Chapter 176 A Month of Calm

The old saying goes, the New Year lasts until the fifteenth day of the first lunar month.

Of course, that's an old saying... For most people nowadays, "New Year" is equivalent to "holiday," and "holiday"... might end as early as the third day of the New Year, or at most let you rest until the eighth day; even students on winter break have to go back to school around the Lantern Festival.

So, in the minds of modern people, the second half of the "first month" is just an ordinary period where you do whatever you need to do.

But... these seven members of Hell Front don't need to consider those things.

Either their work hours are irregular, or they have the choice of working or not, and one of them is an unsigned professional gamer whose main job is playing games...

In short, these guys... have plenty of time to be online.

To prepare for S3, everyone was quite serious this time. Even Miss An, who had to go to the company during the day, managed to adjust her work hours (basically, she told her family, "Starting tomorrow, I'll only work half a day, and I'll decide my own hours"), so she could play games with her teammates during the day and strengthen their coordination.

According to the announcement released by Meng Corporation, the registration deadline for S3 was one month, starting from the moment the S3 rules were announced, which was 00:00 on February 21, 2056; the registration system would close at 00:00 on March 20, 2056. At that point, the system would immediately randomly match all the registered teams to generate the battle list for the first round of the S3 knockout stage. Twenty-four hours after the list was announced, the first round of the competition would officially begin.

Like the previous two competitions, this "one month" registration preparation period was undoubtedly another conspiracy by the game company to make money...

Needless to say, the top players who were already determined to participate would definitely increase their investment—when everyone is throwing money to increase their strength, maintaining your usual pace is equivalent to falling behind.

With this trend, the trading volume in the official store and auction house would definitely surge again. Meng Corporation could not only recover a large amount of game currency from the players but also collect a large amount of transaction tax and handling fees based on a percentage during this period of comprehensive price increases in the auction house.

In addition, the "extra recharge" revenue from casual players was also a key focus of this operation.

The largest player group in Thriller Paradise at this stage is the group of ordinary casual players with a hidden score between 55 and 75 and a level between 45 and 50. These players usually play with the mindset of "relaxing, seeking excitement, having fun, and making friends." They joined the game early and their online time is relatively fixed, but... they don't have a strong desire to improve their game character's strength.

Because Thriller Paradise generates scripts suitable for their hidden score range based on the player's level, investment, and even personality, the strength of these purely casual players being above average does not affect their gaming experience (except for characters like Snow, who were carried through all 40 levels).

However, now, the situation is different... The completely random matching rules of S3 greatly increased the chances of ordinary players advancing. Theoretically, if the extreme phenomenon of "all the professional powerhouses' advancement routes converging before the semi-finals" occurs, then a "civilian team" winning the runner-up... is not impossible.

Under such stimulation, the enthusiasm of casual players for S3 can be said to be unprecedentedly high; although everyone understands that such a "theory" is just a theory, similar to the mentality of "after the World Cup qualifying group is drawn, the fans first do the math in their minds, and then feel that the national team can theoretically qualify this time"...

But no matter what... people all have dreams.

Besides, Thriller Paradise competitions don't require a registration fee. Participating doesn't cost anything. Losing is just a one-round exit, and winning a game can be bragged about for half a year.

Meng Corporation has grasped this mentality and deliberately left this "one month" so that players whose "hidden score" is not enough to qualify for the competition can improve their score.

As long as casual players increase their game time and "get serious," changing their mindset to play the game, their hidden score can indeed be improved to a certain extent in the short term. And once people start to "play games seriously," it's normal to invest some money... After all, Thriller Paradise is a game with economic and age thresholds. Almost all the players of this type of game have the ability to spend money, it's just a matter of how much.

…………

When there's news, it's long; when there's no news, it's short.

In the following month, nothing special happened, and the members of Hell Front steadily improved their strength.

During this time, Feng Bujue still mostly played solo, because the other six could just form a team; and, it must be said, Jue-ge is indeed a team burden... When he's in the team, increasing the script difficulty is secondary, the key is that many of his decisions and strategies also affect the normal flow of the script.

Therefore, this month, Feng Bujue mostly soloed.

Of course, whether it's soloing or teaming up, Jue-ge doesn't care; he can handle any mode or any script, but... there was one situation that made him feel very strange.

That is... as mentioned above—"nothing special happened."

For Feng Bujue... this was the strangest thing.

As the end of this "gamble" was approaching, in the final stage of this "Candidate Game," everything seemed so calm.

Woody himself didn't contact him, nor did he send Kui Moli (i.e., Asas) to bring him a message; Vincent, Simon, and those guys didn't come to contact him; the Paradise guys didn't make any moves at all...

Not only in the real world, but also in the game world...

Since the last "Monster Kingdom Defense War," in this month, including the other members of Hell Front, none of them had been matched into a script that took place in the main universe of Thriller Paradise; but judging from the reactions on the forum, the system should not have stopped generating scripts with the main universe as the background, because other players had participated.

Jue-ge tried teaming up with players outside the guild, and he also tried queuing for all kinds of Nightmare difficulty scripts... but he just couldn't get matched.

Without a way to enter the main universe, and no opportunity to enter the reverse world, not even a derivative was encountered... This month, the Thriller Paradise that Feng Bujue played was incredibly "normal," so normal that he suspected he was opening it the wrong way.

And this phenomenon also made Feng Bujue understand that this time... something big might really be about to happen.

Leaving aside those existences in the game world, even Woody and his gang of gods and demons couldn't even send a single word... This shows that some kind of more powerful force has intervened and taken control of the overall situation.