Watching a perfectly good new product launch event about to devolve into a Celestial God Mortal Kombat and a collective strike scene.
Lin Qingyue, a former game streamer, knew very well that someone had to step up and take control of the situation right now.
She clapped her hands twice, the crisp sound drawing everyone's attention.
"Lord Celestial Gods, arguing over numerical values will never lead to a conclusion through words alone."
Lin Qingyue pressed her hands onto the cold metal tabletop, her posture composed and her tone reflecting experience and professionalism.
"We have a saying in our industry: 'Practice reveals the truth.'"
"Instead of nitpicking words here, why not run a live test session and let the actual data speak for itself?"
This proposal hit the mark perfectly for White Tiger.
"The mortal is right!"
The perfectionist producer immediately nodded, the frequency so fast it looked like he was about to shake his small head right off.
"Data doesn't lie! We must run a session and see!"
To balance the skill gap between gods and mortals, and to prevent these four temperamental Celestial Gods from flipping the table during their live PK, Lin Qingyue took the opportunity to suggest a team formation.
Four Celestial Gods, each paired with one human teammate.
Lin Qingyue walked toward White Tiger without surprise, as a bond between fellow tech geeks had already been established between them, transcending their different species.
Vermilion Bird's gaze swept over Lin Xiyue, feeling her firm and powerful physique and the heavy shield in her hand, and grinned with satisfaction.
"This girl looks like she can take a hit. Join my team and help me charge the front lines!"
Su Wan maintained her usual dignified posture, and her aloof demeanor as a Young Mistress from a noble family perfectly suited the taste of a "Literary and Artistic God" like Azure Dragon, making them an instant match.
In the end, only the most easily embarrassed Xia Lian was left standing alone.
Opposite her was the black-haired Goddess who had already started snoring lightly.
Xia Lian swallowed hard, pulled out a chair with stiff movements, and sat down next to Black Tortoise.
She had a strong premonition.
Her gaming experience this time was going to be very, very terrible.
White Tiger stood at the main seat and struck a bronze countdown bell with all her might.
"The first round of the live test officially begins! Show this God your most perfect tactics!"
As the game started, the entire sand table presented four bizarre art styles that were completely on different wavelengths.
Azure Dragon's area.
Su Wan sat upright, her fingers sliding quickly on the holographic projection, attempting to establish basic lumber camps and stone quarries.
"Wait."
Azure Dragon raised her hand, stopping Su Wan's movements.
A faint green light, imperceptible to mortals, quietly lit up in the depths of Azure Dragon's eyes.
She actually directly used her authority to read the laws, her Divine Sense sweeping silently over the other three factions' card pools and initial resources shrouded in the "Fog of War" like an invisible full-map radar.
"East, Vermilion Bird's heavy cavalry camp. North, White Tiger is stockpiling iron ore."
Azure Dragon reported the locations in a voice only the two of them could hear, her tone extremely flat.
"We'll put all our resources into defense towers, and the archers will be deployed in the blind spots on the ridge."
Su Wan's fingers froze in midair.
Su Wan, who had always been a rule-follower, was left speechless by this blatant, map-hacking cheat.
"You... you just looked at their cards directly?"
"Can a scholar's actions be called peeking?"
Azure Dragon straightened her long hair with righteous confidence.
"This is called discerning the secrets of heaven and planning ahead."
Su Wan froze for three seconds.
Then, she understood.
The rebellious genes in her bones were instantly ignited, and she immediately and guilt-freely followed Azure Dragon in starting their shameless "Heavenly Eye" layout.
Compared to Azure Dragon's elegant cheating, the art style on Vermilion Bird's side was a kind of planned wildness.
"Conventional development is too slow."
Vermilion Bird glanced at the resource list, a flicker of fire in her eyes.
"All resources, skip the level-two barracks, and directly tech up to 'Heart of Molten Fire'. We'll produce 'Flame Burst Javelin Throwers' in our first wave!"
This was an extreme, all-in "one-wave" strategy, gambling on using high-tech units to crush the rest before their economies could mature.
Lin Xiyue looked at the precarious, nearly zero food reserves and couldn't help but remind her:
"Big Sister, this playstyle is too reckless. We have no follow-up supplies. If this wave gets held up, the soldiers will lose combat power from hunger."
"Logistics?"
Vermilion Bird sneered and clenched her fist, her knuckles cracking loudly.
"Our only logistics is the enemy's granary! Burn them all down, and we'll have everything!"
Meanwhile, in White Tiger's territory to the north, there was a hardcore scene comparable to a professional e-sports match.
White Tiger and Lin Qingyue were like two precision-engineered humanoid computers.
Lin Qingyue pushed her gaming APM from her past life to the absolute limit.
The two of them didn't need any verbal communication at all.
White Tiger marked a location in a valley, and Lin Qingyue immediately dragged two villagers into it to block the terrain and gather resources.
White Tiger gave a resource allocation list, and Lin Qingyue produced an exact number of Spearmen, timed down to the decimal point.
