"What happened to me...?"
It felt like I had been having a very long dream. My mind was muddled, and my entire head felt as though it were about to split apart. In my daze, I finally opened my eyes.
An old ceiling was the first thing I saw. Perhaps because the roof leaked, one corner was visibly covered in moss. The moment my sense of smell returned, an indescribably unpleasant stench rushed into my nose.
The mixed odor was partly rotten and partly faintly fishy.
"Something's wrong..."
I frowned, suddenly remembering something.
Before this dream, I had clearly just launched the official release version of Star Abyss and created my account.
Everything had been normal at first, until I entered the CDKEY for a beginner's gift pack given to me by a stranger in the chat group. Then something bizarre happened!
A black dot appeared in the center of the screen and grew larger and larger. Like a black hole, it swallowed the entire world, and then my body kept falling. When I woke up, I was lying here.
So... was this a game, or reality?
My mind gradually cleared, and all my memories slowly became distinct. I also remembered who I was.
My name was Ding Han. I was a graduate from Suzhou who had just finished graduate school. Together with Fatty, my childhood best friend, I had gotten into a 2D game called Star Abyss, which claimed to be a blockbuster.
During the closed beta, I had relied on my fairly decent gaming instincts to finish ninety-ninth across the entire server. After the official version went online, I had called Fatty over, intending for us to make something of ourselves in this exceptionally brilliant 2D game.
Even if we failed to make something of ourselves, earning some pocket money with top-one-hundred closed beta skills would have been more than easy enough.
But reality was so different from imagination. The moment I clicked log in after creating my character, I suddenly became dizzy and then appeared in this place.
"Ugh..."
I lightly exerted my arms, trying to prop up my upper body.
"You're awake?"
A voice suddenly came from beside the bed.
When I turned around, I saw a very pretty face beside me. She looked like a beautiful young girl, with big eyes, a high nose bridge, and especially good skin—fresh and smooth, as if she had been sculpted from jade.
"You are...?"
My heart abruptly skipped a beat.
"You were unconscious for a long time. I brought you back from the wilderness."
The girl slowly stood up, revealing an incredibly muscular pair of arms. They were even thicker than my calves, her biceps bulging and veins standing out!
Holy shit, what the hell is this!?
My heart tightened, and I instinctively shifted backward on the bed.
"Don't be afraid."
The beautiful girl with arms like Popeye's forced out what she seemed to think was a warm smile. "This is Winter Spring Town, one of the few settlements in the nearby wilderness. My name is Aurelia. I'm the town sheriff. Don't worry, I won't hurt you."
"Oh..."
I slowly sat upright and looked at my arms and legs. I was wearing a filthy white shirt and dark blue jeans. Everything felt so real, without the slightest hint of being inside a game.
So, was all of this really a game or not?
Or had I transmigrated to some other place that wasn't a game?
The thought made my heart sink sharply. If that was the case, I was doomed. A college graduate like me, fresh out of school with clear, innocent eyes, was destined not to survive even one chapter in a dangerous otherworld!
"You've been asleep for a long time. You must be hungry."
Aurelia turned and walked toward the table in the room. "Eat something. We'll discuss the rest after your body recovers a little."
"I'm not hungry yet..."
The moment the words left my mouth, my stomach betrayed me with a loud growl.
Aurelia took out a bag, removed some strip-shaped food from it, and placed it on the table. Then she poured some water from a container and glanced back at me. "Eat these immediately. I don't have time to waste on nonsense."
"A little should be fine..."
While feeling ashamed of my stubborn mouth, I sat down at the table. The strip-shaped food looked rather dry and had plenty of fibrous bits inside, but when I bit into it, it was strangely fragrant.
"What is this?"
After eating half of one, I clapped my hands together, picked up a bowl of water, and drained it in one gulp. My dry, aching throat finally felt much better.
"Biscuits made from dried earthworms and flying insect powder."
"What are flying insects?"
"Cockroaches."
"Bleurgh~~~"
I involuntarily opened my mouth and tried to vomit up everything I had just eaten.
"Swallow it back!"
Aurelia looked somewhat furious and slammed her fist onto the table. The impact made the bowls and chopsticks jump, along with my heart. It felt as though she might punch me to death the next second!
Looking at this Popeye-like beautiful girl, I forcibly suppressed the nausea in my chest.
"Finish the rest."
She said flatly, "Food is hard to come by. The people in town scrimp and save, so you can't waste a single piece. Rest and recover after you finish eating. After that, you can leave if you want. If you don't want to leave..."
She looked me up and down. "You're young and strong. You can stay and work as my assistant, serving as the town's Deputy Sheriff."
With that, Aurelia turned and sat by the window. Looking at the bright moonlight outside, she picked up a biscuit as well and chewed it carefully, seeming to savor the taste immensely.
The atmosphere fell into a long, awkward silence. I said nothing, and Aurelia said nothing either.
