December 1st, Monday.
It was an ordinary workday.
But throughout the gaming world, from players to industry insiders, there was a subtle undercurrent of excitement and anticipation.
This feeling of anticipation even spilled over into the entire internet.
Because early this morning, the Zhuzheng Game Platform suddenly updated—
On the interface, which originally only had three games, an icon of a city and a dynamic page appeared.
That was [Sprawling Metropolis].
Before this, whether it was the media, competitors, or players, most believed that the virtual city would only be accessible to users of the Mirage Game Kit.
Because operating in this way would inevitably greatly promote sales of the Mirage Game Kit.
Considering the huge cost required to build such a city, netizens also felt that this was understandable and were prepared to watch a cloud-based tour via livestream.
But Zhuzheng silently updated the client, opening the virtual city for all users to download, clearly preparing to welcome everyone in!
Although the update was only 50 GB, something seemed a little off.
—Isn't 50GB a bit small for a virtual city?
Some netizens expressed doubts.
But this doubt was quickly drowned out by the overwhelming voices of anticipation.
Xu Meng's continuous success had already made netizens willing to believe in him.
This trust would continue until he made a serious mistake or suffered a crushing defeat.
… …
At 6 PM, netizens who were off work and students who were out of class rushed home or back to their dorms, turned on their computers, and prepared to log in early.
They even ate dinner in front of their computers.
Game streamers on various platforms also started their streams at this time.
Many of them had slept all day, conserving their energy and preparing for a long livestream.
… …
7 PM.
Half an hour before the award ceremony began.
The virtual city officially went online.
Players around the world scrambled to log in!
—Along with a vast number of netizens who were not previously Zhuzheng users but were drawn in by the digital spectacle of the virtual city.
Even with a time difference of more than ten hours, players on the other side of the world logged into the server as soon as possible.
The result was no surprise—
They immediately started queuing.
Netizens who were a little slower even had queue positions as high as 8 digits!
It took counting three or four times to be sure.
Before the complaints could erupt, netizens discovered a special situation—
Streamers who had streamed [Frost Snow Project], [War of the Kings], and even [Evil Ghost!] had successfully entered Sprawling Metropolis at the first opportunity.
Was Zhuzheng treating streamers differently from ordinary users?
Of course not.
These streamers, for the best viewing experience and streaming effect, were logging into Sprawling Metropolis through the Mirage Game Kit.
Which was the method that Northwest Hammer King Li Liang used to enter Sprawling Metropolis last night—
Taking the elevator out.
This login scene was originally embedded in Sprawling Metropolis.
Logging in this way, of course, wouldn't require queuing!
Five minutes later, the server completed its first expansion.
All old users—players who had played any Zhuzheng game before—saw their queue numbers rapidly jump to zero and successfully logged into Sprawling Metropolis.
However, entering using a PC didn't give them their own room, nor could they freely explore the entire city.
—They appeared directly on the street outside the central plaza.
This wasn't Xu Meng wanting to restrict everyone, but the 50 GB update only contained content for the 800-meter area near the central plaza.
The Mirage Game Kit was able to allow free exploration due to the combined power of pre-downloading and cloud servers.
This was not a cheap thing to do.
Even if Zhuzheng was rich, it couldn't unconditionally give all players this treatment.
Not to mention the netizens who came to join the fun.
Only after Zhuzheng expanded again did they squeeze into the server in batches.
But what they saw wasn't Sprawling Metropolis, but—
The back of someone's head.
A large number of dense, closely packed backs of heads.
The old acquaintances, Heroic Sniper, Orange Juice, Phantom Moon, and Seven Flowers, had once again agreed to come and watch the award ceremony together and explore Sprawling Metropolis afterwards.
They foresaw that there would definitely be a lot of people on the scene, so they didn't waste a second after logging in and went straight to the central plaza, successfully grabbing front-row seats.
Just as they sat down, the second batch of players appeared outside the central plaza.
This group occupied all the remaining seats.
By the time the netizens who came to join the fun arrived, the entire central plaza was almost bursting!
These initial characters, all wearing the same clothes and having the same faces, were squeezed together, their eyes full of other people's faces and the backs of their heads.
Xu Meng continued to expand, dividing out more mirrors.
But no matter how much he expanded or divided, the scene was always crowded with people.
—Because people kept squeezing in!
Later, Xu Meng looked at the ridiculously soaring number of people and server costs and simply gave up.
Forget it, let it be destroyed.
Never mind.
… …
7:30 PM.
The award ceremony officially began.
Xu Meng didn't create any entrance special effects—he was afraid of causing the audience to disconnect.
He simply flashed and appeared in the center of the stage.
At the same time, a real-time image of him, five times larger than him, also appeared above the stage, making it easier for players further away to see.
The moment he appeared, thunderous applause immediately erupted from the scene.
