Chapter 17: New Players and “New” Players

Ge Jiao was a very typical ‘normie’ girl.
She never paid attention to things related to games, focusing only on work and interpersonal relationships.
However, her younger sister was the complete opposite.

Her younger sister, Ge Feifei, was a standard otaku, and her favorite thing to discuss was related news in games.

At the dinner table today, Feifei once again brought up the game she was currently following.

“Do you know Sea Realm? It’s a holographic game with S-level realism that just went online recently,” she shared excitedly with her older sister.

“S-level realism,” Ge Jiao, who had always been uninterested in games, actually picked up the conversation.
“Is that something current technology can achieve?”

The company she worked for happened to be working on an order for holographic cabin components, so she had some understanding of this aspect—S-level realism, wouldn’t that directly crush all holographic games on the market?

“Yeah, there are 50 closed beta players who have been playing in it for a few days, and there’s game live stream proof. Look, Old Li just released a video of the first clear of the Sea Realm dungeon.”
Seeing her sister so interested for once, Ge Feifei clicked on the video on the cloud site and showed it to Ge Jiao.

This was the first time Ge Jiao had taken the initiative to watch a gaming-related video.

The video from this UP Master called “Old Li’s Gaming Diary” looked really exquisite.
If it wasn’t marked at the bottom that the video was a live recording from Sea Realm, Ge Jiao might have thought it was a large-scale CG animation made by some game company, not some crude game recording.

The video started at the entrance of the dungeon.
Old Li introduced that they had discovered this place because a red big-headed fish had led the way.

“This time, Old Li can be said to be the chosen one!” Feifei interjected.

Then it was time to officially enter the dungeon.
What was different from what Ge Jiao had imagined was that the dungeon was not about fighting monsters in the traditional sense, but more like intellectual puzzles.

Especially at the exploding bricks in the second stage.
Ge Jiao considered herself to be a relatively smart person among her peers, but she couldn’t figure out such a complex pattern in just a few minutes.

‘So there are hidden dragons and crouching tigers among gamers too?’
‘This dynamic vision and analytical ability are really incredible.’
Thinking this, she continued to watch.

In the third stage, Old Li deliberately gave a close-up to Huahua, who was directly caught in a fishnet.
The pink-haired merman’s face of utter betrayal successfully made Ge Jiao laugh—this was too cute!

She remembered that streamer’s ID and planned to follow him on the live streaming platform later.

Before Ge Jiao could recover from the joyful atmosphere brought by Huahua, the bullet comments were already frantically spamming things like [High-energy warning!], [Those with a fear of snakes ahead, proceed with caution!], and [Bullet comment body shield].

The next second, a huge golden pupil appeared before her eyes.

“!”
Ge Jiao’s heart jumped in fright, and the phone in her hand almost fell to the ground.

“Be careful! I forgot to tell you, there’s a BOSS entrance scene here that’s particularly scary!”
Feifei quickly steadied the phone and leaned on her sister’s shoulder.
The two continued to watch.

The basilisk BOSS of the dungeon quickly went berserk under the little fish’s provocation.
The intense chase between Yan Shuangwen and the big snake, because the realism was too high and the sense of immersion too strong, made the two watching the video through the screen hold their breath, waiting for the follow-up with trepidation.

“Clang!”

“[You have dealt 1 point of damage to [Brilliant King Snake], inflicting [Shock] effect. Congratulations, you have been noticed by the attacked target!]”
A prim and proper voice-over came from the video.

“Pfft, this is still funny no matter how many times I watch it,” Ge Feifei burst out laughing.

“This item feels quite interesting,” Ge Jiao commented.

The quirky interlude quickly ended.
After Huahua attracted the BOSS’s attention, it was Old Li and Yan Shuangwen’s personal show.

One of them judged the boss’s weakness based on his rich gaming experience, while the other deduced how to make the boss expose the wooden door beneath its body with his clever brain.

Under the combination of the two, plus the clever use of that hammer, a seemingly invincible giant snake finally fell before the audience.

At this moment, Ge Jiao even got excited along with them—was this the joy of successfully pushing a dungeon that her sister often talked about?

“It’s said that this is just the initial version. After the update, a magic system will be introduced, and you’ll be able to use magic in the game then.”

“Will this game open up new slots?”
Hearing this, Ge Jiao grabbed her sister’s hand and asked eagerly.
Although she was a normie, she was a veteran magic fan.
She had already collected seventeen versions of the book about a certain owl school alone, not to mention other related merchandise, which could fill half a room.

“It’s open. Go search for Sea Realm on Cloud Weibo. The officials have released news saying they’re drawing another one hundred closed beta slots. I’ve already signed up!” Ge Feifei said proudly.

Ge Jiao clicked open the registration page and carefully filled in her own information.

There were many people like her who had been recommended the game.
Old Li’s video, relying on the popularity of holographic games and its hardcore and interesting video quality, had managed to go viral, even vaguely catching the tail end of the hot search list.
This caused the number of applicants this time to be more than three times higher than the first time.

One hundred closed beta slots had all been sent out.
The selected new players lay eagerly in their holographic cabins, anxiously waiting for the server opening time in their home spaces, eager to get a glimpse of the so-called most realistic holographic game.

The old players, represented by Huahua and Old Li, were also more or less the same, all squatting and waiting for the server to open, looking forward to the changes the new power system would bring to the game.

The merman was also waiting for the server to open.

Sykes had originally planned to intercept one of the hundred slots for his own use, but unexpectedly, there was an old player who couldn’t go online due to illness.
That person was also a lone wolf in the game and hadn’t had much interaction with other players, so it didn’t take much effort to temporarily use his game name.

Now, the appearance Sykes had transformed into with a potion was that of a gloomy boy with short black hair, dragging a gray fishtail behind him.
His appearance was ordinary, his tail color dull, looking like a completely unremarkable fish.

The merman satisfactorily examined his appearance in the crystal mirror—such an ordinary look would make it easier to blend in with the players and get the information left by the merfolk clan at the first opportunity.

Time was up.

The disguised merman also stood near the fountain.

The Rainbow Fountain suddenly started to operate.
Transparent ribbons of seven-colored light swung through the air, raising a flurry of mist.
And from its center, like dumplings being dropped into a pot, countless players were ejected with a ‘plop, plop’.

[Welcome to Sea Realm. From today on, you are a merman living on the Lord’s land. Please work hard to live and obtain legal citizen status!]

The system’s prompt appeared in everyone’s notification bar.

Some of the new players were happy, some were excited, and some took two steps forward in disbelief, then fell to the ground with a ‘splat’.

“Pfft,” an old player nearby laughed out loud.
“Newbie? Start by learning to swim!”

As he spoke, he seemed to recall some painful memory, and his face wrinkled up.
“Of course, before you learn to swim, you can first try to… crawl a couple of steps?”