Chun walked out of the private room and went downstairs.
Even though he was exhausted, he had to act like he had just woken up with big yawns.
The internet cafe guy came over holding Chun's tablet: "Thanks, Brother Chun. We only got the cracked machines ready this morning, for online equipment switching..."
Chun was surprised: "So it means many internet cafes nationwide could only log in properly this morning?"
The internet cafe guy sighed: "Yes, it's terrible. The initial advantage was completely taken by foreign teams. Who the hell expected they'd be so shameless to plant a trojan horse in the factory products, now they're pretending to have a small hacker group release a statement saying it was an April Fool's joke..."
Holy shit, shameless!
Thinking about the big shots he had countered, which must have included these people, Chun felt a sudden sense of insignificant responsibility—but for now, stay low...
At this time, a bunch of experts on the first floor were also bored, leaning on their seats watching movies, eating takeout, and catching naps.
"Morning, Brother Chun?"
Chun glanced at their screens: "All mining and AFKing? Can't start yet?"
The experts sighed: "At midnight when the servers opened, a mysterious massive group brought who knows how many tens of thousands of level 1 newbies to block three city gates, PK anyone who tried to leave the city. They've been PKing for 17 hours now, reportedly, the prison for red names is full."
Chun quickly asked: "Which organization?"
"No idea, they're from various countries. Definitely includes Baka."
"The Royal Family's thousands thought they'd rush out to seize villages once the servers opened, but they were stunned, didn't expect the other side to organize so many people. So they just keep sending newbies to increase the opposing PK red name value..."
"Even without the power outage, the Royal Family might not have succeeded. The Royal Family's fragmented operations across different main cities make each one not strong."
"Now all the city's players either mine or go to sea, there's nothing else to do..."
"Only 1,000 players have completed the Warrior Guild's profession monster-hunting tasks, all part of their group, monopolizing warriors from the start."
"Just wait for the news to spread, such large-scale actions can't be sustained for long..."
Chun was truly stunned. While he had seen big moves from big shots, he hadn't expected it to be this massive, even crushing the Royal Battle Team from the national server's wealthy alliance!
Chun knew the village seizing strategy: either a few tens of thousands rush to the countryside at the start, ignoring casualties when the cost of death is lowest, or spend 3 days leveling up to around level 30, then clear the way by killing monsters. But with the city gates blocked from the start, warriors monopolized, how could Black Iron City be played?
After chatting, Chun went to a small diner, had a meal, and then dozed off leaning on a park bench while listening to the square dance. Chun had this habit, the quieter it was, the more active his brain, unable to sleep; this kind of noise was just right...
...
On one side of the Earth, in an underground dance bar in a bustling city.
Next to the sound of music and dance was an internet cafe as sci-fi as the command center of a Galactic warship, where the young master Shenqian Zongsi of the Consortium was remotely commanding Black Iron City's PK battle of hired teams from all over the world while staring at the LCD wall.
This was the secret network financial organization Shenqian Divine Presence Seat.
Finance requires technology to carry it, but technology lags behind the speed at which finance prints money, so this mining game boasting artificial intelligence and consciousness upload for immortality became a project for major consortiums to invest in. Shenqian Consortium invested heavily, having customized a "newbie gift pack" in the game to ensure absolute dominance at the start.
But the game's internal algorithms meant NPC intelligence wouldn't remain indifferent to great interests. Even if the gift pack was buried in the desert, it's most likely retrieved first by high-level strong NPC treasure hunting teams well before it reached weak players.
So the consortium meticulously crafted an "S-class Whale Hunting Bounty."
Whaling has always been this country's traditional strong suit, and as an entry-level sea monster, it lays a solid foundation for the team's maritime dominance. Whales were given a trait of strong alertness, becoming more wary and ferocious as stronger high-level whalers, especially Demons, approached. Whales have thick barnacle shells that serve as armor against powerful whalers.
So the key was how weak newbie players would receive this big gift pack?
The answer lay in the thick barnacles, parasitic tumors on the whale. Just scatter a large amount of minced meat in the sea around the whale, and these barnacles would consume the meat, proliferating wildly, completely weakening the whale. The dying whale would return to its birthplace to await death, a small island hidden by the Sea Tide Space with abundant advanced spices.
The Sea Tide Space's entry time was set at around 5 AM and PM, ensuring spice safety unless a particularly proficient Treasure Hunting NPC specifically searched there—the spices were the team's first astronomical amount of development money.
And during the early stages of the game, players didn't have boats, they'd have to work on ships without autonomy. Of course, they couldn't sail the ship to scatter meat near the whale.
So during the public beta, the team was planning a task to establish the Sea Merchants Association, normally difficult to complete. But an exceptional member, Sakamaru Noto, accumulated friendly terms with NPC fishermen and rented NPC fishermen's boats to establish an affiliate non-formal merchants' organization, solving the issue of going to sea.
