Chapter 292: Civilization Dimensional Reduction, This Is Unreasonable!

The Primordial Sacrifice Altar.

Just as the God King initiated the field test for the new war Cultivation Mode, Qi Sheng discovered an anomaly in the Earth-Tremor Continent region.

A massive descending faction was crossing through space.

It was not strange for a racial faction to descend upon the Monster World; at the current stage, vast numbers of clans arrived every minute and every second.

What was strange was that this descending faction had a very clear objective.

Their chosen landing site was near the territory of the Mechanical Legion, and they had already prepared to confront the Mechanical Legion before their descent.

Even stranger, the analysis information provided by the Guidance indicated that this faction's civilization structure perfectly countered every advantage of the Mechanical Legion.

Such a bizarre phenomenon made Qi Sheng almost certain that this faction had come specifically for the Mechanical Legion.

Gathering intelligence on external factions was already a key priority in Qi Sheng's eyes; he decisively consumed sacrificial power to launch a detailed analysis and investigation of this faction.

Using time reversal, he shifted his perspective forward from the ongoing descent process.

Soon, the visual feed jumped to the minor world where the descending faction was located, and time continued to move forward...

Meteor World.

Star Bay.

The queue of people wound like a greedy snake for two city blocks.

Everyone clutched their pre-order vouchers, their eyes flashing with fanaticism.

At the front of the line, Kong Jie used fingers reddened by the cold to check the time again, confirming that "Civilization War" was still 37 minutes away from release.

He had been looking forward to this day for three years.

Now, his wish was about to be fulfilled.

Nervousness and anticipation intertwined in the depths of his heart.

Turning his head, he cast his gaze forward.

Standing ahead of him was a middle-aged man dressed in an Interstellar Warrior uniform, showing off his collection of past collector's editions to those around him.

Further ahead was a pair of twins taking turns standing guard; the other was currently curled up in a sleeping bag catching up on rest.

Only those who had arrived two days early, bringing dried rations and water, could stand at the front.

Otherwise, there was no possibility of getting the game immediately upon release.

Amidst the surging thoughts, his "secondary light-brain" rang.

Taking the secondary light-brain from his pocket to check, the screen displayed: Dad.

Kong Jie bit his lower lip but ultimately pressed the answer key.

"Kong Jie, you are already seventeen; you should consider joining the Interstellar Expansion Program instead of staying up all night queuing for some game."

"This is my favorite strategy game, and it's the latest version for the twentieth anniversary; the limited collector's edition has..."

"Enough! If your mother were still alive and saw you like this..."

Kong Jie abruptly cut off the call and stuffed the secondary light-brain back into his pocket.

As his eyes turned red, his knuckles went white from clenching too tightly.

It had been five years, yet his father was still the same; every argument inevitably ended with bringing up his deceased mother.

Eight years ago, his father had joined the Interstellar Expansion Program and never returned, only occasionally communicating with him via the light-brain.

He hadn't even attended his mother's funeral.

Though not physically present, he always tried to direct his life with a preaching tone; he hated that feeling.

"It's open!"

Just then, the crowd suddenly became restless.

Kong Jie turned to look; the glass doors of the game store slid apart like water curtains, revealing an interior piled high with game boxes.

Kong Jie's breath halted for a second before he firmly planted his feet.

He was seventh in line and soon reached the storefront.

The robot standing inside the store smiled and nodded at him with a gentle synthesized voice:

"Please present your pre-order code."

Kong Jie took the pre-order voucher from his pocket and aligned it with the green beam projected from his light-brain.

"Verification successful. Buyer number 7, here is your 'Civilization War: Pioneer Special Edition'."

Taking the game box containing the optical disc, the dissatisfaction in Kong Jie's heart was instantly replaced by excitement.

He immediately turned and walked briskly toward home.

He had only taken a few steps when he suddenly felt the world before his eyes seem to change color.

Looking up sharply at the sky, he saw an eerie orange-red glow permeating the clouds, as if something were burning.

The crowd nearby suddenly became agitated.

Someone pointed at the sky and shouted:

"Look, what is that?"

Following the direction of the pointing finger, Kong Jie's pupils contracted sharply.

