Chapter 13: Fan Zui Gang

Emperor Tomb Village.

Underground space.

Qi Sheng sat cross-legged on the Primordial Sacrifice Altar, his mind continuously scrolling through feedback information from the Real-World Network provided by the Guide, searching for suitable recruitment targets.

For the third round of recruitment, he already had a clear direction regarding which targets to select.

The players who entered the Monster World in the first and second batches all shared a common trait: they never spent real money in the game, or spent very little, and some even tried to earn money from the game.

Especially the grind-heavy players; while playing games, they also relied on them to make a living.

Therefore, this time he planned to recruit a batch of players with the financial means to spend money, making the in-game ecosystem more complete while enhancing the circulation of items and sacrificial power.

Only by solving the real-world problems of these gold-farming players could they continue playing the game better, creating more sacrificial power revenue for him.

11: 0 PM.

Foglight City.

Located adjacent to the sea, this city was an important port of the Human Federation. Since its founding, thick fog had perennially rolled in from the sea, requiring lighthouses to guide navigation, hence the name Foglight City.

The night was hazy, yet some found it hard to sleep.

Inside a luxurious villa in the northern district of Foglight City, a graceful woman in pajamas held a tablet, her eyes locked tightly on the countdown timer displayed on the official Land of Darkness website.

"Please, I must win this."

Pressing her palms together, Li Siyu prayed with a devout expression.

As time passed, her expression grew increasingly tense, and sweat even began to seep from her palms.

Just then, the countdown timer on the official website hit zero.

Li Siyu's poised fingers struck like a machine gun pulling its trigger, turning into a blur as she frantically clicked, but the webpage popped up a notification box:

【This qualification purchase has ended. Regrettably, you have failed to obtain a purchase qualification for 'Land of Darkness'.】

"Damn it!"

Overwhelmed by emotion, Li Siyu fiercely threw the tablet onto the bed.

This was already her third attempt to snatch up a qualification for the game 'Land of Darkness', yet she had failed without surprise each time, not even managing to reach the payment page.

She had been looking forward to the game 'Land of Darkness' for a long time.

Before the game's release, she had sold her account for 'Conquest' at a low price, preparing to devote all her energy to 'Land of Darkness'.

She never expected to stumble before even starting, getting stuck at the purchase stage.

With a total population of 2 billion in the Human Federation, even with a price tag as high as 128, 88, the qualifications were still in short supply.

Most importantly, the platform distributing and selling the game was directly connected to the official website and operated under the supervision of the Moon Eclipse Clan, making it impossible to obtain through connections.

Furthermore, before purchasing, one had to bind an ID card, making resale impossible.

This meant that having money did not guarantee one could buy the game; luck was the key factor.

After venting her emotions for a while, Li Siyu picked up the tablet again, opened the contact list in the bottom right corner, found the group chat, and began to complain.

【Fan Zui Gang (Online: 21 people)】

I failed to get the purchase qualification again—what about you guys? 【36】 This company is so stingy with distribution; the Moon Eclipse Clan's virtual servers could easily handle more players. Using hunger marketing is truly disgusting.

Ao Ye Yu Ye Xiao: What else could it be? I stared until my eyes blurred, clicking frantically a minute early, only to be told this round of applications failed; my fists are nearly crushed from clenching.

Xia Ren Zhu Xin: ( Min ) Distributing qualifications so stingily; the Moon Eclipse Clan's virtual servers could easily accommodate more players. Using hunger marketing is truly disgusting.

Zhe He Li Ma: Sleep, sleep. Didn't get it again. The next distribution won't be for several more days. By then, we'll be a week behind the earlier batches of players in development. Big Sister's dream of establishing a top-tier guild is gradually crumbling.

word ma ya: Limited qualifications are one thing, but binding them to ID cards and blocking other purchase channels leaves no way out. Why is playing a game so difficult?

Bai Lan Xian Yu: Trash game. I've waited several years for this; I cannot accept such a result. I'll try ten more rounds at most; if I still can't get it, I'm going back to 'Conquest'.

Just as the group members were furiously cursing the Moon Eclipse Clan's hunger marketing, a stranger suddenly joined the group.

【Welfare Officer has joined this group.】

This notification instantly left the group members stunned.

The Fan Zui group had not seen a new member in two years because the group settings blocked strangers from joining.

Suddenly seeing a newcomer join, with no prefix indicating who invited them, left the group members extremely puzzled.

Before any group member could speak, the newly joined Welfare Officer proactively sent a message:

Welfare Officer: Heard you guys want to play 'Land of Darkness'. I have a free cracked version download qualification here. The link is posted in the group; take it if you need it (Link address:...)

Before anyone could ask questions, the Welfare Officer swiftly left the group.

This maneuver completely baffled the group members.

Their first thought was that this scammer named Welfare Officer was far too impatient, sending a phishing link immediately upon entering the group, which was simply an insult to their intelligence.

No sane person would fall for it.

However, the group leader, Li Siyu, had a different thought.

After the Welfare Officer exited the chat group, she opened the detailed information page to check and discovered that this person had no IP address displayed.

In this era of universal online identity verification, netizens' IP addresses were public; hiding them was impossible.

More importantly, the chat group she had created had search-blocking enabled, making it fundamentally impossible for outsiders to add themselves.

The ability to easily bypass the chat restrictions maintained by the Moon Eclipse Clan and enter the group proved that this Welfare Officer possessed an extremely high level of technical skill.

"Could it really be a cracked version of Land of Darkness?"

As soon as this absurd thought surfaced in her mind, Li Siyu couldn't help but shake her head.

In her view, the technology of the Moon Eclipse Clan was fundamentally impossible to crack.

None of the previous virtual games had any cracked versions online, let alone 'Land of Darkness' after its technological upgrade.

But the Welfare Officer had successfully piqued her curiosity.

With nothing else to do, driven by curiosity, Li Siyu decided to investigate.

After activating her network protection functions, she clicked the link address.

The webpage that popped up was extremely crude, nearly a completely blank page, with only a downloadable compressed package located in the center.

Such a crude webpage, along with a scam tactic that treated others like idiots, only deepened the curiosity in Li Siyu's heart.

She wanted to know the reason behind the Welfare Officer's actions; was this merely a prank?

She clicked the download icon on the webpage.

Immediately, a download-in-progress notification and a percentage progress bar appeared in the top right corner of the screen.

Time reached 12: 0.

Ding!

The compressed package finished downloading. Li Siyu swiped her hand across the tablet, transmitting the extracted files wirelessly to the Obsidian Limited Edition Game Pod located in the corner of the room.

Three minutes later, the game pod lit up with a green light indicating adaptation was complete.

At this moment, Li Siyu also rose from the bed.

After changing into a set of game suit, she entered the game pod and pressed the 'Start' button; immediately, the translucent pod cover slowly lowered.

"I'm going to see exactly what's inside this!"

(End of Chapter)