Players are coming, fortunately I have a time travel simulator

Just like what Zhou Ning had experienced in [Jason Nat's Haunted House] before, the players were sent to the altar for sacrifice, and there was also a screenshot of several players being locked in a small dark room together.

Zhou Ning was startled when he saw one of the screenshots. The building background looked familiar, as if it were somewhere in the Seton River district of Docklands. He saw the large clock tower in the background, Docklands' landmark: the St. Dovic Bell. Wasn't this right under his nose?

After memorizing the content of the post, Zhou Ning continued watching the video.

"According to statistics, there are a total of 769 players captured by the Curse Cult, and the locations include but are not limited to the Kingdom of Blyston, Runes and other places, covering a very wide area. No wonder some people say that the Curse Cult is the most powerful force in this game." said the host.

He then posed his own question to the professional players present: "If joining the Curse Cult could bring many benefits, such as a new class or powerful skills, would you choose to join?"

"will not!"

"will not!"

"I can."

"will not."

Of the eight professional players present, seven chose no, and only one chose yes.

Seeing this, Zhou Ning narrowed his eyes slightly. Up to now, the plot has been completely disrupted. Even a computer would probably give him a headache if he read it.

In the original game, the NPC's curiosity about the player was part of the plot. The first force to discover the player's abnormality was actually the Byron Republic, and they were the first to allow the player to join their force.

And now, it was the Curse Cult that first attacked the players. Fortunately, they were still using violent methods, such as sacrifice and transformation. If they knew how to be gentle like himself, a large number of players would join the Curse Cult, and perhaps even the Kingdom of Braxton would be destroyed.

In fact, they don't understand the players yet. As long as they can give enough benefits, the players don't care about the good guys or the bad guys. But the Curse Cult's series of tricks directly pushed the players to the opposite side.

But this is quite interesting. If the Cursed God comes out to play the villain, you can just be a good person and find a way to rescue the player.

The Cult of the Curse God would never have imagined that there are things like forums and screenshots in this world.

After discussing this, the host played a game of "Draw and Guess" with the pro players for a while before changing the subject, saying, "Over the past week, players have encountered quite a few powerful NPCs. Based on player submissions, this issue's NPC rankings have ranked the top ten NPC masters. Please take a look."

The screen began playing another video. An elderly man in ornate priestly robes held a staff in his hand. A massive ball of light, like a crimson sun, hovered in the air. A subtitle flashed overhead: 1. Stuart Crow, Archbishop of the Ascetic Church.

The second is a hooded cultist wizard with a huge black ball of light floating in the palm of his hand, wrapped in lightning, and extremely powerful.

This was followed by a scene in which he fought one against two in the series, simultaneously against Harrison Rivers and Alva Ruskin, which ranked third.

The fourth is Harrison Rivers, a clan knight who also demonstrated his strength in the series. The video captured a scene of him transforming into a big demon.

This is the footage recorded by players over the past five days. There are only a limited number of experts, but honestly, they're still at the stage of looking at lighting and special effects. The rankings are very unreliable. For example, ranking myself third is truly a mysterious operation, and I think I'm overconfident...

Of course, this ranking is still quite controversial. For example, Grantham, who had previously disparaged himself during the internal beta, had something to say. A thin, bespectacled man, he insisted that he could only be seventh at best, behind Emlyn, the Spear of Justice, who was sixth. He then engaged in a heated argument with Jinse.

Zhou Ning: ...

Can I say that number seven is also overestimating himself?

The next segment of the program is about the movements of professional guilds and esports players.

"Five days into the public beta, a large number of renowned domestic and international esports clubs have joined Apocalypse, including the Xingyue Club, founded by Shuidi Chenxing, the Deep Blue Club, and the second-ranked Novice Club in China."

"Foreign professional teams are no exception. Not only the American Gunfire Club, but also the French Oasis Club and the British Nirvana Club have joined Apocalypse."

"Among professional players, the current number one player in China is Jinse, a female player from the Deep Blue Club. She completed a hidden quest and connected with the game's protagonist, Wayne Stewell. She's also the world's first player to change her class, and will likely be the first to reach level ten. The second-placed player is Shuidi Chenxing, owner of the Star Moon Club. He spent a fortune to purchase a devil fruit from the game's protagonist, Wayne Stewell, and awakened the superpower of transforming into a werewolf. Luoyue, I heard your boss wants to be a professional player in 'Apocalypse'. Is that true?"

In the video, a tall young man, Luoyue, the ace player of the Xingyue Club, smiled awkwardly but politely and nodded, "It's true."

"Then I wish our national husband all the best." The fat host smiled. "As for the third-ranked professional player in the country, XB, who recently retired from Conquer, seems to be a beta player like Jinse. He must have connected with Wayne Stewell through a hidden quest. He's also currently ranked second on the rank list. Although his PK skills are average, his rank and opportunities mean he has a bright future."

"As for overseas, there aren't many avenues of information available at the moment. I only know that someone from the UK's Nirvana Club has also achieved a class change to become a Templar Knight. August, a professional player from the US Gunfire Club, even achieved a rare class change to become a Lightning Mage through a hidden quest."

"They will be the biggest rivals of Chinese players in the future international arena."

"The next segment is the Top Ten Unlucky Players and the Top Ten Lucky Players... Let's go for a commercial first..."

……

After watching the show, Zhou Ning's biggest impression was... his chances of appearing seemed incredibly high. Especially among the domestic professional players, the top three rankings were all related to him. It felt like he was some kind of fortune-giving boy, offering opportunities and equipment. It was ridiculous.

However, as the show aired, Zhou Ning could feel the players' gazes on him grow even more intense. A large number of players were trying to trigger hidden quests from him. Some, having watched XB and Jinse's beta test videos, thought they had found the key to triggering his hidden quests. They rushed to the snack bar, bought a bunch of breakfast, and kept asking Zhou Ning, "Do you want to eat? Do you want to eat?"

Isn't this crazy? Zhou Ning didn't even want to pay attention to it.

Of course, most players don’t have these fancy operations. There are players coming to change jobs and buy guns one after another. After a few hours, Zhou Ning’s panel has accumulated a huge amount of experience.

By the evening, when Zhou Ning chose to leave amid the players' lamentations, his accumulated experience had reached more than 190 million, and his deposits had once again reached a new high of 1.5 Vic Towers.

According to Zhou Ning's calculations, the player potential of Xilin Town will take one to two days to be fully utilized. If all goes well, he may be able to trick half of the players near Duckland into roaming gunners.

He took out his pocket watch and checked the time. It was almost six in the afternoon. Since Xilin Town was not far from Dockland, Zhou Ning planned to take a bus back to Dockland in the evening and come back tomorrow.