24: A three-day forced shutdown? Stop cursing, take a look at your body!

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Rumble—!!

The earth trembled.

That pale bone claw, as tall as a skyscraper, didn't give Chu Qingkuang any time to react.

It simply descended lightly.

Like crushing an ant without even needing to use force.

Crack.

The "Apocalypse Tank," which had been assembled using the entire server's strength over three hours, didn't even let out a scream.

Eighty tons of steel.

Those layers of special steel armor.

In front of that finger bone filled with the aura of death, they were as fragile as eggshells.

In an instant, it was flattened into an iron pancake less than half a meter thick.

There was no explosion.

Not even a spark.

Only the tooth-gritting sound of twisting metal echoed in the air.

What about Chu Qingkuang in the cockpit?

He had likely fused with that pile of parts, indistinguishable from one another.

“Roar...”

A low roar, seemingly from the depths of the Soul, swept across the field instantly.

The players still standing in the distance felt as if ten thousand steel needles had been shoved into their brains, clutching their heads in agony.

Health bars?

In the face of this roar, health bars were a joke.

Their SAN values (mental state) were plummeting crazily... Inside the shelter's control room.

The can of Happy Water in Su Mu's hand had already been crushed flat.

“Mental pollution levels exceeded.”

“If I don't cut it off, these accounts will really be ruined.”

He didn't hesitate.

This was simply not a monster that players at this stage could touch.

This was a max-level dungeon that wasn't even supposed to be open yet.

Su Mu raised his hand and slammed down the red master switch.

“Disconnect... the damn internet!!”

...Above the Wasteland.

Just as that massive bone claw prepared for a second sweep to wipe out all the remaining thousand "ants."

Zzz—

The entire world seemed to stutter for a moment.

Immediately following.

All players, all vehicles, and even the junk they had just picked up.

In an instant, they turned into countless white data streams and evaporated into thin air.

Leaving only the bewildered Old Day Skeleton Lord to let out an angry and confused roar at the empty Wasteland.

Along with a line of cold, yet currently incredibly endearing blue System announcements:

**[Warning: High-dimensional energy overflow detected!]**

**[Server emergency circuit breaker protection activated.]**

**[Forced logout in progress...]**

...Real World.

Six o'clock in the morning.

Inside a cheap rental room.

“Ah!!”

Wang Dachui sat up abruptly in bed, soaked in cold sweat, gasping for breath.

A nightmare.

It was too real.

That sky-obscuring bone claw and that Soul-tearing pain still seemed to throb in his nerves.

“Scared... scared the life out of me...”

Wang Dachui wiped the sweat from his face, his heart still pounding violently.

“This damn game is way too realistic, isn't it?”

“In that moment, I really thought I was dead.”

He grumbled as he took off his helmet, feeling his throat so dry it was practically smoking.

Subconsciously, he reached out to grab the glass water cup on the nightstand.

His fingers touched the glass.

He gripped it.

Crack!!

A crisp shattering sound.

It wasn't that the cup had fallen to the floor.

Rather, that thick-bottomed glass cup had actually... exploded in his hand.

It was crushed to pieces by sheer force.

Glass shards pierced his palm, and blood flowed out.

“Holy crap?!”

Wang Dachui was stunned.

He stared blankly at his hand.

It didn't hurt.

Yes, he couldn't feel the usual piercing pain at all, only a slight tingling sensation.

Even more terrifying.

Under his gaze, those small wounds were actually shrinking and scabbing over at a rate visible to the naked eye.

In just a dozen seconds.

The bleeding stopped.

“This...”

Wang Dachui threw back the covers and rushed to the mirror.

The person in the mirror had hair as messy as a bird's nest and dark circles under his eyes.

However.

The beer belly that had been sagging from staying up late playing games was gone.

In its place were the faint but clearly defined outlines of abdominal muscles.

In his eyes, the former decadence was gone, replaced by a hint of... Killing Intent.

That was the gaze of a "Wasteland Veteran," honed by killing zombies for ten days and tearing apart countless mechanical Puppets by hand.

“Did I... mutate?”

Wang Dachui tremblingly raised his hand and threw a punch into the air.

Whoosh!

The wind from the punch was fierce.

If this punch hit his former self, it would probably send him straight to the ICU... At the same time.

The official Void Realm forum.

The "Forced Server Shutdown" thread, which should have been filled with curses, had suddenly changed its tone.

No one was cursing Su Mu for having a potato server anymore.

Everyone was going crazy.

**[Shocking! After logging off just now, I twisted the handle off my security door! Waiting online, urgent!]**

**[Is this game toxic? I accidentally snapped my helmet strap when I took it off just now!]**

**[Help! I feel full of energy right now and want to find a bull to fight! What's going on?]**

One thousand players.

One thousand ordinary people in reality.

At this moment, they were all caught in a frenzy of self-doubt and ecstasy.

Just then.

A post with a golden verification mark was pinned to the very top.

Poster: **[Also a Ruthless Person]**.

The title was simple and crude:

**[Don't make a fuss, this is standard operation. Let me educate the newbies on what "Version Dividends" are.]**

The content was as boastful as ever:

“Look at how scared you second-beta newbies are.”

