槽-worthy highlights.

Li Cheng restrained himself from clicking in, pressing F5 to refresh relentlessly until he finally managed to load the webpage.

As expected, new posts erupted like an explosion, all discussing the system notification just received.

"Version updated?! Will this raise the level cap?"

"It might raise the level cap, but raising it seems unlikely. Currently, fewer than twenty Earth players have reached Lv40, so there's no need to elevate the cap. By my estimate, this update will most likely modify the Mall system, reducing the refresh probability of meaningless items."

The forum was extremely lively; some guessed the version update would expand the player scale, others guessed the system would add new potion types,

and some even guessed the Killing Field was done pretending, preparing to transform all billions of Earthlings into players, predicting firearm and ammunition prices would skyrocket, and hinting that everyone should visit their arms shop to purchase and stockpile in bulk.

Li Cheng scanned ten lines at a glance, rapidly browsing posts and sifting through fragmented clues amidst the sea of information.

Major guilds in the real world simultaneously convened mid-to-high-level personnel for online meetings; evidently, based on patterns from previous years, they had learned something in advance.

The five permanent members of the UN Security Council collectively entered combat readiness; aircraft carriers left port, fighter jets took to the sky, and internet controls were widely implemented.

Ordinary people on real Earth went to work and school as usual, scrolling through their phones, unaware that just one wall away, the atmosphere in the Transcendent World was oppressively solemn.

Finally, amidst endless speculation and doubt, the system broadcast rang out again.

【Within World ZXVCT10041, namely 'Earth', the quantity and quality of the Chosen have met requirements; the Killing Field Game will now advance to Phase Three.】

【This update revolves around system performance optimization, interface interaction upgrades, and mission release formats; for more detailed implementation rules, please refer to the 'About the Killing Field Game and Help' section in the player panel.】

【A large-scale event, 'Elegy of Kings,' will be introduced subsequently; stay tuned.】

【The final right of interpretation for the above content belongs to the Killing Field Game.】

Classic final right of interpretation.

Li Cheng sat in his boss chair, lost in thought, hands propped under his chin, his glasses reflecting the light of the chandelier.

As the saying goes, the fewer the words, the bigger the matter. The update announcement, barely over a hundred characters, contained an enormous amount of information.

First was the Killing Field's method of describing Earth; it actually assigned Earth the number ZXVCT10041, just like players, indirectly proving the main universe theory told to Li Cheng by that wheelchair-bound scientist's oracle—that Earth is not special.

Second was the specific update content, comprising dozens of items large and small; indeed, the forum veterans had guessed quite a few of them correctly.

For instance, slightly shortening the daily refresh time for each player's personal Mall, lowering the refresh probability of Broken and Common quality items, and increasing the appearance rate of potions.

Slightly expanding the selection scale for the Chosen and balancing the selection frequency for those without native souls—the term 'without native souls' was highly indicative; bio-humans mass-produced via cloning technology by guilds like Prometheus could hardly be said to possess souls.

Li Cheng quickly scanned the update details, his gaze suddenly stopping at the 【Mission Release Format】 section.

【In Phase Three, the matching opponents for Chosen in Deathmatch missions will no longer be limited to the same crystal wall system. This update will be gradually applied to Scenario Missions, Routine Missions, and Punishment Missions.】

No longer limited to the same crystal wall system. In other words, in the future, matches would frequently include Transcendents from other worlds, or even non-human players?!