Where's My Exit Button?

Ying Huaixu was thrilled.

Inside the box lay a Creation Pill, a Spirit-Shaping Pill.

This was an essential item for every new player.

Only after taking a Creation Pill could a player awaken a spiritual root and embark on the path of immortal cultivation.

And this tiny pill would determine the account's value.

Ying Huaixu hurriedly picked up the pill and stuffed it into his mouth.

"Huh?"

Ying Huaixu was surprised.

Although Primordial Immortal Cultivation Record focused on comprehensive simulation, with pills and food both consumed by eating them, that only went so far.

Only food actually had flavor.

Since the flavors of food were known in reality, the equipment recreated them by stimulating the player's taste buds based on the flavors of real food.

Pills, however, were generally tasteless.

So why was this pill so sickeningly sweet today?

It was so sweet that Ying Huaixu wanted a glass of water to rinse his mouth out.

"Did the devs roll out another patch? Whatever. Getting this account started is what matters!"

As the Creation Pill entered his body, anticipation built.

Ying Huaixu eagerly watched his status panel.

The spiritual root section was flashing nonstop.

That meant his spiritual root was being randomly generated.

Ying Huaixu stared fixedly at the spiritual root panel, his eyes growing more excited by the moment.

"Holy shit, purple..."

Ying Huaixu kept jumping on the spot.

"I've struck it rich! Whatever spiritual root comes next, purple means it's top-tier!"

At last, the spiritual root stopped changing.

Ying Huaixu felt like he might drop dead.

Dao Sword Spiritual Root (hidden)

Quality (purple qi from the east)

Innate attribute: ice (mutated)!

This time, Ying Huaixu was genuinely beside himself.

This was one hell of a jackpot starting roll.

A sword spiritual root, regardless of its quality, was a must-have for rich players.

A fresh account with a sword spiritual root was worth at least a million.

And his was a Dao Sword Spiritual Root.

Although it was currently hidden, Ying Huaixu had read about it in an official post.

With a Dao Sword Spiritual Root, dealing damage through sword techniques healed the user.

Moreover, sword technique damage included additional true damage based on a percentage of the opponent's health and a percentage of the user's own health.

Not only did it deal monstrous damage, it also healed the user based on the damage dealt.

Splitting the heavens with one strike and destroying a star with another wasn't just empty talk. And as long as the user had enough mana, they would never die.

It was an undeniably invincible spiritual root. People even joked that it was an official cheat.

Unfortunately, no one in Primordial Immortal Cultivation Record had rolled a Way Sword yet.

And now he had actually gotten one.

It even came with the mutated ice attribute.

That made it even more valuable.

Those rich players loved ice swords, lightning swords, and fire swords most.

For one simple reason: spectacular effects and high damage.

Ice swords in particular had so many dazzling late-game effects that they practically caused light pollution. They were one of the rich players' essential ways to flaunt their wealth.

Of course, none of that really mattered.

What mattered was that a rich player had once offered three hundred million just to buy a Way Sword account.

Now he had not only rolled a Way Sword, but an ice Way Sword. Fuck, he was rich.

Ying Huaixu was incredibly excited.

His first thought was to pay off all his loans.

His second was to log out right away and start looking at cars and houses.

Then another pleasant surprise arrived.

Ye Ningshuang came over looking terrified, but the sight of corpses strewn across the ground finally put her at ease.

"Are you all right, sir?"

Ying Huaixu wasn't listening at all.

He was immersed in the system's reward notifications sounding every second.

You have eliminated the potential threat to Ye Ningshuang and received a special blessing.

Experience +1,500. Spirit Leaf ×10!

Ying Huaixu froze.

"Holy shit, this much experience right at the start? And Spirit Leaves too? Aren't those only available after joining a sect?"

"This account is seriously broken!"

It almost made Ying Huaixu reluctant to sell it.

But when Ying Huaixu thought of his loans, he still shook his head.

"Forget it, forget it. Log out, log out..."

Then Ying Huaixu was dumbfounded.

"Wait..."

Ying Huaixu could hardly believe it.

He searched every nook and cranny for the exit button more than a dozen times.

Then he was utterly bewildered.

"Hold on, where's my exit button?"

Ying Huaixu searched frantically again.

But he still couldn't find it.

Ye Ningshuang finally couldn't hold back.

"Sir, I know a good doctor. Perhaps we should go see him!"

Only then did Ying Huaixu look at Ye Ningshuang.

Then, without thinking, Ying Huaixu pinched Ye Ningshuang's cheek.

"Sir, you..."

Ye Ningshuang instantly blushed and pushed Ying Huaixu away.

But Ying Huaixu was falling apart.

"How is this possible? How can an NPC have body heat? And react in real time?"

A bad feeling rose in Ying Huaixu's heart.

Players had once tried all kinds of things with NPCs, so the developers had eventually made all NPCs intangible.

But what was going on now?

The NPC felt just like a real person, complete with body heat.

There was no exit button, and the NPC was a living person.

Ying Huaixu hurried outside and used the bandit leader's horse-slaying saber to cut his own arm.

A distinctly human sensation of pain shot through him.

There was blood too.

"No. No way!"

Ying Huaixu dropped onto the ground, his eyes going blank.

He didn't hear a single word of Ye Ningshuang's concerned questions.

He couldn't take any of it in. He was even starting to break down.

Before long, Ying Huaixu saw torches approaching in the distance.

It seemed the local authorities from Peaceful Town had come to collect the bodies.

Ying Huaixu suddenly laughed.

"Heh, heh, heh. When I played this game before, this part never happened..."

"This isn't a game at all. This is a fucking real world!"

Then Ying Huaixu finally reached his limit.

The exhaustion of staying up all night creating accounts hit him.

He couldn't hold out any longer. His head dropped, and he fell asleep.

When he woke the next day, Ying Huaixu jolted upright.

The sight of the familiar, shabby ancient dwelling left Ying Huaixu utterly hopeless.

To prevent players from becoming addicted, Primordial Immortal Cultivation Record had a feature that forcibly logged them out after twelve hours.

But he still hadn't logged out.

How Ying Huaixu wished this were all in his head.

Yet he couldn't sleep anymore.

Ying Huaixu got up and instinctively jumped.

Then he slapped himself.

Until he figured out what was happening, he had better walk normally.

With that thought, he made his decision.

Ying Huaixu walked out of Ye Ningshuang's little courtyard.

He had no other intention. He just wanted to see whether there were any other players in Peaceful Town.

But after looking around, the last hope Ying Huaixu had been clinging to died completely.

He refused to accept it.

He jumped several times in succession and ran up onto a rooftop.

There, he saw his first sunrise in this world.

He also saw Peaceful Town's early-morning tranquility.

But this tranquility wasn't what he wanted at all.

Ying Huaixu opened the game system.

Then he couldn't help rubbing his face with both hands.

World chat was gone...

The party interface was gone.

So were all the customer support options for submitting feedback.

Earlier, he had been in such a hurry to get the account started that he hadn't examined any of these things.

Now that he had come to his senses, everything that had felt off earlier suddenly seemed to make sense.

Ying Huaixu was starting to crack.

He now felt truly disconnected from this world.

Especially since he had fucking chosen Primordial difficulty, the highest world difficulty level.

Ying Huaixu was beginning to lose the will to live.