Chapter 508: The Opening of the Online Game World?

This post, which appeared in the forum section of the Wizard Community, had been published for less than five minutes when its views skyrocketed, instantly exceeding 100,000. The Wizard Community has now become the largest online gaming community for users, as virtual reality characters are indeed a good way to meet new friends.

The only downside was that, with characters disguised by their server names, it was impossible to distinguish male from female. Some players, with ulterior motives, often pretended to be cute girls and dated male players. Some even joked that this was the largest same-sex dating community in the country.

With such massive traffic, many companies wanted to collaborate and monetize the platform.

However, Xu Zhi no longer needed money and calmly declined.

Sitting on his chair, he opened his computer.

"Let's see how the players are reacting," he thought. "After all, this is the first time the Gourmet World has been set up to function as a semi-large-scale online game."

Clicking on the post, Xu Zhi saw a screenshot.

In the image, clouds drifted across the sky as a Celestial being descended. Below, strange creatures, holding BBQ skewers, trembled with fear.

A player immediately posted with the title:

"Gourmet World's First Encounter with an Intelligent Extraordinary Civilization: A Super Exclusive on the Player Massacre!"

"Hello everyone, I'm Donut, a player from the Liu Wenjian server. I handle alchemy logistics and helped the great Yuan Qinghua win the championship in the PVP fighting competition; my contribution was indispensable. Initially, we thought the Gourmet World was just like that, and that the game development team was too biased, treating the Evolution Sandbox as their favorite. But apparently not! We misunderstood the production team. They are hardcore, but as always, conscientious. After this team wipe, I feel it's necessary to offer a solemn apology to the game development team. I'm sorry!"

"First, everyone, take a look at the screenshots."

One screenshot after another was displayed.

"As you can see, this is a flying, extraordinary being! Incredibly powerful and intelligent, it immediately grabbed players, preparing to eat them. However, our group, we're full of spirit!"

An animated GIF was then posted.

It was pieced together from multiple screenshots.

A heroic-looking creature, half its body missing and with a resolute expression, was gripped in a hand, roaring, "I! Am not a born king, but the blood flowing in my veins will not allow me to bow down!!"

"Holy moly!"

"Holy moly!"

The entire online community was stunned.

So fierce and unyielding, ready to die rather than surrender? Were the players from this server truly that spirited?

Although the screenshots couldn't be faked, everyone still felt something was off; the art style was completely different.

More images were continuously posted.

All featured incredibly resolute faces, roaring and spilling blood, like Spartan warriors charging towards the cloud giant!

"Next, as you can see, that player was crushed, but the rest of us remained unyielding! Waving our weapons, we charged! Although we were wiped out, we will never bow our heads!"

Everyone exclaimed, "This is too passionate, isn't it?"

This spirit was quite rare in the current online community atmosphere, honorable and awe-inspiring.

This led many people to start commenting directly:

"This server is simply too cool, the passionate atmosphere is so strong, completely different from those trashy, seductive idiots outside. I want to join this server!"

"Yes, I want to join too!"

"Let's start rejecting trash from ourselves!"

"Such passionate heroism, military-like camaraderie, sacrificing one's life and shedding blood—this is exactly what I aspire to!"

Discussions continued all around.

Donut smiled slightly. This was the exact effect they wanted. Strike!

There are now 3,000 servers in total, with 1,000 players per server. Who wouldn't want to take the elite path? They aimed to use a special "corporate atmosphere" to attract external talent and encourage them to transfer servers.

The competition was fiercely intense. This time, they managed to get into the top three, but next time, it was not guaranteed!

They also had their own agenda. The Gourmet World was now popular and had become a large-scale online game, but they had already exited. They could only re-enter if they ranked again next time, but could they achieve that?

It would be very difficult!

They had to act now to attract talent.

This player, as the representative of their server, continued to explain:

"Our team wipe incident ends here. However, as a pioneering guild, our passion, bravery, and unity are of no particular note! Please, everyone, do not pay attention to us. If you wish to join us, there is a very high threshold. You also need to be upright and passionate, just like us. If interested, please contact us..."

"Ahem, ahem, ahem, this Gourmet World is definitely not as simple as we imagined. The existence of extraordinary creatures means there are extraordinary civilizations. This Gourmet World might also be one of the myriad worlds, just like the Wizard World and the Lava Land. It's extremely vast and well-developed; we just haven't explored it yet."

"What does this mean? Everyone should be clear on this, right?"

"The PVP competition is now held weekly. The top three game servers from each session, a total of 3,000 players, gain qualification to enter the Gourmet World!"

"But that's old news. Now the Wizard Community has doubled its servers. In the next fighting competition, the top six will be able to enter the Gourmet World. What does that mean? A whopping 6,000 people!"

"Six thousand people?"

Everyone's breathing immediately quickened.

Six thousand people entering every week—this is equivalent to a large-scale open online game world!

The ratio of players to natives would definitely be comparable to modern online games and their environments.

Is a truly mass-market online game about to begin?

This is definitely a leap forward in the "Spore Evolution" game era, meaning everyone can enter and experience a new life.

"If this is true, then it's definitely a transformation for the Wizard Community!"

"Brothers, I'm going to grind hard now, meditate like crazy, and let's all work together to get our server into the top six!"

"I can't wait! An extraordinary civilization!"

Finally, the player Donut spoke again: "It's worth mentioning that our fighter, Yuan Qinghua, hasn't come out yet. He should still be alive inside. When he does emerge, we'll let him talk about what he encountered. Just wait and see."

Everyone completely erupted, and the entire network was abuzz with discussion. Even some veteran players became curious and stepped forward to comment, and major research institutes also started to show interest. It could be said that undercurrents were stirring.

Sitting in the Underworld, Xu Zhi shook his head. Since he had tried to activate this mode, he was naturally prepared for such a situation. "Do you think that because there are many of you, like in an online game world, you'll have an advantage?"

Even with many people, Xu Zhi had ways to restrict the players!

In fact, precisely because there were more people, it would be even more brutal and harder to rise. This was truly a case of the strong surviving.

"This world is specially divided into three time-flow rate regions, created specifically for you. You can only live in the lowest layer, with a time flow of one to one year, in the Beast Dao, encountering various high-dimensional attacks!"

"Furthermore, your lifespans are severely depleted due to the evolution mechanism, making them extremely short!"

This was the way to balance the players.

Otherwise, if a large number of players were allowed to enter the one-to-hundred-year time flow, the world would truly descend into chaos, and Earth's civilization would enter the interstellar age within a few months!

Even with a one-to-one year ratio, Xu Zhi still felt it was a bit too long.

But considering they were in dire straits, struggling and barely surviving, many would surely die and very few would survive, which put his mind at ease.