Conquering OtherWorld Starts With a Game

Chapter 115.2: Second Round of Beta

After posting the announcement, Yang Qiu, who had just finished a hasty shower, sent an email to "Director Lu," requesting them to provide 3,100 high-quality and sturdy helmet materials and promising that 100 of them would belong to them.

There's no need to elaborate on "Director Lu's" reaction upon receiving this email. The news of the 3,000 beta accounts caused an explosion of excitement among non-player netizens who had been following the "OtherWorld" official website for a long time.

Due to the extremely strict account restrictions, the attention of "OtherWorld" in the Chinese internet realm had waned significantly. After all, life on Earth moved at a rapid pace, internet trends were fleeting, and netizens were always busy. The prolonged allure of something they could only watch but not experience was bound to be forgotten by the online community. This wasn't just the case for games; even blockbuster movies and new electronic products suffered a similar fate.

If it weren't for Qin Guan, a now popular internet personality who regularly posted high-quality game videos on Bilibili, keeping the game in the spotlight, "OtherWorld's" official website and forum might have a much greater drop in daily traffic.

In essence, those interested in playing "OtherWorld" had to rely on videos, screenshots, and forum discussion threads to learn about the game. Nevertheless, there were still many people eager to try it out for themselves. As soon as the announcement was posted, tens of thousands of people clicked on the application interface within half an hour.

And then, these prospective players were left bewildered

"I just want to play a game! Why are you making me do a personality test?!"

Some individuals hurriedly completed the one hundred questions, only to receive a message stating"Dear player, your overall score is insufficient, and we regret to inform you that your application has been denied."

"Are you kidding me?! I'm just applying for a game account!"

Non-player netizens who didn't even qualify for the random selection were infuriated. They rushed to vent their frustrations on the forums and then there was nothing after.

Most non-player netizens took a more laid-back approach. There weren't that many short-tempered people who couldn't maintain interest in a game they couldn't access for so long.

These prospective players patiently completed the questionnaire and waited for a response.

Back on Earth, Yang Qiu slept for an entire afternoon in his rented residence. As evening approached, he checked the website's backend and selected a list of 3,000 people with the highest combined scores on the customized personality questionnaire crafted by professionals. He packaged the list into a compressed file and sent it directly to "Director Lu," asking for their help to review the backgrounds of these 3,000 individuals to ensure they were clean and didn't engage in any suspicious activities.

When Professor Yin Zhengliang received the compressed file, he stared at his computer screen in silence for a full 30 seconds.

"How should I put it Revealing three thousand 'player accounts' released to the public and casually giving us one hundred accounts is, honestly, quite infuriating. We've been collaborating for so long, and this fella is still playing these games. What does he take us for?"

Then, there was the request to do background checks for these 3,000 "player accounts."

"This means he doesn't mind official involvement but doesn't want to be controlled by the authorities, right?" a young researcher beside him said with a wry smile. "I wonder what he's thinking. As if we couldn't understand this?"

"I think we shouldn't look at this issue one-sidedly," said the researcher sitting across the table as he adjusted his glasses. "Regardless of what the national security thinks, this 'Lord Yang' doesn't resist cooperating with us. He delegates authority to our people and lets us handle Weisshem without micromanaging. This shows that he still trusts the country."

"Xiao Zhang is right." Professor Yin Zhengliang sighed with relief and continued, "This person can freely come and go to 'OtherWorld,' so he treats it as his own territory. This shouldn't be considered a matter of ideology. He isn't a comrade from our organization.

"According to the observations of our national security comrades and our investigations, before the 'incident,' this person was likely an ordinary citizen. Ordinary citizens have their own thoughts and don't unconditionally trust the country. Instead of blaming their thoughts, we should reflect on whether our work is inadequate and if our cadre team needs further education."

At two in the afternoon on Earth, before Yang Qiu had even executed his plan for "Director Lu" to review the backgrounds of prospective players, Weisshem, currently deep into the night, received a few special visitors.

The security team members on duty at the town gate had shut the doors and windows of the sentry post and were snoozing soundly inside. A few shadowy figures, acting furtively, peered through a window. After exchanging glances, they boldly stood up and entered the town that didn't have any defenses in place.

