Day Seven

The phone alarm beeped sharply, and the "bloated" figure wedged into the corner of the bed snapped his eyes open as if shocked.

"Ah, it's finally almost time..."

He Qiu, wrapped tightly in the bedding like a rice dumpling, spread apart the thick "packaging" around himself.

Perhaps it was psychological, but as the false sense of urgency imposed by those external things faded at that moment—

He felt the faint emptiness within his body. Especially across the surface of his skin, there was an extremely strange sensation, like a balloon that had been punctured by a needle. Even when he instinctively followed the bodily impressions and circulated that faint but distinct warm-current-like sense of qi within him, the terrifying feeling that his inner "capacity" was constantly leaking away bit by bit became even clearer.

Damn it!

He forcefully suppressed the subtle instinctive urge to find something else to wrap himself in. He knew it was ultimately just a useless attempt to seek psychological comfort, but regardless, the young photographer alone in his room looked extremely grim.

Beneath his eyelids, the two dark circles that had disappeared several days ago had quietly begun to show again.

Forget going out to work. Over the past few days, He Qiu had barely gotten a proper night's sleep.

...Anyone who carefully sensed that uncontrollable, faint feeling of "loss" within their own body would probably be unable to sleep peacefully.

The feeling was not obvious, nor was it truly unbearable, but it was even more tormenting than ordinary physical pain!

—It was like watching helplessly as heaps of sand in an hourglass slowly fell in an irreversible trend. Every speck, every grain, mercilessly and quietly carried away an insignificant bit of "substance," a fragment of the "miracle" he had only obtained through sheer chance and had once believed could completely change his ordinary life!

It was no exaggeration to say that the process of feeling as though a part of his body was being slowly and forcibly stripped away, after he had only just begun to grow accustomed to the lightness, sharpness, and wondrous sense of power brought by that bit of inner breath, only to gradually become "ordinary" again...

If it continued for long enough, day after day, it would be enough to slowly drive someone insane.

If not for the fact that one hour in reality translated into a full four hours on the Main God Platform, where that ceaseless feeling of "loss and evaporation" vanished without a trace amid the seemingly unremarkable yet boundless platform—

The situation even reversed itself. On the platform, He Qiu could still follow the basic method taught in that inherited memory without any hindrance, vaguely sense the warmth around his body, enter meditation and calm his mind, draw in traces of similar "vital energy" from the outside world, and, after awakening, ecstatically confirm that the fruits of his cultivation truly carried over to his actual body...

He would probably have suffered far more than just a pair of dark circles by now!

...But without question, He Qiu had long since begun to regret his choice of exchange.

He took a deep breath. At that moment, even the air seemed to carry an especially barren flavor.

It was utterly different from the Main God Platform. There was not the slightest trace of "vital energy" to be detected, and the entire room was filled with an extremely "parched" atmosphere, as though he were standing in a desert—a suffocating sense of despair—

Even more despairing was the fact that... in this dry world, he alone seemed to possess even a trace of "moisture," and it was being ruthlessly evaporated away.

He Qiu knew that if not for the faint residual effects still left in his body by that Yellow Sprout Pill, no bigger than a fingertip and swallowed days ago, then forget progressing in cultivation—even barely maintaining this remaining thread of qi sensation, like a babbling stream after rainfall, would have been nothing but wishful thinking!

Yet that could not truly change the fact that the remaining stream now seemed to be seeping into dry, cracked earth, continuously evaporating and dissipating at an excruciatingly slow pace.

In the end, that pill worth a mere fifty Universal Points had only nourished his current body and slowed the process of loss...

No matter how hard he tried to gather his thoughts and follow the Body-Washing Introductory Breath-Calming Method to restrain himself, conceal his essence and qi, and lock that inner breath within his dantian qi sea, the result was like trying to hold water vapor in his palms. All he could do was watch it quietly slip through his fingers...

In the end, the only difference was whether it dissipated a little faster or a little slower!

There was simply no room for cultivation in this real world—not the slightest bit!

The fantasy of cultivating step by step until one attained immortality and lived as long as the sun and moon was nothing but empty talk!

Once he realized that fact early on, it became especially painful!

Tormenting. It was truly tormenting!

People could endure darkness... if they had never seen the light!

By now, aside from sleeping at his fixed hour in reality every day, logging into the Main God Platform without fail, racing against time to browse the various exchange listings, and immediately sitting cross-legged to circulate his cultivation regardless of the strain on himself—

His greatest hope was the rule the Main God had mentioned at the end of the Newcomer Trial: "At your current user level, after each mission ends and seven days of real time have passed, you may select a new mission world on the platform and enter it."

Seven days... Seven whole days! Do you know how I've spent these seven days?!

I want a mission! I want to earn Universal Points!

As a preset fifteen-minute countdown quietly emerged within the phantom silver vortex on his phone screen, He Qiu almost gritted his teeth as he shouted without hesitation—

"Main God, log me in!"

With only a slight flash, every sight within his room vanished, replaced by the boundless platform beneath his feet.

He Qiu suddenly felt his entire body loosen, as though an invisible burden had been lifted from him, like a fish leaping from the shore back into the water.

