Chapter 5  : Streaming?

Half an hour later.

Escorted by patrol cars, it took the transportation van about half an hour to reach their destination—an independent residential district to the south of Yang City, guarded by a group of armed police.

“This used to be a place for military families. We cleared it two weeks ago. You will find everything you need in there.

All the chosen ones we found in Yang City are relocated here for the time being, for reasons of convenience when conducting interviews and communications. In gaming parlance, it’s a player’s base!”

After getting out of the car, Ling Chen personally took on the role of guiding and introducing Ji Ye.

“Is this Mister Ji Ye, Captain Ling?

I’m Dr. Shang Yan, transferred from Yang City’s Central Hospital. Should we arrange a psychological evaluation right now?”

A smiling woman with frameless glasses, bound-up hair and a white doctor uniform approached them. She had the friendly look of a professional doctor.

Even though people couldn’t die for real in the Land of Inheritance, the experience of death was still too realistic for people to fully process and overcome. Most who failed the trial showed signs of mental breakdown of various serious mental problems.

In fact, some of them even had a mental breakdown, causing quite a bit of chaos!

The Confederation Office sent professional therapists to player bases for this reason, so these bases could be also regarded as treatment bases.

“Mister Ji is fine. Or rather, his condition is perfect.”

Ten minutes later. The beautiful female doctor, who had not been working for a long time but was transferred to the player’s base in Yang City because she had obtained a second master’s degree in psychology, gave an evaluation of “not requiring any further mental treatment.” Her eyes were filled with surprise.

After finishing up some follow-up routines such as blood extraction, physical examination, and residence registration,

Ji Ye was led to a “small-sized” suite on the top floor of Unit 1.

He wasn’t picky about this, even though his expensive house was considerably bigger.

As a survivalist, he had spent many nights in weird places, not to mention that he had just spent a whole month playing caveman.

After swiftly unpacking and sorting out his necessities, he quickly accessed the official forum again without wasting any time, so he could learn more about the Land of Inheritance.

[The latest summary of players’ streamed content]

He soon found this post that seemed to contain things he didn’t yet know.

Streaming?

Ji Ye frowned.

People on Earth were able to watch player’s every move in the Land of Inheritance?

He wouldn’t mind this, since there was nothing to hide, being a healthy dude.

But… about half of the million selected players were women.

What was written in the post was slightly different from what he assumed.

Here, “streaming” was not a common service accessible to everyone.

Instead, it was a limited honor only granted to a few.

The first “streamer” was discovered on the 19th day since the start of the trial.

On that day, all residents in a certain city in the west suddenly received another “mental message” before going to sleep.

[A chosen one is now eligible to stream the Land of Inheritance. Watch the stream now?]

Both curious and a bit frightened, people chose to accept the invitation.

Just like that, about a hundred thousand “viewers” from Earth began watching a “tester” going about his trial.

It was a young man trapped inside an abandoned and haunted manor. He had to solve a series of puzzles and tasks which entailed complex reasoning to discover what truly happened there before. In the end, by using his starter tools and some ingenious traps left behind by previous exorcists who failed their mission, he managed to defeat a horrid-looking wraith.

As soon as the show ended, the tester’s identity was revealed on the forum—a famous Eurasian detective fiction author, who was also the youngest member of the Crime Writers’ Association.

After the live broadcast ended, the relevant scenes disappeared.

Furthermore, there was no video or other information that could be transferred.

However, the memories of tens of thousands of viewers were enough to restore the most exciting part of the livestream to the forum.

After that, there was naturally no suspense.

Unsurprisingly, the young author became globally renowned overnight and received full attention from the media as well as all manners of social networks.

This man already looked quite handsome by both western and eastern standards; with the addition of the “serious and confident looks when solving puzzles”, he had garnered more female admirers than the best Hollywood star ever attained in just a few days.

Then, another stream was announced in the capital city of Chidragon, Beiking.

That time, another hundred thousand Beikingers from beyond the Fourth Ring Road were allowed to watch a bespectacled, stubbled man with messy hair be the protagonist.

