Demon World Village, Simple Folk, Warm and Hospitable

Blood streamed from between his fingers, but the youngster who sat on the ground, covering his ears with a face full of terror, bit down hard on his lip, no longer daring to make a sound.

Those who had intended to say something also shut their mouths in fear.

Only Cheng Tian stared at Green Skin's gun muzzle, his eyes narrowed, his mind contemplating something else—

Was this gun breaking through the "Medieval Fantasy" entry's restriction on the power of technological weapons, or was it actually a Magic Weapon disguised as a firearm?

"Buddy? You're not worth it. Next time you're noisy, I'll shoot you in the head."

Green Skin looked seriously at One-Ear and then stood up from the tombstone. After a suffocating silence, he spoke again.

"This is a Chosen Space instance. You are all players chosen by the Space. If you can survive and complete the Main Quest, you can return to reality and be qualified to meet veteran players like me in the plaza.

As for dying... that's it, you'll die in reality in various plausible ways.

But honestly, you rookies have really terrible luck. Instances related to Demon World Village are very easy to fail even for players with two or three prior instance experiences. Our player community even unanimously agrees that the lowest difficulty for the Demon World Village blueprint should be D-class.

As your Novice Guidance, I'm only responsible for helping you quickly accept reality and understand your current situation. Once I'm done, I'll leave.

Actually, I originally intended to offer you paid assistance that you could settle later, but considering the high probability of you all being wiped out... How about this: if you're willing to fully display the effects of your Innate Skills to me, I can lend you some defensive items. However, I'll only help the top 5 people whose Innate Skills are most valuable."

After speaking, Green Skin paused and glanced at his wristwatch.

"There are 3 minutes left. It expires then."

Green Skin looked up and saw a group of rookies, still holding their breath, staring intently at him.

"Oh, you can speak now."

As soon as he finished speaking, Green Skin was swarmed. No one dared to question the situation further; they were all asking how to display their Innate Skills.

It was clear they were all scared by Green Skin. Even if they didn't fully understand, it didn't stop them from seeking help.

Only Cheng Tian, who was holding his lower abdomen trying to avoid catching a chill, had a slightly different thought.

He personally felt that this Green Skin might be much kinder than he appeared or acted, because what he said, though harsh, was very accurate.

Considering that Demon World Village was acclaimed as "one of the most difficult side-scrolling action-platformer games in history," if the setting were truly recreated faithfully, a total wipeout was a sure thing.

Thinking of this, Cheng Tian involuntarily shuffled to the edge of the low hill and looked towards where Arthur was lying dead. To his surprise, Arthur, who should have been dead, had managed to prop himself up halfway, making eye contact with Cheng Tian.

Arthur's gaze held a final, inexplicable spark of life, but Cheng Tian clearly couldn't decipher anything. Then, Arthur completely collapsed, and the flesh and skin all over his body rapidly dissolved, revealing a complete skeleton.

It was exactly like the effect when Arthur was killed in the game!

Witnessing Arthur's bone and flesh separation, which was comparable to a terrifying B-movie, Cheng Tian was not scared. Instead, he deeply inhaled the graveyard air, faintly tinged with the smell of decomposition, through his nose—

At this moment, Cheng Tian felt an excitement akin to personally discovering a rare game easter egg!

This intense excitement was enough to completely overshadow the terror of seeing a living person's skin, muscles, and internal organs dissolve on the spot, leaving only a skeletal frame.

Cheng Tian loved video games, loved them very much. His taste was particularly retro, favoring old games from consoles that had long since been phased out decades ago.

How to put it, sometimes the delicate textures of Unreal Engine 5 just don't have the same flavor as the pixel blocks stacked on an 8-bit console.

And now, a screen that should have been made of pixels was appearing before Cheng Tian's very eyes in its true, real form. This was enough for him to cast everything else aside and dedicate the rest of his life to exploring this Chosen Space, modeled after video games.

