Chapter 19:

The little players start arguing on the forums after going offline, all eager to express their thoughts and views on this matter.

Murphy’s military map in his hands was also recorded by their helmet’s camera function. While the student faction and chatterbox faction were showing off their ingenious ideas, those who were prepared had already started making phone calls.

If there’s a key difference between working adults and students, it’s that those beaten down by reality understand to leave professional matters to professionals.

Everyone sits in an office normally, and they could argue over strategies just from the three lanes of a MOBA game. Clearly, they don’t have the professional knowledge and skills to plan an excellent ambush operation in a 100% realistic game.

Not to mention the huge disparity in strength between the two sides.

Fortunately, the best thing about this era is that the internet connects all kinds of people. It’s like how you never know if the person advising you online is human or a dog.

In the deceptive online world, there’s never a shortage of hidden talents.

Meow King took off his game helmet, put on a Bluetooth headset, took a carton of milk from the fridge, and walked out to the balcony to turn on the treadmill.

Watching the bright lights of the night outside, he stretched his body and began his daily slow jog. Although he always calls himself an “old corporate slave,” Meow King is actually one of those with some family wealth.

He has his own software outsourcing studio. The four rowdy guys he brought into the game are his co-founders and close employees. Of course, they occasionally go out together for “foot massages and food tasting.”

Ten seconds later, the call connected.

“Hey?”

A drowsy male voice came through the headset, amusing Meow King, who joked as he jogged:

“Hey, big shot, it’s this early and you’re already asleep?”

“Bullshit, get to the point! I just finished a stupid sand table exercise with a bunch of idiots. I’m exhausted. I swear if I play with idiots again, I must be a damn dog!”

The other side was quite rude, clearly an old friend’s impatient but not malicious tone.

“I’ve got something I need your help with, to work out a tactical strategy. You’ll definitely be interested. The situation is like this...”

Meow King maintained his steady jogging pace and explained his current circumstances to the other side. After a few seconds of silence, the sound of a lighter and smoke came through the headset, then the man asked:

“Are you crazy or what? Fully immersive virtual reality technology? Are you kidding me? There’s no mature technology that has been implemented yet, right?

Don’t you know what’s going on in the AR and VR circles now?

It’s impossible, you’re a professional in this field!”

“I didn’t believe it at first either. I thought it was a scam until reality gave me a hard slap. The truth is, there are always incredibly capable people in this world.

It’s hard for me to describe the feeling of this game to you right now, but I can tell you that it can definitely shatter your world view.”

Meow King said with a sigh, then brought the topic back, asking:

“So can you handle this or not? You said you’re tired of doing empty drills with idiots all day. Wouldn’t it be more fun to play with real stakes?”

“Okay, so for this 18 vs 200+ situation, from my professional perspective, I have two suggestions for you.”

The guy on the phone blew a smoke ring, then said mockingly:

“The easier one to achieve would be for you all to become Spartans, or for one of you to suddenly gain the Saiyan transformation power and blast them with a spirit bomb.

The more difficult option is for you all to be good boys, make tactics, and exhaust all means to try to turn the situation around while praying to some deity that you’ll somehow win.

Just kidding, brother!

That’s a tenfold difference in forces! And you all don’t even have superior individual strength!

If this had anything to do with reality, you’d know there’s no way to win, okay? This isn’t something tactics can solve anymore.

Even if you resurrected Han Xin or Xiang Yu, they’d tell you this mission is impossible and crawl back into their graves to seal their coffins.”

He went on to mock:

“Plus, it sounds so mystical with the cold weapons and guns you mentioned. Even if I wanted to help, I’d need to go check out the terrain and whatnot in person. Here’s what we’ll do, send me that map first so I can take a look, and get me an invite code to check it out too.

Money is no object.”

“What invite code do I have? I can only ask about that for you,” said Meow King.

Hearing the other side had relented, Meow King grinned, knowing his buddy was interested now.

He got off the treadmill, put on the helmet to connect to the social software, and sent over the map of the Transia region he had saved. He also sent a private message to the admin on the forum.

Alpha’s reply came quickly.

