My Old Classmates and I Crashed the Game Servers After Transmigrating Together

“We will become the sharp swords that sever space and time. We will become the banners that set dawn ablaze. We will become the core that unites all as one. We will become the mysterious messengers who lead you to the Promised Land, where milk and honey flow freely.”

Three years after its release, the game company behind The Promised Land, a high-scoring, expansive open-world game hailed as having fallen from its throne, went bankrupt. Countless players wept and lamented its fate, while a few lucky “Chosen Ones” uncovered a secret hidden amid the fierce business rivalries.

On the day The Promised Land servers were announced to be shutting down for good, messages granting mysterious beta access appeared in several players’ inboxes.

[The Promised Land 2 beta is now open. Beta testers may apply to import their original server accounts using a Tarot invitation code and begin their beta experience.]

Tarot cards imbued with an unknown power descended upon the world, becoming the link between two realms.

Under the inverted order of the Dark Sky and the White Night, the Fourth Calamity had quietly arrived.

[The Mysterious Messengers’ Hero Forum, World Channel: Administrator Wheel of Fortune reminds you that you have been added to the World Channel. Please follow the player handbook when posting

World: Any friends from the Homebuilding Design Academy want to pool our furniture blueprints? The elves are being so unreasonable. Looking for someone, for real!

Hermit: The Void Immortal Cave dungeon is open. Putting a party together. No healers, Golden Core stage or higher, preferably with some knowledge of classical Chinese.

Magician: Anyone know the code coordinates for the Federation satellite system? I’m stuck on this level! Someone awesome, please carry me!

Star: What do I do if I start the game with a celestial body hanging in the sky? Any astrophysicists out there who can help?! How do I rotate and orbit without getting dizzy?

Hanged Man: Everyone online, hand over your Major Arcana cards. I’m going to play Fight the Landlord with the Director-General of the Nebula Association, the Goddess of Stars and Dawn!

Justice: Are you insane?! You’re forcing everyone to log out and get locked in the penalty box! You really only think about yourself!

Temperance: Holy Light, please stop arguing! Who’s stronger in melee, a PvP priest or a support songweaver? Whoever gets it right wins! Also, can someone add another seal to my home? It still doesn’t feel safe. I’ll heal a dungeon in return and provide some medical knowledge!

Hanged Man: You’re the one who’s really good at laying low! And @Justice, I’m doing this so we can get home sooner. Get up and grind the main quest! Don’t you want to go back?!

…]

The nations of the continent, struck by the Fourth Calamity, joined forces to issue a stern condemnation of the mysterious messengers.

The culprits behind the Abyss’s resurgence. The masterminds behind the War of the Seven Kingdoms. The mysterious messengers honored by the gods. The incarnations of Heavenly Law who blocked ascension. The mysterious messengers couldn’t care less. “So what?”

The students of Class 1, Grade 12, at Liyang High School were known as the hardest class in the school to handle: a bunch of lunatics.

They were in the honors class, with grades that left everyone else in the dust, but every one of them had an extraordinarily “creative” streak. They were unconventional and had done things including, but not limited to, stealing chemicals from the lab to blow up the toilets in the entire school building, and deliberately setting a trap on the first floor of the administration building to trip the principal, all for the sake of a sociology experiment.

Everyone thought that after graduating, going to university, specializing in their chosen fields, and entering the workforce, the students of Class 1 might finally settle down. But whether they went into chemical engineering, law and politics, Chinese language and literature, sociology, computer science, Taoist studies, or foreign occult studies, they remained just as unhinged, working in every corner of the country. After graduating high school, they kicked all their teachers out of the class chat, but never disbanded it. Even ten years into their careers, the group was still buzzing with hundreds of messages every day.

One classmate put it this way: “Apart, each rules their own domain. Together, they’re a puddle of mud.”

Only one person was different.

The class monitor, who had once held the whole class together through their miserable high school years, suddenly cut ties with everyone after graduating from university. After causing everyone a huge amount of trouble, the monitor disappeared and could never be reached again.

Then, one day, news about the beta test for The Promised Land 2 arrived in the class chat, transforming into a virus that used the class monitor’s name to invade everyone’s inbox.

Another world opened its doors to the classmates in the group chat:

The Youth League secretary raised a red flag in another world, determined to let the light of freedom and equality shine across the entire Promised Land.

A mechanical engineering expert improved the steam engine, pushing productivity even further and ascending to godhood on the spot.

A senior law student took up the sword of justice and radically reformed the legal system, earning the seals of office from the six kingdoms of the Eastern Continent.

The computer science ace struck from a higher dimension, pierced straight through the game’s invisible walls, and connected every isolated continent through the internet.

The class monitor and the gods nodded with satisfaction. Looks like they could trust these players with the task of saving the world.

But as their classmates made their mark in every field, the gods began to feel that something was off about the team of heroes they had assembled from a group of old schoolmates.

A Tianjin bard taught the temple choir to sing: “We came to Tianjin Wei, but didn’t learn a thing at all~ Sing along with me: We came to Tianjin Wei, ”

A business genius from Shanghai, Master Hu, opened a chain of owner-run bistros across the Promised Land. No one else understood the names on the signs, so Master Jing from Beijing fanned himself and said, “Ah, let me tell you, where we’re from in old Beijing, we call this ‘In-ter-na-tional.’”

Now they understood even less.

And there were plenty more problems. The team of heroes made up of these players traveled over hill and dale to the dragon’s lair, only to discover that the Dragon King was their classmate studying abroad in America.

The players: “Holy crap! Someone get Master Hu and Master Gang from Hong Kong! Nobody here speaks Dragon Tongue... I mean, English!”

The classmate studying in America: “I speak Chinese!”

High above the clouds, the gods silently looked at the class monitor. You said they were reliable, didn’t you?

Class monitor: ...What kind of Chinese-style Western fantasy is this? No, listen, they really are normal people! At least they were before I recruited them!

The class monitor never dreamed that their old classmates would ruin their reputation in front of the gods of another world.

Steampunk-style travels through various nations / an unconventional Victorian era / episodic investigations by a covert detective agency / the upright and inverted Kabbalistic Tree of Life / Western alchemy and occult systems / mythic epics / Tarot card spirit lore / Fourth Calamity / mastermind elements / one secondary couple features gender-swapped male and female leads, outwardly BG but actually GB, so consider yourself warned / group transmigration / a fictional setting that is extremely, extremely loosely based on anything, with Chinese fantasy and meme references

The story of a group of old classmates from different fields and regions, all now working, exploring and developing a new world. The protagonist is human, a detective priest, a master of secret identities with countless disguises, and the Emperor of Part-Time Jobs. He starts out on hard mode, navigating between all the different factions while putting on an act for his classmates. He’s a worried, doting mom or the group’s punching bag. (Actually, he’s the group’s favorite.) Bringing his classmates over comes at a price: random buffs and debuffs like blindness, stomach problems, and coughing up blood. It’s the ultimate culmination of my personal tastes.

Since all the classmates are incredible, they’ve got connections firmly in hand and know legends from every field.

[***Do not break the fourth wall*** You little thing ***]

The worldbuilding ideas have been saved since April 2021, with detailed notes saved since July 2021, and some setting notes dating back to March 2020.

An ensemble cast story that doesn’t revolve entirely around the protagonist. The main plot follows a group of reliable, if not entirely reliable, experts from every field as they build a new world.

Theme: These are the best of times, these are the worst of times.