1: Aspiring to the Throne

"Congratulations, you have successfully graduated from our company. Thank you for your companionship along the way."

Lin Yue looked puzzled. Outside the window, the sun was shining brightly. He rubbed his eyes and sat up from the bed.

"I've been working for two and a half years, what kind of graduation is this?"

He tapped the virtual screen in front of him to check the message the company had just sent. An email appeared before his eyes; it was quite long, but in short...

"I've been fired?"

Lin Yue rubbed his eyes again, unsure, finding it hard to believe.

Yesterday, the director had told him to keep up the good work, patted him on the shoulder, and said he would promote him to a senior engineer after the New Year. How could he be fired just after waking up?

Lin Yue pinched his thigh. Hiss... it hurt. It wasn't a dream!

He gasped, rubbing his thigh while contacting the director.

The director's surname was Li, and he was in his early forties. Although he was a bit overbearing, he was upright and had treated them well on a daily basis; he was considered a good leader. More importantly, even if everything before had just been empty promises, it shouldn't lead to him being fired directly, right?

While Lin Yue was reminiscing, a magnetic voice came through, "Hello."

"Hello, Director. This is Lin Yue. I would like to ask about my dismissal." Lin Yue asked immediately.

The other side was silent for a few seconds before saying, "I've been fired too."

"I... what?" Lin Yue was stunned, his words stuck in his throat, forcibly swallowed back.

"I've been fired too; our entire department has been fired." The director's tone was a bit downcast.

"How is that possible? Wasn't the response to the game 'i want to ascend to immortality' that our team created a month ago very enthusiastic? How could they fire all of us?" Lin Yue was very puzzled.

This game was a virtual reality game that Lin Yue had participated in creating after joining the company. With an immortal cultivation theme, it had a great market response and was currently dominating the number one spot on the virtual reality game charts. It could be said to be the company's cash cow, one of the company's money trees. How could they directly fire their entire department?

"Sigh." The director sighed despondently. "It's not just us. As far as I know, the company's entire gaming department has less than a hundred people left, and the rest have been fired. The other major companies in the industry are about the same."

"Forget it, you'll understand once you watch the news. You're still young, and the future holds infinite possibilities, so don't be too anxious." The director comforted him, though his own mood was quite low.

"Alright, thank you."

"Hmm, happy New Year in advance. Let's keep in touch when we have time." After saying this, the director hung up the phone, leaving a confused Lin Yue behind.

You have to know that their company could be called a major industry leader, with over two thousand employees in the gaming department. What kind of concept is having less than a hundred people left?

If they counted as graduated, then were there any students left in the school? Could it have been blown up?

After thinking about it, he opened the virtual screen to check today's noon news.

"Good afternoon, dear viewers."

"Today is February 1, 2060, Sunday."

"It is also the Lunar New Year's Eve."

On the screen, two familiar hosts were reciting the opening remarks as usual.

"The virtual reality game 'ascension', jointly developed by the five major alliances of Blue Star, is officially released. The servers will open worldwide at the same time. Our server opening time in Great Xia will be at 8:00 PM sharp, Kyoto time today."

"According to reports, 'ascension' was created by tens of thousands of top talents from various countries. The map area is a hundred times the size of Blue Star, and the realism reaches 99%, with no recharge channels. The game type is lord conquest, where players can summon civil and military officials from various historical dynasties to play."

"At the same time, the game also has unprecedented high freedom and high balance, and the game background for each major region is different."

"Our Great Xia game region is set against the backdrop of the late Qin Dynasty, while European countries are set in the Middle Ages, Fuso is set in the Warring States period, and the United States, due to historical reasons, is set in the Indian era."

"Furthermore, according to Great Xia officials, the game equipment in each major region has been optimized to varying degrees. If our Great Xia players see soldiers from the Qin Dynasty holding iron swords, with stirrups and saddles on their warhorses, please do not be surprised, and please, dear viewers in front of the TV, do not curse the game planners!" said the female host.

The male host nodded along, "That's right. At the same time, the game background and history of each major region have also been adjusted accordingly. This move is to maintain game balance and avoid too large a disparity in strength between countries."

"Everyone also knows that if the game were designed entirely according to each country's history, then other countries would not have a good gaming experience." The two hosts smiled rarely and continued:

"In addition, the human perception of time in the game is 1:6, which means one day in reality is six days in the game. The operating principle has not yet been revealed by the five major alliances, but what we do know is that this will have epoch-making significance! It is also a brand-new experience!"

"According to informed sources, this is an epoch-making virtual reality game that can subvert the gaming industry!" The two hosts' faces revealed a sense of excitement at this point.

"At the same time, the game helmets required for 'ascension' will be distributed free of charge by the government. I believe most of the viewers in front of the screen have already received their packages."

"At that time, all adults aged 18 and over can log in to the game with the official special game helmet or game capsule and enjoy playing to their heart's content." The two hosts said alternately.

