Alpha 0.2 Version Update

Official Website: [Wasteland OL Closed Beta Server Alpha 0.2 Version Update Announcement] [Major Updates: 1. The number of closed beta players has been increased to 30. 2. The expansion pack "Winter Is Coming" is now live: The game will enter winter within thirty days, and the temperature will drop to minus ten degrees within sixty days. If the invasion of severe cold is successfully resisted, all players during the closed beta phase who maintain an average daily online time of 4 hours or more will receive the limited title "Winter Warrior." If the challenge ends in failure, the game server will shut down for a set period and will relaunch for closed beta testing only after difficulty adjustments are completed. ] [Optimizations: 1. More realistic physics system. 2. More varied mutated creatures. 3. Increased degree of freedom. 4. A few minor bugs fixed. 5. ... ] [The Player Handbook has been updated to version 2.0. Players who have obtained invitation qualifications, please review it promptly.] [Current pre-registrations: 113 players] *Holy crap.* In the time it took to refresh the page, two more people had pre-registered. At this very moment, Chu Guang sat in the shelter's resident hall, staring at the website backend on the computer screen, turning things over in his mind. *Where did all these people come from?* There weren't even that many living souls in the group chat... Alt accounts? Impossible. No one could create an alt account on Wasteland OL's official website. Never mind changing IP addresses—even swapping heads wouldn't work. Pre-registration qualifications were just like helmets: tied to the person, not the computer. Chu Guang opened the forum and took a look. There were plenty of familiar IDs, but also quite a few he had never seen before. Quitting Smoking: [Why are there suddenly so many people on the forum??? Where did you all come from!] Kakarot from the Future: [A King of Glory team-up group? I saw someone post a link.] Elaina: [I'm different. I came from an NSFW group. (Smirk)] All the Good Names Are Taken by Dogs: [Brother, take a step aside and share the link.] A Touch of Longing: [(Munching melon)] Tengteng: [What kind of game is this? Is it legit?] Daily Demon King: [+1, same question.] Quitting Smoking: [No need to ask, you can tell it's shady at a glance. Do the people above look decent to you? I'm begging you all, definitely don't pre-register! It's fake, fake, all fake! (Frantic)] Tengteng: [≡ω≡] Daily Demon King: [Farewell.] Chu Guang: "..." *Does this Quitting Smoking have a screw loose???* The official forum had finally gained a bit of popularity, yet before it could even warm up, this guy had scared one off. Quite possibly more than one... Chu Guang was left speechless, though he didn't take it to heart too much. He wasn't a petty man. After browsing the forum, Chu Guang had a rough idea of why a large wave of new users had suddenly appeared recently. Some chatterbox had likely taken screenshots from the Ox and Horse Club chat and shared them along with the official website link to other gaming groups. After that, this *Wasteland OL*, which had nothing more than an official website, lore settings, and empty promises, had somehow blown up in gaming circles. Many new users had jumped on the bandwagon from other gaming groups, mostly asking awkward questions like "what the hell kind of game is this," "when will the closed beta start," "can you take off your pants," and "is there censorship mosaic?" As for people actually discussing the game's content, there were hardly any. Chu Guang couldn't help wondering if he should appoint a few moderators to help manage the forum. Switching to the desktop to log in to QQ, Chu Guang opened the "Ox and Horse Club" gaming group. Right now, it was bustling with activity. Discussions about closed beta qualifications seemed to have already taken place earlier; now the conversation was entirely focused on the Alpha 0.2 update and the "Winter Is Coming" expansion. A game still in its closed beta stage was already releasing an expansion pack? This was simply absurd! Scavenger Lv99: [Damn, doesn't that mean anyone without a closed beta slot will miss out completely?] Who Doesn't Understand Love: [Completely absurd!] Quitting Smoking: [Someone tag that dog planner! Recruit more people! I don't need to be paid! No, I can pay you!] Scavenger Lv99: [@Guang, someone's calling you a dog planner.] Quitting Smoking: [Crap!] ("Quitting Smoking" retracted a message) Chu Guang: "..." *Why is it this guy again?