Brother Cheng Takes Off: "Damn it all to hell! It's only the second day of the beta, right? And they're already doing a 300-day simulation? The 100-day one eliminated nearly 70,000 people. How are we supposed to survive this? I have a feeling I might not make it through the night."
Wada Xiwa: "Haha, a 300-day simulation, not bad. They're already pulling the 'a day in heaven is a year on earth' move. Does this mean we've become immortals?"
Sweet Little Cookie: "Immortals? More like inmates at an asylum. The 100-day simulation was already hard enough. Now with 300 days, who among the Players in this game can confidently say they'll make it through? Besides those beastly Tier Three Players at the top, of course."
Little Ordinary Person: "It's a blessing if we succeed, and fate if we fail. Let's all just try to look on the bright side. At least the version was updated. We Players who have held on until now have gotten something out of it, haven't we? Extraordinary Power! Even if it's just half an hour of being a Superman a day, that still counts as being a Superman, right?"
Insomnia and Rain: "That's one way to put it, but I can't help but feel a little resentful. A life-changing opportunity like this is once in a lifetime. Still, this version update is actually not too bad, since our game characters will now act according to our own personalities. That might help a lot of us survive."
Logical Genius: "Act according to my personality? Then I'm even more screwed! I'm naturally restless as hell. Even though I chose the 'cautious' protocol for when I'm offline, who knows if the 'me' in the game can handle the boredom! What's more, my character in the game is a freaking human Mercenary. Even if I try to lay low for a year, I'll still have to take a mission or two, right? Otherwise, how am I supposed to support myself?"
Power Boy Needs to Go Faster: "A Mercenary? At least a Mercenary is better than being a damn Beastman, right? And a Kobold, no less—one with a terrible status in the Beastman Empire! I give up! I'm still stuck mining underground. I'm too scared to even think about rebelling. This game has me completely tied up. All in all, I really don't think I can last these 300 days."
Not the Tea Monarch: "A Kobold? Hahaha! Your situation is just too tragic, man."
...
Out of nowhere, as Lince was scrolling through forum posts, he was pulled into a small chat group.
Only after entering the group did Lince realize that the game forums allowed users to create small chat groups. This particular one currently had thirty-something people in it.
Lince couldn't help but be amused as he read through the chat.
He went into the group nickname settings and changed his default numerical ID to 'Night Owl'.
Then, he joined the small group's conversation, taking the opportunity to gather some information.
Night Owl: "My condolences, Kobold bro. By the way, is the Beastman Empire in the northern part of the Oakland Continent?"
Power Boy Needs to Go Faster: "The Oakland Continent? What the hell is that? I've never even been out of the mines, how would I know? *cries*"
Logical Genius: "Isn't the Oakland Continent the main continent of the Game World where we Players had our Descent? Kobold bro, your situation really is tragic. You don't even know that?"
Not the Tea Monarch: "What? The Players' background world? Why haven't I heard of it? My game started on an archipelago called Siras. I've never heard of any Oakland Continent. From where I am, the farthest landmass seems to be the East Las Islands."
Logical Genius: "Huh? An archipelago? If you don't mind me asking, Brother Tea Monarch, what Race did you start as?"
Not the Tea Monarch: "A Sea Lizard. Didn't I just say that? Our Sea Lizard Clan is a branch of the Sea Race."
Insomnia and Rain: "Sea Race? Sea Lizard? Are they humanoid? Or are they more like a type of Demon Beast?"
Not the Tea Monarch: "Not a Demon Beast, and not a Sea Beast. We're humanoid Sub-humans. We just look like green-skinned Lizards. The average height for our clan is over eight feet tall. Pretty cool, huh?"
Brother Cheng Takes Off: "Cool my ass! You had the chance to be human and you chose to be an Alien Race! Even though I'm an Undead Skeleton from a grand cemetery, at least my bones are human..."
Qi Mu inoki: "Whoa, why are there so many lunatics in this little group? Did none of you start as a Human? Hey, everyone, whether you're lurking or chatting, come cast a vote. Let's see the makeup of our group—how many human and non-human players we actually have."
Insomnia and Rain: "Good idea. Start a poll."
And just like that, a poll was started in the random little group.
But the results...
Human Race Players: 8. Non-human Players: 23.
Out of 37 players in the small group, 31 voted. Only 8 of them were Human Race players. It was absurd!
Lince couldn't help but laugh at the results.
Brother Cheng Takes Off: "Damn, so many bros who didn't pick human! I love to see it!"
'This guy is something else,' Lince thought. 'That's not what he was saying just a moment ago.'
Insomnia and Rain: "We're doomed. This little group is full of perverts!"
Not the Tea Monarch: "Hey, girl, we're just playing a game. How does that make us perverts? This is straight-up discrimination! You think we wanted this? If we had known the game would be like this, everyone would have definitely picked the Human Race! The Power from the Character Card is just too much. The thought of having to sport a green Lizard head whenever I use my Power in real life is enough to make me break down. It completely ruins my good looks!"
Brother Cheng Takes Off: "+1, I support Brother Green Tea."
Not the Tea Monarch: "How the hell am I Brother Green Tea? You're the green tea! Your whole family is green tea! No, wait, you should be called Brother Ghost Fire, right? Haha, takes one to know one."
"..."
Lince watched the group's chaotic chatter and outright nonsense, feeling speechless. He didn't bother joining in on the pointless conversation.
At this stage, only the second day of the game, none of the Players really knew much.
To learn more, aside from official sources, the only other way was to watch videos made by people who enjoyed collecting and compiling data.
And there was certainly no shortage of those kinds of people in the real world.
Nearly twenty hours had passed since the True Game's impact was felt. Even with 100,000 Player videos released in the first wave, it should have been enough time for some video creators to put out an initial summary.
So, Lince quickly left the group chat and began searching for related videos on Pi-Verse.
Just as he'd hoped, Lince found the current top-trending video in his search results—one that was an analysis of the True Game's world background.
[In-Depth Analysis of the True Game's World: Part One. All are Welcome to Watch!]
The video's title said it all.
And after clicking through to the video's page, Lince found that its runtime was surprisingly long.
It was an hour and a half, comparable to the length of a single Player's video from the True Game.
But perhaps the video creator was intentionally matching the runtime of the True Game's Player videos.
In any case, none of that was worth Lince's attention. What he urgently needed was more information about the background of the True Game's world.
So, Lince began to watch the creator's video carefully, hoping to find some useful information. He even planned to watch several more similar videos to do so.
As Lince engrossed himself in watching the various videos online, time slipped by, and before he knew it, the early hours of the next day had arrived.
And right on schedule, living up to everyone's expectations, the True Game began broadcasting the collection of Player videos from the second day.