novelraw Chapter 12 : Chapter 12
Chapter 12 : Chapter 12
Chapter 12
In the end, Lightning’s reason triumphed over his momentary impulse. He chose 【Fireball】 and 【Vortex】, instantly spending all of his skill points.
Even so, he continued staring longingly at the skill tree list, wishing he could light up every single skill.
“Where’s the recharge channel? Why hasn’t the payment page appeared yet? I’m not even asking for a first-purchase gift pack. I just want to honestly spend some money. Is that really so hard?!”
Lightning expressed a deeply pained disappointment toward the game developers, as though grieving that they had failed to meet expectations.
Ten Billion Volts and Night Arbiter were just as furious, loudly joining him in condemning the game planners and the entire development team.
But then Lightning abruptly changed his tone. “Game planners, I know you are thoughtful and farsighted, broad-minded and long-term in your vision, unlike those ugly games that think only about grabbing money. But as an important part of gaming, you really should give paid features a little more consideration, right?”
There were only one hundred closed-beta slots. There might well be people from the game development team lurking around somewhere. Cursing the damned planners was common enough in other games, but what if these people held a grudge?
With other games, it did not matter. If they targeted him, he could always switch to something else.
But 《Legend》 was different.
Lightning had been a game streamer for five or six years now, and never before had he encountered any game that could compare with 《Legend》.
In terms of gameplay, 《Legend》 was indeed built on familiar material. Its setting and background were nothing new.
But once enough excellent games already existed, every trope under the sun had been played out in countless variations. Trying to produce some earthshaking innovation at that point was extremely difficult.
Yet the experience of 《Legend》 was wholly unique.
No VR game had ever reached this level before.
When they ate bread to restore stamina, they truly felt as though they were eating real food.
If not for the livestream comments in front of them, the system interface, unlimited resurrection, and the option to log out, it would genuinely have felt as though they had transmigrated into another world.
And when Lightning thought back to all the recent stories about hidden industrial capabilities being uncovered, it suddenly seemed possible that the full-dive technology of novels might truly be achievable.
At that thought, Lightning suddenly cried out, “Holy hell.”
“Holy hell, I forgot to order the gaming pod!”
Earlier, he had been mocking the official gaming pod sales page as a scam. Now Lightning regretted it so much he slapped his thigh repeatedly.
He immediately logged out to buy the gaming pod. The price of 9,999 did not make him blink once.
Ten Billion Volts and Night Arbiter had just been listening to him shower the game designers with compliments and had felt utterly deceived, to the point that they wanted to smack him twice across the face. But the moment they heard him mention the gaming pod, they understood as well.
The trial experience with VR equipment was already this powerful—so how incredible must the gaming pod be? Perhaps once they used the gaming pod, they would even be able to taste the bread.
At that thought, neither of them could remain seated. They immediately logged out as well.
There were not a few players inside the temple choosing skills. Once reminded, they all reacted with a chorus of shocked cries and hurriedly logged out to buy gaming pods.
As for the much cheaper game helmets? What a joke. Players who could already afford a full set of VR equipment hardly cared about a difference of that scale.
Anyone with half a brain could tell that the gaming pod would provide a better experience.
Only after logging out did Lightning discover that the number of viewers in his livestream had suddenly exploded to five hundred thousand.
Fruit Site was a major platform, but its streaming division still fell short of the very top apps. Lightning’s average viewer count was usually around sixty or seventy thousand, occasionally breaking a hundred thousand.
As for five hundred thousand, that was a figure he had never seen before in his life.
Yet although the viewer count was high, the atmosphere was far from friendly.
【What is this supposed to be? Is the streamer trying to sell a 9,999 gaming pod?】
【What is this? Some kind of scam?】
【A gaming pod? This is hilarious. People still believe in this sort of thing?】
【No cross-dressing? No dancing either? I’m leaving.】
【A ten-thousand-yuan item and he buys it without blinking. Streamers really do make easy money these days.】
【Five hundred thousand viewers?! Tsk tsk tsk. I can’t even imagine how much money he makes in one night. Streamer, you’re so rich, why not share some with me?】
Some of his fans tried to explain on his behalf.
【He’s not selling anything, and it’s not a scam. The game really is incredible, but it’s still in closed beta and the slots are limited. I want one myself and still can’t get one!】
But the comments flew by too quickly. Rational explanations could not stay visible for long before being submerged.
Most of these people had arrived just as Lightning had logged out of the game, or else they had barely watched a few minutes of gameplay before barging in and attacking him for the sake of attention.
