1: Chapter 1 Arranged 1: Chapter 1 Arranged Editor: Atlas Studios “Magic Calendar Year 3401, Month of Rain, 26th, Night”
“Heaven’s fire burning the city, earth trembling, as if the apocalypse”
“The circle fades, the royal line withers, the nine floating cities finally return to the earth, the magic radiance dims”
“——Empire Brief History·Prologue: Destruction Day”
…
Xia Yuan suddenly opened his eyes.
In front of him was a familiar mirror, but the person reflected within it was strangely young.
A handso face with regular features, a head of slightly long, light black hair.
The pale skin flickered under the wavering candlelight, giving off an eerie aura.
He raised his hand in disbelief, gently trembling, and touched his face.
Staring at the silhouette in the mirror doing the sa, Xia Yuan took a deep breath.
“Boom rumble——”
A massive thunderclap sounded outside the window, causing Xia Yuan, still in a daze, to shudder all over.
He rembered this night, the storm caused a power outage, and he had no choice but to light a white candle for illumination.
In his mory, three days later — more accurately, in two days, twenty hours, and sixteen minutes, a ga years ahead of its ti: “Mysterious Era,” would release its first trailer.
It would begin offering semi-open beta testing qualifications to society, announcing its arrival to the entire era.
In an era where mainstream online gas were still in VR, this nearly unimaginable 98.25% imrsive ga was a complete blow to the entire gaming industry.
The beta test server opening ti was a week after the trailer release, which ant it would begin in ten days.
Once the major studios confird that the ga’s promotion was not exaggerated but indeed true,
they decisively began canceling all other ga businesses, fully turning their focus to “Mysterious Era.”
When the fifteen-day beta ended, ordinary players, who had been eagerly waiting, sward in.
For a ti, in-ga resource prices skyrocketed, and countless people beca rich overnight through this ga.
Half a month after “Mysterious Era” officially launched, the daily activity of all other gas nearly dropped to zero.
Countless ga company bosses pulled their hair in frustration, leading to a small boom in the wig industry.
It was rumored that when “Mysterious Era” first ca out, an undying gaming giant’s boss, unwilling to give up, approached the company’s chief engineer.
He hoped to decipher the principles of the “Mysterious Era” ga helt and ga pod within three months and develop similar equipnt.
The chief engineer politely and tactfully told him: he’s living in a dream.
If anyone could decipher the principles of that strange helt within a year, he would take his own balls down and offer them as a kick toy to whoever succeeded!
After hitting a wall with the technical departnt, the boss still harbored a glimr of hope and went to find the ga engineer.
But when he entered the personal office of the ga’s chief engineer, he was shocked to discover the guy slacking off, playing “Mysterious Era” during work hours!
Of course, the ga company bosses didn’t just sit idly by.
They brought in so experts and professors, claiming that this ga was too realistic and might cause severe identity recognition disorders among players.
Using this as a reason, they hoped to get the authorities to step in and ban the ga entirely.
But for so unknown reason, these ‘experts’ quickly quieted down one by one, having no impact on “Mysterious Era’s” launch.
…
Xia Yuan exhaled slowly, ending the whirlwind of mories, and gently patted his face, his mind racing.
Given that he had been reborn to this point in ti before “Mysterious Era” had even released a trailer, he had to find a way to secure a beta test slot without delay.
Though the beta test would be wiped afterward, having beta test access was the only way to gain priority in purchasing a limited edition first-generation ga pod globally.
The ga officials only allocated five thousand ga pods on the continent where Xia Yuan lived, with demand far exceeding supply.
Besides the five hundred slots reserved for beta players to purchase first, the remaining four thousand five hundred pods were inaccessible to ordinary independent players, being pre-ordered well before hitting the market.
The biggest difference between the first-generation ga helt and pod was the online ti restriction.
Considering the player’s need to eat and use the restroom, the helt could only be online for a maximum of sixteen hours a day.
A ga pod supplented by nutritional fluid allowed for eighteen hours of gaplay, giving pod players an additional eighth of ga ti over helt players!
To professional players, this was as vast as the difference between heaven and earth.
Furthermore, each person’s helt was bound to their identity, making it impossible to switch devices to bypass the limit.
Additionally, there were the nutritional fluids paired with the first-generation ga pods, which were also fantastic but only sold to players owning ga pods, and the supply ceased after just a month, with prices soaring even more absurdly than real estate!
Before rebirth, Xia Yuan was just an ordinary independent player, with a modest family background.
As a result, of course, he didn’t get a beta slot, didn’t buy the first-generation ga pod, nor did he stock up on the first-generation nutritional fluid, perfectly sidestepping all opportunities for wealth.
Even when fighting bosses, he didn’t realize how good his dodging skills were!
Though his skills and awareness were quite high-end, the ga ti restrictions gradually widened the gap between him and the first-tier players using ga pods.
This directly affected his inco, leading to a month later, when the more affordable and unlimited second-generation ga pods and nutritional fluids were released, he was still short on funds.
It wasn’t until the ga had been live for nearly three months that he just barely managed to gather the necessary funds, but by then, his level had already fallen behind the first-tier players.
