The virtual empire starts from the game

Chapter 613 The Three Nen Masters, Release Date Arrives! (Seeking Monthly Tickets)

Over the past six months, Vapor has not fared any better than Game Box and Rentiantang.

To be more precise: even worse than them!
Gamebox and Rentiantang at least had relatively independent hardware ecosystems—although they were eventually defeated by Zhumeng, they still had value in being "sold."

But Vapor doesn't have that.

Faced with the impact of the Zhumeng gaming platform, there was truly nothing that could be done but watch helplessly as the number of active users continued to decline.

The only reason they've managed to survive until now is because of the inertia of manufacturers and players.

But now, this inertia has been broken by Zhu Meng in just a few days!
The fact that many development teams chose to postpone projects and collectively shift to virtual games is not a minor episode in the development of the industry.

At this point, it's wishful thinking to still dream that after participating in this competition, they can go back to developing their previous games and releasing them on the Vapour gaming platform!
A month is enough time to change everything.

Not to mention that it's been four months now, or even longer.

This will be a complete turnaround!

If this turning trend is not immediately interfered with and blocked at this time, once the ship starts to turn, it will be impossible to reverse it!

Vapour's managers saw this as a fatal crisis.

but……

They were powerless to stop this change.

—For anyone working in development, the leap from traditional platforms to the virtual world is an irresistible temptation.

Even Gabriel, the founder of Vapour, had no time to think about how to save Vapour. Instead, he returned to the game development team after a long absence and devoted himself to studying the Genesis Engine.

It seems they also intend to participate in this competition organized by Zhuzhu Dream.

His appearance left the platform's operations staff feeling frustrated and helpless.

We could only watch helplessly as this platform slowly, but irresistibly, declined and disappeared.

……

So, what are players doing as this once "holy land of games" comes to an end?

The answer is:
Build roads!

Right now, the most talked-about topic in the gaming community is no longer "Echoes of the Deep Space".

It's not that people aren't interested in Resonance of the Deep Space—in fact, quite the opposite, everyone desperately wants to play it, but can't seem to get around to it, so "how to get to the Lost Ship" has become the most talked-about topic.

Before this, some players actually tried to find the [Misty Mine] in order to get a permanent free pass to Under the Rock.

But this place is much harder to find than the Lost Ship.

At least Xu Meng fell from the sky and clearly marked the location of the lost ship.

The misty mine...

The map Richard gave me with the red dot was a complete rip-off.

The lack of an accurate scale is already a headache enough, but if people venture into the rainforest, it's all over.

—In the dense rainforest, it's impossible to judge directions and distances.

In addition, the rainforest is full of monsters and extreme weather, so you often encounter attacks while walking around, and you have to fight or run for your life.

Once the crisis is over, it will be even harder to figure out where we stand.

These repeated setbacks greatly diminished everyone's desire to explore the Misty Mine.

Later, only a handful of players, less than a hundred, remained traversing the rainforest, trying to find the Misty Mine.

For the remaining players, the focus is now down to just one thing—

The infrastructure plan proposed by Heroic Sniper, Phantom Moon, Seven Flowers, and others:
Build a road between the Lost Ship and the Overgrown City!

The players were worried that the journey was too dangerous and they wouldn't be able to reach the Lost Ship, so upon hearing about this plan, they immediately raised their hands and feet in approval.

In a very short time, a huge number of players drove truckloads of building materials to the edge of the rainforest.

On the Lost Ship side, a permanent stall has also appeared, accepting donations of blueprints and supplies related to road construction.

The special floor tiles created using blueprints are far superior in terms of durability and corrosion resistance to the ordinary floor tiles used in the reconstruction of the city.

It is particularly suitable for use in rainforests, where water is plentiful but dangers are ever-present.

The only problem is: insufficient production.

Relying solely on the heroic snipers' production capacity is far from sufficient; the only solution is to open up donation channels and pool collective wisdom to accomplish this.

Daze strongly supported the project, donating all his raw materials to create more than 3000 floor tiles, which was almost a third of all the floor tiles donated by the players.

He single-handedly expanded a 600-meter-long rainforest road!
Of course, paving a road requires more than just materials; it also requires a lot of manpower.

Someone needs to cut down the trees that are in the way, defend against attacking monsters, and repair the damaged roads... each and every task is extremely tedious.

There are too few players in Lost Ship, and most of them are addicted to the game. Donating materials is already a huge contribution, and it's hard to ask for more.

The key to progress lies in the path that extends from the Mansheng Metropolis.

