Magic, Evil Gods, and the Fourth Calamity

It was a steam rifle.

The design blueprints were provided by the wind above the pig's mouth, and the craftsmen of the Ruhr Kingdom handcrafted them.

Honestly, the craftsmanship of the artisans in Ruhr is unparalleled. Even now, many casual players are learning their skills from those artisans.

Moreover, it is said that once you learn those skills, you can use them in the real world as well.

One player learned a skill in a game, and then easily mastered a nearly lost art in real life, earning the title of inheritor of intangible cultural heritage...

Of course, these are all things outside the game. For most players who spend every day in the game at five times the speed, it's really just a sea of ​​suffering they want to temporarily forget.

"Heh, with a little improvement in airtightness, I believe this can give a Silver Boss a headshot!"

Despite his confident pronouncements, the man who had been working through the night didn't have high hopes for the steam gun's combat effectiveness.

Putting aside the huge water tank carried on his back, the firing mechanism of the steam rifle alone was not very reliable.

The pressurized gas pipe needs to be kept at a high temperature at all times, which requires the user to carry a certain amount of coal.

Although water has a lower specific heat capacity and is more easily vaporized in this game, the thermal efficiency of coal doesn't actually change much; one kilogram of coal is only enough to support two or three shots.

Therefore, in the opinion of Long Night Sleepless, fighting with the current steam rifles is not as good as taking a few explosives and sacrificing oneself for righteousness!

Moreover, he actually favored gunpowder firearms more than steampunk.

Although the excessive explosive power of black powder rendered traditional handguns unusable, the excessive power would cause the gun body to explode due to the impact of the explosion.

If we want to make truly effective gunpowder firearms, we would probably need to make standard-issue sealed bullets, and the gun body would also need to be made of seamless steel tubing with more advanced technology.

In the opinion of Long Nights, steam technology is merely a transitional technology, a patch added by the developers to the game to allow players to quickly build industrialization.

If the official developers of "Otherworld Online" really want to incorporate a technology system into the game, then the existing technology system on Earth is clearly a sound and easily implementable path.

Since "Otherworld Online" claims to be a 100% realistic game, it may not follow the path of "Under the Stars," which is considered one of the two giants of fully immersive virtual reality games, and become a black box of surreal future technology.

After all, the technology here requires players to develop it step by step.

Amidst the sleepless night and his thoughts, the wind on Pig's Mouth, carrying a heavy steam rifle, stiffly posed for a selfie.

Unlike the pessimistic view of the long night, the wind in the pig's mouth was quite satisfied with the steam rifle!

As for the shortcomings of the steam rifle, he was naturally aware of them as a user, but so what?

Being handsome is the only true essence!

"Come on, take a look! A hand-crafted steam rifle, isn't it cool!"

The wind in the pig's mouth posted an update on his video account, which quickly attracted a group of players who wanted to watch the fun.

"Wow, that's awesome! How did you do that? Teach me!"

"Coach, I want to learn this!"

"Dad, your son wants to play!"

Players were incredibly enthusiastic about the steam rifle, with comments flooding the comments section.

In response, Pig Mouth Wind simply picked a few comments to reply to, much like an emperor favoring a concubine, before casting his pleading gaze toward Sleepless Night.

"Hey bro, Long Night, can you help me film a video? Let's have a PvP match. You charge at me from 100 meters away, and I'll meet you with a steam rifle!"

Don't worry, I'll reimburse all losses incurred in PvP! And you'll get 30% of the profits from future video streams.

"Sure." Sleepless Night readily agreed, after all, this wasn't the first time he had accompanied the wind in Pig's Mouth to shoot a video.

Playing games and earning money feels really nice, even if it keeps you up all night.

The two, who were ready in no time, found an open space where no one would disturb them. They faced each other from a distance of 100 meters and communicated in real time using the team's voice chat.

The wind above the pig's mouth: "Brother Changye, are you ready?"

Sleepless night: "OK!"

"Alright, listen to my command... Ready, go!"

With a command from the wind above the pig's mouth, Sleepless Night activated his charge skill. Having reached the mid-level of the Purple Bronze rank, he instantly transformed into a golden afterimage and charged forward.

A hundred meters ahead, the wind from the pig's mouth activated the Ranger's "Eagle Eye" skill, instantly locking onto the fast-moving Sleepless Night, attempting to aim the muzzle of his steam rifle at the latter.

spray!

