Game Invasion?

Lu Xiang looked thoroughly dejected. "Those things moved as slowly as an old lady crossing the street. I got the worst rating, a D, in the first battle, and more than half of my ten zombies died."

"Haha, I drew a two-star archer camp," Xu Jiayi said with a smug smile. "They're a little squishy, but they hit incredibly hard. One volley can take down three or four Lost Ones."

"I got a B rating in the first battle, and it even gave me a shortbow as a reward."

The other two looked at her enviously, muttering that she'd had shit luck.

A two-star unit type meant she was way ahead of everyone else in the early game.

"Shen Xing, what did you draw?" Qin Lang asked again.

Shen Xing, who had been thinking about how to tactfully ask whether game abilities affected reality, came back to his senses.

"Oh, I drew a one-star orc barracks. It can only summon some greenskin orcs," Shen Xing replied casually. "As for my rating, it was S."

"One-star orcs? That really is a pretty trash unit type," Qin Lang said regretfully.

Then he realized something and cried out, "What did you say? S rank?"

The other two also stared wide-eyed in disbelief.

Chapter 5: Game Invasion?

The private room at the Sichuan Fragrance Pavilion was thick with the pungent smell of chili peppers.

All three looked at Shen Xing at once, disbelief in their eyes.

"S rank... are you serious?"

Qin Lang asked instinctively, then closed his mouth again.

He knew his friend's character. Shen Xing wasn't the type to make things up.

Shocked, he hurriedly asked how Shen Xing had done it.

Shen Xing gave them an explanation: roughly speaking, he had used a few tactics and laid traps at the village entrance beforehand.

Once the monsters stepped into them, he'd attack-moved his units in all at once, keeping his losses to a minimum.

Of course, he had made all of that up.

The main reason was his hidden talent, Life-Sacrifice Evolution.

That talent was downright overpowered, raising his units' strength by more than one tier.

Of course, he didn't tell them about it.

The three nodded in understanding after hearing him out.

"Tactics? This game gives you a lot of freedom, so you really can use your imagination and take advantage of everything available," Qin Lang said thoughtfully.

Lu Xiang chimed in, "As expected of our dorm's strategy game fanatic. A game like this really is right up your alley."

None of the three doubted his explanation.

Shen Xing had often played games like this in college. His Steam library was filled exclusively with RTS and tactical games.

He had logged more than three thousand hours in Red Alert and was also skilled at a whole range of hardcore games, including StarCraft, Total War, and Civilization.

In the years since he'd been paralyzed, he had poured even more time into all kinds of strategy games.

Shen Xing smiled. Seeing that the topic had run its course, he casually asked, "By the way, did any of you notice anything unusual after leaving the game?"

"Unusual?"

All three stopped their chopsticks at once, their eyes filled with puzzlement.

Shen Xing watched their expressions and wondered, Am I really the only one who can use skills from the game?

At that moment, Xu Jiayi, who had been relatively quiet, suddenly spoke up. "Come to think of it, I did run into something strange."

"During the battle, one of my archers was badly wounded, and the system popped up a red warning."

"It said I had to protect my game character, or my real body would be affected."

The atmosphere in the private room immediately grew strange.

"Protect your game character, or your real body will be affected too?" Qin Lang frowned. "Could it mean that if your character dies in the game, you'll die in real life too?"

"No way!"

Lu Xiang was the first to object. "I already died in the game, and I'm sitting right here, perfectly fine, aren't I?"

"You died in the game?" Shen Xing stared intently at Lu Xiang.

"Yeah."

Lu Xiang took an unconcerned swig of beer. "Just my luck. The battle was almost over when a three-star Lost One suddenly charged in and killed me with one swipe of its claw."

"And this game doesn't even have a resurrection feature. I'm still figuring out how to make a new character."

The room fell silent again. All three looked at him, an unreadable gleam in their eyes.

"Hey, hey, hey, you don't actually believe that, do you?"

Their stares made Lu Xiang a little uneasy. "It's just a game. How could it possibly affect reality?"

"Besides, dying was a good thing. I was already fed up with how trashy those zombies were."

