Chapter Ninety-Three: The Chaotic Forum

Chenqi found a thick black jacket and put it on, then stored all his weapons, props, materials, and books inside the Traveler’s Box. At the same time, he carefully placed the sleeping Lantern Fox into the large room within the box.

With a thought, the Traveler’s Box flew into his pocket.

Then, as he walked on, he kept glancing out at the storm of wind and snow beyond the window.

Was the open beta about to begin...?

Looking at the whirling snowfall outside, Chenqi felt as though the world had already turned into something entirely different.

Then, all at once, text appeared in the New Sun game.

The first open beta will begin in two days. The sealed gate will once again open a sliver.

This open beta will include one hundred thousand participants.
(The distribution of activation codes will be completed within one month.)

Note: This open beta will no longer follow regional principles. Instead, it will use random safe spawn points. Some classless individuals will appear—meaning characters created directly without a starting profession—as well as players from outside the New Capital.

After this test begins, disasters across the Earth world will become more frequent, and these disasters will grow more sensitive to the aura of Wanderers. Cognitive obstruction will fail. Everyone will notice the existence of players. All Wanderers, please take note.

An open beta of one hundred thousand players in one month!

Compared with the first closed test, this was far faster.

The first closed test had only ten thousand participants, and activation codes were distributed over the course of several years, dragging on for quite a long time.

One hundred thousand within a single month was an alarming number.

Chenqi looked through the forums. Everyone had already guessed that the open beta was about to begin, and discussions were blazing through the chat groups.

Even more, banner advertisements were flooding the forums directly!

Little Miracle Doctor, deputy director of the Hundred Herbs Garden: If you are a player on the flower path, come join the Hundred Herbs Garden! Great benefits, excellent treatment. Join now and receive a free healing potion. For the first seven days, daily check-ins will earn you a silver coin per month. Reach level five and get a spiritual power potion. Reach level ten and get an astral sight potion!

Lu Ban, chairman of the Divine Craft Society: Anyone who joins gets a full set of silver-scale armor right away!

Moon Walker, special-grade player, lunar insignia: Join my elder sister’s White Dove Inn now, and get a free trip to the moon. Not the kind where you get blasted up there.

Disaster Diviner, special-grade player: If you have no confidence in the game, welcome to the slacker divination society. Those people are all high-strung over there; let’s crouch down together and divine fortune and misfortune. We’re the organization with the lowest average death count, after all.

Seabird, special-grade player: New Capital, District 6, or players with a beast-taming direction can join our Hundred Beasts Corps. We may not have many handsome men or pretty girls, but we have plenty of adorable pets! Anyone who reaches level five gets a Fire Hound!

Berserker Assassin, special-grade player: Nothing much to say! If you want to leap levels and kill monsters, or throw down in a fight, real men, come on over! Lady heroes are welcome too!

Literary Girl: Knowledge is the true power. The Book Division and the Research Division welcome everyone. We will provide every new player with a tailor-made future growth route, so your life will no longer be adrift.

...

Before the open beta had even begun, the forums were already overflowing with advertisements. Even searching for a guide normally would trigger a recruitment ad!

What was more, these guilds had even copied the monetized-game routine by setting up level rewards and check-in benefits, first come, first served!

Some of the benefits were so tempting that even Chenqi felt a little itchy with desire.

Among them, many special-grade players who had not posted in a long time were personally coming out to create buzz for this “recruitment fair.”

According to the latest gossip, some special-grade players had even arranged a showdown at the imperial capital just to fight over newcomers.

This was going to be lively indeed!

As Chenqi walked, he idly scrolled through the flood of posts, and the feeling of watching the drama unfold was truly excellent.

And this Disaster Diviner even had the special-grade player badge...

Most likely that was the Disaster Diviner from the New Sun game’s mutual-aid chat group.

In Chenqi’s impression, the Disaster Diviner spent every day in the group either spreading negative remarks or asking for resources—an utter shut-in who lay flat and did nothing—but he had never expected the other person to be a special-grade player.

Hidden talent, indeed...

Chenqi glanced again. Among these scrolling advertisements, there were no posts from the Merchant Guild or the Day Tour Society.

The Merchant Guild had been founded by a player of the Bell aspect, and like the Day Tour Society, it was responsible for operating the forums. Those two organizations were probably going to recruit through other channels.

As expected, the Merchant Guild, which handled forum advertisements and had stockpiled a massive amount of goods, was already smiling.

The world was going to become chaotic...

Chenqi pushed open the door to the meeting room.

Inside, most of the players from the White River branch had arrived.

But Lin Yuxing and Chen Shi, the two he knew best, were absent.

Senior Chen Shi was probably dealing with the snow outside. Although it had little effect on Wanderers, for most ordinary people this sudden snow disaster was terrifying.

