“Bzzz~”
The phone rang again at an inopportune moment.
Without looking at the caller ID, he answered.
“Hello?”
After listening for a few sentences, what the other party said became increasingly absurd. Li Wanji put down the phone and looked at the caller ID, suspecting it was some scam call.
The screen showed his close friend—'Dàláng'.
“What?”
“You mean you were reborn? Why the hell don’t you say you’re Qin Shi Huang!”
“Dàláng, I don’t want to listen to your jokes right now, I’m in a very bad mood.”
“Okay, okay! I really don’t want to play these boring games with you. If you have something to say, say it; if not, I’m hanging up.”
The person on the other end continued to chatter, and Li Wanji, annoyed, hung up.
“Please! I just got dumped, don’t joke with me at a time like this!”
The breeze carried a hint of coolness. Lowering his head, his heart was filled with mixed emotions.
What is all this? It’s all bullshit, back to sleep!
Li Wanji lived in an old residential area, where the rent was very cheap, but the outer walls were mottled and peeling, completely out of place compared to the surrounding skyscrapers.
Like a scab attached to a bright and shiny city, not beautiful, but a part of it.
Just as he reached his doorstep, a young man with a grinning face, dressed in a playful manner, came up to him in the hallway and hugged Li Wanji.
“Good brother, it’s great, we finally meet again!”
The young man was very excited and hugged him tightly, making Li Wanji feel like he couldn’t breathe.
He pushed him away and, with disdain, patted himself down.
“Dàláng, it wasn’t enough to mess with me on the phone, now you’ve come to my doorstep to tease me? I’m not in the mood, really, Dàláng, I want to be alone.”
The young man named Dàláng laughed heartily, appearing very happy, “Good! Good! Good!” he said three good words in a row, then added, “No need to be sad, our good days are coming soon. Just you wait, this is the era that belongs to me, and to us!”
Li Wanji snorted. He was a mess right now.
Human joys and sorrows are not shared. He didn’t want to say another word to him and went straight into the bedroom, diving onto the bed.
In the living room, Dàláng sat quietly on the sofa, his playful expression slowly returning to normal.
“Wanji, since heaven has given me a second chance, I will never let the tragedy repeat itself after the game descends. At least our brotherhood won’t be as miserable as in the previous life.”
“Those who humiliated and deceived us, I will surely get justice!”
He clenched his fists, his eyes firm.
…
Through the night, he was neither asleep nor awake, in a daze, with past images continuously playing in his mind like a slideshow.
After finally enduring until morning, just as he was starting to feel sleepy, he heard a loud banging on the door.
Li Wanji opened the door with suppressed anger. Dàláng stood at the door, his smile brilliant.
“What? Are you crazy? What time is it?”
Just as he was about to close the door, he stuck a foot into the gap.
The young man outside the door continued to smile and said heartily, “Let’s go somewhere, get things done, and you can sleep however you want when you get back!”
With that, he pulled Li Wanji out the door without further ado.
The taxi sped along, and finally stopped at the community service center. The two of them got out and hurried inside.
Li Wanji was confused. He was pulled along by Dàláng the whole way, had his face scanned, received a strange helmet, and then returned to his residence.
Dàláng dropped a sentence, “Rest well, I’ll call you at 7 PM, then eat something and prepare, and enter the game at 8 PM sharp!”
“Game?”
“What game? Where do I have the leisure or mood to play games? Dàláng, we’re not young anymore, we should be thinking about how to make some money. Otherwise, what will we live on?”
Liu Rúyān’s words still echoed in his mind. He needed to seriously think about his future.
Dàláng didn’t say much more, just left Li Wanji with a mysterious smile.
“Baffling!”
Li Wanji held the helmet, not understanding.
The helmet was designed with a sense of technology, but otherwise, it seemed nothing special.
Turning it over and over, in an inconspicuous place, there was a small logo—"New World".
“Holy crap?”
“No, buddy?”
“Are you here to feed me shit?”
However, looking at the exquisite craftsmanship of the helmet, it didn’t seem like a pile of…
A few hours after Li Wanji and Dàláng left, people started to fill the community service point, and a long queue gradually formed.
Some people who received helmets gathered to chat.
"Hey, did you hear? It seems like Lighthouse Country is also launching simultaneously."
“Oh really? What’s the deal with 'New World'? It’s quite influential. A game without an official website, so mysterious. With the relationship between Lighthouse Country and us, can it even break into their market? They’ve got some skill!”
Someone patted the helmet in his arms and added, “It’s not just Lighthouse Country. My good son is studying abroad in Baka Country, and he just asked me for two W [¥10,000] to buy this thing!”
“2 W? Are the devices in Baka Country also paid? We, with such a large population, still get them for free!”
A middle-aged man took a puff of his cigarette and said with emotion, “According to my information, this might be a global game, with all countries launching at the same time!”
He paused, slowly exhaling a smoke ring, “It’s just that our devices are distributed for free, but it’s not the case for other countries. The prices range from at least twenty to thirty thousand, up to over a hundred thousand!”
“Such a big price range? It’s still good that we don’t have to spend any money.”
The young man listened, stunned, “Geez, even if the cost is calculated as one W, for 1.4 billion people, how much is that! To spend such a huge determination on a game, is it worth it?”
The middle-aged man took his last puff, crushed the cigarette butt under his foot, and said earnestly, “Those in charge have far more information than us. After paying such a price, in my opinion, this game has something to it. We should pay attention. Perhaps we can catch the wind and turn our fortunes around.”
