Jingzhou University.
Student dormitory.
Taking off the virtual helmet, Wang Zixu rubbed the bridge of his nose, then reached around by his pillow and turned off the noisy alarm clock.
In a while, he had a class on entrepreneurship and employment guidance.
This damn class was completely useless, yet the teacher insisted on taking attendance every time and even counted it toward the final grade.
After arriving at the classroom,
after attendance was taken,
Wang Zixu lowered his head and began swiping through his phone.
He was organizing the game’s plot and updating today’s trial experience.
Barring any surprises, this post would also be featured.
So far, he already had two featured posts, both among the hottest on the site, earning him a total of 50 points.
Although the point redemption function had yet to open for the time being,
he knew very well that right now was the crucial stage of primitive accumulation.
Once the game truly became popular and everyone started competing like mad, wanting to casually make a post and have it become a hot featured thread would basically be impossible.
Unless he could stay ahead of all the other players at every single step.
That was far too difficult.
……
……
“First thing after waking up each day, give myself a little cheer; today’s report needs submitting, boss is chasing me for PPT, take a deep breath as the computer boots up~”
“WeChat pops up a new message, coworker’s rushing me for progress, I say right away, don’t you worry……”
Chen Jiajun hummed a tuneless little song for his own amusement, his fingers tapping the keyboard every now and then, while his gaze never left the rendering progress bar on the screen.
The moment Shen Yingying’s two million arrived last night, he had stuffed the project files into the rendering queue overnight.
With the support of money,
efficiency and quality had risen by more than just one level.
A project that originally would have required several all-nighters was now completed in full, both in quality and quantity.
He opened the final generated game CG and quickly skimmed through it.
The visuals were smooth, the details were in place, and the atmosphere was maxed out.
“Done.”
The corners of Chen Jiajun’s mouth lifted as he casually saved the file.
Now he was just waiting for Shen Yingying to inspect and accept it personally.
Then he suddenly thought of something.
“System, can’t you be a bit more self-aware? Don’t make me remind you every time.”
“Ding—”
【Mission complete!】
【Reward: five days of lifespan, Reputation increased by 500, random item.】
【Drawing item……】
【Obtained: F-rank Physical Enhancement Injection.】
Physical Enhancement Injection?
Chen Jiajun’s gaze focused. This thing seemed like it could increase his Health Value.
Opening the warehouse interface, he saw a syringe glinting with cold light, lying quietly in one of the warehouse slots.
【F-rank Physical Enhancement Injection (Consumable): Produced by Future Group. After injection, it can slightly repair damaged cells, improve metabolism, and increase immunity.
PS: Studying yourself to death? Working yourself to death? Don’t worry. One shot of Physical Enhancement Agent, and you’re guaranteed not to die young.】
Uh……
The function looked pretty good, repairing cells and boosting immunity and all that.
It seemed fine, but for some reason, Chen Jiajun had the feeling he’d been scammed.
Forget it. At least it could improve his physical condition.
He shook his head and stopped thinking about it.
With a slight thought, a syringe abruptly appeared in Chen Jiajun’s hand.
There was no instruction manual, nor any kind of prompt.
He stared at the cold gleam of the needle tip, hesitating over whether to inject it.
He had personally experienced the system’s wonders.
Thinking of this,
he no longer hesitated. Steelening his heart, he directly stabbed the needle into his arm and slowly pushed all the liquid in.
There was no pain or discomfort whatsoever.
He only felt a cool, refreshing liquid flow into his body, followed by an indescribable sense of comfort, as if his entire body had been washed clean.
His whole person felt much lighter, and even his breathing became smoother.
Chen Jiajun’s eyes flashed, and he called up the information panel.
【Host: Chen Jiajun】
【Age: 23】
【Lifespan: one month and ten days】
【Health Value: 23 (prone to sudden death, lethargic!)】
【Warehouse: Empty】
【Reputation: 906】
【Exchange Shop: Locked (can be unlocked when Reputation reaches one million)】
Although his Health Value had only increased by a mere 6 points,
Chen Jiajun felt that the Physical Enhancement Injection must also come with a temporary buff effect.
He felt exceptionally energetic right now, with an unusual vitality surging through his body.
This state…… It was as if his body had returned to seven or eight years ago, when pulling ten all-nighters in a row would have been no problem at all.
Of course, that was only how he felt.
Just then,
the mission panel suddenly unfolded before him, blue text appearing line by line.
【The closed beta work has fully concluded, and the opening CG has also been rendered. At this point, everything is ready; only departure remains.】
【Mission: Launch the game through the TIG Competition official website, enter the open beta stage, and have the game’s peak concurrent online players reach 1,000.】
【Time limit: 15d (automatically settled after fifteen days; if the mission is completed ahead of schedule, it may be submitted manually)】
【Reward: Lifespan and Reputation will be awarded based on mission completion, along with a random item (the more online players the game has, the greater the probability of obtaining a rare item)】
Open beta within fifteen days was not difficult for Chen Jiajun.
After all, the basic requirement for participating in the TIG Competition was that the game had to be in open beta.
There were only a few days left until the competition began, and Chen Jiajun had originally planned to carry out the revision in the next couple of days anyway.
But one thousand concurrent online players—this difficulty was a bit over the top.
The virtual helmets had been gifted by the newbie package. There were one hundred in total. He had sent out 11, used one himself, and now only had eighty-eight left on hand.
As for the players who had already reserved the game on the official website, he still hadn’t had time to ship to them.
First, he was busy with work. Second, he was so poor he couldn’t afford the shipping fees.
At present, the number of reserved players had already reached 60. Subtracting the 11 already sent out—
(There’s no BUG here. Back then, eight helmets were sent out, three members didn’t reply, and replacements were sent.)
Mailing more than forty helmets in one go, with some going to remote areas that required extra fees—
the total shipping cost added up to nearly a full month of his food expenses.
On top of that, he had been working on the game CG the whole time,
so Chen Jiajun had temporarily shelved the shipments.
But now,
the mission actually required the game’s concurrent online player count to reach one thousand.
Fuck!
He didn’t even have a thousand virtual helmets in his hands.
If he wanted to obtain more virtual helmets, he could only exchange Reputation for them.
One hundred Reputation could be exchanged for one virtual helmet.
Chen Jiajun did a quick mental calculation. To reach one thousand concurrent online players, he would need to exchange for at least another nine hundred and one helmets.
Converted into Reputation, that was ninety thousand one hundred Reputation.
It was simply unthinkable.
He had worked himself to the bone for an entire month, staying up late every day and grinding through missions, and had only barely saved up a little over nine hundred Reputation.
Now it wanted ninety thousand right away.
How dare it!!
The most troublesome part was that the mission requirement was “concurrent online,” not cumulative online.
That meant these one thousand players had to log into the game during the same time period.
How was that possible?
Not everyone’s biological clock was the same.
Even thinking with his ass, he knew there would definitely be players logging into the game at different times.
Once the experience was staggered, it would be uncertain whether the peak online count could even reach eight hundred.
The mission this lousy system issued was simply trying to take his life!
Chen Jiajun’s brows twisted into a deep “川” shape.
He remained silent for a long time, his fingers unconsciously tapping the tabletop, when his movement suddenly paused.
His tightly furrowed brows abruptly relaxed, and a sharp glint lit up in his eyes.
“Oh…… I understand now……”
He had thought of an idea. This mission was not actually unsolvable.