Tail: GIAO!! Beta 0.6 update!! ∑(°Д°ノ)ノ

Sisi: The last update was literally the last time!! (shocked)

Drumhead Washing Machine: The sun must’ve risen from the west, since when did Brother Light get this hardworking?

Quit Smoking: Light-Bro, you’re awesome!!!

Eye Owe Money: Holy crap! INT players just got an epic buff! (excited)

Sword Execution: Begging for a STR buff here.

Kakarot: +1. Once the golden child of past patches, now dumped into the garbage heap. T.T

Spring Water Commander: Come on! How long have INT players been the weakest meta subclass? A little buff’s no problem, okay? It’s fair!

Kakarot: You call that a little buff?! >:()

Before the Beta versions, the strength type was extremely popular for its overwhelming early-game combat power and its easy level progression.

Out of every 10 new players, at least half picked the strength type as their genetic sequence.

But after the mass production of the KV-series exoskeletons, the strength type players’ early advantage shrank rapidly, and its late-game edge was erased by technological progress.

Meanwhile, the Intelligence build, the old underdog, had been buffed patch after patch. Especially after the New Alliance annexed Boulder Town Arms Industry and gained the ability to manufacture its own biomechanical prosthetics, the intelligence type genetic sequence rose to become the meta golden child.

Other classes suffered heavy experience penalties as they replaced more organic parts with mechanical ones. Intelligence type players, however, could install as many prosthetics as they wanted, so long as they didn’t slot in bionic chips, without reducing XP gain. In fact, their constant cognitive load even passively boosted experience acquisition!

Because of that, ever since Beta 0.5, the forums had been flooded with tags calling on Light to nerf the intelligence type.

To everyone’s shock, instead of nerfing them this time, he buffed them even further!

As strength type and Intelligence type players argued fiercely in the comments, one of the fools joined in to whine about his own misfortune.

Garbage: I’m crying, when is Brother Light gonna buff mutant players?! T.T

Night Ten: Garbage probably just looked at his stats panel... Pretty sure he’s never hitting 10 points in intelligence in this lifetime. ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

Yaya: Hahahaha! NOOB! Too weak! Even I have 10 points in intelligence! o(＊≧▽≦)ツ

Garbage: GFY!

Ample Time: It’s okay, brother. Innate stats are only part of it. Didn’t you see, Light even gave you a path forward? You can always jam in some extra ram into your brain with a bionic chip, right? ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

Escaping Mole: As long as you’ve got enough silver coins, even mechanical ascension’s on the table. ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

Gale: So poor players rely on mutation, rich players rely on tech? (¬_¬")

Sideline Slacking: Damn, this game really is too realistic.

Mosquito: Hehehehe... ‘Entity Cultivation,’ hehehe.

Falling Feather: ... What are you planning? (sweat)

Irene: Though Mosquito didn’t say anything, it sure feels like he said everything. (ᵕ • ᴗ •)

Elf Wang: Feeling sorry for Feather-bro already. (¬ω¬)

Teng Teng: You guys have such dirty minds! Mosquito does proper things sometimes too, right? You wouldn’t lead Little Feather astray, would you?

While Teng Teng tried in vain to appeal to Mosquito’s better nature, another troublemaker jumped in.

Tail: Tail wants to squeeze lots of tentacles! (＊/ω\＊)

Sisi: Are you even serious right now?! (ᵕ • ᴗ •)

Roshan: Sisi, keep heading south. (shivering.jpg)

Sesame Paste: Haha... exploring the map’s edge is fun, but if we go any farther south we’ll need to bring parkas. (￣▽￣)

Teng Teng: Poor Feather. (。－ω－)

Falling Feather: Wait, can you guys even log in? I can’t get into the game at all!

Ample Time: ?

Old White: What’s going on? (shocked)

Falling Feather: No idea! I tried logging in, put on the helmet, and it shows a respawn cooldown! But I’m not even dead! QAQ

Escaping Mole: Bro, how many bugs have you triggered now?

