Volume 9 – Chapter 3: Feeling Alive
Dim, orange-red horizon.
The stone bridge leads to the door of the BOSS room; stalact.i.tes resembling the sharp teeth of wild beasts; the roar of monsters reverberates constantly; many corpses are on the ground.
The music sounds around the ears that would make people nervous, and… The densely packed options and interface-like things that appeared around him.
Lan Xiu couldn’t feel any pain. It was like a blink of an eye, and the world became like this. Here, he was at the place in the game.
It was the time he finished the dungeon after the team disbanded.
It took Lan Xiu a while before getting accustomed to his current vision… Qianxiu became familiar with the options and b.u.t.tons that appeared next to him.
“So that’s it, I can minimalize it or turn it on with my mind… Turn off the music.”
Qianxiu began to check everything on his body; nothing was different. The only difference was that he had real vision and sense of touch here, and even the state of his body was apparent.
Also, he searched all the options, but could not find a place to log out.
No… it’s not life-like, but it’s real!
The armor would make a clanging sound in any movement of his. He could feel the weight of the equipment pressed against the skin, and even the contact between the sole and the ground.
Qianxiu looked at the road he had walked behind him with some confusion. A whole stretch of a stone bridge; it seemed very short in the game, but it felt like he had already walked on it for a long time.
It’s such a long journey.
“How long… haven’t I walked such a long journey?” Qianxiu stared at the stone bridge in a daze. After a long, long time, he recovered slightly.
But at this moment, he suddenly felt a sharp pain appearing behind him! This feeling of being hit by a giant hammer directly made Qianxiu subconsciously let out a scream!
He fell to the ground, and the armor on his body knocking him was very uncomfortable! Qianxiu looked at the orange-red light around him, horrified!
Monster! The elite monsters are wandering in the dungeon! It was a towering Minotaur holding a stone bat! Its eyes were widely opened with saliva drooling out of its mouth. It approached slowly step by step!
The Minotaur is towering! It was half a person taller than Qianxiu!
“I’ve conquered this dungeon. Why are there monsters?!” Qianxiu gritted his teeth, stood up, felt the pain of being attacked just now, and suddenly said, “I understand. I have truly become the ‘dwellers’ in the Emerald Fantasy!”
Qianxiu gritted his teeth, still pulling out the sword he had temporarily strengthened before entering the dungeon, and hurriedly activated the corresponding skills.
He saw a faint flash of light suddenly burst out of his body, a feeling of a continuous flow of power, which made Qianxiu shocked!
“This feeling…”
He shouted, waved the sword on his hand, released his skills, and rushed towards the minotaur frantically! He had successfully killed the BOSS in the room through his profound maneuver, so he wasn’t concerned about the elite monsters outside.
Even if the maneuver were utterly different from sitting in front of the computer, the action when the skill was released had not changed!
It just switched to the first-person point-of-view… like virtual reality!
But this is the real world!
When the Minotaur’s chest was badly mutilated with blood gus.h.i.+ng out, it finally fell to the ground feebly with a soft thump of hitting the ground. Qianxiu sighed softly. Qianxiu felt the warmth of blood splas.h.i.+ng on his face, and he smiled subconsciously when he heard the prompt of the game’s system.
“This kind of feeling… this is what I call the feeling of excitement…” Qianxiu fiercely inserted the sword into the Minotaur’s heart and said grimly, “This is the feeling of… being alive!”
…
As a popular online fantasy RPG game, just like the merchant’s function before opening the server, players began to feel its benefits before entering.
Qianxiu walked into the first town after the Novice Village in this area. He observed the current time, which was the daytime, so there were many people here.
Because the character’s creation was generated by scanning the avatar image uploaded by the player, it was hardly comparable to the characters in the previous games. The appearance all over the street was fundamentally the same. The only thing that could make a difference was the name. The skin and other external things were deceitful and flashy.
Of course, the player could modify the scanned 3D avatar and body shape by themselves… So, basically, except for some NPCs that looked the same for convenience, the appearance of the player was probably different. Of course, some directly chose role-specific templates for convenience’s sake.
However, for Qianxiu, this kind of 3D modeling, which was done well online, was not as good as the current first-person perspective.
