Liu Si was Chen Nian's neighbor, a pretty young woman in her early twenties with a sweet voice who was especially hardworking.
She had been watering the plants in her yard when, all of a sudden, a deafening bang came from the stainless steel gate outside!
She turned to look and saw an enormous black dog outside the gate, its sharp teeth clamped around the bars, scalding saliva dripping onto the ground...
It was terrifying!
At first, she thought it was someone else's pet dog and figured she just needed to chase it away, so she picked up a clothes pole and walked toward it.
But to her surprise...
There were now two of those terrifying black dogs, then three, then four!
An eerie light gleamed in their eyes as they gnawed at the stainless steel with their sharp teeth, producing a constant creaking sound.
Then something even more chilling happened.
They actually bit the stainless steel bars out of shape!
The clothes pole clattered to the ground, and Liu Si was so frightened that she fell on her backside, a chill running down her spine as she trembled all over.
"M-monsters..."
At last, the gate was torn apart completely!
The vicious, ink-black dogs stepped into the yard on their thick limbs, saliva streaming from their mouths.
Surrounded by them, Liu Si was like a lamb being hunted by wild beasts.
"Liu Si!"
A figure rushed over from the side.
"Chen... you..."
As she looked at the young man standing in front of her, Liu Si was instantly filled with shock.
In her eyes, this neighbor was a shut-in who never went out and liked to stay home playing games. She hardly ever saw him.
She never expected him to be the first to rush out and protect her at such a dangerous moment...
Chen Nian glanced at them.
They were just a few of the lowest-level, tier-one mobs.
He simply hadn't expected these monsters to have infiltrated reality so quickly and begun attacking humans indiscriminately.
This was a perfect chance to test the power of his word spirit.
A few obscure syllables left his lips, like incantations carved into an ancient stone tablet.
Sequence 121-Word Spirit: Golden Sword of Judgment!
A pair of brilliant golden eyes suddenly lit up in the night. Indifference and majesty lay within that golden radiance, like a sovereign who stood above all things!
This was a domain-type ability centered on its user,
with power over the life and death of every living being within the domain!
"Roar!"
"Roar!"
The demonic dogs finally lost their patience and charged at him together. At that moment, they were fiercer than a pack of wolves on the plains, their sharp teeth capable of biting through steel rebar and crushing a human skull in an instant!
Liu Si screamed in fright.
But what happened next was something she would never forget.
Without warning, those devilish hounds were torn apart in midair, then turned into black smoke and slowly dissipated...
"You...?"
What on earth was going on?!
Was I dreaming?
Why did that younger guy next door, who usually did nothing but play games, suddenly have superpowers?!
The golden gleam in Chen Nian's eyes quickly faded.
Using the Golden Sword of Judgment against these mobs was overkill.
It was an extremely dangerous, high-level word spirit meant for powerful monsters, one that could even take on ghost-god-level monsters head-on!
Naturally, there was no suspense about killing them all instantly.
[Genetic Energy +10] [Genetic Energy +10] [Genetic Energy +10]
Chen Xian went straight up to level 3!
Killing monsters yielded genetic energy, which allowed one to level up. That basic system for growing stronger remained unchanged.
"Are you okay, Si?"
"I-I'm fine..."
Holding Chen Nian's hand as she stood, Liu Si nearly fell into his arms, her legs still weak.
She felt completely safe!
"Chen, just what are you... and what are these monsters?"
Chen Nian explained, "Liu Si, you should have seen the notification just now too, right? Maybe the world is about to change."
After getting his neighbor settled, Chen Nian continued sorting through the current situation.
He opened his phone and saw that, sure enough, the trending news had been completely taken over.
[The game is merging with reality? It's absurd, but we have no choice but to believe it!]
[Monster attacks reported across the city. With the world undergoing a drastic transformation, where does humanity go from here?]
[Game talents can actually be inherited! Multiple players possess supernatural powers. This is definitely no coincidence.]
[Teleportation arrays have appeared across the city. Monsters are suspected to be entering through them. Calling on superhumans to guard the entrances!]
Chen Nian gave them a quick read.
These were all the lowest-level monsters, yet they had already dealt a tremendous shock to the human world.
But he knew the truly terrifying event was the Blood Moon Calamity that would descend in a month!
The Blood Moon Calamity was the first large-scale calamity to appear in the game. It had caught the players off guard, and a main city with a million players had been slaughtered from end to end!
Only after reviving tens of millions of times had the players finally managed to barely hold the line.
But there were no revivals in reality!
Dead meant dead.
Chen Nian's first goal was clear: grow as strong as possible before the Blood Moon Calamity descended, protecting himself as well as the people important to him.
Wait...
I received my talent from the game, so those other players should have received theirs too.
I absolutely can't let my identity get out... otherwise, if those fangirls and rich women come knocking, I won't be able to handle it!
The class group chat had already exploded.
Liu Yu: Oh my god, is all that stuff in the news real?
Luo Qingqing: Those monsters from the game are going to appear in reality too? Has anyone played that game? Tell us about it!
Ma Dawei: Heh, I've played it. I've already received the flame master talent!
Xu Song: Holy shit... bro, can I hug your thigh? Carry me!
Jiang Chen: I had the sword emperor talent in the game, and I've awakened it now too, haha!
xxx: Sword emperor?! Holy shit, that sounds badass!
xxx: Where are you now, big brother? Can I come find you? I'm so scared...
Dozens of messages flooded the screen practically every second, far too fast for Chen Nian to keep up.
Still, he could glean one thing.
People with "talents" were already showing signs of becoming a privileged class.
And that trend would only grow more pronounced!
Ordinary people without talents would very likely end up as cannon fodder... the times had changed completely.
Chen Nian dared not imagine what an uproar it would cause if his identity were exposed...
Then it probably wouldn't just be a few women. The whole world would likely fight over me, wouldn't it?
Chen Nian's phone suddenly rang.
The caller ID read Xia Wen.
The campus belle had rejected and blocked Chen Nian not long ago, even calling him a simp outright. What was she calling him for now?
With an indifferent expression, Chen Nian pressed the answer button.
"Chen Nian... Chen Nian, where are you?"
"There are so many monsters on the street. I... I know you play that game too. You must have awakened an ability as well, right?"
"Hurry, come protect me right now! I can give you a chance to be my boyfriend!"