184: Chapter 184 Quality Plaza

Chu He rubbed his hands together and, filled with anticipation, dove headfirst into the circular archway swirling with blue data streams.

"Link Start!"

After clicking the [Moon Holy Grail] matchmaking button, Chu He didn't enter the map directly but instead found himself floating in an endless electronic deep sea.

Immediately after, a giant holographic panel popped up before his retinas—[Moon Holy Grail Tournament · Survival Rules]!

"Oh? There's a mandatory pre-battle mini-lesson? Let me see..."

Chu He read out the first rule on the panel:

[Rule 1: During the initial Spiritron Dive phase, Masters will land in a physical state without the protection of a Servant. Participants must explore the 'Sakura Labyrinth' on their own to collect survival resources and 'Spiritron Crystals'.]

As soon as this appeared, a sea of question marks drifted across the livestream chat.

"??? Does this mean the BOX I worked so hard to pull is completely useless? Are we supposed to play extreme survival?"

Chu He's eye twitched; he keenly sensed the hardcore nature of this mode and continued reading:

[Rule 2: Temporary Contract Summoning. In this mode, each Master is limited to forming one temporary Servant contract, and the summoning circle's connection target is in an unknown fluctuation state. A basic summon can be performed by consuming a minimum of 10 Mana points. The more Mana Crystals invested at once, the greater the spirit origin scale and strength of the responding Servant.]

"Holy crap!!"

Seeing this rule, Chu He gasped on the spot, and the livestream chat instantly exploded!

"Unknown fluctuation state? Doesn't this mean we're just using resources to pull cards randomly on the spot within the map?!"

"That's insane! A 'non-chieftain' might spend 10 Mana points to summon a 1-star to save their life, but if a 'European Emperor' could survive to the end, they could use a thousand Mana to summon a big daddy and clear the field?!"

The next two rules exuded an even colder, murderous aura, sending everyone's adrenaline skyrocketing.

[Rule 3: Spiritron Plunder. The Holy Grail War is a cruel zero-sum game. When an enemy Master is determined to have 'lost vital signs,' all resources and Spiritron Crystals they are carrying will turn into ownerless items and scatter on the spot.]

[Rule 4: Elimination Judgment. After a Servant dies in battle, if the Master is still alive and has sufficient Mana, they can perform a re-summon. However, once the Master's physical body dies, exploration privileges will be immediately revoked, and the Servant will be forcibly repatriated!]

"Hiss—"

Chu He gasped, "This is the Dark Forest theory!"

Once the rules were read, the holographic panel dissolved into countless streams of data.

With a flash of white light, Chu He found himself standing on a massive, cyberpunk-style hexagonal floating platform.

This was the [Moon Cell Core Chamber], also known as the players' "Ready Lobby."

At this moment, the Ready Lobby was already packed with 128 players.

"Beep—All-channel voice chat has been automatically enabled."

As soon as the system prompt finished, Chu He's ears were instantly flooded with a wave of noise loud enough to cause a brain hemorrhage.

"Hello, hello? Can you hear me? Holy crap, this game actually lets you talk directly without buying a server-wide loudspeaker?!"

"Who the hell is playing music! It's so annoying, can you turn it off!"

"Paying big money for a team! I spent 100,000 outside; whoever protects me after landing, I'll transfer 20,000 Blue Star coins to them once we're out!"

Where had the Blue Star players ever seen such a grand spectacle of a hundred people using open mics on a single channel?

In the trashy reskinned online games they had played before, speaking in public chat required buying items with money, and only noble VIPs could have flashy effects in the chat box.

Now, 128 living people were stuffed into a lobby without any class distinction, free to chat over open mics; the whole lobby was literally like an out-of-control wet market.

The viewers in the livestream, seeing this scene, didn't find it noisy at all; instead, they felt an unprecedented sense of novelty and shock.

"Holy crap, this is spectacular! This is the atmosphere a real multiplayer online game should have!"

"No VIP privileges, no pay-to-win loudspeaker restrictions, everyone just shouting in the same channel—how did Old Thief Gu come up with this crazy idea?!"

"Although it's really noisy, I don't know why, but it feels so fun, hahahaha! It's literally a cyber mudslide!"

It wasn't just the chaotic dance of sounds; in this holographic game without any movement restrictions, the players' body language had evolved to a certain degree of "atavism."

"Holy crap! Is that Chu God? A living Chu God!"

Suddenly, a sharp-eyed player recognized the ID above Chu He's head.

The next second, an extremely hilarious scene unfolded.

This little fan, with the ID "Pity Counter Person, Pity Counter Soul," excitedly rushed in front of Chu He and began an astonishing mysterious ritual.

He first jumped frantically on the spot, then, as if having a seizure, performed a high-frequency sequence of "crouch, stand, crouch again, peek," while his hands flailed wildly in the air with uncoordinated punches.

"Chu God, I love you! Chu God, carry me! I'm super good at skydiving!"

Accompanied by the little fan's voice-cracking roar of excitement, a few other viewers who were watching the fun gathered around, surrounding Chu He and joining in the frantic crouching and jumping in front of him.

"Wait, why are you guys jumping and repeatedly crouching like that? Is the floor hot??"

Watching this "welcoming dance" that looked like a cult ritual, Chu He was so shocked he leaned back tactically, and the livestream chat was laughing so hard they were gasping for air.

"Hahahaha! 'Is the floor hot?'—what the hell! These movements are just too addictive!"

"Mount Huaguo! This is definitely the cyber branch of Mount Huaguo! Is the end of human evolution just monkeys?!"

Just as the lobby was completely devolving into a monkey mountain, a player with the ID "Long Aotian" suddenly climbed onto the highest data box in the center of the lobby.

He cleared his throat, turned his microphone volume to the maximum, and roared at the top of his lungs:

"Everyone, look at me!! Look at me, look at me!!"

This ear-piercing shout miraculously managed to suppress the noise of the entire room.

The 127 players in the lobby, including Chu He, all subconsciously stopped their actions and looked up at the attention-seeker standing high above.

"Where did this rich-kid ID come from? Is he going to pay everyone off?"

Chu He muttered to himself, and the livestream chat also began spamming "Waiting for the rich guy to throw money."

In the minds of these Blue Star players, such a high-and-mighty figure usually had to give a speech about being the one and only pay-to-win boss.

The "Long Aotian" took a deep breath and, in the most arrogant and wild tone, shouted to the entire server:

"I have an announcement to make..."

"I'm a moron [beep—]!!!"