The virtual empire starts from the game

Chapter 651 I asked you for help, not to stir up trouble!

The electronic Edison, with his head covered by clothes, slumped in a corner pretending to be a corpse.

In the virtual world, a player's body does not immediately disappear after death.

The corpse will only turn into light and disappear when the soul returns to the resurrection point.

Therefore, during intense battles, it's easy to see the horrific scene of corpses lying on the ground waiting for the system to refresh.

This gave Electro Edison the opportunity to feign death.

Of course, this feigned death is easily detected, and one might occasionally be accidentally injured by stray bullets.

But Edison had no better way to make electronic music—

He had to take time to find out about the leak in the back half of the spaceship and the progress of others in plugging the leak by searching Mengjin's posts and other players' live streams.

Someone in the live stream asked, "Why are you just watching and not going to help?"

This really angered EDI.

He really wanted to help.

But given his current state, running over there would only cause trouble—many people would definitely chase after him and try to kill him.

He had received confirmation that both the respawn points at the Lost Ship and the respawn point at the West Gate of the Sprawling City were surrounded.

As soon as he dies, his respawn point will be immediately pushed back.

Don't even think about taking another step until you hand over the logs.

He didn't want to be killed repeatedly until he logged off, so he could only play it safe for now.

They survive until the others successfully plug the leak and save the entire spaceship.

Or perhaps they'll survive until the entire ship is submerged and sinks underwater forever.

Whether he releases his flight logs to hundreds of thousands of people or simply dives underwater and discards them in some random corner, he can extricate himself from this predicament.

As for the value of the flight logs.

Whether it's a million dollars in cash or the title of "Honorary Player"... wouldn't he want it?

Of course he wants it!
But he knew even better: everything comes at a price.

If you steal that money, you'll be ruined immediately.

Hacking the logs to compete for a possible [Honorary Player] title is simply impossible.

Edison, the electronic music enthusiast, remembers one thing very clearly:

The awarding of the [Honorary Player] title is entirely up to Xu Meng.

If he dares to hack the log, Xu Meng will definitely label him with "misdeeds" and he will never be able to get the title of "[Honorary Player]" again.

While lamenting to himself that he had once again missed out on becoming a [Honorary Player], Edison kept his head down and secretly watched the other players' progress in saving the spaceship.

Unfortunately, progress has been very slow.

The players were extremely enthusiastic.

However, the tools they had were insufficient to cope with the surging seawater into the ship—the force of the current was too great to stop!
On the live stream, a player pulled a square steel plate from his storage compartment and braced it against a half-meter-long crack in the ship's hull with his shoulder.

His teammates pulled out welding torches, intending to weld it shut.

That simply won't work!
The rushing water pounded against their waists and legs, making them unsteady on their feet.

The seawater pushed the steel plate, causing it to bounce and make loud banging noises.

"Holy crap!" the guy with the welding torch suddenly cried out in pain—his hand had been burned by the high-temperature welding torch.

Three more people came up to help, and they finally managed to patch up the hole with great difficulty.

During this process, the seawater had reached their chests, and they had to retreat.

If cracks that haven't been submerged are this difficult to plug, then leaks that have already been submerged underwater are even more so.

Players do have diving suits and can dive underwater to find vulnerabilities.

Even if the loophole is found, plugging it is a big problem – welding torches can't be used underwater.

Even in reality, underwater leak sealing is a highly specialized job that most people simply cannot do.

In the virtual world, players are even more at a loss.

Epoxy resin, waterproof tape, concrete, foaming agent... everything that could be found was used.

Even players who could create Nen shields rushed over, but they couldn't stop the situation from worsening.

Impatient players began resorting to methods outside the game—

They flocked to Xu Meng and the Lost Ship development team's social media accounts to leave messages, urging them to quickly address the issues in the game.

There are especially many players looking for Xu Meng.

"Mr. Xu! Wake up! Something's happened! The Lost Ship has sunk!"

"Wake up! We're at work fixing bugs! Resonance of Space is about to become unplayable!"

"Mr. Xu, stop playing with succubi! If you don't come out and help, you'll be getting millions of complaints and refunds!"

"Please help! There's no other way to save the child!"

……

Xu Meng was not playing with a succubus.

I didn't go to the brothel or massage parlor.

He was just having a normal meal with Xiaomeng.

After being bombarded with comments from numerous netizens, he had no choice but to put down his rice bowl and go to check what had happened.

