Viserys wasn't sure if his "mysterious insider" act had actually fooled Zhao Xiaotian.
In his mind, normal players spent their time trying to beat the game, optimize their builds, or find exploits and bugs. Who the hell spent their time digging into the corporate structure of the game studio?
After thinking it over, Viserys decided not to worry about it. Let's be real—if anyone knew the truth, it was him.
There was no "company" behind this game. His fellow Earthlings couldn't even trace the IP address back to a server because there was no server. Viserys wasn't afraid of anyone investigating the game once it went viral.
If someone from Earth actually managed to trace the connection outside of his game framework and physically show up in Westeros, Viserys would just give up on the Restoration right then and there. He'd dive headfirst into the Trident and go join his brother Rhaegar in the afterlife.
---
Meanwhile, on Earth, the persistent Zhao Xiaotian finally got his father on the phone after trying for half the day.
"Hello? Dad? Didn't you say you were the Titan of Commerce in Jiangnan? Have you heard of this game with insane commercial potential..."
A few moments later, after getting chewed out by his dad, Zhao Xiaotian had an epiphany. He finally understood the old saying: There's always a bigger fish. Apparently, there was business news in the country that even his father didn't know about.
So, Dad isn't the final boss after all. The rich second-generation heir sighed heavily and sent his father one last text message:
> Serious_Bush_Camper: Dad, your connections are weak. You need to grind harder.
> Dad: Get lost! If you think someone else is better, go find a new dad! Interrupt my meeting again and I'll break your legs!
While Zhao Xiaotian—the unfilial son urging his father to "git gud"—stared at the violent reply...
---
In a university dorm room elsewhere, Wang Wu (FaFo) was holding court.
His three roommates were all sitting at their computers, opening the registration site for the "100% Realistic Full-Dive VR Game" that Wang Wu had been hyping up to the heavens.
Birds of a feather flock together. Since they were close friends with a hardcore gamer like Wang Wu, Li Peng and the others were naturally interested in cutting-edge games.
Before today, they had only read about full-dive VR in LitRPG novels or seen it in anime like SAO.
Now that such a game supposedly existed—and they had a chance to try it—Li Peng and the others, trusting Wang Wu, decided to register and see what the fuss was about.
As Wang Wu put it: "Who cares what genre it is? Just f around and find out."
Granted, the official website looked like it was designed by a middle schooler in 2005. It really didn't match the prestige of "Full-Dive VR."
Li Peng and the others filled out their registration info on the janky website. Once they entered their shipping addresses, Wang Wu told them all they had to do was wait for the free helmets to arrive.
"You know, if Wu hadn't hyped it up, I wouldn't have thought much of it. But looking at this helmet now... it actually looks kinda like the nerve-gear from the novels!"
After registering, Li Peng picked up the virtual helmet that Wang Wu was guarding like a treasure and examined it curiously.
"But... nothing's happening?"
Driven by curiosity, Li Peng put the helmet on. However, there was no sci-fi startup sequence, no intro cutscene. It felt just like wearing a regular motorcycle helmet.
"High-tech stuff like this is definitely bio-locked to the user," said Song Jiang from the top bunk. Having finished his registration, he climbed down and patted the helmet, explaining it to Li Peng with the confidence of an expert.
"Man, I'm getting hyped. If this game is as real as Wu says, I'm never logging out!" Zhang Quan took the helmet from Li Peng, his eyes shining with anticipation.
"Never logging out? Quan, did you forget you failed a class two days ago? The counselor said we need to focus on our studies. Don't get lost in the sauce. 'Gaming destroys ambition,' remember?"
Wang Wu crossed his arms and teased Zhang Quan, who was already mentally living in the game.
"Study? Study my ass!" Zhang Quan scoffed, drawing nods of agreement from Li Peng and Song Jiang.
While the atmosphere in this small dorm room on Earth was buzzing with excitement over the revolutionary game...
---
In another world, on the continent of Essos, inside a secluded house, Viserys was watching the game's backend. He stared at the registration count until it stopped at thirteen. Seeing no further growth, he resentfully closed the panel.
Slow and steady. It was a good start. Now, he just needed to snowball.
Viserys sighed, thinking about the crappy website again.
Once the player count hits 100, I really need to upgrade the UI. The core gameplay is god-tier, but we can't ignore the packaging.
What kind of global phenomenon has a website that looks like a scam pop-up ad?
Viserys wanted the System Sprite to run a massive marketing campaign, but that greedy Operator demanded 1,000 Kingdom Coins for a "Global Push." And if the results were poor? No refunds.
Given the quality of the current website, Viserys couldn't bring himself to gamble 1,000 coins on a marketing blast.
[ Host, if you wish to design a custom, high-quality website interface, you can do so for only 1,000 Kingdom Coins! Excellent value, satisfaction guaranteed! ]
Sensing Viserys's thoughts, the System Sprite (Fireboy) immediately popped up to upsell its host.
1,000 coins? You have dollar signs in your eyes, don't you?!
Viserys was annoyed. Not only did this black-hearted sprite scam the players, but it also tried to scam him—the Host! Ignoring the sprite, which clearly learned its business ethics from EA and Tencent, Viserys went to sleep.
---
The Next Morning.
While Illyrio was being dressed by his bed-slaves, preparing to pick up "King Viserys" from the slums...
His Grace was standing tall, looking ambitiously at the ten-or-so players who had just spawned. They looked like country bumpkins visiting the big city—or monkeys let loose in a library.
"Holy crap! Every game I've played before this was a lie!" exclaimed Zhang Quan (In-Game ID: Optimus_Prime), resting his starter sword on his shoulder.
"It's over for me. This game is too real. How am I supposed to go back to playing those so-called 'AAA masterpieces' after this?" sighed Li Peng (ID: Golden_Winged_Eagle), stroking the head of his starter pet—a hound that looked like a Doberman—having chosen the Beastmaster class.
"Urgh... Dammit, I shouldn't have eaten breakfast. This smell... Urgh!" Song Jiang (ID: King_of_Femboys) was pale, on the verge of vomiting. First, he hadn't expected the sensory input to be this real. Second, he hadn't expected a medieval city to smell worse than a porta-potty at a music festival.
"Soldiers loyal to House Targaryen!" Viserys boomed, silencing the chatter.