WTYTIAAN Chapter 158

Chapter 158

Cheng Tianyu’s entire being jolted with energy. Despite playing games for dozens of hours straight, he felt no trace of sleepiness. He grabbed his phone and jumped up and down, repeatedly confirming the email on the screen. “I actually got one!”

His surprise and joy were palpable. Cheng Tianyu was so happy he could have broken into a belly dance right there to celebrate. At the same time, he opened the group chat and sent a screenshot of the email he received.

[Say No to Frying Pans]: Brothers! I got selected for the closed beta!

[Say No to Frying Pans]: [Screenshot]

It was just past six in the morning. Usually, there weren’t many people in the group at this hour, typically just [Old Wang Next Door] and [Ming Bro], who had to get up early for work, and [No Early Classes Today], a college student who’d occasionally chime in when getting up for an eight AM class.

But today, Cheng Tianyu’s screenshot instantly triggered several messages in the group.

[No Early Classes Today]: Holy crap, you got one too?!

[Old Wang Next Door]: Orange got one too, huh? Looks like the beta slots really might have been given out in order of submission.

[Ming Bro]: This is the first time I’ve seen such an unreliable way of giving out beta access. Even if they don’t consider the players’ gaming experience, shouldn’t they at least screen them a little? This is almost like you get through as soon as you sign up. Sounds a bit like a pig-butchering scam!

[Ming Bro]: Everyone be careful, okay? Before you click the link, make sure all your privacy apps are closed, uninstall your mobile banking apps, and preferably use an old device to click it, in case it’s some kind of virus website!

[No Early Classes Today]: Ah? But I already clicked it and confirmed.

[Ming Bro]: …

[Ming Bro]: Okay, you’re good for nothing now, go play. Anyway, you don’t have much money to be scammed out of.

[No Early Classes Today]: QAQ Bro, that’s too hurtful!

[Eat My Uppercut]: That’s how college students are these days (doge)

Cheng Tianyu’s excitement hadn’t worn off yet when he saw the discussions in the group. He was stunned and quickly typed a question.

[Say No to Frying Pans]: What’s going on?? Did you all get selected for the closed beta?

[Old Wang Next Door]: Yeah, when you dropped the link, a few of us just happened to be awake, so we signed up casually, and shortly after registering, we got the beta invitation.

[Ming Bro]: There are people on the forum talking about this too. Basically, anyone who registered and signed up in the first three thousand received a confirmation email within an hour. This processing speed is too weird. You can’t help but suspect that they just immediately approve whoever registers, without screening the beta testers’ qualifications at all.

[Ming Bro]: This operation can’t help but make people suspect it’s a pig-butchering scam. Which industrial park is running an online fraud scheme again?

[No Early Classes Today]: It can’t be, bro. What kind of online fraud scheme announces itself three and a half years in advance?

[Ming Bro]: …

[Old Wang Next Door]: Haha, not impossible.

Cheng Tianyu was stunned. His excitement quickly cooled down. He exited the group chat and opened the forum. Sure enough, people were already discussing whether “Return” was a pig-butchering scam.

Posts like these had appeared from time to time over the three years since the “Return” official website went live. After all, full-dive technology was still in the conceptual stage in foreign countries, and suddenly a full-dive online game popped up in China, claiming to 100% restore the five senses and provide an immersive virtual world. It sounded too unreliable.

This wasn’t just the opinion of a few people who thought foreign countries were better. It was the common consensus of most players on the forum.

Even if a Chinese company really had researched full-dive technology, would they be able to resist making any technical publicity, secretly setting up a game website and waiting for players to take the bait?

The “good wine needs no bush” model was no longer popular these days. In this age of information, could they expect a few gamers to become Jiang Taigong? (a legendary figure who waited patiently for opportunity)

Therefore, as people who registered and signed up gradually received beta invitations, the forum also saw a surge of skepticism. Almost every refresh brought up new posts decrying “Return,” so exaggerated that Cheng Tianyu repeatedly glanced at the time in the upper right corner of his phone.

It was just past six in the morning, not past six in the evening, right?

Could there be so many people on the forum at this hour?

Did nobody have to go to work or school? Today was definitely a weekday, right?

