Conquering OtherWorld Starts With a Game

Time gradually passed, and it very quickly reached 11:00 p.m. on Earth. Some hardcore grinders, who had been online for nearly 12 hours straight (Earth time), pinged with incessant disconnection notifications, rushed back to the respawn point to log off.

Since it was also time for the advanced NPCs to finish their work, the Knight Instructor and Ranger Instructor stopped issuing quests. Grinders eager to farm reputation and win the bidding rights but hadn't yet reached the maximum online limit also logged off, preparing to rest and gather their strength for the next day.

Hal gave quest rewards to the final two players of the day and collected all the quest items back into his tent before grabbing some food and heading to find his most trusted friend Tuttle.

Players in Tuttle's area had already dispersed, and when he saw Hal approaching, he waved and greeted, "Is it quiet over at your side?"

"Yeah, it is. Compared to the nightmarish experience yesterday, today was much easier," replied Hal.

The two of them sat down in the open space in front of Tuttle's tent and set up a pot over a flame, which they threw instant noodles, dried vegetables, and starchy ham sausages into.

Before long, Finley, the Treasure Expert overseeing the planned construction site for the Wanderer Guild, came over with a bag of food to join the "communal meal."

After the usual small talk, Hal lowered his voice and said, "Did you guys know that Yang gave that Undead Horse to Jerome?"

"Yeah, those noisy undead have been talking about it incessantly for the past two hours. Oh, how I wish I could smash those constantly chattering jaws in," grumbled Finley irritably.

Hal and Tuttle had been relatively idle all day, but Finley had been the only one still constantly being bothered by those undead who, despite having no tongues, continued to chatter endlessly.

Tuttle remained silent, hesitant to speak.

"Don't misunderstand me, old friends. I don't think Jerome will betray us. He is our brother, and I trust him," Hal immediately defended himself.

"Of course, Hal." Tuttle quickly nodded.

Finley paused for a moment, his gaze shifting between his two compatriots, but he didn't complain any further.

Despite his somewhat irritable nature, Finley wasn't foolish, and he couldn't have become a Treasure Expert without some brains. In just these few sentences, he realized that their leader, Hal, was anxious because he felt his position of authority was under threat by the black mage, Yang.

Silence fell upon the three sitting around the campfire.

This peculiar atmosphere made Hal feel really uneasy… Back when the Sacred Crows were on the verge of losing their last stronghold, he had indeed considered finding a strong backing to seek shelter, and was even prepared to bow down. However, what he could accept was the Sacred Crows attaching themselves to a reliable powerful backer, not having this backer extend their influence into the Sacred Crows.

After a moment, Tuttle broke the silence and muttered, "I think… I believe the Black Mage Yang is much more interested in those undead than us."

Hal was taken aback.

Then, even if his jaw was tightly clenched, this neatly trimmed former bandit leader couldn't hide the embarrassment on his face…

It did seem so. Arranging them to take on inexplicable responsibilities for those undead, whether issuing tasks, distributing money, or releasing the "Orbs of Deception" through Finley and the Undead Horse via Jerome—all of it was Yang's elaborate plan to win over and subdue those filthy skeletons that emerged from the underground!

Compared to that, these former bandits were merely given accommodation, food, and assigned tasks that even children could handle without much difficulty. Every step was clearly arranged in the matrix, and they didn't even have to use their brains!

"Oh, it's done. Let's eat." Finley picked up a plate.

"Mm, it smells delicious," Tuttle tried to change the topic and divert Hal's attention as he eagerly picked up a fork and started eating the instant noodles.

Hal struggled to hide his embarrassment and forced a smile. "Yes, it smells great, real great…"

A few players, who were heading to log out at the respawn point, got a whiff of the familiar aroma and looked in surprise at the NPCs gathered for a meal.

"Hey, hey, is there something wrong with my olfactory settings? Why does it smell like the NPCs are having instant noodles?"

"You smell instant noodles too? What the heck, is it really the smell of instant noodles?!"

"For real? NPCs having instant noodles?"

These bunch curiously changed direction and approached the NPCs that were dining together.

The three NPCs, who appeared to be leisurely sitting, eating, and chatting, simultaneously turned their heads. Six bloodshot eyes glared ferociously at this group of players.

Players: "…"

"Why does it feel like we'll get cut down or something if we go over, huh…?" Player A remarked. "What's going on? Why do these NPCs have such great murderous intent?"

Player B came up with a wild idea. "Could it be that what they're cooking in that pot is something that cannot see the light of day? I definitely don't think it's instant noodles."

"Let's take a look, come on! We are going to log out anyway. So be it if we die!" Player C suggested nonchalantly.

Several seconds later.

"Die, you filthy undead scum!"

"The f*ck! NPCs are really having instant noodles! What is wrong with this game?!"

A few other players heading out to the respawn point to log off witnessed the three NPCs chasing after players and wisely kept their distance…

———

Earth time, October 6, 2019, second last day of the National Day holiday.

At six o'clock in the morning, quite a number of people struggling to get out of bed either unlocked their phones or turned on their computers to log into the same website.

"Damn, I can finally download the screenshots and videos I took yesterday!" players from all over the country exclaimed in unison.

Soon after, within just two hours, various screenshots and short snippets of the game "OtherWorld" were uploaded on a host of social networking apps by these players that had been itching to share them for a whole day.

A few days ago, Vanilla Pudding's video had gone viral and gained attention, along with much criticism. This time, with the explosive release of screenshots and videos, even netizens that weren't gaming enthusiasts also took curious looks… and the hype quickly escalated.