The man’s appearance and appearance were slightly disappointing to the audience, but his expression was more focused than the first.

From a cabinet filled with over a thousand different parts, he precisely picked out twenty components in a few minutes and used them to assemble a laser weapon, which was supposed to be still under research in the place where it had been designed—Ameagle.

Next, a monster that looked like an ancient triceratops burst through his door, before he used his new weapon to burn it down.

Similarly, this man was soon recognized to be a 29-year-old bachelor who published many scientific papers related to laser weapons. Here, “bachelor” also meant single—he had never even held hands with a girl. He had a PhD from Shuimu University.

However, topics regarding him also entered the top three trending topics overnight.

Many women praised him for his bravery, ingenuity and great contribution to the country’s armament development, but for some reason, they all chose to ignore that the man still needed a wife.

Soon after, the third stream was discovered in Jaipan. Then another one in Ameagle, followed by the fifth one from Sandia…

No matter where they came from, they all acquired great fame.

None of the subsequent streamers became as well-known as the first one because it was pretty difficult to “repost” their streams, and there were fewer people willing to spend days and nights telling their stories.

Also, the governments of those countries tried limiting such information to protect the testers.

But still, the testers could no longer walk casually while in broad daylight since they’d be soon overwhelmed by all the onlookers.

[We’ve recorded about a hundred testers; all of them triumphed by utilizing their great wisdom and knowledge. Though we’ve yet to see any exciting battle between men and monsters involving bloodshed.]

Ji Ye raised an eyebrow at that.

It seemed that he had not had his battles against monsters streamed.

As for why “battle of wits” was the only category selected, it was not difficult to understand.

In terms of intelligence alone, humans were better than most of the creatures Ji Ye had encountered in the Land of Inheritance.

However, in terms of physical strength, humans who were initially only at Ordinary Rank-5 did not have any advantage at all. Without suitable equipment, they would be in a difficult position even if they were to face other similar Rank-5 creatures!

In this aspect, not only was the human race weaker than monsters, but it was also very likely that they were inferior to the ‘players’ of other species!

Yes, other species!

According to the pinned post on the forum, experts of the Confederation found evidence that suggested non-human testers had attended as well, such as aliens from outer space or even something beyond.

The testers’ “character window” pointed out their race, which was “human.” This implied that there could be other types taking the test.

More importantly, it was because of the various types of spoils of war that dropped in the Land of Inheritance.

Also, this would explain why the Land of Inheritance had many strange treasures including products found on Earth—Red Bull, cologne, lighters. The “non-Earth items” probably came from other alien civilizations, dimensions, or even universes!

[Therefore, although the Land of Inheritance is an opportunity, it is also very likely to be a challenge or even a crisis!

[Because we have to consider what kind of impact it will have when we meet players from other civilizations and planets. For example… exposing the location of Earth…]

[Therefore, no matter what, in the Land of Inheritance, I hope that everyone on Earth is united and assists each other!]

The Confederation ended the post with a rallying phrase.

“It’s fine, uniting and all. But how do we enter the Land of Inheritance in the first place, without being a tester?”

“Yeah. Why a million only? And what’s with the age restrictions? Did the Confederation know this place all along and they only sent so many testers there? They should tell us everything!”

“Guys, I have cancer and my days are numbered. Is any tester willing to sell your entry to me? I—I’ll offer ten million Ameagle dollars!”

However, compared to the “aliens” who had yet to be seen,

most users of the forum were apparently more concerned about when the next batch of “players” would be produced.

It was already known that the bodies of players who entered the Land of Inheritance would enter a locked state. For people who suffered terminal conditions or those approaching their end, this meant prolonging their days.

Then, all they had to do was wait for the technological explosion catalyzed by the Land of Inheritance, and they could be quickly cured of their terminal illnesses.

As a result, there was even a Middle Eastern tycoon who had an incurable disease offering a huge amount of money on the forum.

However, it was obvious that the “player” slot could not be exchanged at all. The rich man who claimed to be a prince was quickly banned by the administrator.

For common people, how to get chosen as testers for the second batch became the main focus of the discussions.