It was like being in a medieval town in another world. Everything here was very novel to Qianxiu. He even forgot that pale and feeble feeling when he satin a dim and dirty room an hour ago!
“Even the sun doesn’t seem to hurt my eyes anymore.” Qianxiu subconsciously looked up at the gentle but not hot sun in the town.
At this time, a few familiar faces fell into Qianxiu’s gaze.
It’s them… The Lord Paper Tiger and his friends who deleted him from the team. Obviously, these people also saw Qianxiu. After killing the BOSS, they completed the mission to enter the city. Even if they disbanded the team and did not distribute the rewards, they were still eligible to enter.
The Lord Paper Tiger didn’t bother as if he didn’t see Qianxiu, and went directly to the weapons shop on the street.
Qianxiu glanced silently and subconsciously opened his friend list. It was empty and without a single profile picture.
“If you can’t keep up, we won’t be able to play together in the end, and the incompetent will eventually be eliminated…”
Qianxiu shook his head… He was no ordinary player, but a trial player for the game. He was given a test quota before the game started… But when he interviewed for the game company’s internal support, he was rejected.
Qianxiu came to a restaurant, picked something to eat, and experienced eating food. No doubt, it was real.
He quickly began to think about how he should survive in this game world. Obviously, money was a problem. This was because in the game, only by killing monsters of the same level or above would the money appear, and it was still pathetically scarce in the early stage.
Of course, this kind of meager income was not enough to strengthen oneself, but it would be more than enough if it were only used for typical urban life. However, Qianxiu was not willing to come into such a world to just become ordinary townspeople.
There were still many players outside, continually walking into various shops. A small number of them were surrounding the NPC and asking questions… These were all simple game routines.
As for what they were talking about, the distance was too far, so Qianxiu could not hear.
A player suddenly turned into a white light and disappeared. Qianxiu’s attention was drawn, “Did the player go offline… or did he disconnected because of internet lag?”
Qianxiu shook his head and didn’t care too much… This game had a high degree of freedom. Basically, after completing the content after the ultimate version of Novice Village, except for a few large expansions that could only be unlocked after reaching a certain level, everything else was for the players to explore and develop.
At this moment, a group of hors.e.m.e.n suddenly appeared on the street. A dozen knights in front cleared the way, and in the middle was a luxurious carriage.
“The Lord is here! The Lord is here!”
People outside were cheering loudly. People on both sides of the street moved to both sides of the street and made way. Qianxiu was taken aback and frowned, “The parade started so soon? Right… Many people have already completed the novice version.”
Qianxiu thought, then paid the bill and went out.
…
A fireball about the size of a small fist hit a dull-looking red rabbit-like thing that was squatting in the gra.s.s at a slow speed.
Then it burst; the rabbit disappeared in the end, leaving only a red fur.
“This is elementary fireball skills… It’s fun. You Ye, have you gained any experience?”
“I’ve gained some. Master, now I’m at level zero with ninety-five experience points!”
“En, it’s the same with me… What’s next?”
“En… Helping Grandmother Sun of the village find evidence that her daughter-in-law and the village head – Master Huang have an affair.” The maid looked at the mission list, “Then… Oh, it’s to help Grandmother Sun’s son send the love letter to Master Huang’s daughter.”
“This mission…” Boss Luo shook his head and smiled suddenly, “Forget it, playing games occasionally is good for your health. En… Let’s go back after playing for another half an hour.”
…
Knocking on the door; Bang bang bang-!
“Mr. Lan! Are you here? Mr. Lan! Speak up if you’re there! You haven’t paid rent for several days! If you don’t open the door, I will come in!”
The landlord knocked the door vigorously, and finally opened the door of the rental house with anger.
A sour smell suddenly hit his face… After the landlord pinched his nose and turned on the light in the room, he was shocked. He saw the tenant laid down on the table at this moment, looking motionless!
“Hey! Please don’t scare me! What’s wrong with you? Hey!”
The landlord couldn’t wake up the haggard, rooted, and skinny man. He was so scared that he quickly started calling for an ambulance.
“Yes… He seems to be unconscious. I can’t wake him up! I’m not a relative. I’m the landlord… Medical history? How would I know? I’m not his father! However, he is disabled and has no feelings on his legs. He always sits in a wheelchair, does that count?”