"I'll start over and take another gamble. Maybe I'll get lucky this time and draw a three-star unit type right off the bat!"

His optimism eased some of the unease in their hearts.

The four continued chatting and eating, and the atmosphere relaxed.

But for some reason, Shen Xing couldn't shake a feeling of unease.

"Lu Xiang, you should still..."

He was just about to suggest that Lu Xiang go to the hospital for a checkup when he suddenly noticed his expression change.

His already pale complexion turned ashen, then dark purple in a matter of moments, as though he had been poisoned.

The others noticed the change too and immediately stood up, startled and uncertain.

"Xiangzi, what's wrong!?" Qin Lang asked hurriedly.

"I... my chest hurts so much..." Lu Xiang's voice was terribly hoarse as he struggled to tear open his clothes.

Everyone saw a pitch-black hole in the center of his chest, as though some monster had gouged it straight through with its claws!

Immediately afterward, cracks appeared all over his body, making him look like a sheet of paper that had dried and split in the sun.

With a rip, Lu Xiang shattered into countless pieces on the spot.

The heavy smell of blood spread in an instant, overpowering even the pungent scent of chili peppers. All three froze where they stood.

They were young people who had grown up in peaceful times. When had they ever seen anything like this?

A living person had died right in front of them, and in such a horrific way!

That wasn't the end of it.

Gray mist suddenly poured out of Lu Xiang's shattered corpse.

A feeling of icy cold, darkness, and terror washed over them like a tide.

The three people's pupils contracted once again, disbelief appearing on their faces.

Because this mist was identical to the mist in the game!

In just a few breaths, the gray mist filled the entire private room and continued spreading outward.

In the blink of an eye, it enveloped the entire Sichuan Fragrance Pavilion.

The mist flowed slowly around them, like icy dead hands brushing against their bodies, raising goosebumps.

"Rustle... rustle..."

A faint rustling came from the center of the mist.

Shen Xing looked closely and saw a tall, thin black figure slowly taking shape.

It was pitch-black all over and stood more than two meters tall, with limbs that were scrawny but exceptionally long.

A Lost One?

No, it's more terrifying than an ordinary Lost One, and stronger too!

"Run!"

Shen Xing had no time to dwell on Lu Xiang's sudden death. His instinctive sense of danger urged him to get out of there immediately!

Qin Lang and Xu Jiayi also snapped back to their senses and ran.

But the monster was faster than any of them had expected.

Its scrawny body carried a damp aura as it pounced like lightning on Qin Lang, who was closest.

Just as its pitch-black claws were about to pierce his back-

"Bang!"

The private room's window suddenly exploded.

Amid a spray of shattered glass, a golden spear streaked through the air like a meteor, piercing the monster's body in an instant!

The tremendous momentum sent it flying, pinning it firmly to the private room wall.

Not only that, but the golden spear continued to emit an aura of light, scorching the monster's body.

"Sizzle... sizzle..."

In just a few breaths, the elite Lost One melted into a pool of charred black liquid.

The suffocating pressure vanished, and the icy mist dispersed at the same moment.

It was as though none of it had ever happened.

But the wrecked private room before them and Lu Xiang's remains on the floor continued to assault their senses.

"What... happened?" Xu Jiayi's eyes were wide, her face full of confusion.

The other two were just as bewildered. Everything that had happened today was completely beyond their understanding.

"Let me explain."

The door to the private room swung open, and a middle-aged man in a gray trench coat walked slowly inside, his hands in his pockets.

"And you are...?" Shen Xing watched the newcomer warily.

"I'm an operative with the Jiangcheng Anomaly Handling Bureau."

The middle-aged man surveyed the room after entering, his gaze finally settling on Lu Xiang's remains. "All anomalous incidents in this area fall under my jurisdiction to handle."

Neither Qin Lang nor Xu Jiayi spoke, as though they were still processing the information.

Shen Xing, meanwhile, was watching the man's right hand, which now hung loosely at his side, a faint golden glow still lingering on his fingertips.

Was he the one who sent that spear?

Why does it feel so much like my Hand of the Void?