Chapter 1 The Beginning

From its initial research and development, Galaxy has garnered widespread attention. With almost no advertising, and only some basic information provided on the official website, its popularity has continued to climb. Due to various unsubstantiated rumors, Galaxy has been shrouded in a veil of mystery, making players even more expectant and curious.

Until the day of the public beta, the long-awaited enthusiasm of the players erupted like a volcano. The number of first-batch game pods was limited, and purchase restrictions were implemented. Even so, they were sold out within half an hour. Those who didn't grab a game pod beat their chests and stamped their feet, while the players who bought game pods couldn't wait to enter the game.

…

On the first day of the public beta, the eager first batch of public beta players poured into the game. In the vast universe, batches of the earliest players were born in different landing spots on more than a dozen novice planets.

That evening, in the mountains outside the Great Horn Mountain settlement, one public beta player after another who had finished creating their characters appeared out of thin air, looking around curiously.

"It feels so real." Someone controlled their body to jump around.

"Look at the sky, there are several moons!" Someone admired the scenery.

"Tsk, can't take off your pants?" Someone didn't know what they were doing.

"Does this game not have a newbie village?" Someone looked around blankly.

More and more players appeared. As far as the eye could see, there were crowds of people. As the saying goes, when the number of people exceeds a thousand, it is boundless. At least several thousand players landed here. After an initial period of confusion, sharp-eyed players soon discovered the lights of the Great Horn Mountain settlement in the distance. They all thought it was a newbie village and rushed over in a swarm.

The watchmen of the Great Horn Mountain settlement discovered this group of ragged people, and were shocked. They hurriedly blew their whistles, calling their companions to close the gate tightly, not daring to let so many strangers into the settlement.

The players were blocked outside, complaining.

"What's going on? Why isn't the newbie village open?"

"My hunger value is dropping! I'm going to die if I don't eat something."

"These NPCs' expressions are so vivid."

Inside the Great Horn Mountain settlement, all the residents came out of their houses, holding torches and weapons, standing guard by the gate with serious expressions, preventing the huge crowd from attacking the settlement. Village Chief Sandlie gathered several important figures from the settlement for an emergency meeting.

"Where did this group of people come from? There must be nearly ten thousand of them!" Sandlie said in surprise.

"Could it be a group of migrating wanderers?"

"Why don't we just ask them?"

Sandlie came to the watchtower, looked down at the dark mass of players, and asked loudly, "Friends from afar, where do you come from?"

The players looked at each other, not knowing how to answer, whispering, and the crowd stirred.

Seeing this, Sandlie shook his head and said, "If you don't report your origins, I can't let you enter the settlement."

The public beta players were dumbfounded. They were all newbies and didn't even understand the map. How could they answer their origins? Was he kidding?

Inside the settlement, the closed beta players felt very fresh and watched the show from the sidelines. They had directly landed inside the settlement and had not experienced this part. At this moment, they suddenly received a panel notification, triggering a new quest. The quest content was to persuade Sandlie to accept the public beta players. The rewards were considerable, and there was also a hint: the wording should fit the current world background.

"Interesting, this sense of immersion is unmatched."

The closed beta players were amazed. They felt that it was very diverse and that they could influence the NPCs' choices with their own eloquence. Their interest grew even stronger.

After discussing a few words with each other, the closed beta players approached Sandlie and began to explain.

After listening for a long time, Sandlie finally understood, and asked in surprise, "You know that group of people outside?"

One closed beta player said without blushing or panting, "Yes, we used to be residents of the same settlement, called Earth Village. Later, we encountered a disaster, and the settlement was destroyed. We were scattered. Those people outside are as hardworking as we are, Village Chief Sandlie. I hope you will accept them."

"Earth Village? I've never heard of this large settlement?"

Sandlie muttered, somewhat moved, hesitating, "But there are too many people. I can't let them all in."

"That's simple. They only need job opportunities and a little meager food and supplies. You can treat them as cheap labor. This is a good opportunity to develop the settlement."

The closed beta players chuckled. They couldn't wait for the public beta players to be scammed.

Sandlie's eyes lit up. "You're right."

Soon, Sandlie explained the situation to the public beta players outside. The public beta players received a quest.

"[The First Job]: You'd better earn some money through labor and not let yourself starve to death. Try to raise your relationship with the Great Horn Mountain settlement to neutral so that you can be trusted and accepted."

With guidance, the public beta players enthusiastically began to do quests. Through the fence, the residents of the Great Horn Mountain settlement offered various job opportunities, and merchants also opened up to the players, who could use the money they brought to buy some food.

The public beta players had a goal and began to grind the favorability of Great Horn Mountain. The residents of Great Horn Mountain provided simple tents, and the public beta players formed a new camp outside the settlement, adding bricks and tiles to the socialist construction of Great Horn Mountain.

The same scene also occurred in other novice landing spots on Hailan Star.

On the first day of the public beta, all the players were enthusiastic and excited. They soon discovered the photo and video recording functions and became even more enthusiastic. They posted everything, no matter how trivial, on the forum. The number of posts exploded, and there was a tendency to become a social networking site. The following are a few representative posts:

"Bad review, there is no excretion function!" The poster of this post was obviously up to no good and wasn't aiming for excretion at all.

"The body control of becoming an alien race is so special." Another post, with a picture of a minotaur male player from a magical planet wagging his tail.

"I'm about to be gored to death by a wild boar, so happy." The picture shows a female player posing cutely with a V-sign to the camera, with a galloping wild boar behind her.

On the first day of the public beta, the number of players pouring in reached one million, distributed to various novice planets, with about 100,000 on each planet. As the influence grew, this number would rise rapidly. Within half a year of game time, this number would climb to ten million, snowballing in size.

The public beta players were very happy, but some closed beta players felt like they had fallen into an ice cellar.

…

Dark Crow Valley.

Jupiter and a group of Sanctuary guild members looked blankly at the surrounding mountains and forests.

Looking around, the forests at the foot of the mountain were lush and green. The evening breeze stirred the forest, and the natural atmosphere was like a gentle palm, caressing the hearts of people, making everything appear natural and harmonious. The lights of the Dark Crow Forest town were faintly visible in the forest.

The scenery is beautiful and pleasing to the eye…

But where did the base go?!

Jupiter asked hesitantly, "Where we logged off… should have been in the base, right?"

Everyone nodded in unison, with the same movements.

"The camp relationship is gone!" Poseidon exclaimed.

Everyone hurriedly checked the panel, and the original "Dark Crow Valley Base Favorability" had disappeared! Everyone was stunned, with a blank expression.

What the hell is going on?!

"Quickly check the mission!"

Jupiter woke up as if from a dream, and hurriedly looked at the panel, immediately breathing a sigh of relief.

"Thank goodness, the mission is still there… Holy crap!"

In the next moment, everyone cursed almost simultaneously, dumbfounded.

"[Search for Zero (A-level)]: Zero, a mysterious sprout traitor. He stirred up a turbulent situation, causing the organization to suffer huge losses. Zero’s whereabouts are a mystery. Find him, and you will become a friend of the Sprout organization."

The difficulty had changed from B-level to A-level!

The mission hint had also changed. Zero's location was no longer West Capital, but required them to find a needle in a haystack on a planet! The Sanctuary guild had made many preparations for this mission. The results of the discussions and the key points of the mission could fill a blackboard. They even planned to mobilize many peripheral members to go to West Capital to find the mission target as soon as they entered the game. This change made all the discussions and preparations of these days go to waste.

"What exactly did we miss?!"

Jupiter suddenly thought of the official introduction of Galaxy, and exclaimed, "Could that Zero be the protagonist of this planet?!"