49: A nationwide meditation craze! Can you even create fireballs in real life now?

As Tower Master Khadgar was hung on a flagpole, fluttering in the wind, the server-wide System announcement resounded like a grand firework display, exploding in every player's mind.

[Server-wide Announcement: Congratulations to the players for successfully conquering the team dungeon "Tower of Truth (Silvermoon City Branch)"!]

[Server-wide Announcement: First kill of BOSS "Tower Master Khadgar," rewarding all participating players with 5,000 Contribution Points!]

[Version Update Preview: Detected that players have acquired a large amount of basic knowledge. The System mall will soon list "National Meditation." Transcendence will no longer be a dream!]

First, there was a brief silence.

Then, a carnival-like eruption followed, akin to a volcanic explosion.

"Five thousand Contribution Points! We're rich!"

"National Meditation? Holy crap! Did the damn developers finally decide to act like humans?"

"Transcendence is no longer a dream! Does that mean... we can really cast fireballs in reality?"

That last sentence was like a nuclear bomb, completely detonating everyone's nerves.

Previously, the [Mana Seed] Li Qiang obtained after clearing the tenth floor was just an isolated case, a special reward for a first-clear big shot.

But now, the System announcement told everyone clearly.

This path would be open to everyone!

A game where you could get stronger just by doing manual labor was already enough to subvert one's worldview.

A game that could bring power from the game back to reality? What was that?

That was a miracle!

That was a second life!

...In his rented room, Su Mu leaned back comfortably in his gaming chair. Looking at the monitoring light screen at the group of players who had fallen into a frenzy because of a single announcement, a satisfied curve curled at the corner of his mouth.

Emotion points.

Massive amounts of emotion points, like a bursting flood, poured crazily into the Tinder Core.

Excitement, ecstasy, greed, ambition... these were all the best fuels.

He opened the back end and performed a "developer-style" overhaul on the "Basic Meditation Method" he had just scanned and copied from the Mage Tower database.

He deleted ninety-nine percent of the complicated theories and philosophical speculations, keeping only the core parts: how to feel mana and how to construct a Qi cyclone.

Then, he listed this extremely simplified "skill book" on the Contribution Point mall.

[Product Name: Elementary Universal Meditation Method (Player Special Edition)]

[Price: 1 Contribution Point]

[Description: Can't understand Elven script? Can't memorize incantations? No problem! This meditation method is specially tailored for players of the nine-year compulsory education System. Guaranteed learning or your money back.]

[Su Mu's Note: Knowledge is priceless, but your happiness is my pursuit.]

After finishing all this, Su Mu pulled up the permission panel for the [Reality Feedback System].

The number representing the Reality Synchronization Rate was originally [10%].

He tapped lightly in the air.

The number jumped.

It became [15%].

"My dear leeks, I'm giving you some fertilizer. You better grow hard."

Su Mu stretched and whispered to himself... In the game, players also discovered the new product in the mall.

When they saw the price of "1 Contribution Point," everyone was stunned.

"Am I seeing this right? 1 point?"

"Did the damn developer... find his conscience? Or is this a trap?"

"Who cares if it's a trap! For 1 Contribution Point, you won't lose out and you won't be fooled!"

Almost instantly, all online players completed the purchase.

A stream of information poured directly into their minds.

Without the dizzying feeling of learning magic before, this Legacy of knowledge was as simple and crude as copying a file directly into the brain.

"Holy crap! I think... I understand it?"

A player sat down cross-legged and tried to breathe according to the extra method in his head.

A few seconds later, he snapped his eyes open, his face full of disbelief.

"I... I feel it! I feel something in the air!"

"Me too! It's warm, like being in a hot spring!"

"Everyone shut up! I'm going offline to try it! I want to see if I can really make something happen in reality!"

One player's words reminded everyone.

Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!

Patches of white light lit up.

The Mage Tower ruins, which were just bustling like a wet market, became empty within a single minute.

The players logged off collectively at an unprecedented speed... In the real world, it was eleven o'clock at night.

Inside a luxury river-view apartment that had just been bought in full.

Li Qiang sat up from his Advanced gaming cabin worth two hundred thousand.

He didn't stop to admire the night view outside the window. Instead, he immediately sat cross-legged on the soft wool carpet and closed his eyes.

Following the method learned in the game, he began to adjust his breathing.

One minute.

Five minutes.

Ten minutes.

He felt nothing at all.

"Damn it, is it a lie?"

Li Qiang opened his eyes irritably, pulled a cigarette from his pocket, and put it in his mouth.

Just as he was about to look for a lighter.

He felt a sudden, familiar burning sensation in his lower abdomen, where the [Mana Seed] had integrated before.

This heat flow was stronger than any time before, like a small flame, following his Meridians and quickly rushing to his fingertips.

He subconsciously extended his index finger, preparing to flick away some ash.

Pop.

A light sound.

A spark smaller than a grain of rice emerged from his fingertip.

The spark landed precisely on the cigarette in his mouth.

The cigarette was instantly lit.

Li Qiang froze on the spot.

He stared blankly at his finger, which was still emitting a wisp of blue smoke, and then at the lit cigarette in his mouth.

His mind went blank.

A full half-minute passed.

"Holy... shit..."

A curse mixed with extreme shock and ecstasy echoed throughout the empty room.

At the same time.

In every corner of the country, and even the world.

Countless players who had just logged off from the game experienced miracles similar to Li Qiang's, yet each unique.

In a university boys' dormitory.

