Pioneer

Pioneer

"表哥, what are you doing? We're relatives, after all. I may worship you, but if you try anything funny with me, I won't play along!"

"Shut up!" Xu Huo checked both her shoulders. There was no number.

He made her face him, then cut his palm with a small knife and squeezed out a stream of blood right in front of her.

Yu Qingqing stared at him in shock. "Cousin, it's only been a few days, and you've picked up a self-harm hobby..."

Xu Huo relaxed slightly. Good.

"You're not afraid, knowing I eat people?"

Yu Qingqing replied nonchalantly, "I trust you not to hurt me. Besides, there are so many people outside. You wouldn't have to prey on your own relative, would you? As long as I'm fine, what do I care if other people die?"

Xu Huo felt a headache coming on.

Yu Qingqing was the niece of his stepmother. They were cousins in name only and had no blood relation. He had a distant relationship with his stepmother and rarely saw her relatives. Yu Qingqing was an exception. She had been clinging to him since high school. Later, when he settled in Ting City, she dropped out of college halfway through to become an actress, and he couldn't chase her away.

"Don't say things like that again," he warned. "Unless you want to see a psychiatrist again."

Yu Qingqing stuck out her tongue, then complained, "What's wrong with people being selfish by nature? I don't get what my parents are thinking, insisting I see a doctor. I haven't committed a crime."

"By the time you do, it'll be too late," Xu Huo said. "Watch fewer dark movies and TV shows. If you dare do anything wrong, I'll take you to the police station myself."

Yu Qingqing shrank her neck. "I'm not talking to you anymore. I'm going to sleep!"

With that, she hurried into the restroom.

Xu Huo sat down at the computer and logged in using the website and account details Nie Xuan had given him. It was a forum called "Vanguard Player."

The forum already had quite a few explanatory posts about Evolvers and Players. What they said was more or less what he already knew, but the authorities hadn't revealed the dangers of stopping Evolution Potions. Nie Xuan clearly knew about that.

Xu Huo understood why the authorities had done this. They were simply worried that Evolution Potions would become the next resource Players frantically fought over after Tickets. But if Players knew they would be sent to a Random Instance after missing a Dungeon for three months, probably not many would think of rushing to get Evolution Potions first.

Being sent to a Station without a Ticket still left them a chance to fight for survival. But if they failed to get a Ticket by the end of a Dungeon, they would likely be stranded there. Whether they could run into other Players later and seize a Ticket from them was anyone's guess.

The start of the game called Dimension Rift couldn't be measured using the passage of time as we knew it. It claimed to travel between the three-dimensional and five-dimensional worlds. Perhaps other spaces and times existed, too. The Head Chopper Demon Dungeon was one example. It was sealed off now, but it hadn't been in the past. There were two possible explanations.

First, the Dungeon's location was actually in real space. If the Dungeon wasn't sealed off, then not only Players but also non-Players could enter. That would mean Dungeon sites might appear in any country or city in the world, and non-Players could become targets of slaughter, too.

Second, the Dungeon sites might be separate, designated spaces within the game. In that case, the Stations connected the game's internal locations. If these locations could also be open, then "non-Player" would mean "not a Player in this particular Dungeon." That would mean the game's internal world was open, and Players should be able to take trains to any Dungeon city.

Either way, a Player stranded in a Dungeon city would have a hard time finding other Players.

Xu Huo had a feeling that there wouldn't be many sealed-off Dungeons like Hot Spring Villa.

If a Player missed even one Dungeon, the game would notify them to prepare for a Random Instance three months later. It would be B-level or higher—basically a death sentence.

He wasn't sure whether the authorities knew about this. He didn't know when Evolvers had first appeared in the world he now lived in.

But it was only a matter of time before they found out.

Xu Huo didn't dwell on the matter. Instead, he looked through the official Player rankings.

At this point, the rankings only covered ratings from Players who had completed one Dungeon. The highest-ranked was a Player with the nickname Golden Crow, an official. He had safely brought eight Players out of the game and received a B-level rating. The authorities had also announced his rewards: besides various benefits for his family, he had received an item.

Most of the Players below him had received E-level, or Ordinary, and D-level, or Good, ratings. A few had earned C-level, or Excellent. That was already very impressive, considering they had entered the game completely clueless. They had also been given a shared codename: Vanguard Players.

Dare to lead the way, and willingly be the vanguard.

The thread was in an uproar. Many Players were shaken after becoming Players. They worried about losing their lives and leaving their families with no one to care for them. But if they joined the official ranks, the country would provide resources and money as long as they did a good job. Even if they died in the end, their families would receive compensation, leaving them nothing to worry about!

It was clear that many Players were tempted. The thread was so popular that it pushed down all the posts below it offering Tickets for trade or trying to buy items and Potions at high prices.

There were also people who wanted to sell Tickets and items, but anyone with a discerning eye could tell they were baiting people.

"Cousin, what are you looking at?" Yu Qingqing, still damp from her shower, came up behind him.

Xu Huo closed the page and glanced at her bare legs. "You should know that, to me, you're no different from a piece of pork right now."

Yu Qingqing was wearing the oversized T-shirt she'd found in his bag. She pouted. "My clothes are dirty. What else am I supposed to wear?"

"By the way, why did you have a razor blade in your pocket?" She held up a tiny silver sliver, about half the size of a fingernail. "It nearly cut my hand just now. You didn't actually kill someone, did you?"

It was a fragment broken off the Head Chopper Demon's axe. The game had taken the axe, but the fragment hadn't disappeared.

Xu Huo reached out and took it, then opened the ticket-booking page. "If you don't have clothes, ask your assistant to bring some. Stop going through my things. I've booked your Ticket. Go home early."

"Breaking my contract won't be that easy. I might even have to sue the company," Yu Qingqing tried to protest.

"There won't be a lawsuit. You don't even have to sign anything. I'll take care of it. Go home and study, and stop wandering around when you don't have anything to do," Xu Huo said coldly.

"Xu Huo! You're being unreasonable!" Yu Qingqing glared at him angrily. "Even my parents haven't said anything!"

"Tomorrow, you can walk back on your own or go back in a wheelchair. Pick one." Xu Huo stood up and looked at her expressionlessly.

The angry, pitiful look on Yu Qingqing's face vanished at once. She stared at him coldly for several seconds, then hopped onto the bed and pulled the covers over herself. Her muffled voice came from beneath them. "I curse you to go two years without a girlfriend!"

Xu Huo turned off the light and lay down on the sofa.

Early the next morning, her assistant brought clean clothes. As she gathered up Yu Qingqing's dirty clothes, a razor blade that fell out cut her finger.

"Let me do that." Xu Huo sent her to treat the cut, then removed all three blades sewn into the collar and hem of the dress and threw them into the trash.

After taking Yu Qingqing to the Airport and watching her board the plane, he returned to the city and went to the entertainment company she had signed with.