Chapter 33: Weapons Development Division | Monsters Are Coming
Elemental bombs, poison gas bombs, sonic bombs, gravity bombs… as he experimented with different Soul Imprint combinations, Qin Ye grew more and more confident about building a growth path centered on Psionic Bombs.
But he still hadn't solved the problem of the explosions affecting himself. Even after combing through the Soul Imprint database in the test tower, he found no solution.
When in doubt, consult the Guide. Qin Ye decided to seek advice from the Guide.
Facing his inquiry, the surface of the Guide water orb displayed a human-like thoughtful expression, rubbing its chin with its projected hand before speaking.
[The Soul Imprint database in the test tower only contains a portion of Primordial Abilities. There are still many unknown Primordial Abilities scattered across Monster World. What is certain is that there must be space teleportation type Primordial Abilities. If you can acquire such an ability, you'll be able to teleport across space.]
[For example, you could open a spatial portal in front of you and throw the Psionic Bomb into it, teleporting it to a distant location for a precise explosion.]
Hearing the explanation, Qin Ye became interested.
"Where can I hunt Primordial Monsters that have spatial abilities?"
[That I cannot answer. Monster World is vast and boundless. After being swept by the Black Tide, the world's terrain underwent drastic changes. Finding exactly where Primordial Monsters with specific abilities reside is entirely unknown. If you're lucky, one may be here in the Emperor's Mound Mountain Range. If not, it could be far away in the Great Northern Region.]
Hearing this, Qin Ye was immediately dumbfounded.
"Isn't there any way to locate specific Primordial Abilities?"
[Perhaps in the future, but only if you can retake the Domain Node that contains the Primordial Ability locator.]
"Where is this Domain Node located?"
['Unknown.]
Qin Ye: "…"
At that moment, a system prompt sounded in Qin Ye's mind.
[Challenger Notification: Important notification detected in your virtual game pod. Do you wish to exit to check?]
Without hesitation, Qin Ye chose to log out.
—
Meanwhile, a meeting was being held at the Skyvault Research Center because of the email Qin Ye had sent.
After reading the email, the staff member who received it immediately reported to upper management upon realizing that the attached address could download a cracked version of Dark Land.
However, what surprised the higher-ups was that the download link had permission restrictions and couldn't be accessed.
They quickly forwarded the issue to the Network Security Center, hoping they could bypass the restrictions and complete the download.
But the response was disappointing, the Security Center's AI Core had no authority to bypass the link's hidden permissions and could only wait for the download permission to be granted.
Receiving this reply, the staff chose to message Qin Ye directly, asking him to copy and send the downloaded file to the Skyvault Development Center.
But Qin Ye's reply brought yet another disappointment.
The downloaded game file was locked by permissions and couldn't be transferred.
In the end, Skyvault's leadership decided to closely monitor the link, waiting for download permissions to reopen.
When this news reached the Weapons Development Division of Skyvault, the researchers there could no longer sit still.
If the 100% virtual reality described in the email was true, it would be a perfect testing ground for dangerous weapons.
At 11:50 PM that night.
The Dark Land official site was about to release its next batch of purchase slots, 1 million slots available for the Human Federation.
In the Skyvault Center's Weapons Development Division, a group of elderly researchers with graying hair opened the official site right on time, ready to compete for a slot.
At exactly midnight, the site's countdown hit zero.
The purchase quota was gone in less than one second.
Inside the A1 weapons lab office, an elderly man sat at his desk, staring at the screen. His sparse, messy hair framed a blue uniform, but his eyes were sharp and bright.
Looking at the failure notification on the website, Yang Tianxuan couldn't help but shake his head in disappointment.
The difficulty of securing a slot was truly frustrating.
He had considered using tech-assisted methods before, but no script could read the website's data, completely impossible.
Thinking about the email Qin Ye had sent, which confirmed that the game perfectly simulated reality and allowed for all kinds of dangerous weapon experiments, Yang Tianxuan's hands itched with excitement.
A perfectly safe testing ground, it was a dream sanctuary for the Weapons Development Division.
Nanoviruses, weather weapons, sky dome arsenals… Much of the advanced technology provided by alien races carried inherent risks during R&D, making experiments nearly impossible.
For example, weather weapons, manipulating weather systems could easily bring catastrophic ecological consequences to Earth.
But in a 100% realistic game environment, all these conceptual weapons could be tested. Once fully developed, they could be implemented in reality.
It would eliminate the environmental and personal dangers that come with immature technologies.
The problem was the sheer difficulty of obtaining access to Dark Land. He had submitted numerous applications to the higher-ups, requesting that the Human Federation negotiate with the Lunar Eclipse Race for more game slots, but no response had come.
Another failed purchase attempt left Yang Tianxuan helpless.
At that moment, he suddenly remembered the email Qin Ye had sent.
He immediately opened his virtual desktop inbox and clicked on the attached link.
The webpage was extremely plain, nearly blank, with only a single clickable compressed download file at the center.
As soon as Yang Tianxuan clicked download, Qi Sheng received a system alert, the Starnet IP address showed it was from the Weapons Development Division at the Skyvault Research Center.
Having learned of the Weapons Development Division's existence through Qin Ye's memory, Qi Sheng decisively granted them additional slots.
Ding!
A crisp download notification sounded, stunning Yang Tianxuan.
The last time he clicked it, he received a message stating that the file was not available for download.
But this time, it was open.
He hadn't even dared hope much during this attempt, yet he actually managed to download the game.
Without hesitation, he immediately opened the group chat software.
Yang Tianxuan (Director, Weapons Development Division): @Everyone, notify all members to click the link Qin Ye provided and download the game immediately!
After tagging everyone three times in a row, Yang Tianxuan couldn't help but laugh out loud.
The disappointment from the failed purchase was completely wiped away.
As for whether the downloaded game would actually run, he wasn't concerned at all.
The Security Center had already informed him, this cracked link most likely originated from inside the Lunar Eclipse Race itself and could connect directly to the Starnet for online play.
Watching the progress bar load, a bold idea formed in Yang Tianxuan's mind.
The experiment process would consume massive amounts of resources, and there were only two ways to acquire resources in-game.
First, spend real money to buy resources from other players.
Second, establish a powerful faction in the game to control resource production directly.
The first option would require applying for additional game funding from above, a complicated process involving detailed proposals.
But the second option had no such complications.
Thinking about his group of super-geniuses in weapons research, Yang Tianxuan immediately conceived the idea of building a powerful faction in the game.
He didn't care how other players played the game.
Since Dark Land perfectly simulated reality, he and his Weapons Development Division members could start from scratch and build a technological weapons army to compete with other players for in-game resources.
And actual combat would serve as a direct test of their new weapons' power.