The virtual empire starts from the game

Chapter 639 The Planetary Cannon is Completed, Back to Space (Seeking guaranteed monthly votes at the beginning of the month!)

"I'm blanching it!" the superstar exclaimed in shock. "What did you do?!"

"I was perfectly fine before I went to sleep, so why do I feel like I'm at odds with the whole world after waking up?"

"What heinous thing did you do while I was sleeping?!"

A series of question marks appeared on Blacklight's head:
"What did I do???"

If the situation weren't so critical, he would have said something to this guy no matter what.

However, there's really no time to argue about it right now.

"We've been tricked by Xu Meng! This dream machine has a GPS tracking feature! It will reveal our current location half an hour after it's started!"

"Now that the location has been revealed, let's run!"

The Primordial Realm hurriedly packed up the dream-making machine, put it in a box, and quickly walked to the window.

Watching countless players rush into the library, I felt a chill run down my spine.

He couldn't help but say, "How about... we just forget about it?"

"?" Blacklight, who was inspecting the weapons, turned his head. "What the hell did you say?"

"How about we call it quits?" The Primordial Realm turned around and said sincerely, "There are so many of them, I'm afraid we can't win."

"You fucking..." Blacklight said unhappily, "You had your fun, and now it's my turn and you say it's none of your business?"

"No, that's not true!" the superstar protested. "My dream...it only lasted six hours! How could it be enough?"

"I wish I could spend my whole life with her in my dreams."

Because of this dream, he not only failed to let go, but became even more unable to let go.

Blacklight quickly grasped the key point: "Her?"

"What were you doing in your dream, kid?"

The flame of the Bagua immediately blazed brightly.

Unfortunately, before they could even have a proper chat or devise any tactics, they saw a large number of players rush up to the floor and quickly check every corner.

The unique soundproof environment of the International Library prevented them from hearing the dense footsteps rushing up from downstairs, and they could no longer hear what those people were shouting.

The dream machine cannot be put into the storage compartment.

If you just wait here, you'll definitely get caught!

The so-called "hidden" place they found was just a corner hidden by layers of bookshelves; they would be discovered as soon as they got close.

"There's no time to think. Give me the dream machine, and you take the box and jump out the window over there," Blacklight said decisively.

The Primordial Realm is a little reluctant to part with it—not with the Dream Machine, but with the girl in the dream.

But he also knew that now was not the time to hesitate.

He quickly pulled out the dream-making machine and handed it to Blacklight, then grabbed the box and rushed out of the corner.

Instead of jumping out of the window, he pulled out his Remington shotgun and fired two shots at the crowd!

The players who chased after them were not intimidated at all; they transformed into armored superheroes and raised their guns to fight back.

Elsewhere, this clash would undoubtedly have produced a spectacular scene.

Gunshots rang out, bookshelves and books were pierced by bullets, and torn pages flew everywhere in the air...

Unfortunately, this is the Library of Nations.

The gunshots were confined to a very small area, barely reaching three meters away.

The dense bullets bounced off the walls and bookshelves, the stray bullets almost forming a net in the air, and the unfortunate ones who were impatient died one after another.

As for the torn and scattered pieces of paper from the books...

Don't even think about it.

Books seem to exist in another space; bullets passing through them are like passing through phantoms, leaving no trace.

Without these things obstructing the view, everyone can see clearly—

Holding the box, the Primordial Realm leaped out of the open window!

The chasing player thought he had escaped and rushed to the window in a panic.

But then he was seen gliding in a perfect parabola through the air before crashing headfirst into the crowd below.

The next second, he was engulfed by the excited crowd.

The box in his hand was also snatched away.

Then came the sound of gunfire and the rain of swords, as the Dream Machine box was passed from player to player.

The impatient man upstairs had already pulled out his gun and started firing at the crowd on the street.

The players below also retaliated without hesitation.

In the midst of the fierce battle, Blacklight stuffed the dream machine into his backpack and placed it in a corner, while he picked up a book and sat in front of the backpack, pretending to be an innocent passerby.

But he underestimated the intense desire of players for the Dream Machine.

—After Zhu Meng announced that the dream machine had been activated, which was tantamount to admitting that it could really enter dreams a second time, the bounty posted by well-known accounts on Mengjin and Jin Yin Island has already exceeded 50!
As for those bounties with relatively empty resumes and questionable credibility, they exceed one million.

However, for most players, those accounts have too low a reputation to take these bounties seriously.

