Ashen Dragon

Chapter 70 Beta Testing (IV)

Four days had passed in the game "Elzegai World," with hundreds of players wandering around Barto City, taking on various missions within the city, and summarizing various points of caution.

Things like how to move bricks with the least effort, how to cut corners when building houses, how to climb trees to find the Tiefling girl's cat, and even how to steal vegetables from the market without getting caught. Enjoy exclusive content from empire

"Elzegai World" gave players the feeling of extreme freedom and extreme realism.

You could get chased and beaten by the shopkeeper for stealing, get legally killed by the male householder for breaking into someone's home and rummaging through their belongings, and even get arrested by the Tiefling Guard Squad for drawing a mustache on the statue in the town square...

Moreover, what surprised players even more was that various physical and chemical reactions from reality were also presented in this world in the form of magic—a civil engineering guy with the ID "Bucket Runner," for instance, had become a supervisor of Barto City's walls due to his superb and skilled grey-casting techniques, along with his ancient method of cement making.

Most players had reached level one within four days, and Mantou was no exception.

There were twelve basic profession branches for players to choose from in "Elzegai World": Warrior, Barbarian, Bard, Priest, Druid, Martial Monk, Paladin, Ranger, Wanderer, Magician, Warlock, and Mage.

Each profession had its strengths and weaknesses, which made many people suffer from a dilemma of choice.

After much deliberation, Mantou chose the Warrior profession as he preferred the thrill of battle with swords and blades.

However, most of them were forced to log off due to the 24-hour limit on the gaming pod—except for a few Liver Emperors who had modified their gaming systems to stay far ahead of everyone else.

"Whew, time passed so quickly."

"I didn't even feel it, and four days had already gone by."

Mantou took off his gaming pod helmet, feeling a sense of loss.

But he didn't have time to lament, for he had to seize the moment to grind and quickly release his video.

"Ah, another update, it really makes me feel bald."

Mantou touched his somewhat sparse back of the head and sat down at his computer to start editing his video.

From Mantou's perspective, after this beta test, "Elzegai World" would definitely explode in popularity due to its high quality. He needed to seize this opportunity to ride the first wave of traffic and become a pioneer among gaming enthusiasts.

Several hours later, the video was finally published.

...

"Mantou's Live Broadcast: Elzegai World, Creating a Real World."

Mantou was already a somewhat famous gaming host with tens of thousands of followers on a certain site. As soon as the video was released, a lot of people clicked on it.

"The missing person has returned!"

"First row"

"I am the first"

"The title is so exaggerated, aren't they paying you money?"

"Hello everyone, I'm Mantou. Today, I bring you this game—'Elzegai World.'"

"I believe many people have never heard of it, but you will soon. I discovered this gem of a game by chance, and now I've played it continuously for a day and night. My mental state is excellent, and if it weren't for the time limit, I think I could play it for a year."

"Alright, without further ado, let's get into our live gameplay session."

"Classic nonsense opening."

"Can't he survive without talking nonsense?"

Before the game even started, there were already numerous comments, especially during the character selection phase when the charisma stat was set to 9.

"Sky King covering the Earth Tiger, Mantou's charisma 9."

"Hahaha, sorry, I couldn't help but laugh."

"Mantou: Don't have an Ancient God Physique? I am the Ancient God Physique!"

"Too funny."

"Now we know why Mantou's online dating failed."

And that wasn't even talking about later when "Holy Light Bro" took off his clothes to pursue freedom, only to realize he had socially died, and Swashbuckler visited the respawn point three times, getting blocked by NPCs each time, making for a perfect comedic effect.

"Hahaha, the Rogue Beast finally got his comeuppance!"

"Wow, is the AI this advanced?"

"This is a bit scary."

"Makes me want to play too."

Later, Mantou showcased his various brick-moving and earning experiences in Barto City—including getting chased by an Ogre for speaking out of turn, nearly losing his precious first life.

"Chase, chase him!"

"Ogre eats Mantou, funny."

"Seems like you've become a black slave in the game!"

"That's all for today's gameplay. I need a short rest and will continue brick-moving in Elzegai World tomorrow. Farewell for now, everyone."

"In the future, I will be making and releasing a video series called 'Mantou's Adventures in Elzegai World,' which will be serialized on both the player forum and a certain site. Stay tuned."

The video caused a huge sensation among immersive game players soon after its release, reaching a million views and topping the daily gaming chart. It also drew more players' attention to "Elzegai World."

...

Cassius browsed through the posts on the player forum, which were all over the place, a real variety.

There were novice questions:

"Why can't my level one Mage get a spell, and what's this about learning scrolls?"

"Looking for a Wild Sorcerer guide, what to do if you burn your teammates?"

Team recruitments:

"Tracking an Orc rebel tribe, looking for a Barbarian teammate to tank."

"Looking for a Bard, want to hear some tunes."

"Looking for people for an owl bear hunting quest, no Mages, and definitely no Wild Sorcerers."

And someone's protest:

"A million people sign a blood-soaked petition! Protesting against the game officials for targeting excellent players, camping the respawn point, interfering with normal gameplay, demanding a 1000 gold coin compensation."

But most of the replies were sarcastic: "More officials, please" "Not so heroic, Rogue Beast?" "Compensate you with 1000 deaths."

At this moment, Cassius accidentally found a strategy post.

"Learn how to get started quickly in 'Elzegai World' in five minutes!"

He was very familiar with the nickname of the post's author, Xin Dog, known as S-Dog in his past life, and sometimes Black Slave, a veteran immersive game player and professional solo player.

Not only was he highly skilled, but he also wrote great strategies, serving as an undying beacon for many solo newcomer players.

The main content of his strategy summarized ways for beginners to complete missions and offered an evaluation of cost-effectiveness, emphasizing four golden rules for accepting missions:

"If there's money, choose money; if not, choose equipment."

"Faction Contribution? Not even a dog wants it."

Cassius narrowed his eyes, exhaling a breath of sulfur-scented air.

"This won't do."

"If you all go for money, how am I going to fleece you? This bad trend must be stopped!"

From a player's perspective, Xin Dog's strategy was absolutely correct.

Compared to gold coins and equipment, which had inherent value and wide circulation, faction contribution provided by Cassius was more like a form of credit currency issued by the faction.

Faction contribution had an inherent weakness—it had no value on its own and only gained value when circulated.

You had to use it to buy things, right?

If it couldn't buy anything, its value would drop to zero, and currently, players had no way to use faction contribution.

If Cassius wanted to fleece the players and perform his "something for nothing" act, he had to make the players believe faction contribution was valuable.

With this in mind, Cassius smiled slightly.

"Shape-shifting Spell!"

As the scattered magical aura flickered, the enormous Red Dragon vanished, replaced by a noble youth with black hair, golden eyes, and clad in a crimson robe in the cave.

"I'll just have to engage with the players personally..."