Oracle

"Wu Shaozhen, go settle your wages at finance. You don't need to come to work tomorrow."

A middle-aged man with sparse hair and a beer belly sat in a large leather chair inside the office, speaking to the young man standing opposite him.

"On what grounds?" Wu Shaozhen asked with an indignant look.

In fact, he roughly knew what was going on in his heart. Wasn't it just that he happened to catch him and the secretary in the act last night? What a big deal, was it really necessary?

"On the grounds that I'm the boss..." the middle-aged man said smugly.

This guy's probably afraid I'll run my mouth off... Wu Shaozhen thought to himself.

Although he wanted to tell him that he wasn't the type to gossip, upon second thought he decided there was no point. Even if he stayed with a boss like this, there was no guarantee he wouldn't find all sorts of ways to make things difficult for him.

"You can fire me, but according to the law, a company dismissing an employee unilaterally requires three months' severance pay," Wu Shaozhen said. Since he was leaving, he might as well maximize his benefits.

"You're thinking-" The middle-aged man was about to drop a piece of local profanity when he suddenly remembered that if this matter really blew up and his fierce tiger of a wife at home found out, he would be in deep trouble. In the end, he could only swallow his anger and say, "Do I care about that little bit of money? Hurry up and get your money from finance and get lost."

Soon, Wu Shaozhen finished settling his wages at finance, packed his things, and walked out of the company. Looking at the bustling crowd on the street, he suddenly didn't know where he should go. Two years since graduation, he had achieved nothing, and now he even lost his job. He knew that in a city like SZ, the moment you opened your eyes you needed money, and without an income he wouldn't even dare add ham sausage to instant noodles.

Whatever, I'll just go look for another job, Wu Shaozhen thought to himself.

Right at that moment, a poster flew straight toward him and stuck to his face. Wu Shaozhen pulled it down and took a look; it was promotional artwork for Oracle, a game that had recently exploded in popularity worldwide.

Over the past month, advertisements for Oracle could be described as omnipresent. He heard that the game's Central Brain wasn't from current civilization, but rather a cross-era product, and how exactly the Central Brain came to be was never made public. The game was jointly developed by the top five online gaming giants in the world through the Central Brain, capable of achieving 100% realism, meaning the five senses in the game were completely identical to reality.

"It really is a cross-era game," Wu Shaozhen sighed inwardly. Pity that playing this game didn't involve a computer; one had to buy a gaming helmet to play.

"Damn it, a helmet sells for ten thousand. My savings haven't even hit five figures in the two years I've been working."

"Wait, that's not right. I just collected three months' salary, exactly ten thousand five hundred yuan. Should I..." Wu Shaozhen grew tempted. This game was completely different from traditional games, and you could say it held infinite possibilities-at least Wu Shaozhen, who frequently played games, could tell that much.

Yet while he had confidence in the game, he had no confidence in himself. This game was facing players all over the world, and by then, those big-shot players from the gaming world and those tycoons with money to burn would definitely choose this game right away. Although he had played quite a few games himself, his strength... anyway, he definitely couldn't compare to those people.

"This is a high-stakes gamble," Wu Shaozhen muttered to himself. After all, for him, ten thousand yuan practically hollowed out his entire body, and the remaining few hundred yuan wouldn't last a few days in a city like SZ. Excluding the wages he collected today, he actually only had two hundred yuan left on his card, meaning if he didn't make money in the game, he wouldn't even be able to afford his rent by the end of the month.

"Damn it, I'll bet on it! Worst case I sleep under a bridge, and if things really don't work out I'll just find another job. Besides, I already like playing games; now that there's an opportunity like this, I can't give it up."

No sooner said than done, Wu Shaozhen extravagantly hailed a taxi to the nearest helmet-selling outlet. Why take a cab when he was so poor? Because Oracle officially launched today at 12:00 noon, and it was already approaching ten o'clock. How could he not be in a rush? Since he decided to play, he definitely couldn't fall behind others.

Arriving at the sales outlet and looking at the long winding queue, Wu Shaozhen once again marveled at the game's immense popularity. Gaming helmets had been on sale since a month ago, and he had heard that the people lining up to buy them every day were countless. Now that the server opening was right around the corner, there were still so many people.

Wu Shaozhen waited in line for a full hour before managing to buy a gaming helmet. Checking the time-11:25-he hurriedly flagged down another taxi and rushed home. Along the way, he kept urging the driver to go faster, and when he finally made it back home, it was already 11:50.

He suddenly felt his stomach growling with hunger, remembering that he hadn't even eaten breakfast today. Once he entered the game, he wouldn't be coming out anytime soon, and his body definitely wouldn't be able to hold out by then.

At this time, cooking or going out to eat was already too late, so he rummaged all around the house and finally discovered a pack of bread under the bed that had fallen down at some point. Seeing the packaging was unopened, Wu Shaozhen didn't overthink it, directly tearing it open and devouring it in three or two moves.

Letting out a burp, Wu Shaozhen leisurely put on the gaming helmet. The time was 11:55.

"Huh, why do I feel a bit of a stomachache?"

Wu Shaozhen's consciousness quickly entered the game, and a grand scene appeared before his eyes. This was a battlefield where countless towering magical beasts blotted out the sky as they attacked the tiny humans below. On the ground, countless magical beasts also chased after fleeing humans, and those who were caught were almost all torn to shreds.

Among the humans, countless powerhouses were also resisting the onslaught of the magical beasts. There were mages wearing noble robes standing mid-air, manipulating various elements to launch large-scale attacks on the magical beasts below;

There were archers holding bows and arrows, outputting frantically against the magical beasts in the sky;

There were shield guards holding shields and standing at the front, holding the pass against ten thousand enemies single-handedly;

There were warriors clutching battle axes, charging in and out of the magical beast hordes seven times over;

There were also elusive assassins harvesting the remaining health of wounded magical beasts;

And at the back of the crowd, priests in white clothes, resembling holy angels, continuously healed their teammates.

These were the six major classes of Oracle: Mage, Archer, Shield Guard, Warrior, Assassin, Priest.

Although there were many human powerhouses, they couldn't withstand the sky-blocking magical beast legion. In the end, all humans on the battlefield perished, and countless magical beasts roared across the battlefield as if flaunting their victory.

Wu Shaozhen looked at the scene before him in shock. That immersive feeling made the hair all over his body stand on end. It was too terrifying; it didn't look like a game at all, but rather like something that had truly happened.

Just as Wu Shaozhen was feeling utterly shocked, the scene shifted, and Wu Shaozhen suddenly found himself inside a grand hall. At that moment, a system prompt sounded:

"Brainwave scanning..."

"Scan complete..."

"Blood sample extraction in progress..."

Wu Shaozhen suddenly felt a sharp pain in his scalp.

"What the hell? The gaming helmet even stings people?"

After waiting for quite a while, he finally heard the system prompt...

"Blood sample extraction complete, DNA binding..."

"Binding complete"

"Identity verification in progress..."

Name: Wu Shaozhen

ID Card: 32**********8517

Age: 24

Nationality: Huaxia Country

Your bank card has been successfully bound, enabling cash transactions within the game.

"This damn thing is a game?..."

Wu Shaozhen stared at the space before him as if he had seen a ghost. This bastard scanned him once and even checked his household registration clearly-was it really this terrifying?