At first, he frowned.

"Deep Space Echoes is unplayable" and "Tens of millions of people have complained and requested refunds"—who wouldn't be horrified to see such comments?
However, after Xiaomeng helped him figure out what was going on, his furrowed brows immediately relaxed.

"These guys really know how to stir things up."

"Yes!" Xiao Meng had already opened the holographic window to watch the underwater battle and rescue efforts, finding it more and more interesting the more she watched.

"Does Master need any help?"

After thinking for a moment, Xu Meng nodded and said, "I should help."

"The players have been pleading so earnestly, we can't just ignore it."

"Xiaomeng, please help out too."

"Okay!" Xiaomeng was super enthusiastic.

……

……

Five minutes later, Xu Meng updated her social media account.

Players and netizens who had been keeping a close eye on Xu Meng's updates were thrilled and immediately clicked in.

Even Edison, who had moved to a different corner and was pretending to be dead, received a notification—

[Your specially followed account, 【许梦】, posted an update: "Since you have sincerely petitioned..." Click the link to go to the homepage for details.]
"Great!" Electro-Dison exclaimed excitedly. "With Boss Xu personally involved, this spaceship is saved!"

He quickly navigated to Xu Meng's account homepage and opened the post—

"Since you have petitioned so sincerely, then..."

Emergency hotfix patch is now live!

Patch notes: The durability of some special [memory cards] has been increased by 1000%, and they will drop 100% of the time upon the death of the holder.

The patch has been updated to the virtual world in sync with the dynamic release.

Additionally, the first player to find the next secret city will receive a [Honorary Player] recommendation.

Once approved and meeting the award criteria, you can receive the [Honorary Player] title.

Keep it up, everyone! We're looking forward to seeing another honored player emerge!
-
【? 】

A large question mark slowly appeared on the head of the electronic music Edison.

Right?
The petitioners are hoping you can save the lost ship from sinking, isn't it?

What do you mean by this update?
The memory card's durability has been increased; if I die, it will definitely drop...

This...isn't right?

Not only him, but all the players and netizens who saw this post were stunned.

After realizing what had happened, they all started complaining wildly:
"What the hell are you doing?! I asked you to help, not to fan the flames!!"

"Spaceship! Spaceship!! Such a huge spaceship, don't you want it anymore?!"

"Great! The log drops 100% of the time, and finding the spaceship really does give you the [Honorary Player] title. Now I can go on a killing spree without worry!"

"We were just guessing they'd give out titles, but now it's confirmed. Those who want one can get going." "Savings: I want to see rivers of blood!"

"Hahaha, this episode is the one that best fits the character!"

……

Players felt this update was extremely outrageous.

But this thing is very much in line with Xu Meng's consistent persona of "watching the fun and not caring about the consequences".

So much so that after everyone had been complaining wildly, they quickly accepted the result.

The players inside the spaceship, who were starting to calm down, started fighting even more fiercely!
Offline players and netizens flocked to the development team for help.

Especially Knight Walker, the head of the development team.

Soon, Knight Walker's comment section was flooded with one sentence:

"Sir, you don't want 'Deep Space Echoes' to be inaccessible, do you?"
-
Lost Ship Development Team.

Knight Walker and his colleagues had already noticed the problem.

As part of the development team, they have always had people keeping an eye on the situation of Echoes of the Deep and Lost Ship.

Therefore, this matter has been under close scrutiny ever since the spacecraft jumped into space.

He also witnessed firsthand the lost ship crashing into the sea and the series of events that followed.

Based on their professional experience, they should certainly try to intervene.

Otherwise, if all players on the server are unable to play "Deep Space Echoes", it will be a disastrous public relations crisis.

But Dream Building Games are different.

After the Lost Ship officially launched in the virtual world, they no longer had the authority to directly modify the backend.

This is not just a restriction on them.

In fact, any content that has already been updated in the virtual world must be submitted with an application, an explanation of the reasons, and approval before any modifications can be made.

This applies to both in-house development teams and second- or third-party development teams—of course, in-house development teams can certainly process processes faster.

There are only two exceptions:

Xu Meng and Xiao Meng.

In the virtual world, they can do whatever they want, and nobody can stop them.

Knight Walker submitted an intervention request immediately.

He understood Xu Meng's operational philosophy and did not apply to salvage the entire ship and put it back in its original place. Instead, he hoped to plug the leak so that the gameplay of "Deep Space Echoes" would not be affected.

