Guides and Veterans

On the cold ground, Li Qingzhi's eyelids twitched several times before his consciousness slowly surfaced from a blank chaos.

But as soon as he regained consciousness and struggled to sit up, he saw a strange scene--

Near the corner of a building not far away, a young man wearing black-rimmed glasses was twisting a severely rusted steel bar beside a sharp-edged chunk of stone, repeatedly grinding one end against the rock.

The harsh rasping sound, accompanied by the faint patter of rain, rang especially clearly through the silent ruins.

??

Li Qingzhi's pupils contracted slightly, and two enormous, glaring question marks appeared in his eyes!

Wait, why did someone wake up even earlier than me?

Wasn't this supposed to be a newcomer trial world? Were there other Main God Users who had come in together with these "tourists" sprawled across the ground?

He instinctively rubbed his eyes hard. His mind had yet to fully catch up when he raised a hand and opened the light screen, trying to confirm the information first--

[Current World Instance--Ruined City]

[World Type: Newcomer Trial]

[Difficulty Rating: One Star/Low]

[Main Mission One: Survive for seventy-two hours (Current Survival Time: 0:00:00--the timer will begin once everyone awakens)]

[Main Mission Two: Reach an Exploration Score of five points]

[Main Mission Rewards: After clearing this instance, the reward will be assessed according to your performance in this mission, granting 10~120 Universal Points (as this is a Newcomer Trial, the mission reward after clearing it will be increased by 400%); failure carries no penalty.]

[Additional Hint: Once a tourist completes either main mission, they will be considered to have cleared the Newcomer Trial. They may choose to activate an identity number at the Main God and immediately leave this world.]

[Additional Hint: Within this mission world, you may interact with characters from the plot, but you are forbidden from revealing information related to the Main God Platform to them in any way.]

[Additional Hint: Your identity in the current world mission is "Guide," and you do not enjoy any Newcomer Trial reward bonus. However, when the final mission settlement is calculated, for every tourist guided by you who successfully clears the trial, you will additionally receive a random 5%~15% of the reward points that tourist obtained in this mission world. For more rules, please consult the Guide Regulations.]

[Additional Hint: Under the current mode, both tourists and users have entered as pure consciousness. Any deaths, injuries, or other conditions within the instance will have no effect on your original body apart from psychological trauma. Please seize this opportunity and participate actively.]

[Note: "...Act according to your abilities."]

...

[User No. 0102107 Li Qingzhi]

[Level-One Main God User]

[Race: Human]

[Constitution: 0.9]

[Spirit: 2.2]

[Enhancement: Tier-One Psychokinesis Development]

[Overall Rating: First Tier]

[Additional Hint: --You are serving as a Guide in the current mission world]

[Note: "The standard quantified values for the Constitution/Spirit attributes of an average healthy human are both 1. Little brother, you really should exercise more..."]

...

Yes, that was right! Both the mission information and his personal panel on the light screen clearly marked his identity as a "Guide."

He completely ignored the teasing implication of "little brother" in the note.

At that moment, Li Qingzhi was simply somewhat baffled.

Unlike the obvious tourists around him, he had already participated in a Main God Game before and successfully obtained user status. He was a veteran.

Not long ago, after watching those brilliant, vast schools of Light Fish swim into the endless sky and vanish without a trace,

once his brief shock had passed and he came back to his senses, Li Qingzhi had returned to his own business.

After all, compared with those irrelevant matters, focusing on what lay before him was the most important attitude.

Yet just as he was struggling through the exceptionally difficult five-out-of-one selection on the platform, carefully studying the five randomly generated mission worlds before him and preparing to choose a relatively suitable one, an additional process prompt suddenly popped up on the light screen.

--Were you willing to enter a random Newcomer Trial as a temporary "Guide" and carry out the guidance process?

According to the Main God's brief introduction, whenever new tourists entered the trial process, this optional mission would be randomly issued to some veteran users. Users who undertook the guidance duty could also obtain corresponding rewards.

The phrase "corresponding rewards" instantly moved this interested man.

After all, now that every user had gained a preliminary understanding of the value of the Main God's "rewards,"

with the thought that it was only a dream anyway, and dying wouldn't be a loss, Li Qingzhi swiftly read through the Guide Regulations during the additionally extended flow of time. After confirming that the actual mission difficulty should not be too high, he readily accepted this so-called [Guide Mission] and was transported into the mission world together with the new tourists...

But now there was a problem. If Li Qingzhi remembered correctly, one of the regulations in the Guide Regulations clearly stated that multiple Guides could exist simultaneously in the same mission world. However, during the newcomer deployment stage, each group of newcomers awaiting guidance only needed one Guide.

In other words, theoretically, there should be no "duplicate" allocation of Guides.

But if that was the case, what was this young man in front of him?

Narrowing his eyes, he carefully studied the expressionless figure in the distance, who was still wrestling with the stone. Yet no matter how he looked, he could not spot anything unusual.

According to the Guide information, individuals with higher Spirit attributes were generally less affected by the "special information-blocking state" during their transmission into a mission world, and thus awakened faster.