A fireball was tearing through the cloud layer, trailing over a dozen scattered streaks behind it.

He could clearly see it disintegrating in mid-air, fragments scattering layer by layer, rapidly magnifying in his vision.

"Meteor shower! Run!" someone screamed, and the crowd nearby descended into chaos.

Boom!

The first fragment struck a towering shopping center three blocks away; the shockwave, like an invisible giant hand, flipped Kong Jie onto the ground.

The back of his head slammed heavily against the sidewalk, and dark spots bloomed at the edges of his vision.

In the last second before losing consciousness, he saw a fist-sized black stone rotating within the center of the meteor shower, plummeting toward the roof of the game store.

Boom!

After the deafening roar, Kong Jie completely lost consciousness.

On the other side, the black stone that had struck the game store decomposed layer by layer amidst the ruins, eventually transforming into a golden orb of light that rose upward.

The orb of light hovered briefly in the air before suddenly shooting toward Kong Jie's location.

More accurately, it shot toward the game box in his hand.

Finally, upon contact with the game box, it vanished without a trace.

I don't know how long had passed; as consciousness gradually returned, the first thing Kong Jie smelled was the pungent scent of disinfectant.

Wrinkling his nose, he slowly opened his eyes.

The pale blue ceiling of the hospital came into view, accompanied by the rhythmic "beep-beep" of a monitor beside his ear.

"Awake?"

Turning his head, he saw a nurse adjusting the IV drip rate:

"Mild concussion. You're lucky; it's chaos out there. Your area was hit by a meteor shower..."

Listening to the nurse, Kong Jie tried to sit up, his temples throbbing:

"Is it an invasion by the Dharma-Less Clan?"

"According to publicly released investigation data, it has nothing to do with the Dharma-Less Clan. Although the front lines have collapsed, they haven't reached Star Bay yet."

Kong Jie nodded, then suddenly realized something and exclaimed to the nurse in alarm:

"Where are my things!"

The nurse dragged an item cabinet out from under the bed:

"They are all here."

Seeing the game box still there, Kong Jie let out a long sigh of relief.

If the game box had been lost, the coming days would have been unbearable.

This pre-order was the Pioneer Edition; the official release was still half a year away.

With the worry in his heart dispelled, a joy of surviving disaster welled up.

After the nurse finished giving instructions, he eagerly completed the discharge procedures.

The streets outside were a mess, with shattered glass and bricks scattered everywhere; the shouts of rescue workers intertwined with sirens, but none of this could distract Kong Jie. He only wanted to return home as quickly as possible to start the game he had awaited for so long.

If tomorrow was the end of the world, then let it be the end; at least today he could play the game.

Returning home and pushing open the door, the interior remained exactly as it was when he left.

Entering the study, he stopped in front of the gaming desk.

In the corner where the desk met the wall sat three items: a bottle of antidepressants unused for half a year, a simulator commander's glove covered in dust, and an AD-22 model game console with a cracked screen.

These three items perfectly summarized his eighteen years of life: lost happiness, unfulfilled expectations, and the digital utopia that ultimately sheltered him.

Ever since his mother's death, games had transformed from a hobby into oxygen.

With his father absent, the only feedback reality offered was endless loneliness, so he chose to dive into magnificent game worlds, experiencing life through different identities.

There, death was merely a reload, losses could be recovered, and every problem had a solution.

Unlike reality, where his mother's illness had no hidden level to unlock a special cure.

Kong Jie carefully placed the game box on the desk, took a deep breath, and slowly opened the packaging.

Inside, besides the golden game disc, there was an exquisite setting artbook and a badge printed with the game's logo.

He gently took out the disc, removed the plastic film, inserted it into the light-brain game console, and then picked up the light-brain helmet to place it on his head.

A few seconds later, a line of text emerged from the darkness:

[Civilization War: Connecting and loading. Initial loading may take a long time: 1%... 3%...]

A progress bar danced across his retinas, a dark-red percentage loading slowly.

As time passed, Kong Dong finally watched the loading progress hit 100%.

The next second, countless mosaic blocks swept in like a blizzard, causing the screen to flicker.

