Thriller Paradise

Soon… this ravaged battlefield returned to silence…

The night breeze blew…

9 strange figures appeared out of the darkness.

"Is it finally over…" The Repentant asked.

The Observer replied, "Yes… the anomalies and travellers have both left. The remaining three seem to be heading towards the same extra-dimensional pathway."

"Then…" War Soul turned around to ask Snared Soul. "What should we do next?"

"The Leader of the Demons will probably return at any time…" Blood-crazy Shade interrupted. "Based on my experience…"

"We'll retreat." Snared Soul cut him off. Of course, he was also speaking what Blood-crazy Shade was about to express.

"Leader…" Observer continued. "How shall we answer to the 'king' after we return…"

"Don't worry… I know what to do." Snared Soul answered. Then something dawned on him. "Hmm… by the way. That kid, Feng Bujue… still is in possession of my thing, isn't he…"

Blood-crazy Shade hacked drily as he looked at Snared Soul in pity. "Do you really think he will return it to you?"

…

Outside the scenario, at the various market servers…

"What is going on? Why has the screen gone black?"

"Who is the victor then?"

"This competition is just too strange and what are those Anomalies? What are they?"

"Feng Bujue should have died alongside the boss, right? Then does that count towards his point?"

"How come the dead players have not exited the scenario? Is there a server problem or something?"

When the nerve-wrecking battle ended, the adrenaline rush among the crowd died down. After they calmed down, the many strange events that had occurred in the competition… were taken out to discuss one after another.

"Eh? Look, the hosts have returned." Just as the audience were coming with conspiracies and the wind was blowing towards a supernatural conclusion, Pan Feng and Hwa Xiong reappeared on the big screen.

"Erm… Dear audience." Pan Feng began. "We will now announce the final result… and…" He stammered. From the focus of his pupils, he should be reading the lines from a teleprompter that was behind the camera. "…and an emergency announcement."

"All the competition for this 'Tournament for the Best' has officially ended." Hwa Xiong added beside him but he was in no better state than his partner. They were both covered in cold sweat like there was someone beyond the camera who was training a gun on their heads telling them to continue with the broadcast. "The final victor is… Pegasus from the guild Celestia."

"What?" The audience erupted in confusion. Even the players who were in the Pegasus' livefeed server were confused. Because Pegasus had not killed even one player. From the beginning until the end… he merely assisted in the battle against Y2-Bright Glow and managed to take down ROOT in her twin form.

"The ranking from second to 10 are respectively…" Hwa Xiong squinted at the teleprompter and continued to recite. "Lying Drunk, Yama, Bladeless Swordsman, Matcha Cookie, Zombie Blade Victor, Uncle Worthless, Not a Scaredy Cat, Shiva and Feng Bujue."

"What?"

"How is this ranking even viable? Phantom Dawn is not even in the top 10?"

"It was clear that Zombie Blade Victor was unable to win Uncle Worthless, why is his ranking higher than Uncle Worthless? Where is the fairness?"

"Matcha Cookie is placed fifth? But Feng Bujue was able to kill her with one hand, he just decided to spare her!"

The confusion soon turned into dissatisfaction but more content to earn their ire… was coming their way…

"Due to the appearance of the Anomalies…" Pan Feng's voice was shaking, "The scenario's hidden world-building was forcibly activated…"

"What? What is this hidden world-building in the midst of a tournament? And what does he mean by forcibly activated?"

"Speaking of which… what exactly are those anomalies?"

The audience shouted their questions as if their voices could penetrate through the screen.

"The initial score garnered has been nullified after the infiltration of the Anomalies…" Pan Feng continued to recite. "The basis for the current ranking… is the battle score the players obtained when they were fighting the Anomalies." Hwa Xiong continued, "Please check the official website regarding the placement of the players from the 11th place to 50th place after 6 am." He paused. "The reward of the tournament will be mailed into the players' mailbox within 3 working days; the skill point rewards will be inputted into the players' account when they log into the game next so the players please pay attention to that."

"Now… for the emergency announcement…" Pan Feng said. "The servers will be closed after 5 minutes in real time."

"Huh… What the hell?" The audience was at the verge of a break down. "There are many players who are in scenarios who did not come to see the tournament! And the finalists are also still inside the scenario, right?"

"From this moment onwards, all the queuing system for all the mode will be locked." Pan Feng explained all these problems. "The players currently in any scenario will have their connection severed once their current scenario is completed." Hwa Xiong added. "As everyone has witnessed earlier, in the Tournament for the Best, there was some accidental event. This signified the first 'world event' in Thriller Paradise—the invasion of the anomalies."

And with that, the players became silent again.

"After such 'big events' in Thriller Paradise, there will be great changes…" Hwa Xiong himself was reading from the prompter so his expression was also changing according to the content. "The server… will make a patch adjustment based on the influence of the world event."

"Ah?"

"No way."

"What's happening? There's going to be a patch update?"

"What kind of game does not announce their patch beforehand to their playerbase and spring it on them like this?"

In just a few words, the players had completely forgotten about the result of the tournament… after all, who was the winner had nothing to do with them personally. But… the closing of the game server, a new update, were closely related to them.

"Therefore… this also officially means that the open beta for Thriller Paradise is over." Hwa Xiong continued. "The upgrade of the server this time will probably take about 3 working days. When the server comes online again, the game will enter official running mode and the version will be known as V1.10—invasion of the anomalies." Pan Feng added, "Regarding the details of the new update, please pay close attention to the patch announcement that will be released on the official website in a few days."

After the two finished their script, they looked at each other with nervousness. Two seconds later, the screen was cut off. And a countdown timer like a bomb was going to go off appeared on screen. "Countdown to the shutdown of the server, 47:14."

This time was undeniably 'gaming time' so it was more relaxed.

"One of these again? What is going on?"

"Yes, when the game switched from CB to OB, it was also like this. The company closes the server whenever they feel like it, they never announce anything beforehand."

"Qie… it's clear that you do not know anything. During CB… it was because Fearless Champion from Regulations who had reached the top level so they had to close the server out of an emergency."

"Actually this is not a bad thing. If they announce too many details about the new update beforehand it will cause the market to fluctuate and the studios to hoard items or other problems."

"You have a point about that. When I was playing other games, because the company announced that they would allow the ability to switch server after a week, in that one week, the game was filled with liars and hackers."

"Eh? Then what about the players in the finals? They didn't really die in the scenario, did they?"

"What are you talking about? They already said this was a world event, like Legion, The Burning Crusade, Wrath of the Lich King and so on… the fact that the finalists did not morph into a pool of white light is probably the special effect form the unique scenario."

"Yes, yes, the Anomalies are probably another NPC but they are different from the normal NPCs in scenarios. Just like the four Pillars of Divinity, they are more encompassing and are linked through different scenarios."

"Wow, doesn't that mean that we have been just a part of the game's historical moment?"

A simple announcement successfully shifted the player's attention… and most of them agreed to buy into the official statement. The discussion of the tournament fell off and was instead replaced by their anticipation of the new content and update…

…