After the battle ended, Lin Yiyi saw that Jiu'er had calmed down, so she walked over to her, wanting to greet her.
Although at first, Lin Yiyi came with the intention of rescuing someone.
But obviously, this overly petite girl didn't need Lin Yiyi's heroic rescue, contrary to her appearance.
Instead, the lump of minced meat that had just been hammered at her feet seemed to need a doctor more...
When Jiu'er saw Lin Yiyi, she suddenly widened her eyes in surprise: "Horizontal-Bar Sis?"
"It's not Horizontal-Bar, it's One-One..."
Lin Yiyi reflexively retorted.
But she quickly realized something: "You know me?"
"I'm Sweet Rice Wine Ball! We met at the last gathering!"
Jiu'er immediately became excited.
It seemed that seeing an acquaintance made her overly joyful. As she spoke, she casually swung her sword in the air, making random gestures that frightened Lin Yiyi into taking several steps back.
But with Jiu'er's reminder, Lin Yiyi began to have some recollection...
"...Ah, little Jiu'er."
She had an epiphany and remembered.
After all, with Jiu'er's height, it was difficult to forget her.
Unlike Lin Yiyi, who focused on beautifying herself, Jiu'er hardly made any changes to her appearance. She just slightly slimmed down her face and legs, giving off a not-so-soft and dainty vibe, seemingly harmless like a dumpling.
This 149cm tall sixteen-year-old girl was a legitimate high school student streamer. But unlike her delicate appearance, Jiu'er wasn't a dancer or a singer; she too was a streamer from the gaming category...
However, different from Lin Yiyi, who focused on single-player games and was adept at creating strategy videos, Jiu'er's specialty was competitive games and she was a complete newbie. Even within the streaming community, Jiu'er wasn't very popular. She had been brought along by her brother—a professional esports player—last time, so she was somewhat like a family member...
Jiu'er's most famous moment was screaming for help while being ganked, all the while showing off swift maneuvers to counter-kill her opponents.
In a moment of realization, Lin Yiyi glanced again at the minced meat beneath Jiu'er's feet and suddenly shivered.
So, so that wasn't just for show...
While the two were talking, other players quickly gathered around them, surprisingly greeting Lin Yiyi:
"One-Line Sis? You're here too..."
"Bar, you came as well?"
"I'm One-One, not One-Line or Bar..."
Lin Yiyi reflexively corrected them, scanning the crowd.
Then, to her great astonishment, she found that... almost everyone present was an acquaintance!
Those who weren't acquaintances were all celebrities!
There were retired esports players, famous entertainment streamers, high-ranking national server solo players, and various video game content creators.
What they all had in common was that every one of them had a considerable fan base... and good gaming skills. Although there were some casual streamers, there wasn't a single complete newbie.
Though their favored genres of games were almost all different.
These people weren't fools either. They looked around and quickly realized this as well.
"...We haven't been chosen by aliens, have we?"
One of them, not at all tense, merrily said, "Doesn't this mean our skills have been recognized?"
"The chosen children, huh..."
"Can you still count as a child when you're nearly thirty?!"
"Why can't I? I'm the 'Wandering Child'!"
The "Wandering Child," who deliberately adjusted his appearance to look eighteen, said with conviction and puffed out his chest: "I am that chosen child!"
The others were immediately rendered speechless.
"Let's not talk about that for now," Lin Yiyi quickly interjected, "Have you completed your tasks?"
"Not yet. There are still twenty-three left."
Kid skimmed the task list and casually answered.
"I'm still twenty-three short."
Jiu'er answered obediently, subtly inching away from the corpse.
"But the question is, where did those twenty-three people go..."
"I think they saw the situation wasn't good and found somewhere to hide. It's too dark here, we can't see them."
Lin Yiyi frowned and replied, "If it really comes to it..."
As she spoke, she suddenly saw the scattered barrels lying around.
These must be the "Black Fire" mentioned in the main mission.
Her words came to an abrupt halt.
Seeing Lin Yiyi eying those barrels thoughtfully, the others quickly caught on.
...Should we blow up these barrels?
Once the fire starts, it will immediately brighten up this place.
If someone is lying on the ground, hiding, we would be able to see them. If they don't get up, the fire could burn them alive once it grows.