“The 100 of us from the first beta had our cervical spondylosis cured half a month ago. This time the feedback is just a bit more intense.”

“I just tried it out.”

“It's nothing much, just carried two fifty-pound bags of rice in one hand up to the sixth floor in one go without breaking a sweat.”

“By the way, my hearing is a bit too good now. The couple next door were just fighting, and I heard clearly that the guy hid his private money under his insoles.”

“Don't you get it yet?”

“This is Void Realm.”

“You think you're playing a game? Actually, Daddy Su is leading your evolution.”

“This 72-hour maintenance is for strengthening your bodies! You should all be secretly laughing with joy!”

Boom!

This post was like a depth charge.

If anyone had suspected it was an illusion before.

Now, with Li Qiang's personal testimony plus the collective confirmation of those thousand players.

The entire internet exploded.

“I want to play!! Daddy Su! Please give me an account!!”

“I'm not afraid of death! I'm not afraid of pain! As long as I can become a superhuman, I'll even go to the Wasteland to eat dirt!!”

“72 hours? I can't wait even a second! I feel like ants are crawling all over me right now!”

“I'm willing to even be an NPC's dog!!”

The number of registrations on the official website skyrocketed from one hundred thousand to five million in an instant.

And it was still ticking up crazily at a rate of ten thousand people per second... Real World.

The top floor of an unfinished building.

Su Mu sat on a newly bought folding chair, looking at the lights of the city below.

The emotion points in the background were refreshing like a waterfall.

“The people's hearts are ready.”

Su Mu took a sip of Happy Water, the corners of his mouth curling up slightly.

“The BOSS waking up was an accident.”

“But this wave of 'maintenance compensation' following the trend has completely bound these players to the war machine.”

He glanced at the holographic panel in front of him.

Half of the massive energy plundered from No. 03 Satellite City was used to reinforce that skeleton's Seal.

The other half was all invested into the [Reality Feedback System].

“3% physical synchronization rate, plus Elementary spiritual perception.”

“These guys, placed in reality now, each count as a mini-superman.”

Su Mu's fingers swiped lightly in the void.

New blueprints, filled with sci-fi and Wasteland aesthetics, were dragged into the System's construction bar.

“Since their physical quality has improved.”

“I can't let them be hooligans anymore.”

“I have to give them a 'formal establishment'.”

“In three days...”

“I will give you a brand new world.”

...72 hours.

For the players, it was like a year for every day.

They spent these three days in an agony of anticipation, even food lost its flavor; their only joy was going to the gym to show off, making sparks fly from the iron plates there.

Finally.

The countdown reached zero.

**[Maintenance Ended.]**

**[Servers Open.]**

Ten million hands pressed the connect button in the same second.

Hum—

A white light flashed.

They didn't return to the familiar Wasteland.

Nor to that dilapidated shelter.

When vision was restored.

Everyone was stunned.

This was a massive metal hall filled with a sense of future technology.

Above the dome was a projection of the vast starry sky.

Blue data streams flowed along the surrounding walls.

And in the very center of the hall.

Stood three massive holographic statues, each ten meters tall.

The one on the left was clad in heavy armor, muscles bulging, holding a heavy hammer like a god of war—**[Genetic Warrior]**.

The one on the right carried a mechanical arm, wore goggles, and was surrounded by countless floating drones—**[Wasteland Mechanic]**.

The one in the middle wore a long robe, surrounded by a purple psionic halo, mysterious and profound—**[Psionicist]**.

“Holy crap!!”

“Class change! This is the Class Change Hall!!”

“So cool!! I want to play that Mechanic! I want to build Gundams!”

Just as the players were so excited they were about to have brain hemorrhages.

Zzz zzz zzz.

The screen suddenly flickered.

As if hit by some strong signal interference.

The originally soft blue lighting suddenly turned a sickly green.

A bone-chilling coldness crawled into every player's mind through the neural connection.

That Old Day Skeleton Lord, who had been blasted awake and then forcibly suppressed by Su Mu using energy.

Its voice penetrated the System's firewall, carrying endless malice and tyranny, whispering in everyone's ear:

**“Insects...”**

**“The Seal... can only trap me for a time...”**

**“When winter descends...”**

**“I will lead an army of the undead... to trample your... novice village!”**

**“I will make your bones... into my throne!!”**

Boom!

The green light dissipated.

The System alarm wailed shrilly.

A row of blood-red characters slammed onto all the players' retinas:

**[Server-wide World Quest Issued: Winter is Coming.]**

**[Quest Objective: Within 30 days (10 days in real time), establish a defensive line to withstand the apocalyptic assault of the Undead Legion.]**

**[Failure Penalty: Account Deletion. Server-wide Account Deletion.]**

Silence.

The entire field went quiet instantly.

Immediately following.

A roar a hundred times more fanatical than before erupted.

Li Qiang slammed his fist up, the red light in his eyes brighter than the BOSS's:

“Account deletion?!”

“You dare delete my account?!”

“Brothers!! Change classes!!!”

“Where is that skeleton?! I'm going to scatter its ashes to the winds!!”