Chapter 134:

“Ah, dev team, please let me play a bit more!” In the tidy college dorm room, Invincible Tyrannosaurus Cheche was thrashing on the top bunk. It was the second hour since the version update for《Reality Realm》had begun, with 46 more hours to endure, but it was clear the little players had difficulty accepting this “cruel” reality. Cheche was curled up on the bed like a giant silkworm cocoon, wrapped in a blanket with an extraordinarily peculiar “map pattern”, shrieking: “I can’t take it anymore, please dev team, I feel like there are ants crawling on me, my whole body is shaking, I can barely breathe, please brother, just two more hours. One hour is fine too, just one hour! I swear I’ll never touch this thing again. I really can’t stand it anymore, I’m tossing and turning unable to sleep.” “Bang!” A pillow was flung over, and Miaomiao Shark from the lower bunk roared: “Stop howling in this dorm! If you’re gonna howl, get out and bring us some food while you’re at it, it’s your turn to be the son today.” “Tch.” The pillow-struck Cheche sat up with an unpleasant look, instinctively putting on the black helmet next to him. However, the large version update progress bar on the VR-like virtual interface in front of him had barely moved since he checked it five minutes ago. “Damn! Can’t even see the update capacity ah, when is this gonna finish updating?” Cheche disgustedly climbed down from the bunk bed, grumbling as he collected the lunch orders from the others sitting or lying around, preparing to fulfill a necessary duty as the dorm dad. Lest his lazy good-for-nothing buddies starve themselves in this age of material abundance. “Wanna play a round of Honor of Kings?” asked the Cyborg Snail, leaning on the window sill and smoking. Few responded. Evidently, everyone was suffering from “game withdrawal” like Cheche, undoubtedly afflicted with severe “electronic impotence”, unable to muster any enthusiasm. The Snail himself didn’t find his own suggestion very interesting either, he was just making small talk with no real point. He leaned on the window ledge puffing smoke rings, browsing his phone, stretching his body under the pleasant afternoon sun, carefully recalling his routine over the past while, and was startled. “Damn, in the last half month, apart from going to class, we’ve basically never left the dorm have we? Not playing basketball anymore, not running anymore, isn’t this being a true electronic waste of space? No, no, this won’t do! Got to go play some basketball and exercise today.” The Snail stubbed out the cigarette butt in a disposable paper cup ashtray next to him, grabbed the basketball at his feet, and called out to his dorm mates. The honorable Leading Pigeon agreed that wallowing in this slump wouldn’t do, so after finishing the lunch Cheche brought back, they swiftly changed into basketball gear and headed out. But before they reached the basketball court, Gugu Chicken clutching his phone squealed: “Quick, quick! Look at the forum, it’s updated! The version update announcement is out!” In the next instant, the student squad originally striding with vigor towards the basketball court instead sat down together in a shaded flowerbed, uniformly taking out their phones and opening that forum app with no download link to be found online. By now the forum was in an uproar, evidently impacted by the update announcement. Since this was a major version update announcement, its content was much more detailed and complex compared to previous minor updates and online hot patches: 【《Reality Realm》Alpha 2.0 Closed Beta Version Update Announcement: Hi hi, dear test participants, after coding through sleepless nights, the test team has finally compiled the main content for the next stage of major testing. Such a rapid version update is clearly the result of our test team defeating the code monkeys from the dev team in three private duels, so why not give a quick thanks to those three test members lying in the medical bay? In addition to innovations in game content and gameplay, this update also includes some updates to the game hardware facilities, which will be explained at the end. Now, find a nice spot to sit down, pour yourself a refreshing beverage, and look forward to the surprises the test team has in store. Alpha 2.0 Major Version Update Content: 1. Main Quest – Chapter 1《The Dawn of Transia》Unlocked! Thanks to the heroic and effective efforts of our test participants in advancing the storyline, our lovable and handsome Murphy has finally been promoted to “Lord Murphy”. After being granted the title “Count of Kadman”, Lord Murphy now has his own domain and authority. However, what kind of state is Transia and the war-ravaged Kadman region in? Our test participants have all witnessed it firsthand. Therefore, in the main quest’s first chapter, test participants need to rack their brains and take physical action to resolve a series of common and uncommon problems occurring within Lord Murphy’s domain, receiving generous rewards from the NPCs in return. In designing this chapter, the dev team has deepened the emotional interaction mode between test participants and NPCs, better enhancing the sense of immersion and role-playing. After the update concludes and the new version goes live, test participants will face a more realistic new world with