Judging from the fact that he had already awakened while the people around him were still lying there without reacting, this experience seemed reliable.

But that also meant that if the fellow in the distance really was a newcomer...

Could his Spirit attribute naturally be higher than that of a veteran like me, who has already exchanged for Tier-One Psychokinesis Development?

At that thought, the skin on Li Qingzhi's face twitched.

By now, he was utterly certain that, unlike the various attributes in those gaudy modern online games, which were subdivided as finely as possible, the seemingly crude user attribute panel in the Main God's light screen had only two attributes, [Constitution] and [Spirit]... Yet their actual value was astonishing.

Leaving aside everything else, just considering his own Spirit attribute, quantified as 2.2,

based on Li Qingzhi's previous attempts at making vague comparisons with other people in reality, even though mental perception remained imprecise and indistinct, as if viewing flowers through mist, he could be certain that the gap between his current mental faculties and those of ordinary people was absolutely not limited to a mere one or two times!

The influence brought by [Tier-One Psychokinesis Development] was not merely an increase in mental power, either. It also enhanced everything from thought speed to mental reactions to varying degrees.

Li Qingzhi, who felt that his brain had become noticeably sharper, was quite cautious.

Even when his vague mental fluctuations swept over the other man, he failed to detect anything "abnormal" about him.

But he also knew very well that sometimes, having no problem was the biggest problem.

Especially since the young man's clothing and appearance clearly marked him as someone from their own country. Unlike the "newcomers" around him, who were obviously from various parts of the world, perhaps he really was an unfamiliar Main God User.

This veteran, who was momentarily uncertain, did not hurry to speak to him.

The young man did not seem to notice the sound of his awakening, either. All his attention was focused on the steel bar in his hands.

His grinding movements were meticulous. From time to time, he lifted the steel bar and examined it carefully in the somewhat dim light, then changed angles and pressed it against the stone to grind rapidly again.

The reddish-brown flakes of oxidized rust fell in a steady stream, piling up around the rock.

The atmosphere was silent.

Not long afterward, people nearby began waking up one after another.

"Where is this?"

Aside from the two who had awakened earlier, the first to wake was unexpectedly a thin South Asian boy. While on the ground, he had curled up like a shrimp. Even after standing, his eyelashes were soaked, his entire body trembled constantly, and his lips had turned purple. His figure clearly showed signs of malnutrition.

Li Yun stopped grinding and turned his head slightly to glance over.

Unlike the person who had awakened early in the distance, whose faint mental fluctuations were far beyond ordinary levels and who was evidently a veteran with an exchanged enhancement, Li Yun had not yet activated his temporary tourist panel. Without the Main God's translation service, he naturally could not understand the boy's words, spoken with a foreign accent.

But judging from the boy's thin body, his height of less than 1.6 meters, and the fact that one of the Main God's criteria for recruiting people was that it did not casually invite minors under eighteen,

it was obvious to the naked eye that this small boy was suffering from the physical depletion caused by years of malnutrition.

Li Yun shook his head slightly.

To be honest, ever since he was in his teens, he had never again believed the nonsense about "hardship forging success."

In life, the only benefit hardship brought was making you painfully clear-headed.

Yet seeing the small boy's timid eyes, his thin, robe-like ragged outer garment already soaked in many places, and his involuntary shivering in the rain, someone still sighed.

He tucked the steel bar, most of whose rust had already been removed, into his sleeve, then casually picked up a large piece of torn cloth that he had previously dug out of the ruins and placed beside the stone.

Judging from its texture and material, the thing seemed to be linen. He had originally intended to see whether he could make something to shelter himself from the rain with it.

Li Yun stood and walked over, then tossed the cloth in front of the boy. The boy stared blankly for a moment before hesitantly realizing what it was.

The boy tentatively reached down and slowly touched the rag on the ground. His eyes kept darting between Li Yun and Li Qingzhi, as if he would immediately pull his hand back at the slightest sign of trouble.

...But soon, after seeing that neither man moved and that they had even stopped looking at him, the frail boy quickly wrapped the rag around himself. He also babbled a few unclear words, which were probably thanks.

Meanwhile, someone took the initiative to turn toward Li Qingzhi, who was sitting on the steps a few paces away at the roadside.

"My surname is Li. How should I address you, friend?"

Before the veteran could speak, the young man in front of him had already nodded amicably and greeted him.

Good, the mouth movements matched the words!

After confirming that the young man's language was correct and not the result of the Main God's translation service, and that he was not some foreign "devil," Li Qingzhi relaxed slightly.

After all, compared with the mostly foreign "tourists" around them, having at least one fellow countryman who shared their language was undoubtedly convenient in the current situation.

"Oh, you're actually from the same family. What a coincidence! Little brother, my humble surname is Li. Just call me Old Li or Brother Li."

He had inadvertently heard the other man's "Li" as "Li Qingzhi."

Although the other man clearly had no intention of revealing his name either, Li Qingzhi, who himself was only a little over thirty, took the initiative to show some goodwill.

For some reason, even though he still could not determine the other's identity, his first impression of this handsome, composed young man was unexpectedly good.

