The “hatred” that Onboard Joy Stick stirred up was perfectly timed, making the version update announcement that Murphy secretly uploaded go unnoticed by most players.

Finally avoiding the awkward situation of being criticized for “sneak attacks” by players during every update, but the administrator had no choice – he couldn’t kick out all the little players and put on a show of “server restart” for every major update, could he?

Wait!

Why not?

Come to think of it, he could actually pull off these tricks occasionally to remind those who had started searching for the “truth” that this was just an ordinary game test. Although for those who had already determined the truth, this would just be another terrible and clumsy “smoke screen”, but having something is better than nothing, right?

After all, who has to endure “server updates” when crossing over to another world?

Murphy thought this was a good idea at that moment.

So he made a highlighted note of this idea in his “development team notebook”, but after reminding Meow King to check the update, the previously heated posts criticizing Onboard Joy Stick quickly lost momentum, and everyone moved to the newly released update thread.

This was a real “major update”!

【《Reality Realm》Alpha 3.0 Closed Beta Version Update Announcement:

Hello everyone, I’m your beloved test team member Alpha. Before officially announcing the contents of this update, I first want to express our sincere gratitude on behalf of all members of the 《Reality Realm》 development team and test team to all personnel currently contributing to the testing work in the game!

Thanks to everyone’s dedication and effort over the past two months, our game has progressed from a bug-ridden mess to its current state of being barely usable after numerous patches.

However, even the most confident programmers in the development team can’t be certain whether there are still undiscovered serious bugs in the spaghetti code they wrote themselves.

Yet despite such concerns, we have still made it this far together with all of you through various struggles. We are now confident that the “bond” between the development team and testers is strong enough to overcome any difficulties, and we fully believe that our current testing model is sufficient to identify and eliminate most factors affecting game experience.

Therefore, after repeated discussions with the development team, we have decided to give all testing participants a gift from the development team after the closed testing phase ends.

We haven’t decided what to put in the gift box yet, but we have plenty of time to pick out something nice!

And I personally believe that this small token of appreciation is not enough to express our gratitude to you all. (The proposal for server-wide rewards was my idea, so shouldn’t you all kneel and thank your beloved Brother Alpha?)

Now for the official contents of the major version update:

1. Player Territory System Launch:

I believe some of you information-savvy sweethearts already know some details about the ‘stronghold’ system, but it couldn’t be released earlier due to some logical loopholes.

Finally, under the death threats from the test team members, our development team’s siege lions managed to complete this heavyweight system before the closed beta ended.

Starting from the update date, Transia will add three new player territories, which we call ‘strongholds’!

All citizen recruitment, stronghold construction and regulatory constraints in these areas will be decided through player discussion, with the Crimson Citadel Administration delegating maximum authority while only retaining taxation, patrol and necessary intervention rights.

This will be another perfect demonstration of this game’s high degree of freedom.

Players will no longer just play ordinary adventurers but can step onto Transia’s political stage as ‘lords’. However, since stronghold management and construction cannot be completed by a single person, after multiple deliberations, the development team decided to delegate stronghold management rights to player guilds.

The strongholds being delegated in the current version are ‘Torrent Fort’ and ‘Maginot Line’, which will be assigned to the player guilds ‘Torrent Knights’ and ‘Crimson Hammer and Sickle’ respectively, who performed excellently in this main storyline.

Guilds that weren’t allocated strongholds need not worry, as Governor Murphy currently has one stronghold whose ownership has not yet been determined, which will be decided based on future quest progression.

We need to emphasize here!

Strongholds are not limited to single village and town development. According to their different responsibilities, strongholds have different growth paths.

The different development paths for strongholds are as follows:

Initial stronghold – Village/Military Camp/Trading Post – Town/Fortress/Marketplace – City/Defense Line/Commercial Hub.

After guilds receive stronghold deeds from the administration, they must specify the stronghold’s function and development path and complete targets according to construction tasks issued by the administration within the specified period.

If a stronghold’s development level consistently fails to satisfy the administration, after a maximum of three administrative reprimands, the management rights for that stronghold will be permanently revoked and reassigned.

PS:

The ‘Maginot Line’ being issued this time is a special stronghold that cannot be used for purposes other than ‘Military Camp-Fortress-Defense Line’.

2. Test Personnel Recruitment System Reform:

At this stage of the closed beta that has lasted for two months, the test team has realized that to complete more in-depth testing work and story progression, we inevitably need to recruit more test personnel to participate in our project.

Therefore, after repeated discussions with the development team, decision-making team and logistics team, we finally decided to adopt a new test personnel recruitment model.

