Fully awake, Xu Meng scrambled out of bed, hurriedly put on his haptic gloves, and rushed out of the bedroom.
“Take me over to have a look.”
He couldn't wait to see what outrageous things the players had done this time.
“No problem!” Xiao Meng grabbed his hand, brimming with energy.
“Let's go!”
The game and holographic display equipment started automatically, and invisible electromagnetic waves swept through the air.
Everything in the living room quickly faded and disappeared.
What replaced it was the Mánshēng Metropolis at dawn—
In Xu Meng's setting, time in Mánshēng Metropolis was twice as fast as real-world time.
6 PM to 12 AM was nighttime in Mánshēng Metropolis.
12 AM to 6 AM was daytime in Mánshēng Metropolis.
Then the cycle would continue…
It was almost 11 o'clock now, and the night in Mánshēng Metropolis was about to end.
The [City Defense War] was also about to end, with only a handful of monsters and beasts still alive.
Looks like the players did a good job?
No, not at all!
When Xu Meng brought in the monsters and announced the start of the [City Defense War], only the central plaza of Mánshēng Metropolis had suffered serious damage.
The beast horde surged into the city along the eight main roads.
It looked menacing, but only the road surfaces and vehicles on these eight main roads were damaged, along with the buildings on both sides.
But now…
The doors of numerous stores along the streets had been smashed open.
Completely wrecked cars were abandoned next to the corpses of beasts, still slowly emitting smoke.
The sewers had been blown open, turning into traps to hinder the beasts.
Cables crisscrossing between buildings were ablaze, and many outdoor displays and electronic signs were powered off, occasionally spewing sparks.
Gas pipelines had been ignited, and violent explosions not only tore up the roads but also created a blazing wall of fire along the pipelines.
In short, these people did manage to eliminate the invading monsters.
However, in the process of defending the city, the damage they accidentally caused was even more severe than that of the monsters and beasts!
“Well, that's not too surprising,” Xu Meng sighed.
Xiao Meng waved her little hand, arranging nine screens into a grid to help Xu Meng review what had happened earlier:
Many players complained that using swords, axes, and other melee weapons was too slow to kill, so they formed teams and stormed into the Public Security Bureau to upgrade themselves with powerful and easy-to-use firearms.
Others took advantage of the situation and grabbed weapons from the weapon shop for free, then went to the parking lot to steal cars.
Then, driving cars and wielding guns, they fearlessly charged head-on into the monster hordes.
Some players discovered special NPCs with amazing combat power who could also be directly communicated with.
So they gathered around these NPCs to provide support and ask all sorts of strange questions, trying to figure out if there were any hidden missions.
…
But these were not the decisive factors.
The real key was—
More than a dozen well-known player commanders from [Hell on Earth] jointly launched an initiative to organize a dozen large groups of a hundred people each.
These large groups no longer stood their ground but instead adopted the tactics verified by General Flying Dragon in Longcheng, advancing along the secondary roads and side streets towards the outer ring of the city to divide and encircle the beast horde!
As a result, the hunting efficiency rapidly increased!
Seeing that the tactics were so effective, more players followed suit.
Similar scenes were repeated in mirror images.
This allowed them to push the progress to the final stage in the last dozen minutes of the 3 hours.
“Final 1%!” Xiao Meng began the final countdown.
“Last 48!”
“It's over!!!”
Xiao Meng raised her hands and cheered, and magnificent fireworks bloomed again in the night sky.
Accompanied by majestic settlement music, the [City Defense War] officially ended!
The score ranking on the central plaza was completely fixed.
At the same time, the guns and grenades that the players had snatched from the law enforcement bureau and weapon shop disappeared.
The players' own golden weapons were also locked up safely, and they could no longer fire bullets.
The fires burning in the buildings quickly extinguished.
Scattered broken glass and construction waste disappeared in patches from the ground.
