[Dear citizens of Ningzhou: Hello. The Zhumeng Game Company is conducting a tech demonstration in the Jinghu area. A virtual monster will appear from Jinghu Lake. The monster is extremely large, but it is only a fictional image and will not cause any damage to reality. Please do not panic. We wish you a happy life.]
All citizens within a few kilometers around Jinghu received a group text message from the telecommunications company.
This explained their confusion.
But not many people were actually alarmed.
The grand music and the angry roar of the Serpent King Dragon were indeed impressive at first glance.
However, the actual impact was only on the live broadcast room and the edge of Jinghu Lake.
— It didn't even completely cover Jinghu Lake, only affecting the shore where Xu Meng was.
The reason is simple: all these sounds were played by the high-powered speakers that Xu Meng had arranged during the day.
Jinghu Lake is not exactly a residential area, and not many people visit the park on winter nights.
Today is also New Year's Eve, and there are very few pure wage slaves still working overtime in office buildings late at night.
The impact on citizens has been minimized as much as possible.
— Given the importance Xu Meng now receives, if he wanted to organize such a harmless large-scale event, the various preparations and approval work wouldn't take him a whole day.
But he wanted to keep it a secret, to give the players a surprise, and didn't want to send out a large-scale text message notification in advance.
That's why he delayed the live broadcast time until the evening.
Now that the Serpent King Dragon has appeared and this 'surprise' has been revealed, a large-scale text message notification has been sent out in a timely manner.
Speaking of which, when the idea first came to him, Xu Meng even wanted to create an epic 'fireworks show' of 'fighter jets battling the Serpent King Dragon, with missiles raining down from the sky'.
But he was worried that the impact would be too great, causing too many citizens to panic, so he had to give up.
— In spreading fear, hot weapons are far more effective than imaginary monsters.
If a monster suddenly pops up, everyone will immediately think it's fake.
But if fighter jets suddenly fill the sky and missiles explode everywhere, everyone will panic and suspect that a war has broken out.
Even if a text message is sent to explain, many people will not believe it.
It could cause a major mess.
After weighing the pros and cons, Xu Meng had to give up.
But now that the Serpent King Dragon has appeared, it certainly can't end so hastily.
Xu Meng switched to another grand scene —
There is a complete planning scheme and design ideas, and there is also [Wild Era], this ready-made gameplay as a reference, removing the dross and retaining the essence, strengthening the advantages.
The Monster Hunter development team is making rapid progress.
Worldview, ecological environment, architectural style.
Characters, plot, NPCs, quest lines have no bottlenecks.
Only the weapon types, spirit attributes, combat actions, monster species, and combat interaction logic, which involve the core gameplay, require cumbersome technical exploration and verification, and progress is a little slower.
And what Xu Meng took out this time is mainly the ecological environment.
"This is the shadow I saw in the office!"
"Do you want me to fight this hundreds-of-meters-tall monster in hand-to-hand combat?"
"Dude, don't be too outrageous!"
"Thanks for the invitation, I'm watching the New Year's Eve gala, I don't have time to go, you go yourself."
"I'm coming! I'm going to pull the plug and cut off its power now!"
… …
Compared to the rejection in the live broadcast room, the players in reality are much braver!
The players who ran out of the experience center had a clear purpose from the beginning, heading straight for Xu Meng's location — they were all locals and couldn't be more clear about the surrounding environment.
Just a few glances at Xu Meng's live broadcast screen were enough to know where he was.
Without saying a word, they went straight over.
However, halfway there, they were stopped.
They could only watch the tiny Xu Meng and the huge Serpent King Dragon from dozens of meters away.
Xu Meng seemed to turn around and look at them.
Then Xu Meng's voice came from the phone: "It seems the warriors have arrived."
The crowd was a little commotion.
But soon, they realized that the "warriors" Xu Meng was talking about were not them.
Blades of grass sprouted from the concrete ground beneath Xu Meng's feet.
This scattered green quickly spread out.
Saplings grew taller at a speed visible to the naked eye, until they became towering trees.
The giant trees opened up lush canopies, hanging down dense aerial roots and vines.
… …
The familiar urban landscape was quickly replaced by a primeval rainforest that rose from the ground.
Some tall hunters, carrying large knives and swords, appeared at the edge, crossing the rainforest and heading straight for the Serpent King Dragon!
The players who were stopped then realized that their location was the dividing line between the rainforest and reality.
As long as they took one step forward, they would step into the dark green world.
The hunters appeared almost in front of them, rushing into the depths of the rainforest.
At this time, when they looked at the lake, they could no longer see Xu Meng's figure — the lush rainforest blocked their view.
Everyone had to pick up their phones and watch through the live broadcast.
In the live broadcast room, amidst the exclamations of the viewers, the hunters had already crossed the shore, rushed onto the Serpent King Dragon's body, and began an unequal battle between ants and behemoths!
The live broadcast camera was no longer aimed at Xu Meng, but was raised to a high place for easy viewing of the battle.
