You Died

Yan Qing had forgotten when he had downloaded this game. Probably to get through an inspection. After all, he worked at a game company, and it would be hard to explain if his game console didn't have any games from his own company. He had probably only opened it once, registered a character, and never played again.

So what was going on? Not only had I transmigrated into the game world, I could even play the MMORPG I hated most in this game world?

Even taking a step back, even if I could open this game, there weren't any other players in this world. Could this be the legendary single-player private server?

Although it all felt inexplicable, he had nothing else to do anyway. Yan Qing clicked to open the game "Messenger."

"Resist bad games. Reject pirated games."

"Protect yourself. Beware of scams."

"Moderate gaming benefits the mind; excessive gaming harms the body."

"Arrange your time sensibly and enjoy a healthy life."

Yan Qing was somewhat disappointed. He had thought that the game might have mutated after arriving in this world, perhaps gaining functions such as "Shen Lan stat allocation" or "simulated deduction." But after seeing those eight lines, he felt that this game really was probably just a game.

Then the opening CG flashed by. Strangely, it even skipped account login and went straight to the character selection screen.

When Yan Qing looked at his character library, he froze.

He still remembered that the character he had registered was called "Laplace's Demon." It was the name he used for characters in every game, and it should have been a female character whose appearance fell somewhere between Mai Shiranui and Tifa. The part of the game where he had spent the most time was character customization.

Yet now, the only character in the game library was named "Yan Qing." Judging by his appearance, he was a male character who looked extremely similar to Yan Qing himself. The displayed location was "Secret Realm: Thief's Home."

Could it be...

A strange excitement flickered in Yan Qing's eyes. He resolutely chose to log in as the character "Yan Qing"!

However, the screen immediately displayed a login failure message.

"The character is already in the game."

Huh?

Yan Qing tried several times, but he still couldn't log in.

If he wasn't mistaken, the game character "Yan Qing" represented himself. That also meant that if Yan Qing could log in as this character, he would be able to strengthen himself within the game.

Attribute allocation, pet recruitment, weapon inlaying, skill enhancement... Even the most ordinary and commonplace experience-point system would be a lifesaver for Yan Qing!

Because "Messenger" had quite varied gameplay. Aside from fighting monsters, players had many ways to gain experience and train their skills. Yan Qing might be able to raise his level in a short time.

But he couldn't log in. Everything was meaningless.

Yan Qing stared at the screen unwillingly. To log in to the "Yan Qing" account, he had to log himself out first. But aside from dying, what other way was there to log out? He couldn't summon the game panel in reality to exit the game, either. From "link start" to "Shen Lan," he had recited every system incantation he knew.

He clearly knew that this game console was the only lifeline he could grasp after transmigrating into this world. Unfortunately, that lifeline was like a flower in a mirror or the moon reflected in water—visible, but impossible to touch.

For the next half hour, Yan Qing continuously tried various ways to "log out." He even pretended to fall asleep in an attempt to fool the game console, but still achieved nothing. He lay on the bed and stared at the game console's screen, looking as miserable as a billionaire who had forgotten his bank card password.

"Ugh."

Yan Qing placed the game console on the bedside table, pulled the quilt over himself, and went to sleep, caring about nothing and no one.

But less than two minutes later, he picked up the game console again. I refuse to believe this game console is really completely useless!

However, the game console's screen was no longer on "Character Selection." It was on "Create Character." Apparently, when Yan Qing had put down the console, he had accidentally pressed another character slot, causing the system to enter the character creation process directly.

Yan Qing subconsciously wanted to exit, but suddenly realized a problem. If the game character "Yan Qing" really represented him, what would happen if he created another character?

He had nothing else to do anyway.

The first step was customizing the face and choosing a name. Yan Qing instinctively wanted to create a female character somewhere between Tifa and Mai Shiranui, but this game console had clearly mutated. What if he created a curvaceous female character and the game console then identified that female character as his body? Yan Qing decided not to take the risk. But he was too lazy to customize a face based on his own, so he directly chose the default male character, Face No. 01.

The next step, allocating attributes, was the main event. Yan Qing had never seriously studied the game, but he was a player, so he more or less understood it after looking over the introduction.

New characters had four basic attributes: "Vitality," "Spirit," "Dexterity," and "Insight."

"Vitality" affected a character's health, stamina, physical attack, physical defense, movement speed, eyesight, resistance to diseases and toxins, and a series of other secondary attributes related to the body.

"Spirit" affected a character's spiritual power, skill strength, mental resistance, intuition, perception, and a series of other secondary attributes related to the soul.

"Dexterity" affected secondary attributes related to technique, such as attack speed, evasion rate, and hit rate.

"Dexterity" was also negatively weakened by one-third of the difference between "Vitality" and "Spirit." For example, if a character had 20 points of Vitality and 10 points of Spirit, their "Dexterity" would receive a penalty of -3. In other words, the character's Dexterity would be reduced by 3 when calculated.

Whether it was a "weak-minded idiot driving a heavy vehicle" with high Vitality and low Spirit, or a "genius in a wheelchair" with low Vitality and high Spirit, both meant that the character couldn't fully bring out their strength. This was reflected numerically as reduced Dexterity.

But whether it was "Vitality," "Spirit," or "Dexterity," none of them was as important as the fourth attribute, "Insight"!

