First, they spent a fortune to buy the top trending spots on the world’s leading websites, releasing a note that seemed absurd and bizarre. While everyone was discussing what on earth was going on and the hype was at its peak, they then timely released the official game website.

The level of attention was simply off the charts!

If they had said from the start that this was just a game, it probably wouldn’t have had such a great promotional effect.

Of course, the announcement for recruiting closed beta players for this game was also full of hype.

Daring to call itself “a virtual reality game surpassing 100% realism”?

William Carter’s first reaction was disbelief.

Although virtual reality technology in this world had developed quite well, it was still clearly far from 100% realism—currently, it could only reach about 50% realism at best.

But William Carter thought, since this mysterious game company could get all the world’s top news and social media sites to advertise for this game, it must have some serious backing.

Maybe it was one of those top studios that had always kept a low profile, working in silence for decades and finally making a major breakthrough in consciousness-connection technology, so they made this game?

That possibility wasn’t small.

Otherwise, what, could it have been made by aliens?

So William Carter felt that he definitely had to try this game. Even if it didn’t reach 100% realism, even 70% or 80% would crush all the current virtual reality games on the market!

He directly clicked the [Pre-register] button.

After clicking, a registration form popped up on the webpage. There wasn’t much to fill out—just log in with your account on the gaming platform and it would automatically retrieve the relevant game information.

After a successful reservation, a prompt appeared: before the server opens at 10 p.m. tonight, closed beta player qualifications will be drawn. Slots are limited, and first come does not necessarily mean first served. The probability of being selected is closely related to your previous virtual reality gaming experience.

“So they’re screening for players with better skills based on their experience in other virtual reality games?

“Hmm, that makes sense. Judging from the recruitment announcement, this seems to be a pretty hardcore, high-difficulty game. For closed beta players, they definitely want to pick some veterans.

“With my thousands of hours in action virtual reality games, I should have a chance, right?”

William Carter felt a bit anxious, but at this point, all he could do was wait patiently.

……

A little after 9 p.m.

William Carter was still grinding in other virtual reality games.

So-called “grinding” meant using your game character to challenge a specific stage boss, searching for the most perfect kill sequence within the set rules. Posting the recorded sequence was called “posting a run.”

Thanks to the now fairly mature virtual reality technology, players could easily record their in-game actions and freely choose perspectives for editing, without worrying that the first-person view of VR games would make viewers dizzy.

In several action-based virtual reality games, William Carter was considered a top player by others.

But tonight, the more he fought the same boss, the worse he played.

The boss was uncooperative, always using moves that were hard to deal with, and his own state wasn’t great either—he kept making rookie mistakes.

“I’m done grinding, I just can’t calm down!”

As soon as William Carter thought about this so-called truly 100% realistic virtual reality game about to start its closed beta, he completely lost interest in playing those classic action games that used to keep him up all night.

He checked the discussions online.

Sure enough, after the official website for “Dark Sands” appeared, the discussion about the “Orderer’s Note” topic not only didn’t die down, but actually got even hotter.

And on all the major gaming forums, the discussion was explosive!

Most people didn’t believe that “Dark Sands” would really be a 100% realistic virtual reality game, but players still all clicked the pre-register button, waiting for the server to open with mixed feelings of skepticism and anticipation.

So far, everyone was speculating that “Dark Sands” was probably developed by a mysterious domestic company, since the earliest “Orderer’s Note” was in Chinese, and the game also used an Eastern historical theme.

Many foreigners even came up with all sorts of conspiracy theories.

Domestic players, on the other hand, felt that the developers of “Dark Sands” definitely weren’t the usual big-name domestic gaming companies. After all, they neither had the capability to develop something like this—they only knew how to make pay-to-win games for profit—nor did they have the patience. If there was even a hint of a technical breakthrough, they’d be desperate to hype it up to the whole world.

It could only be that some low-key top domestic studio had made a huge breakthrough in consciousness-connection technology, raising realism from about 50% to nearly 100%, so they made a game to test it out, resulting in this kind of dimension-crushing effect.

Of course, all of this was based on the premise that the game actually existed.

William Carter, feeling anxious, clicked on the official website of “Dark Sands” to check the results of the closed beta draw.

“Congratulations! You have become one of the first closed beta players for ‘Dark Sands’! Please log in to the game promptly at 10 p.m. If you do not log in for a long time, your closed beta qualification may be revoked.”

William Carter couldn’t help but pump his fist, his excitement overflowing.

“I got in!”

Looking at the forums again, there was a chorus of complaints.

It seemed the odds of getting into this closed beta were very low. Most people saw a different message.