Blue Star, in a university dorm.
Li Fei took off his helmet and shook his head helplessly.
His in-game ID was "Shut the Gate and Let the Dogs Out." He'd just been torn to pieces by Jackalmen.
He wouldn't be able to log back into the game until this time tomorrow.
"How'd you die too?"
His two other roommates had logged out a few minutes earlier. When they saw him take off his helmet, they all smiled in relief.
"Innocent made me hold off the Jackalmen behind us while he ran away."
Li Fei set his helmet aside and jumped down from his bed.
"And you agreed? Did he adopt you or something?"
A Fish and Borrow Five Hundred Yuan From The Sky Again stared at him in disbelief.
Since when had this guy become so willing to sacrifice himself?
"Not quite, but he promised to buy me food for a whole week next week."
Li Fei said smugly.
"Holy crap!"
"He's that generous?"
A Fish and Five Hundred Yuan looked envious when they heard that.
A whole week of eating as much as you wanted—even if you ate at the cafeteria, that'd still cost a thousand or so!
What a score!
Why hadn't we gotten an offer like that?
As the three of them were talking, someone started pounding on the door.
A Fish, who was sitting near the door, opened it. It was Wang Ming from the next dorm.
In the game, he was "Immovable King."
"You all die?"
That was the first thing Wang Ming said after entering.
"Obviously. How could we survive with that many Jackalmen surrounding us?"
Li Fei shook his head.
"I'm seriously starting to think this was a scripted kill! Those devs saw how strong our squad was and deliberately set us up!"
A Fish launched into a conspiracy theory.
As soon as he finished speaking, he saw I Shoot You Innocent sit up in bed, looking dejected as he took off his helmet.
"Damn it!"
Innocent tossed his helmet aside and cursed angrily.
"Haha, how'd you die too?"
A Fish asked cheerfully.
"Ugh, I was just about to get away when a wolf suddenly sprang out of the bushes and bit me in the neck. Before I could fight back, I got disconnected."
Innocent sighed.
Both times he'd died, his throat had been bitten open. Couldn't he die some other way?
"Are you sure it was a wolf and not a Jackalman?"
A Fish asked curiously.
"Obviously! I can tell the difference between a wolf and a Jackalman."
Innocent rolled his eyes.
"Forget whether it was a wolf or a Jackalman. Even if you didn't get away, you still owe me a whole week of meals. Not a single one gets cut!"
Li Fei hurriedly reminded him.
Knowing Innocent, there was a good chance he'd try to come up with an excuse to weasel out of it now that he'd died.
Innocent's eyes shifted as he began thinking of an excuse to get out of buying food for the whole week.
"Damn, why aren't you guys holed up in your dorm today?"
Just then, several classmates came into their dorm with their arms around each other, staring at them in surprise.
For the past few days, their Dorm 720 had kept its door shut every night. You couldn't even get it open by knocking.
But today, the door was wide open?
What a surprise!
"What do you mean, holed up? We're playing a game—a fully immersive game with one-hundred-percent realism. Get it?"
A Fish said disdainfully.
What a bunch of ignorant fools!
"Ahahahaha..."
The classmates who'd just come in couldn't help laughing.
"A fully immersive game with one-hundred-percent realism? You're college students. Do you even believe what you're saying? With current technology, something like that is impossible!"
One of them laughed.
This wasn't the first time the four guys from Dorm 720 had told them something like this, but how could they possibly believe it?
They'd even tried on the game helmets lying on their beds. All they'd seen was darkness; there hadn't been any game at all.
"It's real!"
Wang Ming, who'd been quiet until now, suddenly spoke up.
I Shoot You Innocent had been among the first batch to enter the game, his three roommates had been in the second, and he was in the third.
He'd just made the final round of closed-beta slots.
Before entering the game, he hadn't believed it either.
A virtual game with one-hundred-percent realism?
Only novels dared to write something like that!
But after he actually received a helmet and entered the game, he'd been deeply shocked.
There was only one way to describe it...
Badass!
"Wang Ming, why are you helping them fool us?"
One of the classmates laughed.
"What do we stand to gain by lying about this?"
Wang Ming adjusted his glasses and spoke earnestly.
Everyone had been joking around until then. Wang Ming's sudden seriousness caught the others off guard.
