Chapter 3: Undead Swordsman
Translated by: Shiroyukineko
After finishing a half kilograms of sliced beef and drank a few gla.s.ses of beer, my body felt weird instead of warm.
I looked at the time, it was 10.30 at night. There was still 1.5 hours before opening. At this time, there would definitely be hundred millions of game crazy people who would be wearing the game helmet, keeping watch for the opening of . Those people who wish to rush into the world and became a legendary player, were probably twiddling their thumbs together waiting to enter the virtual world.
Turning on my laptop, an MSN icon was shaking non-stop. It was all from He Yi, there were a total of 47 messages-
“Lu Chen, you there? I’m at the hospital, where are you&h.e.l.lip;”
“Lu Chen, I kept trying to call your phone but it couldn’t connect&h.e.l.lip;”
“Lu Chen, I went to the accident scene but I couldn’t find you, where the heck are you?”
“Wuwu&h.e.l.lip; Lu Chen, stop scaring me will you?”
&h.e.l.lip;&h.e.l.lip;
“Lu Chen, what actually happened to you? Where on earth are you, please don’t&h.e.l.lip;I&h.e.l.lip;”
“Wuwu&h.e.l.lip;Lu Chen&h.e.l.lip;”
Looking through the endless stream of messages, I was a little restless. My fingers froze on top of my keyboard, not sure which keys to press. After a long while, I made a hard decision: Forget it, I’m going to cut my contact with He Yi. I’m not that much help in [Ancient Sword Dream] anyway. I would only be a burden to her if I returned. It would be better for her if she were to forget me.
Thus, I deleted my half-typed messages in the MSN chat, and opened official website instead.
There were more than 700 million people online on the website. With so many people online on the night before it officially opened, this game could be the most antic.i.p.ated game ever!
Furthermore, there was a surprising announcement in official website: The super-player Fallen Dust has suffered a crushing defeat, his account has been deleted in the end.
Immediately after that, there were more than 30,000 comments. Countless number of people were distressed by the news.
I drank a sip of beer and laughed. To live this wretched life, you should be more optimistic. “Hey ! This hero is coming for you!”
After waiting for a while, it was finally a little more than 11. I wore my game helmet.
The green light blinked as my irises were scanned, my ident.i.ty was checked!
A new scene started to appear as I entered the game’s registration interface –
In a blood drenched land suffering from countless wars and endless battles, forests had withered and human civilisation had fallen into ruins. Plagues and diseases were rampant, creating mountains of dead bodies everywhere. There were human, elves, demons, barbarians and other types of races. Unpleasant, rotten smell of corpses floated to my nose as dead bodies spread throughout the whole place. Under the flat horizon, a single gigantic tree stood tall in the middle.
This was the World Tree, the guardian of heaven and earth. Every lifeforms started from here.
However in the present moment, the World Tree had started to wither. Various G.o.ds started to fall one by one, and the whole of the continent was enveloped in blood. A ferocious race had come forth to devour all living beings.
The scenery moved as my viewpoint fall on a grand canyon. At the same time, I was dumbfounded with the scene in front of me-
In the grand canyon, a closely packed army walked onward, spears erected like forest trees, flags and banners high up in the sky. The Barbarian King who wore heavy armours over his body brandished his battle-axe and let out an earth-shattering roar. The mighty barbarian warriors spared no effort in hacking their enemies with their axes, but those scary enemies attacked back, fast as lightning. The barbarian warriors’ bodies were penetrated with hundreds of blades gleaming with murder intent that it was difficult to differentiate their flesh and blood. Cries of anguish endlessly filled the air.
Under a flag bearing a lion’s head, the beautiful human race Queen drew out her sword and shouted, “Onwards!”
Countless human soldiers charged ahead, swinging their swords. Mages hid in the dark and cast complicated spells, unleashing b.a.l.l.s of flames towards the enemies.
The battlefield only became more ferocious with time as war cries shook the canyon. The air was filled with a thick smell of pungent blood.
The human race Queen then transformed into a beautiful b.u.t.terfly and flew across the battlefield, her sword dancing in the wind as she slashed the skull of an undead skeleton soldier through the air.
But just at this moment, a thick smoke suddenly descended. A body of an undead slowly formed as the smoke concentrated together. Then, a light flashed past suddenly and the human race Queen slowly fell to the ground, her beautiful head severed, grabbed by the hair in the undead’s hands. The Smoke Undead lifted the Queen’s head as it let out an angry roar, as if it was demanding the acknowledgement of other races.
Fresh blood dyed the ground as the warriors turned into cold corpses one by one.
Finally, only the last human warrior in the canyon was left. He lifted his sword as he stood on a small mountain of corpses, hacking his enemies into two.
As fresh blood burst out from the monsters, he raised his sword and growled angrily at the Smoke Undead Commander. In that moment, both the human warrior and the Smoke Undead charged towards each other, their unleashed ultimate attacks collided together and produced an explosion that shook the heaven and earth!
“Keng!”
The sound of swords clashing reverberate in my ears, and the scene slowly turned blurry as two big words appeared in the sky – !
&h.e.l.lip;&h.e.l.lip;
I sucked in a deep breath. What a mind-blowing opening scene! was indeed worthy to claim the name of the best VRMMORPG, taking over the t.i.tle from . Just a mere opening scene had excited us to such extent!
As I floated in the air, I arrived at the welcoming shrine, where a small elf was flying around. A female system voice sounded in my ears –
“Ding~!”
System Announcement: Dear honoured user, the system check has confirmed that you are a member of CGL Hall of Fame of the Chinese Server. Would you like to continue using your previous ID: Fallen Dust?
&h.e.l.lip;&h.e.l.lip;
An option appeared in front of me. I thought for a while and chose “No”. Then, I entered a new ID: Lost Hero!
