At this time, Westwood Town was already filled with students and teachers wearing Vik University uniforms. Zhou Ning even saw Leandro de Pesa and Chris Bradenreiser among them.

The reason he saw them first was simple: many players were gathered around each of them, excitedly trying to get close. Both of them looked helpless, as if they had encountered a group of lunatics.

Zhou Ning couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief, saying it was quite a close call. This Vik University expedition to the Meteorological Tide should be part of the plot, used to provide job change quests for Westwood Town players.

Because there were many Warrior Department, Mage Department, and Weather Department teachers there, if one was lucky enough, they might receive quests from them.

If he had been a day late, or even half a day late, many 'leeks' would have slipped through his fingers.

Zhou Ning greeted Leandro, and as expected, the players were first surprised, then swarmed over, instantly surrounding him so tightly that not even a drop of water could pass through.

Leandro:...This scene seems familiar.

For some time, players from Daklan had been showing off their fancy post-job change moves, and their cheap guns and powerful skills on the forums. Westwood Town players, who were so close, had long been green with envy. Now, seeing Wayne Sterwell appear here without warning, they were instantly thrilled.

"Oh my god! Wayne Sterwell is here!"

"Holy crap, holy crap, Westwood Town's spring is coming too!"

Zhou Ning scanned the crowd, not finding any familiar IDs from his previous life for the time being. So, as usual, after issuing a D-rank "Improve Strength" quest, he opened his personal shop to them.

Compared to his time in Daklan, Zhou Ning raised the price of the Devil Fruit from 800 Victa to 1000 Victa, and also slightly increased the prices of other items. After Shuidi Chenxing's lavish spending, he felt he shouldn't underestimate the spending power of Krypton Gold players.

Besides, the open beta had been running for 5 or 6 days, so players should have some money.

"Did you guys notice? The protagonist's shop raised its prices."

"No choice, still gotta buy it..."

"Holy crap, you guys are so fast!"

Soon, the inventory in Zhou Ning's shop also decreased at a rapid pace. In less than half an hour, nearly 500 players had purchased job change books, which meant 5000 Victa were easily acquired. The number was still rising.

And this was just the beginning.

Zhou Ning could see players continuously pouring in from a distance. He didn't have to do anything; the quests and shop were just hanging there. He just needed to pose and space out. He was so idle he even had time to browse the forums... At this time, many Westwood Town players were already posting group photo screenshots on the forums, showing off Wayne Sterwell's arrival, which, as expected, once again caused a wave of envy, jealousy, and hatred.

"Westwood Town... if I remember correctly, it should also be near Daklan City, right? I really envy you European dogs."

"Speaking of which, will he come to Jinhan? Our Novice Village isn't too far from Westwood Town."

"It's strange, is Wandering Gunslinger the only class with a protagonist and mentor like Wayne Sterwell? That's too unfair, isn't it?"

"It seems there really isn't. At the very least, becoming a Knight is very abnormal, requiring twelve-ring quests and also reputation requirements with the Earth Temple. It's incredibly difficult."

Such bragging posts and sour replies were common on the forums. After reading a few posts, Zhou Ning found it uninteresting. Suddenly, a notification popped up in front of him:

"Important Notice: The first season of the Apocalypse variety show, 'apocalypse forecast,' has been simultaneously launched on the forums and various platforms. This program compiles various information from the first week of the open beta. Interested players please proceed to watch."

"Oh? Even 'apocalypse forecast' is out?" Zhou Ning was slightly taken aback.

In his previous life, 'apocalypse forecast' was a variety show produced by the game's official team, somewhat like Happy Camp from his previous life. It was a few professional players gathered together playing games, competing, and engaging in awkward chats. The topics were weekly Apocalypse game news, rankings, professional player dynamics, etc. Although it was awkward, it had to be said that most people, including Zhou Ning himself, enjoyed the awkwardness.

In his previous life, this program didn't appear until after the first Professional League began. He didn't expect it to appear early due to his presence.

Zhou Ning clicked on the sticky post and chose to play it. Sure enough, the video screen showed a chubby male host and several professional players as guests. In this episode, Zhou Ning even saw Jinse. Well, well, don't think I don't know, it should be working hours now, right? Zhou Ning decided to dock her pay.

"Hello, audience members! This is 'apocalypse forecast,' navigating for you promptly at 8 PM every Saturday!"

The first episode of 'apocalypse forecast' was about 2 hours long. The first 20 minutes quickly reviewed the current situation of players throughout the Apocalypse World.

There were roughly 1 million players in the first open beta, but currently, fewer than 100,000 players had successfully changed jobs. The most popular job change was for Espers, because Espers only needed to spend 20 Victa to buy low-level super-ability potions to change jobs, but the uneven quality was a problem, with the vast majority getting terrible abilities.

Next were Warriors. The threshold for Warriors was lower than other professions. As long as one had enough natural force affinity, they could change jobs after doing a few quests upon joining a faction. They were also considered the weakest profession by professional players, which was quite absurd... This generation of professional players is not good enough.

The third most popular profession was his own Wandering Gunslinger, mainly the fewer than two thousand players in Daklan City. However, the host then presented data showing that Wandering Gunslinger was also the profession with the highest regional selection rate, with 32% of Daklan players choosing this profession.

The least popular professions were Knights and Shamans. Shamans were unique professions of the Northlanders and Walrus People. There were only about 600 players born as Walrus People, most of whom became Warriors. Only a few with exceptionally high natural force affinity qualified to become Shamans.

In terms of profession strength, the Wandering Gunslinger was currently recognized by several professional players as the strongest profession. However, the Knight also had great potential.

"Besides being powerful, Wandering Gunslinger is most importantly cool! Fancy Gunplay is the GOAT!"

Here, the host excerpted several PK videos, all of which were clips of Wandering Gunslinger showing off various flashy moves. Of course, there were also famous scenes of XB being crushed by Warriors.

After a small dart-throwing game among the professional players, the topic continued.

Currently, on the level leaderboard, two Wandering Gunslingers, Jinse and XB, were far ahead with levels 9 and 8.5 respectively. The third place was a Mage from the American Gunfire Club, also a famous professional player, August. Shuidi Chenxing, who possessed a Devil Fruit, ranked fifth.

The screen also showed some of Jinse's combat scenes, as well as some combat footage of Shuidi Chenxing after transforming into a jackalman.

Due to the five previous promotional videos, the most popular NPC was naturally Zhou Ning, who was overwhelmingly in first place without a doubt. Second was Emlyn, the Spear of Punishment of the Byron Republic. Third was the busty Chris Bradenreiser, who also made several appearances in interactions with players.

As he spoke, the host changed the subject and mentioned the recent sacrifice incident involving Brystone players that had just appeared on the forums.

The screen displayed some forum posts:

"Help, help, why was I captured by people from the Cult of the Cursed God!"

"Same here, they first took me in for a sacrifice. After I was killed and resurrected shortly after, they captured me again and are now interrogating me about my origins."

"Holy crap, I'm locked in a small dark room, my willpower is constantly dropping, and the game is telling me I'm being converted. What do I do?"

"Above poster, I've already been converted into a tentacle monster, but the tentacles aren't on my body, they're on my face, like a small animal. I want to die so bad..."

"Wow, Ancient God's appearance, how do I convert? I want to convert into a tentacle monster too!"

Some players also recorded relevant videos as evidence. In the footage, a group of Cult of the Cursed God followers dressed in black priestly robes escorted several players into a building.