advance/early chapters : p atreon.com/Ritesh_Jadhav0869
In the following days, Alex truly experienced how terrifying the profits a brand-new class could bring.
He even almost gave up striving at one point, feeling that the money came too easily.
Of course, when a person becomes wealthy to a certain extent, they'll say they're not interested in money, that they don't like money at all, and that what drives them forward is responsibility and dreams.
So Alex was striving for more meaningful things. Money and such were all fleeting considerations.
Three days after the new version of Infinite Realms went online, the first level 15 transformable Mechanical Lifeform in the North American region was born, endowed with an exclusive medal and title.
Reaching level 15 in three days definitely required both extreme grinding and spending considerable money.
Of course, for wealthy people, money could buy other people's "grinding services"!
However, soon more and more level 15 players appeared, and in various cities within Infinite Realms, all kinds of vehicles could be seen performing transformations on the streets—transforming back and forth repeatedly, essentially showing off.
There were even aircraft suddenly descending from the sky, transforming mid-air, landing stylishly, then leaping up again, transforming into aircraft to fly circles, then transforming and landing again—all sorts of flashy displays.
Finally, a group of magic-class players who also possessed transformation abilities joined this street transformation spectacle, transforming into humans one moment, then into dragons with a "boom," then into fire elementals, then into bears.
"What the heck, is there some official event today?" players who didn't understand looked at those players showing off their transformation abilities, a bit bewildered.
"What are you talking about? They're showing off because they have transformation abilities!"
"Ugh, this pisses me off. Isn't it just transforming? I can do that too!"
"Your warrior class doesn't have a transformation skill though?"
"But I have cosmetic skins, buddy. I have all sorts of skins with different appearances and forms!"
And so, another group of people appeared on the streets of Infinite Realms, transforming into muscular warriors one moment, then handsome youths, then blue Avatars, then the Hulk.
This bizarre display of players' confusing behavior directly went viral, becoming another mysteriously famous scene in Infinite Realms history, and was even used as video material for parodies and creative content by countless internet users. Some even did real-life imitations—practically a carnival across the entire internet.
Marketing experts also analyzed it as one of the most successful viral marketing cases of the year.
Their analysis was well-reasoned, leaving both Infinite Realms and Stormwind Interactive Entertainment somewhat bewildered, as they felt they hadn't actually done anything specific to trigger this.
However, since the experts claimed it was brilliant marketing, it seemed disrespectful not to capitalize on it. So Stormwind Interactive Entertainment leveraged the popularity of this transformation spectacle, revised some of their previous promotional plans, and rode this wave of viral attention to launch the Guardians of the Galaxy content.
Building on the immense popularity accumulated by Avengers and the comics' presentation of the Marvel worldview, the Guardians of the Galaxy content—which opened the cosmic chapter of the story—quickly attracted the attention of countless players and sparked frenzy among fans.
"So excited! Is this new Avengers storyline?"
"No, it seems to be a story about another group of characters. Simply understood as the story of another team within the Marvel universe, set in space!"
"Wow, that's fantastic! I'm already excited just from seeing the promotional video. The space chapter's story must be wonderful!"
"I feel like there will definitely be interaction with the Avengers later!"
"According to some lore previously provided officially, there must be connections. The two teams will definitely team up against the ultimate mastermind boss eventually!"
"This should further showcase the grand scale of the Marvel universe. Looking forward to it!"
"My goodness, there's even a blue-skinned character whose weapon is actually a flying sword?"
"Awesome! They even included Eastern-style flying swords!"
"Haha, the character designs this time are very cyberpunk, but these colorful characters have a very unified aesthetic!"
"But I feel like the protagonist this time doesn't seem as cool as Iron Man. Both his outfit and weapons look very low-tech!"
"Yeah, why is the protagonist dressed like someone from the 80s? Is the story not set in the same time period as the Avengers?"
"Is that green woman a female version of the Hulk?"
"I'm a bit worried it might be a space-themed reskin of the Avengers? Stormwind Entertainment can't be doing lazy reskins too, can they?"
"It shouldn't be!"
"The little raccoon character is so cute! I'm a bit smitten!"
"I like Groot! And I'm guessing there will be nature magic elements too!"
"It looks very interesting! I trust Stormwind Interactive Entertainment's quality. It shouldn't be a reskinned production!"
Players had very high expectations for Guardians of the Galaxy, and with Avengers as a shining precedent, this time few people heavily criticized or questioned the character designs in Guardians of the Galaxy.
However, there were still many industry insiders who expressed confusion as to why Stormwind Interactive Entertainment would launch a completely new cast of characters, instead of continuing the story with the successful characters created in Avengers, or introducing these new characters after they interact and connect with the existing ones.
From the promotional video, the main characters from the Avengers didn't appear in Guardians of the Galaxy at all, nor was there any interaction or connection visible.
It appeared to be a completely parallel story with an entirely new protagonist ensemble.
Although they were characters and stories within the same worldview framework, this approach was basically equivalent to launching brand-new content.
Whether players could adapt to these new protagonists remained unknown. If adaptation went poorly, it could potentially affect reputation and market performance.
Moreover, this featured a team format—two different teams within the same worldview would inevitably be compared by players.
If the new team and characters didn't have unique features or surprises, it might lead to player disappointment, or even criticism for being a space-themed Avengers reskin.
After all, the character of Iron Man had been so successfully portrayed that he'd almost become one of the main reasons for the Avengers series' popularity.
So whether the character standing in the center position in this Guardians of the Galaxy could carry this brand-new project was another unknown factor.
This was a risky move—at least in the eyes of many industry peers, it wasn't a wise choice.
Of course, with Stormwind Interactive Entertainment's current reputation, whatever they did seemed reasonable. Even launching completely new IP wouldn't lack players. They had earned the right to be bold.
After more than a month of publicity and promotion, Guardians of the Galaxy had already accumulated immense anticipation.
Coupled with the space craze sparked by the interstellar worldview of Infinite Realms' new version, Guardians of the Galaxy—experiential content with an interstellar background—was highly anticipated.
Although there were also many upcoming space-themed releases, with major companies pouring efforts into developing space-background content, including many excellent ones.
But Guardians of the Galaxy being produced by Stormwind Interactive Entertainment inherently came with traffic and reputation guarantees. And leveraging the popularity of Avengers, it became one of the most anticipated releases...