So, he simply let loose, no longer fixated on leveling up and increasing his strength, but instead, he wandered back and forth through the continent’s major well-known libraries.
He began studying the “background story” docuntation from various places, trying to find clues related to treasures, hidden quests, hidden professions, etc.
Players of this type are collectively known as story players, and their numbers are quite large.
Xia Yuan’s logical analysis, insight, and luck were all decent.
In the end, he really unearthed several hidden quests and ruins through ticulously collected and organized materials, obtaining quite a few good items and returning to the first-tier in strength.
This earned him quite a reputation among story players, earning the nickna — “Lucky Silver Hand.”
During this process, he accidentally unlocked a hidden title: [Junior Ruins Scholar], which granted a 5% price bonus when trading unidentified ruins items.
From then on, a new world’s door opened for him, with “Mysterious Era’s” incredibly authentic background story enchanting him to the point where he neglected the main storyline to explore ancient mysteries.
Crackle——boom rumble——
Another enormous thunderclap echoed across the sky, pulling his thoughts back to reality.
“There are still ten days before the beta starts, that’s enough…”
Temporarily setting aside his thoughts, looking at his younger self in the mirror, an uncontrollable smile crept onto Xia Yuan’s face.
At this mont, he was filled with grand emotions and couldn’t help but slightly raise his chin, placing his left hand behind him, and spoke with vigor.
“A heroic figure shines on sun and moon, strategies concealed within the mind.
On the path, people are like jade, the gentleman is unmatched——”
“Crack——boom rumble——”
As if responding to his words, a gigantic thunderclap echoed once more across the sky.
In the sound of thunder, the quietly burning candle fla suddenly flickered, and the room’s shadows slightly writhed, as if imbued with life.
Xia Yuan didn’t notice the slight change in the candle fla, but as he gazed into the mirror’s reflection, a slight surge of impulse arose within him, slowly lifting his right hand, and his lips started to move.
Co to think of it, it’s been a long ti since I’ve done this.
The rain outside intensified, with pea-sized raindrops pattering against the glass, and the blinding lightning continuously cleaving the gloomy night sky, with the enormous thunder ever-present.
In the dimly lit room, a strange and inexplicable scene unfolded ——
Under the flickering candlelight, a young man appeared possessed, repeatedly making peculiar gestures in front of the mirror.
He seed to be chanting so eerie syllables in a rhythm, as if conducting so ancient, evil ritual!
“Rock paper——scissors!”
“Rock paper——scissors!”
…
After so ti, as his right hand protested with slight soreness, Xia Yuan finally decided to stop this pointless act.
Undefeated in a single round, that’s just like !
Nodding at the mirror with a nonchalant expression of self-praise, Xia Yuan turned to leave the bathroom…
…
?
At that mont, his movent suddenly froze.
Wait…In the second-to-last round just now, when I showed paper…did he just show…scissors?
Recalling a certain detail from earlier, Xia Yuan blinked, and his smile gradually stiffened.
Can I really lose to the mirror in rock-paper-scissors?
Although the ti was still the peak of sumr in August, Xia Yuan felt a chill in the air.
Slowly turning his head to look in the mirror, he cautiously raised his right hand, and the reflection’s movent remained synchronized.
Did I rember it wrong?
He sighed slightly in relief.
“Right, how can a reflection move on its own?”
On the living room coffee table, the electronic watch’s dark display showed a line of icy red numbers:
[23:59:59]
Though Xia Yuan reassured himself, he still decided to quickly leave the place.
But as he picked up the candle and turned to leave, the fla inexplicably flickered and then silently extinguished!
The room plunged into darkness——
He shuddered, feeling a cold sweat break out on his back.
“Boom rumble——”
At that mont, a massive blue-white lightning bolt tore through the night sky, accompanied by deafening thunder, instantly lighting the room as bright as snow.
At that instant, he noticed a detail that made his hair stand on end: the reflection in the mirror had a silent, bizarre arc at the corner of its mouth!
As if sensing his gaze, the reflection abruptly turned!
Its eyes, sohow transford into pure black and white, locked straight onto his face!
Xia Yuan felt chills all over, his brain frantically urging him to flee, but his legs were immovably heavy as if filled with lead.
The next second, the light from the lightning vanished as suddenly as it appeared, returning the mirror and reflection to total darkness.
Yet those black and white eyes of the reflection remained unmistakably clear and strange.
Staring at the mirror, Xia Yuan felt cold all over.
As their eyes t, a twisted, icy stream of information ca from the dark mirror, through their connected gaze, and into his brain.
It was an excruciatingly unsettling sensation, as if thousands of small black ants were crawling into the grooves of his cerebral cortex.
The content of the ssage was only a short sentence:
“At the end of seven alternations of light and darkness, you will arrive at, Unival——”
As he passively received a massive injection of ntal information, Xia Yuan convulsed violently as if electrocuted, painfully holding his head with both hands.
In the next instant, the ceiling light suddenly turned on, its soft cream-colored glow dispersing the room’s darkness.
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