Chapter 6: Cyber Cloud Players | Monsters Are Coming
Starnet Forum: Rise of Humanity
Subforum: [Dark Land – Player Recruitment]
[Level-8 Gale Guild recruiting newcomers, great benefits, guaranteed daily earnings of 200, must participate in guild activities and follow guild management's organization.]
[Water Margin Guild recruiting active players, daily activity stats required, inactivity results in kick.]
[Hero Guild recruiting powerful players, combat power must rank in the top 100,000 of Human Federation regions, participation in every event required, guild leader regularly gives red packet rewards, lots of single ladies in the guild, beautiful and sweet-voiced.]
—
After a quick search, Li Zheng soon found a familiar guild name.
He clicked on the post, copied the admin's account ID, then opened his chat software to add the contact.
Moments later, a verification approval pop-up appeared.
Black Dawn – Xiao Hei: Hey, you wanna join our Black Dawn Guild?
Game Gold-Farmer: Yes, our team currently has ten people… If I may ask, what are the guild benefits like?
Black Dawn – Xiao Hei: Judging from your ID, you're a gold-farming player. Our guild leadership is made up of well-known real-world entrepreneurs. Everything you produce in-game, we can buy at high prices. All you need to do is participate in group events regularly. Once we establish the guild in-game, you'll need to complete daily guild tasks to provide development resources. Of course, everything is paid.
Seeing the Black Dawn admin's response, Li Zheng felt a rush of excitement.
This organization clearly had power. Future earnings seemed guaranteed.
So, he quickly replied.
Game Gold-Farmer: We're willing to join. Our team has ten members right now, and a few more brothers will join later!
Black Dawn – Xiao Hei: Great. Please provide a screenshot of your digital receipt for the game purchase first.
Game Gold-Farmer: Huh? You need proof of purchase?
Black Dawn – Xiao Hei: Too many people have been trying to sneak in lately. I've added several who just infiltrated the group to snoop on game content but hadn't even bought the game. Total cloud players, just wasting our time. To reduce such cases, we now require confirmation that new members have actually bought the game before we allow them into the guild group.
Game Gold-Farmer: …
When Li Zheng didn't reply right away, the other side sent a contemptuous emoji:
Black Dawn – Xiao Hei: Heh, I knew it. Probably another cloud player. You're the fifth today. Let's just remove each other.
…
After being unfriended, Li Zheng had no choice but to return to the forum and continue looking for guilds.
But after another round of searching and adding several recruitment officers, all of them without exception asked for the purchase receipt.
Li Zheng could understand this requirement, but still felt helpless.
They had all downloaded the game through a pirated link, how could they possibly provide a digital receipt?
Despite repeated rejections, Li Zheng didn't give up and kept digging through the forum.
Finally, he came across this post:
[Starsea Guild Recruiting Active Solo Players]
Recruiter: Starsea
Content: In my past life, I was betrayed by my beloved, turned against by my brothers, and robbed of my wealth by the guild's leadership. Today, reborn on the launch day of Dark Land, I vow to take back everything that was mine. Join the guild and hear my plan for revenge.
Contact: 234****
…
After passing the friend verification, Li Zheng asked nervously:
Game Gold-Farmer: Are you recruiting solo players?
Starsea: Yup! Brother, want to join? (laughing.jpg)
Game Gold-Farmer: Yes, our team has ten people who want to join the guild.
Starsea: That many? Welcome! A warm welcome indeed! (drooling.jpg)
Game Gold-Farmer: May I ask what kind of benefits your guild offers?
Starsea: Sorry, we're just a solo-player guild. No money to offer any perks. We focus on enjoying the game. We're not competing for rankings and don't care if we attract top-tier players or whales. What I can promise is that any profits the guild earns in the future will be shared among all members.
Starsea's reply left Li Zheng a bit disappointed.
But at this stage, they really needed to join a group to share game intel and discuss game content.
After some thought, Li Zheng decided to bring his brothers into the guild for now and leave if it didn't work out.
Game Gold-Farmer: We're willing to join.
Starsea: Welcome, new brother! You can forward the group chat link to your friends. Join the group first. (Shared link: Starsea Rave Chat Group)
After choosing to apply, Li Zheng was approved the very next second.
Then he forwarded the group link to the Grind Kings Player Chat Group.
What he got was a barrage of copy-paste replies.
Family-Sharing Stepdad: Stepfather, you never let us down.
Soon, all ten members of the Grind Kings group had passed verification and joined the Starsea chat group.
With the influx of new members, the group became particularly lively, everyone sending welcome stickers.
At that moment, a player in the group sent a message:
Starsea – Mighty Ox: What skills did you guys choose at level 2? I think Dark Grasp and Dark Amplification both seem pretty good. What did you go with?
Starsea – Tiny Dot: I recommend Dark Amplification. Energy slots are scarce early on, not worth using active skills yet.
…
A heated discussion erupted in the group over level-2 initial skill choices.
This left Li Zheng and his crew totally confused.
You could learn skills at level 2? That didn't seem to be part of the game system.
Murderous Intent Rising: Sorry to interrupt, where do you learn initial skills at level 2?
Starsea – Mighty Ox: ??? Isn't it an auto-triggered skill-learning quest at level 2? (dazed.jpg)
Family-Sharing Stepdad: What the hell, there's no such skill-learning quest. We didn't get anything like that.
Starsea – Mighty Ox: No way. That's a mandatory main quest. How else would you advance the storyline?
Dirt Poor: Bro, what main quest? Isn't this game all about free exploration and random quest triggers?
Leopard-Headed F2P: Exactly. The starter Guide clearly said quests are randomly triggered. How could there be a fixed main storyline?
Starsea – Mad Shark: Bro, did you join the wrong game group? This is a Dark Land player group. What game are you playing? (confused.jpg)
Starsea – Night Hawk: Wrong group, maybe? How could there be no main quest? It's automatically accepted right at the start. (dazed.jpg)
A flood of replies left Li Zheng and his crew even more bewildered.
The group then retreated back to the Grind Kings chat to discuss.
Family-Sharing Stepdad: Bro, you must've joined the wrong group. Those players aren't even playing the Dark Land published by the Lunar Eclipse Race. It's just another VR game with the same name.
Faced with the questioning, Li Zheng also looked completely lost. He reopened the forum and checked the Starsea Guild recruitment post again.
After confirming it was indeed recruiting for the Lunar Eclipse Race's newly released Dark Land, he became even more confused.
Thinking back to the earlier guild managers who demanded purchase receipts before joining, Li Zheng suddenly realized something.
Game Gold-Farmer: Damn it. We probably joined a cloud player group. They're simulating the game content in the chat, total cyberspace players, not real at all.
Dirt Poor: Hahaha, cloud players are terrifying. They don't even have the game and still talk like they've played it for real.
Family-Sharing Stepdad: I'm dying. Sure, we're playing the pirated version, but at least it's the real Dark Land. Way better than them pretending to play through conversation. Say no more, I'm leaving the Starsea group.
Murderous Intent Rising: Hahahaha, these players are hilarious. Full-on cyber cloud VR, content purely imagined. Whatever they want, they get.