Cheng Tianyu scratched his messy hair, completely puzzled.

Could it be that hired internet trolls were getting involved?

That couldn’t be right, could it? Would a competitor really bother sending hired trolls to muddy the waters and decry such a no-name game studio with no publicity?

Cheng Tianyu looked around and the bit of joy he had at getting a beta slot vanished completely. He switched back to the email interface, facing the link attached to the beta invitation, unable to click it.

He really didn’t have anything worth scamming. The balance in his bank card was negligible after paying last month’s rent, with only two pitiful digits starting with a 2 before the decimal point. Even if it really was a link to steal his bank card, it wouldn’t get Cheng Tianyu much money.

And his phone was an old phone he’d used for over three years. It was already secondhand when he bought it, and after another three years of use, it was so slow it barely functioned.

Even if it really was a virus-laden link that wrecked his phone, he could just use the money from his last power-leveling job to buy a new secondhand one.

The only thing that bothered Cheng Tianyu was whether to keep the slot for himself or sell it.

Even though the beta slots were being handed out so casually, compared to the tens of millions of people who had signed up, three thousand slots really weren’t many, especially since the “Return” studio wasn’t even screening players’ qualifications, so professional players and game enthusiasts who had submitted their applications later because they filled out their long gaming experience were numerous.

Even if the forum was full of naysayers, Cheng Tianyu believed that there would be someone willing to take over this beta slot if he wanted to sell it.

It was just that the situation wasn’t good right now, and the selling price would be much lower than he had originally anticipated.

In that case, he might as well use the slot himself…

Then the question arose again, if it really was a scam, using the slot himself would not only mean not getting the cut-price transfer fee, but he’d also have to throw in a dilapidated phone.

Annoying…

No matter how he looked at it, it was a loss…

While Cheng Tianyu was hesitating, the discussion in the group chat hadn’t stopped. The only game streamer in the group finally came online.

[Big A Bro]: Seriously, I just edited a recording of my stream from yesterday, how did things suddenly change???

[Big A Bro]: “Return” beta registration is open? Crap, is it still possible for me to register?

[No Early Classes Today]: Too late, Big A Bro. The official website already shows that all three thousand slots have been given out. But if you register now, you might be able to catch the second batch of beta slots.

[Big A Bro]: Seriously, they’re gone? I locked my phone and worked for three hours, and the beta slot left me???

[Ming Bro]: It’s not necessarily a real game, maybe it’s a pig-butchering scam.

[Big A Bro]: You’re worried it’s a pig-butchering scam? (Confused)

[Big A Bro]: By the way, did you get a slot? Since you’re worried it’s a pig-butchering scam, sell it to me, we’re all brothers in the group, name a price (laughs)

[Ming Bro]: …

Ming Bro didn’t say anything. Old Wang Next Door stepped in to smooth things over.

[Old Wang Next Door]: Hey, the game studio is giving out beta slots too casually, it’s normal for Ming Bro to worry. Besides, it’s no use spending money to buy a scam link, right?

[Big A Bro]: I’m serious, @Ming Bro

[Big A Bro]: There’s no other way, gotta eat, @Old Wang Next Door. My streaming popularity has dropped a lot recently, I’m in a hurry to find a game with enough buzz to make a video about. Whether this “Return” is a real scam or a fake scam, at least it has buzz.

[Big A Bro]: And, if this game turns out to be real, let alone streaming the game to earn popularity, just with the name of the first full-dive online game, if I put in a little effort during the beta and come up with some guides, the traffic and money won’t be rolling in when it goes live? If that doesn’t work, I can always farm gold and sell it when the game launches. Spending a few thousand to buy a slot and experience it early isn’t really a loss. Just think of it as spending a little money to buy a lottery ticket.

Big A Bro’s words were a bit of a joke. As they talked, Old Wang Next Door and Big A Bro started discussing the game economy, and Cheng Tianyu felt as if his Ren and Du meridians had been opened up, and he suddenly understood.

That’s right, wasn’t it just like Big A Bro said?

He was just a small-time game power-leveler, not saying he was particularly good at understanding games, but at least he was good at playing games!

If this full-dive game was real, he could definitely make a lot of money if he worked at it!