Unfortunately, Xu Meng's recent post has already made his stance clear:

We will not intervene and will let the players decide how things will go.

As a result, the last external force that players could rely on was also blocked.

……

The Lost Ship development team did not remain uninvolved either.

They logged into the game collectively, teleported to the Lost Ship as players, and helped plug the bugs.

The development team appeared en masse to rescue the lost ship, a discovery that greatly boosted player morale.

More players came to help.

Many experts who were instigated by Xu Meng and rushed over to compete for the flight logs also joined in the work of sealing the leak.

The Flying General of Dragon City, who can even control water flow to a certain extent, and a mysterious player who can freeze seawater also make their appearances.

—Previously in Benin, after being besieged and defeated, General Aokiji was pursued all the way and eventually died in the vast sea.

Countless players fought for almost a whole day and night to compete for the loot that dropped.

Nobody knows for sure what loot the final boss drops.

But now, this person has frozen the seawater in each passage in front of countless people. This ability, which is exactly the same as that of the general, immediately aroused suspicion from many people.

However, the situation was already extremely critical, and no one had the time to get to the bottom of things.

—This player's freezing ability is indeed very useful.

However, his abilities are not on the same level as those of a general.

If a former general were here, he could probably freeze half the seawater of the Lost Ship with a wave of his hand, completely plugging all the loopholes.

But this person won't do.

He could only freeze five or six square meters of seawater at a time, and after freezing it a few times, he would start panting heavily, clutching his knees, looking like he was severely exhausted.

What's more troublesome is that under the immense water pressure, the frozen seawater can also be broken, causing further leakage.

As the water level continued to rise, the pressure on everyone increased.

The chances of saving him are getting slimmer and slimmer.

An hour after Xu Meng posted her update, all her efforts were in vain.

The lost ship was completely submerged by the sea.

Then an even bigger problem appeared before everyone's eyes—

"Deep Space Echoes" is inaccessible.

Players already in the game are unaffected, but all players attempting to use the teleportation key to open the portal encounter an unexpected predicament:

The door won't open.

……

After the Lost Ship was completely submerged, the respawn point became unusable.

Players who are killed must respawn in the Sprawling City.

Electro-Edison was one of these people. They hurriedly found the nearest house, closed the door, inserted the key, and opened it.

Behind the door remained the intact cabin of the lost ship.

But after closing the door and taking out the key, when trying to push the door open to actually enter the Lost Ship, they found that the door was like a mountain blocking the way, and they couldn't push it open at all!
Electro-Edison paused for a moment, then quickly realized what was happening:
Water pressure!

The car accidentally plunged into the river, making it extremely difficult to even open the door.

The lost ship is now sunk to the bottom of the sea, submerged by a massive amount of seawater.

Under such immense pressure, there's no way he could even open the door!

For EDM Edison and the Lost Ship development team, the worst-case scenario has occurred—

It was already evening, the prime time for players to log into the game.

But players of "Deep Space Echo," which has sold over 60 million copies and boasts over 10 million daily concurrent users, suddenly discovered that they could no longer log into the game.

After working hard all day, you can't even play games for fun in the evening. Who can stand that?
Mengjin and social networks immediately exploded:

"Fuck you! What were you doing while I was at work? Why did you delete my game?"

"@Knight Walker, @Lost Ship, @Echoing Space, your game is having problems! Fix it now!"

"RNM refunds the money!"

……

Everyone is cursing, but only the development team and the people who caused all this, like the "Electronic Edison."

There was no one who criticized Xu Meng.

The electronic music Edison and the development team were speechless.

They've worked so hard, spending so much time in the water, they must be exhausted.

The spaceship is now flooded, and there's really nothing we can do!

Knight Walker had no choice but to go to Xu Meng.

"Boss, the players are really upset right now, and many have started giving the game bad reviews. Shouldn't we get involved?"

Xu Meng showed no anxiety and asked him with a smile, "How do you plan to get involved?"

"How do we intervene?" Knight Walker was a little confused. "Salvage the ship, or at least drain the water so that players can log in to the game normally."

"Is there any other choice?"

Xu Meng nodded and said, "Of course!"

After saying that, he looked at Xiaomeng in front of him: "Xiaomeng, are you ready?"

"Of course!" Xiaomeng said confidently.

"Then let's get started!"

(End of this chapter)