A thin student wearing glasses sat cross-legged on his bed, learning to meditate.

Suddenly, he felt his fingertip grow hot.

A flame the size of a soybean, extremely weak, flickered on his fingertip and then quickly went out.

"Holy crap! Chen Fei! When did you learn magic tricks?"

His roommate in the lower bunk happened to see this scene, and was so startled his phone dropped to the floor.

"No... I didn't! You saw wrong! It was a lighter!" Chen Fei's face turned pale with fright, and he quickly hid his hand behind his back.

In a rented room.

A female white-collar worker who was meditating while wearing a face mask suddenly felt the air around her grow cold.

She opened her eyes and found that in the air before her, tiny, glittering ice crystals had actually condensed.

"Oh... my God..."

She covered her mouth, unable to believe her eyes.

And at this moment, the official forum of "Void World" had completely exploded.

The server traffic soared to an unprecedented peak in just ten minutes, even making the maintenance programmers think they were under a hacker attack.

The pinned posts were filled with all sorts of spine-tingling titles.

[Pinned & Featured] [Video]: Live demonstration, lighting a cigarette with bare hands, with 100% pain proof (hand hair burned off, hurts like hell, but feels great!)

[Hot Thread] [Help]: When I meditate, my belly button feels hot. Am I about to suffer Qi Deviation? Waiting online, it's urgent!

[Hot Thread] [Agreeing]: Don't panic upstairs! I'm hot too! And I feel like I can see many colorful light spots floating in the air! Is this the legendary Spiritual Qi?

[Hot Thread] [Picture]: I seem to have used Frost Nova in reality and froze the Coke on my desk. Pictures provided for proof!

[Hot Thread] [Complaining]: Why can you all cast fireballs and ice blocks, while I've meditated for ages and just feel my butt getting hot? Is my talent wrong?

Countless videos, pictures, and text posts swept across the entire internet like a tsunami.

At first, most netizens who hadn't played the game thought it was another viral marketing campaign for "Void World" and left mocking comments.

"It's acting, right? These special effects are pretty good."

"To the guy lighting the cigarette upstairs, did you hide a lighter in your sleeve?"

"Again? Can this game company come up with some new tricks for hype?"

But as more and more people from different IPs and backgrounds began to upload various inconceivable "superpower" videos.

The direction of the entire internet changed.

From doubt to shock, and then to fanaticism.

"Is it real? Can playing a game really make you a superhuman?"

"Begging for a beta test code! I'm willing to trade ten years of being single for it!"

"The official website has crashed! I can't get in at all!"

A fire named "Transcendence," personally lit by Su Mu, was sweeping across the entire real world like a prairie fire.

And in the shadows of the world.

Inside a secret base deep underground, a piercing alarm rang through the entire hall.

"Report! Detected over three thousand abnormal high-frequency energy fluctuations nationwide!"

"All identity information of the energy sources points to... registered players of 'Void World'!"

"Report! Three of the energy peaks have reached C-Rank! They already possess preliminary destructive power!"

A middle-aged man in a black uniform with a dragon emblem on his shoulder looked at the dense red dots on the large screen, his expression more solemn than ever before.

"Immediately raise the threat level of 'Void World' to the highest level—'Calamity'."

"This is not a game."

He stared at Su Mu's heavily pixelated photo in the center of the screen and said word by word.

"This is... an out-of-control national evolution."

...In the game world, Goblin Fortress.

Amidst the atmosphere of national celebration, only one place seemed out of place.

Wang Wei's (Luban No. 7) exclusive laboratory.

He didn't log off.

He didn't care at all whether fireballs could be cast in reality.

As a firm believer in the cult of science, he only believed in machinery and data.

At this moment, his eyes were glowing as he stared at two things in front of him.

One was a [mana crystal] stripped from a Mage Tower golem, still emitting a faint blue light.

The other was a rusty diesel engine emitting a strong smell of machine oil, scavenged from the Wasteland world.

One represented magic.

The other represented industry.

"The essence of energy is all common..."

Wang Wei muttered to himself, a mad scientist's smile appearing on his face.

"Since electrical energy can drive machinery, then Demonic Energy... why can't it?"

He picked up a wrench and wires, beginning his mad experiment that was enough to subvert the entire world.

He tried to use the mana crystal as a "battery" to connect to the diesel engine.

First attempt.

Boom!

Mana overload. The engine's piston was blown straight out, almost punching through his forehead.

Second attempt.

He added a "resistor" made from a Goblin Shaman's bone.

Sizzle!

The circuit burned out.

Third time, fourth time... After blowing up half the lab and affecting several unlucky bastards who passed by to watch the fun.

Wang Wei finally found a delicate balance point.

He carefully embedded a shard of mana crystal the size of a fingernail into the engine's fuel injection port.

Then, he slowly pressed the start button.

After a tooth-grinding sound of metal friction.

The engine shook violently, emitting puffs of choking black smoke.

"Failed again?"

Wang Wei frowned.

Just as he was about to give up.

Hum—

A crisp and stable roar, completely different from before, suddenly sounded!

The old diesel engine stopped emitting black smoke.

In its place were puffs of pale blue air currents composed of pure mana spraying from the exhaust pipe!

The roar of the engine was no longer a simple physical vibration; instead, it carried a peculiar mana pulsation like the heartbeat of a giant beast!

Success!

An unprecedented light erupted in Wang Wei's eyes.

A brand-new era belonging to the players, belonging to the fourth calamity.

The gears of the first Magic-Industrial Revolution.

At this moment, they began to turn slowly.