Chapter 92: Public Beta Moved Ahead
According to Gino McCauley, Old Tyler's office was the second-to-last room down the hall.
Zhou Ning put on his white hard-shell mask, knocked on the door, and found that the inside resembled a dentist's reception area. It was divided into two sections, and counting himself, there were five people waiting in the outer room. Each wore a different kind of mask that obscured their appearance.
It was understandable. Most civilian supernaturals didn't want their identities exposed.
Without a word, Zhou Ning took a seat behind the others. Just as he was starting to feel bored, several notification messages suddenly popped up.
[Notice: Due to the overwhelming enthusiasm and interest from players, Apocalypse will begin its public beta ahead of schedule. Purchase points for helmets and immersion pods are available in all major cities, and buying links can also be found on the homepage of the Apocalypse forum. New players will enjoy a 5% discount.]
Zhou Ning: ????
He hurriedly opened the forum. The closed beta had only been running for less than a week, and yet the forum's popularity had again surged. Just his own name-based subforum had already reached five million followers.
Sure enough, there was a pinned post matching the announcement. The thread was growing at a pace visible to the naked eye, with tens of thousands of replies flooding in within minutes.
Come to think of it, he probably had something to do with this. Zhou Ning could sense that the game company had been caught off guard by the sudden changes in the Darkland storyline.
Their reasoning was actually easy to guess.
In his previous life, there hadn't been so much plot before the game launched. Everything progressed steadily until the second expansion, "Elemental Chaos." Back then, Charles VI was still alive and well. When the previous timeline's closed beta began, the Curse God Cult was still running around trying to capture people for sacrifices—and failing every time. The Life Alchemy Society hadn't even officially appeared yet. It was the perfect environment for players to develop in their early stages.
But compared to that version, the current Apocalypse was burning hotter than ever, with the plot already going off the rails. The faction leader Charles VI had been killed before players even entered the game. The company was probably thinking: if they delayed any longer, players might log in only to find that eldritch gods and elemental kingdoms had already taken over, leaving no chance for a smooth newbie phase.
So, from the game company's perspective, skipping the rest of the closed beta and jumping straight to public beta wasn't a bad move.
"A chaotic time indeed," Zhou Ning sighed to himself. That meant he'd have to speed up his own preparations.
Aside from the beta announcement, he also saw posts from various film companies in his subforum: a show with him as the protagonist was about to air, and the actor playing him was a trending young idol with the surname Cai.
That actor even posted, saying he would take the role seriously.
Zhou Ning was dumbfounded—and then furiously indignant. Are you serious? Huh?
After waiting for a full twenty minutes, it was finally his turn.
Zhou Ning pushed open the center door and stepped into a gas-lit room.
Once the door closed behind him, he sat in the customer's chair, looked at the old man across from him, and said, "I want to attend the Supernatural Gathering. Gino McCauley sent me."
Hearing this, Old Tyler gave him a once-over and said in a low voice, "Come with me."
The man looked to be in his sixties, with sparse hair and a large nose, wearing a pirate hat that made him look a bit like Captain Barbossa from Pirates of the Caribbean.
Zhou Ning followed him through a side door into another room. Old Tyler walked to a corner of the wall where a coin-operated gas lamp was mounted. He took a 5-Roshen coins from his coat and inserted it into the lamp. As the lamp lit up, Zhou Ning noticed a barely visible hidden door on the wall.
"Go in. Be sure to protect your identity—no one in here is a good person," Old Tyler said coldly.
Inside was a dark room. Zhou Ning followed him through and emerged into a dimly lit parlor furnished with a circle of sofas. About twenty people were already seated, all dressed similarly to him.
Zhou Ning found a seat in a corner and quickly scanned the room. Every person here was at least level 20, and several were clearly over level 40—high-level professionals.
As expected, aside from unaffiliated professionals, the gathering likely included members of the Sunwatchers, Circle of Earth, and even some church operatives.
At the center table sat an object shaped like a balance scale. As soon as Zhou Ning's eyes landed on it, a prompt appeared.
Unknown Relic [Scales of Misfortune]: Capable of fairly assessing the relative value of items placed on each side, but causes its owner to accumulate non-lethal misfortune. Perhaps this is its own form of fairness. Created and once used by an unknown alchemist, who was murdered shortly thereafter.
Effect 1: Provides a relatively fair valuation of items on each side—including goods, currency, and even information.
Effect 2: ????
Zhou Ning understood immediately. This Scales of Misfortune must be the foundation that allowed the Supernatural Gathering to function, capable of identifying authenticity and roughly judging value.
Of course, individual needs varied, so personal valuation wouldn't always align with the scales.
Once everyone was seated, a middle-aged man in a silver mask stepped into the center and began to speak. "Today's Supernatural Gathering begins. As usual, we'll start with the guest at the 12 o'clock position and proceed clockwise. No objections?"
After sweeping his gaze around and seeing no response, the man nodded and returned to his seat. Zhou Ning was at the 9 o'clock position.
To his right, four seats over, a figure in a hooded black robe stood up and approached the scales. He pulled out a scroll from his cloak and said, "This is an enchantment recipe called Frostbite. It adds heavy frost damage to a weapon and has a chance to freeze the target. I'm looking to exchange for an equivalent alchemy recipe or will sell for Vecktas."
"Frostbite?"
Zhou Ning's eyes lit up. The Frostbite effect was similar to his own Flame Oil. If the price wasn't too high, it was absolutely worth acquiring. Picking up a side profession like Enchanter wouldn't hurt either.
"180 Vecktas!" someone quickly bid, starting high.
"190 Vecktas!"
"Blueprint for a Small Watcher Golem!" someone else, also in a hood, bid beside Zhou Ning.
It was clear the seller had a strong preference for the golem blueprint. Ignoring the higher cash offers, he looked at the hooded man and said, "Deal!"
During the transaction, each party placed their item on opposite ends of the Scales of Misfortune.
Zhou Ning noted that the Frostbite scroll clearly outweighed the golem blueprint, but as the saying goes, "A fair deal is the one you're happy with." The trade was quickly completed.
With the first transaction out of the way, the trading picked up momentum.
Some deals went through, others didn't. What truly surprised Zhou Ning was that the scales could even evaluate the value of information. He watched one trade where someone bought a mid-tier ice spell—freshly transcribed—for 200 Vecktas.
Before long, something offered by the middle-aged man to Zhou Ning's left, who wore a blue mask, caught his attention.
"I want to sell a flintlock pistol."
"Flintlock?" Zhou Ning immediately focused.
His current weapon's damage was already falling short. While firearms in this world were primitive, if this one was a supernatural item, it could be worthwhile.
"A flintlock pistol once owned by the pirate general Victor. After the original owner was hanged, the gun became cursed. When it hits a target, it has a chance of applying a curse to them—or possibly to you. The upside is, as long as the curse remains, the bullets are infinite. You and your enemies can test your luck to your heart's content. Only 60 Vecktas and it's yours."
The gun's drawbacks were so glaring that no one wanted it.
In the end, Zhou Ning snatched it up for the base price. Sure enough, his Collector of Famous Guns progress jumped to 4 out of 5.
(Support me and read ahead on Patreøn: patreøn.com/craxxtranslations.
3 new chapters are released daily—thank you for your support!
Powerstone Event: For every 50 powerstones, 1 chapter will be unlocked.)