Greedily breathing in, he suppressed the instinctive urge to sit down on the spot and begin circulating his cultivation, instead turning to inspect his surroundings.

Unlike the scattered numbers of people who logged in at irregular times before, the platform beneath the galaxy now held what looked like more than a thousand figures, sitting or standing as far as the eye could see.

Compared to them, He Qiu had arrived rather late.

Yet the faint halos that kept flashing across the platform, followed by figures appearing out of thin air, showed that even later users were still arriving...

Seven days...

After all, not many people were fools.

Looking at the figures mostly shrouded in a layer of mist, He Qiu understood what it meant for the main force of Main God users to suddenly log onto the platform all at once. He did not waste time, instead urging the warm current in his body toward his eyes.

Soon, with his now sharper vision, he swiftly found his target in the crowd—

"Du Fu, over here!"

At his shout, the two figures who had already met up in the distance turned around, and the group quickly converged.

Amid the brief glances cast their way by nearby users who were either alone or similarly gathering into groups.

Clearly, in just a few days, this platform that everyone could access daily had undergone an unforeseen change.

The college student Du Qifeng, called "Du Fu," and the middle-aged shop owner beside him—who had been cautious around strangers during the Newcomer Trial and used the false name "Lu Yun" from beginning to end, only later revealing to the others that his real name was Lu Yansheng—were walking briskly over together. The latter held an object shaped like a heavy firearm in his arms.

"Brother He... cough, sorry, wrong name! He Zhizhang, Zheng Defa probably won't be coming."

The moment he misspoke, He Qiu narrowed his eyes. The college student using "Du Fu" as his alias immediately realized the problem and hurriedly corrected himself.

"Zheng Defa is among that group in the middle. We still haven't seen Little Wang. Maybe he has other plans and isn't going to participate in this mission."

The middle-aged shop owner using "Lu Xun" as his alias held that bulky firearm like a treasured possession, occasionally stroking its matte metal surface with great care. He merely gestured to the side, and "He Zhizhang" looked in that direction and immediately understood.

—Beneath the Main God Light Sphere nearest the center of the square, a large group of Main God users—at least one or two hundred at a glance—had gathered together in a dark mass, almost forming a loose but clearly outlined square formation.

"What's going on?"

"Lu Xun" merely shrugged, and a hint of helplessness appeared on his aged face.

"When Zheng Defa and I logged in two days ago, we ran into a youngster who came over to talk, saying he wanted to recruit us. I was busy looking through the listings and ignored him, but Zheng Defa talked with him for quite a while. When I logged in today, that kid was already standing in that group."

He jerked his chin in their direction.

"Their style looks familiar. There are probably people connected to the government or military organizing them."

After thinking for a moment, Lu Yansheng added on his own initiative.

"It wouldn't matter much if Zheng Defa ditched us, but I don't know whether he's already spilled our personal information..."

He Qiu's face darkened visibly at those words.

The reason they had chosen such "code names" in the first place was to protect their personal identities.

After all, even if they were still uncertain of the exact situation, anyone with half a brain could guess that in a strange Main God Space like this, leaking a user's personal information could undoubtedly bring serious trouble.

And there was already a problem after only a few days?

Before they even had time to think further, events proved that "Lu Xun," with his decades of life experience, had guessed correctly.

Very soon, someone came over to them, with the familiar Zheng Defa politely accompanying him.

"My apologies for disturbing you so abruptly. Mr. Lu Xun, Mr. He Zhizhang, Mr. Du Fu, could you spare me a moment?"

"My name is Wang Cheng. I would like to shamelessly take up a few minutes of your time, if that would be convenient."

The newcomer was a fairly young man. He greeted them very politely and even used their "aliases."

—Damn it, Zheng must have exposed everything about us!

He Qiu and Lu Yansheng exchanged a glance, immediately realizing that things had gone badly.

Unlike the college student beside them, who had yet to grasp the seriousness of the situation, they were not naive enough to believe that Zheng Defa, after clearly leaking information, would have told others nothing more than a few useless aliases.

...Sure enough, Wang Cheng was extremely friendly in conversation. He claimed to be an official liaison responsible mainly for conducting preliminary communication with Main God users on the platform.

And after talking around the matter for a while, his primary goal became perfectly clear. He put forward all sorts of reasons and conditions in an attempt to temporarily recruit them into the sizable Reserve National Team gathered in the center.

Seeing that they did not seem entirely convinced, Mr. Wang Cheng even produced information to verify his identity as an official representative. He even voluntarily dispersed the layer of "mist" around himself, revealing his real appearance to demonstrate his sincerity.

Yet even so, although they did not reject him outright, all three cautiously declined his "invitation."

...Perhaps realizing that continuing would be futile and unwilling to waste precious platform time, Wang Cheng took the initiative to excuse himself. He led Zheng Defa back to the nearby group of users, and before long, he emerged again with another figure and headed toward several people in another direction...

"This isn't good. He was very confident. He didn't seem to be lying..."

Lu Yansheng had carefully observed the man's words and actions for quite some time before making a preliminary judgment—

"...Especially since our information has probably already been leaked. We'll likely run into some 'persuaders' in reality later as well."