The virtual empire starts from the game

Chapter 691 The Reason for Joy: Advanced Test Begins!

Chapter 691 The Reason for Joy: Advanced Test Begins!
As it turns out, Xiaomeng's foresight was absolutely necessary.

The fire of the Balrog ignited the surrounding three blocks before the players were able to successfully defeat it.

This time, it wasn't the Star Cannon that mattered.

—After being hit by the cannon, Xu Meng immediately became vigilant and transformed into a fire demon, quickly melting all the power supply facilities around the planet cannon.

The players who gathered around the cannon, waiting in vain, were all disappointed.

It wasn't until all the surrounding lights went out at the same time and the cannon, which was only half-charged, suddenly stopped that they realized what Xu Meng had done.

He was so angry he gritted his teeth, but there was nothing he could do.

—Among so many players present, how many dare to say that they understand Mansheng Metropolis better than its creator, Xu Meng?

Therefore, the only option is to confront them head-on.

One by one, the hovercars ignited by the Flame Demon turned into suicide bombs, which players drove down from the sky and crashed into Xu Meng.

The water tanker, which had once made a brief appearance at the Library of Nations, reappeared, gathering high in the sky and pouring water down on the Balrog, artificially creating a torrential downpour to suppress his flames.

The entire street was filled with steam, and the scorching steam burned many players who didn't have enough resistance.

But in the end, the Fire Demon was depleted of its health after players paid off tens of thousands of lives.

The moment its health was depleted, bright red veins appeared on the Fire Demon's body, as if lava was flowing through its skin, or as if the accumulated heat within its body was too much for it to bear, causing cracks to appear on its body...

Players who were closer immediately sensed that something terrible was about to happen!
But it's too late to run now.

In a dazzling light, the Balrog...

exploded.

The intense light and impact felt like a missile exploding on my face!

Within a radius of 100 meters, all players were wiped out!

Those dilapidated buildings that were already on the verge of collapse fell one after another, like dominoes being toppled.

Smoke and dust rose into the sky.

Although the player with the water jug hanging from the sky wasn't affected by the blast wave, being hit by a flashbang still left him dizzy and disoriented.

After regaining my senses, I had just quipped, "Did Mr. Xu go to the Middle East for further studies?" when I saw invitations raining down from the sky.

So, without further complaining, he immediately cut the steel cable and rushed over to grab the invitation.

The players on the ground rubbed their hot, teary eyes and looked up at the invitations fluttering down.

This time, it's 1000!
The players raised their arms high, joyfully accepting the invitation that had fallen from the sky.

The sense of accomplishment from defeating the powerful BOSS and the joy of obtaining the loot surged into their hearts, making them burst into laughter.

So when a pale, bone dragon emerged from the shattered earth, no one was surprised, only overjoyed!
Even though the bone dragon raised its neck and roared at the sky as soon as it appeared, awakening a bunch of skeletons and the still-living player corpses, no one felt scared.

Instead, they were sharpening their knives and charged forward without hesitation to start a fight.

Even those players who had died repeatedly were not discouraged; after being resurrected, they still rushed to the very center of the battlefield.

The Bone Dragon's destructive power and aggression are far less than those of the Flame Demon and the Bull Demon King, but its mechanics are extremely annoying.

Players killed by him have a 50% chance of being resurrected on the spot, becoming Xu Meng's subordinates, and inheriting all their attributes and skills from before their death.

This has even led to some players who are not particularly skilled but are extremely dedicated to grinding finding that, after resurrecting, they can't beat their undead version of themselves no matter what.

As a result, the undead army snowballed and grew larger and larger!
This once caused a huge problem for players.

In the end, adjustments had to be made, ignoring the Bone Dragon boss and focusing on clearing out the undead players. Combined with a barrage of heavy weapons to relentlessly attack the area, the expansion of the undead army was finally halted.

The players fought this boss for a long time, and it wasn't until Xiaomeng expanded the evacuation area to most of the city that they finally succeeded in defeating it.

Even as it died, it didn't forget to deliver a "deathrattle" to all the players—

The curse suppressed the maximum health of all players within a 500-meter radius by 20%.

And my whole body itches, so I have to keep scratching.

Invitation letters were also included.

A whopping 3000 photos were released at once!
The red invitations rained down from the sky like a deluge, and the players cheered nonstop, as excited as if it were Chinese New Year.

……

Xu Meng kept reviving, fighting, and showering rewards.

They turned hide-and-seek into a series of world boss battles.

The scale of the event grew larger and the rewards more generous, igniting the passion of players throughout the city.

Each successful campaign and the falling red rain would create a climax, with cheers resounding throughout the city.

……

Amidst this festive atmosphere, netizens who, for various reasons, couldn't attend in person and could only watch through live streams, vaguely realized something—

Mr. Xu seems quite happy?

