These past few days, the game forums were even more bustling than they had been on the day of the official launch.

In the two months since *Thriller Paradise* had gone live, the number of registered players had exceeded three million. With the servers down, these players naturally flocked to the forums.

Of course, at least 60% of them were purely casual players, logging in for a bit of fun between work or studies, and only browsing the forums for ten minutes or so before logging off.

Another 30% were die-hard fans of the game. They would log in whenever they had the time, and were deeply interested in any and all information related to the game. These people were the mainstays of the forums.

The remaining 10% were naturally industry insiders. Players from studios, professional individual players, studio employees, online marketing agents, and so on… These people generally led the trends and discussions on the forums.

To them, this forum was a battlefield without gunpowder; language was their ammunition, and information was the chamber of their guns. The battles fought here were far more dangerous than those in the game itself…

“Hype,” “public opinion manipulation,” and the like… They could be difficult, but they weren’t *that* difficult.

Some classic examples:

A and B would insult each other publicly, but in essence, they were mutually promoting each other.

A would praise B to the skies, only to be swiftly slapped down by C; this was actually A and C working together to slander B.

A would insult B as if their IQ and face had collapsed together, but in essence, they were drawing attention to C in a negative way.

A would deliberately provoke B’s fans, C, only to be soundly beaten by C’s actions; in reality, A and C might both be fans of B, putting on a show together.

In short, the methods were varied and each had their own merits. Some achieved their goals, others didn't. Some were so clever that you’d help them count the money after being fooled, while others were so crude that passersby could see through them at a glance, leaving them speechless.

There was no doubt that online marketing agents were a discipline, a dark and deep discipline.

This was a game of wits and emotional intelligence between one group of people and another. And the people they wanted to win over and influence were those who followed the prevailing opinion, people who lacked their own ability to think, or who were overly naive.

“[Vote! Who do you think is the real champion?]…” Feng Bujue chuckled as he looked at a voting thread with the prefix “Popular.” “Heh… These people really make a living out of this. You guys are really working hard…”

A thread like this was obviously the work of a studio, most likely “Order” or “Deities.” Anyway, “Star Alliance” definitely wouldn’t post a thread like this; at most, they’d send their people into existing threads and have them all vote for Tianma Xingkong…

There was also another popular thread, titled: [Dream Inc. Tampered with the Rules Mid-Competition. The Pinnacle Tournament Was Full of Shady Deals. A Rematch Is a Must!] This seemed like something Corpse Blade would do.

It’s worth mentioning that there were signs that [Corpse Blade King], the top player of Corpse Blade, seemed to have left the studio. His photo and information had been removed from Corpse Blade's official website. In *Thriller Paradise*, the character “Corpse Blade King” had also been deleted.

This event caused quite a stir among industry insiders. In addition to being interested in the reasons for his departure, people were more concerned about where he was going. If he wasn’t retiring or changing careers, where would he go? Would he join another studio, or become a professional solo player? Did Corpse Blade’s contract with him include any clauses similar to a “non-compete agreement”?

Although he had been with Corpse Blade and had a less-than-stellar reputation, business was business. If he really had the ability, other studios would definitely not reject him. At that time, they could rebrand him with phrases like "abandoning darkness and embracing the light" or "prodigal son returns," and he would still be a star player, and they could also take a shot at Corpse Blade… Killing two birds with one stone.

“Hmm… Although there are a lot of posts, the atmosphere isn’t very tense.” Feng Bujue flipped through the posts for a while and quickly realized that the popular topics related to the competition were basically just various marketing agents sniping at each other. The focus of most players had long shifted to the "new version."

It seemed that Woody’s strategy of feigning an attack on one front while secretly advancing on another was really working. By using the massive changes of this version update, he had covered up the aftermath of the competition and the secrets of the Derivatives.

“But… 90% of the posts are still complete nonsense…” Feng Bujue continued to browse, and saw many interesting things.

Many of the posts were hilarious just from the titles, such as [My Thoughts on the Free Exploration Mode] and [Is It Really That Hard to Kill a Derivative? Let Me Teach You!]. Even the noobiest of newbies wouldn’t believe such pure wishful thinking guides.

