I created the myth of the Great Old Ones.

Without hesitation, he opened the book and began to read.

The text has been translated by the game, so understanding the surface meaning isn't a problem.

However, when put together, Zhou Changqing couldn't quite understand it.

"It's true that magic is knowledge, but what does it mean that knowledge can bring pollution?"

"Is 'magic' a metaphor for how it corrupts the world through the pollution of knowledge?"

"Uh, because of this characteristic, magic can be taught, well, that's certainly true... But because of this, magic can also be taken away? What does that mean?"

Zhou Changqing felt dizzy and lightheaded just reading the chapters about the definition of magic. It felt like he had been hit hard on the head with a hammer, then had a lot of mud poured into him, and finally had to be frantically stirred with an egg beater.

He glanced at the others, who were also engrossed in reading, their faces showing a dazed expression.

Zhou Changqing found a spot under the eaves where there was no sun and continued reading.

"This magic doesn't feel like a skill; it's more like something concrete?"

As he read and pondered, Zhou Changqing felt a little dizzy. He thought it might be due to 3D motion sickness caused by playing the game for too long.

He looked up at the lush green forest for a moment, then continued to immerse himself in the world of magic.

After all, to achieve this level in the field of communications, one must be at least a top student, and Zhou Changqing's thirst for knowledge and curiosity far exceed that of ordinary people.

"So, the essence of magic is knowledge. As long as humans acquire knowledge, they will undergo certain changes, and mages can use this specific knowledge to influence and change the world?"

Zhou Changqing finally finished reading the introduction. He turned a page and saw that the book contained the composition and analysis of several commonly used spells.

After studying the first ignition spell for half an hour, Zhou Changqing put down the book.

"What's this?"

He could understand each word individually, but he couldn't understand them when they were put together.

And the more I look at it, the dizzier my head gets.

Zhou Changqing felt that his cognitive and comprehension abilities were quite excellent. At least before his doctoral studies, he had never experienced the kind of headache that comes from reading. However, he knew that some of his classmates were like that. Once they encountered content they didn't understand while reading, they would get more and more headaches and eventually give up on studying.

But this magic book made him truly feel like a mediocre student looking at the solution to the last question of the last major problem in the annual college entrance examination.

Zhou Changqing secretly glanced at the others, and they all looked embarrassed, but could only grit their teeth and continue watching.

He felt a little relieved.

After watching for an hour, Zhou Changqing found it all quite amazing. He had actually spent a whole hour learning magic in a game. He let out a sigh of relief, realizing that trying to learn magic by relying on the words in a book was indeed very difficult.

He flipped through the pages, trying to see if there was anything else.

As a result, Zhou Changqing only saw one chapter.

[Concept for the Construction of the Magic Network]

"Magic Net?"

Zhou Changqing perked up instinctively when he saw the word "net".

He read the text carefully and quickly realized that it was a concept for a magic system.

Because magic is knowledge, and can be stripped away, this idea came about.

In simple terms, mages are connected to the magic network, but magic and related knowledge are not directly transmitted to them. Instead, the interface is opened only after the mages apply for access. The contamination of magic is achieved remotely, allowing mages to use magic without being significantly affected by the contamination.

It is similar to the cloud computing function popular in the real Internet.

Zhou Changqing flipped through the contents, occasionally flipping back to look at the concept of magic. The more he read, the more ingenious the idea seemed.

It can not only protect mages, but also make the use of magic more free.

In the real world, this effectively reduces the application's dependence on the phone's performance, shifting that pressure to network speed.

"This is interesting."

After reading this part, Zhou Changqing finally understood why someone like himself was needed in the game.

Although this chapter presents various hypotheses, it differs from the previous ones, which were well-reasoned and, while not entirely comprehensible, presented a complete magic theory encompassing both qualitative and quantitative aspects. This chapter only offers qualitative analysis and does not delve into specific parameters or structural details.

Simply put, it was just a relatively specific idea, like when Zhou Changqing and his colleagues said, "We want to build a communication base station here, and it's better to build it on this hilltop." They didn't specify how to construct it, what equipment to use, or how to debug it.

Clearly, according to the young man, Zhou Changqing and his group came here for this purpose.

Use the things of this world to build a magical network.

Zhou Changqing immediately felt a sense of epic scale.

He often had similar feelings when he was supporting remote areas and underdeveloped countries. Seeing places that were originally barren and backward gradually come into contact with the new world because they are connected to the internet, sell their products, and even develop new industries, this feeling of changing the world is very intoxicating.

However, Zhou Changqing didn't know if there were similar semiconductor materials in this world, nor did he understand how to use magic. He felt very distressed, as he had no way to use his strength.

Thinking about this, Zhou Changqing realized that he didn't necessarily have to solve the problem alone.

He found a safe place to log out of the game, then hurriedly turned on his computer and opened his work group.

[Zhou Changqing]: I urgently need a solution for building a network communication system!

It was a weekday, but it was already night, and not many people were online on their work apps. So Zhou Changqing waited a while before someone answered.

[Old Zhou, didn't you go to participate in some game test? Why are you still thinking about work?]

"Yeah, my boss gave me a vacation. I'm so envious."

Zhou Changqing smiled wryly at his colleague's teasing and typed again.

[Zhou Changqing]: Stop talking. This game needs to build a magic network. I'm going to have to work overtime in the game.