As expected, the black light was quickly noticed by the players who had been digging deep into the ground, and they immediately wanted to check his backpack.

This definitely won't work!

Blacklight objected and tried to reason with him.

His opponent rejected his reasoning and chose to resort to violence.

Blacklight then pulled out a large bundle of cluster grenades.

The players surrounding the black light fell silent for a moment.

But soon, the player facing the black light looked him in the eyes and said, "I bet you don't dare."

Blacklight: "?"

"Right now, there's only one dream machine in the whole world that can enter a dream twice. If you blow it up, guess what will happen?"

"Do you remember what happened to Sanjay?"

Blacklight's hand, holding the fuse, trembled twice.

Everyone knows what happened to Sanjay.

—The bounty pool for him hasn't been exhausted yet…

Sanjay has completely collapsed.

He doesn't even need to work now; he's completely supported by the local gang.

They have food, drink, and doctors to take care of them.

It means we have to keep getting beaten up.

Thinking of this, he loosened the fuse.

Thinking of Diana waiting for him in Santo Domingo, and the date he had arranged with Diana to go beachcombing and crab catching, he simply put the cluster grenade back into the storage slot.

After showing the dream-making machine inside the backpack, he handed the backpack over.

Afterwards, I huddled in a corner and watched them fight and kill each other over the backpack.

But he didn't really give up—he still had a tracking device hidden in his backpack, so he could avoid this wave and find another opportunity later.

……

……

The conflict has begun again, but this time it's purely a player-driven activity.

Xu Meng is no longer involved in it, but has instead focused on studying the interaction and changes between programs, code, and brain neural signals.

Over the next three days, the official account of Mansheng Metropolis announced the activation location of the Dream Machine 26 times.

The battle for the dream machine has almost become a permanent event.

Players were also very enthusiastic about the event. Five days later, Xu Meng kept her promise and issued another announcement.

We will explain the progress of the bug investigation to the players and release an update patch for the Dream Machine.

However, this announcement is quite different from the previous one.

Although the previous announcement was written in a way that was easy to understand, one could still feel the tension and seriousness that Zhumeng was feeling about this unexpected incident.

This time, however, the writing style was much lighter, and the signature was changed to Xu Meng's personal name.
-

Dear users of Dream Weaver, players of the virtual world, good and bad citizens of the Spreading City, as well as investigators, hunters, warriors, sailors, and onlookers:
Hello everyone!
Thank you for your patience.

Thanks to the combined efforts of Xiaomeng, myself, and the technical team, the preliminary data analysis of the "Abyss Cave Dream Within a Dream" event has been completed!

There are two main points that require further explanation:

First, we have completely figured out how the AI-created eternally sleeping four-leaf clover unexpectedly reacted with the underlying protocol of the dream-making machine!

However, the specific reasons are too long to explain in detail, and few people would understand them anyway, so I won't go into them.

Let's just talk about what everyone cares about most—

This bug is not enough to break through the dual software and hardware firewalls I've set up for you, and it's impossible for it to cause damage to the player's brain.

The vegetative state, amnesia, and mental illness that netizens are worried about will not happen.

The real impact is the privacy breach caused by dream connections—dreams are the embodiment of desires, and once connected, others may see what one desires most in their heart.

Therefore, there is only one greatest danger, and that is "social death".

Nevertheless, we will still be releasing a targeted patch to enhance user security and privacy protection.

The patch includes "enhanced filtering for AI generation program", "strengthened deep protocol for Dream Machine", "upgraded privacy protection", and "optimized emergency wake-up mechanism".

For more details, please refer to the patch notes; I will not repeat them here.

Second, we already have a relatively systematic understanding of the specific mechanisms by which "secondary dream entry" is achieved.

—The “we” here refers only to me and Xiaomeng for now.

Next, we will conduct more rigorous and comprehensive security testing and functional development on this technology.

We have heard the strong calls from everyone to develop this feature into new ways to play.

We will convene developers, researchers, national science ethics departments, anthropologists and sociologists, honorary players, and some player representatives to conduct a comprehensive assessment of the feasibility of this idea.

Please remain patient and have confidence.

As compensation, starting tonight, the Dream-Making Opportunities will be refreshed daily in the Dream-Making Game Company headquarters showroom in the Spreading Metropolis.

—Xu Meng
-

In just five days, we fully grasped the extremely complex bug mechanism, completed a targeted patch, and arranged for further technical development.

