Chapter 231: The Truth of the Game, the Race Easter Egg

The Moon, Eclipse City.

Monster World Special Briefing.

The notice the Eclipse Clan released a day early drew the attention of members from every race in the Earth Alliance.

Different groups entered the briefing livestream with different needs.

Members of every race who hadn't obtained qualification all hoped this special briefing would bring the good news of a large-scale distribution of Monster World qualifications.

Especially the tourists who spent every day on the Monster World forums or in the livestream rooms.

Although they didn't have player qualification, watching others play Monster World had already become a pleasure in their lives.

Among them were quite a few players who had purchased Dark Lands game qualification early on.

Compared to Monster World, Dark Lands wasn't just a little worse—it was like an old game lagging several eras behind.

Originally they could have enjoyed playing Dark Lands, until the Eclipse Clan publicly unveiled Monster World.

They instantly felt the sky had collapsed.

Especially after Monster World officially launched and they got a preliminary experience of the content through the tourist perspective.

To quote a certain player online: The Eclipse Clan are real beasts—they let the ones who paid eat shit, while the freeloaders get a lavish feast!

Once this group of tourists entered the livestream room, they began spamming the screen.

They demanded the Eclipse Clan must distribute qualifications as soon as possible, or even cancel the qualification restrictions and open it up completely, so that members of every Earth race could experience this top-tier virtual game called Monster World.

Players who had already obtained Monster World qualification, on the other hand, were hoping this briefing would mention optimizations to the game's content.

For example, improving settings like the difficulty of obtaining Shou Shou Jili and the slow pace of player growth, so players could have a more exhilarating gaming experience.

Ideally, a batch of Shou Shou Jili would be distributed regularly.

Like the sign-in check-in mode from ancient games, where you check in once a day to receive 100 points of Shou Shou Jili.

Or check in a certain number of times each week to receive an extra batch of Shou Shou Jili.

Using this method to alleviate the difficulty of advancement caused by insufficient Shou Shou Jili.

The number of viewers in the Monster World special briefing livestream room skyrocketed to over 5 billion an hour before it began, and was still surging.

Bullet comments were directly blocked from being sent, and the text in the comment section was displayed by region—otherwise the spam text would have made the content impossible to see.

You could barely read a single character before hundreds of thousands of bullet comments would push that comment flying off the screen.

Representatives and reporters from every race stationed with the Eclipse Clan had long gathered at the Monster World special briefing venue, ready to seize this opportunity to ask the Eclipse Clan's executives some questions about Monster World.

Normally, the Eclipse Clan wouldn't reveal any content about Monster World at all.

This briefing was undoubtedly their best chance to obtain key information.

While waiting, Number One, wearing a black executive uniform, appeared, and the entire venue instantly fell silent.

Only the livestream room continued to be lively.

Executive Number One walked slowly up to the podium, and after standing still, his gaze calmly turned toward the livestream camera.

The face presented in the livestream was handsome and bright, with well-defined yet not sharp contours, elf-like slender ears, and features combined just right—neither flamboyant nor lacking in elegance—giving a feeling of warmth and composure.

He lowered his head at this moment to scan the attendees from every race gathered below the podium, and gave a slight nod as a greeting.

When he raised his head, his deep blue eyes once again looked straight at the livestream camera, and he smiled:

"Reporter friends from every race, and netizens from every race watching the livestream—good afternoon, everyone." His voice was warm and clear, carrying a reassuring power that instantly bridged the distance with everyone.

"The reason we're holding this briefing today is mainly to answer a series of questions that have been causing you great confusion."

"Now let's get to the main topic."

"I'm sure everyone must be very curious about what the meaning is behind our Eclipse Clan investing massive resources and effort into creating the game Monster World."

"There are many answers to this question on the Star Net, even conspiracy theories, claiming that our Eclipse Clan wants to control players through the game. Those ideas are completely baseless, but there is one viewpoint that guessed our core purpose."

"Before our Eclipse Clan came to Earth, we had once experienced an unprecedented catastrophe. This catastrophe ultimately forced us to abandon our former homeland, splitting into five groups to flee to different worlds. One of those groups arrived on Earth carrying the Star Net supercomputer brain—that is the main branch of the Eclipse Clan where I belong."

"We did not experience this period of history ourselves, but it has always been recorded in our annals."

