Dark Magician Isekai: Return and make Fantasy World into a VR Game

That very same evening, the ten helmets that should still have been in transit at the logistics center arrived in the hands of the task force that had personally traveled to G Province.

When forcibly dismantling a helmet, they were surprised to discover that the contact area between the helmet and the back of the head would turn into powder once pried opened. Thus, the task force halted this wasteful behavior and proceeded with the experiment on equipping comatose patients with helmets.

Comatose patients were unable to connect to the official website or fill in their own IDs, so the scientists decided to randomly assign an ID and equip the patients with the login helmet.

At the same time, to check if the consciousness of comatose patients would appear "in-game," Lu Yiyun took a helmet for herself and filled in her own real name as the ID in order to accompany the comatose patients in "logging in" to the game.

Soon, a skeleton with the name "Lu Yiyun" displayed above its head appeared at Exile Town's spawn point.

Lu Yiyun surveyed her surroundings in amazement. The place didn't seem like a virtual game, but rather, a real world.

In the spirit of scientific investigation, Director Lu tried taking a deep breath. She noticed that although she was controlling a skeletal frame and could feel the airflow rushing into her mouth during the "breathing" motion, the airflow stopped once it reached the mouth and couldn't actually be inhaled.

She then moved her "body" and discovered that it was incredibly agile. There was no stiffness when she moved, and due to the skeleton frame weighing 60% less than a normal human body, Director Lu found that she could easily jump up and down as if she was twenty years of age, even though she was over forty in the real world.

While Director Lu stood around curiously exploring the spawn point, several players clad in T-shirts and shorts with green names above their heads passed by and stared at her in shock.

"Is that a new player?? Have new closed beta accounts been released?!"

"I did see on the forum in the afternoon that they were issuing new accounts, but there wasn't any official announcement regarding how the accounts would be distributed!"

"Whoa, did those unscrupulous developers release new accounts? That's some shady business!"

"Quick, let's log out and check the forum!"

The few players rushed onto the spawn point's platform in a hurry.

Lu Yiyun watched with wide eyes as these skeleton players sank into the ground, mouth agape in disbelief as she approached the spot where they disappeared.

Before she could make any sense of what she had witnessed, the players who had just sunk down began to reemerge from the ground in succession.

"They distributed the accounts without any official announcement! Those damn developers truly pulled off some dirty tricks!"

"Damn it, I was just about to help my mom apply for an account. She's been bedridden for months after a leg injury."

These players started complaining the moment they logged in. One player noticed Lu Yiyun was still around at the spawn point and boldly approached her. "Dude, how did you get your account? Did you trade with the developers or have some connections?"

"Um…" was all Lu Yiyun could say.

"Ah, it's a girl. Sorry about that," the player quickly corrected himself and spoke more sincerely, "Could you tell me how you got the new account? I want to get one for my mom too."

Being in her forties, Lu Yiyun felt incredibly awkward at being addressed as a girl by this clueless player. She hesitated and replied, "Well… I'm sorry, young man, but I can't provide specific details. In any case, it's not what you guys are thinking."

That player quickly realized that the person he had mistaken for a young girl was probably not around the same age as his mother. Feeling slightly intimidated, he said sheepishly, "Sorry to bother you, Auntie."

As those players walked away, Lu Yiyun could still hear them muttering stuff like, "Told you not to just call anyone a girl," and "How was I supposed to know?"

Lu Yiyun shook her head and stood at the spawn point, waiting.

After about 10 minutes, her heart sank when she still didn't see anyone come "online."

She logged out of the game, and the faces of people in the room grew dim as they saw her expression.

Lu Yiyun took a deep breath. "Next patient, please."

The helmet that was on Patient 1's head was now transferred to Patient 2.

After 10 minutes, it was changed to Patient 3.

After three consecutive tries, the scientists in the task force had to accept the reality.

"After the helmet is put on a patient, there is a brief fluctuation in their brain waves and magnetic resonance imaging, though it isn't as clear as that of a normal person's brain wave imaging," sighed one of the experts in the neuroscience field. "This does confirm our speculation that the helmet operates by reading brain wave signals. However, the brain wave activity generated by the interaction of the patients' neurons is too weak, and likely the reason for the failure of this experiment."

Lu Yiyun nodded solemnly and let out a long sigh.

Neural electrical signals discovered and verified by Earth's scientists had similarities to the theory of mental energy fluctuations in the magic plane.