Kong Dong felt a buzzing in his head, followed by a stabbing pain.

But the pain came quickly and left just as fast.

An unfamiliar electronic synthesized voice manifested in his mind:

[Civilization Diagnostic Report]:

[Civilization Codename: Virtual Rune]

[Duration of Existence: Data lost, unable to determine]

[Degree of Extinction: 99.999...%]

[Last Seed Carrier Confirmed: Fused with the "Civilization War" entertainment data terminal]

[Remaining Revivable Individuals: 1 (Illusion Realm - Seed Source)]

[Civilization Revival Protocol Initiated: ....]

As the prompt sounded in his ears, the torn image healed, and Kong Dong's vision plunged from darkness into a blinding white light.

When his pupils refocused, he found himself suspended above a vast starry dome.

Beneath his feet lay a planet wrapped in a pale purple atmosphere; the land contours resembled shattered mirrors, with seven floating continents connected by bands of glowing light.

Kong Dong was already very familiar with the game's background.

This game's gameplay was the same as its predecessor: players would be placed on a super battlefield composed of seven floating continents.

Each continent had different characteristics and produced different types of resources.

As the administrator of a nascent civilization, the player, after selecting an initial civilization, needed to accompany that civilization on a long journey from barbarism to glory.

The starting phase began with gathering basic resources, then climbing the tech tree step by step, constructing buildings like Rune Workshops, and unlocking civilization technologies.

The game's gameplay was mainly divided into diplomacy, war, trade, conspiracy, and so on.

But the core gameplay was still war; in the early stages, there were abundant resources for peaceful development, while in the late stages, resources could only be obtained through war modes.

[Initial Civilization Loading Complete]

As the cold prompt sounded, a familiar game interface popped up before Kong Dong's eyes.

Above were the familiar seven civilization options... no, there were eight.

In addition to the existing Natural Magic, Biotech, Mechanical Tech, Alchemy Civilization, Element Civilization, Shadow Civilization, and Undead Civilization, there was unexpectedly an additional civilization system called "Virtual Rune."

As a veteran player, he had followed all game-related information.

Before this, he had never heard that the game would launch a brand-new civilization system.

Filled with curiosity, he used his right hand, clad in a light-brain glove, to point forward.

Immediately, relevant introduction information for the "Virtual Rune Civilization" appeared:

[Virtual Rune was originally a two-dimensional digital civilization, using data streams as life carriers... Through long years of development, it successfully broke through three-dimensional restrictions, completing civilization ascension, but fierce wars in the Greater World utterly destroyed its civilization; only the most primitive civilization seed escaped the Greater World... Now about to restart civilization development.]

The introduction made Kong Dong feel the pieces didn't fit; it seemed completely inconsistent with the game's background.

The introductions for the other seven civilizations all started with stories between the seven continents, yet only this Virtual Rune spoke of a two-dimensional civilization ascending to three dimensions.

The story background also made no mention of any connection lines linking it to the other seven races.

Realizing he was experiencing the "Pioneer Edition," which surely had differences, he decided to choose this never-before-experienced new civilization as his starting civilization.

After completing the selection, the view shifted to a god's-eye perspective.

Once the clouds dispersed, he looked down upon the land.

What presented itself in his vision was a valley surrounded by towering mountains, with a golden altar standing in the center of the scene.

Furthermore, resource bars, a tech tree, and unit lists faintly appeared in his line of sight... it looked like a standard SLG interface.

Swiping his hand forward, the view moved accordingly, with time accelerating in the upper right corner.

[Accept Seed Protocol: Yes/No]

Just then, a prompt popped up in his mind.

Kong Dong instinctively chose: Yes.

Immediately, the altar below trembled, and before long, it spat out a ball of fire resembling an elemental lifeform.

After Kong Dong focused his gaze, information on the initial unit type appeared:

[Flint (Initial Unit Type)]:

Ability Introduction

Gathering: Can rapidly analyze matter, decomposing it into pure data streams; resource mining speed +1500%.

Construction: Can rapidly construct unlocked civilization buildings; speed +5000%.

After reading Flint's introduction, Kong Dong was startled.

