Chapter 585: Chapter 556: Demonstration Parade!
Little Wish, who posted the thread, didn’t respond right away and simply replied with a “?”
However, half an hour later, a stranger suddenly appeared in his small base, dropping a lot of TNT explosives, and blasted his entire base to bits before leaving.
This was the first time Little Wish had seen the special weather of [World No. 22]—[Bomb Rain].
It was also the first time he felt the horrifying malice of [World No. 22].
Little Wish went back to his own thread and finally replied, “Sorry, it seems I really don’t belong in this world.”
Then he deleted the thread and completely blacklisted [World No. 22].
He never wanted to go back.
Although the thread was deleted, the incident caused quite a stir among the players.
As tragic as Little Wish’s situation was, it ignited a rebellious spirit in many players, who were determined to try and build a base in [World No. 22].
The natives of [World No. 22] popped out to educate everyone on the unique ecology of this server, especially emphasizing over and over —[never reveal your location!]
Some started pondering, “Should we provide some help to the newcomers? Otherwise, if this goes on for a long time, what if the server ‘dies’?”
There were also some who posted replies @Little Wish, offering to provide supplies and protection, and help him rebuild his base.
— Even though this protection was limited, because in [World No. 22], no one could guarantee absolute safety.
Unfortunately, Little Wish never showed up again.
This incident caused the “My World” section to surpass the popularity of the “Battlefield” section, becoming the most popular section of the entire forum.
However, by the afternoon, the heat of the “Battlefield” section once again overtook it.
The key to this reversal was also due to a thread.
It started with a player posting a complaint — [Your Death is Beyond Your Imagination!]
In the thread, he expressed a heartfelt lament: “From yesterday till now, I don’t know how many times I’ve died, many times I completely don’t know how I died!”
In this thread, many players also expressed the same feelings —
“Without [Combat Sensing], often I have no idea where the bullets are coming from, and I die out of nowhere.”
“The ultimate three questions: Who am I? Where am I? How did I die?”
“It’s ridiculous, all last night, I was crushed by a tank 6 times! You didn’t hear wrong, it’s freaking 6 times! A tank rolled over my face!!”
…
Further down, many people started complaining about their bizarre ways of dying.
Inspired by this thread, Shang Er opened another thread named —
[Ten Thousand Ways To Die In Battlefield—Prize For The Most Ridiculous Death!]
— Yes, this player, the group owner of the Assassins’ Alliance Grand League, the moderator of the “Assassins’ Alliance” section of the Vortex forum, betrayed the revolution and fled to the “Battlefield” section.
This thread became the hottest thread in a very short time.
Many players only knew there were so many ways to die in this game after seeing this thread—
“A St. Chamond charged out of the smoke, and I watched the tank roll over me!”
“I was sniping at the top of the building, playing well, and suddenly a plane dives down. This damn thing doesn’t fire its guns, but insists on using its wings to chop my head!”
“I just have bad luck, I was blown away by a long-distance artillery shell and didn’t die, but I couldn’t land safely. With low health, I crashed into a tree and died on impact – it’s the first time I know that ‘Battlefield’ has collision damage.”
“I accidentally ignited the ammunition depot with a flamethrower, and the ammunition exploded… they really do explode!”
“I was running just fine, when suddenly a pack of explosives fell from the sky and blew up on my head.”
“You were bombed, that’s a conventional death, okay? Would you believe I was struck and killed by a plane on flat ground!”
“I’m even worse, I was impaled by a cavalryman’s spear. Two people skewered on one spear! I saw my own corpse and the next victim close together…”
…
Those other “normal” deaths like “being stealth attack and throat slashed,” “being stabbed with a syringe,” “being burnt by a flamethrower soldier,” “being slashed by a horse blade,” “being strafed by anti-aircraft guns” couldn’t even make it to the front line because of less likes.
But up to this point, this thread was still at the normal “hot thread” level, far from surpassing [The World No. 22 Disaster].
What really pushed the heat of this thread to the top was a special reply.
