Chapter 6: Cyber Cloud Players

Star Net Forum: The Rise of Humanity.

Section: "Dark Lands - Player Recruitment"

【Eight-Grade Gale Guild recruiting new members; excellent benefits, guaranteed daily income of 200; requires participating in group activities and obeying guild management organization.】

【Water Margin Guild recruiting active players; daily activity statistics compiled; those who fall short will be kicked.】

【Hero Guild recruiting powerful players; requires combat power to rank within the top 100, 00 in the Human Federation region; must participate in every event; the Guild Master issues red packet benefits daily; the guild has many beautiful, sweet-voiced single ladies.】

After a search, Li Zheng quickly found a familiar guild name.

He opened the post, copied the administrator's account, then opened his chat software and selected add contact.

Before long, a pop-up window appeared indicating verification had passed.

Black Dawn-Little Black: Friend, do you want to join our Black Dawn Guild?

Game Brick-Mover: Yes, our team currently has ten people... May I boldly ask, what are the guild benefits like?

Black Dawn-Little Black: Judging by your ID, you should be a brick-moving player; our guild management consists of famous real-world entrepreneurs; we can purchase all resources you produce at high prices; all you need to do is participate in group activities normally; once we establish the guild in-game, you must complete daily guild tasks every day to provide development resources for the guild; of course, all of this is paid compensation.

Seeing the Black Dawn administrator's reply, Li Zheng felt immediately excited.

This organization looked very powerful at first glance; future earnings seemed guaranteed.

Thus, he hurriedly replied:

Game Brick-Mover: We are willing to join; our squad currently has ten people, and several more brothers will join later!

Black Dawn-Little Black: Good, first provide a screenshot of the electronic bill for your game purchase.

Game Brick-Mover: Huh? You need proof of purchase?

Black Dawn-Little Black: Recently, too many people are trying to pass themselves off; we've added several who just mixed into the group to probe game content, but they were actually cloud players who hadn't even bought the game, completely wasting our time; to reduce such incidents, we must first verify that brothers wanting to join the guild have purchased the game before allowing them into the guild group.

Game Brick-Mover:...

Seeing Li Zheng failing to reply for a long time, the other party sent a contemptuous emoji:

Black Dawn-Little Black: Heh, I knew it was probably another cloud player; you're the fifth today; let's delete each other.

After being deleted as a friend, Li Zheng had no choice but to return to the forum to continue searching for a game organization.

But after one round of searching, during which he added several team leaders recruiting new members, without exception they all required him to provide an electronic purchase bill.

Li Zheng could understand this requirement, yet he also felt extremely helpless.

They had all downloaded the game via pirated links; how could they possibly provide an electronic bill for purchasing the game?

After being rejected repeatedly, Li Zheng did not give up and continued scrolling through the forum.

Finally, he found such a post on the forum:

【Star Sea Guild recruiting active lone players.】

Recruiter: Star Sea

Content: In my past life, I was betrayed by my true love and turned against by my brothers; the guild management seized my wealth; today, reborn on the day "Dark Lands" launched, I am determined to reclaim everything that belongs to me; join the guild to hear me recount my plan for revenge.

Contact: 234****

After passing friend verification, Li Zheng asked with an anxious heart:

Game Brick-Mover: Are you recruiting lone players?

Star Sea: Yes, brother, do you want to join? (laughing. pg)

Game Brick-Mover: Yeah, our squad has ten people who want to join the guild.

Star Sea: So many people; welcome, a warm welcome (drooling. pg)

Game Brick-Mover: May I ask what benefits and treatments the guild offers?

Star Sea: Sorry, we are just a lone-player guild; we have no money to provide any benefits or treatments; our focus is happy gaming; we don't compete for rankings, nor do we seek to recruit high-level players or whales; what we can guarantee is that all members will share in any profits the guild earns in the future.

Star Sea's reply left Li Zheng somewhat disappointed.

But at the current stage, they truly needed to join an organization to share game intelligence and discuss game content.

After thinking it over repeatedly, Li Zheng decided to first bring his brothers into the guild to take a look; if it felt unsuitable, they could leave later.

Game Brick-Mover: We are willing to join.

Star Sea: Welcome new brothers; you can forward the group chat link to your friends; join the group first (shared link: Star Sea Raving Chat Group)

After selecting apply to join, Li Zheng passed verification the very next second.

Subsequently, he forwarded the group link to the Grind Emperor Group.

What he received was a string of copy-paste replies: Godfather, you truly have not disappointed me.

Soon, all ten players from the Grind Emperor Group passed verification and joined the Star Sea chat group.

With new members joining, the group became exceptionally lively, everyone sending emojis welcoming the newcomers.

At this moment, a player in the group sent a message:

Star Sea-Great Strength Ox: What skills did you learn at level 2? I feel both Dark Grasp and Dark Amplification are good skills; how did you all choose?

Star Sea-Little Dot: I suggest choosing Dark Amplification; in the early stage, the energy bar values are relatively low, so it's not recommended to equip active skills.

Regarding the choice of initial level 2 skills, a heated discussion unfolded in the group.

This left Li Zheng and the others completely baffled.

Can you learn skills at level 2? The game doesn't seem to have such a setting.

Killing Heart Moved: Sorry to interrupt, but where does one go at level 2 to learn initial skills?

Star Sea-Great Strength Ox:??? Isn't learning skills at level 2 an automatically triggered quest? (confused. pg)

Family Share Godfather: Damn it, what quest to learn skills? Why didn't we receive one?

Star Sea-Great Strength Ox: Impossible; this is a main storyline quest that must be triggered; otherwise, how can the subsequent main story progress?

Poor Enough to Eat Dirt: Bro, where does this game have a main storyline quest? Isn't it super free-exploration with randomly triggered quests?

Leopard Head Zero Charge: Exactly; the newbie guide clearly stated that game quests are randomly triggered; how could there be a specific main storyline quest?

Star Sea-Wild Shark: Bros, did you join the wrong game group? This is the "Dark Lands" player group; what game are you playing? (blank stare. pg)

Star Sea-Night Eagle: Must have joined the wrong group; how could there be no main storyline quest? You automatically accept it at the start (confused. pg)

A string of replies left Li Zheng and the others even more confused.

The few of them then returned to the Grind Emperor Group to discuss:

Family Share Godfather: Brother Li, you probably found the wrong group; the players in this group aren't playing "Dark Lands" released by the Eclipse Clan at all; it's just a virtual reality game with the same name.

Faced with the inquiry, Li Zheng was also completely baffled; subsequently, he opened the forum again to check Star Sea Guild's recruitment post.

After confirming it was recruiting for the latest "Dark Lands" released by the Eclipse Clan, he became even more confused.

Recalling the several guild administrators he had added earlier, who stated they needed to verify electronic purchase bills before allowing entry to the group, Li Zheng suddenly realized a possibility.

Game Brick-Mover: Damn it, we're probably in a cloud player group; they're cyber-simulating game content in the group; they aren't real players at all.

Poor Enough to Eat Dirt: Hahaha, cloud players are truly terrifying; they can chat so enthusiastically without even having the game, talking as if they actually played it.

Family Share Godfather: Laughed until I sprayed; although we're playing a pirated version, at least it's the real "Dark Lands"; that's far better than them simulating game content through chat; say no more, I'm leaving the Star Sea group now.

Killing Heart Moved: Hahahaha, the players in this group are really interesting; cyber-cloud virtual reality, content entirely based on imagination; whatever you want, you got it.

Happy National Day~

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(End of Chapter)