September 12.
6:00.
After three days of agonizing wait since the closed beta qualifications were issued, it finally came to the day of the server opening.
Following the instructions on the official website, Du Mingdao put on his helmet, lay flat on the bed, and closed his eyes.
Speaking of which...
Is it really enough to just do this?
However, just as this thought crossed his mind, with his eyes still closed, he quickly saw a beam of light piercing through the darkness and shining in front of him.
Even though he hadn't opened his eyes yet...
Du Mingdao sat up from the damp cultivation pod and looked around, his dazed gaze gradually replaced by a strong sense of shock.
This...
Is the game world?!
The metallic walls and floor tiles, the streamlined cabin doors filled with a sci-fi vibe, and the faint steam evaporating from his shoulders, slowly taking away his body temperature.
Taking a deep breath of the game world's air, he faintly smelled an unpleasant odor.
Du Mingdao wasn't sure if everything in front of him was real.
But the 100% immersion had left him speechless.
This feeling—
It's absolutely mind-blowing!!!
At this moment, the adjacent hibernation pod suddenly opened, and a guy with a lizard mouth and dark green scales crawling all over his body sat up from the chamber.
In the instant their gazes met, Du Mingdao was startled.
"What the hell?! What is this thing?"
"What thing..."
"Who the hell are you? An NPC???"
"What NPC? I'm a gamer! [Level_99_Trashpicker]... By the way, I was about to ask you, who the hell are you?"
"You're that Traskpicker?! I'm [Mercy_my_life]! Damn it, you're that newbie who joined the group a few days ago? Why the hell do you look so ugly?!"
"Screw that, you're the ugly one..."
With his amber pupils widened, the lizardman looked bewildered, clearly not understanding the situation.
However, soon his gaze fell on his own scale-like dark green skin, and a tinge of panic gradually appeared in his bewildered pupils.
He hastily lowered his head, looking left and right, his claws randomly groping his body, and his tail twisting along with his body, resembling a gecko stuck in a mud pit.
And at that moment, his gaze suddenly stuck between his legs.
Immediately after, a mournful wail resounded.
"What the hell! How come I don't have that thing!"
Du Mingdao almost sprayed out a mouthful of blood.
"With your appearance like that, your concern is actually about that thing!"
"I don't have that, nor that! Damn it! The damn designers lied! If I can be a lizardman, why can't I create a female character!"
"If you don't want to be a lizardman, let's switch."
"Get lost."
The hibernation pod was equipped with a body scanning device, which allowed them to see their attributes and level. All this information was publicly available on the official website.
Trash-kun extended his index finger and flicked on the operating interface. Soon, the attribute panel was projected onto the screen.
[
ID: Level_99_Trashpicker
Genetic Sequence: Mutant Variant · Lizardman
Level: LV.0
--Basic Attributes--
Strength: 8
Agility: 7
Physique: 8
Perception: 8
Intelligence: 2
]
[
Talents:
Cold-Blood (enhanced stealth, slowed movement in low-temperature environments)
Parallel feet (increased stamina, difficulty operating complex machinery)
Regeneration (enhanced health recovery, difficulty in advancing genetic sequence levels)
]
What the hell?
These attributes are quite something!
Trash-kun vaguely remembered that the website mentioned the benchmark value for normal adult males is 5, fluctuating within ±2.
And it's obvious that he isn't measured against the standard of an adult human male. Except for the slightly lower intelligence attribute, the other four attributes are outrageously strong.
Besides, he didn't consider himself unintelligent at all.
So what if his intelligence panel is a bit lower?
It doesn't affect his ability to show off at all!
Realizing this, Trash-kun couldn't help but grin, his excitement fading.
Du Mingdao, sitting in the cultivation chamber next to him, looked at the lizardman who was laughing foolishly and asked with concern, "Are you... okay?"
"Haha, I'm more than okay! Let's hurry up and get out of this room and regroup with other gamers! Don't keep the Governor waiting!"
Saying that, Trash-kun flipped out of the cultivation chamber.
He realized another advantage of being a lizardman: he didn't need to wear clothes. Whether he wore pants or not didn't matter since there was nothing to hide!
Looking at the lively lizard, Du Mingdao's face was filled with amusement.
At that moment, he noticed that there was a piece of paper stuck to the lizardman's butt.
"There's something on your butt."
"Where?"
Being pointed out, Trash-kun also felt the foreign object on his butt and reached behind with his claws.
Not yet accustomed to controlling his body, he scratched for a while with his claws before finally managing to scrape off the piece of paper.
The paper was waterproof and hadn't gotten wet.
However, the writing on it wasn't in Chinese or any language he understood.