Lin Yue, in front of the screen, was dumbfounded listening to this.

As a game developer, he was perfectly aware that if this game was truly as described in the news, it would truly subvert the gaming industry!

If the currently popular virtual reality games counted as the Neolithic Age, then this game would directly span into the modern technological era!

The leap in game technology was so great that his first thought was that it was impossible, absolutely impossible!

First, not to mention the massive workload required to construct the various game regions with different backgrounds, just this 1:6 perceived time alone was enough to subvert his understanding!

Furthermore, this would likely be the workload of tens or hundreds of thousands of people. As one of the main developers, the gaming industry in Great Xia hadn't received even a whisper of news beforehand. This was completely unreasonable. Where did the people come from? Could it have been made by aliens?

But this was no longer something he needed to worry about. He had already been treated as talent and sent out into society. The ones who should be worrying were the heads of all the gaming companies.

Since he was here, he would make the best of it. Lin Yue shook his head, got up, and washed up simply. Suddenly remembering something, he walked directly to the entryway of his room, picked up a package, and opened it immediately.

The outer packaging in his hand had the words "ascension" written on it. Opening it, what came into view was a pure white game helmet full of a sense of technology, with a small black tripod logo on the front of the helmet.

Looking at the game helmet in his hand, Lin Yue was lost in thought. This was a package that the community's robot butler had handed to him after he came home from working overtime the night before last. He had originally thought it was just some government benefit or notice, so he had just left it in the entryway. He hadn't expected it to actually be a game helmet!

Afterward, he searched for the "ascension" game forum. Opening the software, he saw that the "ascension" game forum had already occupied the top spot on the hot lists of major software. He clicked in and found that the game forum was currently in a heated discussion.

"'ascension' forward-looking prediction, the authenticity of perceived time?"

"Inside story! The relationship between the birth of 'ascension' and the UFO a month ago!"

"The state is issuing a game, what does this represent?"

"'ascension', a new trend!"

"How feasible is it to send children into the game to study?"

"Valiant Old Qin, rise to meet the national crisis! Valiant Old Qin, restore our rivers and mountains! Until the blood runs dry, we will not stop fighting!"

"Support Great Qin!"

"Give Qin Shi Huang a globe at the start!"

"If heaven had not given birth to 'ascension', the gaming world would have been like a long night for eternity!"

Lin Yue took a quick look and then exited. Now that the game hadn't opened yet, the five major alliances hadn't released any information. No one knew what the game was actually like; it was all speculation, without a single piece of useful information.

He turned to place an order for ten bottles of nutrient solution on the "Hungry to Death" food delivery app. Seeing that it cost 2,000 yuan at checkout, he secretly cursed in his heart, "Profiteers!"

Since the middle of this century, technology has developed rapidly, competition has decreased, and with the foundation of increased Great Xia welfare and people's constantly increasing free time, the gaming industry has shown a blowout trend and remained continuously hot!

Correspondingly, to extend the time available for playing games, reduce unnecessary eating and drinking, and supplement brain power, nutrient solution came into being.

A bottle of nutrient solution could maintain about two days of high-intensity virtual reality gaming. In the past, it was about 100 dragon coins. He hadn't expected it to have doubled in price now, which showed the impact brought by the "ascension" game.

He cursed as he cursed, but he still placed the order; this money wasn't much to him.

He had previously been on the crest of the explosive growth in the gaming industry, earning some money over these two and a half years. Coupled with this year's year-end bonus and the severance pay he had just received, after deducting personal income tax, his savings were still quite substantial.

It was a pity that the company's stock hit the limit down two minutes after opening, otherwise the stocks the company had issued him could have been sold for some money.

And now that he had become unemployed, and the gaming industry was in a downturn, he didn't need to rush to find a job, because even if he wanted to, he couldn't find one...

He could just take this opportunity to see if this game, which was built by the five major alliances and was enough to subvert the gaming industry and even game history, could truly be called epoch-making!

Soon, a knock on the door sounded, and Lin Yue went to open it. The community robot butler handed Lin Yue a package, and after saying thank you, Lin Yue turned and returned to the room.

"Play a song by Jay Chou." Lin Yue said to the smart home robot.

Lin Yue liked to listen to old songs from half a century ago. It wasn't about being unconventional, but because these songs were still popular.

Today's music scene is an era of looking at faces, which has led to the prevalence of various "magicians".

So everyone started digging for old songs, even wanting to invite the nearly eighty-year-old Jay Chou to come out of retirement.

It was hard to tell whether to marvel at the songs being ahead of their time or to feel sad.

"Okay, playing 'In the Name of the Father' for you." Soon, the prelude to the music began to play in the room.

Accompanied by the music, Lin Yue browsed through some knowledge about the late Qin Dynasty and quietly waited for the game to open.