I Will Never Submit to Miss Grim Reaper - Chapter 347

Chapter 347: The Reed Song of Oblivion Valley

The public beta test of “Age of Aquarius” was a huge success.

Although I’m not the type of gamer who buys every new game that comes out, it’s clear from the screenshots shared by my friends and group chats just how popular it is.

Now, in the era of big data and market economy, as long as your social circle isn’t vastly different, you’re likely to know what’s trending, what’s fun, and what’s worth watching recently.

Some movies with explosive special effects and strong plots will flood your social media and big data feeds, while some well-funded and well-received anime will spread by word of mouth.

Games with excellent graphics, unique gameplay, good optimization, and that are fun to play will quickly spread across various QQ groups and social forums as soon as they are released. “Age of Aquarius”, in particular, is a game that was first announced in 2012, and after ten years of waiting, it also has a certain official background, giving people confidence in the game.

Most importantly, “Age of Aquarius” arrived during a time of crisis of trust in games. Many games have shut down in the past two years, like “QQ Tang”, “Need for Speed Online”, and others like “MapleStory 2” and “War Thunder”. They shut down without any compensation, making players wary of new games.

However, “Age of Aquarius” is different. It’s an officially operated game, and its revenue doesn’t rely on selling in-game items. Its stability is also guaranteed—unless Shenzhen City ceases to exist.

?Brothers, what kind of world did I travel to through this wormhole? Is this a Cthulhu world??

?Did you all just start exploring wormholes right after being born? Aren’t you afraid of dying??

?What’s there to fear? We’re just robot skeletons anyway. If we die, we respawn at the base. It’s not like “Genshin Impact” where you have daily stamina limits. This is a truly free-world adventure game.?

?One of my buddies walked all the way to the East African Rift Valley and got harassed by gorillas there for a long time. It was hilarious.?

My book club, gaming group, anime group, and even some teacher and school groups I joined back in school started seeing a constant stream of screenshots from “Age of Aquarius” since its public beta launch.

These screenshots sparked numerous inquiries like, “What game is this? A new release?” and “Has the satellite for this game finally landed? I thought we’d have to wait another ten years.” Others commented, “The graphics are so vibrant, definitely have a futuristic feel.”

After finishing work that day, Xiao Mo and I tried out the game using the computers gifted by Jiang Wei and Xiongxiong. We discovered that the game truly lived up to the hype—everyone is equal, there’s a high degree of randomness, and you have immense freedom in whatever you do.

Since the servers are provided by the official source, there’s no issue of them being full, nor do you need a membership to access a full server. There’s also no “Server 1” or “Server 2” concept. Instead, there are “regional citizens.” This means the game presents spawn points in major cities of the main world on the planet as “landing points.” If you don’t like your starting area, you can change it at any time.

In other words, everyone can switch servers and change their birthplaces for free.

Xiao Mo and I chose “Orca” city, which translates to “Orca,” as a tribute to the happy orcas of Moon Orchid Island.

Creating a character was almost entirely hassle-free—there’s no face-crafting, everyone starts as a robot skeleton. To change your appearance, you need to find various materials.

This gave appearance enthusiasts an immediate goal: customizing their characters.

To craft human organs and various skins, you need a large number of materials. Designing characters also requires blueprints. Some people, unsure of how to design, would chat with passersby or look for guides in the designated areas.

To gather materials, players could either search themselves, work to earn money, or complete tasks to earn money and buy from other players. The game’s popularity skyrocketed.

As an appearance enthusiast, I had to travel through a wormhole to a random, unknown world to collect materials for creating a part of my body. The task guided me to the wormhole entrance, but after entering, I couldn’t find the materials I needed. However, I did return with materials others might need—perhaps a filament for a light bulb for someone who likes home decoration, or fuel for bullets for someone who enjoys combat. We can then trade these materials.

It’s said that “Age of Aquarius” has implemented a very strict verification system to combat studio operations. This includes a host of technologies like ID card verification, phone number verification, and facial recognition, ensuring that the account is being accessed by its owner. The level of strictness is comparable to the game in the manga “Sword Art Online”.

Moreover, this game doesn’t limit a person to just one body.

In a way, appearance enthusiasts can spend a very long time just customizing appearances. The game’s setting involves transmitting people’s brain consciousness from the distant “Aquarius Palace Planet” to corresponding clones or robot bodies on this planet through quantum entanglement. You can create as many “bodies” as you like at home.

If you like little girls, you can create a little girl’s body. If you prefer mature women, you can create a big-breasted young woman’s body. If you want a strong man who shoots accurately, you can create an older man’s body and store it at home like clothing in a wardrobe.