Starting from version 3.0 update, test personnel recruitment authority will be delegated to player guilds. In conjunction with the upcoming “guild rating” system from the Crimson Citadel Administration, all player guilds that reach level 2 or above will receive 5-20 test personnel slots each week for recruiting guild members.

However, please note!

This recruitment method will be supervised by the test team throughout the process.

All newly recruited test personnel must also complete test applications and wait 7-14 days for qualification review on the forum before receiving game terminals.

Additionally, if new recruits seriously disrupt testing work by violating the 《Reality Realm Player Convention》 in-game, not only will that player’s testing qualification be revoked, but their guild will also face serious penalties including demotion, property confiscation or even forced dissolution.

In severe cases, the test team will file lawsuits with local judicial departments.

Furthermore, the test team will also issue certain quotas each week to recruit test personnel who don’t want to experience guild gameplay.

Test Team Notice!

The delegation of recruitment authority represents the test team’s trust in guild leaders and management. Please do not abuse this authority.

3. Explanation of the Mapping Relationship Between Citizen Numbers and Test Personnel.

For a long time, many clever darlings have been asking the test team about the relationship between these two, and at this stage of story progression, the test team can finally reveal certain truths about 《Reality Realm》 to our darlings.

Early in the game’s project planning, the decision-making team had already confirmed linking test personnel numbers with the number of citizens in Transia in-game, to achieve the realism and immersion this game advocates.

According to current game rule settings, for every 100 registered citizens under Governor Murphy’s command, one testing slot will be provided to the test team. Follow current novels on noᴠelfire.net

This ratio aligns well with our research and investigation into warfare patterns in medieval settings. The reason for setting a fixed ratio is to link the expansion of the test personnel group with the overall environmental improvement of Transia.

This way, players can more intuitively and clearly feel the impact their activities bring to this suffering land, and from the information collected from various aspects so far, our established recruitment ratio has perfectly achieved the effect we initially expected.

Of course, the mapping between citizen numbers and test personnel numbers doesn’t depend solely on simple headcount.

It’s also linked to territory development level. When the development level of a territory or stronghold reaches certain thresholds, the ratio of player slots that can be generated from that territory will further increase.

This ratio can increase up to 3%.

Therefore, when Transia’s story progresses to where player groups can no longer be expanded through recruiting refugees, having stronghold managers shift their focus to territory development is also a very good path for self-strengthening.

4. Administrative Gameplay Update:

With the rapid increase in Transia’s citizen population, outstanding talented leaders are urgently needed at various strongholds. Starting from the update date, all administrative players who pass the administrative test will be assigned official positions. There are many vacant official positions in the first batch of five collective farms, and administrative players serving as managers can grant these positions to players or NPCs of their choice. Such appointments will take effect after approval from the Crimson Citadel Administration.

All players appointed to official positions will receive position allowances from the administration according to their rank.

The power you yearn for is now within reach. Heed the call of that restless lord’s heart within you, pack your bags and officially begin your “village chief career” in Transia.

5. 《Reality Realm’s》 public-facing third-party social platform project ‘Midnight Blood Vulture Tavern’ has completed initial funding and will soon enter formal development.

This social platform is a project established by several test personnel authorized and commissioned by the development team, specifically for promoting various aspects of this game to the public domain. It is currently overseen by the ‘Player Committee’, with launch date to be determined.

According to its proposal description, this platform will have strong social attributes and be compatible with video, text and audio books as well as offline tabletop gaming and other gameplay modes.

All test personnel with forum accounts can enjoy certain benefits within it.

6. Mysterious DLC Reveal.

Um, I don’t think there’s any need for an official reveal anymore.

From the test team’s observation, a considerable number of players have already guessed the content of this DLC and started preparing for its arrival.

Based on current communications between the test team and the second development team, what I can reveal to everyone is that the DLC titled 《Black Plague Returns》 will be released as the connecting storyline between chapters one and two of the player main storyline, and players’ performance in this DLC will directly determine the direction of subsequent storylines.

The specific release time of this DLC is highly tied to the 《Dawn of Transia》 main quest we are currently advancing.

On this point, the development team’s advice to all test personnel is: before the black plague arrives, strengthen Transia’s defenses and territory power to the best of your ability.

7. Official Explanation Regarding Certain Special Events.

The event where test personnel ID ‘Onboard Joy Stick’ prematurely unlocked the vampire race gameplay – blood pact due to some special in-game reasons that cannot be explicitly stated has sparked widespread discussion among players.

The test team needs to emphasize here that this incident itself stemmed from the development team’s mistake and does not represent normal game progression.

According to the original development plan, this gameplay would only be unlocked in the mid to late game story.

