Building a sect from scratch.

Chapter 4 Playing Games with Feet

Strictly speaking, Han Yi learned about this game on the last day of the closed beta registration.

Although the promotional animation for the game *Ten Continents Chronicles* was so impressive that it could easily surpass the marketing materials for all other virtual reality games on the market, and its developer, "Otherworld Network Technology Co., Ltd.", claimed to have developed and used the world's most advanced virtual reality game engine, and to be the first to adopt a brand-new AI-driven, self-created world function, boasting claims that were unparalleled and even surpassed by the top three game studios, it was ultimately a completely unknown game company. It lacked a die-hard fanbase and any proven titles, resulting in relatively low public attention.

If Han Yi hadn't overheard the two college students' discussion while buying lunch, he probably wouldn't have paid attention to this fleeting push notification on a certain gaming platform.

However, even so, by the time the registration deadline for the closed beta test, the number of applicants had already exceeded 200,000.

It's outrageous that over 200,000 people would be drawn to receive 50 yuan.

Han Yi never thought he could win, so after registering, he completely forgot about it that night, and the next day he continued to fight to the death with Saint's Glory in the game pod.

As a pure-hearted male college student with some gaming talent, shouldn't I take advantage of the summer vacation to try my hand at a minor national standard game?

Just as Han Yi, who had just suffered a ten-game losing streak, was warmly greeting his teammates in the eleventh game about their entire families, a short notification sound suddenly rang in his ears—it was a background message notification from the game pod binding platform, usually a push notification from a subscription or a message from an account friend. However, this time, after the notification sound, a gentle female voice followed:

"Dear Mr. Han Yi, your application for the closed beta test of the game 'Ten Continents Chronicles' has been successfully selected by lottery. Please verify your qualification code as soon as possible. Due to the game company's regulations, failure to activate your qualification within 48 hours will be considered a forfeiture. Please activate your qualification as soon as possible."

"What the heck? When did I pre-order a new game?"

Han Yi, who was muttering to himself, was engrossed in stealing the enemy's blue buff and had no idea what had happened yesterday. After finally finishing the steal, he nimbly passed through the wall and left the enemy's jungle, using two dash skills to rush to his own jungle. In Han Yi's eyes, the essence of jungling was to farm gold like crazy. Once you have enough gold, it's easy to win!
"What a poop on you!"

Just as Han Yi rushed towards Red Daddy, three burly men, cursing and swearing, jumped out of the bushes and unleashed three different ultimate attacks on him at the same time.

Han Yi reacted extremely quickly and unleashed his ultimate skill as well. The ultimate skill of the character he controlled had built-in invulnerability, making him immune to control effects, but—

It was completely useless. When three burly men in the bushes used the "Embrace the Girl" combo on you, immunity to crowd control couldn't negate the explosive damage. Han Yi felt a sudden darkness before his eyes, and then he saw his once bright, colorful vision turn into a grayed-out teammate perspective—he had unsurprisingly died!
"Holy crap, the support can't even defend their own jungle?!"

Han Yi cursed angrily, then watched helplessly as his magical teammates, one after another, engaged in a "Calabash Brothers saving their grandfather" style collective activity, resulting in a complete annihilation of the team.

A few dozen seconds later, amidst the sound of crystals exploding, Han Yi angrily quit the game.

The game platform notification sound rang out again, finally catching Han Yi's attention. He suddenly remembered that he had indeed signed up for a game yesterday that was either falsely advertised or a masterpiece.

"Holy crap! I actually won 50 out of 200,000 draws!?"

Han Yi was shocked and dug out the message, staring at the activation code in disbelief.

The game has been met with a barrage of criticism on the pre-registration platform's forums, with everyone convinced that the developers are engaging in false advertising. It's no wonder people are so quick to judge; virtual reality technology has been overused by major companies for so long that everyone knows its true level. The promotional CG released in that video is simply not from the same era as current virtual reality technology!

"If this isn't false advertising, I'll do a handstand and have diarrhea!"

Wang Ergou, a game streamer who was the most vocal critic on the forum, started three threads in a row, attracting a barrage of comments from his fans.

"Whether it's real or not isn't important. I just hope the game developers will put in some effort. I mainly want to see Er Gou do a handstand and have diarrhea."

"+1"

"+10086"

Such pessimistic comments almost flooded the forum, yet the authorities remained remarkably confident, showing no signs of controlling the discourse, which piqued the curiosity of the often rebellious netizens.

Han Yi was a fan of the streamer Wang Ergou and had seen those highly popular posts. Now, having obtained his qualification, he downloaded the game and activated his beta test account while muttering, "Whether I can see Ergou doing a handstand and having diarrhea depends on you! Go for it, 'Ten Continents Chronicle'!"

The game isn't large, only a few terabytes (TB), which is practically tiny compared to the massively multi-TB games from major studios. This size might just mean one hit for 999 damage...

Han Yi opened the game login server without any hope, only to find everything went black.

Next came the exquisite promotional CG.

I subconsciously skipped the CG and went straight to the much-anticipated character customization section.

What comes into view is a burly, strong man, not ugly, but not particularly handsome either; more importantly, he's a male character…

"Holy crap? I can't change my gender? Why?! This is terrible!"

Han Yi, realizing he couldn't change his character's gender, grumbled and complained in dissatisfaction.

Despite his complaints, his hands honestly started sliding the slider, adjusting his body shape and facial features.

"No way, you can't even change your hair color, and you call this a free MMORPG?"

With a dark expression, Han Yi randomly adjusted some numbers and entered the game with his messy black hair.

……

At first, Han Yi smelled a fresh scent of grass. Then, he saw a mountain scene that looked just like a real landscape.

Towering mountains, seemingly endless, stand in the distance. A winding stream twists and turns several times, flowing through dense forests and down the slope, alongside babbling springs and various unidentified plants in different shapes and sizes.

Everything felt so real—the babbling brook, the birdsong in the forest, even the gentle breeze on his face. It was all so real, as if… as if he had traveled through time!
Han Yi wasn't the only one stunned; the dozen or so people who logged in one after another were also stunned until a strange, penetrating bird cry, unlike anything they had ever heard before, rang out from the horizon, startling them back to their senses.

"Holy crap! This game is so damn realistic!?"

Players with the ID "Wang Ergou" above their heads couldn't help but sigh.

A player with the ID "Jade Emperor" recognized Wang Ergou's ID and said sarcastically, "Ergou, when are you going to stream yourself doing a handstand and having diarrhea?"

"Upside down my ass!"

Wang Ergou rolled his eyes and stubbornly said, "Although I admit that the game engine is indeed awesome and the scenes are indeed realistic, as a game, it's not very well made! You can't use female characters, the character creation is so restrictive, and didn't you guys notice that you can't even see the game panel in front of you?! Its tutorial is practically useless!?"

After Wang Ergou said that, everyone started chattering and making strange noises.

"Oh my god!? Yeah! Where's the game panel!?"

"Did you really time travel?"

"Stop dreaming, you still have your game ID above your head!"

"Look! This game is different from the one from the third factory! It lets you take off your clothes!"

As soon as these words were spoken, more than a dozen pairs of eyes in the room turned to look in the direction of the voice, like detectors.

(End of this chapter)