"Insight" affected the rate at which a character gained experience in all skills. Every point of Insight increased experience gain by 1%.

A new character had only 10 free attribute points. Even if all of them were added to "Insight," they would only increase experience gain by 10%. It didn't look like much. Putting them into the other three attributes would instead give the starting character a much better gaming experience. But Yan Qing had learned from chatting with his coworkers that there were very few ways to increase Insight in "Messenger." Vitality, Spirit, and Dexterity, on the other hand, could all be improved through various methods.

Quite a few players felt that leveling became extremely difficult around their fourth ascension because they hadn't added any points to Insight early on, or had added too few. Characters with maxed-out Insight wouldn't encounter a bottleneck until their sixth ascension. Moreover, "Messenger" was an MMORPG with a monthly subscription system, and it maliciously refused to provide stat-reset items. Players who allocated their points incorrectly could only create an alternate account and start over.

1 point in Vitality, 1 point in Spirit, 1 point in Dexterity, and 10 points in Insight!

Next came the choice of game mode. However, Yan Qing discovered that the first two options, "Adventure Mode" and "Asura Mode," were grayed out and unavailable. He could only choose "Reality Mode."

"Adventure Mode" was the most popular PVE mode, with normal experience gains.

"Asura Mode" was specially designed for PVP. It provided 200% experience gains, allowing players to level up quickly on PVP battlefields, while greatly reducing rewards from dungeons and wild monsters. Players could basically only play on battlefields.

In "Reality Mode," players received an additional 5% experience, but the price was that they had only one life. Death would delete the character.

Clearly, only masochists and highly skilled players would choose "Reality Mode." Yan Qing had never tried it, but at this point, he had no choice but to give it a shot.

As for the character's name, he would call it... "Yan Yi"!

He could choose an affiliated newbie village belonging to one of three main cities: "Jiangnan Subordinate Newbie Village," "Chang'an Subordinate Newbie Village," and "Nevernight Subordinate Newbie Village." Yan Qing casually chose "Nevernight Subordinate Newbie Village," then selected Start Game.

As the screen lit up, Yan Qing saw his newly created character, "Yan Yi," appear in a village. He was wearing cloth clothes and holding a wooden club. He didn't even have shoes.

Ah, was this really just playing a game?

I thought I would transmigrate into it or something...

After familiarizing himself with the controls, Yan Qing planned to accept quests and level up. But after controlling the character around the village twice, he immediately realized something was wrong. Why was there no one in this newbie village?

Not only was no one there, the place was even dilapidated: burned houses, collapsed thatched sheds, and weeds reaching knee height. No matter how he looked at it, it seemed like an abandoned village. He entered one of the burned houses and saw a water vat inside. He clicked it to see whether there was anything in it. The screen then displayed an image that made Yan Qing's eyelids twitch violently: two highly decayed skeletons lay inside the vat, one large and one small. Judging by their clothing, they seemed to be a woman and a child.

Standing in the middle of the village, Yan Qing was utterly bewildered. There were no quests, no monsters, and not even a newbie village. What was he supposed to do next?

A road stretched out from the village entrance. Yan Qing could only try exploring along it. This time, his luck was decent. He soon reached the main road and even saw passersby. When he asked them for directions, some avoided him, while others raised their weapons and watched him warily. Only one kind old farmer told him, "Ping City is just ahead. Hurry back to the village."

Ping City wasn't a main city in the game, but it should have quests, right? Even if there were no quests, there should at least be NPCs. Even if Yan Yi didn't level up by fighting monsters, he could still learn skills from other NPCs and increase his level.

Ping City was indeed quite close—or perhaps Yan Yi's walking speed was simply fast. He arrived in little more than ten minutes. Although Yan Yi had only 1 point of Vitality, which was the average Vitality of an adult, he was still a game character. Yan Yi could expend stamina to sprint faster, then switch to normal walking to wait for his stamina to recover when it was nearly depleted. Even this simple cycle of sprinting and walking was enough for Yan Yi to overtake many merchants and commoners along the road.

At the city gate were hunched woodcutters carrying firewood, rural landlords riding donkeys with attendants in tow, and traveling merchants carrying packs. They formed a long line on the left side of the gate, waiting to enter the city. There were clearly guards on the right side as well, but no one entered through the right.

Yan Qing naturally couldn't be bothered to queue. He went straight in from the right, only to be stopped by the guards.

Guard: "Who are you?"

Yan Qing's heart stirred, and the game's Yan Yi immediately displayed a dialogue option.

Yan Yi: "A traveler. I want to enter the city."

Guard: "Where's your travel permit?"

Yan Yi: "Travel permit? I don't have one."

Guard: "Who do you know?"

Yan Yi: "I don't know anyone."

Yan Qing clearly saw the guard stroke his chin. Then he exchanged glances with the others and revealed a strange smile. Two guards immediately came over, flanked "Yan Yi" on either side, and shoved him into the barracks beside the city gate.

Yan Qing tried to leave, but the game informed him that Yan Yi's Vitality was too low and he lacked the strength to break free from the two guards' control.

After entering the barracks, a muffled thud suddenly rang out. "Yan Yi" fell to the ground, the screen went pitch-black, and his health bar dropped by one-third.

Immediately afterward, the health bar was depleted, and the game displayed a prompt:

"You died."