Chapter 4

The activity room of the Dragon Tomb Society is located on the top floor of the high school building, and it was Li Chuyu who helped find this activity room. Since activity rooms at Zhongzhou Academy have always been very scarce, Li Chuyu spent a lot of effort to find this place.

As soon as he entered the activity room, the first thing that caught his eye was a sleep pod that could be used for "100% immersive gaming."

"The latest Silver Moon Hall Plus, this guy must have spent at least a few hundred thousand on it," Zhou Xian wiped his sweat.

Such an expensive item, of course, could not be afforded by an ordinary student, and even the school would not be so reckless.

However, the Dragon Tomb Society has a rich... no, a super-rich brother!

Not long ago, this super-rich brother bought a "Silver Moon Hall Multi-Function Tactical Center," and just a few days later, the product in the activity room became the "Silver Moon Hall Plus," which is an enhanced version of the previous model.

Such a frivolous attitude towards money is simply despicable!

Li Chuyu was still in the game at this moment. Although she, as the manager, did not need to participate in the game, she was very seriously handling the logistics, including the repair, replenishment, and allocation of equipment, all of which were her responsibility.

"Zhou Xian, has your Black Iron Helmet been modified? Otherwise, how could it withstand such a powerful brainwave?" Li Chuyu asked Zhou Xian with a puzzled look as soon as he sat down.

"About this, I'd like to know too."

To be honest, since he got this helmet, he hadn't really examined it properly.

However, Zhou Xian's previous helmet would overload at just 4% brainwave rate, but this Black Iron Helmet had never had any issues so far—considering that even the most perfect game helmet today cannot avoid brainwave overload and instability for several months.

"It does look like a Black Iron Helmet..."

Li Chuyu looked at Zhou Xian's helmet and said this.

This virtual helmet, nicknamed "Black Iron Helmet," was considered trendy 8 years ago, fashionable 5 years ago, outdated 3 years ago, and now, it's considered weird.

However, although it looks like a Black Iron Helmet, it works surprisingly well.

But what Li Chuyu didn't know was that Zhou Xian's Black Iron Helmet was not just "durable" and "useful." The most special thing about this helmet was that it came with a special "Emperor Task."

Thanks to the generous rewards from the Emperor Task, he managed to level up from level 30 to nearly level 70 in just two months. Normally, achieving this would take at least two years—except for those with incredible luck.

For Zhou Xian, who had just graduated from junior high and entered high school, and his peers, reaching level 60 was already a significant achievement.

Zhou Xian thought to himself, "Unfortunately, I've only completed the first stage of the Emperor Task. If I could complete the entire task, I would be the eighth Emperor in the game."

In this game with hundreds of millions of players, there are only seven Emperor players, and with Zhou Xian, there would be eight. One could say that this helmet is almost a cheat.

But why did his father give him something that seemed like a cheat?

To improve his academic performance?

To make him a top player in the game?

But that made no sense!

Although Zhou Xian didn't know much about his father, he knew that his father wouldn't just give him a cheat helmet for such reasons.

However, the letter his father sent a few years ago, which was sent through "abuse of power," had another description.

"Emperor Task, change the world? Dad, what were you doing back then?" Zhou Xian muttered to himself.

"Zhou Xian, is your helmet not a Black Iron Helmet but a retro disguise?" Li Chuyu remembered that many people liked retro styles, and after hearing about the functions of the Black Iron Helmet, she immediately thought of this.

"Uh, that's not very likely."

This thing was at least two years old, and Zhou Xian didn't believe his father had created such high-tech two years ago.

"By the way, where did you get this helmet?" Li Chuyu suddenly asked.

"This... it's actually a relic left by my father, sent about two years ago." Zhou Xian's expression turned somber.

"Ah—sorry." Li Chuyu quickly stopped when she realized she had said something wrong.

"It's okay, my father has been gone for more than two years, I'm used to it." Zhou Xian smiled at Li Chuyu and waved his hand.

"Um, if this is something left by your father, it might not be an ordinary Black Iron Helmet. I'll help you check in the game, there should be a lot of information on the forums."