The messy shops, the potholed roads, the sewers spewing water vapor, the burning gas pipelines…
As if time had flowed backward, all the damaged things were quickly restored to their original state.
In just a few breaths, Mánshēng Metropolis returned to the way it was before the monsters appeared.
The players scattered in various corners of the city were teleported back to the central plaza.
After returning to the plaza, the players were somewhat lost as they watched everything return to its original state.
But soon, the system's prompt made them cheer up again—
“Mánshēng Metropolis Open Day Event: [City Defense War], Completed!”
“Time spent: 2 hours and 48 minutes!”
“Evaluation: Perfect!”
“[Mánshēng Metropolis Launch Commemorative Badge] is being distributed…”
“Distribution completed.”
“Dream Building New Game Early Preview Unlocked.”
“Dream Building New Hardware Information Unlocked.”
“Game Internal Beta Qualification Unlocked, Player IDs of the Top 1000 in Points Have Been Recorded.”
“Physical Invitation Letters are being distributed…”
“Distribution completed.”
—
The score ranking on the central plaza's big screen disappeared.
The official Dream Building live broadcast room, which had been broadcasting continuously, and the live broadcast rooms of various game streamers and self-media, all turned their cameras to the big screen.
The trailer that the players had worked hard for 3 hours to unlock was finally revealed!
The noisy central plaza almost instantly quieted down, without even needing Xu Meng to mute it.
Amidst everyone's expectations, the big screen slowly lit up—
A man wearing thick armor and carrying a giant sword was traveling through a dense rainforest.
As the melodious flute music gradually became clearer, more scenes slowly switched:
Dense trees supported a lush green canopy that blocked out the sky.
A gurgling stream flowed down from a higher elevation, and on both sides of the stream, long aerial roots and vines hung from the tree trunks.
An unknown insect vibrated its transparent wings and flew past the hunter's eyes.
Young dinosaur beasts, only as tall as the knee, heard the footsteps and ran away.
The hunter bent down and picked a brown plant, putting it into his waist bag.
Green light spots emerged from a giant footprint and extended into the distance.
The hunter followed the trail, passed through caves, swam across rivers, tore open the vines blocking the way, and entered a brand new world.
The roar of a giant beast sounded from overhead.
The camera moved up, and a flying dragon spread its wings and glided across the narrow sky.
The screen suddenly shook.
The hunter withdrew his gaze and saw a majestic beast resembling a Triceratops charging out of the forest directly in front of him.
Its strong body knocked down the small trees blocking the way, and its sharp horn charged straight at the hunter!
The melodious flute music changed its tune, gradually becoming impassioned.
The hunter drew his two-handed giant sword and fearlessly charged forward.
Before engaging in combat, he suddenly jumped up and slashed down with his sword!
The beast's head was knocked sideways by the sword, and after losing its balance, it crashed to the ground.
The music slowly moved towards a climax.
More monsters appeared one after another—
Groups of small dinosaurs chased the hunter, who fled for his life.
A giant herbivorous dragon with a ridiculously long neck slowly moved forward, and the hunter crouched in the grass, carefully sneaking past.
A fat dragon with a huge belly and an astonishing weight used its body as a weapon, rolling and crushing towards the hunter.
A monster resembling a Tyrannosaurus Rex stepped into a trap, but in its struggle, it tore the vines and grabbed the hunter, throwing him into the air.
The hunter drew his giant sword in the air and slashed at the monster's neck!
…
Finally, a flying dragon with an astonishingly strong body defied the laws of physics, flapping its thin wings and slowly rising into the air.
It looked down from above and spewed flames at the hunter below!
These flames could even ignite the earth!
Seeing this, the hunter drew the signal gun from his waist and fired it into the sky.
The moment the signal flare exploded, the camera quickly zoomed out, passing over each of the previously appeared scenes, and finally ended with a wide-angle shot.
An open and vast, vibrant green world appeared before everyone's eyes.
The game title that the players had been waiting for finally jumped out—
[Monster Hunter]
