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The process of the experiment was not long. After linking the devices, it took all players just about ten minutes to enter the new simulation environment.

But the wait for players to unexpectedly die inside was excruciatingly long, like watching a boring movie, eagerly anticipating the ending, but the lead-up is too drawn out and truly stifling.

"What’s the difference between this and the first edition?" In the conference room, as several players’ actions were monitored, a few impatient people couldn’t help asking.

"We’ve incorporated the preferences given to pay-to-win players from the latest online version and copied some of its code, trying not to make too many changes, yet significantly reducing the difficulty," the person in charge said with a smile.

"We can set it up so that you all have distinguished backgrounds, even distinguished bloodlines when you enter, making it much easier to gain power and grow..."

"Pay-to-win..." Some Westerners chuckled upon hearing this. Most Westerners played games as children and were familiar with the term; if there were shortcuts in life inside, it indeed would be much simpler, though still far from the ideal scenario, it was nevertheless not bad.

After watching for nearly four hours, which accounted for about thirty days inside, two players eventually met with a disaster - their homes were attacked by demons, leading to their immediate death.

The next moment, the screen switched, and the two players only stayed in that dark image for less than ten seconds before being reborn.

"Wait a second..." Smith, the elderly Western man, furrowed his brow, "What was that dark image before the reincarnation?"

"Oh, that’s the Path of Yin Yang according to the settings!

" The person in charge hurriedly explained, "In the game, all creatures that die are forcibly pulled to the Path of Yin Yang and become one of the Resentful Spirits. In the Path of Yin Yang, it’s survival of the fittest, with stronger ghosts consuming the weaker. It’s much more brutal but players are different; upon death, they directly enter the Yin Yang Path of Reincarnation.

According to the dungeon lore, there are four Reincarnation Points on the Path of Yin Yang, each temporarily occupied by a Ghost Venerate.

They are Great Demons in the third version. .."

"Can those demons control reincarnation? Then, can they control the players?" Smith asked the crucial question.

"According to the game’s settings, they shouldn’t be able to.

.." The person in charge quickly replied, "Controlling one of the Reincarnation Points only allows one to choose whether to open that point. The Ghost Venerates can reincarnate their own subordinates to create agents in the Mortal World, but they cannot control the direction of reincarnation. Players are tagged by the Reincarnation Points and are not affected by the Ghost Venerates, unless someone can control all four points to willfully control the reincarnations of the Evil Spirits on the Path of Yin Yang. Even so, it can’t prevent the players from reincarnating. "

"I see..." The group nodded, feeling somewhat relieved. Otherwise, wouldn’t it be laughable if the fates and fortunes of themselves were utterly in the hands of a few NPCs?

"Everyone, you’ve seen the demonstration just now. The new simulation environment is like the old version; it definitely allows for successful reincarnation while retaining consciousness. Does this version need further simplification, or... should we just use it as is?"

The group of backers exchanged hesitant glances.

Naturally, the best simulation environment would be one designed according to their desires, creating a new Virtual World, but current research suggests that only highly realistic games can allow for memory inertia to be recognized.

However, to create a high-fidelity game takes at least two to three years at best, and many among them cannot wait that long.

Especially that female judge—her notice of critical illness had already been issued. At most, she has to undergo that surgery with an extremely low success rate within a month. Many people... simply do not have the time!

"My opinion is to just use this one... What do you all think?" the female judge said, "Before coming here, everyone who needed to prepare should have done so, right? According to the agreement, why not... go in together?"

The others exchanged glances.

Everybody present was a person of immense power; no one trusted the other. According to the original agreement, once the experiment was successful, everyone had to enter together, becoming digital lives bound together, disallowing any one person to control everything from the outside.

Everyone cherished their own lives; as long as they were inside, those with backup plans on the outside wouldn’t dare to act recklessly. After all, they were also inside; a single mishap could easily cause problems for themselves.

This way, everyone would be more restrained, and even if there were ulterior motives between them, they would at least not go too far.

"Good!" Elder Long stood up and concluded, "Let’s follow the previous agreement,

everyone... let’s enter together!"

-----------------------------------------

Five days ago:

"Are you sure everyone will enter?" Pu YunChuan looked dubiously at Old Liu, who seemed confident.

"It’s necessary..." Old Liu said, smiling, "Who among that group trusts each other? Who would feel safe letting anyone stay outside? If we go in, we all go in together. No matter how many contingencies you have outside, as long as you are inside, you must be wary of harming the mice while going after the moneybags. It’s a mutual assurance. "

"I see..." Chen Qing nodded, "If that’s the case, there’s a chance."

"What do you plan to do?" Old Liu asked.

"With five days, making big changes would be too easily noticed. Actually, many people don’t know that within the game’s patches, there are initial framework codes for the fourth version that I designed myself.

It’s still just a framework and hasn’t been implemented.

Also, since I resigned on my own, the programmers who followed didn’t dare to touch that part of the code, in case something went wrong. .."

"The fourth version?"

"Yes... the fourth version!" Chen Qing said with a smile, "In my designed fourth version, once the Otherworldly Demon Statues invade the world, the cycle of Reincarnation would collapse, and players inside would die for real because they can no longer reincarnate!"

"How long would that take?"

"It requires triggering a sequence, I can help with that. Originally, the fourth version wouldn’t arrive for a long time, but to hasten the death of that group of old fools, I can design some flaws to let those Demon Statues infiltrate early.

As long as it’s triggered ahead of time, the fourth version can arrive early! "

"Good..." Old Liu nodded, "Then I’m relying on you. Not a single one of them can be let out, or the consequences will be extremely severe. Everything must be settled before they leap out of this simulation environment!"

"I understand... But if it’s like this, you... you’ll probably die inside too."

"That’s alright." Old Liu suddenly smiled, "This old skeleton of mine wasn’t going to last much longer anyway. According to several masters, if taken care of, it’s just a little over a year.

Now my son is married, and my grandson has been admitted to Imperial Capital University.

I don’t have many lingering thoughts anymore.

When you’re old... you really shouldn’t keep burdening the next generation. .."

"Is that so?" Chen Qing looked at him with mixed feelings.

If Old Liu wasn’t lying, he indeed was a person of great righteousness. Although the direct method of killing innocent people somewhat contradicted Chen Qing’s own moral standards, Old Liu could still be considered a hero.

"I’ll manage it. Old Liu, I think they will restrict my movements before we go in, so... the key to initiating the fourth version is up to you..."

"What should I do?"

"Just listen to what I have to say... you must..."

As Chen Qing started discussing the plan, he suddenly froze.

Something occurred to him...

The game world he was in... also had the opening recruitment for the fourth version. Could it be that the world he resided in was...