Chapter 8: The Second Batch of Players

Human Federation, Yelan City.

Fishing District, 5 AM.

A fish-belly white dawn broke on the horizon; accompanied by the blaring horns of returning fishing boats and interwoven lights outside the window, the fishing port was a scene of bustling activity.

Rubbing his slightly sore and swollen eyes, Jiang Zhou shifted his gaze from the window back to his computer desktop.

A notification popping up in the top right corner indicated that the compressed package had finished downloading.

He harbored a deep hatred for online scammers, having been defrauded on the internet himself in the past.

Originally, after the group owner "Kindergarten Principal" had kicked the "Welfare Officer" out of the group and prepared to delete the scam link, Jiang Zhou had stopped the Principal's action.

He believed that reporting it was the most correct way to handle the situation.

Perhaps his actions could save many innocent youths who would otherwise have been deceived.

But before reporting, he needed to gather relevant information about the scam link.

Federal cyber police had to process a massive volume of reports and complaints daily; organizing and submitting evidence after collection could alleviate their workload and allow fraud cases to be resolved faster.

Using his mouse to click the shield icon on the desktop, he put the computer into network protection Cultivation Mode.

Subsequently, he used the "Security Shield" to scan the compressed package downloaded from the link address for viruses.

To his surprise, there were no viruses within the compressed package.

"Could it be a prank?"

As for the compressed package actually containing a cracked version of "Dark Land," he found it absolutely impossible to believe.

The scammer's intentions were too obvious.

Not only did they reveal their intentions after just a few exchanges, but the webpage address behind the link was also extremely crude; they hadn't even bothered to download a webpage template, displaying completely amateurish skills.

Moreover, the Erosion Clan's powerful network technology could not be breached by any means.

With lingering doubts, he opened the compressed package and began extracting its contents.

In less than a minute, the extraction was complete.

Since the content required a virtual game pod to activate, Jiang Zhou transferred the file to the game pod connected to his computer and pressed the adaptation key.

Shortly after, the game adaptation was complete.

Jiang Zhou stood up and entered the game pod.

After the neural connection tubes automatically docked with various parts of his body, Jiang Zhou's vision was gradually engulfed by darkness; when clarity returned, he found himself before a virtual desktop.

There were sixteen game icons on the desktop, each carrying memories of growth, though he had mostly abandoned them.

At the very bottom of the desktop was the game downloaded via the link, its icon depicting a monster engulfed in scarlet flames.

Although the game had not detected any viruses, Jiang Zhou activated the protection function just to be safe.

The introduction of this feature dated back to the era of technological explosion when the Erosion Clan first arrived on Earth, bringing advanced virtual technology to humanity.

The emergence of new technologies gave rise to a flood of virtual games, among which were horror games.

Once, someone used the "Virtual Engine Library Assets" released by the Erosion Clan to create a horror prank mini-game, causing a player to suffer a sudden fatal heart attack after downloading and experiencing it.

Following that incident, all virtual game pods were required to install safety detectors capable of judging a player's condition through changes in hormones and heart rate; in case of emergencies, the built-in alarm system would immediately send a distress signal to nearby medical stations.

Clicking the game icon, a burning scarlet formation array floated in Jiang Zhou's mind.

What followed was an intense sensation of dizziness, as if an invisible vortex was devouring and pulling at his consciousness.

Once the sensation of weightlessness dissipated, the scene before his eyes left Jiang Zhou stunned.

A sky riddled with pitch-black cracks, continuous volcanoes spewing flames, and terrifying monsters roaming the earth... The smell of scorched earth and sulfur entered his lungs with every breath, bringing a slight burning sensation.

The rapidly advancing aerial overview was incredibly realistic, instantly immersing him.

The horrific apocalyptic scenery also caused his heart rate to spike abruptly.

Suddenly, his perspective dove downward, descending toward a dilapidated village on the surface.

Under the intense sensation of weightlessness, Jiang Zhou couldn't help but let out a cry of surprise.

Just as his vision was about to hit the ground, he was suddenly enveloped in darkness.

What then appeared before his eyes was a massive grid-like blue crystal wall, stretching endlessly to both sides and piercing the sky above.

Most of the space on the wall was empty, but in the cells at the very bottom starting position, three grotesque monsters were imprisoned.

A prompt then rang out in Jiang Zhou's mind:

【Welcome, Challenger, to the Monster World. Please begin creating your initial character.】

At this moment, Jiang Zhou completely lost his composure.

It felt as though he had pinched his nose, preparing to take a small bite of disgusting food, only to unexpectedly discover it was a delicacy he had longed for and dreamed of.

The huge disparity caused Jiang Zhou's emotions to fluctuate violently, and he couldn't help but exclaim:

"Holy crap, holy freaking crap!"

Fifteen minutes later.

【Kindergarten Small Class Passionate Chat Group (Online: 32)】

Small Class-Black Ball: Actually, I think the arrival of the Erosion Clan is a good thing for us humans; their base is built on the moon and doesn't affect our living environment, which is much better compared to disaster-causing forces like the Red Flame Clan who fled here as refugees.