"To prevent such events from happening again, the Star Net proposed the Virtual War Plan—training troops through virtual worlds. This gave birth to a series of virtual games with warfare as the main theme, including the previous Conquest series, Sin Lands, and Dark Lands."

"Players who have played these virtual games will notice that every virtual game has many similar monster settings, such as the Black Tide."

"And Monster World is a virtual game personally created by the Star Net, combining entertainment and warfare, providing us with a more complete training ground. All new technologies can be tested within the scenarios of Monster World."

……

As the explanation progressed, the mysterious Monster World in the eyes of every race unveiled its veil.

Back then, a "rumor" had circulated online, saying that virtual games were actually created by the Eclipse Clan for troop training.

This could be discerned from the high-intensity racial confrontations within the games.

It's just that this viewpoint never received a clear answer from the Eclipse Clan.

But this time, Executive Number One gave an answer and confirmed this conjecture.

During the Q&A segment, a Human reporter stood up, a hint of urgency in his tone:

"Good day, Executive Number One. After hearing your account, do you believe the catastrophe the Eclipse Clan's ancestors experienced could also appear on Earth?"

Executive Number One shook his head slightly, his expression steady and calm:

"What the future holds, we have no way of knowing. All we can do is actively prepare for war. As long as we ourselves are strong enough, even if a catastrophe descends, we will have the ability to respond."

The reporter immediately followed up:

"Every race is now very interested in the game Monster World and hopes to obtain more game qualifications. Why is the Eclipse Clan distributing game qualifications so slowly?"

Executive Number One nodded, a hint of solemnity in his gaze:

"This is exactly the next issue I am about to explain."

He paused briefly, his tone even yet forceful:

"After the official website opened, regardless of whether one obtained qualification, everyone could experience that the realism of the game Monster World has reached the level of perfectly replicating the real world. Every detail players feel in the game—from sight, hearing, to touch, even emotional feedback—is supported by our most advanced technology."

"However, this extreme level of realism also places enormous pressure on the servers. Every single player's connection consumes massive computational resources. To ensure the game's smoothness and stability, we must strictly control the number of players and gradually open up qualifications."

"Recently, we have begun shutting down Server A and redirecting resources to Server B—that is, the Monster World server everyone has been experiencing. Because of this, the speed at which we issue game qualifications has already been accelerated."

"In the near future, we will continue to add new servers to Monster World and further speed up the issuance of player qualifications."

"We understand the enthusiasm players of every race feel for Monster World, but in order to ensure that every player gets the best experience, and to avoid technical and experiential problems caused by server overload, we can only take a cautious approach. Please believe that we are doing everything we can to optimize the system and will expand the scope of qualification issuance as quickly as possible."

"Here, on behalf of the Eclipse Clan, I make this promise to the players of every race in the Earth Alliance: Monster World is permanently free—it is a gift from the Star Web Yu Quan Shi Jie."

The answer from Executive Officer No. 1 drew applause from the room.

This answer did not dodge the important content; it candidly touched on the core philosophy behind creating Monster World.

As well as the slow issuance of qualifications caused by insufficient technology.

It both addressed the reporters' questions and soothed every race's expectations for the game.

After the human-race reporter sat down, a reporter of the Strike-Breaker Clan stood up:

"Executive Officer No. 1, hello."

After receiving a nod from the executive officer, the Strike-Breaker Clan reporter immediately asked:

"Recently, I've been following the Monster World forums every day, as well as player comments in the livestream rooms, and I've found that everyone is very dissatisfied with the speed at which the in-game currency Shou Shou Jili is obtained. Players feel that their growth is too slow. Why can't the Shou Shou Jili acquisition rate be raised, or even more channels for obtaining Shou Shou Jili be developed?"

Executive Officer No. 1 nodded slightly, briefly organized his words, and explained:

"Regarding the issue of there being no extra in-game benefits and the inability to raise Shou Shou Jili income, the most fundamental reason is that Monster World is managed by the Star Web. We have no right to participate in it, nor can we influence any of its in-game development."

"But I imagine this answer certainly won't satisfy everyone. Next, I will explain this issue from the Star Web's perspective."

"First, starting from the core philosophy of the game's design: the original intention of Monster World is not merely an entertainment tool, but also a highly realistic virtual ecosystem. The Star Web hopes to use this platform to let players experience a nearly real process of survival and growth. In this world, the acquisition of resources, and even the improvement of abilities, all need to be achieved through effort. Shou Shou Jili, as the core in-game currency, is scarce precisely to maintain the balance of this ecosystem."

