The virtual empire starts from the game

Chapter 602 brings global developers onto the bandwagon!
"Wait! Now is not the time to look at this!"

The valiant sniper is now too preoccupied to carefully read through these newly unlocked features.

He has more important things to do!
I quickly skipped the system prompts and exited Deep Space Echoes.

He pushed open the semi-transparent hatch in front of him, sat up in the hibernation pod, and frantically surveyed his surroundings.

—The game has just ended, and he and Lao Yang are the last two survivors.

If Lao Yang wanted to quit the game at this time, he would definitely be in this lobby!

There are only a few hundred players who have activated the [Lost Ship] respawn point right now, and even fewer players who have started "Deep Space Echoes". And even fewer players will end the game at this very moment!

The valiant sniper stood atop the hibernation pod, suspiciously eyeing each open hatch, trying to find Old Yang who had betrayed him.

It's not that I can't accept defeat, it's just that it's too frustrating!

It's just a shame.

There weren't many people in the hibernation hall, and even fewer had their hatches open at this time—only three or five people.

But the brave sniper looked left and right, and no one looked like Old Yang.

There wasn't an 80-year-old man among them.

"This bastard... I mean, is this guy still online? Is he still playing?"

The valiant sniper sighed, realizing he had been too hasty.

He was betrayed by Lao Yang at the last moment, and his anger overwhelmed him, which is why he rushed offline to seek revenge.

Old Yang successfully tricked someone, so of course he happily continued playing, even starting another round to trick someone again...

Left with no other choice, he lay back down and logged into "Deep Space Echoes" to search for players he had played with in his game history.

This made it easy for him to find Lao Yang.

—The nicknames and numeric IDs of the other 8 players have all been made public, except for one whose nickname and ID are marked with an asterisk.

Who else could it be but Lao Yang, who has something to hide?
"Forget about everything else, just get some blueprints back. If all else fails, I'll buy them."

"After all, it was something that Daze risked his life for."

The valiant sniper sent a private message: "Dude! Isn't it a bit unfair of you to act like this towards me?!"

"I really feel a little hurt."

"I'm not a sore loser..."

The valiant sniper wanted to make it clear first that he wasn't a sore loser; he just wanted to buy back the two blueprints and Dongdong's gauntlets.

You don't need your own [Tokamak Spear].

But he really wanted to get his teammate's weapon back.

But the system quickly and ruthlessly reminded him:

[You have been blocked by the other party; message failed to send.]
The valiant sniper stared at the line of small red text, frozen in place.

"What the hell?!"

"Are you trying to mess with my mind?!"

The valiant sniper got carried away and said, "You really think I can't find you, huh?"

"There are only about a hundred people in this hall! I could find you by asking everyone one by one!"

He wasn't just making empty threats; he immediately logged out of the game, jumped off the hibernation pod, and headed to the side to "knock on the door."

The viewers, still immersed in the twists and turns of the game's final plot and the magnificent space scenes after the successful escape, quickly jumped in to stop him when they saw him actually trying to knock on each hibernation pod to check their water levels.

"Calm down, Aki! You mustn't!"

"Don't do that, Aki! Please don't! People will accuse us of cyberbullying!"

"This is really sore loser! It's a bit ugly, bro!"

……

Seeing the warnings from his viewers, the valiant sniper quickly snapped out of his daze and realized that what he had done was inappropriate.

He had no choice but to withdraw his hand and sit depressed in the hibernation pod.

It took him a while to adjust his mindset.

"Actually, I'm used to being chased and killed by other players in the game, and I've never cared about it."

"Let's play!"

"But this... gaining trust first, then betraying you at a crucial moment... is really hurtful!"

"Forget it, I'll learn my lesson and be more careful next time."

After complaining for a while, he reluctantly logged back into the game and added Daze as a friend.

I wanted to ask Daze if he wanted to queue for another game, but I found out that Daze was already in the game.

And the person was under a lot of tension.

Feeling embarrassed to bother him any longer, he turned back to carefully examine the newly unlocked features.

[Deep Space Explorer] is an upgrade system for the gameplay of "Deep Space Echoes".

Similar to the investigator levels in "Frost Project" and the military rank system in "Lord of War".

However, whether upgrading will improve character attributes or simply reward decorative items such as avatar frames and skins remains to be seen after the upgrade.

[Biological Atlas], as the name suggests, is an illustrated guide.

It currently only records one type of creature:
【Red Monster】

Category: Space Predator

Threat Level: 3 stars
Morphological characteristics: It is an aggregate of blood plasma and biological tissue, resembling a large amount of human large intestine tangled together. It can freely expand and contract, and its core is hidden inside the body.

Behavioral characteristics: ...