Xu Meng's efficiency is undoubtedly astonishing.

But players are still not entirely satisfied:

"If it's safe and there are no problems, why continue testing?"

"Yes! Tens of thousands of people have been tested, and we haven't heard of anyone having any problems! Just release them!"

"No, at least restore the [Chalice of Giants] to its original state! We've been camping here for days!"

"Is one a day some kind of beggar's treat? Xu Meng, you with your thick eyebrows and big eyes, how come you're being so stingy?"

……

These discontented voices emerged the fastest.

However, Xu Meng's announcement contained so much information that more people quickly emerged, focusing on other issues:
"Does this patch mean I won't be able to connect with other people's dreams after installing it? Then I don't want to install it!"

"Damn, is this the prestige of an honorary player? They get to attend and make statements at such a 'historically significant' meeting? I'm so envious!"

"How are player representatives chosen? I want to be one too!!"

"I probably have no chance of attending, but you absolutely have to make this feature public!"

"That's right! It must be made public! It absolutely cannot be the privilege of a few!"

……

The comments section was filled with all sorts of conversations, but no one seemed worried about safety.

They couldn't even understand why, when tens of thousands of people were fine, safety testing was still necessary.

I also can't understand why a gameplay mode that tens of thousands of people have already played requires even more time to develop new features.

Why can't we just package it up and release it?

However, it is clear that in the fields of security and technology, they cannot sway Xu Meng's decision.

The only thing to do is compete for a daily refresh of the Dream Machine, vying for a second chance to enter the dream and experience new features ahead of time.

Beyond the virtual world, the undercurrents arising from this in the scientific research, diplomatic, and commercial fields of various countries are difficult for players to perceive.

At most, when Xia Kingdom players were watching short videos, they felt that the diplomatic department had become more assertive, and the hostile and attacking voices from overseas had also decreased significantly.

But this change didn't happen overnight.

Players who notice this will only think that they are being trapped by the platform's algorithm, without considering anything more complex.

Two weeks later, another major event completely pulled my attention away—

[Planet Cannon], nearing completion!

The number of players in the virtual world is so large that countless things happen simultaneously.

Even amidst the uproar surrounding the "Eternal Sleep Clover" and "Second Dream Entry" incidents, and the "Dream Machine Battle" which sparked a massive battle among millions of players, there were still tens of millions of players focused on playing "Echoes of the Deep" and "Under the Deep Rock".

Thanks to their efforts, the construction of projects such as the Earth Cannon, rocket launch pad, particle fountain, and Elcano gravity slingshot has been steadily progressing.

Especially the most popular one, the planet cannon.

The progress bar jumps up by a few points every day, and it's even more exaggerated on rest days.

On the most outrageous day, the progress bar even jumped by 8% in one go!

Now, the progress bar has reached 99%, and only a little finishing work is left before it will be completely completed!

A dense crowd of players had gathered around the cannon's platform, eager to see this colossal machine, a masterpiece of industrial aesthetics, operate for the first time.

[Planet Cannon] wasn't the first "space" project to be completed, but it was definitely one that players were most looking forward to.

The first project to be completed was actually the [space balloon].

That thing has the lowest technical requirements and requires the fewest materials; players can easily complete it while building planetary cannons and particle fountains.

And he completed three in one go!
The space balloon was enormous—larger than three large passenger planes combined.

It took a full hour just to inflate the air and take off.

Fortunately, its load-bearing capacity is quite satisfactory.

Each hot air balloon has a capsule hanging below it that can accommodate 300 players at the same time.

Amidst the intense anticipation of the crowd, 900 players slowly ascended into the air aboard a hot air balloon, growing smaller and smaller with each passing moment.

It steadily flew out of the atmosphere and made its way into space.

Unlike their predecessors, this group of space tourists was not lucky enough to witness the amazing sight of countless world bubbles crammed together.

But looking down through the porthole at the magnificent and beautiful green planet, they were equally captivated and felt that the trip was worthwhile.

Then they looked up.

Seeing the silent, cold, and austere space fleet suspended in space.

The fleet of Plans Shrimp People has never left.

At the same time they saw these spaceships, another spaceship flew towards them.

Players have never known how to spell the word "fear".

Seeing this, instead of running away, it actively moved closer to the spaceship!
The space balloons, laden with brave players, launched an attack on the Prans shrimp people's fleet!

(End of this chapter)