But Xu Meng almost couldn't hold back.
—In front of him, players not only filled the chairs, but also filled the plaza, and climbed all over the telephone poles and rooftops.
Fake trees hanging with neon lights were covered with players.
Even the power lines were hanging with rows of players like hanged ghosts.
Xu Meng tried hard to think of many sad things to stop himself from laughing.
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Clap! Clap! Clap!
He clapped three times, and the scene quickly quieted down.
It wasn't that everyone was giving him face, but that he had forcibly silenced everyone on the scene—there were too many people, the sounds were too mixed and chaotic, and it was impossible to quiet down without doing so.
After waiting for a while, and confirming that everyone had calmed down, he lifted the silence.
And said:
"Welcome, we'll talk about that later."
"Let's get down to business first."
"First of all, thank you all for taking the time to come to Sprawling Metropolis to participate in this [Global Survival Competition] award ceremony!"
"In order not to waste everyone's precious time, let's get straight to the point!"
"The first award: [Survival Master]—Seven Flowers!"
Seven Flowers stood up from the front row and walked towards the stage.
At the same time, a highlight reel of Seven Flowers and her team in the competition also appeared on the big screen behind Xu Meng.
Xu Meng introduced her tactics to everyone:
"From the beginning, she firmly established the sole theme of [Survival]."
"Organizing the team, finding a location, collecting and building, constructing fortifications, and restraining temptations."
"This resolute execution of tactics allowed them to successfully overcome all crises and successfully survive to the end!"
"Let us congratulate her—Survival Master Seven Flowers!"
The audience gave Seven Flowers warm applause.
During the acceptance speech, Seven Flowers didn't talk much about herself, but thanked all the team members.
Finally, she ended with two sentences:
"Without everyone's help, I would never have been able to survive to the end."
"This is not my victory, but everyone's victory! Thank you!"
The applause became even warmer.
After stepping down, Seven Flowers patted her chest wildly, comforting her heart that was about to jump out of her throat.
—There were so many people!
Facing this dense crowd of people, and facing the number representing the total number of viewers in the livestream, felt completely different!
Next was the [Hunting Master].
This time it was two people.
One was a passerby player who operated a cannon in the final battle, hitting the Nightmare Rain Squid 8 times in a row under extremely unfavorable weather conditions such as thunderstorms.
He narrowly surpassed Phantom Moon's damage and took the highest output.
The other was Phantom Moon, who not only dealt tons of damage up close, but also snatched the final blow.
The two people said almost the same thing when they received the award.
After thanking Zhuzheng, they both hoped that Zhuzheng would design more behemoths to make the gameplay richer.
Xu Meng nodded and agreed on the spot.
The two were overjoyed and took the trophy down.
Then came the [Treasure Hunting Master].
To the relief of Seven Flowers and Pickled Radish: The Manure Thief Big Red Persimmon did not receive this title and bonus.
The most valuable collection was still the Golden Apple.
After this winner stepped down, the atmosphere at the scene became strange.
Because next was the [Troublemaker] who killed Xu Meng!
And there were also two!
One was Zhu Mo, who created the earliest hot weapon and relied on the best sniper rifle on the entire map to snatch the final blow from the White Tiger.
The other was Xun Fei, who relied on the top-level [Melting Earth Flowing Fire Blazing Divine Sword] to ignite the White Tiger's fur in the rain and deal tons of damage.
The two "troublemakers" went on stage without changing their expressions and accepted the trophy from Xu Meng.
Just as Xu Meng was about to make way for them, Zhu Mo suddenly said:
"Wait a minute, Boss Xu, I'm your loyal fan!"
"Knowing that I could see you today, I specially made a gift for you and wanted to give it to you today."
"Is that so?" Xu Meng was deeply suspicious.
These sisters threw grenades at his face when they met, blasted one of his lives with a single shot the first time they met in the game, and finally took the final blow from the White Tiger…
Is this something a fan can do??
But there were so many people on the scene—probably hundreds of millions of people around the world were watching through the livestream lens, and the girl was already setting him up as she spoke and took down the cloth roll she was carrying on her back.
Xu Meng could only follow her words and say:
"I'm looking forward to it."
"Boss Xu, look!"
Zhu Mo took a step forward, holding the white cloth roll in front of Xu Meng.
She opened the cloth roll layer by layer.
This successfully aroused Xu Meng's curiosity.
He carefully watched as the cloth roll was unveiled layer by layer.
In Zhuzheng's official livestream, the director also pointed the camera at the cloth roll.
In the curious eyes of audiences around the world, the last layer of the cloth roll was unveiled, revealing the golden—
Golden military knife!
In the moment everyone was stunned, Zhu Mo grabbed the hilt of the knife and slashed at Xu Meng, who was close at hand!
"Surprise!!!"
