Necessary Sacrifice

After racking his brains, Li Wen decided to start with the eyes. Of course, he wasn't going to sacrifice both—just one.

That way, losing one eye would affect his field of vision but wouldn't completely hinder observation. Besides, in World Tree: Origins, being one-eyed wasn't just a debuff...

With that thought, Li Wen raised his dagger and stabbed it into his left eye, gouging out the entire eyeball. He tossed it, nerves and blood still attached, into the pool.

It didn't hurt much. World Tree: Origins had its default pain setting at a very low threshold. Even gouging out an eye felt no worse than a slight prick from a needle.

As the eyeball fell into the pool, a vivid crimson spring surged forth, filling the basin completely.

Li Wen wasn't sure if this was a good thing or a bad thing—until the game prompted him:

You have completed a "Sacrifice" (Permanent).

Only then did he breathe a sigh of relief.

He silently called up the boon panel. Among the three traits, a light cluster blazed brighter than blood itself, flickering within.

What's this?

Before Li Wen could dwell on it, the ground vanished beneath his feet. The entire cathedral dissolved like foam. Startled at first, he quickly realized this was the final sequence.

So he fell freely like a meteor, plunging headfirst into the World Tree.

*

What awaited Li Wen was a lengthy opening cutscene, mostly introducing the world's lore. He fast-forwarded through it.

When the cutscene ended, Li Wen found himself lying in an unfamiliar forest. He touched his left eye—it was still there, and he could even open it normally, but it couldn't see. It seemed that restoring vision through magic or other means might not be an option.

"I wonder where I spawned..."

Li Wen tried to stand. A girl's body was much smaller and more delicate, and he nearly stumbled, unaccustomed to his new form.

"From now on, at least in the game, I'm female." He—no, she—murmured to herself.

Human races always spawned within human kingdoms. That meant even if Li Wen was now in a forest, there should be a town or village nearby. Areas with human activity rarely had high-level monsters—at most, some wild beasts roamed.

In the forest, aside from beasts, the only thing Li Wen had to watch out for was other humans.

But that wasn't the priority right now. Before officially starting the game, she had some settings to adjust.

First...

"Character panel."

A blue light screen unfolded before Li Wen:

[Mephisto - Terra Human - Overall Level 0]
[Health 100% - Healthy]
[Class: None]
[Knowledge: Terran Language lv1]
[Traits (4/5): Retrograde in Shadow (Blue) - Nimble Hands (White) - Professional Pickpocket (White) - Necessary Sacrifice (Red)]
[Status: One-Eyed (10% reduced accuracy when using thrown items)]
[Experience Pool: 0]
[Necessary Sacrifice lv1 (0%)]
[Trait - Growth (Red) - Special]
[As the Black Ram said: All who receive shall sacrifice; all who sacrifice shall receive!]
[While holding this trait, when you perform a sacrifice-type ritual, your blood counts as a flesh-and-blood offering of [Trait Level] rank. When you perform a ritual, additionally provide a flesh-and-blood offering; ritual success rate increases by [10% × Trait Level].]

"Necessary Sacrifice"—this was the trait Li Wen had traded one eye for in the Sacrifice Cathedral. Frankly, it was an incredibly powerful trait. Its strength lay in being growable, and its ability only became more formidable in the later stages.

In the end, Li Wen's sacrifice was a complete steal. The problem was that this trait didn't offer much of a boost to her current self.

"Better than nothing."

Li Wen's mindset remained steady.

"Custom panel—Spellbook—Black—Floating—Invisible to others."

With the command issued, the character panel before Li Wen shattered instantly. The light particles coalesced into a black tome.

Li Wen willed it, and the spellbook vanished, reappearing in her hand.

"Now that looks much better."

The custom panel wasn't just stylish—every page was editable. Players could freely record quest logs or view various panels.

Li Wen flipped to the game settings page, found the pain sensitivity slider, and dragged it all the way to one hundred. Though the game boasted one hundred percent realism, World Tree: Origins had considerately set pain to the lowest default.

But as everyone knew, pain was the body's protective mechanism. The lower one's sensitivity to pain, the duller their perception of danger. Li Wen couldn't tolerate that. Habit was a terrifying thing—many high-level players from her past life had broken down after crossing over, unable to bear the real pain feedback.

The time ratio between World Tree: Origins and reality was 2:1. Li Wen had entered the game at nine in the morning, so in-game it was daytime. That meant she didn't have to leave the forest in the dark, and beasts usually came out at night—daytime was safer.

Li Wen wasn't in a hurry to leave. She hopped around for a bit to get used to her body, picked up a suitable stick as a weapon, then headed off in a random direction. New players logging in automatically received a set of commoner clothing that fit the world's setting. It wasn't as comfortable as real-world clothes, but at least she wouldn't stand out as an oddity.

Villages or towns were usually built near water sources—the same in-game as in reality. That meant if Li Wen found a river and followed it upstream or downstream, she'd likely find human settlements.

World Tree: Origins prided itself on realism—that much was undeniable, since this world was indeed real.

Though Li Wen had memories from her past life, she didn't dare claim she could breeze through the game. Her goal was to avoid dying even once before finding signs of civilization.

As for when she'd find it—that was up to fate.

Perhaps the heavens had truly heard Li Wen's thoughts, or perhaps the super AI named Sophia within the game had long since calculated it.

Li Wen hadn't taken many steps before she heard a sound.

The sound wasn't flowing water or footsteps, but the very distinct noise of wheels rolling over solid ground.

Li Wen walked toward the source of the sound, tightening her grip on the wooden stick in her hand. After pushing through a patch of thick weeds, what appeared before her was a muddy path that barely qualified as a road, along with a cart pulled by an animal—whether ox or donkey, she couldn't tell.