Chapter 1: Piracy Link

【Latest News: The Eclipse Clan, after ten years of development, has officially launched the epoch-making virtual reality game "Dark Lands". Pre-orders are now open on major gaming platforms and the official website. The base game is priced at 128,888,...】

【Grind King Player Chat Group (Online: 10)】

So Poor I Eat Dirt (Admin): Brothers, Dark Lands sold one million copies in just ten minutes. What do you think?

Why Pay for Games?: What else can we think? Naturally, we watch the news. I'd love to buy it to experience it, but my wallet won't allow it.

Zero-Recharge Leopard: I've waited eight years for this game. My heart finally died when I saw the price. This price clearly leaves no room for ordinary players. Rumor has it the game also employs various new technologies to prevent cracking. People like us probably won't get a chance to play in our lifetimes, unless my plan to get rich off a wealthy woman makes new progress.

Family Sharing Godfather: What's even more tragic is that this game blocks external live streaming and recording functions. It's hard for us to find game videos to eat with, perfectly eliminating any possibility for us common players to peek at rich people playing games.

So Poor I Eat Dirt (Admin): Aaaaaah, I really want to play so badly. Just watching the early CG videos of the game built up my anticipation to the max, but then the release told me it's 128,888. If you had set it at 28,888, I would have gritted my teeth and bought it. At worst, I'd really eat dirt for a few months.

Just as the players in the chat group were wailing over the price of "Dark Lands", a sudden message appeared that caught their attention.

Welfare Officer: Actually, if you really want to play, I have a cracked version of "Dark Lands" here that can be played online normally.

So Poor I Eat Dirt replied to Welfare Officer: Don't brag, brother. A cracked version? Even buying the legitimate version requires queuing and snatching. The Eclipse Clan has issued a limited quota to our Human Federation. How could a cracked version appear on the very first day?

Zero-Recharge Leopard replied to Welfare Officer: Do you want to trick us into downloading SpongeBob and Teletubbies? By the way, who are you? I've never seen you in this group before?

Welfare Officer: I've posted the cracked version link in the group. If you want to play, just download and log in directly. Link address: ******.

Seeing that Welfare Officer really sent a download link in the group, but no members clicked to download.

Subconsciously believing this might be a scam link, clicking it could lead to heavy losses.

Just as the group members were cursing at Welfare Officer and preparing to kick him out, one member jumped out.

Game Grind Party: Brothers, don't panic. Let me download and test it. My bank card balance is only 20. Even if I get scammed, there's no real loss. As the saying goes, as long as you're poor enough, you're invincible. The damaging power of a scam is affected by one's wealth. For someone as poor as me, the damaging power is extremely limited. Everyone, wait for my reply.

Family Sharing Godfather replied to Game Grind Party: Godfather, go quickly and return quickly. Your children are here waiting for good news.

Human Federation, Tianfeng City.

South District, Slums.

Narrow alley walls are covered in moss and vines. The air is filled with an indescribable smell, a mixture of frying oil fumes, moldy odors, and unknown garbage scents.

Most houses here are low and dilapidated, mostly built with wood and iron sheets. On rainy days, they make "pili-pala" sounds, as if protesting the harsh living environment.

Night falls, and the old wooden house in the corner lights up with dim yellow light.

The view passes through the gaps in the wooden house, revealing a room covering less than 30 square meters.

Slurp!

Li Zheng sucked the remaining instant noodles in the bowl into his mouth in one go, chewed and swallowed them, let out a long sigh, reached out to throw the noodle box into the trash can beside the chair, pulled a tissue from the paper box, and wiped the oil stains from his mouth.

Glancing at the time in the bottom right corner of the computer screen, there was still one hour until the agreed broadcast time. Li Zheng stood up and went to the bathroom to start tidying his clothes.

In the mirror, he was 1.82 meters tall, with Bai Xi skin, wearing a black short-sleeved shirt, and sporting a clean crew cut. He was actually quite handsome.

Looking at himself in the mirror, Li Zheng couldn't help but sigh dejectedly.

His current job is a game grinder. He usually grinds in various popular games to provide resources for whale players in exchange for money. Occasionally, he also streams live to earn some extra income.

Recently, Dark Lands has become extremely popular. A large number of whale players have been attracted to that game, causing the income from the few games he currently grinds to decline at a visible speed.

The most tragic thing in life is that a person is still alive, but the money is gone.

He took out his phone from his pocket. It displayed the latest payment notification.

【Your savings card ending in 3584 has consumed 329 for purchasing a Grade D nutrient solution. Balance: 21. Would you like to activate the account protection function? This function will protect your account funds.】

Using a six-digit bank card password to protect a two-digit deposit, Li Zheng felt it was hardly necessary.

Arriving at the computer desk, the game download progress bar reached 95%. It would take another three minutes to experience the game.

Glancing at the chat group still discussing "Dark Lands" enthusiastically, Li Zheng felt the probability of being deceived was 99.99%.

"Dark Lands" was produced by the Eclipse Clan using the most advanced virtual reality technology, with numerous core technologies designed to prevent cracking. The possibility of it being cracked on the very first day of release was nearly zero.

Even the virtual reality game "Land of Sin" released by the Eclipse Clan five years ago has not yet produced a cracked version.

But he still decided to download and try it, even though he knew the ending would most likely be the gourd brothers saving their grandfather.

Watching one episode does no harm.

Five minutes later.

The game download completed. Li Zheng decompressed the file and transferred it to the game pod connected to the computer, then pressed "Game Adaptation".

Before experiencing the game, he decided to ask for leave from the fans in his live stream first.

He had originally scheduled a live stream with his fans for 8 PM tonight, but now he had to experience the "fake game", inevitably missing the time.

With a hint of apology, he took out his phone, opened the fan group, edited the message, and sent it:

"Sorry, an urgent matter has arisen. Tonight's 8 PM live stream is cancelled."

Before he could put down his phone, a group member gave a reply:

"Anyway, no one watches. One day isn't enough. Suggest taking a few more days off. If not, just take annual leave."

Then came a string of copycat replies.

Li Zheng:...

The fans' replies dealt a heavy blow to Li Zheng.

Just then, the green light indicating adaptation completion lit up on the game pod beside the computer desk.

"Forget it, let's watch one episode of the gourd brothers saving their grandfather to calm my nerves."

After changing the game server, he came to the game pod, pressed the open button, and the semi-transparent lid slowly opened.

He lay sideways into the game pod. The lid fell shut. Nutrient solution flowed out from Kong Dong around the sides to wrap around his body, and neural connection tubes automatically connected to various parts of his body.

The scene before his eyes spun wildly before arriving at the virtual interface.

There were 12 games on it. The one at the very bottom was the newly downloaded Dark Lands. The game icon was a monster surrounded by burning crimson flames.

"As expected, something is wrong."

He had seen the login icon for the Dark Zone on the news; it was a pitch-black sharp sword, which did not match the monster icon at all.

"Damn liar!"

While cursing inwardly, Li Zheng still chose to press the game icon and launch the game.

"Gourd Boy, launch!"

(_) Newcomer reporting, please take care of me.

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(End of this chapter)