The dark streets of the town were eerily quiet. There wasn't a soul in sight, not even a stray cat.

"I can't believe it's turned into this," one of the infiltrators marveled. "It's like a ghost town. Last year, Weisshem wasn't like this. The street was usually bustling at this time."

"Looks like those villagers weren't lying. The new Weisshem lord really shut down the town's most profitable businesses," his comrade clicked his tongue and said. "To think there's a noble who doesn't like making money. This is truly unusual in the continent."

The leader of the group turned to his companions and urged, "Enough talk. Let's go check if the town hall is indeed filled with valuable items and gold coins, just like those country bumpkins claimed."

The two fellows, who had been immensely surprised by Weisshem's dramatic change in appearance, quickly fell silent and followed their leader.

Dressed entirely in black attire and armed with crossbows, all coated with a dark, oily substance, the three individuals had clearly been to Weisshem before. They were quite familiar with this relatively small town. Instead of walking down the main street, they took a route through Martin Street and skillfully made their way to the town hall, hiding in the shadows of the buildings, moving stealthily and without error.

As they continued on, one of the men couldn't help but murmur, "There isn't even a militia patrolling. This place is way too defenseless, isn't it? Could those ignorant villagers be mistaken? With the new lord having so much wealth, isn't he worried about attracting thieves?"

"Well, didn't we get drawn here?" his comrade interjected but quickly shut their mouth after receiving a stern look from their leader.

"It's not like we have any hostility toward the new lord. We're just here to check out the situation for our employer," the leader replied, his expression devoid of emotion.

The other two immediately nodded in agreement.

While they conversed, the three of them walked out of the relatively short Martin Street and entered a narrow alley leading to the town hall.

When they were still about 50 meters away from the town hall's courtyard, the three figures walking stealthily along the walls suddenly realized something was amiss.

The town hall, which appeared pitch black from a distance, seemed no different from the other buildings in the town. It didn't appear to have any signs of activity.

However, they couldn't help but hear faint sounds coming from the direction of the town hall, and it didn't seem like there was nobody there.

The leader raised his hand to signal his two companions to stop. With furrowed brows, he stared at the town hall for a bit, then took out a reusable magic scroll inscribed with a detection spell and carefully unfurled it.

Upon using the inscribed spell, it was determined that there were no living creatures that were larger than mice within the town hall's courtyard.

The leader rolled up the magic scroll and stashed it away with a puzzled look as he continued to gaze in the direction of the town hall's courtyard. He waved his hand, gesturing for his two subordinates to proceed with him.

Forty meters, thirty meters, twenty meters

When they were 20 meters away from the town hall, all three of them heard distinctive clacking sounds, along with some bizarre "KABAKABA" noises that they couldn't quite identify.

"What the heck is this?" one of the subordinates asked, baffled.

The leader made a shushing gesture and glanced around. Then, he signaled for them to climb.

The courtyard wall, which stood at two meters high, might deter ordinary thieves, but it certainly couldn't stop these three audacious individuals who were skilled and daring enough to sneak into the town in the middle of the night. Without making a sound, they scaled the wall, reaching its top.

People in this world generally suffered from night blindness due to malnutrition and couldn't see objects just a few meters away without a light source. However, these three were robust and healthy individuals not afflicted by this condition. Their vision surpassed that of ordinary people. Under the faint moonlight, they could clearly see even rats crawling around 20 to 30 meters away.

With their superior vision, the trio that had just scaled the wall were met with an astonishing sight

There were indeed no people in the town hall courtyard, just skeletons wearing strange fish-scale armor.

These skeletons weren't aimlessly wandering like the undead creatures they had encountered while escorting merchant caravans. Instead, they were seated in a circle around the town hall's bulletin board, making gestures and eerie "KABAKABA" noises as if they were living humans chatting away.

The three infiltrators: ()()

What in the world?!

Before the shocked trio could figure out what they were witnessing, they heard the strange clacking sounds again.

Two skeletons appeared from the direction of the town's main street, running into the courtyard from the right side of the wall where the three were perched.

The skeletons that had been sitting under the bulletin board, seemingly chatting, immediately jumped up, waving their bony claws toward the two newcomers.

"Hey, brothers! Selling copper coins? Accepting all at a good rate!"