An initial unit type with 15 times the mining speed and 50 times the construction speed—what kind of god-tier unit was this?

"It seems this is a civilization strong in the early game, but the opening is too overpowered."

After clarifying the positioning of the Virtual Rune Civilization, Kong Dong reached out, clicked on the Flint unit that looked like a ball of fire, and dragged it toward the nearest Magic Crystal Mine visible in the overhead view to begin gathering the initial development resources for the civilization.

From the overhead perspective, Flint moved with incredible speed; upon entering the nearby Level 1 Magic Crystal Mine, the resource bar began refreshing with Magic Crystals.

He swiped both hands forward, zooming in the view.

He could see the Flint inside the mine pressing against the ore clusters to mine; the clusters dissolved rapidly as if melting, transforming into strings of data code that flowed into Flint's body.

Time flowed faster in the game; half an hour in reality equaled one month in the game.

While letting Flint gather resources, Kong Dong himself used the god's-eye view to observe what resources existed near the randomly assigned starting location.

On Day 25, Kong Dong had the altar consume resources to spawn three Flint units; two were assigned to logging, while the remaining two continued mining Magic Crystal Ore.

In the second month, a brand-new building rose from the ground beside the altar.

This building was named the "Data Transmission Center."

The strength of this new building was truly broken.

With this new building, Flint engineers no longer needed to travel back and forth to transport resources.

No matter where they were, they could transmit mined low-grade crystal ore resources via data transmission to the Data Transmission Center, which would then relay them to the altar.

As for timber and high-purity crystal ore, transmission was not yet possible; the building level of the Data Transmission Center needed to be upgraded.

The strength of the opening made him feel this civilization was too overpowered.

But thinking this was the Pioneer Edition, it made sense; perhaps after the official release, it would undergo version nerfs.

The current strength could be understood as an experience Cultivation Mode, accelerating civilization development speed to allow experiencing more setting content.

In the third month, the first combat unit type, the "Hash Hunter," was born.

Its ability was to decompose and seal enemies, extracting part of the slain life's power to enhance its own strength.

The first combat unit turned out to be a growth-type unit; while Kong Dong felt surprised, he also developed a strong curiosity about the future direction of this eighth civilization.

With such broken settings, how were the other seven civilizations supposed to be played?

In the eighth month, the guardian beast herd of the second Magic Crystal Mine was exterminated, and the Hash Hunters returned with loot.

The loot included twelve bundles of crystallized beast horns, several high-purity Magic Crystal Cores, and a new resource mining channel.

On this same day, Kong Dong, from his god's-eye view, directed the Flint engineers to construct the first Smelting Workshop; here, the Jinghua Beast Horns were smelted into Energy Crystal Blocks, then transported to the altar to provide fuel for the birth of the next batch of units.

In the eleventh month, the first Lumber Mill was also completed.

The thick iron hemlocks mined nearby were processed into timber, then converted into data-stream timber for constructing defensive works.

At dusk, a reconnaissance team composed of five Hash Hunters set out toward coordinates marked to the northwest; Kong Dong's task for them was to explore the fog-of-war areas on the map, searching for potential threats or resource points.

In the twentieth month, the first formal combat unit type, the Rune Guardian, was born.

Shaped like a headless warrior, clad in armor embedded with magic crystals and wielding a war spear capable of releasing energy shocks, it was better suited for frontal combat than the Hash Hunter.

Kong Dong did not rush to attack, choosing instead to first consolidate his territory.

East Side: Two Rune Watchtowers were established along the river to monitor nearby scene movements and prevent attacks from external forces.

South Side: Mining began on a newly discovered open-pit magic crystal mine, which offered higher efficiency than underground veins.

West Side: The logging team ventured deep into the jungle, searching for the Spirit Rune Wood discovered earlier, which could be used to craft higher-grade rune equipment.

During this period, the reconnaissance team continuously transmitted updated intelligence information.

In the thirty-second month, the Virtual Rune Civilization under Kong Dong's control officially encountered the game's first native civilization, the "Forge Clan."

This was a minor civilization outside the seven major civilization systems; it had already established a small empire and occupied multiple resource sites.