After all, whether the other man was a Main God User or not did not affect the fact that he was from their country.

...Of course, strictly speaking, if the other man really was a newcomer, that would be the most frightening possibility.

He had awakened earlier than Li Qingzhi, continued acting without panic after waking in such an unfamiliar environment, quickly recognized the importance of weapons, and clearly sensed the danger of the current situation... Such temperament was indeed the mark of someone capable of accomplishing great things!

He formed a rough judgment in his mind.

In particular, the fact that the other man had even been willing to help that extremely frail boy reassured Li Qingzhi considerably.

Goodwill could often be a weakness, but when someone was an ally, it frequently inspired a little more trust.

Moreover, in this "Main God Game," where there was not yet any genuine threat of death, cooperation and mutual profit among users should naturally be the first choice so long as there was no absolute, fundamental conflict.

He was just about to chat carefully for a while and sound out the other man's background when a faint groan came from nearby.

Several people turned their heads and saw the eyelids of the white old man in mountaineering clothes twitch a few times. Slowly and with extreme difficulty, he opened his eyes.

Those blue eyes were filled with almost the same confusion and bewilderment as the boy beside him. They stared blankly at the strange gray-black sky.

It was like a signal. One after another, within a mere ten or twenty seconds, the unconscious people on the ground began to stir. Their gradually intensifying groans, coughs, and unconscious mutterings slowly rang out, breaking the uneasy silence.

But sometimes, awakening did not mean safety. It only meant more unknowns.

Before long, more and more people on the street woke up in succession. First came confusion, then tension. They looked each other over, and soon the crowd dissolved into a chaotic babble.

The freckled blonde girl had barely sat up when she gave an obvious shudder.

She suddenly clutched her chest, her lips trembling, then let out an ear-piercing shriek so high-pitched it nearly tore through the oppressive curtain of rain.

A man lying nearby with obvious Middle Eastern features and a tall, hooked nose was completely jolted awake by this close-range "banshee's wail"!

The "veteran" immediately darkened his face.

People who screamed at the drop of a hat as if they had lost their minds, regardless of the time or place, were no different from unstable time bombs!

No one could say when they would suddenly go off without warning!

The scene abruptly brought back some extremely unpleasant memories from the previous mission world. No one could see him make any move, but a crisp slap rang out, as if an invisible hand had struck through the air!

The blonde girl's head jerked violently to the side. Her scream stopped at once, and even her emerald eyes became clear again!

The effect was obvious.

The principle was simple. When faced with a sudden blow from outside, the human instinct for self-preservation forced the brain into a temporary blank state--in short, she had been slapped senseless!

After obtaining Psychokinesis Development, an operation with such low precision was as simple to Li Qingzhi as eating or drinking.

Of course, Li Qingzhi had controlled his strength. Although fights between tourists and users were not restricted, his identity as a "Guide" limited his ability to truly strike with lethal force.

Aside from the additional reward tied to the newcomers clearing the trial, the Guide Regulations also stated that Guides would incur corresponding mission penalties for killing tourists.

--This was recorded in the Guide Regulations as well.

It was his first time serving as this so-called "Guide." He was still a beginner himself and had no intention of casually testing an approach that clearly harmed others without benefiting him.

Before long, the black man nearby whom Li Yun had previously dragged from a puddle and tossed aside, still half-curled up and clutching his neck, breathing with difficulty, let out a more pronounced gasp and barely opened his eyes.

The Main Mission to survive for seventy-two hours, displayed on the mission panel, had finally begun counting down.

Looking at the newcomers who had all awakened, some dazed and some bewildered as they rose, their faces filled with unease while they tried to communicate despite not sharing a language, Li Qingzhi was already in a poor mood after that scream and had no intention of wasting more time.

"All of you, look over here and listen to me!"

He clapped his hands forcefully, and his booming voice immediately drew the attention of most people present.

"I know all of you are confused right now and have no idea what's happening! You can't tell what the situation is!"

"But! I'm only willing to explain the situation once, so until I'm finished, you'd better not interrupt me..."

His tone carried unmistakable menace.

When his words ended, the veteran flipped up a hand. A stone the size of half a palm suddenly floated into the air, hanging there without support and trembling faintly. Then, with a crisp snap, the stone exploded like a raw bean scorched in a fire!

The fragments flew everywhere, clattering against the ground.

That single display drew nearly everyone's gaze. Suspicion, scrutiny, and even disbelief mingled in their eyes.

Li Qingzhi clearly saw some people open their mouths, but in the end, none dared to speak.

As expected, the old ancestors' methods are still the most effective.

Before attempting great things, one must first establish authority.

He forcibly endured the slight dizziness and nausea rising in his head.

To be honest, forcibly overdriving his psychokinesis to shatter the stone had already made his temples throb.

But it was undoubtedly worth it.

During the process, he had intentionally or unintentionally skipped over that somewhat inscrutable young man with the surname Li.

Seeing the crowd quickly quiet down and the situation finally come under preliminary control, Li Qingzhi rapidly reviewed the speech he had prepared in his mind. Then he nodded in satisfaction and began explaining in a calm voice...