This Strange Three Kingdoms Game Is Too Brutal 3

Chapter 3: First Testers
July 15, 2024

Chapter 3: First Testers

Hang Yu commanded, “Move the *Gui Sanguo* closed beta to eight PM. Early population is precious; we must ensure quality. The first round will have twenty slots… prioritize professional gamers, esports streamers, hardcore players with specialized skills, or heavily addicted internet junkies.”

“Yes!”

The Heavenly Way Magic Cube, as a super-intelligent, divine relic, possessed capabilities rivaling a supercomputer. Creating a game website instantly or investigating player information was effortless; executing this command was no trouble.

After closing the operating interface,

Hang Yu decided to familiarize himself with his territory.

Stepping out of the stone house’s main hall, he was immediately stunned by the sight before him.

The sky was filled with brilliantly colorful stars; variegated nebulae formed countless swirling vortices, large and small, numbering dozens or even hundreds, resembling a lively, surging, turbulent current, full of madness and distortion, like a hyper-fantastical oil painting, somewhat reminiscent of Van Gogh’s famous *Starry Night*.

The territory was situated at a high altitude.

Therefore, the view was expansive.

From the highest point, Hang Yu gazed forward. He saw rugged and majestic mountains, eerie and tranquil forests, and a winding river snaking through them. He could vaguely make out dilapidated ruins, and in the distance, a mist hung like a crimson curtain, enclosing the area on all sides.

Stunning!

Was this really the Three Kingdoms world?

Hang Yu felt that the scene before him evoked a feeling similar to the first time he opened *Dark Souls* twenty years ago, only the impact and shock were a thousand times greater.

After all, even with the best electronic game design and the most precise modeling, it was impossible to perfectly replicate reality. And no matter how large the game screen or how high the resolution, it could never compare to the immersive experience of being present.

Hang Yu’s territory currently consisted only of a small village.

Besides the lord’s hall, there were only four wooden houses and a warehouse, but each building had attributes.

[简陋的深渊营房] ×4 (Four Simple Deep Abyss Barracks): Non-tiered building, territory population limit +25. Territory subjects’ resting place in the abyss; entering speeds up recovery.

[简陋的深渊仓库] (Simple Deep Abyss Warehouse): Non-tiered building, provides one hundred cubic meters of shared space, with cold storage functionality, and reduces the energy loss rate of extraordinary materials by 5%.

Hang Yu noticed a wall surrounding the small village.

[简陋的土墙] (Simple Earth Wall): Non-tiered building, all units crossing the wall have all attributes reduced by 5%, with a maximum reduction of 20 points.

It was clear.

All territory buildings had special functions.

As a fledgling lord, Hang Yu currently possessed only these things. He could use the territory core to build new structures or upgrade existing ones, gradually developing a vast territory and ruling over millions of subjects.

Everything was ready!

Just waiting for the players to arrive!

……

Earth.

Around eight PM that night.

Zhao Rui put on his virtual reality headset, officially beginning his work for the evening. His task was to review a virtual reality masterpiece called *Eternal Empire*.

This game, from a top international developer, cost over two billion to produce, taking eight years to develop. The ubiquitous advertising and publicity made it one of the most anticipated games of the past year.

“Four more hours!”

Zhao Rui found the wait tedious and decided to browse the “Star Sea” game platform forum to pass the time. Unexpectedly, a private message popped up.

[Congratulations! You have won a first-round closed beta test slot for *Gui Sanguo*!]

[This game will begin its first closed beta on July 16, 2043, at 8 PM!]

[Please activate the game as soon as possible. Failure to activate within 24 hours will be considered a forfeiture of the test slot!]

Zhao Rui was momentarily stunned. He remembered casually pre-registering for this game at noon out of boredom, but he didn’t expect it to start closed beta so quickly.

What a lousy developer! No advertisements. If this trash game becomes popular, I’ll eat my own socks!

Although Zhao Rui had no confidence in *Gui Sanguo*, considering *Eternal Empire* was still two hours away from release, he might as well check out this game.

The government’s crackdown on false advertising was very strict; if this game failed to deliver, reporting it would net him a reward.

Click download!

Game size: 963 GB!

Zhao Rui almost laughed.

963 GB? The size was completely absurd; it was… too small!

A game less than 1 TB daring to claim 100% realism? Did the game developers even understand virtual reality games? The resources consumed just for modeling and rendering alone would be astronomical!

Ding!

Download complete!

With current internet speeds,

A nine-hundred GB game downloaded in a minute.

The *Gui Sanguo* game icon was an ancient and mysterious stone gate. The game had no hardware requirements; any standard VR headset or pod would work; no need to spend a fortune on high-end equipment.

Zhao Rui shook his head again.

As everyone knew, games with better experiences and higher realism had higher equipment requirements. Currently, the most realistic VR games on the market required custom equipment from the manufacturer, costing at least hundreds of thousands of dollars, far exceeding the capabilities of generic headsets.

Despite his continuous complaints,

Since he had already downloaded it,

He had to log in and check it out.

Zhao Rui activated his headset and launched *Gui Sanguo*. He felt a sudden darkness, a sensation of weightlessness, and then found himself floating in the void. A towering stone gate, hundreds of meters high, appeared before him.

“Damn!”

“What the hell?”

“The modeling… is pretty good!”

Zhao Rui found that the stone gate before him was not only hundreds of meters high and imposing but also covered in fine details and ancient carvings, seemingly recording the epics and history of the Three Kingdoms period.

Did this game developer spend all the money on polishing the login interface?

Just as he had this thought,

A voice echoed in his mind.

[Please create your game ID!]

Zhao Rui blurted out, “Black Pupil Sharp Brother!”

This was Zhao Rui’s usual online name, quite famous on various video websites and game strategy groups; he was used to using it in all games.

[ID created successfully!]

[Please choose your initial class!]

[Deep Abyss Warrior (available), Deep Abyss Rogue (available), Deep Abyss Sorcerer (currently full), Deep Abyss Cleric (currently full)!]

A large question mark appeared on Zhao Rui’s face.

Two classes were unavailable? Did classes also have quantity limits, snatched up by other testers? He had played games for so many years and had never encountered such a situation.

After hesitating between warrior and rogue,

Zhao Rui chose to become a Deep Abyss Rogue.

Based on the rogue’s characteristics, similar to a thief or assassin, as a technical hardcore player, this technically demanding class was more suitable for him.

Next was character creation.

A human silhouette appeared.

Zhao Rui could adjust various parameters to modify his appearance.

Of course, these adjustments were limited to a certain range.

As a video blogger, he habitually used humorous character designs for effect; he ended up creating a scrawny, dark-skinned, big-eared, long-faced, mustachioed, 1.5-meter-tall, creepy male character.

[You have completed character creation. Do you want to log in immediately? Yes/No!]

“Is that even a question? Of course, log in!”

The moment Zhao Rui made his choice, the tightly sealed gate suddenly revealed a glowing crack, then was slowly pushed open by a vast force, revealing a brand new world before his eyes.

(End of Chapter)

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