Chapter 1: Pirated Link | Monsters Are Coming
[Latest news: After ten years of development by the Lunar Eclipse Race, the groundbreaking virtual reality game Dark Land has officially launched. It is now open for purchase on all major gaming platforms and the official website. The game itself is priced at 128,888,...]
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[Grind Kings Player Chat Group (Online: 10 Members)]
Dirt Poor (Admin): Bros, Dark Land sold a million copies in ten minutes. What do you think?
Paying for Games? LMAO: What else can I think? Of course I'm just reading about it in the news. I'd love to try it, but my wallet says no.
Leopard-Headed F2P: I've been waiting eight years for this game, but the moment I saw the price, my heart just died. That kind of pricing clearly wasn't meant for regular players. Word is they've added all sorts of new anti-piracy tech too. People like us probably won't get to play it in this lifetime, unless my 'sugar mommy plan' finally makes progress.
Family-Sharing Stepdad: What's worse is that the game blocks all external streaming and recording features. We can't even watch gameplay videos to pass the time. They've completely shut us commoners out from even glimpsing what it's like for rich folks to play.
Dirt Poor (Admin): Aaaaah, I want to play so bad! Just watching the early CG videos had me hyped to the max. Then release day comes and they tell me it's 128,888?! I'd have bit the bullet at 28,888! I could survive a few months of literal dirt-eating!
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While the players in the chat group were wailing over the price of Dark Land, a sudden message drew their attention.
Welfare Officer: If you guys really want to play, I've got a cracked version of Dark Land. It can go online just like the official one.
Dirt Poor replies to Welfare Officer: Dude, cut the crap. A cracked version? Even the official one's hard to get, everyone's lining up to buy it. The Lunar Eclipse Race only gave a limited number of copies to our Human Federation. No way a cracked version dropped on day one.
Leopard-Headed F2P replies to Welfare Officer: Trying to bait us into downloading SpongeBob or Teletubbies? Who even are you? I've never seen you in this group before.
Welfare Officer: I just posted the cracked download link in the group. If you want to play, download and log in. Link address: ******
Even though Welfare Officer really did post a download link, no one clicked on it.
Their instincts screamed scam. Clicking it would probably lead to massive losses.
As the group started cursing out Welfare Officer and prepared to boot him, one member spoke up.
Game Gold-Farmer: Chill, everyone. Let me test it out. My bank balance is only 20, getting scammed won't even hurt. Like the saying goes, if you're broke enough, you're invincible. The damage a scam can do is directly proportional to your wealth. Someone as poor as me? Practically invulnerable. I'll report back soon.
Family-Sharing Stepdad replies to Game Gold-Farmer: Hurry back, Stepdad. Your children await your safe return.
—
Human Federation, Tianfeng City.
Southern District, the slums.
Narrow alley walls were crawling with moss and vines, the air thick with an indescribable stench, a blend of grease smoke, mold, and unidentifiable trash.
Most of the buildings here were low and dilapidated, patched together from wood and sheet metal. Whenever it rained, they would creak and rattle in protest against their miserable condition.
As night fell, a dim yellow light flickered to life in the corner of an old wooden shack.
Through a gap in the planks, a room of less than thirty square meters came into view.
Slurp!
He sucked up the last of the instant noodles in one go, chewed, swallowed, and let out a long breath. Li Zheng tossed the cup into the trash beside his chair, pulled out a tissue from the box, and wiped the oil from his lips.
Glancing at the computer screen's bottom right corner, he noted that he still had an hour before his scheduled livestream. He stood up and headed to the bathroom to tidy up.
The mirror showed a man 1.82 meters tall, fair-skinned, wearing a black short-sleeved shirt and sporting a clean buzz cut. Honestly, he looked pretty good.
But staring at his reflection, Li Zheng couldn't help but sigh in despair.
His current job was as a game gold-farmer. He earned money by grinding resources in popular games and selling them to cash-rich players. Occasionally, he'd stream for some extra income.
Lately, Dark Land had exploded in popularity, sucking in all the big spenders. The games he relied on for gold-farming had seen a noticeable drop in revenue.
There's nothing more tragic than being alive but broke.
He pulled out his phone, which displayed the latest payment notification:
[Your card ending in 3584 has been charged 329 for a purchase of Grade-D nutrient solution. Balance: 21. Would you like to enable account protection to secure your funds?]
Using a six-digit password to protect a double-digit balance, Li Zheng figured there was really no point.
Back at his desk, the download progress bar had reached 95%. Just three more minutes and he could try the game.
He glanced at the chat group still buzzing about Dark Land. Statistically, he figured there was a 99.99% chance he'd been scammed.
Dark Land was built by the Lunar Eclipse Race using cutting-edge virtual reality technology and packed with anti-piracy safeguards. The odds of it being cracked on launch day were practically zero.
Even Sin Land, the VR game they released five years ago, still hadn't been cracked.
But he still decided to download it, even if he knew the outcome was most likely a Calabash Brothers saves Grandpa situation, charging in heroically, only to get captured like every brother in that old cartoon.
One episode wouldn't kill him.
Five minutes later.
The game finished downloading. Li Zheng extracted the files and transferred them to his game pod connected to the PC, then pressed 'Game Adaptation.'
Before diving in, he decided to notify his livestream followers.
He had promised an 8 p.m. stream, but trying out this 'fake game' would definitely make him miss it.
Feeling slightly apologetic, he opened the fan group on his phone and sent a message.
"Sorry, sudden emergency. Tonight's 8 p.m. stream is canceled."
He hadn't even put down his phone when replies started rolling in.
"Not like anyone was watching anyway. One day off isn't enough, take a few more. Heck, just go on vacation."
Then came a flood of copy-paste echo replies.
Li Zheng: "…"
The fans' messages hit him hard.
At that moment, the green light on his game pod lit up, adaptation complete.
"Forget it. Let's watch one episode of Calabash Brothers saves Grandpa to calm the nerves."
After changing into his game suit, he approached the game pod. When he pressed the open button, the semi-transparent lid rose slowly.
He climbed in and lay on his side. The lid closed, nutrient fluid flowed from side vents to envelop his body, and neural interface cables automatically connected to various points.
After a brief sense of spinning, the virtual interface appeared before his eyes.
Twelve games were displayed. The bottom one was the newly downloaded Dark Land, its icon a monster wreathed in crimson flames.
"Yup, this is fishy."
He'd seen the real Dark Land login icon in the news. It was a jet-black sword, completely different from this monster.
"Damn scammer!"
Cursing under his breath, Li Zheng still clicked the game icon to launch it.
"Calabash Brothers, initiate!"