The mental imprints embedded in the helmets by Yang Qiu had already been greatly watered down to adapt to the average mental strength of a person from Earth. However, regardless of how weakened it was, activating the mental imprints and entering the matrix still required mental energy within the standard range, which meant the brain wave activity of a normal person.

Of course, the scientists would not give up so easily. Even though the patients' consciousness could not awaken in the "game," the brief activity in their brain wave imaging while the helmet was equipped still had research value.

As the scientific team discussed how to use the helmets to provide "massage" and stimulation therapy for patients in vegetative states, one of the helmets, under Professor Yin Zhengliang's instructions, was sent to a military hospital in G Province.

Saturday, October 12, 11 a.m. Earth time.

A special new player came online at Exile Town's spawn point.

Unlike ordinary players who curiously surveyed the surroundings in awe when they logged in, being curious about this world that felt so realistic and unlike a game, this new player… seemed more curious about himself.

From the moment he entered the game, the player kept his head down, looking at his own two feet. Then, he carefully lifted one foot up, seemingly cherishing the moment, before lowering it. Then he lifted it again, then lowered it, repeating the steps over and over.

The sensation of being grounded seemed to deeply resonate with the new player. He slowly squatted down and gently caressed the bony feet with his hands, fully focused on his actions.

Several seconds later, the new player suddenly stood up and began sprinting down the streets like a madman.

"What the hell! Watch where you are going!" A group of players heading to log out at the spawn point were nearly knocked into and shouted out.

"Sorry!" The new player turned around and apologized, but didn't stop running and continued on ahead.

"Wait a minute. Ji Tang? I haven't seen that ID before, and he's not wearing any clothes. A new player?!" The player who narrowly avoided a collision watched in shock as the naked skeleton ran off into the distance. "Damn, so what they said on the forum was true! The development team issued new accounts?!"

"It's not easy to get an account now. Helmets that aren't bound to any account are sold for five-figure prices," one of the player's friends remarked. "Come on, let's log out for a quick meal. After lunch, we can join Boss Vanilla and the others to explore the Spider Cave."

Another of their friends shook his head. "You guys go ahead and grind later. I don't feel like going to feed and will head back to clear some quests till I reach level 1 and change jobs."

"Come on, Lao San. Lost your motivation after just a few wipes yesterday?"

"It's different, bro. Being wiped in other games means being able to retry right away. But, in this game, you are kicked offline and have to wait for half an hour. It's just too frustrating…"

"What's the difference? If we get team wiped during a Neferian raid, we still have gotta waste half an hour."

"Haa, too difficult. This game is just too difficult."

Not long after this group logged out, other groups of laboring players also rushed to the spawn point to log out in groups of twos and threes to have meals since the advanced NPCs had gotten off work.

"Sis Ying, Qingyue, should we challenge the Spider Cave again in the afternoon?" Tang Jia suggested.

"I think we should forget it," Yang Ying sighed. "Players are too weak right now and it's a slaughter when we go in. Let's all level up first before deciding."

"Yeah," sighed lone wolf Jia Luo, who had recently joined their little all-girl team. "Yesterday, we followed the large group in, being cautious and keeping our distance, but as soon as they were wiped out, we had no chance to flee as well."

"Ah? You guys aren't going?" Tang Jia asked dejectedly.

Since the worldview breakthrough quest was conquered by players, and the monster spawn spot, Spider Cave, was opened, players had been actively forming teams of all sizes, with more than two hundred people rushing to Spider Cave… Suffice to say the first group of heroes was wiped out in under ten minutes.

Angry players that were kicked offline flooded the forums, complaining about the dense and treacherous monster spawns and stating that players were defenseless against them. In response, Yang Qiu promptly opened up the weapon and armor vendors, selling bulk-purchased steel-blade knives and some patched faux-leather armor vests made by prisoners.

A steel-blade knife was priced at 20 copper coins, while an ugly steel-plated leather armor cost 30 copper coins. Players expressed that the prices were reasonable, and a complete set could be afforded from just two days of grinding. Fully equipped, they regrouped and attempted another battle… only to be wiped out again.

Quite a number of players lost their equipment, especially their weapons. Being from Earth and having little combat experience meant that players were prone to inadvertently release their grips on weapons before their health bars were fully depleted. Yang Qiu secretly sent a few summoned creatures to retrieve the dropped weapons from players and collected more copper coins for free.