It's not news that Xu Meng occasionally appears in the game and plays with other players.

But most of the time, he played with great restraint.

Just like the previous week-long "Animal Kingdom" migration, he didn't cheat and honestly followed the main group for the entire journey.

But now?

They turned hide-and-seek into a boss battle, transforming into different forms time and again, and relentlessly fighting against players in battle after battle.

This wild and passionate way of playing is completely different from his usual low-key and restrained approach!
So... is there some good news?

……

Xu Meng was indeed quite happy.

But not for what has already happened, but for something that is about to happen—

He also carried a system mission on his shoulders:
【Virtual Leap】: Guiding and leading the global gaming and entertainment industry, from production to consumption, to fully move into the virtual era!
This is an extremely complex and difficult task.

But through his tireless investment and efforts, he finally saw hope of completion!
With sales of dream-making machines exceeding 1 million, holographic devices are spreading globally, connecting the virtual and the real, and more and more real-world forms of entertainment are entering the bustling metropolis...

On the "consumer side," the gaming and entertainment industry has undoubtedly made great strides into the virtual era.

However, on the "production side," progress failed to keep up with his rapid pace.

Relying solely on expanding its own development team, recruiting overseas development teams, and the development teams of a few partner companies is completely insufficient to meet the needs of the mission.

However, this situation will soon change—

The Global Developer Creative Competition has brought developers from all over the world into the era of virtual games.

At least in the last few months, almost all traditional game development work around the world has come to a standstill.

The vast majority of developers entered the era of virtual development through [Genesis Engine].

Even many people who were not originally developers have joined the ranks of virtual game developers.

If this creative competition is successful—producing a batch of excellent games that gain recognition from players—the developers will make money, or at least see a glimmer of hope for making money.

That could lead to a leap in the development of game development worldwide.

Bypassing the painful and lengthy transition phase, we leaped from traditional development methods to a new era of virtual development in one go!
At that time, this task, which originally would have taken at least several years to complete, may be finished by him in one go!

Now, this crucial creative competition is about to begin its advanced testing phase, welcoming its first batch of players.

The success of the advance testing will greatly influence the smoothness of the competition once it officially begins.

At this crucial juncture, Xu Meng was no exception; driven by a strong sense of anticipation, she wanted to do something.

The reason for releasing more and more test slots these days, and even holding a huge pre-test event on the last day, is this.
-
This grand boss battle continued until late at night.

Until 11:10 p.m.

The Zhenyue mecha, which made a brief appearance at Jinghu Holographic Park, is back in action!

A sky full of red rain, imposing figures, magnificent music, and excited players...

All of this combined to bring the atmosphere at the scene to its climax!

However, this thing's combat power has reached a level of "insane".

They killed the players on the scene as easily as mowing grass.

The polymer vibration-damping sword can slice through a building with a single strike! Not to mention its effect on players.

I once saw an electromagnetic pulse cannon in a video; one shot from it could kill a whole bunch of people.

As for the players' attacks, most of them will be blocked by the mech's force field shield.

Even if a weapon with strong penetrating power were to penetrate the force field shield, the Zhenyue mech's own ultra-high-strength alloy shell would still possess extremely strong defensive capabilities.

Faced with such a powerful and destructive iron shell, the players found it increasingly difficult to fight, and almost felt helpless.

As the clock ticked closer to midnight, the advanced testing was about to begin. Not only had they failed to find the mech's weakness, but the Zhenyue had also unleashed a new tactic—an anti-gravity field—throwing all the players into the air… The increasingly frenzied players finally pulled out their most devastating weapon—

A dazzling light that illuminated the entire night sky descended from the heavens, crashing into the Zhenyue spaceship on the Earth's surface from the planet's synchronous orbit!

The thick beam of light moved at an astonishing speed, arriving on the battlefield in the blink of an eye!

At the last moment, Zhenyue raised its arms to cover the cockpit above its head, and its force field shield was activated at full power.

The originally invisible shield field became clearly visible under the powerful energy infusion!
The next second, an orbital strike is imminent!

Players within the range were instantly wiped out.

The force field shield lasted for less than 3 seconds before bursting like a soap bubble.

The ground beneath the Zhenyue instantly cracked and caved in, forcing the entire mech to kneel on one knee, unable to move.

The mech's durability is like a burst faucet, gushing out relentlessly!
But the players still felt it wasn't enough.

Before the first orbital strike was even over, the other spaceship's main cannon had already been fully charged.

A second dazzling beam of energy descended from the sky!

Now, the mecha was no longer visible in the bright, white beam of light.

"Now... surely we should be able to kill him?"

"Yeah, that's a railgun! Two shots!"

"If he doesn't die soon, it will truly be defying the heavens."

……

A large group of players gathered around Xiaomeng, who had transformed into a giant panda.