Should they establish an alliance through diplomacy, launch trade connections, or initiate war?

Kong Dong's idea was to continue developing; once strong enough, he would directly launch a war to plunder the Forge Civilization's resources and territory.

Having played continuously for sixteen hours and feeling starving, Kong Dong chose to log off at this moment.

Looking up at the light-brain display screen, an incredible scene occurred.

Although he had logged off, the Virtual Rune Civilization in the game was actually continuing to develop.

It wasn't that continued development was problematic.

Previous versions of Civilization War also had an auto-development Cultivation Mode, but it was limited to continuing the mining of resources specified by the player before logging off.

But the Virtual Rune Civilization on the light screen had even begun constructing new buildings.

This unusual scene inevitably made Kong Dong somewhat puzzled.

"A new game Cultivation Mode?"

He guessed this was a new gameplay feature launched by the game officials, granting civilization development a higher degree of freedom.

When players intervened, he was the master and decision-maker of the civilization.

When he logged off and let go, the civilization would also optimize and develop according to its own characteristics.

"Interesting."

Placing the light-brain helmet on his desk, he stood up and headed to the refrigerator to busy himself with dinner.

During this, he pulled a secondary light-brain from his pocket, skillfully opened the software, and browsed the latest game information.

However, he discovered that the news list was densely packed with reports related to meteorite impacts.

Next came front-line intelligence: the Dharma-Less Clan had launched a full-scale war against the Interstellar Alliance, and the front lines were already showing signs of collapse.

According to experts described in the news, this war might be the turning point leading to the Interstellar Alliance's destruction.

The end of the world was coming.

To this, Kong Jie did not care.

As a small figure like himself, he lacked the power to stop the future's trajectory.

His only worry was for that father he had not seen in many years; stationed in the front-line star sector, he might be caught up in the fallout of this war.

"Never mind."

Shaking his head to stop thinking about the trivial matters of reality, Kong Jie carried his plate to the dining table, ate heartily, and began contemplating the civilization's next direction of development.

He logged into the player communication zone via the secondary light-brain.

He browsed information related to the eighth civilization, the "Virtual Rune Civilization."

However, he found that the communication zone had no players discussing this overpowered early-game civilization; the hottest topic remained the "Shadow Civilization," the strongest of the previous version.

After searching for a long time, Kong Jie fell into deep thought.

Players who obtained the game this time had activated the Pioneer Version; logically, they should have encountered the eighth civilization by now.

Veteran players generally chose to experience new civilizations, yet no one in the communication zone mentioned it, which seemed rather unusual.

At this moment, he recalled the explanation given during the official press conference before the game's release.

At that time, the official spokesperson stated that the Pioneer Version contained many hidden Easter eggs, some of which were rare and randomly placed inside pre-ordered game boxes.

Back then, his understanding of those words was that the Easter eggs were extra gifts like artbooks included in the game box.

Thinking about it now, it was very likely early access to the eighth civilization.

"What great luck." Having figured out the reason, Kong Jie suddenly felt cheerful.

Wolfing down the food on his plate, he returned to his room, put on the light-brain helmet, and entered the game once more.

Civilization War, start!

But the moment he entered the game, Kong Jie froze; in the time it took to eat a meal, two new buildings had already risen from the ground.

After checking the introductory information for the two new functional buildings, Kong Jie decisively dismantled them into resources and continued playing according to his own ideas.

Month 39.

Under Kong Jie's control, the Virtual Rune Civilization declared war on the Forge Clan.

In this battle, the special unit "Firewall" first displayed its divine might, acting as an absolute defense; the Forge Clan's units simply could not break through the defensive line formed by the firewalls.

Furthermore, the newly developed "Rune Virus" unit demonstrated terrifying destructive power.

Like orbs of light, the rune viruses acted like real-world worm viruses; once they infiltrated the Forge Clan's war machines, they would tamper with the operational logic of the enemy units, or even seize control of them to fight.

Faced with the torrent assembled by the data legions, the Forge Clan was powerless to resist, and their lava city walls were blasted into ruins.