After experiencing two consecutive wipes, the players remained spirited and devised a method of tightly binding the steel-blade knives to their hands with vine strips while rallying a large group to continue their assault.

This time, the players successfully killed a dozen or so spider monsters, but someone accidentally stepped on spider eggs, triggering an onslaught of spider monsters and resulting in yet another wipe.

By this morning, the leaders who could rally a large group, Brother Lahong and Vanilla Pudding, had ceased their efforts and organized the players who were playing with them to do some labor while spreading the word of regrouping for another battle in the afternoon and inviting interested teams to join.

Despite what the others in her party thought, Tang Jia was genuinely interested in joining.

"How about you go play with Vanilla's group in the afternoon, Tang Jia?" Zheng Qingyue suggested. "I'll focus on raising my reputation with Lord Yang in the next few days so I can transition to being a support character. We can form a small team later on."

"But if I play with them too much and get invited to join their Blood Alliance, then I'll feel bad turning them down," Tang Jia was hesitant.

"Your sense of self-awareness is way too exaggerated. Didn't you see the explanation in the update announcement? A level-1 Blood Alliance can only have 30 members. Take a look at how many people are playing with Vanilla Boss. They might not even accept you even if you wanted to join their alliance," Zheng Qingyue taunted her childhood friend without showing mercy.

"Hehe… You're right. I'll go play with them then," Tang Jia chuckled sheepishly while rubbing her smooth skull.

"Don't always think about playing. Hurry up and raise your reputation with the Warrior Instructor. It would be ridiculous if you have enough Potential but lack the reputation to transition to a new job," Yang Ying advised.

"Don't worry, Sis Ying. I've got it under control!" Tang Jia waved her hand confidently.

The giggling girls said their goodbyes before going offline. About forty minutes of game time later, they logged back in nearly at the same time.

With her heart bent on fighting monsters, Tang Jia hastily said farewell to her companions and dashed over to the group that was about to go monster hunting. Zheng Qingyue and Yang Ying shook their heads, then joined Jia Luo to clear zombie quests. They had followed a large group into the Spider Cave yesterday and had either lost their weapons or armor. Now, they had to make an effort to recover those losses.

The three of them spent about half an hour completing the popular manual labor quests given by the zombie Bierda when they saw Vanilla Pudding and Brother Lahong leading a large group of players in a grand procession on a nearby street.

"I wonder how long they'll last this time?" Yang Ying said while pounding a wooden pillar with a large hammer to solidify it as a foundation.

"With yesterday's experience, they probably wouldn't die so miserably today," replied Zheng Qingyue as she mixed cement. "The large group won't all enter the Spider Cave. They'll carefully lure the monsters out in batches to fight, so they should be able to hold on."

"Most importantly, players haven't changed their classes and don't have any skills, so it's quite difficult for them to fight monsters," Jia Luo said while swiftly smearing the cement on bricks. "Even the dreamweaver, which was easiest to fight, required us to destroy its abdomen to completely kill it. That's not mentioning the razor spider. If it is drawn over, there won't be any survivors."

A male player, who was also doing quests, waited for a long time for the opportunity to interrupt. "Did you girls go to the Spider Cave yesterday? Why aren't you going today?"

"We lost our equipment, so we need to earn money to buy new stuff," Yang Ying replied in earnest.

"Heh, do girls need to buy their own equipment when playing games?" the male player said with a sleazy tone. "Just find a husband."

Yang Ying frowned. The players she had encountered in this game had been quite decent overall, but this was the first time she had come across such a senseless person.

Before Yang Ying could retort, Jia Luo pointed at the male player. "Your wall is crooked."

"Eh?"

"It's really crooked," said Jia Luo. "Look closely. You better fix it quickly, or when you turn in the quest to the NPC, he'll make you tear it down and rebuild it from scratch, wasting your efforts."

The male player doubtfully took a step back, took a careful look, and started sweating… It wasn't just slightly crooked; it was crooked as hell.

Thus, the male player quickly dismantled the wall while the cement hadn't yet dried and started over…

"I think I've almost become a skilled mason after doing manual labor for so long," sighed Jia Luo to her two companions. "If I had the physical strength in real life and was not afraid of getting sunburned, I would consider working at a construction site."

Yang Ying and Zheng Qingyue burst into laughter together.

Though, after laughing, Zheng Qingyue grumbled, "This game really has no limits. At first, I thought that getting players to demolish abandoned buildings, sweep streets, and clear garbage was already the limit. I never imagined we would still make bricks and cement to build houses."