"If we casually increase Shou Shou Jili income or offer extra benefits, that would not only destroy the game's balance, but also weaken the sense of achievement players get from obtaining Shou Shou Jili through exploration and challenge. We have always believed that true fun comes from overcoming difficulties and the process of reaching goals, not from simply piling on rewards."

As he spoke, Executive Officer No. 1's gaze swept across the room, and he continued:

"Furthermore, over-issuing Shou Shou Jili would lead to inflation, ultimately affecting every player's game experience. The Star Web hopes, through this design, to let players learn to plan their use in-game, or to obtain higher Shou Shou Jili output through cooperation."

Finally, Executive Officer No. 1's tone softened somewhat:

"Of course, the Star Web is also listening to player feedback, and in the future will optimize the in-game experience based on actual circumstances."

"For example, the gradually increasing number of slots in the Death Space instances, the Spirit Fields issued to players after each containment, new features going online every so often… these are all improvements the Star Web has made for the player experience."

"But the prerequisite is that the balance and sustainability of Monster World must be maintained. Surely everyone has noticed that there are many powerful races in this game, and the players' strength is hardly considered powerful."

"Because the future of this game will be a relay of effort across several generations. Our children and grandchildren will stand on our shoulders and continue, in the name of the Player Clan, to explore, grow, and rise in Monster World. Every bit of effort we make now is paving the way for those who come after; every accumulation is laying the foundation for future glory."

"You can think of Monster World as a grand expedition for Earth players in a virtual world. Our generation may not see the final outcome, but our persistence and struggle in Monster World will become the cornerstone upon which the next several generations move forward. Through every accumulation of Shou Shou Jili, every improvement in strength, let the Player Clan rise from the bottom in Monster World and ultimately become a force that cannot be ignored on the Shijiewutai."

"So, please understand, players—we are not restricting your growth, but planning for a longer-term future. The journey of Monster World has only just begun, and every one of us is a writer of this history."

Executive Officer No. 1's explanation was tightly logical and full of persuasiveness, and once again drew applause from the room.

Afterwards, more reporters stood up one after another, asking Executive Officer No. 1 many questions about Monster World.

Executive Officer No. 1 organized his words on the spot each time and gave clear answers.

The briefing then moved into the segment for expanding on categorized topics.

The second-to-last topic was: the definition of real-world racial talents versus in-game character talents.

This was also a question many players who had obtained qualifications couldn't figure out.

Why could the Greenwood Clan possess talent abilities far stronger than players of other races, and even unlock hidden scenes?

"Regarding the definition of race and in-game character, I need to mention a hidden setting in Monster World: Racial Benefits."

"The so-called Racial Benefits are an Easter egg the Star Web embedded in Monster World when designing it, and every race has its own specific racial Easter egg."

"So far, two races have had their Racial Benefit Easter eggs developed."

"They are the Human Clan players and the Greenwood Clan players."

After hearing Executive Officer No. 1's answer, the livestream chat was instantly filled with question marks, almost all of them comments from Human Clan players.

Speaking of racial talents, their Human Clan players didn't have a single hair's worth, not even as good as the Gill-Fish Clan who could breathe underwater.

Executive Officer No. 1 continued his explanation at this point:

"The racial Easter eggs in the game are made based on the real-world situations of each race. Human Clan players have the largest population, so the racial Easter egg they trigger is the 'Special Recruitment' designed by the Star Web. This is also why Human Clan players make up such a huge proportion in the game—when it comes to grabbing qualifications, they have a higher probability of obtaining them compared to players of other races."

"The Greenwood Clan's situation is similar. The hidden racial Easter egg they trigger is a major enhancement of their Nature Affinity talent, granting them the ability to communicate with nature, and even to control it."

"Here I must apologize to the Greenwood Clan once again. When the Star Web designed the hidden racial Easter eggs, it referenced a large amount of each race's real-world history, mythology, and other content, and then sorted out racial benefit Easter eggs that fit each race's characteristics from these materials. That's how the situation of partially rewriting Greenwood Clan history came about."