NPCs possessing diverse personalities and backgrounds! It’s no exaggeration to say that our poor overworked code monkeys have developed a “new game” on top of the original game’s storyline. Come! A round of applause for the code monkeys getting glucose drips in the medical bay! 2. Combat system testing mostly complete, manufacturing and administrative system testing begins! A new DLC with currently unknown information, unknown content, unknown direction, and even an unknown name, will land in 《Reality Realm》 within six months as additional content outside of the main quest gameplay experience. But the mysterious dev team seems to enjoy playing it up, so they’ve embedded a decryption storyline into the new version first. After the new version goes live, test participants can collect intel in-game to learn about the new DLC’s content and discuss it on the forum. More DLC storyline content will be unlocked as the mysterious dev team’s work progresses. What can be confirmed for now is that this will be a DLC no less rich than the main storyline. According to them, this new DLC could even change the entire game’s storyline mode and direction of the overarching world environment. Uh, those were the mysterious team’s original words. But I feel like they’re just blowing smoke to swindle more R&D funding from our company. What do you think? 6. Optimized the more realistic physics engine, and added more interactive intelligent NPC portrayals and random events. 7. Fixed a minor number of bugs.】 “What the hell!” The first to finish reading the update announcement, Ah Yuen leapt up in shock, exclaiming: “Nevermind the new race and new storyline, there’s even a new job system? Can we finally become officials in the game now? And what’s this mysterious DLC all about? Normally shouldn’t DLCs come out after the main storyline is finished to supplement it? How is this crazy game doing the opposite?” “What about this crazy game is like any other game?” Leading Pigeon rolled his eyes, clutching his phone as he said: “And you’re missing the real big update! The sleep connection being enabled is the true bombshell, right? I knew that sluggish update bar was up to something! Turns out they were doing hardware driver overlays and software updates. Looks like I wronged Alpha Company, I’ll hop on the forum later and give them some well-deserved praise.” “8+6 hours of game time, this is awesome!” The Cyborg Snail pushed up his glasses, cheering: “Now we can even play while sleeping, my life just gained 8 hours per day out of nowhere! And with the 12 hour time difference between reality and the game, our nights of sleep will be during the day in-game, damn! Alpha rocks! Complete victory!” “Don’t get too excited yet.” Miaomiao Shark sounded a bit worried, saying: “This thing is related to brainwaves you know, I don’t really get it, but it sounds kinda risky.” “If you’re afraid of risks then don’t play!” Cheche sneered, saying: “Just let someone who needs the helmet more have it, alright? Look, the test application reservations on the forum have surged to 253 people! That’s so many poor dears who still can’t get into the game. Ah! My body feels like it’s crawling with ants again, please Alpha! Let me play for just one more hour!” “Dammit! Stop humiliating yourself like that!” The others jumped up and started hitting and kicking the hysterical Cheche to physically “detox” him from the web. But soon Ah Yuen said to his brothers in an odd tone: “That...Meow King just messaged me, he said he happens to be swinging by our area tonight for some business, asking if we have time to go out for a meal? He said he’s already invited Sister Pomegranate, Niuniu, Khaki and Path of Mud and Oil.” “Let’s go then.” Leading Pigeon sneered, saying: “Why wouldn’t we go when a shrewd social guy invites us to eat? The six of us, you afraid Meow King will snatch you away? Heh, tonight’s dinner is taken care of. Ah, thanks to Lord Murphy’s grace.” At the same time, on the other side, Lumina posted the forum’s update announcement in her social group. Not to mention the others, the highly mysterious Concrete Heart was already going crazy. In her lab, “Concrete Heart” was staring intensely at the introduction about the “sleep connection function” on her screen, biting on a pencil. A few seconds later she slammed her hand on the table hard. “Liars! There’s no such technology yet! And brainwave sensing, that explanation sounds just like pseudoscience mumbo-jumbo.” She leaned back exhausted in her swivel chair, taking off her gold-rimmed glasses to look up at the ceiling. A few seconds later, a bold thought emerged in Concrete Heart’s mind. “I have this lingering feeling there’s something fishy going on! That silly little Lumina has already fallen into the trap, even dragging Orchid and little Ashina down with her. Those three reckless fools are even luring Lady Aqua to join in too, are they trying to drag a good lady into the gutter? With Lady Aqua’s seemingly calm but actually unpredictable yandere personality, she probably won’t be able to resist for long. No way! I have to find a way to personally check out this so-called mysterious thing. It can’t really be some alien game from hell, right? Or should I make a reservation too? Hmm, it feels a bit risky, so maybe I should trick some poor sap into going for me instead?”