【What?! You can create a network within a game? Is this game really that realistic?】

[Isn't it just a matter of clicking a button? Do you really need communication skills?]

[So the recruitment notice for game testers was actually true? Is Lu Ban really going to add some realism to the game?]

[Zhou Changqing]: Stop arguing, I can't handle this by myself, you guys need to help me.

He thought to himself, "I have a professional team, so why would I be afraid of not being able to handle your little magic network?"

Thinking of this, Zhou Changqing realized that he should show the contents of that book to his colleagues, otherwise they probably wouldn't be able to understand what magic was.

He played the game several more times before finally managing to compile the introduction to the book and upload it to the work group.

Chapter 725 Pioneers

Building a fortress is obviously much simpler than using a magic network.

The gravitational constant here is similar to that of the universe where Earth is located, and most of the mechanical formulas also hold true. After conducting a simple test, Wang Hao began the design and construction work.

His first idea was to design the Gray Tower, but he heard that in addition to the normal physical structure, the tower also had to involve magic. Since Wang Hao didn't understand magic, he had to give up on the idea.

These graphic designers are most afraid of clients making constant changes. Sometimes, they've already finished the design and shown it to the client, who will then show it to his "friends" and offer all sorts of opinions. After going through several revisions and thinking it's almost done, the client will say that the original version was better, which can make them so angry they could vomit blood.

Therefore, Wang Hao naturally wouldn't touch any magical buildings that he didn't understand.

The first thing he directed the construction of was the fortress.

The fortress design specifications required that it could accommodate thousands of people to live and fight, and it needed sturdy walls, spacious warehouses, easy access routes, houses for people to rest, and structures that could be contracted to continue resisting after the outer perimeter was breached. Of course, there was also a structure similar to the Gray Tower located at the top of the fortress.

This was Wang Hao's first time participating in the design and manufacture of such a rugged building. Basically, it didn't need any design sense, fashion sense, or concern for trends or aesthetics. As long as it was sturdy, that was all that mattered.

Of course, he still encountered many problems.

For example, in modern buildings, reinforced concrete is a common structure. Steel bars are used to bear tensile forces, while concrete bears compressive forces, achieving excellent building performance at a relatively low cost.

If it's just made of mud, a low house is fine, but once it gets taller, the structural support will be problematic, and it will collapse in the wind.

Originally, Wang Hao planned to do the same thing.

However, he soon discovered that metals in the Night Kingdom were scarce materials. The armor worn by those knights was already considered to be the pinnacle of smelting technology, but compared to real steel, it was still fragile and vulnerable.

In a place where firewood is the primary means of starting a fire, there's no question of how steel could be forged.

Only then did Wang Hao truly realize the importance of a modern industrial system. Even though they had mastered the construction methods, the material production chain limited their progress. Many things that they were used to using were not actually taken for granted.

For example, Wang Hao drew by hand again after a long time, instead of on the computer.

Standing on the fortress, Wang Hao looked into the depths of the dark forest. Now, he could only hope that the players exploring the forest could find some resources such as iron ore.

Out of Wang Hao's sight, Old Eggplant, armed, led the players exploring the Black Forest through the dense thicket.

They had been away from Sunset Town for three days and had entered an unprecedented depth into the Black Forest.

Along the way, Old Eggplant also encountered some monsters. Fortunately, this group of players were all elites among the closed beta testers. Each of them had been tempered by hundreds of deaths and could deal with common small monsters with their eyes closed. So far, they have not suffered any casualties.

But the psychological pressure is also immense.

This game has no Hearthstone, no Town Portal Scrolls, and no Aether Light. The deeper you go into the Dark Forest, the more lost and lonely you feel.

Just as humans leave Earth to explore among the stars, this feeling of helplessness erodes the human heart every moment.

Moreover, the water, soil, trees, and air of the Black Forest are all polluted. This pollution is insidious and amplifies human emotions. Ordinary worries gradually turn into panic, cowardice intensifies into fear, and dissatisfaction turns into anger. On the third day after entering the Black Forest, Old Eggplant felt that an uneasy atmosphere had spread throughout their group.

Their purpose in this exploration was simple: to find resources in the Black Forest, whether minerals or something else. In short, they needed to clear the wasteland to provide resources for the construction of Sunset Town.

Only then did Old Eggplant truly understand the courage of those pioneers of the past.

There seems to be some movement ahead.

A scout who had been detached from the group returned to the ranks and reported back.

These adventurous players were spread out over a wide area to avoid being wiped out by any unexpected monsters, with the most agile scouts positioned on the outermost edge.

Old Eggplant followed the player to the front, where he found an open space.

To be precise, it was a pit.

It looked as if something had struck the ground; a deep crater had appeared. One could imagine that this place was originally a lush forest, but after that accident, nothing grew, resulting in such a huge crater.

Old Eggplant estimated that the pit was at least the size of four standard football fields. If viewed from the sky, it would surely be a breathtaking sight.

Moreover, the pit appears to have been formed for some time, with vegetation already covering its surface, and a small lake formed at the bottom due to water accumulation.

On one side of the pit, Old Eggplant quickly discovered that the exposed part was not the yellowish-brown of the soil, but a bluish-black color. Large patches of bluish-black were barren, like a wound that was gradually scabbing over.

"It looks like some kind of mineral."

"Some players who know a little about these things said."

Old Eggplant took out the homemade compass that Lu Ban had given him.