There were also some regret posts, like [I Should Have Sold That Equipment Sooner] and [It Looks Like Equipment Prices Won’t Be Dropping]. These people were still relatively reliable; at least they saw the impact of the “equipment binding” setting. There wouldn’t be any more situations where "a piece of equipment is used from level one to level fifteen, and then put up for auction to earn money" anymore.

Clearly, this "sudden" version update of *Thriller Paradise* had objectively nipped many of the "pre-update trends" common in other online games in the bud.

After browsing aimlessly for a while, Feng Bujue began to deal with the short messages on the forum.

The number of messages he received on his forum account was no less than the number of messages in his game mailbox… After all, he was a celebrity…

Fortunately, the forum inbox and the in-game mailbox had a "smart association" function, and the blacklist was shared. That is to say, those who were blacklisted by Jue-Ge in the game would also be blacklisted on the forum.

Even so… Feng Bujue's inbox still had tens of thousands of messages. He scrolled and deleted, scrolling through hundreds of pages before he saw a message sent to him by Xu Huai Shang a few days ago. Now that the finals were over, these words were meaningless, but at least they reflected the good character of Goddess Xu.

…………

On the morning of June 2nd, Dream Inc. finally released the latest announcement on its official website: [The servers will be reopened at midnight on June 3rd. The version after this update will be v1.10—Derivative Invasion.]

As soon as this news came out, the online marketing agents declared that they were off work. The major game studios immediately turned their attention back to the game… The opening of the new version meant that there was a lot of work to do, and they didn’t have the energy to dwell on the past competition any longer.

In any case, over the past two months, everyone from Order and Deities to Ice Emperor and individual players… Every organization or individual involved in the gaming industry had seen… Dream Inc.’s attitude towards the outside world could basically be summarized in three sentences: one, a dead pig isn’t afraid of boiling water; two, play it or don’t, slandering me is useless; and three, if you dare to push your luck, I’ll kill you.

Faced with such an operator, all unconventional means… were futile.

…………

June 3rd, midnight.

Feng Bujue logged into the game in sleep mode.

Recently, in order to exercise, he had adjusted his biological clock and started paying attention to his diet. So, by twelve o'clock at night, he was definitely asleep…

“Players ranked tenth to fourth will randomly receive three skill cards corresponding to their highest-level specialization, four random skill cards of other specializations, and five thousand points of Skill Value…” Feng Bujue muttered as he entered the login space. “Heh… Today is my lucky day!”

As a man who had been abandoned, forsaken, and scorned by the god of luck, how delightful it was to receive seven skill cards at once…

He couldn't wait to open his mailbox. Sure enough, the prize email was highlighted and pinned to the top of the mailbox interface.

[Congratulations, you have achieved the excellent result of tenth place in the Pinnacle Tournament.] The title of this email was also particularly pleasing to the eye.

The attachments to the email were the seven skill cards. As for the five thousand points of Skill Value, Feng Bujue had already opened the menu and seen that they had been added when he entered the login space.

Currently, Feng Bujue's strongest specialization was Fighting, and after the Pinnacle Tournament, his Fighting specialization had reached Grade A. Therefore, he received three skill cards of the Fighting type at once. But… his bad luck was reflected again at this moment, because his other four skill cards were two of Investigation and two of Medicine.

Apart from the Fighting specialization, Jue-Ge's specializations were 1B, 4C, and 2d, and he happened to draw skills from the two weakest specializations…

Fortunately, these skill cards were not bound, so he could give them to his teammates in Hell Front, or sell them if no one wanted them. Otherwise, half of his prize would be useless…

“Hmm… an ominous premonition.” Feng Bujue only glanced at the specialization categories of the skills and immediately felt uneasy.

He was a person who always made the worst plans, so he had considered several bad situations beforehand. For example… all the skills he drew were Grade F.

This was not impossible… The prize terms stated that he would "randomly receive three skill cards corresponding to his highest-level 'specialization', and four random skill cards of other specializations.” The key point of this sentence was… corresponding to ‘specialization’, not corresponding to ‘highest level’.

