I created the myth of the Great Old Ones.

Upon seeing this sentence, Zheng Li realized that he had actually forgotten to breathe!

He saw the camera pan away, disappearing into the forest.

In the dense forest, a group of people walked along. They were dressed in cloth clothes, carrying various weapons, and looked apprehensive and serious.

Zheng Li quickly discovered that some of these people were the players who had previously verified their identities.

No matter how he sees it, these people are all real actors.

Is Lu Ban going to show a live-action movie in front of the whole world to fool the audience?

Zheng Li was confused, but he continued watching.

Chapter 729 Losing Money to Gain Popularity

In the game, Zhou Changqing had no time to think about the audience's opinions; he was extremely nervous.

I haven't had any formal combat training; I even learned to wield a sword from other players.

Sending people like that to the battlefield is just sending them to their deaths.

But Zhou Changqing was also looking forward to exploring the Black Forest. Why? Because the forest was right there.

Once you enter this game and wander through the Kingdom of Night, no one can say they have no curiosity about the depths of the forest.

Now, Zhou Changqing must be very excited to participate in the world mission and be able to hunt down the Iron Lizard.

But at the same time, Zhou Changqing also feared death.

In other games, Zhou Changqing must have died many times, but that would just mean the screen went black and a message popped up saying, "Victory and defeat are common in war, please try again, hero." Unless it was a hardcore game where you couldn't respawn after dying, it would only bring Zhou Changqing some frustration at most.

But in this game, everything feels so real; the pain seems to actually be blooming on your skin. In such a situation, death becomes terrifying.

Some experts have previously said that games can promote violence, as various forms of fighting and killing that occur in real life are common in games, which lowers players' threshold for violence and leads them to commit violent acts in the real world.

Some players have also said that satisfying their destructive desires in the game makes them calmer in the real world.

But according to Zhou Changqing, if dying in a game were that painful, everyone would probably be more careful and wouldn't pursue pointless violence.

The reason why unruly children are unruly is simply because no one disciplines or punishes them.

Of course, the game's realism also made Zhou Changqing think that there might be people who couldn't distinguish between reality and illusion, and who might do some bad things in the real world thinking they were playing a game. But that was too far off.

Bringing his thoughts back to reality, Zhou Changqing even had the idea of ​​just closing his eyes and rushing in later, hoping to die sooner rather than later.

They advanced through the forest for two game-times. Since they already knew the coordinates and didn't need to explore, they were much faster than the previous survey team.

The second group of players was positioned in the center of the queue, in a protected position, while the veteran players were scattered around, alert for danger.

What Zhou Changqing didn't know was that the scene he was seeing had been broadcast into the real world.

In the real world, in the live stream room, the comments section exploded as if they had finally caught their breath.

[This must be real footage, how can the image quality be so realistic?]

[Is Lu Ban pretending to be playing games but actually tricking people into watching a movie?]

[The light, the water, the people—the image quality is phenomenal!]

[My eyesight isn't very good, but isn't this real footage?]

This visual is incredible; even a 3080ti probably couldn't handle it.

Wake up, this is exclusive to Morningstar. Trying to log in on PC is probably a long shot.

[There are so many people here, almost all the players must be here, is there some major battle going on?]

[Holy crap, I recognize that guy on camera just now, he's my college classmate. Let me call him and see.]

[Making a fuss over nothing, just sit down; these are basic procedures by Director Lu.]

I thought this equipment was amazing when I played The Conjuring Night, but now it's beyond my wildest imagination.

Meanwhile, in addition to ordinary viewers, some industry leaders were also watching the live stream.

For example, a senior executive at a major image processing hardware company.

He and the key members of his department watched the live broadcast in the conference room, and the more they watched, the more serious his expression became.

"This scene has far exceeded our current limits. Although we could achieve this level by exhausting all our computing power, the cost would be too high."

One of the key members muttered to himself.

The hardware they make is essentially a commodity rather than a technological product, so they need to focus on cost-effectiveness.

While endlessly piling on features can indeed achieve excellent results, it also increases costs and raises prices accordingly. If customers can no longer afford it and the profits from sales cannot offset the R&D costs, then the product is a failure.

They estimate that each device like the [Morning Star] costs at least 50,000 yuan, and even with a large sales volume to spread the cost, there is very little room for price reduction.

But Lu Ban only sells for a few thousand yuan, which is completely a loss-making attempt to gain publicity.

In the past, some game console manufacturers have used similar strategies. For example, they would sell a device with a cost price of three or four thousand yuan at a loss of a few hundred yuan to engage in price wars and seize the market. Once they had a favorable market share, they would recoup their costs by selling games.

