Ch61 - 8 Hour Game Battle

The number of players who chose to rest in Squirrel Town wasn’t small. Unlike the prosperous Rust City and the hustle and bustle of Paper Gold, Squirrel was casual and peaceful with a fairy-tale feel. The architectural style was European castle and the main colors were warm orange, brown and pink.

It had to be said that after experiencing life or death, blood and fire, Squirrel Town was as beautiful as a surreal dream. 

Most players chose a fixed city to rest in. In Forces of Temptation, there were five themed cities with their own characteristics. For players who were accustomed to ordinary urban life, they would choose Rust City that was most similar to their daily life habits. Those who wanted to indulge and seek excitement would choose Paper Gold, where the gap between the rich was so wide that one second it was heaven and the next was hell.

The wilder players would choose Ancient City State. It was said that it was a ruin in the Spartan style with a huge, circular open-air colosseum set in the center. This was the location of the game arena in the normal version of Forces of Temptation.

Players choose to PK in this arena. Winners would be rewarded with points and items. Of course, players could launch unilateral challenges with a variety of green, orange or purple weapons to bet against each other. It was all based on willingness and strength. The winner was the king and the loser was KO. It wasn’t known what the arena looked like in this game that had been changed by the operators behind the scenes.

Squirrel Town was the most girlish, fairy tale island. Along with ‘Homeland Island’, a Robinson Crusoe-style farming island, it had become a dreamland far away from the other three ‘showy and vulgar worlds.’ There was the sound of waves and the crying of seagulls. 

Players who arrived in Squirrel Town were sent to a fixed arc-shaped white sandy beach that stretched for kilometers and a ticket would automatically refresh in their hands. Everything was the same as the process to enter a real world amusement park and there was a sense of ritual. Players only needed to swipe the ticket at the gate to enter and they could enjoy the coconut palm tree beach, the European style, the sand and the castle.

Relatively speaking, the functions of Squirrel were weaker than the other four transit stations. The original main function was to provide entertainment features for people over the age of 12. In the middle of the town, the crystal castle-shaped parent-child movie city was the most popular and it could be used to play family movies. Players just needed to wear the family version of VR glasses and experience the joy of watching movies together as a family.

Due to its inherently weak functionality and the entertainment, most of those who selected Squirrel Town were salted fish players who didn’t want to compete. Of course, there were players who used the relatively peaceful environment to find their own ways of living. They actively engaged in efforts to develop the commercial functions of Squirrel Town.

‘Sonorous Little Rose’ was one of the entrepreneurial teams. This was a team of four female players. They originally had five people. After participating in an instance and losing a member, they refused to go again. Now they made a living by selling information about instances in exchange for points. To tell the truth, this business wasn’t easy.

First of all, all players had selfish interests. They weren’t willing to actively share their instance experience. In the final analysis, it was all about competition. Who would want to tell others about the instance clearance they worked so hard for, perhaps even at the expense of their teammates. If others knew and passed easily, wouldn’t they lose big time by trying and making mistakes themselves? Still, it was okay to share as long as money was given.

The savings that Sonorous Little Rose had originally accumulated weren’t much. It wasn’t easy for them to spend a high price to buy intelligence. In addition, they were afraid the information would be rotten and no one would buy it. It was suffering a double loss after trying to trick the enemy.

Thus, they chose the simplest way. In some restaurants and bars, they would order a glass of water and sit there, listening to those who had just returned from the instances and were bragging. Some people didn’t have a hard time and gained a lot of rewards from the instance. Combined with the nervous excitement and strong desire to talk in the aftermath, they were more willing to talk about their experiences for free.

We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.

Sonorous Little Rose hid nearby, listened and recorded it secretly. It had to be said that this behavior might seem a bit wretched but they did accumulate a batch of intelligence through this approach. 

Yo mbegrf, atlr asqf bo rfmbcv-tjcv lcobgwjalbc kjr lcfnlajyis fwyfiilrtfv jcv rbwf vfajlir kfgf vlrabgafv. Po atf qijsfgr vlvc’a mbwf obgkjgv jcv jvv vfajlir, atf lcobgwjalbc wluta cba yf erfoei.

Pc bgvfg ab jnblv agbeyif, rbwf bo atf lcafiilufcmf vfjifgr kbeiv rlwqis ajxf bc atf uelrf bo kglafgr jcv wjxf eq j wfatbv ab mifjg atf lcrajcmf yjrfv bc atf rqbgjvlm lcobgwjalbc atfs tfjgv. Ktfc atfs kbeiv rfii j rfa bo atf ojyglmjafv lcrajcmf lcafiilufcmf ab qijsfgr.

Sonorous Little Rose also had these careful thoughts. After all, based on the intelligence they heard so far, no two teams of players had experienced the same instance. Even if the fabricated intelligence was sold, it wasn’t necessarily harmful to people. It was just that this behavior was too nasty. They couldn’t afford to take responsibility for the lives of other people. After discussing and arguing, the girls couldn’t do it.

They had to find another way and chose the most beautiful one among the middle options. Once they heard a player discussing a valuable instance, they would eavesdrop to collect a certain amount of information before taking the initiative to attack. 

Every battle plan was different. If the other person was a male player then immediately use all types of starry-eyed expressions of admiration and give full praise. If the other person was a female player then be sincere and actively ask for advice. Female players gave them a bit more respect and goodwill, relatively speaking.