Therefore, in theory, players could draw seven Grade S skill cards, or… seven Grade F skills…

This reward, which was related to luck, was really interesting. If someone really got seven Grade S skills at once, the improvement they gained might be greater than that of the top three players. Even if four of these seven cards were skills they could never learn, they could still exchange them for money or give them to teammates in the same guild.

But if someone had extremely bad luck and got seven Grade F skills… then this reward would be truly pitiful, even worse than the reward for 100th-51st place… The ten double-experience cards, twenty thousand game coins, and limited-edition T-shirt were definitely worth more than ten Grade F skills. Fortunately, the top ten still had five thousand points of Skill Value to take, at least this thing was hard currency and would never depreciate.

“No way…” Feng Bujue put the four Medicine and Investigation specialization cards aside first and began to look at the first of the three Fighting skill cards:

[Name: Gang Leg]

[Skill Card Attribute: Active Skill, Permanently Learned]

[Skill Category: Fighting]

[Effect: Emits a weak ranged slash (cooldown time of fifteen seconds)]

[Consumption: Stamina Value 15]

[Learning Conditions: Fighting Specialization F]

[Remarks: A vacuum slash created by the force generated by a high-speed kick. PS: This skill has nothing to do with Storm Leg!]

“Of course it does!” Feng Bujue roared and complained, “This is a complete ripoff! The consumption is one-tenth of Storm Leg, and the power is probably less than one-tenth! And it has a fifteen-second cooldown?”

This skill was definitely one that could be abandoned without consideration…

Jue-Ge, who had a Grade A Fighting specialization and a genuine Storm Leg, had no need to learn this ripoff Gang Leg. Besides… players only had twelve skill slots in total, and Feng Bujue had already equipped eleven skills, so there was no way he could equip this one.

“Good! Awesome! One-seventh of the prize is wasted just like that…” Feng Bujue muttered, “In a sense… it’s one-third.” He raised his head, not knowing who he was talking to, “Ah~ I thought someone was looking out for me… I guess I misunderstood? You don’t want to win the bet anymore?”

Of course… no one would pay attention to his rogue-like behavior.

“Hmm…” Feng Bujue waited for a few seconds and saw that there was no response, so he had no choice but to give up. Anyway, he was just trying his luck.

Turning his gaze again, he picked up the second Fighting skill card…

[Name: Brat’s Sweep Kick]

[Skill Card Attribute: Active Skill, Permanently Learned]

[Skill Category: Fighting]

[Effect: Ignores specialization level, 100% trips any monster that can theoretically fall, and provokes them to attack you (no cooldown)]

[Consumption: Stamina Value 500]

[Learning Conditions: Fighting Specialization A]

[Remarks: This is the Blue Cat Naughty 3000 Kick!]

“Ha! Ha! Ha! Heaven… no… the Underworld has eyes!” Feng Bujue laughed three times, apparently very satisfied with this skill.

That’s right, this was the permanent version of the [Brat’s Sweep Kick] that could be learned at Grade F and could only be used three times. This was a typical "strategic" skill. The Grade A rating and the high stamina value consumption of 500 were enough to explain its value.

“Ahem…” Feng Bujue quickly restrained his laughter, “Must be calm… calm… I mustn’t lose my composure because of great joy or great sorrow. I am a man who doesn’t show his emotions…”

It was strange, in front of other people, Feng Bujue could naturally put on a great performance… but when he was alone, he would show his chuunibyou side from time to time. This might be a sequela of living alone at home and making "chuunibyou cuisine" for a long time.

“Okay… as long as the third one isn’t a scam…” Feng Bujue finally picked up the last Fighting specialization card and put it in front of his eyes.

[Name: Baseball Fist Lv1]

[Skill Card Attribute: Active Skill, Permanently Learned]

[Skill Category: Fighting]

[Effect: Unleashes both fists to launch a melee attack on the enemy directly in front of you (can be activated at will without a target, one-hour cooldown; limited to ten uses per scenario, can be used infinitely in Free Exploration Mode)]

[Consumption: Stamina Value 3]

[Learning Conditions: Fighting Specialization F]

[Remarks: This skill will level up as the number of uses increases. It will level up every sixty punches, with a total of ten levels.]