"As for what the benefit Easter eggs of the other races are, you'll need to trigger them through exploration in Monster World. I don't know the specifics myself—after all, Monster World is managed directly by the Star Web. Even we members of the Eclipse Clan don't receive any special treatment, and we ourselves don't even know what the Eclipse Clan's racial benefit Easter egg in the game is."

After hearing Executive Officer No. 1's explanation, the livestream chat instantly exploded.

They hadn't expected that every race actually had hidden racial benefits.

This also explained why the Greenwood Clan's talent strength was so high, and why Human Clan players made up the vast majority of the player army.

Because both of these races had already triggered their racial Easter eggs and received preferential treatment to a certain extent.

This answer made players of other races who had already obtained qualifications immensely excited.

It meant they too could have this kind of special preferential treatment—they just hadn't found the way to trigger it yet.

But as the number of native players in Monster World grows, they would inevitably find a way to trigger the hidden Easter eggs in the future and obtain extra ability bonuses, or benefit treatments.

In the livestream chat, players of every race began a heated discussion on this topic:

"Finally understand the reason now. Looking at it this way, my Gill-Fish Clan's hidden racial Easter egg might be control over the power of the sea. Just don't know how to trigger this Easter egg. So looking forward to it—it's time for our Gill-Fish Clan to get a buff. Brothers, all work hard to find it."

"Then my Strike-Breaker Clan's Easter egg should be automatic Shou Shou Jili gain, like 50 Shou Shou Jili per hour. After all, we're the most business-savvy race in the Earth Alliance. This racial Easter egg fits our real-world situation."

"Hahaha, then my Sky-Wing Clan's racial Easter egg should be 'Sky Sovereign,' right? After all, we can fly from birth. Maybe after triggering the Easter egg we can get faster flight speed in the game, even control storms and air currents. Just thinking about it is exciting. From now on, the skies of Monster World will be our Sky-Wing Clan's territory."

"Gill-Fish Clan brothers, don't rush. I think the Abyss-Fish Clan's Easter egg is definitely Deep Sea Control. Maybe just like the Greenwood Clan, they can control the monsters in the sea, or even control the ocean tides."

"Then my Spirit-Sound Clan's Easter egg might be that singing can deal damage to nearby targets, or perform healing. Hehe, that doesn't sound bad either."

The discussion in the livestream chat was heated.

Players of every race were imagining what their race's hidden benefit Easter egg might be, and some players even began forming teams to research how to trigger these Easter eggs.

Executive Officer No. 1 watched the screen-filling barrage in the livestream chat. The receiver at the back of his neck filtered and read the information, then he smiled and said:

"It seems everyone is very enthusiastic about the racial easter eggs, which is precisely the original intention behind Star Net's design of this hidden setting. We hope that players of all races can discover more unique aspects of their own race while exploring Monster World. But I also want to remind players of all races here that the trigger conditions for the racial easter eggs are not simple — they may require specific quests, events, or even the collective effort of the entire race to unlock… So, please remain patient during your exploration."

The moment his words fell, the live stream's bullet comments flooded the screen once again.

The hidden features revealed by Ruling Official No. 1 made many players look forward to the future.

They were also very curious about what their own race's hidden bonus easter egg was, and began researching one after another based on their race's characteristics.

In casual conversation, Ruling Official No. 1 defused the doubts that might have existed.

At the end of the briefing, Ruling Official No. 1 once again mentioned the refund function for the "Dark Lands."

After the 500,000 player slots were distributed, the Eclipse Race received 12 player slots in this round.

So the refund model can officially be launched.

The original plan was to have Ruling Official No. 16, who obtained game qualification in the previous round, handle the refund process.

But Ruling Official No. 16 was busy forming a guild and a Gold Coin Merchant Guild, with too many affairs to handle and no spare time.

But this time, the 12 newly qualified Eclipse Race members can be responsible for this aspect.

So Ruling Official No. 1 plans to take advantage of this Monster World special briefing.

Through a refund method that returns 1.5 times the amount in real-world currency, collect a batch of Shou Shou Jili from players who have already obtained Monster World qualification and also own the Dark Lands, to be reserved for future use.

The Eclipse Race's development in Monster World already has a preliminary plan.

But every step requires the expenditure of massive Shou Shou Jili, so Ruling Official No. 1 does not want to miss any opportunity to obtain Shou Shou Jili.

With that, the Monster World special briefing officially concluded.

But the players' discussion of the racial hidden bonus easter eggs continued.

(End of this chapter)