Although the Ethereum Editor technology was powerful, Shen Fei wasn’t intimidated. This was because he knew about its existence ahead of time.

When constructing his Defense Tower Array, he had intentionally built corresponding defenses. Among his lineup of 612 Defense Towers, besides the various main combat towers, he had also built specialized towers to counter all sorts of strange and bizarre game abilities, like the Electronic Protection Tower, Signal Shielding Tower, and Data Diversion Tower. For example, there was the Magic Banishing Defense Tower to counter Magic Attacks, the Celestial Tribulation Defense Tower to counter Immortal-style attacks, and the Reflection Defense Tower to counter Curse attacks.

His choices for which Defense Tower abilities to inherit had been made after deep consideration. His Defense Towers could handle any scenario and counter any game Element. Moreover, his various max-level Summoning Defense Towers were, in reality, individual characters.

Take the Zhongkui Tower, for example. It was basically a Zhong Kui. Boosted by Gemstones, Enhancements, Auras, and Bonds, his Zhong Kui was definitively the most powerful one there was. The only drawback was that it couldn’t stray too far from its Defense Tower. His Zhong Kui was far stronger than those found in some Immortal-themed games. But thanks to his Tower Master equipment, which allowed him to carry Defense Towers with him, the weakness of his Zhong Kui’s immobility was also covered. In fact, with the support of the Black Tortoise and the Floating Island, his Defense Towers could move about freely. This was the source of his confidence.

I can do this! And it’s a good opportunity to investigate the heavy spenders in those specialized games!

Because he now suddenly had the hacker’s contact information, an idea surfaced in Shen Fei’s mind. In the future, after the game invasion began, many clandestine organizations would appear over time. These included not only the reality-editing Ethereum Punks, but also mysterious organizations like the Fertile Remnants, Joyful Rangers, and Silent Fools. These were all formed by Ability Users who had inherited powers from special, niche games. While the larger organizations operated in the open, these niche and mysterious groups had their own unique strengths.

My Heaven-Reaching Gang could also be considered a mysterious organization, but the name is a bit too tacky. I’ll change it to a cooler name when the time comes.

Shen Fei knew that his tower defense game was also considered a niche game. He and his fans, who inherited tower defense abilities, could also form their own mysterious organization.

Time to get started! First, I need to convert this newly deposited 800 million into actual power. I’ll also secretly start looking for people who inherited special abilities from games.

His attention returned to the game as Shen Fei considered his next objectives. Spending the 800 million had to be completed before the game’s arrival. As for finding the special Ability Users, that could take a bit longer. After all, the inheritance of game abilities would happen in stages, so he had a relatively generous amount of time to find these people.

WHOOSH...

After sending out the red packets and telling everyone to get some rest, Shen Fei opened the game Forum. On the Forum, there were many posts about inheriting game abilities, but most people didn’t quite believe it. Their main argument was the "Mandela Effect," a collective misremembering of facts. The so-called Mandela Effect refers to a situation where a large group’s collective memory is at odds with reality.

The classic example is how many believed South Africa’s President, Mandela, had died in prison in the 1980s. But in reality, he was still alive in 2010 and had even become the President of South Africa. Yet in many people’s memories, his funeral, the news reports, and his widow’s tearful speech were all crystal clear. For another example, there was a time people questioned if an entry in their elementary school textbooks had been changed. Everyone insisted with absolute certainty that what they learned as children was different from what it was now. But after an investigation, it turned out to be exactly the same.

Besides the Mandela Effect, today also happened to be April Fools’ Day. Many people felt that this online news was an organized, premeditated attempt to fool the public. Someone was taking advantage of this particular April Fools’ Day, trying to fool everyone and use the opportunity to become a god... no, wait, to just have some fun! After April Fools’ Day, these pranksters would reveal everything.

Of course, another reason was that the voice had only lasted for a short time. It was over before most people had a chance to react.

"I’m not listening! I’m not listening!"

"The inheritance of game abilities is real!!"

"You all used to look down on us gamers! Now that game abilities can be inherited, I’m gonna show you what’s what!!"

"All hail the inheritance of game abilities!"

On the Forum, while some were analyzing the situation rationally, there were, of course, others who believed blindly. Especially since the voice had said they would inherit abilities from games. This got the long-maligned gaming community incredibly excited. They wanted the inheritance of game abilities to be real! They wanted to make all those who didn’t play games regret it!

"This game is trash! The top-up system crashed, I can’t deposit any money!"

On the Forum, people were also complaining about not being able to deposit money. Everyone thought it was an error on the game company’s part. They had no idea that the deposit function was down for all games worldwide.

"Forget not being able to top up! I was fighting the boss in the Heaven-Reaching Tower when I suddenly got disconnected. By the time I logged back in, my Defense Towers had already been overrun..."

Someone was complaining about the mass disconnection that happened at midnight.

"Oh yeah, I heard a lot of people got disconnected from their games!"

"I heard a bunch of streamers are starting to compile lists of which games went down..."

The ripples from the voice and the disconnections continued to spread. Shen Fei knew that once morning came and more people woke up, these discussions would become even more heated. And then, while everyone was still suspicious and uncertain, the games would truly invade reality.

First, I’ll upgrade all the Defense Tower Gemstones to level 8.

After casually scrolling through the Forum posts, Shen Fei’s focus returned to the game. He had to spend his money, and fast! No one else could deposit or spend money, but he had just deposited 800 million. He had plenty of cash to burn.

WHOOSH! WHOOSH! WHOOSH!

In the dead of night, under the shocked gazes of the night owl players of Tower Defense of Ten Thousand Realms, the Combat Power of "Skyrocketing," number one on the Combat Power rankings, began to rapidly climb once again.

「At the Xia Country Financial Regulatory Agency」

"Investigate!!!"

"What in the world is going on!!!"

"Get to the bottom of this!"

"How audacious!!"

In a massive conference room, someone was roaring in anger. At this moment, many people had been dragged from their sleep to urgently investigate why game companies could no longer process deposits. The network was fine, the financial settlement system was fine, and other transfer services were fine. Yet, specifically, any deposit related to a game would not go through.

This caught the attention of the authorities! Coupled with the fact that some of them had also heard the voice in their minds, the government agencies, possessing more information, were the first to become vigilant. And aside from the financial regulatory agency, even more mysterious organizations had begun their own investigations and operations.

Under the dual influence of the Mandela Effect and the April Fools’ Day prank theory, ordinary people were wavering between belief and disbelief. Furthermore, it was late at night, so the number of people still awake was small. Those discussing it were only a tiny fraction of the total population. But the official organizations were a different story. Right now, undercurrents were surging within these organizations; everyone was on high alert.

Similar scenes were playing out in countries all around the globe. This was especially true for the countries on the other side of the Azure Star, where it was currently daytime. Since these people were wide awake when they heard the voice in their minds, their reactions were even more intense...