Several people nodded in agreement.
Let alone globally, just in the Huaxia region, with a full 1.4 billion people, what a massive scale that is. If they could just seize a small opportunity by playing games for a month without doing anything else, wouldn't it be easy to soar to the skies?
But is it really that simple?
At 7 PM, the bedroom door was knocked on at the scheduled time.
Li Wanji hadn’t actually slept; he had spent the whole day browsing his phone.
"New World" had clearly become a huge sensation, dominating major headlines.
The entire internet was filled with videos and posts about the game.
Only then did Li Wanji realize something was wrong. He read a few articles carefully from beginning to end.
“So the announcement… was true!”
In that case, “New World” shouldn't be shit.
Currently, there wasn’t a shred of information about the game content leaked online, but just looking at the number of countries releasing it, one could tell it wasn’t simple.
Although it’s said that great shit feeds the country and the people.
But no one would have the ability to feed shit to players all over the world, right?
Li Wanji suddenly thought of a word.
“Opportunity.”
Yes, it was an opportunity.
Any human with basic thinking ability would keenly sense the business opportunities.
In the game, even if you couldn’t compare to the big spenders, you could still earn a decent income by farming equipment and materials for the big spenders.
Explosive popularity, large numbers of people, and the launch of a game, all factors gathered, it was time for the wealthy big spenders to make their move.
“There’s potential!”
However, the game doesn’t even have an official website, nor an early top-up portal. It’s not playing by the rules.
What Li Wanji didn’t know was that the origin of "New World" was by no means simple and involved many parties.
Let alone him, even the high-level officials of various countries had no clear understanding. As for Huaxia, it was only through the wisdom of their think tanks piecing together fragments of information, making bold assumptions, and the high-level decision-makers’ discerning judgment that this endeavor, which was almost a gamble on national destiny, came to fruition.
This move directly laid the foundation for Huaxia to become a unique superpower in the future.
Of course, that’s a story for another time…
*Knock knock knock!*
The door was knocked again.
Li Wanji snapped back to his senses and got up to open the door.
Outside, Dàláng pointed to his phone, indicating that it was 7 o’clock.
Walking into the living room, he turned to Dàláng and said seriously, “I’m going to play this game seriously.”
“Of course, you should play it seriously.”
Li Wanji looked at Dàláng’s matter-of-fact expression and felt he hadn’t grasped his meaning, so he added, “What I mean by ‘seriously’ is to go all out!”
“What I’m saying now, you might think is crazy.”
“But A’láng, I’ve made up my mind, you have to believe me, this opportunity is once in a lifetime!”
“So, I’ve decided to go all in with all my savings!”
As is well known, going all in… is a form of wisdom.
Dàláng blinked, “I acknowledge you have this courage, but it’s not necessary.”
Li Wanji said urgently, “I know you mean well, I’m very clear-headed, this is not an impulse. I’ve analyzed the situation carefully today and I’m convinced it will work. I will definitely do it!”
Dàláng quickly waved his hand, “That’s not what I mean. You can’t recharge in this game.”
“I’ve thought it through, after going all in, I’ll start with the basics of buying low and selling high, and then… huh?”
Li Wanji was still fantasizing when he suddenly realized Dàláng’s words and looked at him in confusion.
Dàláng nodded and repeated word for word, “This… game… cannot… be… recharged!”
“Where did you get that inside information? What game doesn’t allow recharging? Do you think game companies are charities?”
Li Wanji had never encountered a game that didn’t allow players to spend money. Who would forgo making money and play out of love?
Dàláng spread his hands helplessly, “You just can’t recharge…”
Li Wanji said earnestly, “Dàláng, don’t spread rumors. We need to be realistic, we can’t let a little bit of gossip or baseless leaks throw us off balance.”
Even if the game was launching tonight, there was no information about its content online, maintaining extreme secrecy.
What was circulating online were mostly gossip or speculation from marketing accounts, either not to be taken seriously or irrelevant trivialities.
Therefore, to play this game well, one truly had to be fully invested, be less influenced by external rumors, stick to the chosen path, and persevere to reach the end.
Li Wanji was not someone who hesitated or procrastinated. Once he determined a direction, he would stick to it to the end, even if others mocked him for being stubborn.
In his eyes, even if it was the Great Wall, he, Li Wanji, would still charge at it.
Either break his head or break through to a broad road.
He couldn’t help it; it was his personality.
Dàláng pondered for a long time, as if brewing his words.
Then he slowly began.
“What I’m saying now, you might think is crazy.”
“But Wanji, I have been reborn. You have to believe me, this opportunity is once in a lifetime!”
Li Wanji felt these words were somewhat familiar, overly so, as if he had just said them himself.
“Buddy, you… damn…”
Li Wanji was about to say something else when Dàláng took out his phone again, pointing to the time displayed on it.
“There isn’t much time left. Let’s hurry and eat something to replenish our energy.”
“I know you don’t believe me, and I wouldn’t either. Anyone who has received nine years of compulsory education wouldn’t believe it, because this kind of thing is too absurd.”
“But it’s okay. As long as you play the game seriously, time will prove it. Saying more now is useless. Don’t spread the word either, just pretend I never said these things. Our brotherhood will make a fortune in silence.”
Li Wanji looked at Dàláng’s solemn demeanor.
“No, buddy? Is it true…?”