God-Demon Space.
Inside the space encircled by five-colored ribbons, Tang Yu kept his eyes shut, his consciousness drifting through different Minor Worlds.
A moment later, Tang Yu settled on a target among the many Minor Worlds.
"The Dark Fiend World."
Of the thirty-eight Minor Worlds he had discovered, the Dark Fiend World was quite unusual.
That was because a small number of people in that world were actually strong enough to stand against the top fighters of the Boundless Realm.
Unfortunately, when it came to overall scale and the strength of its most powerful fighters, the Dark Fiend World still couldn't compare with the Boundless Realm.
In the end, it had crumbled and been mercilessly crushed.
All the creatures within it had been devoured by the evil spirits and demons of the Boundless Realm.
Repair in progress.
The Dark Fiend World, located in the Boundless Realm, was gradually merging into God-Demon Space.
At the same time, a vast amount of information about the Dark Fiend World surfaced in Tang Yu's mind.
As he browsed through the information that remained within the Dark Fiend World, he suddenly stopped when he reached a piece of its history from before its collapse.
That scene from the past had deeply moved him.
Tang Yu had been worrying about not having a background for the players' faction, but now he realized that this historical account could serve as one.
After thinking it over, Tang Yu began extracting the history, intending to turn it into a CG animation.
That afternoon.
The players in the game suddenly heard a game notification in their minds.
[Game Update Notice: In ten minutes, this game will receive an update to its background lore. At that time, players' views will shift to a CG scene. All players, please be prepared.]
The players who saw the notification were perplexed, unable to understand why an update had suddenly appeared.
The ten-minute wait passed quickly.
Amid the players' anticipation and confusion, their vision blurred.
The sound of a guzheng playing background music filled their ears.
(The story that follows is best enjoyed with the BGM. We recommend the instrumental version of Painted Heart (Guzheng Version).)
When the players' vision cleared again,
a residence decorated in red appeared before them.
Red gauze draped the walls of the courtyard, red lanterns hung from the eaves, and the character for "double happiness" was pasted on the window lattice.
Red curtains hung inside the house, and red candles stood all around. A stunningly beautiful woman in a red wedding dress sat alone before a mirror. She raised her right hand, dabbed it in rouge, and lightly touched her lips.
After combing her dark hair, the woman picked up a lantern and walked outside.
The sights along the way stirred her memories, taking her back a year (the CG scene shifted to a flashback).
That day, her betrothed had received orders to go to war. Before leaving, he had been dressed in fine clothes and riding a fine horse, his spirit high.
But their wedding had to be postponed.
"Though I hate to leave you, I cannot let my country down," her husband had said.
Before departing, however, he had promised her, "When I return, I'll give you a grand wedding."
Then he had led millions of soldiers from the Black Armor Army toward the setting sun.
She stood by the roadside, eyes red, watching alongside hundreds of other women as the soldiers set off for another world.
Even after that long, black column disappeared into the darkness, they remained where they were, their eyes filled with reluctance.
In the days after the men went to war, she heard countless rumors.
Some good, some bad, and some neither one nor the other.
But lately, bad news had grown more frequent, while good news had fallen silent.
She didn't dare think about it. Whenever she did, her heart throbbed with pain, as if someone were squeezing it.
Lost in memories, the woman walked step by step toward the city gates.
A breeze stirred. The night deepened.
Outside the lonely city, a group of women lit lanterns, draped themselves in red silk, and waited quietly by the gates for the soldiers to return.
The stunningly beautiful woman stood among them, gazing into the darkness in the distance.
Today was the day they had agreed upon. She looked forward to her beloved returning in triumph.
Her face showed no expression, but her tightly clenched fingers had turned white, betraying the turmoil hidden in her heart.
As time passed, the mist in the darkness gradually dispersed, and a black warhorse appeared in the distance.
It hung its head and panted, its steps heavy. Numerous wounds marked its body, and it seemed on the verge of collapse.
The stunningly beautiful woman clenched her hands when she saw this. Her lantern dropped to the ground, but she didn't notice.
Though the horse's coat was dirty and unkempt, she recognized it at a glance.
It was her husband's mount, Cloud Strider.
But there was no one on its back.
Tears slid down her cheeks. Without a word, the stunningly beautiful woman raised her hand, and her red wedding dress fell away, revealing the plain white robes beneath.
Her wedding dress had become mourning clothes.
Soon, one exhausted warhorse after another emerged from the darkness, but the masters who had ridden out to war alongside them were nowhere to be seen.
Old horses knew the way home, but those who had left did not return.
One by one, the lanterns slipped from the women's hands. One by one, their red wedding dresses fell away, revealing the white mourning clothes beneath.
They had all been prepared for this.
The red among the crowd dwindled, while white spread swiftly.
The wind rose. Red wedding dresses lifted from the ground, like clouds of red that covered the sky and earth, but could not conceal the women's grief and despair beneath them, white as snow.
The lonely city stood guard in vain; their dreams broke their hearts.
The red bridal gown was torn away, replaced by plain white mourning clothes.
A horn's call swept the crimson away; each falling drop was like a tear of rouge.
She raised the flute that had slipped from her sleeve and touched it to her red lips.
Amid the flute's mournful, lilting notes, the stunningly beautiful woman walked step by step toward the end of the night.
Memories of her betrothed came flooding back. Tears streamed from the corners of the stunningly beautiful woman's eyes, and with every step, white crept into her dark hair.
At last, her flowing black hair had turned a shocking white.
She walked alone, merging into the night as she slowly made her way toward another world.
Because her betrothed was there...
This chapter of the Dark Fiend World's history had taken place before its collapse.
That year, the nations of the Dark Fiend World joined forces to shatter the world barrier and forge a spatial passage to the Boundless Realm. They chose to take the fight to their enemy, staking everything in a final battle against the Boundless Realm.
But a tragic end had been inevitable.
Not one of the warriors who entered the Boundless Realm returned alive.
The women shown waiting for their beloveds to come home were the fiancées and wives of the men who had gone to the battlefield.
Paired with the guzheng music, the part of history Tang Yu had selected was truly heartbreaking.
The players could clearly feel the women's grief and despair throughout the scene.
From the red candles and wedding dresses at the beginning to the mourning clothes and tears at the end, the players felt as if they had lived through that history themselves.
Some players became so immersed in the scene that they couldn't help bursting into tears.
Although the CG scene's protagonists were women, the male players also felt the sorrow from another perspective.
At the end of the CG, a line of text appeared in the center of the scene.
Do you still remember the promise you made before you left?
When that line faded, another appeared.
They're still waiting for you to return home in triumph...
At that moment, the players' emotions erupted.
The CG comments flooded the screen.
"I don't know why I can't stop crying. Is there dust in here or something?"
"Waaah, I suddenly feel so sorry for them, waiting like that. Are we the soldiers who went to war? Damn it, official team, I want to go home!"
"The official team made me cry! I can't stop crying, QVQ. I'm going to punch the official team!"
A moment later, the CG scene faded, and the players returned to the game.
Information about the history behind the scene and the players' identities and backgrounds appeared before them.
(PS: I'd like to hear your opinions. Should I go into detail about the historical stories of the different Minor Worlds later on? I was quite torn before writing this section. I thought it might flesh out the main plot and the story's background, but I'm also worried readers might not enjoy it, QVQ.)
Before you continue