Chapter 41

Characters were still strolling on the beach, looking around here and there. Li Dong even saw a creature resembling a sea turtle crawling over the sand.

However, just as he was about to investigate, a noise gradually came from the distance. Two small spacecraft, resembling fighter jets, flew in from the far sky, quickly circling around the character Li Dong was controlling, and then landed vertically on the beach.

Li Dong thought it might be a new quest trigger and was about to control his character to walk over when two people came out of the two small spacecraft, pointing guns at him.

Then, a shocking scene unfolded.

A line of text appeared at the bottom of the screen: "Rookie, are you a new player? Hand over the control of the spacecraft, you've already been robbed by us."

What does this mean?

Li Dong tapped the subtitle, and a keyboard appeared for him to reply.

"Damn, this isn't a single-player game, it's an online game?"

Li Dong came to his senses and quickly typed: "Are you other players?"

"Of course, we're other players. All new players are born on this planet."

The two people surrounded Li Dong's character and said rudely, "Hand over the control of the spacecraft quickly. We can consider letting you join us, otherwise, we'll delete your character and make you start over."

Li Dong laughed in anger. He had played games for so long, but this was the first time he had seen such arrogant players. He certainly wouldn't agree to their demands and immediately controlled his character to run towards the spacecraft.

"Whoosh, whoosh..."

Seeing him run away, the other two players didn't hesitate and started shooting at him.

The mobile screen was instantly filled with red laser lines. Unprepared, Li Dong couldn't escape easily and was shot dead.

"Damn it!"

Li Dong was so angry that the veins on his forehead bulged. He really wanted to beat up those two robber players.

The screen gradually turned black after his death, and a line of text appeared: "Character has died. Resurrection requires 1 credit coin. Do you want to pay?"

Resurrection in this game also costs money?

Li Dong hurriedly read the terms carefully. It said that to donate a little money to the developers to maintain server costs, each resurrection required 1 credit coin, equivalent to 1 yuan in real life. Even more annoyingly, after the five-hour trial period, players had to "donate" money to buy game time, with each 1 yuan "donation" unlocking five hours of game time.

Although it was much cheaper than buying equipment in some online games, Li Dong still felt a bit annoyed. Having played free cracked games for so long, the idea of paying to play made him very unhappy.

However, Li Dong, who had just slightly experienced the charm of the game, put his phone on the table after exiting the game, ate a few snacks, and then sighed, reaching for his phone again. It felt like there was a little bug scratching his heart.

"Right, let's see if there's a cracked version online."

A sudden idea came to Li Dong, and he opened his browser, typing "Endless Stars" into Baidu. First, some Android game websites' recommendations appeared, followed by the Baidu Tieba for Endless Stars. However, he didn't see any cracked versions even after flipping through several pages.

Frustrated, Li Dong decided to enter the Baidu Tieba for Endless Stars to see if there was a cracked version.

"Wow, there are already 5,000 followers, and the game has only been out for a few days?"

Li Dong was slightly surprised and then focused on finding information about a cracked version.

However, as soon as he scrolled down, he saw a pinned post: "Super Pro Completes the First Main Engine Repair Task!"

What? Someone actually completed that task?

Li Dong remembered the first task, with its complex and intricate circuits. Could someone really understand and successfully repair the main engine?

His first feeling was disbelief.

His second feeling was that there were indeed many talented people in the world.

After all, it was pinned and marked as a featured post, so it couldn't be fake.

Li Dong clicked on the pinned post.

As the saying goes, "A picture is worth a thousand words." This pro, known as "I Am a Tech Geek," took screenshots and explained the repair process, and he actually completed the main engine restart task, allowing the spacecraft to orbit the planet instead of making an emergency landing.

This was truly impressive. With so many players in the game, at least 4,000 to 5,000, all of whom had their spacecraft damaged and forced to land on the planet, it was unknown how many resources they would need to repair their spacecraft.

Now, everyone could only use the in-game map to see the general appearance of the other planets in the star system. However, someone had completed the first task right after being born, owning a spacecraft that could fly and land at any time!