The Forge Clan's heavy-armored warriors fell in droves amidst the data storm released by "Apocalypse," and the legendary blades forged by the Forge Clan were decomposed by data warriors before they could even be used.

The war presented a one-sided crushing situation; in just two months, the Forge Clan's three fortresses fell one after another.

Kong Jie, who directed the course of the campaign, felt as though he had activated cheats, enjoying an uninterrupted slaughter throughout.

When the banner of the Virtual Rune Empire was planted atop the highest point of the Molten Fortress, the forging civilization that had dominated the northern scene was extinguished.

In the 40th month, news of the Forge Empire's destruction spread throughout the region.

Multiple civilized powers near the borders sent alliance requests, but Kong Jie rejected them all.

The early stage was the perfect time for development; forming alliances with native races was entirely unnecessary. If he did not accelerate development now, the threats he would Iron Face in the future would come from other players.

Amidst the day-after-day gaming experience, the scale of the Rune Empire under Kong Jie's control grew increasingly vast.

He finally encountered a civilized empire within the game controlled by a player.

The opponent was playing the most popular civilization of the previous generation, the "Shadow Civilization."

After mutually dispatching scout units to clear the fog of war in each other's territories, the opponent sent multiple question marks.

Shadow Roar: Bro, what's the deal with your civilization? Virtual Rune Empire? Does this game even have this civilization?

Kong Jie: Hidden Easter egg; you can choose the eighth civilization, "Virtual Rune."

Shadow Roar: Holy crap, awesome! I'm dying of envy; tell me more about how this civilization is.

Kong Jie: Overpowered strength; it will definitely be nerfed after the official release. The development speed in this early access version is practically invincible.

Shadow Roar: Interesting; want to clash?

Kong Jie: Come on!

After some small talk, the first clash between players began.

Although they had started the game at roughly the same time, the gap between the Virtual Rune Empire and the Shadow Empire could be described as heaven and earth.

As soon as the war began, the Shadow Empire's "Shadow Striker" troops attempted to utilize their high mobility to launch guerrilla warfare.

However, the moment they approached the Rune Empire under Kong Jie's control, they were intercepted by the "Firewall Matrix"; every assassin who dove into the shadows was bound by data the instant they revealed themselves, completely losing the ability to resist.

When the Shadow Civilization's pride, the "Abyssal Behemoth," made its entrance, it was greeted by Kong Jie's newly unlocked weapon: the "Blue Screen Bomb."

This monster, composed of dark energy, touched the Blue Screen Bomb during its charge; suddenly, countless error codes emerged within its body, wrapping around its form like chains, before its body turned into pixel blocks and scattered amidst the sound effect of a system crash.

The entire war presented a one-sided crushing situation.

The core units summoned by the Shadow Empire were formatted and wiped out in droves on the main battlefield by "Antivirus Program" tanks.

When the data torrent of the Rune Empire engulfed the Shadow Empire's main city, battlefield statistics showed that the casualty ratio between the two sides had reached a staggering 32,000 to 3.879 million.

Before his civilization was annihilated, Shadow Roar left only one sentence:

"How is this overpowered? This is fucking cheating, isn't it?"

Subsequently, the Shadow Empire vanished from the map.

But what puzzled Kong Jie was that he had actually absorbed all of the Shadow Empire's resources from this war.

This did not align with the game's settings.

In the settings of previous generations, when a player-controlled civilization clashed with an enemy civilization, even if their army was completely wiped out, they would only lose one-tenth of their resources, then respawn at a random location on one of the seven continents.

This setting ensured that players did not have to start over from scratch after every failure.

Only resources were lost in war.

Furthermore, damaged functional buildings could be repaired by investing resources and did not need to be rebuilt.

But in this round of combat, he had actually swallowed all of the Shadow Empire's resources; after glancing again at the values displayed on the resource bar, Kong Jie was completely stunned.

What Kong Jie did not know was that "Shadow Roar," after exiting the game, had also fallen into a state of confusion.

Upon re-entering the game, a line of text popped up on his light-brain display screen:

[Game data corrupted; all data lost. Please create a new civilization to begin the game.]

He had thought that after re-entering the game, he would restart at a random location.

