57. The Winds and Rains of the World Championship

The boundary between virtual and reality once again became the focal point of the official Starry Universe channels and major gaming communities.

Ever since the boundary between virtual and reality burst onto the scene, every single day thereafter saw major news related to it occupying the community's trending topics.

The fifth floor of the Subterranean Temple of the Limpid had been conquered.
The guild officially gathered its full roster of seven members.
The guild war registration was approved.

These three events kept the discussion threads regarding the boundary between virtual and reality rolling continuously. Early in the morning, the community was as bustling as a weekend evening.

The conversation between Jiang Heyi and A Dream in a Thatched Cottage was leaked by someone from the Comical Tree Guild, and in an instant, everyone learned of the outrageous feat where "Cyber Potato" single-handedly solved the floor guardian.

"Friendly reminder, the Slime King on the fourth floor has completely jammed all the guilds trailing right behind the boundary between virtual and reality. They were all fighting until their resources were completely exhausted last night."

"I can vouch for this. I know people from [Comical Tree], and last night they almost lost their minds to the point of wanting to pull out the rewards from the first three floors to brute-force it."

The insider's remarks elevated the players' enthusiasm for discussion to an even higher level.

Some players had already categorized the guild tier lists of major servers based on the progression of the Subterranean Temple of the Limpid.

Right at the very top of the T1 guilds across all servers was the boundary between virtual and reality, displayed in Chinese characters.

T0: The boundary between virtual and reality

An undisputed, super phantom-god.
T0 was insufficient to describe its strength. Judging solely by the standards demonstrated in PVE, the boundary between virtual and reality was not only far ahead in the Chinese server, but it was also the undisputed number one across all servers.

The Subterranean Temple of the Limpid had also been discovered on foreign servers, but it only truly spread widely after the boundary between virtual and reality published its coordinates.

All players interested in high-difficulty dungeons used this to test the limits they could achieve in the Starry Universe world, attempting to secure a dazzling achievement and become famous overnight.

However, up until now, the situation on all global servers was similar to the Chinese server: all top players were stuck on the fourth floor, unable to make any progress.

The Slime King had surpassed the Frog-Headed Amalgamation to become the lingering nightmare of high-end players. Meme images related to it emerged endlessly, and most of them were tied to that endless barrage of danmaku.

A man opens his duvet intending to sleep, only to find the Slime King and its magic array waiting under the covers.

This meme image was transmitted from the Chinese server to foreign servers, and then exported back with layers of watermarks after spending half a day traveling back to the Chinese server.

Foreign players, already tortured to the point of psychological distortion, even commissioned r-rated artwork of the Slime King to vent their frustration...

There was no hatred deeper than love turned sour. For a time, the Slime King unexpectedly became a popular choice for secondary creations among Starry Universe players, with anthropomorphic versions appearing endlessly.

When it came to making witty internet jokes, the Chinese server was second to none. Someone immediately wrote a romance fiction piece featuring Nafeier and the Slime King.

When everyone was being driven mad by the Slime King, the casual remark from the boundary between virtual and reality—who had cleared the stage long ago—saying, "Yes, we first-timed the fifth-floor guardian [Wraith Aggregate]," had a devastating impact that could well be imagined.

Had the Comical Tree Guild not asked, it seemed the boundary between virtual and reality had no intention of mentioning it at all.

Their reaction was as if they had merely accomplished something entirely not worth mentioning.

As an unprecedented global blockbuster game, the speed at which news spread was unprecedented.

At 9:00 AM, foreign gaming forums already featured translations of the related events. No doubt, when morning arrived in their regions, this news would rapidly ignite the player community.

Driven by curiosity, and coupled with the fact that the boundary between virtual and reality had officially gathered its seven members, some players could no longer hold back, eager to find out what kind of divine entities made up the life of the boundary between virtual and reality.

"We'll find out sooner or later. With their results, locking down a world tournament spot for the guild war probably won't be a problem."

"As the saying goes, being strong in PVE doesn't mean being strong in PVP."

"Let me take a look at this ID. Haha, turns out they're from the Dream Sovereign Guild."

"To think people from Dream Sovereign still dare to come out and speak up! Dozens of people couldn't beat Original-Flavor Fries—talk about high-level operations!"

"That was a suppression of levels and gear. If it were a balanced mode, do you think they'd stand a chance?"

"Ah, levels. Ah, gear."

"Then why aren't your levels high and your gear good?" someone replied, "Is it because you didn't want them to be?"

"As soon as the people from Dream Sovereign arrive at the forum, all the players look at them and laugh..."

Once someone started, a chain reply formed instantly, and the forum truly filled with a joyful atmosphere.

Following the world-shaking massacre by Original-Flavor Fries, Dream Sovereign—the bully that had once brandished its might within the game—instantly became a clown that anyone could mock.

They had bullied the weak, but when faced with the much stronger boundary between virtual and reality, the opponent sent just a single person and beat them nearly to the point of saying, "Hey, can we reach a truce?"

"Though, to be fair, shouldn't the boundary between virtual and reality thank Dream Sovereign?" a player bantered, "If not for them, how could the boundary between virtual and reality have gathered its seventh member?"

A continuous string of custom laughing-to-tears emojis beneath the replies demonstrated everyone's mood.

Now, Starry Universe players basically all knew that the seventh member of the boundary between virtual and reality was found through the battle with Dream Sovereign.

"How about this? If the boundary between virtual and reality wins the guild war championship, Dream Sovereign deserves one-seventh of the credit. What do you guys think?"

Although some pointed out that "pre-mortgaging the championship" wasn't a great idea, they couldn't resist the fact that the joke was just too good. It instantly turned Duvet into a newly rising celebrity in the community, with everyone anticipating her to pull off dazzling performances and nail Dream Sovereign to the pillar of shame over and over again.

Jiang Heyi specifically sought out Duvet.

"Don't get distracted by outside noises. Even though Jailer-bro keeps the championship on his lips, our goal is still to take it one step at a time and not let ourselves be crushed by excessively high expectations."

Duvet replied with a thoughtful cat-head emoji: "Rest assured, Guild Master, my mindset is much better than you imagine. When it comes to surfing the web, I'm second to none compared to them."

That was perhaps a case of worrying too much out of care. On second thought, anyone capable of trading witty remarks back and forth with an ultimate troll like Jailer-bro, mastering all sorts of internet slang and linguistic tactics, was no ordinary veteran netizen.

In every sense, they had struck gold.

However, due to the scheduling of the world tournament, the original PVE communication atmosphere in Starry Universe was clearly beginning to shift.

Community moderation clearly noticed that the noise of the debate was growing louder, so they immediately opened a dedicated sub-forum for the world tournament, categorizing all related posts into it.

It served as a disguised containment tower for monsters.

Overnight, the follower count of the boundary between virtual and reality broke 400,000.

With the announcement of the world tournament news and the official registration of the boundary between virtual and reality for the guild war, their visibility visibly increased, with discussions buzzing both inside and outside the gaming circle.

The glamorous achievements earned in PVE caused the entire community to fixate firmly on their every move.

Some wanted to watch them ascend like kings, cleaving through all obstacles, claiming the championship with grandeur, and forging a myth.

Others watched coldly from the sidelines, anticipating their defeat in PVP, falling from their pedestal so they could step heavily on them.

The guild war had not yet begun, and the boundary between virtual and reality had not made any public statements regarding it, yet the wind and rain had already enveloped them.