I Was One Version Ahead Before the Players Arrived

[Game World + Version Head Start + The Fourth Calamity + NPC Perspective + Hidden Classes + Real-World Parallels + Early Access + Foreknowledge of the Story + Players Arrive + Timeline + Lighthearted Power Fantasy]

Lu En, a seven-year veteran of Eternal Night's Gate, wakes up to find that he has transmigrated into the game world, a full six months before the public launch.

And that's not even the strangest part:

The players haven't even logged in, but his character panel has already updated to version 1.0.

Early-access rewards, hidden classes, limited-edition items, first-kill experience, unopened maps, hidden quests no one has triggered...

What's more, in-game gold can be exchanged for real-world currency, and class skills can even be used in real life.

So the dangerous otherworld that everyone else fears gradually becomes, for Lu En, a solo test server that opened six months early.

That is, until the first real players arrive.

“Why does this NPC have a player panel?”

“Wait, how does he know about the hidden quest?”

“Holy crap, someone already got the hidden class?”

“No way, the boss's first kill is gone too?”

“Did the devs let an internal test account loose?”

Lu En only wanted to take advantage of the version head start before the public launch.

But as the players kept pouring in, he discovered something even more troublesome.

Beyond all the test accounts, there was a player who didn't exist in the database at all.

They knew future versions were coming, knew the players would arrive, and even knew, long before Lu En transmigrated, that Lu En would definitely come.