Wizard: Building a Golem Legion From Zero

Chapter 470: Chapter 458: Your Second Life

Three months later, Golden Stone City’s Central Square had been temporarily converted into a massive open-air venue capable of holding fifty thousand people. The tiered stands were packed to capacity.

In the center of the square stood a mysterious structure, covered by a heavy black curtain.

An hour before the press conference began, the red curve representing data traffic on the national Spirit Communication Network’s real-time load graph had already shattered its historical peak. It was still climbing wildly at a near-vertical angle.

Everyone in the kingdom who owned a Spirit Communication Terminal was waiting anxiously.

Under the watchful eyes of the entire nation, King William, dressed in full royal regalia, ascended the high platform step by step.

Behind him, three giant light screens faced the myriad of expectant and fervent faces in different directions.

He dispensed with any opening pleasantries, simply surveying the entire venue. His voice, amplified by Runes, reached every corner and was simultaneously broadcast to the one thousand three hundred and twenty Spirit Communication Towers across the kingdom.

"Today, I will present to you, the citizens of our nation, a project jointly spearheaded by Weisren Heavy Industry and the Aiselan Kingdom... a brand new era."

William raised his hand, then swung it down forcefully.

"Its name is... the Holographic Game Hibernation Pod!"

"And with it, a brand new world!"

The moment his words fell, the black curtain covering the central structure slowly drew back!

A streamlined, silver-white hibernation pod with a futuristic design lay quietly on the display platform.

Its lid was completely transparent, revealing dense arrays of faint blue Runes flowing within like a galaxy, exuding an aesthetic that was both mystical and technological.

"It looks so cool—!"

The tens of thousands of people below began whispering amongst themselves, discussing this new object in hushed tones.

William didn’t give them any more time to digest it. He raised his hand again, and the three giant screens behind him lit up simultaneously.

A seven-minute-long immersive promotional video began, shot from a first-person perspective.

The video began.

Before a giant character creation mirror.

The person in the mirror reached out a hand and tapped lightly in the air. Their face shape, hair color, and pupils changed in an instant.

They could become a handsome, white-haired swordsman, or a slender elven archer, or even add a pair of wings to themselves. Facial features, body type, race... here, everything could be freely adjusted.

Next, the viewer found themselves standing in an ancient forest. The morning sun pierced through the branches of millennia-old trees, casting dappled light and shadows on the moss-covered ground.

A crystalline dewdrop slid from the tip of a giant fern frond and shattered. A gentle breeze swept by, and you could even ’feel’ the cool touch of it, carrying the fresh scent of grass and trees.

The scene shifted, the perspective now on a bustling commercial street.

Shops lined both sides of the street. The CLANG of a hammer came from a blacksmith’s shop, while the songs of a bard drifted out from a tavern.

A demi-human girl with fluffy animal ears was arguing with a Dwarf merchant until she was red in the face, all over a single copper coin. A player sold a magic wolf pelt they had just looted from a Dungeon to a tanner NPC on the roadside, receiving a heavy bag of virtual currency in return. The air itself seemed to carry the mixed aroma of roasted meat and flowers.

A voiceover began, deep and solemn, carrying a convincing power.

"In this world, you will have a second life."

"Here, the blind will see again."

On screen, an old man with bandaged eyes slowly opened them in the Spirit Realm. He looked at his own, clearly visible hands, tears streaming down his face.

"Here, the crippled will run again."

The scene cut.

In reality, a retired veteran in a worn-out military uniform, having lost both legs and confined to a wheelchair, was helped by his family to slowly lie down in a holographic hibernation pod.

His eyes closed.

When he ’opened’ them again, he found himself standing on the precipice of a towering cliff.

He looked down and saw a pair of strong, powerful, and perfectly whole legs.

He tentatively stomped his foot, feeling the sensation of solid ground travel up from his sole. He was silent, but his shoulders began to tremble violently.

The next second, he leaped into the howling gale at the mountain’s peak!

In the instant he fell, a pair of enormous wings unfurled from his back, carrying him up into the sea of clouds to soar freely!