Alpha: 【You want an invite code for your friend?】

MeowKing: 【Yes, he’s a professional at tactics planning. Used to be an instructor in Africa...um, now he does sand table exercises and is quite famous in that circle. I was thinking bringing him in could help us better complete this test phase. If not, at least give him a trial account to check things out on site.

I want to progress the game faster so we can go into open beta soon. I can’t stand just getting little tastes of this great thing over and over.】

Alpha: 【I’ll need to apply to the dev team for that. This temporary server should be able to add a few more testers for now.

If you do it cleverly enough, you can even bury the truth while completing the mission. Think about why the dev team arranged such a powerful NPC group for you?

They’re guiding you in this direction to heighten the so-called realism and freedom of this creepy game. If it’s as amazing as you say, then you can’t approach it with the mindset of playing a regular game.

I think I’ve said enough. Use your brain for the rest.

We don’t want your intelligence to degrade into being a brainless bimbo.”

“Concrete Sister is awesome!”

Lumina felt her thinking had been opened up and excitedly replied in the group:

“As expected of the smartest one in this group of seven!”

“Heh, you’d have to subtract at least 55 points from my IQ to classify me as ‘smart’. As for you, just subtracting 15 to 20 would be enough.

I feel including you in this group was a mistake, as you can’t help the rest of us progress together. But considering everyone else in this group besides me has basically become a waste already, I suppose this little mistake doesn’t matter.”

Concrete Sister disdainfully said:

“Learn more while you’re young. Even through the computer, I can sense the pitiful hollow echo your head would make if tapped. Alright, I’m going to happily slack off in the lab now.

Talk to you next time.”

“Concrete Sister, why don’t you fill out this application?”

Lumina didn’t want to let go of this resource, so she sent over an application, explaining:

“The game I’m playing right now is really different. It’s not just to pass time, you’ll be interested once you try it. It’s that crazy-advanced black technology! Super black!”

“Forget it.”

The other side coldly reply:

“I don’t have time to play house with a kid like you. Honestly, have you considered becoming one of my grad students? Just give me the nod and I can talk to your advisor. That old lady should give me some face.

You can set your own expected salary, just don’t go overboard.”

“But I’m going back home. Please excuse me.”

——

Two days later at noon, Lady Femis’ caravan arrived at the designated location. After scouting the terrain tonight, they would begin operations tomorrow.

At this time, Murphy also gathered all the little players he currently had for a meeting.

He planned to first hear the players’ tactics, and if those didn’t work, go with his own ideas.

This time there were 16 people present, including the 5 unlucky ones who had just respawned and the first-time online “Onboard Joy Stick”, the abstract ID belonging to the professional friend Meow King had pulled in through connections.

But such an abstract ID made Murphy start doubting his professionalism.

“Holy shit! This lighting! This resolution! Holy shit, this immersion, holy shit, this stench, this pungent stench, are we by a swamp?

This smell reminds me of the rainy season in Central Africa.”

The new guy immediately started shouting upon spawning in the scrubland by the Foul Swamp, even crouching down to examine the bushes in detail.

The other players paid no mind to this.

They had basically reacted the same way on their first logins. Since they had embarrassed themselves before, they had to let the newcomers go through this “signature program” too.

“You guys discuss first, we’ll take him to check out the terrain and pick an ambush spot. We’ll work out the tactics tonight.”

Meow King felt a bit embarrassed and quickly pulled his friend up from the ground, escorting the newbie with his four bodyguards and two middle-aged male friends.

Once that group left, only eight student players remained.

The roommates looked at each other blankly, clearly lacking the confidence to have discussed an optimal solution at their dorm room meetings.

The tall and muscular Niuniu didn’t seem to mind though.

As an athlete, his job was just to charge and fight. He knew the others wouldn’t trust him with the thinking part.

“Um, Lord Murphy!”

Lumina looked around and, seeing no one speaking up, walked over to Murphy and said softly:

“I don’t have a suitable tactic or plan, but I feel our approach to solving this has an issue. With our strength, even playing out perfect tactics won’t prevent casualties. So, I have an immature little idea here.”

“Hm?”

Murphy looked at the only female player in the closed beta, wondering what medicine this little player was selling?

Showing an interested expression, he waved his hand:

“Let’s hear it.”