The backgrounds of cyberpunk works are mostly built on the foundation of “low life combined with high technology,” typically featuring advanced scientific technology contrasted against a society with a certain degree of collapse. They possess a dazzling array of visual effects, such as neon lights on the streets, iconic street advertisements, and towering buildings, with color schemes usually dominated by black, purple, green, blue, and red. The story framework centers on a society where order is highly controlled by the government, corporations, or secret organizations, and the protagonist exploits loopholes within this system to achieve some kind of breakthrough.

Cyberpunk plots usually revolve around conflicts between hackers, artificial intelligence, and large corporations, set on a dystopian Earth in the near future, rather than the outer space settings of early cyberpunk. In fact, it marks an improvement and progress over previous science fiction novels that neglected the specific settings of information technology.

---

Blake White was jolted awake by the notification sounds from the class group chat.

Her vision was still blurry from just waking up. She groped under her pillow for her phone and squinted at the screen to make out the messages.

“The first batch of closed beta players for ‘Crimson Earth’ has been announced!”

“Seriously?”

“The official website posted the news three minutes ago [image].”

“Damn! Who’s that lucky?”

“Only ten thousand people in the first closed beta? This is a global selection, and the official quota is way too small!”

Blake White reacted sluggishly for a moment. Once the sleepiness faded, she remembered that she had also applied for the game’s closed beta at a classmate’s urging. She had casually filled out a questionnaire on the official website and clicked submit—that was already ten months ago.

At that time, ‘Crimson Earth’ had just released its trailer, with the promotional hook being “an epoch-making holographic game, a truly existing second world.”

The trailer exploded in popularity and immediately attracted the attention of gamers worldwide. The game’s selling points were its open world for free exploration and its multi-path career choices.

Moreover, it was a game that combined cyberpunk and supernatural elements. Players could take the technology route to become cyborgs with full-body mechanical prosthetics, or the supernatural route to awaken all sorts of strange abilities.

It was grounded in reality yet surpassed it, with an unparalleled sense of realism in its fantasy, as if seamlessly connected to the real world.

But what truly attracted Blake White were the last two lines of the game’s introduction.

“Light always breeds darkness; beneath the city’s prosperous surface, there is always a hidden side of decay and rot.”

“Compared to money and power, survival and death are the eternal themes of that world.”

Since the introduction said so… maybe ‘Crimson Earth’ had a dark core in addition to its cyberpunk style and supernatural abilities?

Blake White opened the screenshot in the class group and took a look. The game’s official team would send the closed beta invitation email to players’ inboxes, and the first batch of closed beta players was indeed only ten thousand. The official closed beta date was tomorrow.

You have to know, when ‘Crimson Earth’ first opened for reservations, it only took one day for the global number of reservations to surpass ten million. After several months of hype, the number of reservations had already exceeded a hundred million. To select ten thousand lucky players from hundreds of millions to join the closed beta—the odds of being chosen were practically microscopic.

Although she didn’t hold out much hope, Blake White still opened her email to check.

“You have one unread email.”

The pop-up notification from her inbox made Blake White freeze. Her heart started racing, and she shot up from bed.

“Congratulations! You have received a closed beta qualification for the game ‘Crimson Earth.’”

The email subject was in striking red. Blake White stared in a daze, repeatedly checking the sender and comparing it back and forth with the official email account, confirming again and again in disbelief.

When she finally confirmed that the email was indeed from the official team, the first thought that flooded her mind was—Jackpot! Jackpot!!

If she sold this closed beta qualification, she could definitely get a good amount of money!

A poor soul’s wild joy!

Blake White had always been unlucky. Her dad lost money in investments and ran off with the funds, and after her mom remarried, she sent exactly 800 yuan a month for living expenses. It was enough for food, but buying study materials and clothes was a stretch. The second-hand smartphone in her hand was something she bought with money earned from working at a milk tea shop.

Blake White lived alone in the old house left by her grandparents, getting up early and staying up late to study hard, like a tenacious wild grass, stubbornly surviving until now.

After this summer break, Blake White would be going to college. Her grades were good, and she got into a good university, but tuition and living expenses were a real headache.

If she could sell the closed beta qualification for ‘Crimson Earth,’ she wouldn’t have to worry about living expenses for quite a while.

However, the next line in the email dashed Blake White’s hopes.

“‘Crimson Earth’ closed beta qualifications are non-transferable and non-giftable. The closed beta invitation code is already bound to the player’s registration information and cannot be changed. This closed beta is free of charge and there will be no data wipe.”

Blake White’s face fell in utter gloom, her path to making money ruthlessly cut off.

She actually didn’t care much about the game, since her equipment was so lousy she didn’t even have a holographic headset, so she couldn’t play at all. She had only filled out the game questionnaire on a whim to join in the fun, mostly thinking, “If the closed beta qualification can be sold, I’ll hit the jackpot.”