At that moment, in the reserved seats of the square, thousands of similarly disabled veterans stared intently at the light screens, many with tears already streaming down their faces.

This was salvation. It was an olive branch extended by an Angel!

Crutches were thrown high into the air, and wheelchairs were overturned.

Countless people who had lost limbs and were just barely scraping by in reality rushed desperately toward the barriers.

"Give it to me! Let me in!"

"My legs! My arms!"

The frenzied roar threatened to blow the roof off the Royal Capital. The military police had to activate a Defense Barrier to barely hold back the surging crowd.

"Here, the old will regain a youthful body."

The voiceover continued, but the climax of the promotional video was just beginning.

The camera suddenly pulled up, soaring through the clouds to the heavens above.

A giant Floating City, whose magnificence was beyond words, slowly emerged from the endless sea of clouds.

One hundred stacked layers of Floating Continents.

Each layer was a vast world, completely different and unique in its scenery.

There were volcanic regions with surging lava and rampant fire elementals.

There were frozen wastelands, sealed in ice for millennia, where great beasts lurked.

There were bizarre underwater coral cities teeming with murlocs.

There was even a steampunk wasteland of turning gears and billowing steam.

The voiceover grew passionate, filled with a seductive allure.

"Sword Art Online!"

"A castle in the sky made of one hundred Floating Continents—Aincrad—awaits your conquest!"

"Fight, form parties, conquer Dungeons, forge Divine Weapons, trade freely, learn Magic, and even... fall in a love that will never end!"

"Your second life begins now!"

"Most importantly..." The voiceover paused, dropping the final bombshell.

"The flow of time in this world is three times faster than in the real world!"

"Sleep for one night in reality, and you will experience a full twenty-four hours of life in this world!"

This effectively extended their lifespan! It was like gaining an entire extra life!

The Hereditary Dukes on the high platform shot to their feet, their eyes locked on the hibernation pod.

BOOM—!

If the previous parts of the presentation had lit a fire, that last sentence had just detonated a nuclear bomb!

In the square, everyone went insane!

But that wasn’t the end.

The final scene slowly panned past the ninety-nine continents, finally settling on the highest point of the Floating City’s one hundredth floor.

There stood a palace of ultimate magnificence.

At the far end of the palace, a throne was suspended high above.

The throne was empty.

Only a single line of golden text, emanating an aura of immortality, slowly materialized.

[The first player to reach this place and clear the game will be granted, by the Guardian of the Kingdom—Lord Allen Wesren—himself...]

[The Eternal Body.]

When the two words "Eternal Body" appeared, the fervor in the square boiled over to the brink of chaos.

Countless people tried to rush the central display platform, forcing the military police maintaining order to activate a Defense Barrier that covered the entire venue.

King William stood on the high platform, looking down at the tsunami-like crowd below. He took a deep breath and took the microphone.

"Ladies and gentlemen!"

"I know what you’re thinking."

"A creation this magnificent must be incredibly expensive, right?"

He paused for a moment, then shouted with all his might:

"Wrong!"

"Thanks to the core technology provided by the Guardian of the Kingdom, Lord Wesley, and the full subsidies from the kingdom’s Ministry of Finance, the final price for the first batch of one million holographic hibernation pods has been brought down to—"

"Five Silver Naels!"

An ordinary miner could afford a ’second life’ with just two months of labor!

William didn’t stop there, continuing his announcement: "The Kingdom’s Department of Alchemy will also be rolling out an installment plan! All active and retired military personnel can exchange their military merits directly for a pod!"

"Pre-orders are now officially open!"

The moment he finished speaking, the already overloaded curve on the national Spirit Communication Network’s load graph shot straight past the top of the chart, becoming a piercing, straight red line.

The system fell into a complete and unprecedented gridlock.

Deep within Cybertron, Jarvis had to temporarily triple the bandwidth just to get the network, which had been on the verge of collapse, running again.

The press conference wasn’t even over, yet on the black market of Golden Stone City, a group of frenzied, wealthy merchants had already driven the price for the first batch of ’hibernation pod transfers’ from five Silver Naels all the way up to fifty.

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