"Yeah. The NPCs even have this function where they won't accept the quest submission if the construction quality is too poor," Jia Luo grumbled. "If not for us being skeleton characters who don't get tired and aren't afraid of the sun, this game would be unplayable."

"Well, fortunately, the houses the zombies want us to build are quite simple. They aren't much different from the pigsty I helped my uncle build in the countryside when I was younger. Otherwise, I doubt many people would be able to continue working," Yang Ying said.

"Sigh, what's the point of zombies living in nice houses anyway? I haven't seen these zombie NPCs moving an inch, even when they're squatting outside, exposed to the sun and rain," Jia Luo added. "I'm glad I worked on increasing my Ranger reputation early on. Now the reputation quests over at the Wanderer Guild's site are ridiculously difficult. The criteria for acceptance are much higher than the zombie NPCs. Lots of players have spent hours working, but their work is still deemed unsatisfactory. Many cursed and even went offline to watch videos on how to build walls. It's really miserable."

"Hey, the Warrior Construction site isn't much better either," Yang Ying said, not knowing whether to cry or laugh.

"Say, Jia Luo, don't be too gleeful about having reached a Friendly reputation with the instructor. It's not like you won't have to increase your reputation with the Ranger Instructor in the future. Don't you still have to undertake a second advancement quest to become a Ranger?" Zheng Qingyue teased.

"That's something for later on, 100 Potential points are required for the second advancement. It's way too early to be talking about it. By the time I need to raise my reputation again, the Wanderer Guild will probably have been fully constructed already," replied Jia Luo nonchalantly.

The girls chatted and laughed while they worked, unaffected by fatigue, thirst, dust, or sunburn. With a positive mindset, they could even treat bricklaying as playing with building blocks… except that it was just a bit dirty. After completing their quests, they had to go to the river to wash off the dirt on their bones.

After about an hour of gameplay, several players who hung out with Brother Lahong, like Phantom and Guileless Gale, ran over to different construction sites and shouted, "Brothers and sisters, listen up! The market's highest price for copper coins is ten to one! We support various transaction methods, with guaranteed credibility. If you want to sell, do so quickly!"

The price of copper coins didn't fall after the auction for the Undead Horse concluded. There were two reasons for this: First, most players had sold or lent their previously accumulated copper coins and didn't have much money left; second, many people believed that valuable items worth spending on would be released, so the value of copper coins wouldn't fall much and many players were hoarding coins.

Sure enough, when the Spider Cave was released and advanced NPCs started selling equipment and weapons, the copper coin market came alive once more.

"Looks like they were wiped out again." Jia Luo shook her head sympathetically.

"Most likely," Yang Ying agreed. "These people are really strange. Why do they keep trying over and over when they know they can't win?"

"Don't you get it? Don't be fooled by Brother Lahong and Vanilla Boss acting all friendly and working together. They're actually competing with each other below the surface." Jia Luo smirked. "It's hard to say whether dungeons would be introduced to this game in the future. Right now, the only place where players can farm monsters is the Spider Cave. Whichever side manages to establish a stable presence there and can consistently farm will have solo players and small teams flocking over to them.

"Even if these people can't join their Blood Alliance for the time being, they can still be arranged as reserve members of their own secondary or tertiary alliances," Jia Luo continued. "With the limited player population in this game, the key is to gather people to your side in advance. By doing so, the opponents won't have a chance to grow, and the position of the top Blood Alliance will be secured."

Yang Ying looked at Jia Luo in astonishment, then turned toward Zheng Qingyue. Though they hadn't known each other for long, Yang Ying trusted Zheng Qingyue's intelligence.

Zheng Qingyue nodded. "Jia Luo is right. By laying a solid foundation for the 'top Blood Alliance' now, when new players join the game in the future, those that are strong will likely join the top Blood Alliance."

"Who knew there were so many intricacies in playing a game?" Yang Ying couldn't help but be amazed.

Zheng Qingyue chuckled. "Didn't Brother Lahong and Vanilla Boss specifically approach us to chat? They wanted to recruit us."

"Huh?" Yang Ying was a little slow to catch on. "Wasn't all that just normal conversation?"

Zheng Qingyue shook her head with a smile. Yang Ying, who was two years older, didn't lack intelligence, she was just a bit unconcerned with minor details.