Even if this game was a scam link, he wouldn’t lose much. He’d just think of it as buying a lottery ticket and failing to achieve his dream of getting rich overnight.

Thinking this way, Cheng Tianyu decisively switched back to the email interface and clicked the link attached to the invitation.

The email redirected to a webpage. A loading icon of a small chrysanthemum slowly rotated for a while, then a line of text appeared.

[Brave and fearless hero, are you ready to accept the challenge from “Return”?]

[Please note: This link cannot be changed once confirmed. Before confirming to enter the game, please be fully prepared.]

Black background with red text, it looked particularly strange and terrifying. Cheng Tianyu felt a bit uncomfortable looking at it.

But he still clicked confirm.

[Confirm to enter Ermann’s “Return”]

*

At the same time, over two thousand other people made the same choice as Cheng Tianyu. Although the forum was full of naysayers, most of the people who won the slots didn’t plan to give them up.

What’s more, some people thought that most of the posts on the forum were posted by people who didn’t get beta slots, in order to lower the transfer price of the beta slots.

Someone had already investigated and found that the “Return” studio’s distribution of beta slots was random. After receiving and confirming the beta invitation, all you had to do was fill in your full-dive game pod delivery address, and there was no strict review process, so even selling the beta slots was possible.

Therefore, these remaining two thousand-plus people completely ignored the chaos on the forum. They stubbornly insisted on doing what others told them not to do, and rebelliously confirmed the email.

Huaguo, Special Events Handling Department.

“How is it going? Have we managed to control the number of people registering for the game beta?” The middle-aged man’s face was solemn, his expression tinged with anxiety.

The thin man with glasses wiped the sweat from his forehead. “We’ve managed to control it a little. The number of registrations has gradually slowed down, but after all, it’s still early. When it gets to noon or evening, the number of registrations may see another surge.”

The woman with a high ponytail sitting in front of another computer turned her head, her expression not very good. “It’s not working. We’ve sent private messages to everyone on the forum who said they received a beta invitation, asking if they could sell us the slots, but these messages either disappeared without a trace or were directly rejected.”

“We’ve only managed to buy eleven slots in total, and those were only bought after Xiao Gao posted those skeptical posts.”

The middle-aged man’s face also darkened. “How is the registration going? How many of our advance team members have received beta invitations?”

“Report, a total of one hundred and eight members of the advance team have received invitations.”

“One hundred and eight…” The middle-aged man repeated to himself, “Give the eleven slots we bought to those advance team members who didn’t receive an invitation, distributing them according to overall performance, from highest to lowest. At the same time, continue to use a large amount of the advance team’s information to register for beta slots. Once the advance team’s registrations are done, use the information database I gave you earlier to continue.”

“Don’t stop those in charge of purchasing either. Buy as many as you can, our department has a sufficient budget!”

“At the same time, continue to control speech, and make sure to change the wording every now and then, so that the information about the game opening beta slots doesn’t get amplified. Also, see if you can directly intercept the emails received by those players who have registered, at the source?”

“Report, it’s not working. This ‘Return’ is very strange. As long as it’s information about ‘Return,’ no matter what platform it’s on, we can’t directly intercept or remove it in the backend. We can only control the traffic, we can’t completely block the spread of information.”

“Have you contacted the officials of those platform websites? Can’t you operate directly in the website server backend either?”

“We’ve contacted them, and the feedback is that it can’t be done.”

The middle-aged man pressed his temples. “Then keep some people to continue trying. The rest join the public opinion group and are responsible for manipulating public opinion to completely reduce the heat of this matter.”

“Yes!”

“Yes!”

…

Three thousand beta slots were confirmed one by one.

–

Cheng Tianyu slept until the afternoon. He got out of bed and was about to grab his toiletries to go to the bathroom to wash up when he opened the door and saw a delivery box placed in front of the door, with Cheng Tianyu’s name on it.

Cheng Tianyu looked left and right, wondering which roommate in the shared apartment had a kind heart and placed his delivery behind his door. He said to the empty living room, “Thanks.”

Then he dragged the delivery box into the room, took out a utility knife, and tore off the cardboard packaging, revealing a futuristic-looking helmet inside.

Cheng Tianyu took out the helmet and his eyes gradually lit up.

