"What the heck? Is that it?"
"An alien invasion? So sudden?"
"Sudden my ass! It's obviously Xu Meng's arrangement!"
"What are you guys still blathering about? New game! It's a new game!"
"More than that! There's new hardware too!"
"This is too terrifying! It's only been a few months? New game and new hardware already!"
"That's how it should be! Dream Building should be this fast!!"
"What are you waiting for? Let's go kill them!"
… …
The old players of Dream Building, whether they were using the Illusionary Scenery gaming set or playing on PC, quickly accepted this sudden situation, picked up their weapons, and were ready to charge into battle!
Greatswords, dual blades, bows and arrows, spears, great axes, giant hammers, sword and shield, guandao…
All sorts of weapons were stuck into the central square.
All of them were melee weapons.
Without much thought, everyone chose the weapon they were interested in and charged towards the horde of beasts.
Filled with enthusiasm, they were ready to save Sprout City, unlock commemorative badges, trailers, and new information.
However, when they reached the 800-meter boundary of the central square, an unexpected situation occurred—
The players using the Illusionary Scenery gaming set charged out without any hesitation.
But the players using PCs saw a system pop-up in front of them—
[Let's explore the area ahead another time!]
"? ? ?"
"What the f*ck? ?"
"Are you kidding me? ?"
"I was getting all excited, and now you're playing blue balls with me? ?"
Some people ran to the Giant Crocodile, the Ceratosaurus, and the fallen Wyvern to help the NPCs fight.
Others ran to the airship and shouted at Xu Meng on the deck, expressing their demands on the spot.
Compared to the passion of these old players, the netizens who came to watch the virtual city were mostly dumbfounded and huddled in the central square, trying to stay as far away as possible from the "primitive man versus monster" area.
They couldn't keep up with Xu Meng's pace at all.
They never expected things to develop in this direction.
In the eyes of most casual netizens—especially media people outside the gaming field—something as amazing as the virtual city should be unveiled at a serious and formal press conference.
At this press conference, Xu Meng should talk about the causes and consequences of the virtual city's birth, the difficulties encountered, and how those difficulties were overcome.
Then he should boast about how far ahead and how infinitely more potential this virtual city is compared to existing internet platforms.
Next, whether it's announcing the company's IPO, accepting merchants to settle in, or launching a membership-based digital service…
…these are all understandable practices that everyone is sure will make a big profit.
Many people had even written their drafts, just waiting to attend the awards ceremony, listen to Xu Meng's plans, fill in some content, and then publish it to the public.
—This kind of operation is essential if you want to work less overtime.
But now, with Xu Meng's unexpected move, they can't avoid working overtime even if they want to!
Moreover, the focus of writing the draft inevitably has to mention the two keywords "Dream Building's new game" and "Dream Building's new hardware."
Carelessly, a good news article will turn into Dream Building's advertising soft article…
And Xu Meng obviously won't pay for these advertisements.
What makes them even more uncomfortable is:
Even if you want to write it as a soft article, you have to have accurate information, right?
But according to the rules set by Xu Meng, when the big news will be announced depends on when the players kill all the monsters in Sprout City.
So when will the players be able to complete it?
No one knows.
It may only take 1 hour, or it may take 24 hours.
Perhaps only Xu Meng can predict the exact time.
All the media outlets that are on a large scale or care about face have been made very uncomfortable by Xu Meng.
Huo Dao thought about his scrapped manuscript, simply picked up a guandao from the ground, and joined the player team to fight.
—Anyway, I'm going to work overtime, so I might as well play the game for a while and get some material.
… …
As for the netizens who were purely there to join in the fun, their mentality was much better.
At first, they were indeed a little confused by Xu Meng and the old players of Dream Building.
But soon they discovered:
Although those big monsters looked scary, as long as you don't actively go near them, they are actually very safe.
—These big scenes are simply an "interactive" CG animation.
It's just that Xu Meng's scene transition was too amazing, which made everyone ignore this point.
Now that they have figured this out, they immediately relaxed.
Ignoring the old players who were still fighting the monsters, they began to visit Sprout City on the spot.
The 800-meter radius around the central square is insignificant compared to the area of the entire city.
But after all, it is a cyberpunk city, whether it is the street scenery or the various shops along the street, they are completely different from reality.
Especially now that it is night, the dense neon signs that almost fill the screen look particularly interesting.
The only flaw is:
Because of the sudden monster invasion, the entire city sounded air raid alarms, and the shops along the street were closed.
Cars no longer appeared, and pedestrians were all hiding.
The newest and fastest novels are at Six 9 Shuba!
Except for the players, there wasn't a single NPC to be seen on the street.
So after strolling around for a while, they all went offline, planning to come back and have a good stroll after the fight was over and the shops were reopened.
So the server pressure quickly decreased.
Xu Meng nimbly relaxed the restrictions for the players, expanding the activity range threefold in one go.
As a price, these players needed to install a huge patch.
—Of course, there's no need to specifically go offline, just install it in the background while playing.
Thanks to this update, the shouting players below quickly became sparse until they completely disappeared.
Xu Meng then relaxed, sat on the edge of the deck, and overlooked the entire city battlefield, enjoying the night breeze.
Looking down from a high place, Sprout City is a central radiating city with an octagonal structure.
The hordes of beasts gathered from all directions, rushing straight to the central city along the avenues.
The players' teams were also meeting them head-on on each avenue.
Judging from the momentum, they wanted to not give an inch.
But Xu Meng only gave them melee weapons, and these melee weapons can only strengthen some of the players' physical attributes, and cannot turn the players into supermen.
Coupled with the lack of experience, the defense line was actually retreating step by step.
—A hundred or so players who can use golden thermal weapons can play a very small role in the face of a wild horde of large beasts.
Especially since Xu Meng also banned the grenade launcher.
But there is also good news:
The NPC enforcers of Sprout City have already taken action.
NPCs with higher intelligence and freedom, and who also possess powerful force, have also come out of their homes to take action.
Xu Meng looked at the north district of Sprout City.
There, a 251-story-high sky arena stood quietly.
All the monsters approaching that tower—whether it was a regular beast two or three meters long, or a large monster more than ten meters high—would be quickly killed.
This abnormal situation quickly attracted the attention of the players.
Dragon City Flying General led a small team, intending to take a small path to flank from behind and defeat these brainless monsters with wisdom.
But as soon as he walked to Youke Xin Avenue, he saw a bare-chested strong man standing in front of a charging rhino.
"Hey! Get out of the way!" Dragon City Flying General kindly reminded him.
But the strong man didn't mean to dodge at all, just shouted: "Firm!"
Then he interlaced his hands and blocked the charging rhino's horn.
Being dragged two or three meters on the ground by the furious rhino, he actually stopped the rhino!
"Awesome!"
Dragon City Flying General liked this kind of strong man behavior the most, and immediately praised loudly.
But this strong man's performance was not over yet.
He grabbed the rhino's horn with both hands and shouted again:
"Hard!"
A strong aura suddenly erupted from him.
Advancing sideways, sinking his waist and thrusting his hips, exhaling and shouting!
In front of Dragon City Flying General and his team members, this strong man gave this four-meter-long rhino a wild shoulder throw!
The nearly 8-ton rhino was thrown into the air and crashed to the ground with a bang.
Dragon City Flying General could almost feel the ground shaking under his feet.
His pupils dilated and he was dumbfounded!
Afterwards, he didn't even bother with team command, rushed over in three steps and made two steps, clasped his fists on the spot and knelt on one knee, shouting:
"Master!"
