Global Game: Developing a Knight Clan-Chapter 116 - 114: Civilizational Conflict, Countdown to the Real-World War on Blue Star
Lince was contemplating life.
Meanwhile, the internet had already gone wild.
Because when midnight struck, the True Game had released over three hundred thousand gameplay videos.
These three hundred thousand-plus gameplay videos were split into two compilations.
The First Beta Player Video Compilation,
And the Second Beta Player Video Compilation.
There were just over three hundred thousand videos from the second beta Players, with the remainder coming from the first-round Players who had failed during the previous update.
As for the First Beta Player Video Compilation, only 4,126 people remained in total.
Based on past experience,
The video compilation always began with the Chief Player’s video.
Even if the video wasn’t made public, there would at least be a black screen placeholder.
But what about this time?
It was gone!!!
The next video in the sequence had been pushed to the top, and it belonged to a Tier Four Elf Player!
And so, the comment section for this Elf Player’s video was flooded with question marks.
"??? What the hell, where did our Chief Player go?! Is he gone?!"
"Love to see it! Haha, the nail that sticks out gets hammered down. Looks like that ugly-ass Giant Dragon Player is really dead! It’s great that he’s gone! Hahaha, I’m in such a beautiful mood."
"All the first-round Player videos have turned into 400-Inference-Day compilations. Looks like he’s really gone! Damn, how could such a powerful Dragon get killed? I don’t get it!"
"What’s so hard to understand? Haven’t you seen that all the Races on the Oklar Continent are about to beat each other’s brains out?"
"The Beastmen, Elves, Demon Beasts, and the Human Race are already in an earth-shattering war! And the Giant Dragon Player was located in the buffer zone between the Demon Beasts and Humans. It’d be harder to explain how he *survived*!"
"That can’t be right! Even if all the humans in his territory were wiped out, as a Dragon, he should have been able to survive by blending in with the Demon Beasts, right?"
"Demon Beasts? Don’t forget his playstyle. If his territory and his humans are gone, what’s the point of a Lord build without a domain? He probably failed his chosen path and the game system revoked his qualifications."
"Is that so? If that’s the case, it’s a real shame! The Giant Dragon Player was a leading figure among us Players, after all! Such a pity, such a pity..."
"..."
The video section was buzzing with activity, mostly centered on the first-round Players’ gameplay videos.
As for the second-round Players, they were all in a miserable state.
And why were they in such a miserable state?
For one, the hundred thousand Players who entered the Oakland Continent were thrown into a massive, all-out race war the moment they started the game.
Many Players didn’t even have time to figure out what was happening before it was game over.
The only Race left that was relatively peaceful was the Sea Race.
Among the Sea Race, the most eye-catching Players were those who had failed the previous round but qualified for the second one.
Their videos were pinned to the top of the second-round compilation.
Among them was a familiar Player known as "Mount Bro."
He was a classic case of "be careful what you wish for."
He had been raising a fuss on the Player forums, little knowing that the True Game might have actually taken notice of him.
And so, the unfortunate soul chose a non-human Race for his second round and was reincarnated directly into the Sea Race this time.
The Sea Race was far from the chaos on the Oakland Continent, which, logically speaking, should have been a good thing.
But for the so-called "Mount Bro," the situation was still grim.
The video’s title was:
[The Game Life of a Legendary Mount Player: The Dolphin Knight’s New Career as a Beast of Burden]
Even Lince, who was back in his bedroom, couldn’t help but chuckle when he scrolled past this video.
’Good, a great victory for my returning humanity.’
The guy in the video was no longer a warhorse this time, but his new situation was actually even worse.
After all, last time his owner was at least a Count.
This time, he was just one dolphin among many.
These dolphins were all mounts raised in captivity by the Sea Race’s Fishman Legion.
In other words, the guy was now just another ordinary Sea Beast.
He could no longer enjoy the special treatment he once had as a mount.
After four hundred days, he had barely reached Tier One.
This brought no end of amusement to the viewers on Blue Star.
However, Lince only skimmed through a few of them before heading to the game forums.
With hundreds of thousands of Players now in the game, the forums were naturally the most convenient place to gather information.
The moment he entered the game forums, a large pop-up window appeared on his computer screen.
[Administrator Rules and Notices]
[Rules:
1. The Administrator does not have a forum ID and is prohibited from trading with any Player.
2. The Administrator must not reveal any internal permission-related information about the True Game.
3. The Administrator has the authority to pin and delete comments within the forums.
4. The Administrator may only answer questions five times per day, and their ID will be displayed as anonymous.
5. The Administrator may only view a Player’s real information five times per day and is prohibited from disclosing it to anyone.]
[Notices:
1. There is currently only one (1) forum Administrator: the Cheater Sealer Player.
2. It is a fundamental principle of the True Game that ’Players’ are humans from Blue Star. The Administrator must not actively harm Blue Star Players in the real world (exceptions are made for self-defense or in cases of provocation).
3. The entire purpose of the True Game is to find a path to survival amid sudden, violent clashes between civilizations. Current objective summary: A proactive offense is better than a passive defense.
4. The Oakland Continent is a training ground for novices. The Karte Continent is a suitable opposing civilization found by the True Game. The current two hundred thousand second-round Players are a preliminary probe.