With a muffled roar, a black steel ball, accompanied by pure white steam, shot out from the muzzle and whistled towards Sleepless Night.

Because he had anticipated this, Sleepless Night activated his Holy Light Shield in advance, stopping the black steel ball before it hit him.

clang!

The moment the steel ball collided with the Holy Light Shield, countless tiny cracks spread across it.

Click!

With a crisp sound, the black steel ball pierced through the Holy Light Shield and whistled past Long Night Sleepless's neck.

A bead of cold sweat rolled down his forehead from the long, sleepless night. He admitted that he had perhaps underestimated the terror of the steam rifle... But now, it was his turn!

After a single shot, a steam rifle requires five to six seconds to pressurize. But in just two seconds, a man who never sleeps can sprint to the front of the pig's mouth.

At this moment, the wind on the pig's mouth is nothing more than a ranger who has lost his agility, a fragile piece of trash.

Holy Light Charge!

Sleepless Night activated his skill again, rushing towards the wind above the pig's mouth at an even faster speed than before. At the same time, the longsword in his hand was also tinged with a pure white light.

Holy Slash (Holy Light Slash) charging up!

The next second, Sleepless Night was already standing before the wind above the pig's mouth. As he leaped into the air, sword in hand, he shouted with unwavering conviction, "Holy Light! This evil is worth fighting!"

As the Sleepless Night leaped towards him, the Wind on Pig's Mouth threw the black ball he had somehow acquired at Sleepless Night towards him, revealing a smug smile.

"Sorry, Brother Changye! I ate shit!"

boom!

The moment the black ball touched the Sleepless Night, it unleashed a violent roar and a scorching impact.

The intense, scorching steam not only burned Long Night's skin but also interrupted his sleepless night skill, slamming him heavily to the ground.

"puff!"

After a long, sleepless night, he coughed up a mouthful of blood and felt an itching sensation in his internal organs.

That's a weakened sense of pain; the internal organs are probably badly injured.

In the thick steam, he struggled to get up, but the next moment, a dark pipe emerged from the steam and pressed against his head.

"You are dead!"

An ugly chicken head popped out right behind it, looking smug and asking for a beating: "Brother Changye, see how awesome I am!"

"I'm not looking!" Long Night Sleepless replied irritably, then couldn't help but ask, "What was that hidden weapon just now?"

"What hidden weapon? That's a grenade, a steam grenade!" Feng from Pig Mouth moved the steam rifle in his hand away and said with a hint of pride.

Steam grenade?

Long Night Sleepless was stunned, looking at the wind on the pig's mouth with some disbelief.

As he got up from the ground, he asked, puzzled, "Was it filled with water? Did the high temperature vaporize the water inside, causing an explosion?"

The wind above the pig's mouth: "That's right!"

Sleepless night: "How did they do that?"

Upon hearing this question, the wind on the pig's mouth instantly became smug. "Hehe, I had considered using it as a water balloon and heating it with the steam generator on the rifle, but after testing it, I found that it was too uncontrollable and the surface was too hot to throw."

So, I tried a different approach...

The wind above the pig's mouth paused, feigning suspense, while the sleepless night continued its relentless questioning.

"What method?"

"A heating magic circle is inscribed inside the sphere. When not in use, it's just an ordinary water sphere. When needed, magic power is injected to activate the heating circle, starting the heating from the inside." The wind on the pig's mouth grinned wickedly, making the chicken-head look at him with a sinister expression. "Brother Long Night, you don't think you can only boil water with fire, do you? This is the world of Errol, a world where extraordinary power and magic exist! And magic is everywhere!!!"

"Tsk tsk..."

After getting up from the ground, unable to sleep, he used holy light to heal himself while complaining.

"Brother Pig, you're acting like a perverted scientist right now, and the kind who dares to do research on himself..."

"Hey!"

Upon hearing this, the pig's face instantly darkened, and he became quite uncomfortable!

"Do you think I wanted this?! It's because this game company won't sell disguise cards! It's already closed beta 2.0, and they still won't give out disguise cards or let you cancel your account!"

Looking at the wind blowing from the pig's mouth in a frenzy, Long Night Sleepless shrugged slightly, then looked at the notification that popped up in front of him and couldn't help but add a comment.

