Chapter 758: Chapter 718: Donating Super Computing
Giselle is a complete novice who hasn’t even tried the game’s main storyline. Standing here purely as a blank slate without any skills or weapons, she is truly pitiable.
Fortunately, she’s not alone.
Today in Rio, there are at least 200,000 players just as helpless as her.
That’s because just yesterday, a large deep-sea cargo ship finally arrived at Rio’s port after drifting at sea for a month.
A whopping 4 million Mirage Consoles reached Brazil, and the local game company, Samba Game Studios (SGS), completed the receiving process as quickly as possible and distributed the consoles nationwide.
Orders from Rio itself were prioritized due to its geographical advantage.
As a result, a large number of Rio’s players successfully logged into the virtual world today with the help of that “mysterious software.”
Due to the innate desire of gamers not to miss out on the latest events, many flocked to Cloud Dream’s newest activities as soon as they entered the game.
Among them, players who chose casual games and the Dinosaur Island had a generally good experience, as there were no entry barriers, and other players were happy to help, making it easy for them to join the masses and have fun.
However, for the players who chose to come to the Metropolis to join the [Giant Dragon Invasion], things weren’t so great.
With no max-level physical abilities and no [Assassin Bloodline] skill effects, they were hardly qualified to step foot into the extraordinary battlefield, not to mention being weaponless.
They could only come here to watch the excitement and then either die miserably or switch locations.
Yet, this still pales in comparison to those players who attempt to play [Extraordinary Battlefield] thinking they could also get an [Armament Box].
Their experiences were nothing short of tragic.
Throwing untrained newbies into a battlefield filled with veterans and immortals could only result in disaster, even without considering what might happen.
If they went to play a normal mode game with matchmaking, they might get matched with other newbies or weak old hands.
Even if they tried joining nationwide warfare, they could still match against T3 War Zone opponents and even play a Fish Pond round.
Even if they lost, at least they had fun.
But [Extraordinary Battlefield] is no place for newbies, as they don’t even know how they’re dying-
Crossing paths with raised gun barrels, their heads start spewing blood.
Attempting stealth, their bullets miss, and the opponent’s silhouette blurs before slipping away!
Sheltered behind cover shooting mortars, bullets curve and end up blowing their heads off.
…
Finishing an entire game with 0 kills and 50 deaths is typical.
Although they could use those abilities too, they just can’t turn the tide and end up being abused mercilessly.
In short, their gaming experience was terrible!
*
While Giselle was helplessly contacting her classmates, Lincoln came to the company.
However, before going to the “Chang’an” development team, he noticed a large number of American players connecting to the server.
It wasn’t that the players’ complaints reached him. Instead, their connection to Cloud Dream’s server was a bit strange.
Lincoln still remembers that America’s Internet infrastructure differs from Europe and Daxia’s due to its status as America’s backyard.
Furthermore, Cloud Dream had been “blacklisted” by America for a long time, refusing any cooperation, including console sales, and demanding that other American countries reject Cloud Dream’s collaboration.
American countries being extorted by America for a long time naturally weren’t willing to comply easily, insisting on refusing cooperation but still wanting consoles.
But that was the most significant achievement, as they heavily relied on America’s Internet and had no resistance power.
As a result, Cloud Dream didn’t have servers throughout America, be it North or South.
But in the last two days, a large number of American players connected successfully — not only from Brazil but also Mexico.
Both these major Latin American game markets had players accessing the servers, and in just two days, over a million had successfully connected, with the number growing every second.
Lincoln understood the console situation since a month of ocean transport meant they should have arrived.
But how did they solve the internet issue?
He first tried to trace back the technical measures but found it led him only to a sensitive node―the embassy.
Daxia’s Embassy in Brazil and Daxia’s Embassy in Mexico.
Tracing back to this node, although it is technically possible to continue in depth, it would carry certain risks and would not be quite appropriate, especially as it concerns their own country’s embassy’s dedicated line.
After some thought, he chose a simpler and more straightforward approach: calling Lorin.
“Director Lorin, good morning,” Lincoln greeted enthusiastically.
“Lincoln? What’s going on? Is something wrong?”
“There’s something I wanted to ask you.”
“Let me know, but don’t come to me about the rocket, I can’t help with that,” Lorin didn’t want to get involved in such a crazy matter.
“No, no, it’s not that. I just wanted to ask about the millions of Brazilian and Mexican users accessing Cloud Dream servers these past two days. I noticed that they all came in through nodes at the embassies, so I wanted to ask if you know what’s going on.”
Upon hearing Lincoln’s question, Lorin breathed a sigh of relief.
He just happened to know the answer and replied, “There’s something you might not be aware of. Since Daxia’s internet infrastructure is different from that of America and Europe, a dedicated protocol is required to interconnect them, which can cause inconvenience for both companies going overseas and students studying abroad. As a result, Daxia and many other countries with established diplomatic relations have mutually agreed to set up dedicated internet nodes for their respective embassies, overseas companies, and students. These nodes are registered under the embassies to facilitate management.”
This answer only resolved half of Lincoln’s question; the other half was, “If these nodes are intended to serve visiting Daxian nationals, why are the million-plus Brazilian and Mexican users allowed access?”
Lincoln could see the users’ information here, and these players were indeed Brazilian and Mexican, not Daxian.
With an evident chuckle in his voice, Lorin replied to this answer, “Oh, that might be because the software that connects to the node was accidentally cracked and leaked. We’re also trying to find a solution.”
Accidentally cracked and leaked?
Over a million leaked in less than two days?
And you still can’t do anything about these millions of non-national users logging in?!
Who are you kidding?!
Simply adding an identity verification layer would block out 99.9% of illegal logins, posing no difficulty whatsoever.
, “We’re still figuring it out,” blatantly says, “We did this on purpose!”
Lincoln didn’t ask why anymore. If he had to guess, it probably had to do with global internet hegemony struggles, the establishment of unified internet regulations, and political relations between Daxia and Latin American countries, among other factors.
He didn’t understand these matters and wasn’t too eager to get involved either.
As long as it benefitted him, he’d accept the favor.
Of course, he also had to consider another issue: with the embassy managing such an essential internet node, they must have their own servers.
However, when these servers were set up, the planned number of users they would serve certainly wouldn’t include foreign nationals.
Now that there are over a million users combined from both countries, there might not be much pressure, but if the number continues to grow, whether the servers can handle the load will be a question.
With this batch of Mirage consoles, over 8 million units were delivered, and there are still 6 million units floating at sea, arriving in half a month.
If all of them are activated, the embassy’s servers may not necessarily be able to withstand it.
Lincoln thought about it and asked, “Director Lorin, does the embassy accept donations?”
Lorin hesitated, “What do you want to donate?”
“Supercomputing.”
“It’s not normally accepted, but your situation is unique, so it should be possible. Which embassy do you want to donate to? Brazil or Mexico?”
“Both!”
“Both?!” Lorin was once again reminded of Lincoln’s extravagance, “Two supercomputers?”
“Yes!” Lincoln didn’t hesitate and even thought it wasn’t enough, so he added, “By the way, do the embassies of America, Canada, United Kingdom, and Persia need an upgrade in computing power?”
Apparently, he was thinking of the four countries currently unable to access the Cloud Dream servers.
“No need!” Lorin promptly refused, “Don’t upset the balance!”
This kind of thing could never be kept from the local government. Going ahead like this with Brazil and Mexico was possible because there was tacit agreement on both sides.
But to do the same in America and the United Kingdom as well?
Do you think the world is too peaceful for you?!