But for every unit Lu Ban sells, he loses tens of thousands of yuan. Now that he has sold tens of millions of units, Lu Ban has lost money equivalent to the cost of several villas.

"Lu Ban doesn't use the current display technology at all, so we can't analyze it. If this continues, our market share will be gradually eroded."

Another key member remarked with emotion.

What they fear most is that others have better technology than them, yet their prices are similar. Moreover, at present, [Morning Star]'s technological advantage is almost overwhelming, and there is no room for a comeback.

"No, do you really think this is game footage and not live-action footage? We're all tech people, ask yourselves honestly, can current computer technology produce this kind of footage?"

One person raised his voice slightly, still believing it was a real scene, half doubtful and half unable to accept it.

"Lu Ban is doing a global live stream, would he dare to do something like this?"

The other person countered.

The executives casually glanced at their company's stock price.

After the release of Morningstar, related industry stocks initially rose briefly because investors believed that the emergence of this technology would lead to another upgrade in the industry, and other manufacturers would quickly follow suit.

But after a while, they realized that they couldn't keep up with the technology.

Other manufacturers don't even get to experience the exhaust fumes from Land Rover; the experience with [Morning Star] is truly unique.

At this point, the stock market began to plummet.

His company's stock alone has shrunk by 80%, and some game console companies have lost even more, with their stock prices collapsing completely due to the live streaming, beyond any hope of recovery.

This executive is now pinning his hopes on Lu Ban, believing that this is a live-action movie, not a game.

Soon, the players in the live stream encountered a wide-open space.

From a player's first-person perspective, it can be seen that it is a deep pit, and the surrounding land seems to have been plowed through, full of traces of devastation.

In the very center of that pit, a gigantic monster was coiled up.

The monster, several stories tall, gleamed with a metallic sheen, like a mechanical creation of steel. It hadn't noticed the players at first and was still resting, while the players scattered, setting up their offensive weapons and equipment, preparing to launch a full-scale attack on it.

"Is this also a special effect?"

Someone sighed subconsciously.

If the previous footage was all real footage, then this footage definitely couldn't be real footage either; it must at least be composite CG.

This is just too real!

The executive felt a wave of despair; he deeply felt that his era had come to an end.

Now, it is Lu Ban's era.

Chapter 730 Execution in Line

What kind of attacks could humans launch in the absence of metal?

To be honest, the players aren't exactly idiots.

In the early days of human warfare, when the strength of metal was not high enough, wooden products were indeed the mainstream.

But humans have probably never hunted such a large land creature before, and this creature was not made of flesh and blood, but a colossal being with a steel-like outer shell.

To be honest, without any special enhancements, the weapons these players wield might not even be as tough as the opponent's hide. If they were to collide head-on, while it wouldn't be a complete annihilation, it would certainly be a case of throwing an egg against a rock.

Using normal human combat methods, only one regiment could be wiped out.

The players are well aware of this, of course.

They created some simple war machines, such as catapults.

Before the Middle Ages, catapults were the mainstay of siege and defense warfare. Using the torque generated by the rope, these machines could throw heavy stones to damage distant enemies and buildings.

At this moment, a dozen small catapults are ready at the edge of the forest, above the pit.

With a command from the commander, the stones flew out, following the trajectory of gravity, and crashed into the heavy steel lizard.

bang bang bang --

A dull thud sounded, and it could be seen that the stones had indeed had some impact on the iron lizard's metal shell, with dents appearing in many places. If they could fire a few more times, they might be able to break through its defenses.

Faced with the attack, the giant iron lizard slowly moved its body and looked at the small creatures around it that were bothering it.

Its movements can hardly be described as swift; they are as slow as those of an elderly person.

This is quite normal. When an organism grows to a certain size, nerve conduction will be delayed. Although it may not be as high as 35ms, it will manifest as extremely slow perception of external stimuli during the organism's overall movement.

After all, it takes longer for a brain to receive a stimulus, process it, react to it, and then send it back to the body than for a normal organism.

This is also the only advantage for the players.

Boom—

The iron lizard moved, and with one of its feet, it crushed a catapult to pieces, along with two players who hadn't had time to escape.

The live stream camera focused on the unfortunate player, showing him from his first-person perspective the enormous steel foot descending from the sky, falling vertically and irrationally blotting out the sun.

Seeing this scene, Zheng Li couldn't help but gasp. Although he had never encountered such a situation before and couldn't truly empathize, the oppressive feeling still made it hard for him to breathe.

[Holy crap, how do we fight this?]

Is there any magic or anything that can blast it to smithereens?

[Stone against steel, this is completely unwatchable]