Predation method: ...

Combat ability: ...

preventive solution:

(1) Avoid close-range combat.

(2) A penetrating blow to the core area can cause spasms and temporary loss of mobility.

(3) Strong light and wave oscillation can cause it to freeze briefly.

(4) Consuming blood and life can restore the state, avoiding the use of sheer numbers.

(Method of elimination unknown; please gather more information yourself.)
……

The valiant sniper quickly discovered that, apart from the monster's name and threat level, there was almost no new information on it.

—It was all intelligence they themselves obtained by risking their lives in the previous round!
Turning the page further, each page was blank.

It only says "[Unlocked]" at the top of the page.

"So... there are many more monsters as bloody and terrifying as the Red Monster???"

"And the Red Monster's threat level is only 3 stars?"

"Isn't this a bit too inhumane?"

"Knight Walker... Mr. Knight, are you still there?"

Knight Walker is certainly there.

But he pretended he wasn't there.

The valiant sniper couldn't get anyone to come, so he had no choice but to shut up in frustration.

[Explorer's House] is a cabin that players obtain after becoming explorers.

This cabin is about 40 square meters in size.

The brave sniper initially complained that the development team was stingy, only giving so little space.

But when he opened the electric curtains and saw the vast universe and Saturn filling the window, his attitude immediately changed, and he began to praise the spaciousness of the cabin.

—In space, a 40-square-meter personal lounge is already considered "luxury"!
Not to mention, this place also has its own trophy display room, armory, and a small, fully automated production workshop.

The equipment in the production workshop is exactly the same as the equipment used by the Valiant Sniper to print the [Tokamak Spear] in the game.

Unfortunately, he doesn't have the blueprint for this weapon. Right now, he can only build [corrosion-resistant floor tiles] and [Type I energy transmission lines].

Moreover, he only brought out 3 energy cores, which wouldn't be enough to make many more floor tiles.

He looked around and realized he was definitely broke.

They had absolutely nothing.

The only solution now is—

Let's play one more round!
The system notification he hadn't had time to finish reading was about upcoming game content:

[Unlock more maps, weapons, items, monsters, and random events]
[Please explore on your own]
Enjoy the game!
Before starting the match, the valiant sniper didn't forget to send a private message to Qihuahua, who was still working hard and grinding in the wilderness:
"Huahua! We've arrived in the Lost Land! 'Echoes of the Deep Space' is super fun! Highly recommended!"

"Want to play together?"

Qi Huahua paused for a moment before answering, "They're building a house right now, I'll answer it later."

"That's such a shame! If you wait another day, netizens will spoil the plot, which will greatly reduce the fun and affect the live stream's quality." The valiant sniper enthusiastically recommended it.

Qi Huahua replied much faster this time: "Why do I feel like you're hiding something bad? Is it something scary?"

"How could that be!" The valiant sniper shook his head. "It's just a bit exciting! I don't want you to get spoiled."

"Is that so..." Qi Huahua was skeptical. "Then I'll be careful and not watch short videos for now. I'll go over after I've repaired all the respawn points in the city."

"OK, OK!" The valiant sniper finished his baiting, closed the chat box with satisfaction, clicked match again, and started the next round of the game.
-
Knight Walker didn't just watch the heroic sniper's live stream.

Although there aren't many players in this hibernation hall right now, there are still 6 people streaming.

Knight Walker then opened six live streams simultaneously and watched them from beginning to end.

The feedback from players has been quite positive.

Although it's inevitable that some people will be backstabbed by their teammates and lose their composure, while others will be attacked by the Red Monster and broken through their defenses, their screams heart-wrenching.

But after a few curses, they quickly jump into the next round of the competition.

Players who are traumatized and stop playing?
not a single one.

No one even chose the "Fearless" mode, opting instead for the cartoonish model of the Red Monster.

Clearly, this is not a problem.

After sending a few rockets to each live stream, Knight Walker went home satisfied and took a break.
-
In the virtual world, players have no rest.

Players who have reached the Hibernation Hall play game after game, leveling up and collecting blueprints, weapons, and loot.

Players from the sprawling metropolis left the city in droves, heading towards the lost ship.

Despite the extremely high mortality rate along the way, with a clear destination, players still managed to reach the Lost Ship in waves.

Although hundreds of thousands of people set out each time, only a few hundred actually make it to the scene alive.

But as the numbers accumulated in the hundreds, the number of people continued to grow.

The hibernation hall quickly became lively!

By the time Xu Mengteng took action and started paying attention to the situation, there were already more than 20,000 players online simultaneously in [Lost Ship]!

These 20,000+ players are obviously not a large number compared to the millions who died on the way.