Chen Shi had to work with the other Day Tour Society members to maintain order and rescue those trapped by the snowstorm.

As the team leader, one could say he was taking on most of the White River branch’s duties all by himself.

The moment Chenqi opened the door, the crowd of players was startled and turned toward him.

The White River branch had originally been a very loose, rather lazy Wanderer organization. After becoming Wanderers, many people had gone off to flashy places to enjoy themselves, their playstyle leaning toward the idle and carefree.

But Chenqi and Lin Yuxing changed that.

One of them, on the very first day, killed the umbrella bearer and the suspected shadow of the self; the other, with a thunderbolt on a clear day, sent the ravenweed man fleeing.

These two accidental heroes had stirred the previously laid-back White River branch into a frenzy.

The fisherman glanced at Chenqi, then at his phone, and could not help blurting out, “Level nine...”

Every time the fisherman saw Chenqi, he could not help feeling that he was living in a world constructed by some unseen hand.

“Cough, cough.”

Chenqi cleared his throat twice, found a seat, and casually made something up.

“Got lucky. Found a monster-spawn point, and with an NPC big shot, farmed a bit of a beast horde.”

In New Sun, monster-spawn points were not easy to find. In many places, if you killed too many monsters, hundreds or even thousands might suddenly swarm you, forming a terrifying sea of creatures.

Even blade-aspect players did not dare to use the words “farm monsters” lightly.

Monster farming depended on luck.

Chenqi asked, “Senior Yu, is the major matter we’re discussing this time about the open beta?”

Trying to fish me out, huh? This guy must be up to something big in the game again...

The fisherman sat on the sofa and steadied himself before replying, “Yes. This incident is enormous. The forums and video sites are already going wild over it.”

He then continued, “Every player is crucial. To welcome this batch of players, every organization has begun its own moves.

And the people from the Natural Holy Calamity Association will not let these players go either.”

Chenqi frowned.

“Are the raven flock going to move?”

The fisherman waved a hand.

“That, no. According to our undercover intelligence, ever since the ravenweed man got struck by lightning, the raven flock has gone into seclusion.

They’re terrified of every kidnapping going wrong. They even said they refuse to be like a group of idiots delivering an old man on a gourd ride. Every kidnapping now involves the whole group, which has drastically lowered their efficiency, and they still couldn’t abduct enough newcomers.

They were mocked mercilessly by the other organizations within the Holy Calamity Association, and then they were swallowed up.

If they had held on a little longer, until now, they might even have gotten a second spring.”

At this, the other players all shouted that it was “good riddance.”

This Holy Calamity organization, which relied entirely on kidnapping players to grow stronger, was practically a malignant tumor. It had finally received its punishment.

“...”

So they were swallowed up already...

Chenqi was startled. He had not expected the chain reaction caused by him and Yuxing to be so large.

The fisherman went on, “To welcome this open beta, all the special-grade players are bleeding themselves dry. They’ve prepared many limited-time missions, and even the exclusive aspect items they can’t equip have been added to the exchange pool!”

And now he had the Void Aspect Pendant, which was basically like having three aspects. That was quite good for him.

Chenqi took a look and saw that many of the offerings could boost his growth speed.

Seeing that he had sparked everyone’s interest, the fisherman continued, “As for us at the Day Tour Society, we’re mainly responsible for protecting new players and handling newly emerged disasters.”

Now that cognitive protection had been lost, cities everywhere were in an uproar. However, the Day Tour Society had prepared in advance and brought the situation under control.

Chenqi tilted his head, wondering whether some people he knew might also become players.

What truly caused the terror and chaos were the disasters that suddenly appeared.

Most of these disasters emerged in special terrains such as volcanoes, ice fields, or jungles, but some also appeared in cities and had to be dealt with immediately.

Chenqi’s talent was quite strong when it came to handling these disasters, and the drops from disasters were not bad either.

After thinking it over, Chenqi felt he could go hunt these disasters.

Seeing the group grow noisy, the fisherman said, “Of course, everyone should still do their best and be careful. After all, soon enough, you’ll all be the ones leading teams.”

Leading teams...

He was no longer a rookie either.

Chenqi had no intention of taking in newcomers. After all, he still had plenty of arts to learn, and he also had to raise the Lantern Fox.

The fisherman took a deep breath and said to everyone, “This open beta event will inevitably bring great chaos. Some special-grade player commission quests have already been posted on the forum. Everyone can take a look.”

At that moment, a batch of urgent missions was released on the forum, finally covering those nonstop recruitment posts.

Chenqi opened the forum and looked over the missions.

Among them was a high-level mission that not only offered extremely rich rewards, but also gave him a clue!