5. A Star Road Gate has appeared in the Blue Star Arctic Circle. The True Game is currently intervening. However, to allow the people of Blue Star to experience the cruelty of civilizational conflict in advance and to ’counter-anchor’ the world on the other side, this Star Gate is projected to open in nine real-world days. (Counter-anchoring note: The world on the other side is an Insect People world with Low Demon technology, which is the currently unavailable third map.)
6. Once the Insect People Star Road is fully established, all Players will receive a specific, large-scale, real-world war mission from the True Game (Threat Level: Low; Acceptance: Optional; Projected Blue Star victory chance: ~90% for a primarily technological civilization, but losses and progress may be suboptimal). The Administrator should take note of this.]
Lince stared at the rules and notices in the pop-up, stunned for a long moment.
’The info dumps are getting bigger every time!’
’Sudden civilizational clashes?’
Lince clicked on the red, highlighted text, and a detailed explanation popped up.
The gist of it was this:
Even a Magicless Technology civilization, regardless of how low its tech level, had a high probability of inexplicably and illogically developing things like wormholes and space-folding technology.
Meanwhile, on the Magic Side, Deities could more easily detect the Star Roads leading to Life Planets. Godless Magic Side Worlds were also more prone to the sudden appearance of spatial rifts, which could lead to an entire civilization on the other side.
???
’What the hell is this?’
’So, the entire Cosmos is now a gladiatorial pit, and all the civilizations are the combatants?’
’Then what is the True Game?’
’It’s based on Players from Blue Star, which means Blue Star is the True Game’s home base.’
’So, without a doubt, this thing is a homegrown product.’
’The Gaia Consciousness?’
’The Alaya Consciousness?’
These were the only reasonable conclusions Lince could draw.
’Otherwise, there’s no way to explain the nature of the True Game’s existence.’
’It couldn’t be just a random gift from some higher-dimensional being, could it?’
’Of course, I can’t rule out that possibility either.’
’After all, with the great chaos of clashing civilizations as the backdrop, nothing would be too bizarre to be believable.’
Lince felt a little numb from it all.
And right below the text of the rules and notices, Lince even saw a video.
What did this video show?
Holy cow.
It was something that looked an awful lot like the Gate of Truth.
But this gate was far larger than the Gate of Truth.
In the video, its diameter alone exceeded fifty kilometers.
It looked like a giant, rainbow-colored funnel in the sky.
And what did Lince see on the ground?
Holy cow!!!
An endless, dense mass of Human Alliance troops!
With the rainbow-colored portal at its center, the Human Alliance’s army had formed a circular defensive line over a hundred kilometers in diameter.
Below the defensive line, countless military transport planes could be seen, ceaselessly airdropping vast quantities of machinery and supplies into the area.
On the coast, one massive ship after another was also on the move.
At the same time, fifteen aircraft carrier battle groups were positioned on the perimeter outside these massive vessels.
Ground fortifications were being poured with all possible speed, using everything from construction vehicles to manual digging by the troops.
The video also displayed the origin and designation of each military unit.
All five major divisions of the Human Alliance, representing the five continents, had arrived.
The scale of the army had already surpassed 1.3 million soldiers.
And more were still gathering in a continuous stream.
Fighter jets and helicopters streaked across the sky, while drones repeatedly flew into the rainbow-colored vortex, one after another.
However, the vortex currently seemed to be just a projection, as nothing could make physical contact with it.
But on the other side of the vortex, numerous twisted, non-human shadows were already visible.
No wonder the Human Alliance was on such high alert, immediately beginning a large-scale troop mobilization.
The True Game had already appeared, after all.
It was only natural for the Human Alliance to react so strongly.
’I just wonder how long this thing has been here.’ 𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ𝓋𝑒𝑙.𝑐𝘰𝑚
’And the Human Alliance managed to keep it completely under wraps?’
’But on second thought, keeping it a secret was necessary. They still haven’t confirmed what’s on the other side. With the True Game already happening, news of an alien invasion would definitely cause mass panic.’
Lince, for his part, wasn’t too worried.
’After all, the True Game itself stated a ninety percent chance of victory!’
’This Insect Civilization is probably just one of those civilizations that put their tech points in the wrong tree and somehow unlocked portal technology by accident.’
’Low Demon and low tech? Aren’t they just serving themselves up on a platter?’
’With the Human Alliance’s current mobilization, I bet they’ll just toss a few high-yield nukes through the gate the second war breaks out!’
’But first, they have to be absolutely sure the nukes will actually go through.’
’If one got intercepted and blew up on our side, the losses would be catastrophic.’
However, the Human Alliance’s high command was surely smarter than Lince; he didn’t need to worry about such things.
’I guess the early phase of the war will revolve around capturing the gate.’
’A conventional war of attrition?’
Lince frowned.
"I’ll check out the situation when the time comes. I might even take a mission to help out... or to pick up some ’experience.’"
Still, it wasn’t an urgent matter.
After all, with a 90% chance of victory, the Human Alliance could likely win without even needing to implement global martial law.
But as the True Game’s forecast had already indicated, sustaining casualties while pushing into another world would definitely not be easy.
The other side was a complete world, after all.
A civilization that could stumble its way into portal technology must have some trump cards up its sleeve.
’I’ll just wait and see.’
Nine days from now would be at least 1,200 Inference Days in-game. There was still plenty of time.
Lince pondered for a moment, then closed the pop-up window.
He then turned his attention to the game forums.