He never expected that all the data he had grinded for most of the day was lost; this single battle had completely shattered his mentality.

"What a crappy game; such a serious bug right after launch!"

The more he thought about it, the angrier Shadow Roar became; he began furiously pounding his desk, then helplessly chose to restart the game, but the only options available were still the original seven civilizations; the Virtual Rune Empire option simply did not exist.

On the other side, after the war ended, the Rune Empire under Kong Jie's control entered a period of frantic expansion.

In the days that followed.

The digitized "Civilization Trait Advantage" allowed the empire to spread like a virus; wherever a homing beacon was planted, the land there automatically transformed into Rune territory.

Forests were reorganized into Rune lumber mills within data streams, mountains were parsed into modular mines, and even rivers were encoded into energy transmission networks.

In just twelve months, the empire's territory quadrupled, pushing its borderlines to the "Ashen Rift" in the northwest corner of the continent.

Just as the digitized expansion reached the ancient ruins deep within the rift, Kong Jie triggered a hidden quest in "Civilization War."

An option prompt floated before his retinas:

[The ancient demon clan "Rock Core Clan" is sealed within the Ashen Rift. Do you wish to continue exploring this area? Continuing exploration carries a probability of releasing the Rock Core Clan, posing a risk of civilization destruction. Yes/No.]

Faced with the option, the extremely confident Kong Jie chose to continue exploring, immediately triggering the hidden condition.

[The seal of the Ashen Rift is lifted; the Rock Core Clan has revived; the Rune Empire is about to suffer an invasion by the demon clan.]

Faced with this sudden hidden Easter egg crisis, Kong Jie chose to engage in a direct confrontation.

However, he discovered that the advantages of his data units could not be utilized at all in this war; facing the Rock Core Demons, the firewall was ineffective, the virus was ineffective, and in various war determinations, the priority of the Rock Core Demons' abilities was higher than that of the data units under his control.

When the Rock Core Demons activated their civilization special skill "Leyline Annihilation," the data structure of the entire vanguard army directly collapsed, being destroyed in droves.

Kong Jie watched helplessly as the territory he had expanded over twelve months lost more than half of its area within half a month.

At this point, he had two choices: abandon the war and flee via migration, which could save on the resource losses brought about by the civilization's destruction.

Exactly how much loss could be recovered depended on whether the Rock Core Demon Clan would pursue and kill during the migration journey.

Or he could negotiate a surrender, but the result was unknown.

Surrender allowed one to propose conditions, such as submitting a portion of resources; if agreed upon, one could gain a certain period of ceasefire.

If the other party did not agree, the war would continue, and the likely final result would be the destruction of the civilization, followed by respawning at a random location.

Just as Kong Jie hesitated over which choice to make, a dialogue box suddenly popped up before his retinas.

Illusionary Realm (Sparkplug): Hello, Archon; I need your help.

The sudden dialogue box left Kong Jie stunned.

Illusionary Realm was the name of the altar in the Rune Empire, and the only spark preserved from the empire's opening background introduction.

What he hadn't expected was that the Illusionary Realm could actually initiate a conversation with him.

"Does this game even have an AI dialogue function?"

Filled with curiosity, he typed a line of text:

"Illusionary Realm, what help do you need me to provide?"

Illusionary Realm: Archon, the device you are using is rather outdated; its information processing capabilities can no longer meet the growing development needs of the empire. We hope you can upgrade the configuration.

The Illusionary Realm's response left Kong Jie completely baffled.

"What does this mean? Did I fail to construct an important functional building?"

Illusionary Realm: This has nothing to do with the content within the virtual scene. We hope you can upgrade the processing power of your real-world equipment, preferably by replacing it with new hardware featuring superior performance.

The Illusionary Realm's reply left Kong Jie utterly dumbfounded.

When he first saw the request sent by the Illusionary Realm,

he had thought that the civilization's attribute allocation direction had gone wrong, so the game was using the Illusionary Realm to dialogue with him as a reminder.

He never expected... that he would actually be looked down upon by the civilization he created within the game for having too low-spec optical brain hardware in reality.

This makes no sense!

(End of Chapter)