Patiently, Zheng Qingyue explained, "I sent Tang Jia to join Vanilla Boss' team because he's a somewhat popular streamer who cares about his image. If Tang Jia joined Brother Lahong's team, I reckoned she wouldn't be able to come back to us."

Yang Ying. "…"

"So, that's why I don't like joining those big guilds and factions in games. I can tolerate mandatory activities, but I can't stand all the scheming and infighting," Jia Luo remarked. "In a game I played before, there were several factions on the server, constantly vying with each other. When one faction couldn't surpass the others, they invited a studio from another server to engage in 24-hour vendetta killing against their rival factions. There were endless flame wars every day, and it became incredibly annoying."

"Ohh!" Yang Ying was intrigued. "I thought studios were just like Eight At Once and his bunch that are always diligently doing manual labor. I didn't realize they played so fiercely!"

Zheng Qingyue smiled. "It's quite normal. In some games, the top guilds are actually studios. Studios will do anything to make money. Paid assassinations, seizing resources from regular players, and even monopolizing certain special materials on the server. Eight At Once and his group, who focus solely on gold farming, are in the minority."

Jia Luo nodded in agreement. "Exactly. Thankfully, this game has a small player base and high entry requirements. If it were open registration, regular solo players wouldn't have a chance to receive manual labor quests from zombie NPCs. Studios would monopolize them. Three copper coins go for 30 yuan at present, and one hour of gameplay only equals half an hour in real-time. Just imagine how eager studios would be to snatch such an opportunity."

"If studios monopolize the majority of the copper coin production from zombie NPC quests, the price of copper coins wouldn't be just 10 yuan," Zheng Qingyue explained.

"That's right, they would definitely drive up the prices," Jia Luo agreed with a nod.

Yang Ying got slightly befuddled the more she listened… Should she be happy that there weren't that many players and celebrate the fact that she could work as a manual laborer in the game?

"Seems like playing games isn't as simple as it appears, huh," a player who was also doing the same quest as them couldn't help but speak up after listening for some time.

"Yeah… um?" Jia Luo turned to look at the player who had been silently laying bricks. "Ji Tang? I haven't seen that ID before."

The player with the ID Ji Tang displayed above his head and wearing only beginner gear without a waist pouched gave Jia Luo a friendly smile. "Hello, I'm a newcomer who just logged into the game today."

"What the hell! Watch where you are going!" A group of players heading to log out at the spawn point were nearly knocked into and shouted out.

"Are you a 'nepo'?" Zheng Qingyue asked curiously. "Do you know someone from the development team?"

"Um… I don't know anyone. This helmet was given to me by someone, and I have no idea how it came about," Ji Tang replied calmly.

Upon hearing the word "given," Yang Ying scrutinized the new player with curiosity. Although Yang Ying was a gaming newbie, she had been playing for quite a few days and had also spent time browsing the forum.

Besides five-figure sums offered to purchase unbound helmets, there was also a trend of people queuing up to be the first to get helmets… This actually made Yang Ying nervous deep down. She had messaged her younger brother via social media several times, asking if the helmet he had given her would cause dissatisfaction among others or result in him being fined.

Because her own helmet was a gift from her brother, and even though Ji Tang had denied it, Yang Ying subconsciously regarded this new player as a fellow "nepo"—meaning someone related to personnel on the game development team, like a relative or friend.

"Have you played games before?" Yang Ying, feeling a sense of camaraderie, took the initiative to strike up a conversation with Ji Tang.

"I played before I enlisted," Ji Tang replied in earnest.

"Oh, so you've served in the military?" Now Jia Luo was also interested. She sized up the player and specifically viewed the wall in front of him. "Speaking of which, you have a certain military air, and you've built this wall quite well."

"I'm from the countryside, and my family's financial situation wasn't great. During vacations while I was studying, I would work on construction sites. I also helped relatives and neighbors with house construction and expansion," Ji Tang explained, slightly embarrassed.

Ji Tang's voice sounded very young, and in general, it was quite difficult for a young male to admit to a group of young ladies he had just met that his family's financial conditions weren't good. Most people couldn't help but succumb to vanity and boast or embellish their own image. However, Ji Tang's honesty quickly gained the favor of several female players, and they included him in their conversation.

Ji Tang, who mustered up the courage to join the conversations after listening quietly for a while, secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

It could be said that he had accomplished his initial task of infiltrating the inner circle of players.