Chapter 3: First Batch of Players
Hang Yu ordered, “Move up the internal testing of ‘Twisted Three Kingdoms’ to eight o’clock tonight. Early-stage population is quite precious; we must ensure quality and standards. For the first round, release only twenty slots... try to select professional gamers, e-sports streamers, or hardcore veterans with specialized skills, and heavy net-addicted youth with extreme grind habits.”
“Yes!”
As an intelligent super-divine relic, the Heavenly Dao Cube’s capabilities were no less than a supercomputer’s.
Whether it was creating an official game website in an instant or investigating player profiles, it could do so with ease.
Carrying out this command was not difficult at all.
After closing the operation interface,
Hang Yu decided to first familiarize himself with his territory.
But the moment he walked out from the stone house’s main entrance, he was instantly stunned by what he saw.
The firmament was filled with dazzling, colorful stars.
Brilliant nebulas formed numerous vortices, big and small, numbering at least dozens to hundreds.
They looked like lively, surging, turbulent currents, brimming with madness and distortion, resembling a hyper-fantastical oil painting, somewhat reminiscent of Van Gogh’s famous work “Starry Night”.
The territory’s terrain was high.
Thus, the view was broad and open.
Hang Yu looked forward from the highest point.
There were rugged, magnificent mountains, eerie and tranquil forests, a meandering river weaving through them, and vaguely visible ruins of dilapidated structures.
In the distance, mist resembled a dark red curtain, surrounding the entire area from all sides.
It was simply breathtaking!
Was this really the Three Kingdoms world?
Hang Yu felt that the scene before him gave him a sensation similar to opening Elden Ring for the first time twenty years ago, except the shock and awe now were thousands or even tens of thousands of times greater.
After all, no matter how well a video game was designed, no matter how precise the modeling, it could never completely replicate reality.
And no matter how large a screen or how high its resolution, it could never compare to the immersive feeling of being physically present.
Currently, Hang Yu’s territory had only a small village.
Besides the Lord’s Hall, there were just four wooden huts and a warehouse, but every building had its own attributes.
【Crude Abyss Barracks】 ×4, non-graded buildings, territory population limit +25, the place where the territory’s citizens resided in the Abyss. Entering these barracks allowed citizens to accelerate their recovery.
【Crude Abyss Warehouse】, non-graded building, could provide one hundred cubic meters of shared space, with added effects of preserving food and reducing the energy loss rate of extraordinary materials by 5%.
Hang Yu also noticed a layer of walls around the small village.
【Crude Earthen Wall】, non-graded building, all units crossing the wall would have all attributes reduced by 5%, up to a maximum of 20 points.
It was not hard to see.
Every territory building possessed special functions.
As a fledgling lord, Hang Yu currently only owned these few things. Through the Lord Core, he could build new structures or upgrade existing ones, eventually developing a massive territory and commanding billions of citizens.
Everything was ready!
Now, just waiting for players to descend!
…………
Blue Star.
Around eight o’clock that night.
Zhao Rui put on his virtual gaming helmet and officially started tonight’s work. His task today was to review a virtual reality blockbuster called Eternal Empire.
This game, developed by a world-class company, had cost over two billion and taken eight years to complete — a next-generation VR masterpiece.
With overwhelming advertisements and promotions, it was undoubtedly one of the most anticipated games of the past year.
“Still four hours to go!”
Feeling bored with the wait, Zhao Rui casually opened the forum of the gaming platform “Starsea” to kill some time.
Unexpectedly, a private message popped up at that moment.
【Congratulations! You have been selected for the first round of internal testing for ‘Twisted Three Kingdoms’!】
【The first round of internal testing for this game will begin precisely at 20:00 on July 16, 2043!】
【Please activate the game as soon as possible. If not activated within 24 hours, we will consider the qualification forfeited!】
Zhao Rui was stunned for a moment.
Only then did he remember that he had casually registered for this game around noon out of boredom. He never expected that its internal test would start so soon.
Lousy company, didn’t even advertise.
If this junk game became popular, he might as well stand upside down and have diarrhea!
Although Zhao Rui had zero confidence in this Twisted Three Kingdoms, considering Eternal Empire would only release in another two hours, and he had nothing better to do anyway, he thought he might as well check out what this game was like.
The authorities had been cracking down hard on false advertising lately. If this game turned out to be a fraud, he could report it and maybe even earn a reward.
Click to download!
Game size: 963GB!
Zhao Rui almost laughed out loud when he saw this.
This game, at 963GB, was completely absurd in size — it was simply... too small!
A game not even reaching 1TB dared to claim one hundred percent realism?
Did the developers even understand what virtual reality games meant?
For a game like this, just the resources consumed by modeling and rendering alone would be astronomical!
Ding!
Download complete!
With current internet speeds, a nine-hundred-gigabyte game was downloaded in just one minute.
The game icon for Twisted Three Kingdoms was an ancient and mysterious stone door.
The game had no hardware requirements at all — any standard gaming helmet or pod could run it.
There was no need to spend a fortune buying high-end or customized helmets.
Zhao Rui shook his head again.
It was common knowledge that the better the game experience and the higher the realism, the stricter the hardware requirements.
At present, the most realistic VR games on the market all required purchasing custom equipment from the manufacturers, costing at least hundreds of thousands.
There was no way standard gaming helmets could compare.
Despite all his complaints, since he had already downloaded it, he figured he might as well log in and take a look.
Zhao Rui activated his gaming helmet and officially launched Twisted Three Kingdoms.
Instantly, everything before his eyes went black, and a sensation of weightlessness enveloped him. Then he found himself floating in the void, facing a colossal stone door towering a hundred zhang high, grand and majestic.
“Holy shit!”
“What’s going on?”
“The modeling... actually seems kind of impressive!”
Zhao Rui noticed that the stone door before him was not only towering and grand, but its surface was also covered in intricate patterns and all sorts of ancient reliefs, seemingly recording epic tales and histories from the Three Kingdoms period.
Could it be that the developers spent all their money just polishing the login screen?
Just as this thought crossed his mind, a voice sounded in his mind.
【Please create your game ID!】
Zhao Rui blurted out, “Black-Eyed Rui Bro!”
This had always been Zhao Rui’s online name, well-known across major video platforms and gaming strategy groups. He was used to using this name in every game he played.
【ID creation successful!】
【Please choose your starting class!】
【Abyss Warrior (available), Abyss Ranger (available), Abyss Warlock (currently full), Abyss Monk (currently full)!】
A big question mark appeared on Zhao Rui’s face.
Two classes were already unavailable? Did classes have a quota system, and the slots were snatched up by other internal testers?
In all his years of gaming, he had never encountered such a thing.
After hesitating between Warrior and Ranger,
Zhao Rui eventually chose to become an Abyss Ranger.
Because based on the characteristics of the Ranger class — similar to rogues or assassins — as a technical hardcore player, this type of class that demanded high skill was obviously more suitable for him.
Next came the character customization stage.
A human silhouette appeared before his eyes.
Zhao Rui could adjust various parameters to modify his appearance.
Of course, these adjustments were confined within a limited range.
As a video blogger, he habitually created trollish character designs for comedic effect.
In the end, he crafted a grotesque male character: only one meter fifty tall, skin-and-bones thin, skin dark as coal, with protruding ears, a spade-shaped face, and two tiny scraggly mustaches.
【You have completed character creation. Would you like to enter the game immediately? Yes/No!】
“Is that even a question? Of course, enter!”
The moment Zhao Rui made his choice, he saw the tightly shut stone door suddenly split open with a glowing crack. Then, driven by a vast, mighty force, the door slowly swung open, revealing a brand new world before his eyes.