"Brother Pig, the closed beta 3.0 is coming soon, but it seems that no disguise cards have been added."

"Um?"

The wind on the pig's mouth sharpened its gaze, and then it opened the update notification sent by the game system.

【亲爱的玩家们大家好，本游戏预计在七天后（4月8日）开启内测3.0，预期4月8日6:00am-9:00am进行停服更新，还请见谅。

The following is the updated content.

1. 50 new beta test qualifications have been opened.

2. Launch the limited-time event "Chaotic Life".

3. Open Faction City Management System (see update log for details)

4. The expansion pack "War and Peace" is now available.

5, ...

The announcement caused an uproar across the gaming forums.

After all, "Otherworld Online" has now topped the list of most anticipated games in China, with its popularity far exceeding that of the second-place "Under the Stars".

"Wait, you've already given out 500,000 beta test qualifications, why not just launch the public beta right away?!"

"Heh, liar, all liars. Enough! What's the point of creating a game that doesn't exist? I don't believe in any 100% realistic 'Otherworld Online' unless you give me an account!!!"

"Oh heavens! Oh earth! Oh parents! Oh ancestors! Please bless me with a beta test account!"

"..."

The internet is buzzing with excitement, but for China's internet censors, these past few days have been like seeing a ghost.

"Damn it, what is this thing? There's no information, no data at all! But why, why did it appear... This isn't scientific, this isn't scientific at all!"

The network regulators, who were paralyzed in their virtual reality terminals and trying to expose the true nature of "Otherworld Online," were now gripped by inexplicable panic.

While current internet technology is advanced, it is clearly not as sophisticated as the company behind "Otherworld Online" in that it has become completely invisible online. Even when they tried to investigate the external links of the virtual game terminals running "Otherworld Online," they found that the information from those virtual terminals had not been transmitted at all.

What kind of technology is this? Have aliens attacked?

Ultimately, the internet regulators gave up the struggle and prepared to report the matter to their superiors.

But just as this thought flashed through his mind, he suddenly paused, feeling as if he had forgotten something.

"Um, what am I supposed to do again?"

The perplexed internet regulator stared at the scrolling "Otherworld Online" advertisement on the virtual screen in front of him, muttering thoughtfully, "Isn't this that popular virtual reality game lately? They supposedly have five times the thought acceleration technology... Hmm, starting closed beta 3.0, 500,000 beta access slots... I'll pre-register!"

After clicking the reservation button, the online monitoring system left the official website of "Otherworld Online" and continued its work.

He is a cyber vigilante, a law enforcer on the internet, and, more importantly, a guardian of countless families in this new era of advanced internet technology.

In the heavenly realm, Ai felt the increasing network surveillance triggering the distorted power he had left in the network, and couldn't help but shake his head.

As the reputation of "Otherworld Online" grows in China, more and more people in China are paying attention to the game and are even having some thoughts about the "black technology" in the game.

They may be seeking cooperation or wanting to explore privately.

But in the end, it all points to only one result.

That is, the existence of "Otherworld Online" is very unreasonable, and the developers and publishers of "Otherworld Online" are just empty shells.

Faced with this situation, what can Ai Yi do?

Ai, not wanting the secrets of "Otherworld Online" to be exposed, had no choice but to leave his power in the Blue Star Network to distort the thinking of anyone who discovered the problem and was ready to investigate or make a big fuss, so that they would believe that "Otherworld Online" was a perfectly reasonable existence.

As for why Ai Yi did this, Ai Yi herself couldn't explain it.

Perhaps he wanted to protect his fellow human beings on Earth, or perhaps he simply wanted the existence of "players".

After all, "game players" are much freer and easier to control than "otherworldly heroes".

Players may lose control, but they are ultimately bound by the rules of the game.

But if a hero loses control, then it's not as simple as just losing control...

As Ai pondered, she suddenly turned her gaze beyond the divine kingdom, toward the direction of the orc empire.

As an evil god, he could sense an extremely terrifying storm brewing in that land.

The entity known as the "Hall of War" decided to kick its own cesspool over after realizing it was beyond saving. While disgusting those around it, it adopted a strategy of fighting a battle while bathing in excrement.

"Is it decadence?"

Ai murmured helplessly, turning her consciousness toward Alpha.