Chapter 144: Apocalypse Forecast
At this moment, West Lin Town was already swarming with students and teachers wearing Vick University uniforms. Among them, Zhou Ning spotted Leandro de Pessa and Cress Bradenreiser.
The reason he noticed them first was simple: they were surrounded by players trying eagerly to cozy up to them, faces brimming with excitement. Both Leandro and Cress, however, wore helpless expressions, clearly feeling like they had stumbled into a crowd of lunatics.
Zhou Ning couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief—it had been a close call. Vick University's expedition into the Meteorological Tide was likely part of the game's storyline, designed to provide job change quests for players in West Lin Town.
There were quite a few instructors here from the warrior, mage, and meteorological disciplines. With a bit of luck, players could receive quests from them.
Had he arrived a day—or even half a day—later, he might've missed out on drawing in quite a few greenhorns.
Zhou Ning gave Leandro a greeting. As expected, the surrounding players first froze in surprise, then swarmed in with a whoosh, forming a tightly packed circle around him.
Leandro: …
This scene… felt oddly familiar.
Recently, the forums had been filled with Darkland players showing off their post-job-change stunts, bragging about bargain-priced firearms and powerful skills. West Lin Town players, despite being right next door, had long been green with envy. Now, seeing Wayne Sturwell appear here out of nowhere, they were absolutely thrilled.
"Oh my god! Wayne Sturwell is here!"
"Damn, damn—West Lin Town's golden era is finally coming!"
Zhou Ning scanned the crowd but didn't spot any familiar usernames from his previous life. As usual, he posted a D-rank "Power Boost" quest, then opened his personal shop to the players.
Compared to Darkland, Zhou Ning had raised the price of the Devil Fruit from 800 to 1000 Vecktas, with the rest of the items also seeing a bump in price. After witnessing Sunken Star Beneath the Water's extravagant spending, he had no intention of underestimating the spending power of whales.
Besides, it had already been 5 or 6 days since the open beta began—players should've saved up some cash by now.
"Hey, did you notice the protagonist's shop prices went up?"
"No choice, we still gotta buy…"
"Damn, you guys are fast!"
In no time, Zhou Ning's shop inventory was rapidly depleting. Within less than 30 minutes, around 500 players had purchased job change scrolls—an easy 5000 Vecktas earned—and the number was still climbing.
And this was just the beginning.
Zhou Ning could see a steady stream of players arriving from the distance. He didn't need to do a thing—the quest and shop were already set up. He could just stand there posing, daydreaming, or even browse the forums for fun.
---
By now, the forums were already filled with West Lin Town players posting screenshots of themselves posing with Wayne Sturwell, showing off his arrival and once again sparking waves of envy and resentment.
"West Lin Town… if I remember right, that's near Darkland City too. Damn, you lucky kid…"
"Think he'll show up near the Sea? Our newbie village isn't far from West Lin Town."
"Weird, why does only the Wandering Gunslinger class get a main character-slash-mentor like Wayne Sturwell? That's so unfair."
"No kidding. Knight job changes are insane—you gotta do a 12-part questline and grind Temple of Earth reputation. Total nightmare."
These kinds of show-off posts and salty replies were everywhere. Zhou Ning skimmed a few threads and quickly grew bored—until a notification suddenly popped up:
"Important Notice: The first episode of the Apocalypse variety program 'Apocalypse Forecast' is now live on the forums and all major platforms. The show summarizes various developments from the first week of open beta. Players interested are welcome to check it out."
"Oh? 'Apocalypse Forecast' is already out?" Zhou Ning blinked in surprise.
In his previous life, Apocalypse Forecast was an official game-produced variety show, kind of like a knockoff of Happy Camp. It featured professional players playing games, competing, bantering awkwardly—the usual variety show stuff—while covering weekly game news, rankings, pro player gossip, and more. Cringe-worthy? Absolutely. But still, Zhou Ning, like most others, enjoyed the cringe.
In his past life, the show hadn't aired until the first professional league began. He hadn't expected it to drop this early just because of his presence.
Zhou Ning clicked into the pinned post and hit play. As expected, the video opened with a chubby host and a panel of pro players. To his surprise, he even spotted Jinse. Well, well—don't think I don't know this is work hours. Zhou Ning made a mental note to dock her pay.
"Greetings, dear viewers! Welcome to Apocalypse Forecast! Catch us every Saturday at 8 PM sharp—we'll guide your way through the chaos!"
The first episode was about two hours long. The first 20 minutes provided a quick recap of the player base's progress so far in the Apocalypse world.
Roughly a million players had joined the open beta, but fewer than 100,000 had successfully changed jobs. The most popular job was the Esper, mainly because becoming one only required purchasing a low-grade superpower potion for 20 Vecktas. However, quality control was a serious issue—most players ended up with garbage abilities.
Next in popularity were warriors. Their entry requirements were low: anyone with decent natural force affinity could join the faction and get a job change after a few simple quests. Yet despite this, professional players still considered warriors the weakest class. Ridiculous… this generation of pros really was slipping.
Third place belonged to his own class—the Wandering Gunslinger—with fewer than 2,000 players in Darkland City choosing it. However, the host revealed a fun stat: Wandering Gunslinger was the most selected class in the region, with 32% of Darkland players choosing it.
The least populated classes were knight and shaman. Shamans were unique to Northerners and Walrusfolk. Among the few hundred players who picked Walrusfolk as their starting race, most became warriors. Only those with exceptionally high natural force affinity could qualify to become shamans.
In terms of class strength, professional players unanimously agreed that the strongest current class was the Wandering Gunslinger. That said, knights were recognized as having immense potential.
"Besides being powerful, the key appeal of the Wandering Gunslinger is pure style—fancy gunplay never goes out of fashion!"
The host then cut to several PvP highlight clips showing off the Wandering Gunslinger's flair. Of course, there were also some clips of gunslingers getting smacked around by warriors.
After a dart-throwing minigame among the pro players, the discussion continued.
Currently, the top players on the level leaderboard were Jinse and XB, both Wandering Gunslingers, at level 9 and 8.5 respectively. In third place was August, a well-known pro mage from the American Gunfire Club. Sunken Star Beneath the Water, the Devil Fruit user, was ranked fifth.
The video also showed combat footage of Jinse, and clips of Sunken Star Beneath the Water's transformation into a werewolf and subsequent fights.
Thanks to the five earlier promotional trailers, the game's most popular NPC was, unsurprisingly, Zhou Ning—by a landslide. Second was Emlyn, the Punishment Gun from the Byron Republic. Third was the busty beauty, Cress Bradenreiser, who had gotten some screentime through her interactions with players.
Midway through, the host shifted topics and brought up a recent hot thread on the forums—sacrificial events happening to players in Bryston.
Forum posts appeared on screen:
"Help, help, help! Why did I get kidnapped by the Curse God Cult?!"
"Same here—they caught me, sacrificed me, and after I respawned, they grabbed me again. Now they're interrogating me."
"Holy crap, they locked me in a pitch-black room. My willpower stat keeps dropping. The game says I'm being transformed. What do I do?"
"To the guy above—I already got transformed into a tentacle monster. And no, the tentacles aren't on my body—they're on my face like some weird little creature. I want to die…"
"Whoa, the visage of an Old God? How do I get transformed too? I want to be a tentacle freak!"
Some players even posted videos for proof. The footage showed robed cultists from the Curse God Cult escorting several players into a building.
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