Lightning had worked in the streaming industry for years by now. He knew exactly what kind of creatures these internet users were. He ignored them completely, paid for the gaming pod directly, and then reopened the game.
The people who had come solely to spray abuse without thinking arrived quickly and left quickly. Seeing that Lightning would not respond to them, they soon went off in search of another target.
Still, a large number of viewers remained to keep watching the stream, and in the end, the viewer count stabilized at roughly four hundred thousand.
The moment Lightning launched the game again, Ten Billion Volts and Night Arbiter logged in again at top speed as well.
The three of them decided to go outside the city to kill spiders at the spider nest.
Spider venom and spider silk could each be turned in for separate quests, and farming spiders themselves also granted experience. It was killing three birds with one stone—an excellent choice.
“Holy hell, this is so fast! I didn’t really feel it just now, but now that I’ve logged out and logged back in, I feel like I’m about to turn into a superhuman!”
Lightning’s starting Agility had been only three, and he had not assigned any of the five free attribute points from leveling into Agility. In terms of speed, he had actually been slower than his real-life body.
But now, with the Divine Blessing buff, he had seven Constitution and eight Agility. At the moment, it felt as though his entire body was overflowing with strength.
“I think I’ve already broken the world record!”
“Hah. Quicksilver is nothing compared to me!”
The viewers who had just entered the stream were dumbfounded.
【??? Where did the streamer go? Who are these two people?】
【Holy hell, that’s so fast! Is this immersive running? How fast are they moving? I’m getting dizzy.】
【Is this a running stream? Or an outdoor stream? Where is this? It doesn’t look 3D at all. Is it overseas?】
The fans, still angry over the idiots who had barged in and attacked without knowing anything, suddenly felt a strange pride rise within them and began eagerly explaining.
【This is a full-dive fantasy game called 《Legend》. The streamer is currently using the VR trial version. The game seems to be locked to first-person view, and the other two people with him are viewers teaming up with him. They’re heading to the spider nest right now to farm monsters.】
【???? What are you talking about? Full-dive game? Has our technology really advanced to this level already?!】
【That is not funny at all.】
The commotion in the livestream showed no sign of stopping, but Lightning had no spare attention to care about it.
“This feels amazing!”
Countless exercise science and fitness creators had repeated time and again that physical activity was something that could make people happy. But the prerequisite for obtaining happiness through exercise was too difficult—overcoming one’s own inertia—so not everyone was able to experience that joy.
Especially for a shut-in like Lightning, who could nearly die halfway through a one-kilometer run.
But the game experience, in which he could barely feel pain, allowed him to experience the joy of movement.
Racing forward into the wind, Lightning ran faster and faster, feeling increasingly exhilarated. Dopamine flooded his brain, and even reaching their destination was not enough to make him stop.
Ten Billion Volts and Night Arbiter had clearly also entered that same dopaminergic bliss. The three of them ran even farther past the place they were supposed to go before finally, still unsatisfied, preparing to turn back toward the spider nest.
The spider nest was the nearest monster farming spot to the spawn point. At their earlier speed, it would have taken them half an hour to get there. But with eight Agility, even after overshooting the destination, they had only used ten minutes.
“Rustle... rustle...”
Just as the three of them were getting ready to turn back, they suddenly heard a disturbance from the bushes nearby—one far too large to ignore.
“There’s a monster!” Having played plenty of battle royale games, all three instantly judged it to be an enemy ambush. Excited, they pulled out their wands—uh...
“Holy hell, my wand already dropped!”
“Damn it, mine too!”
Lightning had dropped his wand when Village Chief Sain killed him, while Night Arbiter had dropped his when Victor killed him for attempting to rob him.
Of the three mages, only Ten Billion Volts, who had chosen warlock skills, still had a beginner wand.
The labor quests had not required wands, so it was only now that they realized they no longer had weapons.
“Don’t panic, don’t panic. It’s not a big problem.” Lightning spoke with remarkable optimism. “I’ve tested this game’s physics engine. The possibility of burning down the mountain to kill small mobs isn’t low at all. As long as we—AAAAAH—”
They knew that game spiders were not exactly the same as real spiders, and in games and movies it was not uncommon for spiders larger than a human—or several times larger—to appear.
But that was through a screen.
Watching a whole group of spiders the size of half a person appear right in front of him was another matter entirely.
Forget setting the forest on fire—his soul nearly fled his body.
“Don’t come any closer, aaaaah!”
“Save me! Save me! Aaaaah!”