Game Server Opens

"Five more minutes until the server opens. I'm so excited! I haven't played games for so many days because I've been busy delivering things to my girlfriend every day. My legs are about to give out. Thankfully, the server is finally opening."

"Having a girlfriend is still happiness. A single dog like me can only envy others. But believe it or not, I've had some good luck these past few days. I met someone with a great figure, and let's just say we've been spending a lot of time together."

"Brother, did you film it? Happiness shared is doubled happiness. Send it out to share. I'm not short on data."

In The Great Wasteland's game communication groups, countless people were waiting for the server to open.

Of course, while waiting, they inevitably chatted about interesting things that happened to them recently.

"Four more minutes. I'm really looking forward to seeing what the international war will be like. At the same time, I'm also excited about the welfare from the brother above. Hurry up, I already bought 5000g of data just waiting for you."

"I have unlimited data. Brother, for your video, I'm prepared to skip the challenge tournament. Hurry up!"

"Speaking of which, about the Billion Challenge Tournament, did any of you get selected?"

"Selected my ass! The damn Billion Challenge Tournament is all pre-selected. If you go look at that post, you'll know. All the selected ones are clearly that batch of seed players who joined Mirage Tower yesterday."

"Exactly. Don't go watch the livestream. This challenge tournament is just something those Japanese people organized to hype things up. We shouldn't let them use us as guns!"

"These Japanese people are really interesting. They actually made them challenge Blue Skeleton. Isn't this just giving themselves away?"

"Haha, it's really ridiculous. I estimate these seed players never thought that their first mission after joining Mirage Tower would be to go die, right?"

"Serves them right! But don't gloat too much. Maybe they think they can beat Blue Skeleton? Haha."

"Are you trying to make me die laughing so you can inherit my treasured virginity? With these idiots trying to beat Blue Skeleton, I'll stand on my head and eat shit on the spot! Pull it out myself and eat it!"

"Damn, the guy above is pretty harsh. But it doesn't matter. Your extravagant wish won't come true anyway."

"Haha, I see their 168 live rooms have quite a lot of people. Each one has hundreds of thousands of online viewers. The most popular ones have over 50 million. That number one Northern Frost has 70 million viewers. Even more impressive than those streamers. Simply terrifying."

"Can't help it. Northern Frost used to be a top expert from Changkong Club. His popularity was already high. Now that he's going solo and ranked second on the Heavenly Ladder, how could he not have many viewers?"

"Two more minutes until server opening. Who the hell is interested in watching them court death? Hurry up and find bosses, isn't that better?"

"True. Hurry up and open the server. My big blade is already thirsting for blood!"

When there were two minutes left until the game update, players in various communication groups were already rubbing their hands together, preparing to enter the game to search for bosses.

Game updates generally reset maps and skills, and some monsters and bosses would also refresh.

Although The Great Wasteland was somewhat different from other games, it wouldn't deviate from such rules.

So after the update, their first thought was to go find bosses to fight and get good equipment.

However, these players could only represent a portion.

Those who loved excitement were still the majority.

In the live rooms of the Billion Challenge Tournament, countless players were eagerly waiting for the streamers to go online, preparing to head to Luo Cloud City to intercept Blue Skeleton for an epic battle.

At this moment, Northern Frost's live room was packed with popularity.

"Alright, thank you very much for coming to my live room. This is actually my first time streaming, so I might not understand some streaming etiquette. Please forgive me."

Northern Frost was indeed very handsome, with sword-like eyebrows and starry eyes, very heroic, and his voice was particularly magnetic.

Combined with his second place glory on the Heavenly Ladder rankings, people easily developed admiration for him.

Eastern Sunrise and others, who were the organizers, were also in the prime position of the live room and ranked just below Northern Frost, the main streamer.

Seeing the live room so popular, they were also shocked. In Japan, it was really rare to see such a lively live room.

Although they didn't pay attention to the streaming industry, they knew very well that generally those big streamers having a few million online viewers was already very high.

And now, Northern Frost's first stream had broken through 70 million online viewers!

He really hadn't expected that a single live room could attract so many people.

It was just unfortunate that the atmosphere in the live room wasn't as harmonious and lively as Eastern Sunrise had imagined.

It was lively alright, but most were cursing the streamer.

"Stupid traitor! How much did Mirage Tower pay you to do such stupid things!"

"With international war starting, as Northern Wasteland's second place on Heavenly Ladder, you actually joined Mirage Tower and want to intercept our Skeleton Big Brother. I really don't know why your mother bothered to give birth to you!"

"Those few above are from Mirage Tower, right? You idiots, who gave you the courage to challenge Skeleton Big Brother? Are you really looking for shit with a lantern?"

"Haha, these idiots don't really think they can beat Skeleton Big Brother, do they? I estimate they won't even see his shadow before they're at the respawn point!"

Audiences in many live rooms were basically grabbing Northern Frost and Eastern Sunrise's group to curse non-stop.

Eastern Sunrise couldn't read Chinese, and the latest translation software couldn't handle translating so much data, so he didn't know what the live room had become.

But Northern Frost, as the main streamer, being cursed like this on his first stream, almost made his mentality collapse and quit streaming immediately.

If it weren't for considering that Mirage Tower's payment was too generous, he really would have run away.

"Alright, thank you for everyone's enthusiasm. The game has finished updating now. The live room will temporarily close. After entering the game, the screen will automatically switch to my character's first-person perspective. Please continue to support us then."

As Northern Frost's live room screen faded to black, a grand picture began to unfold. Eastern Sunrise left spectator mode and turned to Izumi Yuki, saying,

"These Chinese people will soon understand the might of our Japanese Empire."

"Everyone get online. Gather the members and follow me to attack Luo Cloud City and claim Mirage Tower's first victory in the Chinese region!"

"Yes!"

Izumi Yuki and others excitedly settled into the gaming pods prepared in the presidential suite. They logged into the game to gather their forces and prepare for the attack on Luo Cloud City.

At the foot of Qiuming Mountain, Jiang Cheng's consciousness gradually returned to his body.

"This is..." Shaking his skull, Jiang Cheng was slightly disoriented.

Looking at himself and finding no damage, Jiang Cheng finally breathed a sigh of relief.

Looking around at the environment, it was no different from before his consciousness departed, except... there seemed to be many huge corpses...

These bodies were cut into countless pieces, scattered everywhere, as if they had been cut by dense lasers, bloody and gruesome.

"During the time I lost consciousness, could it be... some power was protecting me?"

"It seems that after losing consciousness, I wasn't safe."

Thinking about how when the game updated, he seemed to disappear from this world, Jiang Cheng clenched his bone hands with cracking sounds.

This feeling of helplessness made him very uncomfortable.

His soul fire condensed as Jiang Cheng said in a deep voice, "Without transcendence, one will ultimately be shackled."