Their economy presented a smooth, flawless exponential growth curve, with every unit squeezed for two hundred percent efficiency.
Everything looked very lively.
Except for that forgotten corner in the west.
Xia Lian sat with her hands resting on her thighs, her posture as standard as an elementary student in class.
She stared helplessly at the lonely starting main city on the sand table, which consisted of only a few thatched huts.
"Um... Lord Celestial God?"
Xia Lian called out cautiously to her partner beside her.
Black Tortoise kept her eyes closed, resting her feet on the edge of the table, and adjusted herself into a more comfortable position.
Hearing the voice, she didn't even lift her eyelids. She casually swiped a few times on the screen in front of her, checking all the "Auto-Defense" settings that could be selected.
Then, she turned her head to the other side.
"The main city is in a good spot over there, the feng shui is excellent. Don't call me if enemies come, just press skip yourself. I'm going to sleep."
After she spoke, in less than three seconds, the sound of steady breathing came over.
Xia Lian was dumbfounded.
She watched as the other three factions were already fighting fiercely, with Vermilion Bird's vanguard already exchanging fire with Azure Dragon's archers on the border line, while her side was just a beginner village displaying a truce plaque.
"Turn ended... Turn ended..."
Xia Lian could do nothing but blush furiously and spam the "Skip Turn" button.
This socially awkward experience of watching others play the game while she sat in a virtual prison was, for an introvert like her, simply worse than death.
Finally, Vermilion Bird, who was scouring the map for a fight, set its sights on this easy target.
"Azure Dragon, that old fox, has definitely laid traps everywhere. White Tiger, that tech nerd, is too meticulous with his calculations. This lazy turtle is our only breakthrough! Let's wipe them out in one go!"
Vermilion Bird roared. Its elite force, which had exhausted all its resources, charged menacingly to the gates of Black Tortoise's main city.
"Evaporate this turtle shell and the lazy worm inside it for me!"
Vermilion Bird slammed the table and issued the general assault order.
A sky full of Flame Burst Javelins, trailing crimson tails of fire, rained down like a meteor shower upon the lonely thatched hut.
However, a despair-inducing scene unfolded.
All the Flame Burst Javelins, just ten meters from the thatched hut, seemed to hit an invisible transparent barrier, all bouncing off without even creating a ripple.
The charging soldiers struck the air wall with their weapons, only to be sent flying by a supple force.
A dense field of green text floated across the Sand Table:
"Immune"
"Immune"
"Damage Nullified"
Xia Lian shut her eyes tight in terror. When she finally opened them, she found not a single blade of grass missing from her own territory.
Beside her, Black Tortoise hadn't even shifted his sleeping position.
This bizarre scene completely infuriated Vermilion Bird.
But her rage didn't stem from the inability to break through, but from the feeling of being played.
"What kind of bullshit rule is this!?"
Vermilion Bird's fury nearly set the virtual panel before her ablaze.
"Rewarding AFK players? This is an insult to all attackers! Phainon, what kind of trash game did you make!"
She completely lost her mind and began spamming attacks, draining her elite force's stamina bar to zero against that transparent shield.
Watching this from afar, White Tiger nearly suffered a myocardial infarction from sheer anger.
"Vermilion Bird, you brainless idiot! Are you blind? Did you not read the manual's description of Black Tortoise City's traits!"
White Tiger pointed at the Sand Table, stamping his feet and cursing furiously:
"That turtle's Shield Coefficient grows exponentially based on the [Idle Turn Count]!"
"The longer she stays AFK, the thicker the shield becomes! Attacking her now is just helping her stack armor for free! You're funding the enemy, do you understand! Funding the enemy!"
"A player like you deserves to be stuck in Bronze Rank for the rest of your life!"
Just as the Sand Table became a chaotic mess and the gods were screaming insults at each other without any dignity.
Two familiar golden notification boxes suddenly popped up in the corner of Lin Qingyue and her three companions' field of vision.
[Trial of the Heavenly Gods: Task Progress Updated.]
[Objective: Satisfy the inner desires of Celestial God: White Tiger (Completed)]
[Task Rating: Perfect]
[Description: You helped the Celestial God find a job where he could perfectly utilize his strengths. Although his colleagues' performance gave him frequent bouts of hypertension, he truly enjoyed the pleasure of a designer experiencing both pain and joy.]
[Current Trial Progress: 3/4]
Immediately after, the old notification faded, and new text emerged.
[Trial of the Heavenly Gods: Task Progress Updated.]
[Current Stage: Four.]
[Task Objective: Satisfy the inner desires of Celestial God: Black Tortoise.]
[Task Hint: To sleep comfortably and do nothing at all is His greatest wish.]
Lin Qingyue looked at Black Tortoise beside her, who was sleeping so soundly he was about to drool, and felt a massive headache coming on.
Satisfy this ultimate shut-in god who finds even breathing too tiring?
This task is probably more ridiculous than asking her to tear down the Temple with her bare hands.