It would also be a good chance to see how good this game's physics engine is. To see if it can handle actions like setting forests on fire...
Originally, Lin Yiyi hesitated somewhat.
After all, no one knew how powerful these barrels were or how long their fuses would burn.
What if, when going to light the fuse, it explodes before one could throw it or get away?
But at that moment, Lin Yiyi suddenly glanced at her task list.
[Special Requirement 3 (+40 Rating): Kill at least three enemies on your own (1/3)]
Lin Yiyi gritted her teeth.
She was a top player after all. With these initial tasks, the higher the score, the better the initial rewards, and the smoother the start.
Too bad this game didn't allow for restarting. Otherwise, with her personality, she would have kept restarting until she maxed out all three special requirements before turning in the task.
Plus, she was supposed to be able to take on two enemies by herself.
Unfortunately, one of them chickened out. Seeing the situation going south, he didn't even fight and just turned tail and ran... As a result, she only completed one-third of her task now.
Those two didn't even draw their weapons; they had no ability to resist. Had she known they would be so easy to kill, Lin Yiyi would have just run over and slit the throat of the person she killed and chased after the runner without needing to use Charge.
And now her legs were still feeling a bit sore...
"We could actually give it a try,"
said a player called "Phoenix": "I have already died once earlier. Right after I created my character, I was surrounded by five people... After I died, I respawned three minutes later. I was teleported to another location and was able to start normally.
"It took me two minutes."
"My revival took five minutes... Maybe because my head was chopped off. Does an incomplete corpse increase the revival time?"
The other players discussed with one another, quickly coming to an agreement.
Once they were certain they could respawn, the players weren't very scared. At worst, they would just lose the chance to complete the first and second special requirements after dying once...
But fortunately, almost all of them were acquaintances. Considering past friendships and everyone's face, they quickly made arrangements.
If the test went well, those who had already died once would throw "Blackfire" to complete the triple-kill task.
They aimed to start smoothly with everyone having extra ratings, avoiding a situation where anyone's poor start would hold back the group. Meanwhile, a few card game streamers were responsible for compiling the 20/40/60/100 rating reward breakdowns, to study how different point tiers would affect the rewards.
Annan, observing from a distance through the Creator's perspective, felt a bit of a stomach ache.
"Are these people really so professional..."
He had originally planned just to wing it, giving rewards based on his whims—extra experience to those who looked pleasing, for example, since the players couldn't possibly check each other's rewards... They lacked the trust and the free time for that.
This amazing virtual game was like traveling to another world—could he really have encountered such serious players? Surely they would just shout "Whoa, awesome!" and have fun, and that would be that!
But reality taught Annan that indeed, the players did shout "Whoa, awesome!" and have fun, yet that didn't stop them from taking it seriously.
And it seemed they all knew each other. Though not closely, at least to the extent of "roughly knowing who the other person was".
"The selection of beta testers... impressive. Are they all top players from this world?"
Annan's feeling of stomach ache intensified...
He now had to rush to come up with a set of reward rules...
At the beginning, Annan was pondering whether the world recruiting players for this game was his original world. But listening to their conversations, it quickly became clear to him: these people were all major streamers, famous UPs, even professional players.
Yet Annan didn't recognize any of them.
This was completely impossible, as he was also in the industry. Therefore, there was only one possibility... they did not come from Annan's world.
"...Could there be players coming from other worlds in the future?"
The idea suddenly flashed through Annan's mind, but he quickly dismissed it.
The pressing issue was how to fool these top-level players.
No, first thing's first, he had to deal with the forum... He needed to carefully consider the announcements there.
Annan pulled up the forum administrator page with a gloomy expression and began drafting various plans on it as if it were scratch paper.
He needed to put a bit of pressure on these players.
Seeing the spell "Frost Nova" which he had just learned not long ago, Annan soon came up with a plan:
Let them use Blackfire. These players didn't know how dangerous Blackfire was, but he did.
Once they had used Blackfire to kill off those people, they would surely realize that these inextinguishable flames were too troublesome. They had undoubtedly caused a disaster.
At that point, he could step in to make a powerful impression! While linking it to the main quest, he could also seize the opportunity to teach them a lesson!
Annan energized himself and hopped off his chair.