Beginner Difficulty?

[Hardcore Players Chat Group (Online: 10)]

Family Shared Godfather: Why hasn't Godfather come back yet? Could he be so immersed in the Calabash Brothers' "Rescue Grandpa" plot that he can't pull himself away?

Broke to the Bone (Administrator): Maybe he's calling the police, trying to recover the whopping 20 yuan stolen from his bank account. The livestream payment won't come through until the day after tomorrow, and that's Brother Li's food money for tomorrow. (Smirk.jpg)

Fun Without Paying: Godfather's been slain. Let's have the next godfather step up.

Killing Intent Stirred: Enough. Kick the Welfare Officer out first. Which admin added him to the group? Have them send everyone a red packet as an apology.

...

Just as the group members were deep in discussion about how "Game Brick Mover Party" had gone and never come back, the man himself returned.

Game Brick Mover Party: Guys, hurry up and download the game! The Welfare Officer really is giving out freebies. I downloaded a cracked version of Dark Land from his link, and it's awesome. The models are 100% lifelike. I haven't tried the story yet, but the realism is absolutely no exaggeration. It's incredible.

Broke to the Bone replied to Game Brick Mover Party: So you're trying to make that one more victim?

Family Shared Godfather replied to Game Brick Mover Party: Brother Li, I trusted you so much, and now you're trying to trick me into downloading Calabash Brothers. (Wiping tears.jpg)

Fun Without Paying replied to Game Brick Mover Party: Brother Li, you've always looked out for us. How'd you become a bad influence like Eat Earth and start tricking your adorable groupmates? I'm not watching Calabash Brothers.

Faced with the group's doubts, Li Zheng sat at his computer and hammered away at the keyboard, typing a line:

Game Brick Mover Party: We've been gaming together for years. Don't you know what kind of person I am? I swear on my reputation that this isn't a scam. Hurry up and download it so we can try the game together. I'll say it again: this link really does let you download the genuine Dark Land.

Broke to the Bone (Administrator): I suspect the person online isn't Brother Li, but the Welfare Officer stealing his account through the link... How about this: answer the secret question. What do you do when a bug shows up in a game?

Game Brick Mover Party: There are no bugs, only features.

Broke to the Bone (Administrator): Case closed. It really is Brother Li. I'm jumping in first, guys. If I get scammed, I'll own it.

Killing Intent Stirred: Hard to believe, but he answered the secret question correctly. I believe this is Brother Li. I'm jumping in too, guys.

Family Shared Godfather: Godfather, I'll keep following in your footsteps.

Game Brick Mover Party: Don't rush, everyone. Let's first discuss our starting class choices and put together a suitable pioneer team.

...

[Challenger "Night Flowing Cloud" has entered the game. Creating an initial monster body consumed 1,000 Sacrificial Power. Remaining Sacrificial Power: 139,278.]

[Challenger "Chosen King" has entered the game. Creating an initial monster body consumed 1,000 Sacrificial Power. Remaining Sacrificial Power: 138,278...]

Notifications that players had entered the game sounded one after another in Qi Sheng's mind.

Looking at the now-silent group chat, Qi Sheng clicked "Leave Group Chat." A prompt immediately appeared on the screen:

[User: Welfare Officer. Are you sure you want to leave the Hardcore Players Chat Group?]

Qi Sheng reached out and clicked "Yes." The group chat window vanished from the computer desktop.

The first batch of players had been recruited.

To recruit them, he had specially created a fake link.

The players thought they were playing the real Dark Land, but in truth, there was no game behind the link. It was an interdimensional transfer array that extracted their consciousness and sent them to the Monster World, where they underwent Life Reshaping and received perfectly compatible monster bodies.

The players in the chat group had clearly noticed nothing. They thought they'd downloaded a free, cracked version of Dark Land.

One thing was certain: after experiencing the game, they'd be grateful to him in the group chat.

They might even hail him as their new godfather.

But Qi Sheng had already achieved his goal and couldn't be bothered to watch them shower him with praise. He cared more about the profits the players would bring him.

Emperor's Tomb Village was still being damaged by the energy of the Terror Black Tide. A huge amount of Sacrificial Power had to be spent every day to maintain its Defense Barrier. If the players couldn't generate income for him, his remaining Sacrificial Power would soon run out.

Just then, a light-blue ball of water suddenly appeared beside him.

[Boss, are the people you recruited this time from your homeland?]

"Before I crossed over to the Monster World, I was one of them. But while I was gone, some things changed in that world. A lot of foreign factions appeared." Qi Sheng nodded.

The floating water ball beside him was called Guidance. Its ability was quite special: it could turn anything it scanned into digitized information and display it.

The beginner guides who accompanied the players were all its avatars.

During the centuries since he'd crossed over to the Monster World, he'd inherited Di Zhao's Primordial Power. Guidance, which had once followed Di Zhao, had also become one of his four servants.