At the same time, the custom Demon Alert for the whale was set because the consortium also gained a hidden clue related to the city's background story. When each major city was founded, it faced strong monster attacks that made expansion difficult. The only option was to dig underground for resources, and this digging led to the Lava Hell, bringing encounters with demons. In a way, the five major harbor cities relied on demon power to stabilize and expand, and hidden masters with demon power exist within the city.
The consortium's other goal is to reach the lowest level mining area of the city, where the harsh environment discourages ordinary miners from coming, leaving only the most notorious red-name criminals to be sent here. Demons particularly favor bad people.
So, the consortium started by blocking the entrance for major PK battles to quickly cultivate the "most wicked" red-names. They also monopolized the slots for warriors, gaining an absolute advantage in a normal start. Those who can't level up in the city and don't want to endure monotonous mining are forced to head out to sea to join the Sea Merchants Association for work — which happens to be what the consortium's business mission requires! This forces a massive number of players into invisible labor, rapidly accomplishing business development tasks.
Overall, it's a grand triple-strategy! Even if one or two aspects fail to achieve the goal, at least one success is ensured.
...
Now, the Young Master looks very satisfied with the battle reports from the front line.
The monopoly by warriors is complete. The Sea Merchants Association's mission is about to be completed, which is a prerequisite for whale hunting. As for the red names, to be honest, even if the NPCs have algorithms that oppose players, I still can't imagine how they can prevent the birth of big red names? Send Holy Mother Angels to inspire them?
What's more interesting is that some royal teams keep sending new players to feed the red names. If their leader Ma Yinglong knew the truth, would he cry terribly?
Of course, there are still dissatisfactions. Obviously, the April Fool's Day hacker action was coordinated with the top organization, but the blame and hatred fell on me.
A beautiful maid beside him handed over a wine tray with an incredibly soft voice, "Young Master…"
The Young Master took a small sip from his wine glass, then slowly poured the remaining wine over the maid's head.
The maid shrank her head and giggled, "Da mie yo…"
During the play, a team member rushed to report, "Young Master! The Sea Merchants Association's S-level whale hunting warrant has been canceled!"
The Young Master was incredulous, angrily threw the maid aside, and rushed to the team member's equipment to take a look—it was indeed canceled!
The Young Master was furious, "Who is it! Investigate! Start investigating immediately…"
...
April 2, 0:00 AM.
Chun woke up in the park, bought some grilled skewers for a midnight snack along the way, and leisurely returned to the internet cafe.
By this time, the gaming gods in the internet cafe were slumping on their chairs to sleep and rest, indicating the ongoing, boring PK events.
Back in the private room, logged into the game, a series of system message prompts popped up:
——System Message: Congratulations! You successfully comprehended the Advanced Mining Technique… You have learned 6 advanced skills in one day, achieving the reward for : Spirit +1.
——System Message: Congratulations! Your Advanced Mining Technique has reached level 10, your Advanced Underwater Mining Technique has reached level 10, and your Advanced Underwater Construction skill has reached level 10…
——System Message: Warning! Your Mining Pickaxe's durability is about to run out. Please repair it soon.
...
Chun was stunned for a while.
Being offline and idle for a few hours, the Mining Technique really advanced, gained 1 point of Spirit, and also brought the other two skills to level 10, the progress was incredibly fast. But it is only advanced level, ultimately didn't cross the threshold to Expert, which still felt a bit regretful.
Now the player's power ranking board was announced, he immediately checked: Positions 1 to 10 still belong to that Holy Angel Empire's Michael, along with Sariel, Gabriel, Raphael, and Uriel of his gang. This game was created by their family working together, undoubtedly the first tier has privileges. If dissatisfied, you can choose not to play.
Then the top 100 are the world's top esports teams' elite players, super players.
Turning to Jiang, he's stabilized in the hundreds ranks. Fortunately, he didn't start in Black Iron City, it seems high-end players don't start there.
Finally, checking himself, 16,911th place!
Chun's heart raced! Not because the rank was too low, but because it was still too high, during open beta his rank was beyond a million! These 6 advanced skills plus the Cleaner Fish profession's achievement with -100,000 reputation couldn't hold it down anymore? Then all the more reason to proceed cautiously.
As for now, the pickaxe is broken, ideally should wait for the elevator to repair, but this would expose him to players repairing pickaxes from the other organization, and once found not in their mining area he would get screened... so at this moment definitely can't meet other players.
Therefore, not mining for now, instead exploring this waterlogged mine pit. There should be no players on this level, but there are mining lights on the walls indicating maintenance done by NPCs! If by chance meeting a red-name NPC with a storyline, it might trigger a hidden storyline.
If nothing significant is found, then dig with bare hands! Can't believe not even bare hands can break through to Expert level.