Chapter 32 The Server Merge Begins
The next morning, Qin Zhen was woken up by sunlight streaming through the glass window.
She had opened the Curtains, but since it had been Polar Night for the past several days with nothing but darkness outside, she had completely forgotten about them.
Today, the Polar Night had truly ended!
Qin Zhen felt the tension that had been pressing down on her nerves for days suddenly release all at once.
She opened her Wrist Computer and noticed that the player count in the bottom-right corner had suddenly changed to /.
What was going on?
[Host, once the Polar Night ends, the Server Merge begins. Regions with fewer Players are absorbed into regions with more, until the combined total reaches one hundred thousand.]
"Our region had just over fifty-eight thousand Players last night — so the region that merged into ours only had about forty-one thousand left?"
Qin Zhen was a little shaken. The survival rate was less than half?
She had thought their own region had already lost a lot of Players — she never imagined other regions had it even worse.
[That is correct, Host.]
"But what if two regions combined still don't reach one hundred thousand?"
[Then three regions, or even four, will be merged together.]
"And what happens to the original regions of the Players who get absorbed?"
[They simply cease to exist.]
Qin Zhen frowned. This survival game culled Players through natural selection, then brought in others and kept consolidating everything.
The resources in any given region were finite.
With so many Players eliminated, each region should have had a surplus of resources.
But once the System triggered a Server Merge, the number of regions shrank — and so did the available resources.
Qin Zhen guessed that eventually, only a handful of regions would remain.
That was when the competition would truly become fierce.
Chat Channel.
[The Golden House Within Books: The Polar Night is finally over! I can finally go outside and stretch my legs!]
[Caterpillar: Oh my god, it's finally done... I was starting to feel like I was growing mold...]
[Xiaofeixia: This is amazing! I haven't gone out to fish for supplies in so long — I'm heading out right now!]
[Manman Qingluo: Fishing for Treasure Chests feels like a leisure activity now. So relaxing!]
[Tieshu Kaihua: Seeing the sun again makes me feel like I've come back to life. The sun really is one of the most indispensable things for humanity!]
[Shanchahua Kaishi: Absolutely, it's so wonderful!]
[Fragrant Lily: Hey, has anyone noticed the player count in our region went up today?]
[Caterpillar: Yeah, last night it was just over fifty-eight thousand, and now it's back to one hundred thousand like at the very beginning.]
[The Golden House Within Books: I also noticed a bunch of unfamiliar usernames showing up in the Chat Channel today...]
[YouMustBeStarving: Server Merge. They must be Players from another region.]
[Manman Qingluo: Ah, that explains it. I was wondering why I didn't recognize anyone in the Chat Channel today.]
[Tieshu Kaihua: Hey, how many people were left in your region before the Server Merge?]
[Caterpillar: Around fifty-eight thousand, I think.]
[Shanchahua Kaishi: HOW MANY?!!!]
[Manman Qingluo: Holy crap, I thought we were a three-region merge — turns out it was only two regions!]
[The Golden House Within Books: If it was a two-region merge, that means your region only had about forty-one thousand people left?]
[Tieshu Kaihua: Yeah... I thought our region's count was already pretty high. I can't believe yours still had fifty-eight thousand. How did you manage that?]
[Xiaofeixia: Is fifty-eight thousand really that many? It felt like so many people died...]
[Manman Qingluo: It's a lot! Our region had a big shot who unlocked an Axe Blueprint, so a lot of us were able to get weapons. Without that, even more would have died. Sure, he sold them for a high price, but he still saved our lives!]
[The Golden House Within Books: How expensive could an axe even get?]
[Denglong Honghong: One Iron Axe was fifty Refined Iron and thirty Stone — honestly not too bad, considering how rare weapons are.]
[Xiaofeixia: HOW MUCH?!!!]
[Denglong Honghong: You think that's cheap too, right? Are they more expensive where you're from?]
[The Golden House Within Books: NO NO NO — one Iron Axe here was only twelve Refined Iron and... wait, someone was selling them for that much? And people actually bought them?]
[Manman Qingluo: HOW MUCH?!! That's several times the price — absolutely insane! Is this for real?]
[The Golden House Within Books: Of course it's real!
I'm basically an Iron Axe hoarder. I couldn't get a weapon for the longest time, and I was so grateful the axe master was selling them.
I eventually used an Iron Axe to kill a Tier 1 Monster and got a Black Iron Chest to drop, which is how I finally got other weapons.]
[The Golden House Within Books: By the way, the price you guys were paying for Iron Axes was way too steep! Did people actually buy them?]
[Tieshu Kaihua: What choice did we have? No one else had unlocked a Blueprint, so all the Iron Axes were monopolized by one person. If you didn't buy, you had no weapon...]
[Denglong Honghong: Seriously, you guys were so lucky to have such a generous big shot in your region!]
[Caterpillar: Right, right! The big shots in our region are all so great — there was even someone selling Spike Fences and someone selling Life Potions, all at very reasonable prices!]
[Manman Qingluo: I'll set aside the Spike Fences for now since I don't know what those are — but someone was actually selling Life Potions? At a price that wasn't astronomical? Is this real life?!!]
[The Golden House Within Books: Yep! One Life Potion cost Clotgrass ×15, Dandelion ×8, and Pine Resin ×8. All of that grows right near our Shelter — it's not expensive at all!]
[Caterpillar: Right, and the Spike Fences — they can block Common Monster Attacks.
Buy about ten of them and you can surround the front of your Shelter.
Monsters that touch the Spike Fence also take damage.
They saved so many lives during the three-day Beast Tide.
And the price was reasonable too — just Refined Iron ×40 and Common Monster Materials ×8.]
[Manman Qingluo: Can I just say — are we really playing the same game?]
[Denglong Honghong: No wonder your region's survival rate is so high. The Players in your region are really something!]
[Qingmiao Keke: You people are so ungrateful! It was your good fortune that I sold you Iron Axes. If it weren't for me, you'd all be dead already! How are you still here talking about all this nonsense? You should be thanking me on your knees!]
[Manman Qingluo: You... I'll admit that selling us Iron Axes did save a lot of lives, but we don't owe you anything, do we? We paid for them with our own resources — a LOT of resources. It's not like you gave them away for free!]
[Denglong Honghong: Exactly. And the price you charged was outrageous — you can't even let people talk about it? Look at what the big shots in the other region charged, then look at your price. Don't you feel even a little ashamed?]
[Qingmiao Keke: I unlocked the Blueprint myself, so I can charge whatever I want. You were all begging me to buy anyway. The person in that other region selling them so cheap is the one with a screw loose — leaving all that money on the table!]