The boss that Xu Meng transforms into often unleashes some incredibly powerful wide-range attacks, but when he attacks, he always subconsciously avoids Xiao Meng's position.

Players quickly discovered this situation.

Since Xiaomeng was busy evacuating NPCs and not attacking players, the area around Xiaomeng became a special "safe zone".

Players here cannot be attacked by Xu Meng, nor can they attack Xu Meng.

When everyone gets tired, they take turns coming here to rest.

Now they all covered their eyes, peering through their fingers at the blinding beam of light, hoping the mech would be blown up.

But suddenly, a cute girl exclaimed in surprise, "Xiao Meng, what are you doing?"

Everyone turned to look at Xiaomeng, only to find that she was busy again!
"Evacuate! Evacuate!" Xiaomeng answered without any attempt to hide her actions, busy as she worked.

"Evacuate??" The surrounding players looked terrified.

—Every time the battlefield expanded, Xiaomeng would evacuate in advance, and the area covered each time was larger than the last.

Soon, more people realized something was wrong: "Why is it getting brighter and brighter?"

"Wait! Is the temperature rising? Why am I sweating??"

When they looked back, they found that the pillar of light had disappeared.

Only a mech with its durability almost depleted and its body badly damaged remained on the spot.

Before they could even celebrate, they saw the mech's outer shell shatter and peel away piece by piece, revealing the energy core inside, which was enveloped in electric arcs and force fields.

At this very moment, this energy core is vibrating constantly and becoming increasingly unstable!

"What is that...?" someone asked instinctively.

The next second, the energy core exploded right before everyone's eyes.

When the Balrog self-destructed, players felt like they were hit right in the face by a missile.

This time, the thing that exploded right in front of your face was a nuclear bomb!
Light, heat, radiation, and shockwaves swept across the entire city!
Players nearby were instantly reduced to ashes, while those further away were blown away by the strong wind.

The surrounding respawn points were immediately full!

When they are resurrected, everyone is completely bewildered.

However, the sudden downpour of invitations quickly turned their bewilderment into joy:
"It worked!! Hahaha!"

Although the power of the mech's self-destruction was a bit overpowered, a victory is a victory!

As for the dead and injured... well, they can be resurrected anyway.

Being able to revive means zero casualties!
Everyone rushed out of the respawn point and started scrambling for the invitations again.

Meanwhile, on the city's largest clock tower, the hour hand strikes 12.

"clang--"

……

The clear, crisp sound of bells rang out one after another.

The time has come for the advanced testing to begin.

Players who didn't yet have an invitation were even more eager to compete for the invitations falling from the sky—this time, a full 10000 invitations rained down from the heavens.

Players who already had an invitation quickly took it out, eager to teleport as soon as possible.

But when they took out the invitation, it simply turned into a red cinnabar powder that scattered upon contact, leaving a ring-shaped mark on the back of their right hands before disappearing.

This left them all very confused.

However, this confusion did not last long.

Soon, a wisp of red light appeared on the mark and drifted in one direction.

Following the trail, they returned to the location of the mech explosion and were astonished to find a pitch-black sphere at the epicenter of the blast.

At this moment, the black sphere exerted a strong gravitational pull on them!

The closer the distance, the stronger the attraction!
Then everyone realized: this black hole-like sphere was the portal to the advanced test!

But this thing... looks way too unsafe!

While the players around them hesitated, honorary players and powerful warriors with explosive combat abilities, such as Longcheng Feijiang, Yingyong Nishou, Qihuahua, Huanyue, Xunfei, Fangshuo, and Laoshi Yufu, rushed into the black hole without hesitation.

The black hole instantly swallowed these players.

With them taking the lead, the surrounding players no longer hesitated and took steps to quickly embrace the black hole.

……

The experience of teleporting through a black hole is terrible!

It's completely different from the teleportation key.

The moment Nanaka stepped into the dark abyss, she was accelerated to an astonishing speed—

She felt as if she had been thrown into a narrow pipe in the universe, where all the starlight around her was stretched into streaks of light, and the originally dark background of the universe became frenzied and chaotic!
This caused her considerable discomfort.

But she believed that Xu Meng wouldn't intentionally disgust people, so she gritted her teeth and endured it.

until--

"Pfft!"

She fell out of that narrow pipe.

To be placed in a warm, moist, and gentle place.

She opened her eyes and saw a scene that seemed like a dream—

This is a boundless sea.

All around, above, below, left, and right, was crystal-clear blue seawater.

Transparent bubbles of varying sizes enclose tiny worlds, swaying gently in the soft seawater.

Qihuahua had seen what the "world bubble" looked like.

So they quickly realized:

Each bubble here is a world unto itself!
Realizing this, she looked around again, her face showing barely suppressed shock—