When you’re in a good mood, you can connect your consciousness to the little girl’s body and go out to play. When you need to gather materials, you can switch to the male body for hunting and completing tasks. There are countless things you can do in this game.

There are no issues of male or female dominance here. You can create whatever gender you like, and as many as you want, as long as your home can accommodate them.

Anyway, Xiao Mo and I are having a blast with the game.

What shocks me the most is that this “customizing appearance” feature is just a minor part of the game. The game cleverly transforms “having many accounts” into “having many bodies,” and you can invite friends to your home to watch. The social and entertainment aspects are fully maximized.

Besides, some hardcore players naturally dislike customizing faces, raising virtual daughters, or making little skirts. They prefer robot designs and, after simply strengthening their skeletons, they find ways to obtain cold weapons or even guns and start fighting. The wormholes are filled with numerous instances, each offering a different experience, which thrills these players.

?I have a feeling this will become a national-level game.?

?No doubt about it! Officially operated—what other game gets this treatment? This is the real metaverse.?

?I’m hooked. It’s been a long time since a game captivated me like this. “Age of Aquarius” is just crazy.?

“……”

Since we still had work over the next few days and neither Xiao Mo nor I are hardcore gamers, we just downloaded the game to our desktops, chose “Orca City” as our starting point, met up in-game to explore the city a bit, took in the scenery, and then logged off.

The game can be set to first-person perspective, so I didn’t mind being a mechanical skeleton since I couldn’t see myself anyway.

But I must say, the city in the game is truly stunning, with a full-on futuristic style and light pollution maxed out.

It’s said that the game uses a random generation mode similar to “Minecraft” for everything from city layouts to the outskirts and the worlds beyond the wormholes. This means you won’t find any identical worlds in the wormholes, and even Gabriel hasn’t figured out the design principles of this game.

“It must use some kind of random number and a large model to make everything in the game seem logical, like the universe. I suspect the universe operates in a similar way,” Gabriel expressed her opinion at the breakfast table, a rare visit.

“Like how residential buildings appear on streets, with alleys, small shops nearby, and abundant flora and fauna near water sources in the countryside, while deserts have cactus. The worlds beyond the wormholes follow a different algorithm…”

“I already made over a thousand yuan in the game yesterday.”

Ai Luodi, who had just returned from the café, had dark circles under her eyes. “I tried going through the wormholes a few times too. Since I didn’t have much equipment, I had to rely on scavenging for things. But I got lucky a few times—the worlds on the other side of the wormholes weren’t very dangerous, and I picked up a couple of alien glowstones.”

“And then?” Lan Jiajia asked curiously. “Can you just pick up stones and sell them for money?”

“I don’t know, but each stone sold for 650 yuan. I put them up at the auction house, and that was the final bid price. I think a building designer might have bought them,” Ai Luodi said, yawning as she took a gift box out of her bag.

“Here, Jiajia, I brought you that makeup set you’ve been wanting but didn’t want to buy.”

“Really?” Lan Jiajia was surprised. “When did you start being so nice to me?”

“When was I ever not nice to you?” Ai Luodi replied, pouring herself a bowl of porridge in the kitchen and then sitting next to me.

“Have Nuo’er and Xiao Mo been working non-stop?”

“Yeah, today’s our last day and a half, then we’ll take a break until the end of the month,” I said honestly.

“Xiao Mo and I are planning a trip, a proper vacation.”

I couldn’t remember ever being so well-prepared for a trip with someone I liked before. Especially leaving Shenzhen City—something I never even dreamed of as a kid. I thought I’d spend my whole life just getting by in Shenzhen City, but now…

To be honest, after working so many consecutive days, even I am starting to feel the strain. It’s like the adjusted holiday schedule for the Spring Festival, where they say you get seven days off, but then you have to work seven straight days when you return, making it feel like you never had a break.

Xiao Mo and I have been working for nearly half a month straight this time.

“That’s good, Jiajia and I are almost done with our break, so we can take over the shifts,” Ai Luodi said, glancing at Dolly and Yueyue, who were feeding each other. “Are these two going to be okay?”

“No problem at all!” Yueyue patted her chest. “We could work nonstop for a hundred years, meow!”

“These little guys… even capitalists would probably kneel before them.”

Ai Luodi shook her head, loaded her bowl with a bunch of vegetables and several spoonfuls of chili, and headed upstairs.

“Yesterday, “Age of Aquarius” received explosive reviews. The internet is buzzing with discussions. I think a lot of people will come to the café today to get online. When I was coming back, Little Bird’s leisure bar was almost full. The people who stayed up all night were reluctant to log off. You guys…”

“Nuo’er, Xiao Mo, Come on! You can do it!”

“……”

……