Zhou Changqing has been very troubled recently.

A week has passed since the expedition against the Iron Lizard.

The arrival of the third batch of test players only excited him for a moment.

And for a longer period of time, Zhou Changqing needs to face complicated magic.

As a member of the core team, he has recently been studying the magic network structure in Jost's laboratory.

In the past, Zhou Changqing always felt that as a senior engineer, if he could travel back to ancient times, he would probably be able to easily farm and develop a lot of technologies that were ahead of his time.

But now he finally understood that he was not a jack of all trades after all, and he only knew what he knew. If he wanted to advance in ancient technology, even with modern knowledge, he would still have to cheat.

Without qualified smelting technology, it is impossible to manufacture parts that can withstand stress. Without mining technology, it is impossible to find ore. Various petroleum-related chemical materials and various tools and equipment are also indispensable.

The transition from agricultural civilization to modern times cannot be achieved overnight.

Therefore, even if he mastered advanced communication theories, he still had to learn magic bit by bit and understand the characteristics of magic before he could play a role in the design of the magic network.

At this time, learning ability is the most critical.

For example, now, Jost has basically understood and mastered modern communication technology. Although he lacks practical experience, in theory he is definitely not inferior to master's students in related majors. However, Zhou Changqing is still at the level of a junior high school magic student.

"...I originally thought that magic was simple, but now it seems that magic is much more complicated and troublesome."

Zhou Changqing sighed, raised his head from the book and looked out the window.

Thanks to the iron lizard's steel supply, the foundation of a fortress has begun to be built in the newly reclaimed black forest outside of Dusk Town. Looking at those concrete structures, Zhou Changqing suddenly had a feeling that reality was shining into illusion.

"In fact, according to the records and speculations of some ancient people, the magic used now has been modified."

Jost said without looking up.

“Is the original one more complicated?”

Another player couldn't help but ask.

"No, it was much simpler originally. It is much simpler than it is now. The modern magic we call has been classified. At the same time, those wizards stipulated that magic must be used with rituals and spells, which raised the entry threshold for wizards."

Jost replied.

Zhou Changqing was originally thinking that this was not a waste of effort, but when he carefully recalled the concept of magic, if magic was a form of pollution that would harm the human body, then raising the threshold for entry would be quite reasonable and a form of protection for the world.

"In my world, there was a time when the church or the upper class controlled knowledge and prevented ordinary people from learning. But later, the knowledge monopoly was broken and ordinary people were able to learn that knowledge."

Zhou Changqing sighed.

He was very glad that he lived in a peaceful and comfortable era. If he had lived in an era of war, or an even darker and more ignorant time, his life would probably have been a million times more miserable.

"In your world, knowledge doesn't seem to bring pollution, how nice."

Jost said with a hint of envy.

"I don't know, haha, maybe we have already been polluted."

Zhou Changqing joked.

At this time, Trist pushed the door open and walked in. In his hand was a crystal clear crystal that refracted the sun's rays and projected colorful colors.

"This is what you wanted, the cohesive core of the iron lizard."

Drizzt placed the crystal on the table, and Jost quickly picked it up and examined it carefully.

"What is this?"

Zhou Changqing asked.

"Most of the monsters in the Black Forest have extraordinary powers. Some of the most powerful creatures will produce polluted deposits. These are their cores. Although these cores are beautiful, the pollution contained in them is far greater than their flesh and blood."

Jost took a look at the thing and explained.

"The pollution of flesh and blood..."

Zhou Changqing thought about it and realized that he seemed to have eaten a lot of iron lizard meat. After they pried off the iron lizard's mineral shell, they brought most of the meat back as a snack. Recently, they finally had meat to eat and soup to drink.

He didn't even consider that there was contamination in the flesh and blood of these monsters.

But he didn't really come to this world, he was just playing games. Pollution was just a setting, and Zhou Changqing was not worried at all.

It’s impossible that the settings in this game can run into reality and affect me, right?

While Zhou Changqing was thinking, Trist was flipping through those magic books. Although as a chosen one, he could not sign the contract of the magic network and gain the favor of the gods of the Kingdom of Darkness, but as a person who could already walk in the difficulty of [Alienation] and [Sublimation], the pollution he had endured had long surpassed what was contained in these magics, so it was no problem for him to flip through them casually.

Of course, most of the spells were of little use to Drizzt. In terms of attack power, his [Pseudo-Sunfire] was comparable to the strongest attack spell in the Kingdom of Darkness, and Drizzt would not be able to use the others for a while.

But it's always good to see more. Since it has no effect on his sanity, Trist is also happy to broaden his horizons so as not to be at a loss when encountering similar strange situations in other foreign lands in the future.

"Almost."

Zhou Changqing studied it for a while longer until the game prompted that the power was about to run out, then he reluctantly prepared to log off and take a rest.

He returned to the players' residence, which had been built during this period for players to log off, so as to avoid appearing in strange places when everyone went online together.

After taking off his helmet, Zhou Changqing breathed a sigh of relief.

Initially, I signed up for the second test with the intention of trying out the new game. After being selected, my company gave me support. But now, after such a long time, Zhou Changqing suddenly couldn't distinguish between reality and fantasy.

Now, except for the time he sleeps, he spends much more time in the Kingdom of Night when he is awake. When the virtual reality like "The Cage" occupies most of his life, Zhou Changqing feels more and more as if he is living in the Kingdom of Night, and reality is fake.

NPCs like Jost have their own thoughts, just like real people. When Zhou Changqing communicated with them, he didn't feel like he was playing a game at all.

Of course, after realizing this, he will spend a little more time in reality and review some communication-related knowledge.

After charging the helmet, Zhou Changqing washed his face. Now it was time for dinner, so he planned to go downstairs for a walk and have some hot meals.

Looking in the mirror, Zhou Changqing looked at himself.

Normally, if one is addicted to playing games every day and does no exercise, one should look very haggard. But surprisingly, Zhou Changqing looked very healthy, as if the exercise and labor in those games were actually reflected in himself.

Suddenly, Zhou Changqing saw that the corners of his mouth in the mirror curled up and revealed a smile.

And he didn't smile at all.