Little World Game Console (Part 2) (Revised)

Running his fingers over the Hell 4 PRO Game Console, which looked like a work of art, Ren Suo placed it beside another mysterious round game console and kept shifting his gaze between the two.

The Hell 4 PRO Game Console was square, with Hell Company's logo on the front. It looked like four square boxes stacked together at slightly tilted angles.

Since the Hell 4 Game Console looked like three stacked boxes while the Hell 4 PRO looked like four, this generation of consoles was called the "True Hell Game Console" online, symbolizing the third layer of hell and the fourth layer of hell. Some pranksters had even used image-editing software to create what an eighteenth-generation Hell Game Console would look like—yes, eighteen boxes stacked together.

The Hell 4 PRO Game Console came with everything: an HDMI audio-video cable, an original power cable, an original USB cable, a Hell Company-exclusive wireless Bluetooth controller, original gaming headphones, and an official manual.

This was the sort of game console package Ren Suo remembered.

The other round game console—or rather, black cylindrical object—was completely beyond Ren Suo's imagination.

He had no idea what it was for or how to use it.

If the Hell 4 PRO Game Console was like four boxes stacked together, then the round console looked like at least a hundred circular discs piled on top of one another.

It had no logo, no cables, no controller. It had nothing at all. It was practically a product with none of the three essentials.

Compared to the Hell 4 PRO, the round console was understated like a billionaire who loved eating barbecue skewers. Yes, even with Ren Suo's straight-man aesthetic, he thought the round console looked far better than the Hell 4 PRO.

Its glossy black appearance and crystal-clear casing were truly pleasing to the eye. Even if Ren Suo eventually decided the thing was useless, he would still put it in his home as an art piece. It looked pretty impressive, too.

But after fiddling with it for several more minutes, he still could not find its power button. Completely deflated, he set it aside and turned to deal with the Hell 4 PRO Game Console instead.

When Ren Suo pulled the game controller out of the box, he saw the indicator light on the wireless Bluetooth controller suddenly light up blue.

At the same time, blue light emerged from the center of the round game console he had set aside. The entire machine emitted an extremely faint operating hum, while the wall-mounted television in the living room suddenly turned itself on.

Ren Suo stared blankly as countless bizarre colors appeared on the television screen, eventually gathering into a blue sphere. A crisp, loud voice rang out from within it, cheerfully declaring:

"Little World, infinite fun!"

Ren Suo lowered his head and looked at the Hell Games controller in his hand, then at the round game console with no connecting cables, and finally at the Da Mi LCD TV that had suddenly turned itself on.

"Can someone tell me how a Hell Games controller connected to this no-name game console, and how this no-name game console connected to the television?"

The screen then went black, and new information flashed across it:

"Wireless Bluetooth controller 'Hell 4th-Generation Professional Game Controller' detected. Automatically connected."

"4K audio-video playback device 'Da Mi L55M5-AB' detected. Automatically connected."

"Dear player, welcome to the Little World Game Console. Little World, infinite fun."

"It has been detected that this is your first time using this product. Please register a World account first."

Then a rectangular box appeared. Ren Suo became interested—this Little World Game Console was pretty impressive. It could wirelessly connect to both a Hell Company controller and a Da Mi television, and it looked full of futuristic technology. But as a hardcore gamer at heart, why had he never heard of this console before?

The name made it seem like it had been developed by a domestic game company, but most domestic game consoles were scams...

Could it be a prototype for a new game console? But why had it been sent to him?

Ren Suo carefully inspected the Little World Game Console's delivery box and found that the recipient was indeed Ren Suo, and the address was entirely correct. The only strange thing was that the sender was listed as a name he had never seen before—Nesser Company.

Ren Suo searched for the company online, only to find no information about it whatsoever. However, he did not dwell on it and turned back to the television, whose screen was still waiting for him to register a World account.

"A name? Huh? Can I use Xuan Writing pinyin directly?" Ren Suo was slightly surprised. He remembered that personal accounts on the Hell 4 PRO could only use English. It now seemed this console was probably domestically made—being able to use Xuan Writing entirely was an advantage for Xuan Kingdom players who had suffered under English and Japanese.

As for picking a name, Ren Suo did not overthink it.

He was quite experienced at registering names. To quickly identify where his information had been leaked from junk texts and spam emails, he would simply use the company's name as his own.

For example, when registering a Penguin Communications account, he would register as Ren Penguin. When registering a The9 Games account, he would register as Ren The9. Simple and direct.

He had originally planned to call his game account Ren Hell after buying a console, using English directly if Xuan Writing was not allowed.

But this game console was not made by Hell Games. It was the "Little World Game Console."

Should he call himself Ren World?

Ren Suo remembered that the sender of this game console was "Nesser Company." Nesser Company was at least the publisher of this console, right? It should not be wrong to use them, should it?

So Ren Suo named himself "Ren Nesser."

The Little World Game Console suddenly emitted a red light, aimed it at Ren Suo holding the controller, and scanned his entire body. It startled him so badly that he jumped up. Then the screen displayed:

"Soul information and physical information have been recorded. Aside from Ren Nesser, no other information-bearing entity may use this product."

"Ren Nesser, Level 1 player, welcome to Little World. Little World, infinite fun!"

Next came the console's main interface. Ren Suo saw that there were no games on the screen at all. The background was Earth amid a star-filled sky, and he could even identify every planet in the Solar System directly from the background image. The music was gentle and relaxing, and Ren Suo quickly began to unwind.

"This interface is pretty good. So what games are there? Where do I pay to buy games?"

Two enormous square options appeared on the screen: "World Store" and "What You Should Do Now."

Ren Suo selected "What You Should Do Now," and a prompt popped up:

"You should go to the World Store and play this week's free game."

"There are free games too?" Ren Suo was slightly surprised. He remembered that Hell Games members also received free games every month, but Hell Games memberships had to be purchased with money.

Yet on this Little World Game Console, he had merely registered an account and had not spent any money. Were there already free games?

"But it's probably some ordinary little game, like Sokoban..."

Ren Suo entered the "World Store" and found it completely empty, with only "This Month's Free Game" and "Search." When he selected "Search," however, a prompt suddenly appeared:

"Each search costs 10 Merit Points. You're too broke to search."

Ren Suo was utterly dumbfounded. Only then did he notice that the upper-right corner showed his Merit Points balance as 0.

"The currency on this game platform is Merit Points? But at least tell me where I can pay! And isn't this prompt way too damn down-to-earth?" Ren Suo complained as he selected "This Month's Free Game." After three seconds of loading, a very cool-looking game appeared on the screen—

"Killer."