* Just as Chu Guang was considering whether to pop in and say something, he suddenly noticed a private message from Ample Time Ahead. [Brother Guang, you there? (Grin)] Curious about what the guy wanted to say, Chu Guang typed a reply. [Just finished up. What's up?] Ample Time Ahead: [There's something I've been really confused about, and I wanted to ask your advice... That NPC called the Manager—is he played by an employee of your company, or is he an AI?] Worried that this brother might find it inconvenient to answer, he immediately followed up with another sentence after sending that. [I'm just asking casually, haha. If it involves company secrets or anything, just pretend I never asked.] Guang: [No problem. It's not really a secret, and besides, a lowly planner like me wouldn't have access to confidential stuff anyway.] Delighted, Fang Chang hurriedly typed. [Mm-hmm! Please do tell!] Chu Guang thought about it, then shamelessly tapped on his keyboard. [Simply put, his existence is very special.] *Special!* *Holy crap.* *This NPC really isn't simple!* Keenly catching the two keywords, Ample Time Ahead was thrilled, his thumbs flying across the phone screen. [Can you be more specific!] Guang: [He is the first-generation complete artificial intelligence developed by our company.] [Complete artificial intelligence??] Fang Chang was completely baffled. This was far beyond his scope of knowledge. However— *It sounds incredible!* Sitting before his computer, Fang Chang's eyes sparkled. He wished this "insider" would spill even more. And Brother Guang didn't disappoint him, continuing to type on the screen. Guang: [That's right, an artificial intelligence completely close to a human being!] Guang: [He possesses his own personality, memories, thought patterns, values, and behavioral motivations. That is why we granted him the authority to restrain players and the duty to guide players into the game.] *It really is like that!* *I'm a damn genius!* Fang Chang was so excited that he nearly dropped his phone on his face. His trembling thumbs kept typing. Ample Time Ahead: [I get it! No wonder his decisions can affect your testing progress! Actually, I already noticed that the content of the game itself has been developed to a remarkably thorough stage. That immersive feeling is practically like a real world! Without exaggeration, even someone as nitpicky as me couldn't find a single obvious bug!] Ample Time Ahead: [If there's only one flaw in the ointment, it's probably just that there are too few NPCs! So back then, I thought, could it be that what you're testing isn't the game itself, but rather the game's AI? Even the "Winter Is Coming" expansion launched in the Alpha 0.2 update is for this purpose... Am I right?] *Right on the mark!* *Straight to the point!* That was Ample Time Ahead's evaluation of his own deduction. Piecing together the various clues, he felt he had thoroughly penetrated the game developer's intentions. The group members were all discussing why *Wasteland OL* would launch a "Winter Is Coming" expansion pack during closed beta testing. In his eyes, all those fragmented conclusions and speculations thrown around in the chat were merely skin-deep. At best, they saw only the first layer, or not even that. Only he had ascended to the stratosphere on this one! The mysterious enterprise developing *Wasteland OL* appeared to be testing a game on the surface, but in reality, what they were truly testing was a "complete artificial intelligence" running within the game framework! And this expansion titled "Winter Is Coming" was precisely this mysterious company's trial of their "first-generation complete artificial intelligence"! The silence lasted for a moment. Seeing that the brother named "Guang" hadn't replied, Fang Chang already had his answer, the corners of his mouth curving up unconsciously. *I really am a genius!* Guang: [You're very sharp.] Guang: [It is indeed just as you said. The "Winter Is Coming" expansion is indeed meant to test the performance of the first-generation complete artificial intelligence, and this is also a necessary procedure for unlocking the next round of testing.] As he typed these words, Chu Guang quietly deleted the explanation he had just drafted in a text document. He felt that this brother's wild nonsense sounded far more convincing. Fair's fair—this guy was genuinely a talent. At least in terms of imagination... Ample Time Ahead: [I roughly get what you mean. So the testing progress is indeed influenced by the development of the game's storyline, right?] Guang: [Yes.] Ample Time Ahead: [And at this stage, the only one who can advance the plot is the Manager of Shelter 404, right?] Guang: [Correct.] Ample Time Ahead: [Thank you! I understand! Sorry to trouble you, and thanks for sharing so much inside information with me. But don't worry, I will definitely keep it a secret! (Grin)] Guang: [Actually, it's not really classified insider info. It's fine if you don't keep it a secret.] Ample Time Ahead: [No, no, no, I will definitely keep it secret, you can rest assured! Everyone who knows me knows I'm super reliable! (Grin) (Grin)] Chu Guang: "..." *Is this the legendary corporate-level overthinking?* He had truly learned something new.