The reconstruction of the sprawling metropolis provided a large quantity of inexpensive and readily available construction materials.

Hideo Kamiya's updated [Infrastructure Expansion Pack] includes a large number of single-player construction equipment, greatly lowering the barrier to entry for construction.

These convenient conditions greatly accelerated the players' road construction speed, and in less than three days, they built a road from the west gate of Mansheng City to the edge of the rainforest!
Once inside the rainforest, the difficulty of road construction skyrockets, and the speed is reduced to almost half of what it used to be.

But for players, this speed is perfectly acceptable!

Thanks to everyone's efforts, the road continues to extend deeper into the rainforest and is built further and further.

Until halfway through the road...

The rainforest is rebelling!
Various rainforest creatures are no longer simply attacking players working on the road, but have begun attacking the road itself.

Acid rain corroded the highway, leaving it riddled with potholes.

Plants sprouted from the soil, pushing aside the originally solid concrete and brickwork.

The river changed course and washed away the roadbed.

A wild animal charged, and the bridge collapsed.

The monkey troop stormed into the player group, looting various tools and building materials.

……

Players had to repair the road ahead while simultaneously turning back to repair the damaged road behind them.

As for the [all-weather autonomous defense turret], it remains a luxury due to a lack of energy.

As a result, construction efficiency has decreased again and again.

Whether it can meet the completion date of August 31st is therefore in question.

Unable to tolerate this uncertainty, the wealthy mountain spirit went to Mengjin to post a bounty.

[Is there any tough guy who can hijack a plane and send me to the Lost Ship? I'll pay!]
The airport in the bustling metropolis has been completed.

While logging into Lord of War from home takes only 1 second, flying to the camp takes 15 minutes, which seems a bit unnecessary...

But some players are still interested in this.

Since the airport was completed, planes have never stopped flying over the city.

The mountain spirit then offered 3 yuan to hire someone to rob the plane and deliver the Lost Ship to him.

Under the reward, there must be a brave man.

Players wanting to take on the quest flooded the Mountain Ghost's inbox with private messages.

Looking at these people's "resumes," he was surprised to find that there was actually a "Nen team" among them!
Even now, Nen ability remains the rarest ability in the virtual world. The only certain way to obtain it is to reach the 200th floor of the Sky Arena and receive the quest to unlock Nen ability.

This is just the start of the mission; whether it can be completed successfully and whether one can unleash their Nen ability remains to be seen.

There was an accident that happened during a live stream before—

After star boxer [Silver Peak] reached the 200th floor and obtained Nen ability to start the mission, he tried his best to complete it, but failed in the last step of "activating Nen ability".

Yin Feng was furious and immediately contacted customer service to ask what was going on.

"The mission was completed successfully, and we don't get any reward?! Is that even fair?!"

Customer service was unable to help; they could only explain the situation and offer reassurance.
“The Nen ability was designed by Mr. Xu Meng. No one else can intervene in this system, let alone ‘compensate’ you with a Nen ability.”

"This ability must be activated using a dream machine. The activation process involves the user's subconscious and has a certain degree of randomness."

"We can only offer you some advice: a firm will, abundant self-confidence, unwavering determination, and the courage to take on any challenge... These kinds of mindsets can, to some extent, increase the probability of success."

"If that still doesn't work, I suggest you consult some virtual characters who have Nen abilities."

"Or... try consulting General Longcheng."

Yin Feng, and the players watching his live stream, were all taken aback by the customer service representative's words.

The customer service representative's words didn't sound like they were discussing a game quest at all; rather, they sounded like they were talking about some kind of martial arts manual or internal energy cultivation method.

But he spoke with absolute certainty.

The key point is: it seems to make sense!
After Yin Feng spent half a month in seclusion under the guidance of Long Cheng Fei Jiang, he successfully awakened his Nen ability!
Although his Nen ability is visibly much weaker than that of Dragon City Flying General.

But nobody cares about that.

Even Yin Feng himself doesn't care.

It's not surprising that the first generation of Nen users were stronger than those who came after them, especially after it was learned that this ability could be improved through "training".

This level of skill made the Mountain Spirit choose this three-person Nen team without hesitation.

[Fantasy], [Agnostic], [Raphael].

This team is indeed incredibly strong!
After the plane took off, the mountain spirit saw that they only deployed one Da Vinci... no, Fantaqi, who easily took down 5 unconvinced players and 3 hidden NPC security officers.

