Chapter 50: Fiftieth Day of Lying Flat Like a Salted Fish

“So, just how bored were you to actually play that game?” Goudan asked Lu Yuan the next day during dinner.

By now, he had received the latest updates from Siming. There hadn’t been much of note happening on Siming’s end lately, so the bulk of the messages consisted of him complaining about the game Lu Yuan had recommended to Zhu Rong.

Naturally, the two of them had also exchanged notes on Lu Yuan’s track record in that game.

The game didn’t have a leaderboard. In a sense, it was very “primitive.” While it had an auxiliary system, its presence was minimal. Furthermore, since it wasn’t a competitive game, there were no rankings.

Consequently, most of the time, players didn’t have a clear idea of who the “strongest” person in the game was.

However, truly legendary players could still become uncrowned kings.

Like Lu Yuan.

Jeremy, the blonde youth Zhu Rong had encountered in the game, worshipped Lu Yuan. Thus, when Zhu Rong asked what Lu Yuan had done there, Jeremy was quick to recount many of Lu Yuan’s “heroic deeds.”

Things like taking on an entire herd of beasts single-handedly, carving a path through the most dangerous core area of the wasteland paved with the corpses of high-level monsters, the fact that no battle could be lost as long as he was present, and how he had wiped out every single monster in the entire wasteland in a short period of time…

And so on.

Unfortunately, the people Zhu Rong met had their own business to attend to. Although Jeremy clearly wasn’t finished and was eager to say more, he was soon hauled away by the adults. They didn’t travel with Zhu Rong for long, and since the blonde boy wasn’t very good at getting to the point, the information Zhu Rong gathered was limited.

Nevertheless, Zhu Rong recorded his words verbatim and relayed them to Siming after logging out. Siming, in turn, passed them to Goudan.

Including, of course, the part about how one had to trek for several days just to reach the safe zone at the start of the game.

“Siming tells you everything?” Lu Yuan glanced at him, amused.

“Yeah,” Goudan nodded as if it were the most natural thing in the world. “Nothing much has happened these past two days. Isn’t it normal to talk about this? I also told Siming about what you mentioned yesterday, about setting up a school in the winter.”

“What did he say?” Lu Yuan asked.

Goudan replied, “He said it’s a good idea. It just so happens he previously arranged for Lao Tong to find people from his organization and notify them to gather here. They can attend classes together when the time comes.”

“…They can’t possibly take the same classes,” Lu Yuan said helplessly. “The people here are illiterate, so they’ll be in literacy classes. His people will need more advanced courses.”

He paused and sighed. “Whatever, it’s just a matter of finding some videos. That’ll work.”

Goudan chuckled.

“We’re getting off track.” He took a bite of food and said, “That game is so ridiculous, yet you actually kept playing? You couldn’t have known it was fun back then, right?”

“…It’s actually not that fun.” Lu Yuan looked at him. Knowing he was curious, he explained with a sigh, “Mainly… you might not realize it, but it’s very special.”

“Special how?” Goudan’s eyes lit up.

“It’s free of charge, and there are no advertisements,” Lu Yuan said.

“What’s so special about that?” Goudan said dismissively. “There are plenty of free games made out of pure passion.”

“But other games wouldn’t be as willing to spend money as this one.” Lu Yuan sighed. “Zhu Rong met people from other star systems, right? Otherwise, she couldn’t have learned the specifics of the game so quickly.”

“Yeah.” Goudan nodded.

“Have you noticed that when you chat with Siming, there’s a delay of about half an hour?”

“Ah, I know. What about it?” Goudan asked, puzzled.

“That’s even with me letting you use the military communication channels,” Lu Yuan said. “In military channels, communication ships warp between base stations to relay signals. During non-war periods, when space is stable, transmitting a signal across the entire galaxy takes exactly one hour.

“A standard civilian channel might take two or three weeks. That’s why most massively multiplayer online games are divided into servers, with each server serving people within a small region. For instance, the Virtual Mecha game Zhu Rong played before… she reached the top mainly because she had enough points, not because she had fought everyone.”

Lu Yuan paused to add a critique, “…If one could fight everyone, that game might actually be a bit more interesting.”

“But this ‘80%’ game manages real-time communication across star systems.” Goudan understood now. “Hiss-that’s a bit terrifying.”