Soon, having calmed himself down, Cheng Tian turned back to the crowd. A group of people were opening their personal panels under Green Skin's guidance. However, Cheng Tian quickly noticed a phenomenon: everyone was using their phones for related operations.

Though he was reluctant to admit it, for the modern society and country Cheng Tian belonged to, phones had become indispensable. They were cameras, communication devices, wallets, entertainment, even to the point of becoming external organs for humans.

Cheng Tian, of course, was no exception. So, he followed suit and turned on the phone he had been clutching. He found a completely unfamiliar new app icon on the interface.

It was a circle with an extremely bold character "天" (Tian) inside, looking as if it had been ripped directly from Gouki's back after he unleashed One! Instant! Thousand! Strikes!

But for some reason, even though the app icon was black, Cheng Tian saw a strange "kaleidoscope of colors" in it.

This was the universal Chosen Mark for the Chosen Players, or rather, the Chosen Mark had automatically chosen the most suitable display method for them. Of course, not everyone was like this.

The guy who felt his alcohol tolerance had decreased had Glasses AR Display. The woman wearing the Non-Marriage Ring had Ring Projection Display. And the foul-mouthed University Student who was bandaging his classmate One-Ear's wound, despite having a phone, had Tattoo Display.

It was worth mentioning that the Chosen Mark app opened as smoothly as an NES cartridge, unfolding in 0 frames, usable the moment it was tapped, with no loading or waiting required.

Subsequently, a character panel interface with a strong ARPG style, visible only to Cheng Tian, was projected before his eyes via his phone screen.

[Name: Cheng Tian / Player ID: DX233180 (Customization available 1 time)]
[Race: Earth Human Race]
[Attributes: Strength 10, Agility 10, Spirit 12, Charm 9 (Normal Adult Male Average: 10, Female Average: 8)]
[Status: HP=100, MP=120, No Buffs]
[Talent: Game Master]
[Skills: None]
[Equipment: None]
[Items: None]
[Wealth: None]

...Game Master? That's me?

However, before Cheng Tian could even click to check the detailed information of his talent, he heard clapping from the crowd.

It was Green Skin using it to attract attention.

Meanwhile, Cheng Tian noticed that five people had already received paid sponsorship from the Green Skin. Blade, Axe, Sword, Hammer, Stick – all fell under the category of Cold Weapons.

Cheng Tian's eyes darted around, and several thoughts instantly formed in his mind.

First, this Green Skin possessed a Portable Space capable of holding more than five Cold Weapons of considerable size. It was unclear whether it was an innate space or some kind of Space Backpack.

Second, combining this with the Green Skin's previous statement, although he didn't know this was the Demon World Village dungeon before entering, he likely knew it had the "Medieval Fantasy" Dungeon Modifier. Therefore, he prepared items for Dead Loans beforehand, all of which were Cold Weapons.

Finally, player Innate Skill information was valuable, but not much. Or rather, low-level talents held little value, and the vast majority of players' talents wouldn't be very high. This Green Skin likely engaged in paid lending with a "might as well try" attitude, and it was highly probable that all of them were Dead Loans.

Of course, it wasn't impossible that this Green Skin, with his Cold Face Warm Heart, was using the pretense of checking talents to offer some small, additional help to these Dying Persons.

"Time is up. I hope some of you lucky ones can return alive. That's all."

The Green Skin cast a final glance over the crowd, and then, amidst the gasps of astonishment from the onlookers, he vanished into thin air under a beam of light that suddenly descended from the sky, much like a level transition in the Mega Man series.

At the same time, the tombstone that had introduced them not long ago suddenly stirred. The decaying soil began to tremble slightly, and then—

A Human Hand, rotted to the point where only three relatively intact fingers remained, burst forth from the ground!

The heaving grave mound, the decaying human hand, combined with the intermittently lightning-streaked Night Sky backdrop, formed a truly terrifying and horrifying scene.

And just as several Rookies let out screams in the face of this sight, Cheng Tian seized a precious opportunity—

He captured a perfect shot, comparable to the cover of Left 4 Dead, at the fastest speed possible!