Chapter 1 The End of the Preliminary Round

In the wee hours of November 16th, with the abdication of the Gods, the Thriller Paradise Summit Tournament S2 preliminary round came to an end.

No one had expected that the final, long-awaited semi-final... the highly anticipated, climactic showdown... would conclude in this manner.

And the reason for the Gods team's forfeiture was known only to their captain, Shi Long, also known as Shiva; even his four teammates were in the dark.

Speaking of which... those four didn't have much of a choice either. They had a contract with the Gods, and matters concerning the competition naturally had to comply with the studio's arrangements. Shi Long was both the team captain and the studio boss; since he had decided to forfeit... the teammates could only comply.

On the other hand, Order was quite shocked by this situation.

The management was undoubtedly surprised and delighted, but the players were shocked and suspicious. "Drunken Life, Dream Death" and the "Four Heavenly Kings of the Gods" could be considered old acquaintances, and that was precisely why... they were even more puzzled by this forfeiture.

However, they were temporarily unable to contact Shiva himself, because within fifteen minutes of the announcement, the Gods studio's official website and customer service system had crashed...

Shiva himself quickly logged out of the game, refused all interviews, and even declined to answer questions from within the company.

That night, he simply gave a few instructions to the studio's general manager and then went home with his wife.

After that... Feng Bujue showed up uninvited and met with him, discussing some matters.

What exactly they talked about, we won't go into detail here...

Let's move on to the next day...

At two o'clock in the afternoon of the next day, Shi Long, in his capacity as the boss of the Gods, held a press conference regarding the "forfeiture incident"...

He held a prepared speech and read it verbatim, giving a rather bizarre but irrefutable reason: "I was unable to compete last night due to health reasons, and with the unanimous consent of my teammates, the entire team has forfeited."

To be honest, no one believed this explanation...

But whether they believed it or not didn't matter... anyway, Shi Long said it was "health reasons," so it was health reasons. As for the specific aspect of health, sorry... that's personal privacy.

Trying to get something out of his teammates... was equally futile. Vishnu, Brahma, and Yama had been friends with Shi Long for many years, and whether in public or private, they would never say anything out of line. And then there was Asura... Shi Long's own cousin, so it was even more impossible for him to say anything unnecessary.

With these involved parties all sticking to the same story, there was no breakthrough...

In the end, it was a forfeiture, not cheating, so were they not allowed to be unwell? Couldn't Boss Shi have his man period?

In short, the forfeiture was forcibly explained away by Shi Long.

Of course, he had finished fooling his side, but the reporters wouldn't accept it at face value... Everyone believed that there was definitely more to the Gods' forfeiture, and the impact of the incident would continue to ferment for some time.

Thus, as soon as the press conference ended, irresponsible rumors such as "fear of battle," "offshore gambling," and "backroom deals" were brewing in the minds of unscrupulous media personnel...

However, most of these people's articles never made it to print, because...

At four o'clock in the afternoon of November 16th, shortly after the Gods' press conference, Dream Inc. quietly posted an announcement on its official website that made the media's jaws drop:

[The Thriller Paradise Summit Tournament S2 Finals will be exclusively for in-game players.]

What does this mean? According to the FAQ below the announcement... this announcement didn't just mean that the finals "won't be broadcast externally," but rather... that there wouldn't even be a "recording" of the finals.

To be more specific—only "players" who enter the Thriller Paradise game in "sleep mode" through a game pod, and who created their character before midnight on November 16, 2055... will be able to watch the match; those who do not meet the above conditions will be unable to connect to the game or will be forcibly disconnected during the finals. As for other online streaming platforms... they will all be shut down. Moreover, the video footage of the finals will not be released for viewing afterwards.

From a businessman's perspective, Dream Inc.'s approach was nothing short of insane...

First of all, given the current social attention surrounding the Thriller Paradise Summit Tournament S2, the advertising revenue alone before the finals would be a deal worth over a hundred million. But... they weren't even broadcasting it.

Secondly, not broadcasting it would allow them to release the game recording exclusively and make another fortune. But, they even stated that they wouldn't even keep a recording...

In addition, barring viewers other than existing players... made even less sense.

If the first announcement hadn't included the restriction "characters created before November 16, 2055," then it could have been understood as a marketing campaign... simply forcing people to play your game (the game pod wasn't an issue, you could use it at an internet cafe if you didn't want to buy one). But Dream Inc. specifically limited the time; even if you saw the announcement and immediately created a character in the game, it wouldn't work...

This approach would definitely make those who were interested in the game but hadn't yet joined the fray very unhappy...

In summary, Dream Inc.'s decision was truly inexplicable, and other than losing a lot of money and potential players, there was basically nothing to gain.

However... if you think about it carefully, regardless of the motivation, their actions had actually been foreshadowed long ago...

As early as before the preliminary round ended, when Dream Inc. first sold the "game broadcasting rights" to the outside world, they had already prepared for this step... so their broadcasting rights were all sold in stages.

That way, when it came to the finals, they could suddenly announce that the broadcasting rights for this stage were not for sale.

In addition, below the aforementioned bombshell announcement, there was another announcement that had nothing to do with most players—

[Explanation Regarding Unreleased Prizes from the Preliminary Round.]

The "unreleased prizes from the preliminary round" mentioned in this announcement totaled two items: one was a "limited edition t-shirt," and the other was a "forty-eight-hour new version trial qualification."

The other prizes in the preliminary round, including game currency, experience, equipment, etc., had already been delivered before the start of the preliminary round, with only these two remaining unreleased.

And this time, the official gave a clear time and format for the distribution: one, the t-shirts would be sent out today, with free shipping; two, the limited-time trial function would be enabled within one week after the finals.

So... what about the date of the finals?

The third announcement was it—[The Thriller Paradise Summit Tournament S2 Finals—"Ragnarok," will be held at midnight on November 19th.]