Sonorous Little Rose had even reached relatively stable and long-term cooperative relationships with three female-based teams. After they returned from the instance, they would sell the instance information to Sonorous Little Rose at a low price. Sonorous Little Rose would also do their best to provide the team with the information of one or two instances for free. They had sources of intelligence but their days weren’t much better.

They had a headache about how to sell the instance information. Most players who came to buy the instance information didn’t have a lot of money on hand. They questioned the authenticity of the instance information, suspecting that it was filled with false information or worried that other teams deliberately provided false information to harm the competition and rise several places in the rankings. They were picky in every possible way and regarded things with disdain.

Still, players who didn’t believe in the instance information sold wouldn’t waste precious time to inquire about it. After inquiring, they did this in the hope that Sonorous Little Rose would lower their price. It was striving to gain the information at the lowest price. 

In the beginning, Sonorous Little Rose comforted themselves with the thought ‘you are a bastard if you don’t do business.’ They foolishly lowered the price and sold a lot of information. As a result, the person who bought the information from them resold it to others at a far higher price.

The moment the four girls learned about this, they were so angry that leaves almost grew from them. After gritting their teeth and swallowing their blood, they firmed up their hearts a lot. Nevertheless, this didn’t make business any easier. Even if they made every effort to sell, their business was still very small. The points they earned were only enough for them to eat and breathe.

They might’ve been in the first batch of players along with the owner of the Douzhuan Casino but the points they had accumulated up to now was only barely 10,000. They were in the back of the rankings and were barely making ends meet. The harmonious and beautiful Squirrel Town was their daily activity point.

Today, the captain Shao Qian got up early. 

—Although it was already 9 o’clock.

She got up and cooked a pot of rice with yesterday’s leftovers and soon-to-expire ham. She thought of Chu Wei, a girl who had a bit of a cold. After hesitating and hesitating again, she still added in two eggs, intending to give it to Chu Wei as a supplement.

As the eggs were cooking, Shao Qian received the update notification. She didn’t even look at it and just clicked to update. There was no need to resist the system when they were minor players. She would wait until the update was completed to see what exactly had been updated.

A few minutes later. 

She held the spatula and stared at the updated page for 10 seconds. Then she quickly turned off the flames and rushed to the beds, waking up the three sleepy girls one by one. “Wake up! Wake up!”

This update was a mixed blessing for the four girls who barely made a living from this small business. The 500 points allowed them to experience a short period of happiness. The thing that made them really feel threatened was the new world channel feature.

There was this instant communication tool. Didn’t this mean players could bypass the intelligence dealers and directly communicate with others for information? Once there was a channel of communication, the simple wisdom of the masses would grow exponentially. They could trade items and must also be able to exchange instant information. Then what was the use of the information dealers? They couldn’t be a middleman and make a profit from the price difference. Then what would they do next?

Sonorous Little Rose decided not to sit still. 

Chen Meibing had previously worked in advertising and she quickly drafted a promotional article. She planned to take advantage of the attention on the newly opened world channel to make Sonorous Little Rose famous as a small store selling high quality instance information. The worrying thing was that they had quite a few competitors.

Fortunately, the captain updated very early and they had a small time advantage. They had to be quick and seize the opportunity for the first wave of promotions.

Chen Meibing and Shao Qian intensively discussed how to make the advertisement more explosive. The jogging enthusiast Lu Lulu was confirming how many players there were in Squirrel Town today as per her usual habit. After breakfast, she would jog around the town and see if there were any new faces they could cooperate with.

On the other hand, Chu Wei was wrapped in a blanket and stared at the world channel closely to see if any other intelligence dealers released advertisements ahead of them. She was watching when she suddenly raised her eyebrow. “…Eh?” 

Shao Qian immediately looked up nervously. “What’s wrong? Has someone sent an advertisement?”

“No…” She had a blocked nose and sniffed. “Someone said something very strange on the world channel.”

The world channel had just launched and there were many people talking. Therefore, Shao Qian had to scroll up a few times before seeing the strange words that Chu Wei mentioned.

[Cube Boat – Li Yinhang (Li Bank): All players who are now in Squirrel Town, please leave the town within 8 hours.] 

Only one person replied below with a question mark and this sentence was soon submerged in the massive amount of information. Shao Qian didn’t care about it. “Don’t pay attention to it.”

5 minutes later.

Chu Wei, who had kept staring at the world channel, made a doubtful sound again. “Eh?”

[Cube Boat – Li Yinhang (Li Bank): All players who are now in Squirrel Town, please leave the town within 7 hours and 55 minutes.] 

Shao Qian also saw it. A bit of her curiosity was raised. “What does this person want to do?”

At this time, Lu Lulu came back. Shao Qian asked her casually, “Three Lu, how many players are there in town right now?”

Lu Lulu wiped her sweat with a white towel and replied, “1,990. Why?”

This data was obtained from the electronic board at the entrance of town that updated the number of tourists in real time. It was exactly the same as amusement parks and scenic spots. Shao Qian heard this data and couldn’t help smiling and shaking her head. 

They were resting well in this town. Why should they withdraw? Besides, could this person evacuate nearly 2,000 people in 8 hours with this one sentence? What a joke?