Necessary Sacrifice

After thinking it over for a long time, Li Wen decided to start with her eyes. Of course, she was not going to sacrifice both of them—just one.

That way, while losing one eye would affect her field of vision, it would not prevent her from observing her surroundings. Besides, in World Tree: Origins, being One-Eyed was more than just a debuff...

With that thought, Li Wen raised her hand and drove the dagger into her left eye, gouging out the entire eyeball and tossing it, nerves and blood included, into the pool.

It did not hurt much. World Tree: Origins had an extremely low default pain setting. Even gouging out an eye only felt like a slight prick from a needle.

After the eyeball fell into the pool, crimson spring water quickly began to gush forth, eventually filling the entire pool.

Li Wen did not know whether that was a good thing or a bad thing until the game notified her that she had completed a "Sacrifice" (Permanent), finally letting her breathe a sigh of relief.

She silently opened the Blessing panel. Amid the three traits, a glowing orb more dazzling than blood flickered.

What was this?

Before Li Wen could savor the moment, the ground beneath her vanished, and the entire cathedral gradually disappeared like foam. She was startled at first, then realized that this was the final step.

She fell freely like a meteor, ultimately plunging headfirst into the World Tree.

*

What awaited Li Wen was a lengthy opening cinematic, mainly introducing the world setting. She immediately played it at double speed.

When the cinematic ended, Li Wen found herself lying in an unfamiliar forest. She touched her left eye. The eyeball was still there, and she could even open it normally, but she could not see anything. It seemed that restoring her vision through magic or other means might not work.

"I wonder where I spawned..."

Li Wen tried to stand. A girl's body was much smaller and frailer, and still unaccustomed to her new body, she nearly fell.

"From now on, at least in the game, I'm a woman." He... no, she should say she murmured to herself.

Human players always spawned within the territory of a human realm. In other words, even though Li Wen was currently in a forest, there would generally be a town or village nearby. Areas with human activity rarely had high-level monsters; at most, there would be a few wild beasts.

Aside from wild beasts, the only thing Li Wen needed to watch out for in the forest was other humans.

But now was not the time to think about that. Before officially beginning the game, she still had a few settings to adjust.

First...

"Character panel."

A cerulean screen unfolded before Li Wen's eyes:

Mephisto — Terra Human — Overall Level 0

Health 100% — Healthy

Class: None

Knowledge: Terran Language Lv. 1

Traits (4/5): Retrograde in Shadow (Blue) — Nimble Hands (White) — Professional Pickpocket (White) — Necessary Sacrifice (Red)

Status: One-Eyed (10% reduced accuracy when using projectiles)

Experience Pool: 0

Necessary Sacrifice Lv. 1 (0%)

Trait — Growth (Red) — Special

Just as the Black Sheep said, all who receive blessings must make sacrifices, and all who make sacrifices shall receive blessings!

With this trait, when performing sacrificial rituals, your blood is equivalent to a flesh-and-blood offering of [Trait Level] rank; when performing rituals, providing additional flesh-and-blood offerings increases the ritual's success rate by [10% × Trait Level]

Necessary Sacrifice was the trait Li Wen had obtained from the Sacrifice Cathedral in exchange for one eye. Frankly, it was an extremely powerful trait. Its strength lay in its ability to grow, and its effects only became more powerful the further one progressed.

In terms of results, Li Wen had made an absolute killing on that sacrifice. The problem was that this trait did not provide much of a boost for her right now.

"Better to have it than not."

Li Wen's mindset remained steady.

"Customize panel—Spellbook—black—floating—invisible to others."

As the command was issued, the character panel before Li Wen instantly burst apart, its motes of light gathering into a black tome.

With a thought from Li Wen, the Spellbook vanished, then appeared in her hand.

"That looks much better."

The custom panel was not merely stylish. Every page could be edited, allowing players to freely record quest logs or view various panels.

Li Wen flipped to the game settings page, found the pain setting, and immediately dragged it to one hundred. Though the game claimed to be one hundred percent realistic, World Tree: Origins was unusually considerate in setting pain sensation to the minimum by default.

But as everyone knew, pain was one of the body's protective mechanisms. The lower one's sensitivity to pain, the duller one's perception of danger became. Li Wen could not tolerate that. Moreover, habits were terrifying things. In her previous life, many high-level players had collapsed after transmigrating because they could not endure real pain feedback.

The time ratio between World Tree: Origins and reality was two to one. Li Wen had entered the game at nine in the morning, and it was currently daytime in-game. That meant she did not have to leave the forest in the dark. Wild beasts generally roamed at night, so daytime was relatively safer.

Li Wen was in no hurry to leave. After hopping around for a while to get used to her body, she picked up a suitable stick as a weapon and headed off in a random direction. New players automatically received a set of commoner's clothes appropriate to the setting when they logged in. They were not as comfortable as real-world clothing, but at least they would not make her stand out as an oddity.

Whether villages or towns, settlements were generally built near water sources. The game was no different from reality in that regard. In other words, as long as Li Wen found a river and followed it upstream or downstream, she would most likely find human habitation.

World Tree: Origins sold itself on realism, and there was no question about that. After all, this world truly was a real world.

Although Li Wen had memories of her previous life, she did not dare guarantee that she could swagger through the game without opposition. Her goal was to avoid dying even once before finding signs of human habitation.

As for when she would find them, that was up to fate.

Perhaps heaven had truly heard Li Wen's thoughts, or perhaps the super AI named Sophia had already calculated it all.

Li Wen had barely taken a few steps before she heard something.

It was neither the sound of flowing water nor footsteps, but the unmistakable sound of wheels rolling across solid ground.

Li Wen walked toward the sound, tightening her grip on the wooden stick. After passing through a dense patch of weeds, she found herself facing a muddy path that barely qualified as a road, along with a flatbed cart pulled by some animal that was either an ox or a donkey.

--

--

During the new book period, there should be one update a day. Afterward, updates will probably be around this time as well. Finally, please keep following the new book—it is very important for a new release. Thank you.