Currently this gameplay contains numerous bugs and these program issues will directly affect players’ game experience, so the test team specially reminds vampire players here: please do not attempt to obtain bloodlines through various normal or abnormal methods prematurely.

The development team officially warns! Adventurously acquiring this gameplay will not bring any benefits to current vampire players’ game experience, and for any subsequent series of issues caused by such adventurous behavior, the development team reserves the right of final interpretation.

Emphasizing again!

We hope players treasure their accounts and testing qualifications.

8. Fixed various bugs, added new invisible walls.】

Under this official update post, many replies had already appeared, mostly related to various important information disclosed in this update.

But some people’s focus is always skewed.

Meow King:【Damn, Brother Stick is awesome! This is the first time I’ve seen a player’s name posted in an official version update, you’ve really ‘made history’ now. @Onboard Joy Stick, how about it?

The experience of being officially issued a wife must be great, right?】

Onboard Joy Stick:【Great my ass! I just talked with Melia and found out she does indeed carry a hidden quest ‘Gray Claw Treasure’ and a side quest ‘Korando’s Revenge’, both looking quite promising.

But the biggest problem is she’s too weak now!

Those vampires who kidnapped her injected her with toxins, not only blinding her eyes but also making her lose almost all combat ability.

I still have to let her drink blood every three days just to ensure she doesn’t deteriorate further, but the problem is, every time after giving blood I get a ‘Anemia’ debuff that lasts one day.

All attributes reduced by 30%!

Damn!

I’ve basically been crippled by this blood-sucking woman! How am I supposed to kill monsters and level up now?】

Fatal Orchid Huahua:【What leveling! Didn’t you already get the stronghold management rights for ‘Maginot Line’? Just honestly be a commander from now on, and with your current situation, I can only say you deserve it.

Look at all this trouble you’ve caused, almost turned Little Ashina into a vampire human trafficker too. Now, seeing Brother Stick’s miserable fate, does anyone else still want this kind of 2D wife?】

Ah Yuen:【Completely lost interest, heading to exam venue, don’t mention me.】

Invincible Tyrannosaurus Cheche:【@Onboard Joy Stick, Brother Stick, your wife is poisoned so just give her an antidote, right?】

Onboard Joy Stick:【It’s not as easy as you think, Grand Duchess Tris personally examined Melia, her conclusion was that this toxin contains some subspace aura.

Unless we find the poison’s creator to get the antidote, even she as an alchemy grandmaster can’t do anything.

And Melia says the person who poisoned her is still in the Wolfsbane territory on Greenleaf Island, that cursed place isn’t even open yet, and just hearing about it you know it’s a high-level map.

Fuck!

I’ve become useless!

Whoever wants this cyber wife can have her, I don’t want her anymore!】

Sword Saint Ashina:【Hahaha, serves you right! Coming to laugh first thing, hehehe.】

Lumina Yanghen:【@Honorary Knight Typal, Brother Typal, where exactly is your ‘Torrent Fort’ stronghold?】

Honorary Knight Typal:【In Anderma Hills, under the jurisdiction of Baroness Femis of Anderma, right near the First National Armament Factory of Transia. In fact, our Torrent Fort was established specifically to protect this factory district.

It’s at the river bend of the Kadman River.

Right next to that secret passage leading to the Crimson Citadel sewers, we plan to build a village there first, then accept citizens allocated by the administration.

Also I’ve confirmed that after Torrent Fort is established, our Torrent Knights will gain the power to issue territory quests, so I hope brothers and sisters will all come join in this grand occasion!

If one day the name of Torrent Fort echoes across the continent, we shall never forget the assistance of you all!】

Wholesale Invincible Old Fording:【Ah, the children of the Holy Light finally have a foothold in Transia, a new era is about to begin.】

Tiger Leopard Rider:【Side eye, a paladin who can break his leg falling off a horse is really something.】

Wholesale Invincible Old Fording:【What do you mean break his leg? How can a paladin’s incident be called breaking a leg? That was just a trial given to me by the Holy Light! Don’t spread nonsense!】

Seeing Uncle Fording getting anxious as his black history was exposed, the post was immediately filled with cheerful atmosphere.

However on another side, Brother Loyalty who was still busy in the game immediately lit up when he saw the post update, and immediately sent a message to his team members:

What Color is Loyalty:【Master Ziwei, go register a guild at the administration, raise the rating to level 2 or above as soon as possible, 5-20 slots each week… tsk tsk, isn’t this a perfect opportunity to plant some people.

Let the other brothers in the group get ready, we’re preparing to move our structure into the game.

Good!

The development team finally did something good.】