Li Chuyu changed the subject and put on her helmet, trying to avoid the awkward moment.

On the other side, Zhou Xian's curiosity was also piqued by Li Chuyu. He continued to examine the helmet in his hand, but it didn't seem to have anything special. He muttered, "Could the problem be inside?"

He noticed the inside of the helmet, but there was nothing there.

"Sigh, nothing special."

Just as Zhou Xian said this, he suddenly felt a mental daze, and the scenery in front of him seemed to blur for a moment.

"—What?"

In the instant his vision cleared, Zhou Xian immediately noticed six strange characters appearing on the inside of the helmet. The sudden appearance of these six golden characters made Zhou Xian pay attention to them.

"These are...?"

The characters were not any known script, but Zhou Xian strangely understood them completely!

He looked at the six characters, and his thoughts seemed to be drawn into them.

This dreamlike feeling almost made him suffocate!

He muttered the characters with a strange pronunciation: "Mystical power... cannot match... karma..."

In the next moment, the characters suddenly surged, as if they were coming to life!

"What's happening?!"

The characters emitted a bright golden light, instantly engulfing Zhou Xian completely!

Zhou Xian immediately fell into a hazy state, neither dream nor reality, neither illusion nor truth.

He felt as if he was being pulled by a giant hand, dragged out of the solar system, the Milky Way, and even squeezed out of the edge of the universe!

"What's happening to me...?"

When Zhou Xian fully regained consciousness, he found himself floating in mid-air.

"Is this the login space of the Legendary World?" Having logged into the Legendary World countless times, Zhou Xian quickly understood his current state.

But then Zhou Xian was stunned.

"The login interface has changed?!"

The login background of the Legendary World seemed to have changed for some reason. It now looked like a burning cave, and not far away, a dragon was circling.

"—Huh?"

Zhou Xian suddenly froze.

Because he noticed that the game's name had changed.

The words "Legendary World" had disappeared.

In their place were two ancient, elegant characters.

"Dragon Tomb!"

The game title had clearly been replaced by "Dragon Tomb"!

"Am I dreaming?"

"Dragon Tomb" was clearly the name of his Emperor Task and his teleportation skill.

When Zhou Xian carefully examined, he found that the changes were not limited to the login interface.

"Zhou Xian: Level 68, real-world attributes initialized..."

A strange image flashed by, so fast that Zhou Xian didn't even notice it.

Then, Zhou Xian focused on the login box. Compared to the original version, the login box had undergone significant changes, with dragon motifs added to the bottom, making it visibly different from the original simple design.

"Login...?"

Zhou Xian curiously issued the command.

However, after issuing the command, Zhou Xian found that nothing had changed in his interface, but the login box had changed!

"Save current progress?"

"What is this?"

Zhou Xian felt his mind was a bit muddled and clicked "confirm" in a daze.

"Progress saved..."

Just as he said this, Zhou Xian felt another wave of dizziness. When he came to, he found himself still sitting in the same place, holding the helmet!

"Right, the characters on the helmet!"

Zhou Xian examined the helmet but found nothing on it.

"Hey, Zhou Xian, were you also kicked out of the game?"

Zhou Xian suddenly heard Li Chuyu's voice.

"What happened?" Zhou Xian asked curiously.

Li Chuyu looked at Zhou Xian strangely, "I was checking the forums for you and logging into the game when I heard the system announce a version update in one minute. I logged in and was immediately kicked out."

"Uh, I was still looking at the helmet and hadn't logged in yet. But what did the system update?"

Zhou Xian thought he must have been in a hallucination and was trying to focus his mind.

"The system just announced a new version and started kicking people out." Li Chuyu logged into the internet with her virtual helmet and told Zhou Xian, "There's no news on the official website, but many people on the forums are speculating that there might be a bug, so the game is undergoing temporary maintenance."

A bug is a system flaw. Some players can exploit these flaws to obtain very rare or powerful equipment or large amounts of money illegally, which is something game developers cannot tolerate.

However...