He recalled, “I remember you saying that the biggest challenge for a commander on the battlefield is the time lag. Meaning, even on a battlefield, combat within a star system cannot achieve real-time communication.”

“Correct. It relies on the warp jumps of communication ships.” Lu Yuan nodded. “So, this game was the first time I ever spoke with someone from another star system online.

“I realized then that this game was special. It’s likely not just a game.”

“…So what is the game designer’s goal?” Goudan asked.

“I don’t know,” Lu Yuan said. “There’s no customer service at all, and the development company is just a shell. I tried everything to contact the people behind the scenes. I even cleared out every single monster, thinking the administrators might think there was a bug and come in to check…

“In the end, no one paid me any mind. The only consequence was that everyone in the game had almost nothing to do for several days. Because the monsters only respawn once a week.”

“…” Goudan was stunned. After a long moment, he asked, “So, how is this real-time communication achieved?”

“I don’t know that either.” Lu Yuan smiled. “It’s one of the things that has puzzled me most over the years. The second would probably be how exactly I ended up on this Desolate Planet.”

After a thought, he added, “However, it’s not an isolated case, nor is it the only existence capable of real-time communication that ignores space. The Mental Power communication within the Geshu Family has similar properties; so does the Zerg’s method of communication. In other words, this method of transmission does exist. It’s just that the Empire hasn’t mastered the technology yet.”

“…You didn’t find someone to research it?” Goudan asked.

“Who would I ask?” Lu Yuan laughed. “The Academy of Sciences? They aren’t exactly trustworthy. Even the Geshu Family doesn’t dare reveal the truth about their Communication traits to the public. Aren’t they afraid of being dragged off to be sliced up for study?”

Goudan blinked.

Lu Yuan paused for only a moment before shifting the subject. “On the contrary, I’ve told almost no one of its existence. Even if there were researchers I could trust, I wouldn’t want them studying it.

“If people found out, this game would no longer be just a game. I think that’s why the game’s beginning is so discouraging, why there’s zero promotion, and why it’s so incredibly hard to find.”

“No longer a game?”

“Mm… for example, Interstellar Alliance meetings could be held inside the game.” Lu Yuan spread his hands. “The game could turn into a massive conference room. When different nations need to meet, they could all just enter the game, saving themselves the long interstellar travel.

“Of course, that’s not a given. They might not trust the game.”

“In that case, if you had told others about the game’s existence,” Goudan said, “wouldn’t your war against the Zerg have been much easier?”

“Not necessarily.” Lu Yuan shook his head. “On the front lines, connecting to StarNet is difficult. Moreover, base stations are often destroyed by the Zerg. Relying on a game to pass messages might be less stable than using communication ship warps.

“As for finding people to research the tech… I might have finished fighting the bugs before they ever figured it out.”

He thought about it and smiled. “If it really could have let me finish the war a few years earlier, maybe I wouldn’t have kept its secret. The temptation would have been too great.”

“However,” he continued, “the game must have other ways of hiding itself. Otherwise, even if only a few people stumble upon it every year, the number of people who have played it over the years should be quite high.

“It’s impossible that I’m the only one who noticed the game’s unique nature, and it’s impossible that everyone would tacitly agree to help hide it. But as for what specific method it uses, I don’t know.”

It was rare for Lu Yuan to be so uninformed. Usually, in front of Goudan, Siming, Zhu Rong, and Geshu Qing, he played the role of an almost omniscient and omnipotent immortal figure.

But for something this absurd, it seemed normal for him not to understand it.

“It really makes one curious.” Goudan sighed and asked, “So, do you want Zhu Rong to continue exploring this game?”

“Ah, not really.” Lu Yuan shook his head in denial. “If I had to say there’s a purpose, it’s to help her make some acquaintances from other star systems.

“What Siming intends to do will likely cause upheaval in the Milky Way. When that happens, the internal resistance within the Empire will be immense. If he wants to succeed, he might need outside help.”

“I’m not particularly keen on them relying on the power of other nations… but if it truly comes down to it, I suppose it’s an option.”

“And of course,” Lu Yuan said with a small smile, “the most important reason is that this game is actually a lot of fun!

“If I weren’t so famous in there, I’d want to go back and play it myself.”