Chapter 136: Welfare World

"Pledge your allegiance to Me, and I shall favor you!"

To a Supreme Diamond VIP, even Wu Zetian, acting as the faction leader, offered an intimate interaction after Yan Luo made his selection—though, of course, the so-called VIP status was fake, fabricated through a program hacking into the game.

At that moment, the navigation sprite sent a prompt:

"In 16 minutes and 23 seconds, the Chaos Continent version 1.0 map will officially open. As the first wave of players, you will descend upon the continent alongside tribal leaders and players from various other nations at that exact moment. Before then, you may review the profiles of the leaders."

Then, all he could do was wait.

Soon, a little over a minute passed. With a dizzying spin of the world, the surroundings suddenly brightened, and Yan Luo found himself standing in a grassy field.

Simultaneously, a series of game notifications continuously poured in.

"Chaos Continent version 1.0, Version: The Stone Age begins!"

"Wang Mang has entered the game."

"Ramesses II has entered the game."

"Hammurabi has entered the game."

"Attila has entered the game."

"Louis XIV has entered the game."

"Qianlong has entered the game."

"Justinian I has entered the game."

"Montezuma has entered the game."

"Emperor Meiji has entered the game."

"Artoria has entered the game."

"William I has entered the game."

"Cyrus has entered the game."

"Shaka Zulu has entered the game."

"Isabella has entered the game."

"*** has entered the game."

"Kamehameha has entered the game."

……

After one or two hundred leaders had all entered the game, the navigation sprite prompted Yan Luo: "Respected Supreme Diamond VIP, you have chosen the leader Wu Zetian. Please make your way to the tribe belonging to this faction within one hour."

"The map and beginner's guide have been delivered to your inventory."

"You have obtained the Beginner's Grand Gift Pack."

……

While listening to the game prompts and checking his inventory, Yan Luo discovered that his original clothes had been replaced by a set of beginner's linen tunic, linen trousers, and a pair of straw sandals on his feet—moreover, he found that the program's storage space and the game inventory had merged.

His missionary robe, coiled dragon staff, and mandarin duck sabers had all been transferred to the inventory.

Even more surprisingly, Madi—his mount and pet—was shockingly in the inventory as well! It seemed that in this online game, mounts were allowed to be stored in the inventory. Truly, pets in online games were much more worry-free.

Yan Luo checked the Beginner's Grand Gift Pack.

Upon opening it, the bundle contained a few meager items:

A single steamed corn bun;

A bottle of mineral water;

A set of linen clothes and straw sandals—completely identical to the ones he was wearing, intended as a change of clothes. True to its name, it was indeed a "grand" beginner's gift pack. However, if one spent 6 yuan on the first top-up, in addition to obtaining the Elite Commoner Template and 3 bonus free attribute points, an extra beginner's weapon would be included: a wooden stick.

If one purchased the 30-yuan monthly card, a daily food ration would be provided for one month in-game...

Yan Luo's status was Supreme Diamond VIP, but clearly, the program had merely modified a permission level to allow personal attributes to be imported, rather than granting true ownership. He lacked any actual game privileges associated with a Supreme Diamond VIP, receiving zero extra perks...

Holding the steamed corn bun in his hand, he noticed it was made of coarse cornmeal, seemingly mixed with some chaff and wheat bran...

A line of lyrics seemed to echo in his ears:

"Holding a steamed corn bun in my hand, not a single drop of oil in the dish."

"Isn't this food a bit too wretched?"

As for the food distributed by the system to newcomers, China's version was the steamed corn bun mixed with chaff and bran, while countries like Britain, the United States, France, and Germany received black bread, which was even worse than the steamed corn bun, containing wood splinters and small pebbles—completely dark-age medieval food, with its only advantage being that it could be used as a weapon to bludgeon people.

The reason the food was of such poor quality was to give players the motivation to figure out ways to acquire food within the game. Of course, if one wished to avoid hunting and gathering, they could simply top up for the 30-yuan monthly card to receive a daily set meal. Additionally, the in-game mall sold all sorts of food, ranging from hamburgers and Peking duck to General Tso's chicken... everything one could possibly imagine.

In the game, eating was not strictly mandatory, but failing to do so would plunge the character into a weakened state with reduced attributes.

Yan Luo also noticed that above his head, his LV2 Modulator rank was gone, replaced solely by a title: Mid-Level Boss.

In the game, all players had their names displayed hovering directly above their heads.

"If it's like this, others will surely assume my name is Mid-Level Boss..."

Feeling that "Mid-Level Boss" wasn't quite suitable as a name, Yan Luo changed his title, causing the name above his head to transform into "Forest Elf".

Every player possessed a personal template.

The standard template for a commoner was: Strength: 2, Agility: 2, Constitution: 2, Intelligence: 2.

Naturally, when it came down to the individual, because the system scanned the physical fitness of the players inside the game pods, attributes varied—some might have higher strength or exceptional intelligence, with any single attribute potentially reaching up to a maximum of 5 points!

Why set the template attributes at 2 instead of 5 or 10? The reason was simple.

You understand.

The 6-yuan first top-up.

For an ordinary person, assuming a standard template, investing 3 free attribute points directly into strength allowed them to immediately experience the sensation of a powerhouse. If one were already exceptionally talented with a strength of 5, adding 3 points would bring it to 8, making it effortless to take on ten opponents at once within the game.

In this game, there was no concept of "leveling up." Free attribute points were extremely precious, and the channels to obtain them were scarce. For 6 yuan, 3 attribute points were practically given away for free. It was rumored that Tencent was crying tears of regret over it...

Enhancing one's status within the game, such as becoming a soldier or holding an official post, would grant templates and provide attribute bonuses.

Yan Luo checked his own attributes in the game.

Strength: 20, Agility: 20, Constitution: 20, Intelligence: 8.

Just in terms of attributes, he could be said to completely crush ordinary players, though his intelligence seemed slightly out of balance?

At that moment, he received another prompt from the program—not the game navigation sprite. In this online gaming world, as a Modulator, any free attribute points obtained and allocated would retain their enhanced effects even after leaving.

Hearing this prompt, Yan Luo fell into deep thought.

In other words, the free attribute points obtained in the online gaming world, once allocated, would not vanish even upon returning to the real world of the surface plane? This was equivalent to fundamentally modifying and enhancing his physical body and soul! Could this forced online gaming world be any more beneficial?

Yan Luo's baseline physical fitness—strength, agility, and constitution—was roughly ten times that of an ordinary person. His intelligence, rather than representing mere IQ, primarily governed energy, spiritual reserves, and spells; his intelligence stat should be about four times that of an ordinary person.

"It seems I'm going to make a huge splash in this world..."

At that exact same moment, the Modulators who had descended upon the Chaos Continent were utterly stunned.

"What? Attribute allocations are retained?" Chu Qingfeng lost all his composure as a psychologist, throwing his head back in laughter while dancing about, "Fantastic, this is simply fantastic, hahaha..."

Modulators from other countries were also cheering:

"Good job!"

"Yoshi..."

"Woof woof woof!"

……

Even a team of eleven Indian fellows who had descended upon the Chaos Continent and chosen the faction of Ashoka the Great joined hands to dance in a circle performing the Bhangra. To put it mildly, aside from Yan Luo, every single other Modulator was plunged into a state of wild ecstasy.