"I guarantee this game really exists, and it's one-hundred-percent real! As long as the servers stay online, it's bound to completely change the gaming industry and take the world by storm! Unless another game with the same technology comes along, this one will dominate the global gaming industry!"
He had absolute confidence in the game's prospects.
There was no other reason. The roughly ten extra hours it gave you each night—this second life—were more than enough to make the game legendary and ensure that nobody who tried it could resist.
At first, when the game's official website said that players' bodies would enter deep sleep while they were in the game, he hadn't believed it.
Even if you connected your neurons to a game, you still had to think and react to all kinds of things while playing. There was no way your brain could rest.
If your brain was still working, how could your body be in deep sleep?
It sounded more like insomnia!
But after he logged in for the first time and played all night, the feeling of being refreshed and full of energy when he logged out after seven in the morning was something he'd never forget.
It was a sense of ease unlike anything he'd ever experienced, as though his body and mind had both gotten the most complete rest possible and were in peak condition!
He didn't understand the principle behind it, but he knew what it meant.
It meant that if you normally slept eight hours a day, you'd effectively gained eight more hours of life!
Who could resist that temptation?
"Once the game takes off, if the equipment and items in the game can be freely traded, high-quality gear will definitely sell for astronomical prices!"
"The official website says they won't wipe the closed-beta data. Being able to enter the game now is a huge advantage. The returns will absolutely beat investing in any other industry! I suggest you all sign up. There aren't many people registered yet, so if they release more closed-beta slots later, you'll have a good chance of getting picked."
"We can form a guild in the game with our classmates, if it has that feature. As closed-beta players, it'll be easy for us to become T1 players, or at least T2. When the game goes public and tens of thousands of players pour in, we'll definitely make a fortune."
"Who knows? This game might completely change our lives!"
Wang Ming spoke seriously.
Their university was only a third-rate school in Xia Country. Unless you came from a wealthy or influential family, it was hard to achieve much after graduation.
Most likely, they'd find ordinary jobs or start small businesses and live quiet, uneventful lives.
But in his eyes, this game was an opportunity that could let them turn their fortunes around!
At the very least, they'd get to experience a rare second life, one far more exciting than life in the real world!
After he finished speaking, the whole dorm fell silent for a moment.
Even the four who'd entered the game before him—Innocent and the others—had thought the game was amazing, but they hadn't considered it this deeply.
Now that they thought about it, what Wang Ming had said made a lot of sense.
This game really could make their lives more exciting!
Both in the game and in real life!
"Now that you put it that way, I'm starting to believe you! Send me the website. I'll sign up as soon as I get back to my dorm!"
"Send it to me too. I just want to make it clear that I don't believe in a virtual game with one-hundred-percent realism. I only want to see what you guys are actually up to!"
"Send it to me too!"
"Plus one!"
"Plus 10,086!"
Savage World.
Lin Feng stood at the mouth of the cave, his brow suddenly furrowing.
Through the system, he could see every player's location and status.
Just now, all five players in I Shoot You Innocent's squad had been marked as dead!
This unusual situation immediately caught his attention.
There were thirty players, and three squads were out hunting: Da Qing's squad, After Three Rounds of Drinks's squad, and I Shoot You Innocent's squad.
The other players were in the valley, carrying out logging and gathering tasks.
All three hunting squads were fairly strong.
There weren't any particularly fierce beasts near the valley. Even if I Shoot You Innocent's squad had run into a powerful beast, they shouldn't have been wiped out in just a few minutes.
Something unusual must have happened.
After a quick analysis, Lin Feng figured the most likely explanation was that the Jackalmen had returned!
And there had to be more of them than last time.
He also remembered that a player had discovered a Jackalman corpse dug out of the ground in the Outer Valley that morning.
At first, he hadn't paid it much attention. He'd assumed some wild beast had wandered into the Outer Valley during the night, followed the smell of blood, and dug up a Jackalman corpse.
After all, some of the holes the players had dug to bury the Jackalmen were pretty shallow.
Now that he thought about it, it was quite possible that Jackalman scouts had secretly infiltrated the valley without him noticing.
Lin Feng thought for a moment, then used the system to issue a mission.
All players, bring your weapons and gather at the entrance to the Outer Valley. Prepare for battle!
In an instant, every player who was online received a notification that the mission had been updated.
Before you continue