The "I Am a Tech Geek" claimed to be a senior electrical engineer, and completing the repair task wasn't difficult for him. However, due to the game's special mechanism, each player faced a different engine fault, so he couldn't help other players.

At the end of the post, "I Am a Tech Geek" posted pictures of the surface of two moons near a blue planet. He had already landed on the first moon and started mining the special mineral helium-3.

"Great job, the floor owner, I'm so envious and jealous."

"Helium-3 can provide huge energy for the spacecraft, but there's none on the blue planet. What should we players who can't repair our spacecraft do?"

"Floor owner, I want to buy some helium-3. I'll send you the coordinates of my spacecraft via private message. Can we use Alipay?"

"I also need helium-3. My spacecraft's energy is insufficient, and even if I repair it, I can't leave the blue planet. What's your QQ number? I'll add you as a friend and chat."

Because all players in "Endless Stars" were in the same server, many players immediately envied the floor owner, who had already established a base on the moon and was mining. They tried to privately message the floor owner to fly to their coordinates and provide energy.

Li Dong was stunned, never expecting the game to be so complex. After exiting the post, he browsed other posts.

Most of the posts in the Tieba were help requests, with few featured posts. After all, the game had only been out for two days, and many players had only downloaded it after seeing recommendations. However, it was easy to imagine that with the game's charm, the number of followers in the Tieba would increase by the thousands in no time.

Li Dong didn't find the cracked version he was looking for. The game's save data was stored on the server, and each login required an online verification, making it difficult to crack. Moreover, the game had been out for a short time, and no cracking experts had paid attention to it.

Li Dong didn't have much hope. Compared to the past, cracking experts now had a bit more integrity. For games developed by Chinese, they had an unwritten rule not to crack them, so his hope of playing a cracked version was almost dashed.

"Hmm, this post..."

His eyes were drawn to a featured post titled "What New Players Need to Know About Digging and Exploring Resources."

He clicked into it and saw that it was written by the moderator, detailing 27 types of minerals, including iron ore, copper ore, galena, sphalerite, cassiterite, and black tungsten ore.

That wasn't all. The moderator also wrote about how to use the remaining robots on the spacecraft to dig the main minerals, then repair the robot production line to mass-produce robots, and finally consider repairing the spacecraft.

"Of course, if there are no minerals near your emergency landing site... then I can only wish you good luck and explore further."

"Once you leave the spacecraft too far, it's hard to ensure your safety. Don't think the blue planet is safe. Look at my screenshot."

The moderator posted a game screenshot, and Li Dong's face changed. He couldn't help but exclaim, "Damn!"

"What's wrong with you?"

His roommate was startled and asked irritably.

"Nothing, nothing, just got a scare."

How could Li Dong not be shocked? In the screenshot, the creatures were almost like those in movies, but on a proportional scale, they were about the size of a bus compared to the game character. Their black, sharp tails were enough to chill anyone to the bone.

The moderator replied in the comments, "This thing looks like an alien, but its combat power is ten times stronger. When I was exploring the forest with the AX-21 near-Earth spacecraft, this thing suddenly jumped out of the dense forest, several meters high, and with one tail swipe, it sliced and exploded my spacecraft. I had to pay to resurrect and wasted an AX-21 near-Earth spacecraft. I'm so angry."

(Thank you to the readers like Youxiaer for your support. Some readers mentioned that the main character is being bullied. Honestly, as the author, I would want to be bullied by this alien to gain the opportunity to become a top person in the future. Can you succeed in real life without effort? Of course, this is a novel, and the alien is the main character's golden finger, like having an old man with you. Although this old man has a bad temper, he is the main character's mentor and helper for future growth, and the key to dominating the world. Without him, it wouldn't be possible. The issue of the main character being bullied is a matter of perspective. This alien only bullies the main character to help him grow. For other Earthlings, sorry, he uses them as test subjects when in a good mood and crushes them and flushes them down the drain when in a bad mood. This alien is just that evil!)