Night Ten: Might not be a bug. Maybe you flexed too hard and Brother Light secretly nerfed you. (˵ ¬ᴗ¬˵)

Falling Feather: No way! QAQ

Mosquito: Don’t worry, brother, I’ll take good care of Little Feather for you. <(˘ ˘ ˘)>

Falling Feather: Where do you live again... I’ll send you something. Please open it...

Mosquito: Ahem, calm down, bro, it was just a joke.

Makka Pakka: HAHAHAHA! I’m dying!

Maybe it was because updates had been so rare.

Even though Beta 0.6 didn’t change much mechanically, players were buzzing with excitement.

Especially about how to use Little Feather, not just those with 10 intelligence points or more, but even cloud players without beta access joined the debate.

With so many mouths flapping, wild ideas piled up fast. Even Chu Guang couldn’t help thinking that if everyone got their own VR helmet, the New Alliance’s streetlights wouldn’t be enough to power them all.

Honestly, Chu Guang himself didn’t yet have a concrete implementation plan for the newly established ecological protection zone in the east of Clearspring City.

So he’d decided to let the players experiment, and had asked Little Feather to improve the entities using Thea’s DNA database, while preserving their independent consciousness.

In truth, the biological implants players received functioned like small incubation nodes, each one a node entity.

A player with the modified implant acted as a signal processor, relaying commands from Little Feather to the entities connected through the node.

It was similar to the Mutant Human chief the New Alliance had encountered in Brocade River Province, the man wearing biotic armor with the Torch Church’s biotech, commanded tens of thousands of Winged Mutant Humans alone.

Theoretically, even without high-end tech, as long as a player’s brain could handle the information load, controlling a hundred or even a thousand entities at once wouldn’t be impossible.

For the time being, it was the safest strategy.

Even if anything went wrong, it could easily be brushed off as a server bug compensation event, avoiding any public panic over an untested technology. At the same time, players’ wild imaginations could guide Little Feather’s evolution toward directions beneficial to the New Alliance’s society.

Chu Guang placed great hope in that.

He left the training of Little Feather to his lovely players for the moment, because he had something far more urgent to handle himself.

The very next morning after the end of the Tide, as soon as Chu Guang opened his eyes in bed, a pale-blue system window appeared before him.

[Hidden Quest Complete]

[Description: Morphogenetic field confirms Hive connection established. Abnormal clone (Player ID: Falling Feather) confirmed to be lost. Nurturing Cabin generating new clone. Trigger: Flag 7 condition met.]

[Reward: Unlock access to level B7, 20,000 Genetic Sequences!]

Level B7!

20,000 slots!

The joy came too quickly and Chu Guang could hardly believe his eyes.

From experience, every time Shelter 404 unlocked a new floor, it granted him a wealth of resources, rare New Alliance-grade equipment, and sometimes even priceless black box artifacts.

He didn’t know why the system had skipped level B5 all this time, but he wasn’t the type to complain.

Whatever he got, was good enough!

Leaping out of bed, Chu Guang immediately instructed Little Seven to add level B7 and extra beta access to the 0.6 patch notes, then hurriedly suited up and rushed out the door.

In front of the elevator on level B1, a long line had formed; the small plaza was packed with players waiting to undergo bio-implant surgeries on level B6.

They were eager to experience the new 0.6 update firsthand.

“Bro, decided what kind of entity you’re gonna raise?”

“Hehe, gotta be a white-haired red-eyed succubus, obviously!”

“Dude, you’re insane, that thing is Slime Mold!”

“We can’t... Well, maybe not can’t but maybe you shouldn’t!”

“Hello? Police? There’s a pervert cultist here, please come get him.”

Pretending not to hear their nonsense, Chu Guang pushed through the crowd into his private elevator and touched the control panel.

The level B7 icon appeared on the touchscreen. Suppressing his excitement, he pressed it.

The elevator began to descend slowly.

Just as he was wondering what surprises B7 might hold, the blue screen flickered. The floor buttons vanished, replaced by a circular triangle-marked audio file icon.

The lift stopped gently, but the alloy doors remained shut.

Chu Guang didn’t even need to think. It was obviously another prank from the First Administrator, his usual attention-seeking habit of forcing people to listen to final words before opening doors.

He did have questions for the man anyway, so he placed his hand on the button.