The Challenger System he had devised—the player recruitment system—relied on Guidance to process all its data.

[They've entered the Monster World. Should we go take a look?]

Qi Sheng nodded. With a wave of his hand, a light screen appeared in front of him, showing the players who had just entered the game.

...

"What's the difference between this game and reality? Even the pebbles on the ground are modeled perfectly."

"After watching Calabash Brothers for years, I've finally downloaded the real game. The Welfare Officer in the group is my new godfather from now on."

"This is so realistic. No wonder the Moon Eclipse Clan spent ten years building this super virtual reality game. It's perfect."

A flash of white light, and ten figures appeared in the central plaza of Emperor's Tomb Village.

Two of the ten players had the phantom of an Eagle Head Demon floating behind them, two had Stone Gargoyles, and the remaining six had chosen the Black Armor Snake as their starting form.

"Guys, let's get out of the Newbie Village and level up while the game's just launched. This game's going to make us rich. It's got the most pay-to-win players right now, so we need to make the most of this early growth period," Li Zheng said.

"Brother Li, why are there only a few of us in the Newbie Village? Where are the other players? They said a million copies sold in ten minutes. Shouldn't the game be packed?"

The speaker looked very young. The four characters "Broke to the Bone" floated above his head as his player name, and the phantom of an Eagle Head Demon hovered behind him.

Before Li Zheng could answer, the young man beside him, whose player name "Killing Intent Stirred" floated above his head, calmly said:

"Obviously, we're in a separate channel. Otherwise, millions of players would've flooded in at once, and this Newbie Village would be bursting at the seams."

"Right."

"Let's get out of the village first. Leveling up is the most important thing early on."

"We'll listen to Brother Li. You're the expert when it comes to games."

The ten players followed the stone-paved road through the energy barrier and into the black fog.

An indescribable sense of fear surged through them. They could faintly hear bones cracking, cries of agony, and all sorts of sounds intertwining in their minds. They even felt intensely dizzy.

Just as Li Zheng and the others were about to lose consciousness, the black fog ahead cleared, and their view suddenly opened up.

[Emperor's Tomb Mountain Range]

A line of golden text appeared before their eyes, then quickly faded.

A crimson world stretched out before them. Beneath the vast sky, a Dark Red Waning Crescent hung tilted on the horizon. The clouds were stained red by the fading light, and flashes of lightning flickered within as they churned.

At the edge of the horizon, they could see a volcano still spewing flames. The air reeked of sulfur and scorched earth, and waves of scorching heat rolled toward them from afar.

The almost-apocalyptic scenery left everyone in the group stunned.

"Whoa, this is incredible. Feels like that erupting volcano is going to bury us any second," Eat Earth exclaimed.

"Relax. The scenery outside the Newbie Village might look scary, but there definitely won't be any powerful monsters. They'll give us time to adjust and grow." Though shocked, Li Zheng offered what he thought was a reasonable analysis.

As soon as he finished speaking, a bolt of lightning tore across the sky. Black cracks instantly spread over its entire expanse.

A colossal beast, its whole body crimson, tore through the clouds and revealed its fearsome form.

Its immense body was covered in crimson scales, like burning flames. Each scale held immense power and boundless majesty. Its open eyes were like two rubies, deep and sharp.

A deafening roar rang through the sky, making even the air tremble.

Golden patterns edged the monster's broad, powerful wings. As they beat, they whipped up a gale that bent the trees below and sent dust flying.

Even from far away, Li Zheng and the others were caught in the wind and forced back again and again.

The giant beast suddenly accelerated as it swooped downward. Like a crimson bolt of lightning splitting the sky, it plunged toward some unknown target below with enough force to destroy everything.

At that moment, time seemed to freeze. Everything fell still, and the crimson figure became the sole focus of the world.

As its body neared the ground, a tremendous wave of heat swept outward with a deafening roar.

Boom!

The ground shook violently. A mushroom cloud rose in the distance.

A moment later, everything fell silent. Li Zheng and the others stood frozen in place, too shocked for words.

After a long while, Eat Earth turned to look at Li Zheng, whose face was still blank with shock.

"So this is the safe beginner area you were talking about?"

Li Zheng swallowed and continued his analysis:

"Could this just be the opening scene, like a cutscene? It probably won't pose any real threat to us. We're beginners, after all. The difficulty should increase gradually so we have time to adapt..."

Before he could finish, a beast's roar swept toward them with a gale. The terrifying sound wave made their eardrums ache.

"Don't panic. It's just an opening difficulty showcase. It won't affect the low-difficulty beginner mode that comes next."

Li Zheng wiped away a nosebleed and stubbornly stuck to his analysis.

[I like this guy's personality. He's all about deceiving himself.]

The water ball following Li Zheng gave him a thumbs-up.

Li Zheng: ...