A player didn’t mention his unusual death in the game, but instead he replied –
“Just thinking of our fathers, and their fathers… the countless soldiers who have died in similar ways on the battlefield, I can’t help but feel… extremely saddened.”
As soon as this response was posted, the heated atmosphere instantly cooled down.
Everyone began to consciously ponder: Did this statement make sense? Is this possible in reality?
However, the moment the thinking began, the answer immediately emerged: Of course it’s possible!
Even though the wars in which our fathers participated were not wars fought a hundred years ago, as times progress, wars only get more brutal. The cruelty of the wars they took part in wouldn’t be any less than what’s depicted in the games.
And if we delve deeper into it, tracing back to our “fathers’ fathers” and so on, Daxia too wasn’t absent from the wars hundred years ago!
Those gruesome deaths in the game might have truly taken place in history!
——Of course, we have to disregard the outlandish ways of death such as “plane haircut”.
After a moment of silence, the post once again became lively. However, the topic had shifted; everyone began to commemorate heroic deeds and recall stories of martyrs from history and those passed down by their elders.
This instantly elevated an originally comical post to a whole new level.
*
While Daxia players were recalling the stories of heroes online, British players were starting their battles in reality.
After yesterday’s planning and preparation, the protest demonstration organized by the players finally began.
——Strictly speaking, this is illegal.
In UK, if one wants to organize a protest march, they must notify the police at least six days in advance.
This march was organized yesterday and took to the streets today, obviously without complying to relevant regulations.
However, the players participating in the march didn’t feel any psychological burden——Anyway, throughout the whole of Europe, conducting protest activities without prior notice were nothing unusual.
Moreover, the scale of this protest far exceeded anticipations!
According to Cloud Dream’s data, in the current UK, the total number of Mirage Console players is just over 230,000——of course, this is only the increment in a week, the potential of the UK market is far more than this.
Even though 230,000 may seem like a large number, considering the total population of the UK being over 67 million, it’s not much at all.
Not to mention that the protest demonstration is an offline event, requiring everybody to gather together. The distribution of these over 200,000 people spread across the country obviously makes it impossible for all to gather and march in protest——players were initially not a group fancied much about street fights.
Therefore, during their planning yesterday, they expected to gather 1,200 participants in London for the march. Starting from Trafalgar Square, passing through St. James’s Park, Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey and finally reaching the Westminster Palace ——a.k.a. the Parliament Building.
In reference to past protest events, this is quite a large scale and the government couldn’t possibly ignore this kind of scale of protest.
Therefore, at four o’clock in the afternoon in Daxia, just 8 AM in London, players participating in the protest march started to step out of their houses and headed towards Trafalgar Square.
What caught them by surprise was: once the march started, the scale of the protest began to uncontrollably rapidly expand. At Trafalgar Square, there were still less than 1,000 people, but by the time they crossed St. James’s Park, the number of people had doubled.
By the time they reached the final destination of the march——Parliament Building, the number of people had increased by a total of five times, forming a vehement tide of protest.
A player, wearing a silver-white headband and waving a flag, curiously asked one of the young men who joined midway: “Are you a virtual reality game player too?”
“No, I’m not.” The young man shook his head.
“Then are you planning to be a player in the future?”
“No.” The young man shook his head again, “I don’t play games much.”
“Ah?” The player with the headband was puzzled: “Then why did you join the march?”
The young man pointed to his flag. The flag read: [Protesting against the arbitrary expansion of government power, infringing upon citizens’ freedom of life and entertainment!]
“Though I don’t play games, I support you all. Today they can ban you guys from playing games, tomorrow they can ban others from gambling, drinking, smoking, parkour, skateboarding…”
The player inspected the young man up and down and guessed, “So… you like to drink? Or, are you a skateboarder?”
Once again, the young man shook his head: “None of those, I just think you guys are right, and also, I like to march!”
“You like to march??” This unexpected answer obviously startled the player.
Looking at the stunned player, the young fellow pointed to the flag and asked, “Can I play with your flag?”
The player silently gave him the flag and glanced at the dense crowd of protesters, noticing that every face was filled with excitement and zeal.
However, he suddenly became doubtful about who these people actually were…