He bet right!

–

Bai Ye dragged her tired body back to the dorm from the teaching building.

“Aren’t you going to eat?” her roommate asked.

She waved her hand. “No, I didn’t sleep all night and then went to my 8 AM class. I’ll take a nap first.”

Roommate: “You stayed up all night playing games again? Look at the dark circles under your eyes. At least you’re a girl, pay more attention to your appearance! You look like an unkempt otaku. What a waste of that pretty face.”

Bai Ye collapsed in her chair, weakly saying, “You normies wouldn’t understand our otaku world.”

She waved her hand. She wanted to say something else when she saw a delivery box placed abruptly on the table. She was a little strange. “My delivery? Who brought this back for me?”

The roommate glanced at it. “I don’t know. It was already there when I came back. Maybe Jiajia and the others helped you get it when they went to pick up their deliveries this morning.”

Bai Ye was even more puzzled. “Did I buy something recently? I don’t have any memory of it?”

She sat up straight and rummaged through the drawer for a utility knife, quickly opening the delivery box, revealing the silver-white, technological-looking helmet inside.

The roommate curiously came closer. “What’s this? An electric bike helmet? You can’t even ride a bike, what are you buying this for?”

“This, this isn’t an electric bike helmet!” Bai Ye’s eyes widened, and her mouth slowly opened. “This is…a full-dive game helmet!”

“‘Return’ is real!”

–

At the same time.

A white-collar worker at work found a delivery box on their desk.

A wealthy young master with shares in several listed companies saw a delivery box on the desk in his bedroom.

After dropping off her children, a stay-at-home mom turned around and found a delivery box on the dining table.

…

Such miraculous things were happening all over the country.

And the Huaguo Special Events Handling Department was stunned to find a mountain of delivery boxes piled up in front of their department door.

The middle-aged man who almost got hit in the head by a delivery box when he opened the door said, “What is this?”

His subordinates immediately stepped forward to check, opened one of the delivery boxes, saw the technological helmet inside, and their voices were somewhat shocked, “It’s the helmet from that game.”

The middle-aged man’s eyes widened. “Who put this here?!”

After he finished speaking, he immediately realized, “Check the surveillance footage, what time, what people brought them in!”

With his order, the entire department immediately took action, everyone working non-stop. In just a few minutes, someone had quickly retrieved the surveillance footage from the Special Department’s entrance and projected it on the large screen in front of them.

The surveillance video on the big screen played. The Special Events Handling Department was located in a very remote area, and there were no outsiders in the hallway outside the door.

That person dragged the surveillance video, playing it at ten times the speed, until ten minutes before the middle-aged man opened the door, the department’s hallway was quiet, with no unusual occurrences.

Until a certain moment ten minutes ago, the surveillance video suddenly showed white spots like snowflakes, as if the signal was being interfered with. The next second, the empty hallway had a pile of delivery boxes stacked like a mountain.

The people in the Special Events Handling Department looked at each other, none of them able to say what they were feeling right now.

A few timid clerks blanched and couldn’t help but feel a bit of fear when they looked at the pile of delivery boxes at the door.

Sometimes fear comes from the unknown.

When you don’t know what kind of existence you are fighting, anything that goes beyond common sense will make you feel afraid.

“This, this is…”

Finally, someone broke the silence and spoke softly, “Did, did the ghost behind that game send these?”

As soon as he said the words, the middle-aged man interrupted him, “What ghost?”

“Didn’t you know that spirits are not allowed to become sentient after the founding of the country?” The middle-aged man said expressionlessly, “The experts above had already speculated that this game came from an alien civilization with a higher level of technology that was being released on Blue Star. Now these delivery boxes also prove this point.”

“This ‘Return’ game studio, behind them must be some alien civilization. They are making moves against Blue Star, we must figure out their intention in doing this as soon as possible, and stop them from destroying Blue Star’s peace, and destroying any actions against our country!”

The middle-aged man said these words powerfully. The department was silent for a moment, and suddenly there was a round of applause.

Several young red hackers hiding behind the computer exchanged glances.

–This alien civilization sounds even more outrageous than games becoming sentient.

–There’s no way, that’s how the experts above speculate, we can only accept it.