Trash-kun was puzzled, scratching his head with his claw.
"What does it say?"
...
In the sanctuary hall.
The originally spacious space was now filled to the brim with newly joined gamers.
People of all kinds stood here, their faces filled with confusion, surprise, excitement, and curiosity.
Until now, almost everyone believed that this so-called "fully immersive virtual reality game" might be a joke made by a few bored gamers.
Even after receiving the helmets sent by the game company, most people remained skeptical.
But now, all doubts vanished into thin air.
If there had to be a game more realistic than this, perhaps only "Earth OL" itself could surpass it!
When Trash-kun came out of the room, it caused quite a sensation.
At first, everyone thought he was an NPC, but later they learned that he was also a gamer, and quite possibly a legendary "hidden profession"!
Bathed in the envious gaze of others, Trash-kun seemed to have forgotten about the fact that he had no "little Trash-kun" and smiled proudly.
Was that thing really important?
Not really.
"Brother, stick with me, I've got your back."
Trash-kun patted his brother Mercy's shoulder, and the latter gave him a blank look, not bothering to respond.
But his initial panel data was slightly stronger, that's all.
Along with Trash-kun, Du Mingdao, who came out of the room with him, also attracted a lot of attention.
Unfortunately, his genetic sequence was just an ordinary strength-based one, without any remarkable qualities.
While the gamers in the hall observed the two of them, Du Mingdao was also secretly observing the other gamers in the hall.
Apart from Trash-kun, most gamers seemed quite normal, at least on the surface, without any noticeable differences from others.
Physically, they seemed to be mostly strength and physique-based, but there were also a few gamers with perception, agility, and intelligence attributes.
What surprised Du Mingdao the most was that there were actually two female gamers among them.
One of them was 180 cm tall, with a well-proportioned figure that stretched the refuge uniform to its limits, likely a strength-based character.
The other one was slightly shorter, probably just over 150 cm, plain-looking, and it was hard to tell her specialization, at least not much like a strength-based character.
Du Mingdao graduated from the field of civil engineering and had worked for many years. His visual assessments, especially in terms of distance and size, were quite accurate, with little margin for error.
The two of them walked out of the same room, seemingly having some conflict, with a somewhat confrontational atmosphere.
"Who is this little guy? Just weaned?"
"You! Thinking you're all that just because you're tall! Who knows how short you are in reality!"
"Hehe, to say such things, you must be quite young in reality. Are you still in elementary school?"
"Hehehe, unfortunately, big sis here is the director of a fashion design company, quite important. Unlike you, trying to find a sense of existence in a game."
"Hehehehe, just a director. I thought you were the CEO of some big corporation. I wonder which company my little sister holds a high position in?"
"Hehehehehe, it's none of your business!"
Du Mingdao: "..."
He couldn't help but feel that these two fellows were quite childish...
Of course, the quarrel was not limited to just these two.
After waiting for so long and finally obtaining the qualification for the closed beta, the gamers who had just entered the game were very excited. They couldn't stop talking, constantly looking around, unable to calm down.
Some people would bang their heads against the wall and instead of crying out in pain, they would laugh foolishly while holding their heads.
And this was considered relatively normal.
There were also people who would grab the gamer next to them, begging them to slap their faces, wanting to experience the feeling of being hit so that they could mentally prepare themselves for fighting monsters later.
Du Mingdao felt a tingling sensation on his scalp.
Was he really in a game world, or had he been locked up in a mental asylum?
Just as he witnessed someone about to take off their pants to take a dump, and even try to perform more outrageous behavior, a majestic voice resounded through the refuge hall, coming from the direction of the main entrance.
"Quiet."
In an instant, silence fell.
That majestic voice seemed to carry a special pressure, causing the gamers in the sanctuary hall to involuntarily stop their commotion, and their gazes instinctively turned towards the direction from which the voice came.
Du Mingdao was no exception.
He looked towards the person standing at the entrance, and excitement flashed across his face.
NPC!
Opening scene!
This should be the legendary Governor!
Although it was his first time playing this game, he had been following the [See_you_tomorrow] posts on the official website, so he was quite familiar with the game's settings.
The other gamers here were the same, all staring expectantly, holding their breath, waiting for the scene to unfold.
When Light Chu selected gamers, he not only considered the profession filled out on the reservation page but also looked at their forum history, online duration, and activity level, trying his best to exclude those abnormal "elementary students" with strange thinking and those who only knew how to argue and flame all day long.
They were more suitable for working on construction sites than being here.
Glancing at the gamers in the hall, Light Chu spoke with a calm and serious voice, slowly continuing.
"Welcome to Sanctuary 404."
"I am the Governor here."
"Codename - Dawn."