I Forged the Myth of the Ancient Overlords
Chapter 723 - 723 722. Southern Cockroach_1

Chapter 723: 722. Southern Cockroach_1 Chapter 723: 722. Southern Cockroach_1 In the forums, many players also began typing in response.

Perhaps it was because they had just experienced a real battle, and the mission had swiftly entered its second phase, the players, full of passion, also wanted to boast and compare.

Playing games is all about inner joy, challenging difficulty is thrilling, grinding is thrilling, getting loot is thrilling, and bragging to others is also a kind of thrill.

Especially for these few hundred first batch of closed beta players, that status is something gamers around the world dream of.

It would be a waste not to show off.

Old Eggplant noticed in the forums there were posts clearly made by genuine players.

“[Cage] is just awesome, just experienced the first Demonic Beasts attack event, feeling good”

“First Demonic Beasts attack on Sunset Town, how I resisted”

“You have no idea what it feels like to really face those Demonic Beasts”

Old Eggplant clicked on the last post.

The poster didn’t seem to have joined Old Eggplant in battling the Demonic Beasts in the flower fields; this was a production player, focusing on farming and making some small tools.

“… Those bugs all looked terrifying, like ordinary spiders magnified several times. Imagine it, spiders as big as a dog with eight legs crawling towards you, their heads full of dense, packed eyes. And there were hundreds of such spiders. I guarantee that those who get freaked out by cockroaches in the south would faint on the spot if they saw this scene!”

The poster described the recent Demonic Beasts attack vividly, making one suspect that he might be an online fiction writer or a content creator in real life.

Of course, many people were skeptical of his description.

Below his post, many were teasing him.

“They’re just bugs, acting like we’ve never seen them before. I was catching grasshoppers in the fields when the poster probably didn’t even know where that was”

“What’s there to be afraid of southern cockroaches? I used to live in a bungalow, and I had to kill several of them every day.”

“What’s there to be afraid of those bugs? One comes, I chop one; a group comes, I chop a group.”

“I see in movies, they kill bugs in swathes. Are you closed beta players any good? If not, let us, who can really play, take over.”

“Go learn some magic, get some gear. Once you know magic, fighting monsters is easy, just a combo and all that’s left is like mowing the lawn.”

“Why do I feel like you closed beta players are having such a hard time? You’ve been playing for several days now, haven’t you levelled up?”

Only a few players were explaining that the game had a long growth curve, and a few days was just enough to get accustomed to this world.

Some games have also been marketed with reality as a selling point; for instance, mounting a horse, which in other games is a simple button press, would be split into several steps for the player to execute. And it has been proven that such excessive realism doesn’t really work on traditional platforms as players ultimately come to play games, not to experience life.

But in virtual reality, it’s completely different.

Like Old Eggplant, he felt his reaction speed had significantly improved in real life, and his endurance for physical activities had also become much stronger. In simple terms, though his body hadn’t undergone the corresponding training, his spirit had grown.

His soul had become stronger.

Especially after facing that flood of bugs.

Old Eggplant felt that even if a car was heading straight for him now, he wouldn’t panic too much, and might even have enough time to react and dodge.

This sense of growth was like some skill-intensive, equipment-light action games where the character’s growth was minimal, but the player’s growth was tangible. Although the feedback was slower, the sense of achievement was stronger.

The cloud players felt that the closed beta players’ skills were lacking, calling them noobs, but Old Eggplant mocked these people because they had no idea what [Prison Cage] was really about.

Old Eggplant didn’t rush to play the game; instead, he opened a few basic construction tutorial videos, hoping to learn something, but in just a few minutes, he turned off the videos.

What is shear force? What is strain? And what on earth is a statically determined structure?

Isn’t building a house just stacking one brick on top of another?

He started to think that Lu Ban’s recruitment of talent was very much the right move.

Without some truly skilled players, it would probably be quite difficult to build Gray Tower and those fortresses.

At this moment, Old Eggplant suddenly felt a tinge of regret.

Back in university, he was so addicted to gaming that he’d almost forgotten the content of his major.

Although he is now a full-time content creator, making far more money than his peers who still toil away in their day jobs, Old Eggplant found himself envying them now.

His only skill left was gaming, yet in [Cage], this skill turned out to be utterly useless.

After all, in the game, there were players who were exceedingly skilled, making Old Eggplant seem quite mediocre.

He felt the need to recharge himself.

Therefore, Old Eggplant quickly purchased several books related to his field from a shopping website, deciding to pick up that knowledge again, at least to make some contribution to helping Night Country build the Gray Tower.

After placing the order, Old Eggplant felt satisfied, as though he had already completed his studies. He tidied up for a while and then put on his helmet again.

…

The second batch of test players was recruited very soon.

This time, most of the test players were not professional players with an abundance of time, but rather were elite professionals from various industries.

There were technical backbones from a major telecommunication group, engineers from a construction conglomerate, and top talents from fields including materials, mechanical manufacturing, and power electronics, as well as young professionals in biology, medicine, and scientific research.

Biotechnology, environmental science, mechanics, civil engineering—even “beast of burden” majors—shone at this moment.

It could be said that just by gathering these individuals, Lu Ban might be able to form an expedition team capable of pioneering new territories, establishing a complete system in infrastructure, communications, and scientific research.

Of course, these people didn’t come for free.

For “Morning Star,” all industries were watching intently.

The level of technology displayed by this equipment was simply phenomenal.

Using it only for gaming was a sheer waste.

All companies wanted to understand the secrets of “Morning Star,” but their attempts to dismantle it yielded no results; they couldn’t even make sense of the basic circuitry logic.

And [Cage], this virtual reality open-world game, made people believe that Lu Ban’s equipment had surpassed contemporary technology by at least fifty years.

Anyone interested in these areas wanted to understand more.

However, Lu Ban was not open to collaboration and hadn’t even provided a software interface.

These individuals had no choice but to experience it for themselves and see what lay beneath the surface.

The night the second batch of test players was confirmed, they wore their helmets one after another, entering Night Country.