Small Class-Iron Hammer: Exactly, the arrival of the Erosion Clan has brought humanity a wealth of novel technologies, improving our quality of life; they have never oppressed us humans and count as a very friendly alien force, it's just that their pricing is damn awful!

At this moment, Jiang Zhou, who had been away for some time, returned.

Small Class-Drunk Milk: Brothers, something big is wrong!

Small Class-Cute Baby replying to Small Class-Drunk Milk: Got scammed again because you didn't turn on the safety protection function?

Small Class-Iron Hammer replying to Small Class-Cute Baby: Is there a possibility that Drunk Milk downloaded the genuine game? (Slippery Iron Face. pg)

Facing the teasing of his group mates, Jiang Zhou immediately typed a line of text and hit enter:

Small Class-Drunk Milk: I really downloaded the genuine "Dark Land"; the game truly offers one hundred percent virtual reality as advertised, the experience is super realistic, you guys hurry up and download it, and once you've installed the game we can explore together.

Seeing Drunk Milk's reply, the group members responded one after another with slippery Iron Face emojis.

Small Class-Marble: Do you believe what Drunk Milk says, or do you believe I am the reincarnation of Qin Shi Huang? (Slippery Iron Face. pg)

Iron Hammer replying to Marble: Of course I believe you are the reincarnation of Qin Shi Huang; I'll transfer you 50 right now, and later you can decide what title to grant me based on your mood. (Slippery Iron Face. pg)

Facing the distrust of his group mates, Jiang Zhou typed another line of text:

Small Class-Drunk Milk: I swear on my little brother, I am absolutely not fooling anyone this time; hurry up and download it, we can finally play happily together again.

Seeing Jiang Zhou repeatedly guarantee that the game "Dark Land" could indeed be downloaded, the mindset of the group members underwent a slight change.

Small Class-Cute Baby: Holy crap, could it be real?

Small Class-Iron Hammer: Based on my understanding of Drunk Milk, he shouldn't make this kind of joke.

Although it was hard to believe, they chose to trust this old friend of many years and one by one clicked the link to download the game.

Half an hour later.

Various messages tagging group members, along with numerous exclamations of "Holy crap," flooded the group chat.

Because the link provided by the "Welfare Officer" could actually download the genuine version of "Dark Land."

At this time, Tong Xin, the owner of the Kindergarten group who was still asleep, was awakened by the continuous notification sounds of being tagged.

Reaching under his pillow to retrieve his phone, the sleepy-eyed Tong Xin began scrolling through the group chat content.

"Principal, wake up quickly, something huge has happened!"

"Principal, it's already this late and you can still sleep..."

Becoming more and more alert as he read, Tong Xin abruptly stood up, hurried to his computer to wake the screen, and clicked the pinned webpage link.

The screen jumped to the download page, and he clicked "Download" without hesitation.

At this moment, a prompt popped up on the page:

【Game downloads have reached the limited count; the publisher has not enabled new download permissions, unable to continue downloading.】

This pop-up notification caused Tong Xin's mindset to collapse instantly.

He immediately typed a line of text in the group chat:

Kindergarten Principal: Brothers, why does this link limit the number of downloads? It won't let me download anymore.

Small Class-Drunk Milk: Not sure, but I'll mourn for you for one second.

Small Class-Black Ball: Hahahaha, serves you right for continuing to sleep; you even managed to miss a free welfare worth 128, 88; I can now imagine you gnashing your teeth in front of your computer.

Small Class-Iron Hammer: Sleeping causes trouble; at our age, we should be staying up late; look, we all claimed the staying-up-late welfare, only you didn't.

Small Class-Cute Baby: Principal, the only one who can save you is the Welfare Officer; go kowtow and apologize.

Kindergarten Principal: You guys really deserve to die... I'm going to find the Welfare Officer right now to kneel and apologize.

With his mindset nearing collapse, Tong Xin decisively opened the system message list, found the information of the Welfare Officer who had been kicked out of the group, selected add, and a prompt box popped up:

【Add "Welfare Officer" as a friend?】

Below the prompt box was a remarks information field.

After a brief moment of thought, he typed hundreds of words of apology in the remarks box, expressing his mistakes to the Welfare Officer, sincerely repenting, and hoping the Welfare Officer would let bygones be bygones and show magnanimity.

Tong Xin felt that even when he was in school writing essays, he had never been this sincere and serious.

After repeatedly revising his wording, he pressed "Send Request" with anticipation in his heart.

The next second, a prompt appeared:

【Welfare Officer has enabled the function to block strangers from adding; friend request failed!】

Seeing the text in the prompt box, Tong Xin completely lost control of his emotions and slammed his fist onto the desk:

"Damn it!"

During the early book phase, updates are posted every morning around eight o'clock, with two chapters daily.

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(End of Chapter)