This Game Is Too Realistic-Chapter 531.1: Beta 0.5 Version Update!

The celebration was coming to an end.

Drunk out of his mind, Hal lay passed out on the table, snoring thunderously. Meanwhile, over in another world, the official website of Wasteland OL was just beginning to buzz with activity as players logged off one after another.

Night Ten: Damn that Ample Time, spreading lovey-dovey fluff everywhere again!

Ample Time: ? I didn’t even leave the house.

Escaping Mole: Then here’s the real question. What was this guy doing at home all day behind closed doors? ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

Irene: Sounds like there’s a story there! ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

Elf King Wang: Mole!!! I’m counting on you for THOSE comics. ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

Ample Time: (◔_◔)

Yaya: You guys are so dirty. They’re obviously just a sweet couple.

Tail: Speaking of which, I noticed a lot of hidden couples among the NPCs too!

Quit Smoking: Who?

Tail: Frost and Eclipse!

Quit Smoking: Hahaha, you mean Dumb and Grumpy?

Sisi: Pfft, that’s a bit mean.

Sesame Paste: But aren’t androids genderless?

Tail: !!! That just makes it more exciting!!!

Sisi: ?

Roshan: ???

Yaya: Now I’m curious... What has the administrator been up to these past three days? 0.0

Quit Bullshit: Why are you so obsessed with the administrator, Yaya? (≖⩊≖)

Tail: Yeah, seriously, Yaya, you’re a little too curious...

Night Ten: Let it go, Boss Yaya! Humans and NPCs have no future! ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

Gale: Ample Time: Thanks, that was mildly offensive. (¬_¬)

Yaya: What the hell?! I’m just curious, alright? You guys are the ones grinding favorability points! (╯‵□′)╯︵┻━┻

Makka Pakka: She’s mad lol, look, she’s mad!

Yaya: (艹皿艹)

Teng Teng: Anyway, come to think of it, we really haven’t seen much of him.

Escaping Mole: He’s probably like Brother Ample Time, hiding away to cook something up. (˵ ¬ᴗ¬˵)

Ample Time: Ahem, looks like the Amplemoon Group might need to branch out into the gaming industry.

Escaping Mole: WAIT! WAIT BROTHER, I was wrong! Σ(゜ロ゜;)

Gugu Bro: I think I saw him drinking with Hal. Hal even improvised a poem, but he was too drunk to translate it properly.

Light Wind: But then he vanished again.

Little Ghost: I-I-I saw him too! He was at the barbecue stand, with Boss Xia!

Lawless Madman: And Xiaoyu was there too!

Irene: A picture-perfect family of three. (≖⩊≖)

Elf King Wang: Puhahaha.

Mosquito: Don’t be sad, Boss Yaya. He’s got a kid already. (˵ ¬ᴗ¬˵)

Yaya: (＊·ω·)×╰ひ╯

Irene: Trembling in a corner. ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

Official Site Update: [Beta 0.5 Patch Notes]

Daydreaming Star River: ?

Garbage: ??

Quit Smoking: Damn!

...

[Beta 0.5 Version Update!]

[Player Public Affairs: Thanks to the Festival Management Committee’s commendable work, the administrator has decided to mobilize residents of Shelter 404 to participate more in alliance and regional public affairs! We may lack the technology of other shelters, but we have the resolve to end chaos and barbarism, and a belief in society above all!]

[Players holding VMs and certain special NPCs may now submit proposals (provided they don’t violate the Player Handbook, Fundamental Law, etc.). If a proposal gains more than 10% support, it enters the bill phase, to be voted on by all VM holders. Once passed, it goes to the relevant department for public deliberation at the monthly meeting, and finally takes effect with the administrator’s signature.]

[The New Alliance is growing, and the administrator’s energy is limited. From now on, the server environment will be maintained by everyone. If someone does good work, copy it! If you copy it wrong, no problem, we’ll fix it together!]

[New Transport: Inflatable Airship. A direct civilian flight from Dawn City to Pioneer City is now operational! There will be one flight per month. No respawn points in the Great Desert, just save points, so value your lives!]

[Level B6 Biological Lab Now Fully Open! Found an interesting specimen in the wasteland? Contact NPC Hyrja!]

[Alliance Museum & Zoo Officially Open: Submit your personally meaningful collectibles or weird species found in the wasteland for display! (Animals difficult to breed may be replaced by photos, e.g. Sandworms.)]

[Director recruitment is open: Vote via VM or city hall mailbox! Both players and NPCs are eligible! (Note: don’t slack off or accumulate complaints, you’ll be booted.)]

[Closed Beta Slots Raised from 12,000 to 30,000! Daily release increased to 40 to 50 slots.]

[Fixed some bugs...]

[...]

The heaven-sent Beta 0.5 version had finally arrived.

Though it didn’t mention a new expansion pack, the sheer amount of information was eye-catching.

Especially the fifth point!

Closed beta slots were almost tripled!

Daily beta access release had also doubled!

Since the ceasefire agreement and the end of the Endless Sands expansion, beta slot distribution had slowed significantly, at times dropping to single digits.

Now, with a fresh batch of helmets released, it was a godsend for players on the forums who had been squatting in the reservation queue until their legs went numb.

Crazy Youth: Light, you’re my dad!! You get it, right?!

Northern Netizen: Brooo where are these helmets made?! I’ll work for free, just pay me with a helmet!

Cheerful Netizen: Offering 100 million for one helmet!!! T.T

Dino Warrior: I’m a student... Any kind soul out there willing to give me one with free shipping? T.T

This_lord_is_arrogant_what_can_you_do: Trash game! Not even a dog would play this! Pah! Screw this!

Lightning Professor: Heh, say that again after you cancel your reservation! (◔_◔)

Even with the odds still lottery-like, the newly raised chance of winning brought a sliver of hope to millions of eager players.

A 0.1% chance was still better than the old 0.01%.

As for why the sudden increase in closed beta slots... The forum exploded with speculation.

Some said it was because the helmet supply and server capacity had simply improved.

In other words, public testing might be around the corner!

Others argued from a supply-demand angle which was likely to prepare for the next expansion.

After all, the New Alliance had gained vast new territory. With such a massive playable area, each region needed to have active players, or it would be wasted.

Besides rational takes, there were wilder theories.

Some, like This_lord_is_arrogant_what_can_you_do and his followers, believed it was all a scam.

- The leeks are too few, and those scamming devs are just faking everything! Everyone on the forum is just sockpuppets except me!

Some veered into conspiracy territory, human experiments and global economic manipulation!

A few stayed silent, convinced it was a goodwill signal from alien civilizations. They quietly invested heavily in silver coins and bid for rare items at auctions, profiting in silence.

Spending a few billion to acquire revolutionary technology and create a multi-billion market? A rare opportunity indeed. If the aliens scaled up, they would buy even more.

Ultimately, every person and organization operated with their own blind spots. People made predictions based only on the info they had, often with built-in bias.

The truth was, there wasn’t any greater reason. Even Chu Guang himself was stunned. The genetic sequences he had long hoped for had just... appeared.