Finally, I decided to do something—at the very least, to test whether this place was reality or a game.
"Aurelia, how many is this?"
I held up three fingers.
"Three."
She was sparing with words.
"Then how many is this?" I raised my middle finger.
"What's wrong with you?"
Aurelia stared at me in surprise.
Confirmed. There was no mechanical behavior, so she wasn't a non-player character.
After a while, Aurelia seemed annoyed by our mutual silence. She slowly rose to her feet, picked up a double-barreled shotgun hanging on the wall, and opened the door. "I'm going out to get some food. Don't leave the house. Your body is still weak, and you'll easily become a snack for the mutants."
"Mutants..."
I frowned as ripples stirred in my heart.
In Star Abyss, one type of hostile creature was called "mutants." Mutants were creatures that had undergone mutation after prolonged exposure to nuclear radiation in the Star Abyss World. Distinct from humans and beasts, they were extremely troublesome.
After Aurelia left, the room became empty and silent once more.
Perhaps because I had eaten, my body had regained quite a bit of strength. I walked around the room, familiarizing myself with the surroundings.
In the end, my gaze stopped on a hand axe hanging on the wall.
It was a hand axe with a handle polished smooth, covered in mottled scratches. It had clearly been used for many years.
Just as my gaze rested on the hand axe for more than three seconds, something unusual happened. A line of vaguely visible white text actually appeared.
My heartbeat quickened with a thump. I took another step forward, and the line of text gently rose and fell with my movement. Once I was close enough, I discovered that there were several more lines of small text beneath it:
[Aurelia's Hand Axe] (Quality: Gray) Base Parameters: Attack 2–3, Attack Speed 1.2 seconds/attack, Durability 25/100 Equipment Requirement: None Description: A hand axe Aurelia had used for many years, an indispensable and reliable companion!
"Fuck..."
I felt as though smoke were about to rise from the top of my head. This really was inside a game?
I gripped the hand axe. It was slightly heavy.
At that moment, a series of ding-dong sounds suddenly rang beside my ears.
[System unlocked!] [Character panel unlocked!] [Skill panel unlocked!] [Dimensional Storage Space unlocked!]
Character panel?
The moment I silently thought it, a wisp of fluorescent light gathered before one's eyes and transformed into a data panel.
[Shadow Chaser] (Main Class Unlocked) Level: 1 Attack: 3–4 Defense: 2 Health: 100 Critical Hit: 0 Charm: 0 Origin Power/Psionic Energy: Not Awakened Overall Combat Level: 5 Potential Point Allocation: Strength 0/Agility 0/Spirit 0/Stamina 0 Achievements: 0
I narrowed my eyes. Mm, it was a perfectly standard level-one rookie panel.
However, in Star Abyss, each level gained granted three freely assignable attribute points, while every even-numbered level granted one extremely precious skill point.
Skill points were extremely important. Learning every new skill required one skill point. From the perspective of a "near-expert" ranked ninety-ninth during the closed beta, skill point allocation at every stage was actually crucial.
I was currently level one and had three freely assignable attribute points. Since my main class was strength-based, I put all of them into Strength. My attack power increased slightly, changing from 3–4 to 4–7.
As for the concept of Combat Power, it was essentially combat strength. But Star Abyss's defining feature was the combination of origin power, psionic energy, and technology, so it used Overall Combat Level to describe Combat Power. Just seconds ago, I had been a pathetic weakling with a combat level of only five!
Unlocked alongside the character panel and skill panel was the Dimensional Storage Space.
"Come out."
I called softly, and a blue cube roughly one meter on each side immediately appeared before one's eyes. It was completely empty. My hand could reach into it without obstruction, allowing me to store or retrieve items. It was extremely convenient.
Moreover, this Dimensional Storage Space was bound to me. I was probably the only one who could see it.
Sitting in the cramped room, my thoughts began to wander.
So, Winter Spring Town, this human wilderness settlement, was actually my beginner village? If that was the case, every player should have been racing against time to level up and accept quests during this time period. Sitting in a room was no good.
But I also had to consider safety. Everything before one's eyes told me that this was a game with one hundred percent realism, and there was no log out option. So if I died in the game, the consequences would be unimaginable. My real self might be affected as well. Perhaps I might never wake up.
At that moment, my gaze fell on an old radio in a drawer.
The radio was covered in dust and had clearly been broken for a long time. Coincidentally, when I created my account, the secondary profession I chose was the "Repair class."
My eyes lit up, and I immediately began trying. I found a screwdriver, took apart the radio, and inspected it. Sure enough, one wire had aged and come loose. I made a simple repair, then found two small batteries covered in bite marks and installed them.
The moment the radio made a sound, blue text began flashing before one's eyes again.
[Secondary Profession: Repair class unlocked!] [Obtained skill Basic Repair (C-rank)!] [Congratulations, you successfully repaired the radio. Skill Experience +300!]
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