Chapter 145 Quietude Before the Storm

The old saying goes, the New Year isn't over until after the first month of the lunar calendar.

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

So, in the minds of modern people, the latter half of the "first month" is just a normal time for doing whatever you need to do.

But... these seven from Hell Front don't have to consider those things.

Some of them have irregular work hours, some consider working optional, and there's even a currently 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 days, and I'll decide my own hours"), so she could play games with her teammates during the day and improve their coordination.

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

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

The top-tier players who were already determined to participate would undoubtedly 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 transaction volume in the official store and auction house would definitely surge again. Dream Inc. would not only be able to recover a large amount of game currency from players, but also earn a large amount of transaction tax and handling fees based on a percentage during this period of overall price increases in the auction house.

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

Currently, the largest group of players in Thriller Paradise are ordinary casual players with a hidden rating 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 started playing 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 rating based on players' skill, investment, and even personality, the strength of these purely casual players being above average does not affect their game experience (except for characters like Snow, who were entirely carried to level 40).

However, now, the situation is different... The completely random matching rules of S3 greatly increase the chances of ordinary players advancing. Theoretically, if there is an extreme phenomenon where "the advancement routes of all professional powerhouses converge before the semi-finals," then a "commoner team" winning the runner-up... is not impossible.

Under this stimulation, the enthusiasm of casual players for S3 can be said to be unprecedentedly high. Although everyone understands that this kind of "theory" is just a theory, similar to the psychology of "after the World Cup qualifier groups are drawn, fans first calculate the odds in their minds, and then feel that the national team can theoretically qualify this time"...

But in any case... people all have dreams.

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

Dream Inc. has seized this mentality, deliberately leaving this "one month" to allow players whose "hidden rating" is not enough to qualify to improve their scores.

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

…………

A long story if there's something to tell, a short one if there isn't.

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

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

Therefore, this month, Feng Bujue mostly soloed.

Of course, Brother Jue didn't care whether he was soloing or teaming up; he could handle any mode, any script, but... there was one situation that he found very strange.

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

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

As the end of this "gamble" approached, in the epilogue of this "candidate game," everything seemed so calm.

Woody himself didn't contact him, nor did he send Kui Moli (i.e., Assas) to bring him any messages; Vincent, Simon, and those guys didn't contact him; the Paradise guys were also completely silent...

Not only in the real world, but even in the game world, it was like this...

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.

Brother Jue tried teaming up with players outside the guild, and he also tried queuing for various Nightmare difficulty scripts... but he just couldn't get in.

Without a way to enter the main universe, nor a chance to enter the other world, and not even a single derivative was encountered... This month, the Thriller Paradise that Feng Bujue played was extremely "normal," so normal that he suspected that 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.

The existences in the game world were not worth mentioning, but even Woody and his gang of gods and demons couldn't send even a single word... This showed that some kind of even more powerful force had intervened and taken control of the overall situation.