Then, not-so-Cheeriro was dispatched.

With a gentle touch of the hand on the cabin emergency exit, the sturdy metal door slowly softened.

In less than five seconds, it turned into liquid and flowed down.

Beside the mountain spirit, Raphael thoughtfully explained to him:
"His Nen ability is rather unique; it doesn't significantly enhance the body, but it's extremely corrosive."

"It works on all player equipment and Dragon Soul Armor, reducing their durability at an alarming rate."

"If the equipment is of low rarity, it can even be destroyed outright."

"It's also great for scheming. Just use it when shaking hands, and you can cripple one of the other person's hands."

The mountain spirit couldn't see the power of telekinesis, but it still felt that the money was well spent!
……

The two pilots were quickly brought under control and forced to change course and fly into the rainforest.

The airplane was much faster than a car on the ground, and before long, the mountain spirit could see the endless rainforest below through the window.

The players, who were initially a little annoyed on the plane, suddenly became happy again after realizing that the destination had become the [Lost Ship].

Players repairing roads on the ground were also surprised to see the plane fly overhead, and they all raised their arms to wave to the plane.

Soon, the plane reached the end of the road built by the player.

The mountain spirit was excited: "We're already halfway there! We'll be there in another 10 minutes, right?"

"should be."

Beside him, Raphael nodded, thinking that this money was really easy to make.

But two minutes later, a massive thunderstorm suddenly covered the entire sky.

In the midst of a thunderstorm, a large flock of lightning-streaked thunderbirds flew like moths to a flame and crashed into the aircraft's exterior.

Like slender shuttles crackling with electricity, they effortlessly pierced through the metal fuselage of the aircraft, instantly sweeping past the nose, cabin, and tail.

In just a few seconds, the plane was riddled with holes!
The mountain spirit in the cabin, like all the other passengers, was riddled with holes by this deadly storm of death and died instantly!

Only one person survived – Raphael, who was sitting next to the Mountain Spirit.

When the storm of thunderbirds touched his body, they would slide off his skin as if rushing into a stream of water.

Although the force was too great, it tore his clothes and left him with hideous bloodstains all over his body.

But thankfully it wasn't fatal.

Although it was only for a few more seconds—the pilot and the customer were already dead, the plane was completely destroyed, and it was plummeting straight down.

Eleven seconds later, the plane crashed to the ground.

The first hijacking and smuggling operation ended in total annihilation.
-

Nevertheless, the Mountain Spirit's unsuccessful attempt inspired many people.

In the following days, the skies over the rainforest became busy, with planes flying overhead as players worked on the construction.

A brand new profession began to emerge on the ground – “tour guide”.

Their job was to lead people to the lost ship.

1000 yuan per person!
Before the Mountain Spirit, no expert had ever done this job.

It's not that I can't do it, it's that I feel I can't make money from it.

After all, the game "Building Dreams" only costs 168 or 268. If you take people to the Lost Ship in advance, you can save that much money. It's not good to charge too much.

However, if the offer is too low, the task is too difficult, and it often takes many attempts to succeed.

Totally worth the loss.

But after the mountain spirit quoted a price of 3 yuan, they suddenly realized—

The wealthy don't care how much the game costs; they care about how much money they can save by getting to Lost Ship early.

If they are asked to arrive a few days earlier, they are willing to pay 10 times the amount!
As a result, the "tour guide" industry immediately flourished, with experts from all walks of life entering the field and employing various methods.

The number of players who successfully reached the Lost Ship also began to grow rapidly!
The number of players who activated "Deep Space Echo" quickly exceeded 10.

The last week of August.

They seized the last opportunity to make money, taking orders day and night, with almost four to five thousand people successfully activating "Deep Space Echoes" every day!
……

During the same period, the [Digital Ark] project was also progressing rapidly.

On the official website of [Digital Ark], new libraries are added every day, and new digital books are uploaded every moment.

……

Xu Meng's publicity plan is also progressing rapidly under Chen Junyi's full support—

With money paving the way, the negotiations progressed very smoothly.

Boxes of drones loaded with holographic devices are rapidly arriving in Paris, New York, Moscow, Hong Kong...

With no outside knowledge whatsoever, Xu Meng's publicity plan is already poised to launch!
The last few days of August flew by in a flurry of activity.

September 1st is here in the blink of an eye.

The usual update day for Dream Weaver, the release date of Deep Space Echo and Deep Rock, and the start date of Dream Weaver's massive promotional campaign all arrive at the same time!
(End of this chapter)