However, these less than 1% of players produced a large amount of video material, attracting huge attention in the gaming community!
Xu Meng simply scrolled through a few social media platforms and saw a large number of outrageous headlines—

[The best ever! 9 kills in a 10-player solo match on a small map in Deep Space Echo, successfully escaping!]
[A live-action PvP event in the Hibernation Hall!]
[Everyone's a villain! Damn, in a small team of 10, 8 of them are bad seeds!]
[A 90-year-old man, addicted to a game, used up all his "rejuvenation" time, only to suddenly revert to his old age in the game and be so frightened that he disconnected from the game!]
[Any players who enjoy tentacle play? Red Monster Bound Play Group: 9 for 1!]
……

Xu Meng was speechless.

A small map with 10 players, and you got 9 kills?

So he killed all his teammates by himself? And yet he still managed to escape?

What a natural-born spy physique!
Players clearly shared Xu Meng's thoughts; the video garnered over 900 million views in less than 4 hours!

The screen was filled with comments like "[Awesome! Stay away from me]".

He glanced at it briefly and was deeply impressed by the guy's acting skills.

Then he asked about the thing he cared about most: "Xiaomeng, did anyone get scared to death?"

"No, no," Xiaomeng shook her head. "Xiaomeng has been staring at it the whole time."

"That 90-year-old man in the post?"

Xiao Meng said with a smile, "He was just scared back to the lost ship by 'Deep Space Echoes'."

"And after resting for 10 minutes, I was not willing to give up, so I queued up for another game. When I found that my old arms and legs were not working well, I bought two more hours of [rejuvenation] and continued to play after becoming young again."

Xu Meng was speechless.

Who would have thought that a 90-year-old man would be addicted to the internet?
In the end, he could only shake his head and say, "Okay."

"How did the media react?" Xu Meng asked again.

Xiao Meng waved happily, and a series of media reviews appeared before her eyes.

The most recent piece I've been working on is, of course, an article for my old friend, *Game Observer*.

[Echoes of the Deep Space may be a harbinger of the future of the gaming industry!]
The author of this article was Huodao.

He wrote in the manuscript—

"Deep Space Echoes" has a distinctly Knight Walker style.

His pursuit of "ultimate visual experience" is particularly evident in this game.

However, at the same time, *Deep Space Echo* also possesses a very distinctive dream-building game style—

Incredible technological capabilities, a high degree of freedom and flexibility.

At the same time, Resonance of Space has a relatively independent depth of gameplay, while also cleverly integrating with the depth of Outer Space, making it a prominent landmark on this digital planet.

This fusion of [game developer's personal style] and [dream-building style] is likely to become a mainstream trend in future game development.

"In the future, Dream Building may become more open, allowing more game development teams around the world to participate in virtual game development."

"At that time, Dream will no longer be conquering the game industry through acquisitions—a step they have already completed—but will instead transform the entire game world in a more gentle yet irresistible way."

"That is, to use absolute technological advantages to encourage all developers around the world to actively join them and contribute to [the digital planet]—not just pioneering a new frontier!"

"And that day may not be far off!"
-
The comments section of this article showed a clear polarization among netizens.

Some people think this is very likely, and have even begun to imagine game developers from all over the world making games in the virtual world.

There will be a constant stream of new games to play.

Another group of netizens felt:
Xu Meng has almost achieved a monopoly on the game industry, and with powerful tools like the [Genesis Engine] and [Artificial Intelligence] at her disposal, production capacity is not a problem at all.

There is absolutely no need to share your power and benefits with others.

In the past, they would have had to worry about antitrust investigations.

In modern terms, there's the [Dream Machine] which offers a de facto double lifespan and the [Rejuvenation] which allows one to regain youth.

Governments around the world are frighteningly tolerant of dream-building!
He hardly needs to worry about antitrust warnings and penalties.

In this situation, it's perfectly normal for one person to take all the profits!

Many people in the comments section put themselves in others' shoes, saying that if it were them, they definitely wouldn't share the profits with others.

The two sides argued incessantly.

It discusses Xu Meng's personality on one hand, and the essence of human nature on the other.

Neither side could convince the other.

……

After a moment's thought, Xu Meng directly liked the article using her main account.

Whether it's for [virtual leap], or to play more innovative games, or to get more developers on the bandwagon of the virtual world, this is a necessary step.

After liking the post, Xu Meng went to read articles from other media outlets.

But players quickly noticed his likes.

The debate in the comments section was quickly resolved.

Many eager developers were also thrilled!
An independent game developer named Yu Liyan immediately spoke out, expressing his strong anticipation and desire to develop virtual games!
Once he started, a large number of game developers emerged, vying to express their opinions.

Afraid of falling behind others!
(End of this chapter)