"I remember the Legendary World has never had a bug, right?"

The Legendary World was the first to use an "AI" system, and the official claim was that theoretically, it was impossible for the game to have any flaws.

"Is that so—hey, someone said the game has been updated, and we can log in now. They said a lot of things were updated... How is that possible, it's only been five minutes!"

Li Chuyu seemed to have discovered something.

"Can we log in now?"

Zhou Xian also wanted to see this so-called "update." He quickly put on his "Black Iron Helmet" and logged into the game again.

In an instant, Zhou Xian was transported from the real world to another virtual space.

"Was I dreaming?"

When Zhou Xian saw the strange login platform, he almost froze.

He was now floating above a map, with a terrifying and fierce dragon roaring in the distance, and a golden dragon roaring nearby.

The login interface of the Legendary World had never changed since the game's launch, famously known as "unchanged for ten thousand years." The sudden, immersive change was indeed a significant "update."

However, Zhou Xian was surprised by more than just this.

He was staring at the two characters on the login interface.

"Legendary World" had disappeared, and in its place were two wild yet elegant characters.

A few minutes ago, Zhou Xian had seen these two characters: "Dragon Tomb"!

"The game's name has changed?!"

Was he not dreaming just now?!

Apart from the different background, the changes Zhou Xian saw now were exactly the same as those in his "hallucination"!

"Not... not exactly the same."

Zhou Xian suddenly noticed that below the "Dragon Tomb" characters, there was an hourglass icon and a number, which seemed to be a countdown.

"365."

That was the number.

"Countdown 365?"

365 days or something else?

Dad, is this the change you talked about?

But Zhou Xian felt a strong sense of unease, which made him...

Just as Zhou Xian was puzzled, he felt someone shaking his body.

He took off the helmet and saw Xu Tianyun beside him.

"Good morning, Old Xu."

Xu Tianyun was not only Zhou Xian's classmate and roommate but also the president of the Dragon Tomb Society. His dream was to become a professional player in the future.

"Good morning, I was wondering why I didn't see you this morning, turns out you came to the activity room early!"

Xu Tianyun had just arrived and didn't know about the dramatic changes in the game just a while ago.

"By the way, Old Zhou, have you heard? The top three brainwave rates for the final exam have leaked! It's said that Zhang Taihuo's brainwave rate reached 9%!"

Zhang Taihuo was also a member of the Dragon Tomb Society, not only powerful but also the super-rich brother mentioned earlier.

"Old Zhang is really amazing. If I were a girl, I might have to dedicate myself to him~" Xu Tianyun said enviously.

"Old Zhang may be a bit expressionless, but he's undoubtedly straight. Old Xu, you should give up on that thought," Zhou Xian replied with a laugh.

"Tch, no sense of romance, but it's really frustrating to compare. I think I've spent as much time in the game and in battles as Old Zhang, so why do I only have a 6% brainwave rate while Old Zhang can reach 9%?"

Zhou Xian comforted him, "Old Xu, don't say that. The most important thing isn't the brainwave rate, but a strong and resilient heart and an indomitable spirit."

"I want to believe what you said, but Old Zhang is just too overwhelming. It's like he's the protagonist in a novel... Ah, forget it, the more I talk about it, the more frustrated I get... Old Zhou, let's practice?"

Xu Tianyun had recently obtained a legendary weapon, so he wanted to PK whenever he saw someone. This wasn't the first time he had said this to Zhou Xian.

"A lot has happened in the game just now, you don't know yet, right?" Zhou Xian changed the subject.

"Big news? What happened?" Xu Tianyun wiped his nose and asked curiously.

"The game has been updated, and the name has changed." Zhou Xian's expression was strange, "Now the game... is called Dragon Tomb."

"Hey?!"

Xu Tianyun immediately jumped up, "So cool? I have to check it out!"

With that, Xu Tianyun immediately put on his helmet and prepared to log into the game!

"Old Xu, don't be so hasty."

Just as Zhou Xian said this, he suddenly noticed that his communication terminal was ringing.

"A text message?"

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