The initial hype was somewhat comical because VR games were really niche, and it was difficult for the average person to connect this wave of realistic screenshots and videos. A popular question that emerged first was, "What sort of movie is 'OtherWorld'? Is it a domestic film? That's impressive CG."

Several "OtherWorld" players would probably have spat out their breakfast when they saw this popular question.

However, these players didn't have that much patience to explain to netizens what exactly "OtherWorld" was. Most just posted on the forum before returning back to grinding, completely unaware of the flood of posts from casual netizens who misunderstood it as a movie promotion campaign.

It wasn't until noon that a well-known online writer with the pseudonym "Blossoming Strokes" posted an essay along with screenshots on Weibo, which quickly spread across the entire Internet due to her reputation in the online literature community, that finally cleared up the misunderstanding.

"Hello everyone, this is Blossoming Strokes.

"A certain financial blogger's post, 'Fraudulent black technology game deceiving Chinese people's emotions & scalping foreign stockholders,' released a few days ago caused quite a stir, leading to many uninformed onlookers criticizing the unscrupulous development team and vilifying my friend Vanilla Pudding as an accomplice to fraud. At that time, I didn't have strong evidence to defend my friend, so I chose to remain silent.

"Today, I can finally present solid evidence to prove to all netizens that my friend Vanilla Pudding is by no means an unscrupulous money-grubbing streamer and has never had any dealings with fraudsters or economic criminals.

"'OtherWorld' is a real and revolutionary VR online game developed by a Chinese production team. It wouldn't be an exaggeration to call it cutting-edge technology. Below are screenshots of my own in-game character and screenshots of human NPCs within the game. These images have not undergone any post-processing. Recorded in-game videos are attached to the appendix of this article as well."

Below this passage, Blossoming Strokes posted several first-person perspective photos.

The first was a "mass group photo" of over two hundred players crowded together at the spawn point during the launch of the open beta. The realism was outstanding, and the skeleton frames with distinct characteristics of age might not show expressions, but there was lively motion, indicating that this screenshot wasn't taken from a static scene.

Next, there were photos of players experiencing the immersive holographic game, running rampantly on the streets of Exile Town. Blossoming Strokes even had a special screenshot of a player that had fallen apart and was awkwardly picking up his own bones, which made for an extremely eerie picture.

Finally, there were a series of frontal screenshots of advanced NPCs. Blossoming Strokes had spent half of the previous day capturing the clear faces of these NPCs and couldn't spare enough time to complete her own quests. 𝚋ｅ𝚍ｎ𝚘ｖｅ𝚕．𝚘𝚛𝚐

"Players can only create Undead characters, perhaps it's on some sort of insistence by the development team. I believe that once the main storyline quests are released, the development team will provide us with a reasonable explanation of the game's background. Based on the currently released super-detailed advanced NPC models, the development team is fully capable of creating character models that meet players' expectations.

"It's not just character modeling, but the attention to scene details, day-night cycles, and even the details of NPCs' daily life are also well crafted by the development team. If players didn't know for sure they were playing a game, they might really think they had traveled to some other world and turned into undead beings.

"I, too, can be considered a veteran gamer who has played games for over a decade. I've played numerous PC and console games, both domestically and internationally, and 'OtherWorld' is the most meticulously crafted, immersive, and self-developed game I have ever seen.

"The reason I believe that the game engine was created by the development team is that there isn't any other game even remotely similar to 'OtherWorld' anywhere in the world.

"I believe that actions speak louder than words, and with the increasing openness and transparency of 'OtherWorld's' content, there shouldn't be anyone insisting that it's a scam anymore. I also believe that no one will unjustly attack my friend anymore without any basis unless such a person has ulterior motives."

At first glance, Blossoming Strokes' essay might seem like it didn't say much, but on careful consideration, it was possible to see the numerous implied meanings of this online literary bigshot.

Why was a domestically produced VR game, made with such dedication by a Chinese development team, relentlessly criticized across the Internet? Carefully ponder on the true essence.

Blossoming Strokes had taken five minutes to type up this essay during her offline lunch break, and before heading back into the game, she checked the responses on Weibo.

Many people were mentioning@ the financial blogger in the comments, hoping to catch his attention. However, the financial blogger didn't reply.

Blossoming Strokes smiled in satisfaction, closed Weibo, put on her headset, and entered the game.

———

Two hours later. Ke Jingguo, an academician of the Chinese Scientific Institute of Neuroscience, was busy in his laboratory when he received a phone call from his superior.

"Old Ke… Has neuroscience progressed to the point where we can play games using brainwaves?" The tone of his supervisor on the other end of the call was rather uncertain.

"What kind of joke is this!" Academician Ke didn't show any courtesy just because the other person was a superior.

There was a moment of silence before the superior said, "Take a look at your email."

"I'll check it later."

"Go look at it now."

Academician Ke had a straightforward temperament, but he couldn't confront his superior over such a trivial matter. After hanging up the phone, he reluctantly opened his computer impatiently and checked his email.

The email sent by the secretary on behalf of the superior contained a compilation of recorded videos titled "Brainwave-controlled game," which featured different perspectives and was uploaded by multiple players.

Academician Ke: "??"

He quickly took out his phone and dialed back his superior's number. As soon as the call connected, he shouted, "Who created this? Which country's scientists did it?!"

On the other end of the call, his superior was silent for a long time…