Chapter 1076: The Days Waiting for Launch (Second Update)
A frenzy of purchasing swept across the internet instantly. Sales of the Sleep Mode module skyrocketed on the official website and major shopping platforms.
Almost all of the 20 million players who had bought the Matrix Game Pod wanted this thing. They had already spent over a hundred thousand, so what was a few thousand more?
Besides, this thing was essentially buying time, and time was priceless.
Moreover, the release of the Sleep Mode module triggered another surge in Matrix Game Pod sales. Many players who had been hesitant and indecisive finally caved when they heard about the "Sleep Mode" feature and bought one.
They had resisted the first wave of novelty from consciousness implantation technology, resisted the second wave of temptation from the masterpiece GTA, resisted the third wave of culinary allure from the Matrix Shopping Center, resisted the fourth wave of "Iron Man" AI technology, and resisted the fifth wave of massive price cuts.
But now, they really couldn't hold out any longer...
You see, the current price of the Matrix Game Pod was already at an all-time low. Add to that exclusive masterpieces and unique gaming experiences, and now they had even rolled out a black tech like Sleep Mode. There was truly no reason not to buy.
Besides, *World of Warcraft* was cheap entertainment for most people. Its pricing was lower than many PC and mobile games on the market. Even if you bought the Matrix Game Pod just to play the included *Detroit: Become Human* and then got hooked on *World of Warcraft*, you absolutely wouldn't lose out on the money spent!
But players were puzzled: why didn't Chen Mo bring out such a great thing earlier?
If he had mentioned the Sleep Mode module sooner, reaching 20 million sales wouldn't have been so hard.
What the players didn't know was that they had the order of events backwards...
It was the 20 million sales that came first, then the Sleep Mode, not the other way around...
Still, this worked out well for Chen Mo, as Matrix Game Pod sales saw another big spike.
Even though it hurt to take such a loss, what did it matter? Once the game launched, it would all be earned back soon enough.
...
...
During that week, players were all busy with their own jobs, yet they felt unbearably idle.
Especially after coming home from work, they could only lonely pull up the two promotional CG videos for *World of Warcraft* and watch them over and over again.
It wasn't just those two CGs. Many players started feeling nostalgic, digging up everything related to Azeroth and savoring it one by one.
The Azeroth Universe, *I'm MT*, *Warcraft*, the Stormwind City and Orgrimmar from *Oasis*...
As for the preparations, they were all done long ago.
Downloading the client in advance.
Buying a prepaid card or monthly subscription to activate the game.
Making plans with friends to log in together, pick a satisfactory server, and level up together.
At first, many planned to buy prepaid cards, but once the Sleep Mode came out, a lot of them changed their minds.
If everyone had ten hours of game time each day, why bother with prepaid cards? A monthly subscription was way more cost-effective!
Plenty of people even muttered obsessively before bed, wishing *World of Warcraft* would launch already so they could dive into dreams and start playing!
...
After a long week of waiting, the launch of *World of Warcraft* finally arrived.
The launch time was interesting: midnight.
Normally, that was a pretty odd time to launch. Other online games usually went live at 10 AM, noon, or in the afternoon—almost never at midnight.
The main issue was, if the game launched at midnight, how were people supposed to sleep?
But *World of Warcraft* was different—it had Sleep Mode!
In fact, you could see Chen Mu's intention here. He was deliberately guiding players to use Sleep Mode to play *World of Warcraft*.
Because *World of Warcraft* was a game that required large chunks of time. Once you really got into it, two or three hours might feel like nothing—you'd just finish a small dungeon and the time would be gone.
If you wanted to gather a group of footmen for a raid, everyone had to log in on time, and you'd be playing for at least five or six hours straight, no discounts.
So, the best approach was to get players into the habit of going to bed around 11 PM to midnight, then entering *World of Warcraft* for guild activities, logging off together when time was up, and continuing the next day.
Many players had already washed up and climbed into their Matrix Game Pods, just waiting for *World of Warcraft* to launch.
Married players had an extra task: calming down their on-the-verge-of-raging spouses and explaining why they absolutely had to sleep in the Matrix Game Pod, and why they'd likely be doing so for a long time to come...
So, many players were strongly calling for a dual-person game pod, one where a couple could lie down together...
Half an hour before launch, players were already chatting up a storm.
"Hurry up, decide what race and class you want to play."
"Do I even need to think about it? I'm going straight for a Tauren Warrior named A Mu Ti! Gotta grab the ID as soon as I get in!"
"Then should I play a female Tauren Shaman called Sha Man?"
"Anyone going for Dai Zei or Lie Ren? We'll form a guild first thing and call it Ju Bao Da Dui!"
"I just want to see if there's really a Silver Scale Chestplate in the game!"
"I'm more curious about when we can run Wailing Caverns. How many people do we need?"
"Let's sort out our classes now so we don't end up overlapping, okay?"
Players were all buzzing with excitement, and most of their discussions came straight from *I'm MT*.
Don't think these players didn't know anything—they knew plenty, because *I'm MT* was the best textbook...
It not only explained the different races and classes but also covered some key skills, and vividly described scenes from major cities and dungeons.
Even though the anime was in chibi style, the content was the same. It even had information about various dungeons and some guidance on how to tackle them.
So, before launch, many players had dug out the old *I'm MT* from years ago and rewatched it from start to finish, using it to decide which class to play.
As a result, a lot of players chose Rogues, Hunters, and Mages...
Because those classes had strong characters in the anime, like Female Rogue, Uncle Fang Zhuan, and the Five Fireball Sect Leader, making the classes seem pretty powerful.
As for some other classes, players couldn't tell if they were strong or not, like Warriors.
There was a useless piece of trash like A Mu Ti, but also a pro like Guild Leader who could take on multiple enemies solo, leaving everyone unsure about the class's true strength...