“With this, my day of gaming is almost over.”
“To experiment with the new magic I got, I worked so hard I couldn’t even taste dinner. What a shame!”
“After all, it was my first big meal in the game.”
“It’s such a pity to find a game with 100% realism and not fully enjoy the pleasures of the table.”
“This whole day, from the opening plot to touring the Novice Village, leveling up through quests, fighting monsters, and learning magic, was incredibly rich.”
“Just these experiences alone are enough to crush 99.99% of the games on the market!”
“But that’s not all. The real killer of 《Beneath the Divine》 is after you log out!”
“The ratio between game and real-world time is 2:1. One hour in reality equals two hours in the game!”
“The company behind Beneath the Divine has already developed thought acceleration technology! After logging out, it’s like you’ve had a good night’s sleep—completely refreshed!”
“Just these two points already elevate its meaning beyond the realm of games, making it another way to extend human life besides telomere research!”
“Sleeping time can be utilized, and even doubled!”
“Beneath the Divine is like opening up a whole new life for us in another world!”
At the last sentence, the Soulfire in Leaf Zhi’s eyes flickered.
“That was close. This kid almost figured it out.”
Fortunately, even Lin Xian, who said this, didn’t take the metaphor seriously.
He just saw it as a figure of speech.
Otherwise.
Leaf Zhi would have to find a way.
To bring the other’s Sanity Value to zero in a reasonable way and revoke his Inner Test Qualification.
Leaf Zhi glanced at the sky. It was still before noon in Aeltia.
In other words, on Blue Star’s side, not even six hours had passed since the Player logged off!
And the review video was already made!
“Did he start making the video the moment he logged out?”
Leaf Zhi muttered.
What an undead-level work ethic!
He clicked into the comment section.
There weren’t many comments below. It looked like this “Ren Bu Xiu Ji” wasn’t very popular.
But quite a few passersby, due to the recent Divine Domain incident, had clicked into the video by mistake.
Naturally, the attitudes were all pure disbelief.
“Virtual reality game? 100% realism? Who are you trying to fool!”
“And thought acceleration technology? Did the blogger make up that term himself? Did you apply for a patent?”
“I finally found a comment section for 《Beneath the Divine》 where I can freely rant!”
“So the blogger spent over ten hours chopping trees in-game? What kind of masochist are you? And this is supposed to be fun?”
None of the features Ren Bu Xiu Ji thought were bombshells were believed by anyone.
In fact, there was more ridicule for chopping trees all day.
There were even comments from his longtime viewers.
“I thought Xiu-ge was a breath of fresh air in the gaming community, but he still ended up shilling for garbage games!”
“Fake recommendation. Unfollowed.”
“To even boast about this stuff, Xiu-dog has finally become an online clown…”
Although there were a few sporadic supportive comments, they were quickly drowned in a sea of opposition.
Ren Bu Xiu Ji probably foresaw the direction of public opinion.
After pinning a comment with the Official Link to the game, he quietly played dead.
Leaf Zhi finished reading, feeling a mix of emotions.
“The intention was good, but the effect… probably limited.”
In an era where even pictures don’t guarantee truth,
Ren Bu Xiu Ji’s attempt to promote the game with just two promotional images was overly unrealistic.
If he’d waited two more hours and seen the new promo images Leaf Zhi uploaded,
the situation might have been better.
Moreover, the other side had exposed the time flow difference between the two worlds.
The reason Leaf Zhi hadn’t written about this feature on the Official Website was precisely to avoid unnecessary trouble.
But with Ren Bu Xiu Ji’s video spreading, the time flow difference was no longer a secret!
Who knows what kind of riffraff would be attracted next?
Leaf Zhi was a bit thrown off by the disruption of his plans, but overall, he remained calm.
A time flow difference of exactly two times—it was only a matter of time before it was discovered.
Now it had just been made public a bit sooner.
After some thought, Leaf Zhi decided to let it go and allow the video to spread naturally.
“The game has just launched. The number of Players can be counted on one hand.”
“Even if trouble comes, it’s still early!”
“But looking at the over ten thousand views on the video, it seems there’s no need to worry about the number of new Players lately!”
Leaf Zhi closed the network with peace of mind.
“Maybe I’ll even get to enjoy the problem of having too many Players and having to be selective. Tsk tsk, what a headache…”
With online matters settled,
the only thing left was to let time do its work.
Leaf Zhi stood up and stretched, his bones making a “creak creak” sound.
The side effects from forging the Rune Furnace in the morning had almost healed.
At last, he wouldn’t fall apart after walking a few steps.
He could leave the church and go for a walk.
“Ah—what to do this afternoon? Right, maybe I’ll try my luck on the outskirts and see if I can find any unlucky souls who wandered into the Giant Oak Forest!”
“If I don’t find some new NPCs—ah, no, Sweetwater Townsfolk—Edgar might go on strike.”
Leaf Zhi left Xiao Ming snoring atop the God Statue, closed the church door behind him.
Creak!
Blue Star.
Lin Xian took off the game helmet, disappointment in his eyes.
“Still can’t get in. The account is still in forced logout status.”
He turned the helmet over and over in his hands, unable to hide his anxiety.
Only seven hours had passed since logging off, and the stage reaction of the game had already started.
Unable to log in now, he felt unbearably restless.
“After all that effort to learn magic, can’t you let me log in and enjoy it a bit more?”
He howled at the empty room.
Then, deflated, Lin Xian set the helmet on the nearby bookshelf.
He muttered softly:
“Looks like I’ll have to conserve magic from now on. The consequences of magic depletion are too terrible.”
Lin Xian opened his computer, and a red 99+ unread message notification instantly popped up.
Just a glance at the snippets of the latest messages revealed plenty of insults and personal attacks.
All of it brought by Lin Xian’s latest video.
“As expected, what had to come still came.”
Lin Xian directly ignored the red dot and clicked the notification away.
But by accident, his mouse slipped left.
Not only did he fail to close the unread messages, he even opened his QuickDou account backend.
At the top, the fan count had just dropped from 100,000 to 99,000.
Lin Xian’s heart ached.
“I knew I’d lose followers, but did they have to show me this directly?”
Lin Xian’s fan count broke 100,000 just four months ago.
Now, after posting a video, it dropped back down in less than two hours!
The 100,000-follower medal from QuickDou still hadn’t been mailed to him, and now he didn’t know if it ever would.
His already not-so-great mood dipped even further.
After a while, he gritted his teeth:
“It’s fine, just an early investment. When Beneath the Divine opens up more Inner Test Qualifications, it’ll definitely blow up!”
“Then, the followers lost because of this video will multiply several times over thanks to the same video!”
He would prove that he wasn’t just cash-grabbing.
Nor was he duped into a pyramid scheme, laundering money through a reskinned game!