(TLN: His ID literally meant broken spear buried under the sand (折戟沉沙). It’s a chinese idiom that meant “miserable defeat/thoroughly defeated/crushing defeat”. I don’t feel like naming the MC “Miserable Defeat”, so I named him Lost Hero instead. Open to better name suggestions&h.e.l.lip;)
Such a beautiful ID, it was not only cool, it could also be used to attract ladies later on. This ID was both solemn yet heroic, I am really gifted!
In the previous game, I managed to be chosen as one out of 27 of the influential players in the Chinese Server. Thus, I could skip the queues and received this extremely treasured game helmet.
2 years ago I entered . After playing for a year, I became a figure that n.o.body dared to approach. But there were always unexpected situations in life. A car accident had caused an obstruction in my brain nerves, delaying my nerve transmissions by 3 seconds. This meant that every move I made would only be executed 3 seconds after my brain ordered it.
How scary was the result of this delay?
The most antic.i.p.ated star of the Chinese Server was crushed just like that. In just a moment, the talented player had become a useless person. I became the Chinese Servers CGL Hall of Fame biggest joke, and I was all alone. With just one accident, I fell into the darkest days of my life.
In this moment, there was only one girl who reached out her hands to me. She was my Boss, the beautiful, strong and brave woman. It was a pity that I had disappointed her. Our guild had slowly crumbled, and finally, we were defeated under the hands of [Chaos Illumination]. We completely lost and were reduced from a 3000 people guild to a 5 people guild.
Our opponent was extremely scary –
[Chaos Illumination], the guild that possessed a talented player called “G.o.d of War”, who was also the number one player in the Chinese Servers.
&h.e.l.lip;&h.e.l.lip;
I chuckled softly. In the previous game I was really a Lost Hero. I had the success of entering CGL Hall of Fame but had became a loser later on. He Yi even gave me a new name – a cesslure (success + failure)!
(TLN: Bad naming sense strikes again)
Now, I would be using the ID “Lost Hero” as a warning to myself, to never stop training and learning new things!
Next, it was time to determine my race and profession. This was also the part I was antic.i.p.ating the most. Yeah, choosing a heroic looking knight with high defense and powerful attacks would complement my 3 seconds delay physical disability.
was a VRMMORPG that allowed players to choose 10 different types of professions: warrior, magic knight, mage, archer, ranger, tactician, beast tamer, priest, bard and a.s.sa.s.sin. Each profession had their own specialities. I chose a profession in the melee category. If you are a man, you should be riding on a horse, wield a blade and fight on the battlefield!
A series of different professions appeared in front of me. A warrior wearing a battle armor, a magic knight riding a war horse, a mage waving his staff, an archer wielding his bow, tactician, priest and so on.
The system continued to do a system check on the my body, numbing my brain. Like a mosquito bite, my blood had been a.n.a.lysed by the system –
“Ding~!”
System Announcement: Based on system check, your heartbeat is 30% lower than a normal person’s standard!
System Announcement: Based on system check, your body temperature is 70% lower than a normal person’s standard!
System Announcement: Based on system check, your blood concentration level is 40% lower than normal!
System Announcement: Based on system check, your brain activity is 120% above a normal person’s standard!
System Announcement: Based on system check, your s.e.xual activity is 50% lower than a normal person’s standard!
&h.e.l.lip;&h.e.l.lip;
Hearing these series of notifications, I was extremely surprised. What is all this? Could it be that my VIP game helmet is a counterfeit?
But at this time, another notification sound rang out –
“Ding~!”
System Announcement: The body system check had confirmed that you fulfilled the requirement of a hidden profession. You can choose a hidden profession – Undead Swordsman. Would you like to accept it?
&h.e.l.lip;&h.e.l.lip;
I was dumbstruck for a full 2 minutes. Then I looked up to the sky and laughed out loud!
“Hahaha, good things do happen after all. Since I’ve acquired the hidden profession – Undead Swordsman the moment I enter this game, I’d be a fool if I don’t accept it! It’s even a a special race and a melee type profession!”
Thus, I accepted it without hesitation.
After a “ding”, my game avatar was created. A Undead Swordsman wearing a black armour and a scarlet robe, looking grave and stern, appeared in front of me!
I was relatively satisfied. I couldn’t help but chuckle, “Not bad, let’s get ready to enter the game!”
It was 11.57 pm at night, only 3 minutes left before the opening of . My heart was beating excitedly and my blood boils with delight. Briefly, I thought about my past. Hmph, I swore that l would get back all the things I had lost!
Tick-tock&h.e.l.lip; Time pa.s.sed by. I was still in the welcoming shrine waiting to enter the game. At this time, there were probably countless players waiting to enter the game in the whole world.
Finally, the clock strikes 12, it was the official start of the game!
“Ding~!”
System Announcement: Lost Hero, would you like to enter the game?
Yes!
A flash of light filled my view as I entered the virtual lands of . “Ding”, as the first player to enter the game, you received an award: G.o.dly Weapon – Overlord Sword!
Of course, that was only in my dreams.
&h.e.l.lip;&h.e.l.lip;
A dense fog filled my view as a low voice sounded from afar: “Wake up, you undead who had been abandoned!”
“Shasha&h.e.l.lip;”
I dug with all my might in the midst of the fresh earth. Finally, “hua” I burst out from the ground. A rotten smell immediately greeted me, and I was shocked to see the person in front of me!
He was wearing a black robe, but he couldn’t be counted as a person. His face was rotting and half of his skin had already dropped off. Only two eyeb.a.l.l.s, wriggling back and forth in their sockets, were left of his face. It was beyond terrifying. His hands that were holding a staff was also completely corroded, only white bones were left.
A necromancer!