Although the size difference between the two sides of the battle was huge, these hunters relied on their superhuman physical fitness and flexibility, using grappling hooks to move around, fight, slash, and chop on the Serpent King Dragon's huge body.
The Serpent King Dragon's activity area was restricted — it could not leave Jinghu Lake, and for a time it was a little unable to use its strength, and could only swing its body and strangle the hunters on the water.
From time to time, it would rush into the water and then suddenly jump out, stirring up monstrous waves.
It was as if Jing Lake wasn't just a man-made lake four or five meters deep, but a bottomless ocean!
This intense battle lasted for 2 minutes, ultimately ending in a draw –
The Serpent King Dragon knocked the hunter off its body, then dove into the water and disappeared.
The hunters, on the other hand, got up from the ground, lit a bonfire, and began to bandage their wounds and maintain their weapons.
Only then did Xu Meng reappear in front of the camera, waking everyone from the 'blockbuster' they had just witnessed:
"The warriors have successfully driven away the monster, congratulations!"
"The Serpent King Dragon you just saw is one of the super-giant prey in 'Monster Hunter'."
"If you feel that just watching isn't enough, you are also welcome to join the game after 'Monster Hunter' is released and personally experience the exhilarating feeling of fighting giant prey."
"I guarantee that experience will be unforgettable."
Xu Meng gave a malicious advertisement.
— Unforgettable is definitely unforgettable.
But whether it's exhilarating or not is hard to say...
The difficulty of fighting this kind of super-giant Elder Dragon will be incredibly high. Players will have to experience countless tragic deaths before they have any hope of success.
The newest novels are first published on !
But for advertising, of course, you pick the good things to say.
This advertisement successfully pulled everyone's attention back from the amazing scene they had just witnessed:
"Awesome! So when is the game coming out?"
"Weren't you supposed to be revealing hardware information? Why are you advertising?"
"Can holographic display equipment create such a large-scale effect?"
"So where's your hardware?"
...
Xu Meng no longer concealed anything. He grabbed the black cloth covering the 'big box' next to him and yanked it off.
A large, square box appeared before the audience.
He tapped the box a few times, then opened the casing to show the audience the internal structure.
Afterward, he introduced it to the audience:
"Holographic display equipment is a general term for a large category of hardware."
"Depending on the usage environment, there are also different specifications."
"My initial idea was to show you the [Challenge Tower Grand Prix] reward, the [Holographic Gold Belt]."
"That doesn't need any preparation, you can just take it out and display it."
"But today happens to be the last day of 2025."
"It would be a bit boring to just show you a plain belt like that."
"So, I changed my mind and wanted to show you something big."
"By the way, I also wanted to test the limit of the holographic display equipment's display range."
"Now, you've all seen it."
"This is the limit of this device!"
"Of course, you don't have to worry about this thing taking up too much space."
"For everyday home use, you don't need such a big thing."
He lifted his coat and took off a belt with a fanny pack hanging from it.
He then opened the fanny pack to show the audience a cube-sized portable holographic device inside.
"This little guy has limited power and can only project relatively simple content, but its advantage is its portability."
"Then there's the home version, which is about twice the size of this one."
"Finally, there's this large device."
"And then, regardless of the specifications of the device, they all need one thing."
As he spoke, he reached into the box and unscrewed a sealed metal canister from the complex mechanical structure.
"For holographic display equipment to work, it must use this."
"A special medium."
"As for what's so special about it and how it works, it's too complicated. I imagine everyone isn't interested, so I won't explain it in the livestream."
The livestream instantly erupted with question marks.
But Xu Meng didn't look at the comments, he just continued to speak:
"I'm specifically mentioning this thing because I want to tell everyone in advance: this thing is a consumable."
"It will slowly be consumed in day-to-day use until it's used up, and then it needs to be replenished before it can continue to be used."
"But the good news is: we plan to build a super factory, maximizing production capacity to lower the cost as much as possible."
"And now, this super factory is about to start large-scale recruitment."
"All Xia country engineering graduates—especially those near Ningzhou—can make some preparations in advance. You will soon see relevant news."
"In addition, we also welcome top scholars in the fields of materials science, neuroscience, brain science, mathematics, computer science, and other fields to join our team to continue to optimize holographic display equipment and innovate this technology!"
After saying this long string of words, Xu Meng breathed a sigh of relief.
"OK, the advertisement is over."
"Next, it's time for spoilers—"
"Holographic display equipment will be launched before the release of 'Monster Hunter'."
"At the earliest in February, at the latest in March."
"Next, all over the world, many experience centers where you can try out the Mirage Game Kit will pop up—these experience centers do not all belong to Dream Architect, but you can experience the Mirage Game Kit and future holographic display equipment in them."
"I hope these experience centers can bring you happiness!"
"Finally, as usual, I will announce the next extra challenge—"
"Sky Arena, Floor 150!"
"The first 10 players to reach it will all receive a set of holographic display equipment!"
"And an additional internal beta qualification for 'Monster Hunter'!"
"Finally, let's use a New Year's Eve fireworks display to conclude this livestream."
"We'll see you next time!"
