Chapter 2: Rookie King

The hall was predominantly white and blue, futuristically high-tech and filled with people bustling about.

Shen Qingcheng looked around curiously. After leaving the copy, he had ended up here, surrounded by other people who were also disappearing and reappearing from time to time. Nobody else seems fazed by this.

He was now on a large platform, surrounded by what seemed to be a sea of stars. Contradictorily, the platform did not seem big, but he could tell that there were tens of thousands of people on the platform. Somehow, he didn’t feel crowded in the slightest

Surrounding the platform was a huge list, written in shining light. The information on the list was changing in real time, listing code names in order of number of survival points. The name at the top remained unchanging. The name listed was simply the number “7”.

Upon closer inspection…this person had six figures of survival points, while the next highest only had five.

Someone next to him noticed that he was staring at the list, dazed. He shook his head and sighed.

“Another fan of God 7. Our God 7 is really so powerful…” He turned away.

“Brother, wait!” Shen Qingcheng turned around and grabbed him.

Shen Qingcheng had never been a shy person. He could carry a conversation with himself even if the other party ignored him, let alone if they took the initiative to speak.

The person he had grabbed was surprisingly young, and was wearing a simple white T-shirt and baggy pants. A big smiley face was printed onto his clothes. He had a dazed expression, marring the handsomeness of his face slightly.

He twitched away a little.

“I just said it casually. There’s no way you took offense to that, right?”

Players of horror games were roughly divided into two categories.

One category, the “moderates”, tried their best not to offend anyone. The other category, on the other hand, was the exact opposite. They didn’t care who they offended, because in their eyes, other players were nothing but survival points waiting to be harvested. The moderates called them “radicals”.

The young man was a rookie. He had cleared three copies in total in the game today, but was still confused about it all. After he figured out the general rules of the game, he was unashamed to self-identify as a moderate.

There was no room for shame when struggling for survival.

He looked at Shen Qingcheng defensively.

“I’m not offended, don’t worry,” smiled Shen Qingcheng. He couldn’t tell what the young man was thinking, but that didn’t stop him from casually slinging an arm around his shoulders.

“Hey, brother, you understand this whole situation, right?”

If he had asked the young man just a day earlier, he wouldn’t have been sure, but he had just cleared an copy and in it, he had realized the true essence of the game.

“Sort of?” said the young man. He tried to move away, but found that Shen Qingcheng was too strong.

Shen Qingcheng smiled like a blooming flower. “Then do you mind filling me in a little?”

The young man looked him up and down suspiciously. “You’re a newcomer?”

Shen Qingcheng nodded. He was definitely a newcomer. Was it even possible to be newer than he was right now?

The young man didn’t believe him.

“Don’t lie. The last player in this batch of new players came out yesterday. What kind of newcomer are you?”

Shen Qingcheng did kind of look like a new chick, though.

Wait, it seemed like the new batch of rookie kings wasn’t out yet?

Horror games would introduce a large number of newcomers every once in a while, anywhere from 8,000 to 10,000, depending on how many actually passed the test copy.

More experienced players were already accustomed to this kind of occurrence, but the young man was a newcomer who had been here for only a short time. His enthusiasm for welcoming new players had not subsided yet.

He had just finished an copy, and he had three days off, so he paid special attention. Three days was enough for him to wait for the new king to come out. The rookie king was the first person to clear the test copy, and eight or nine times out of ten would develop very well.

However, the rookie king who had cleared the most recent copy surpassed them by far. All of the older players who still paid attention were stunned. After all, a clearance time of less than two hours…

What did this mean? The current number one in the rankings, God 7, previously left behind an unbroken record of 7 hours.

It was commonly theorized that God 7 drew his name, “7”, from this incident.

And the rookie king this time needed only a third of the time that God 7 used. The shock was unimaginable, and all of the players sighed that they were afraid another monster like God 7 had arisen.

Shen Qingcheng innocently looked at the awed young man and thought very modestly in his heart that he was ashamed for only specializing in the skills of a dying practice.

The young man looked at Shen Qingcheng differently after he’d returned to his senses, with a little disbelief and incredulity. If he was right, this man was the rookie king who had beaten God 7’s record…

After resisting for only a second, he couldn’t help but ask, “Are you really a newcomer?”

“Mn,” Sheng Qingcheng said helplessly. What would he even gain from lying? He was only asking about the basics of the game right now.

“My name is Chen Ge, and my code name is Gargoyle.” The young man introduced himself, then kindly reminded, “If you don’t have a code name yet, you can use your personal terminal to make one.”

He added, “The people here are all players, I think. Anyway, I haven’t seen any staff. If we have any questions, we usually check them using our personal terminals, but the game may or may not answer them. The mobile phone that publishes the tasks in the game copies is your personal terminal--it should be on you.”

The rookie list was hanging by the platform, and the terminal could be used to query it in real time. If the name in first place changed, then he’d know that the person beside him was actually the rookie king.

Chen Ge really hoped that he was.

Shen Qingcheng thought it over for a second, closing his eyes. Previously, he had left his mobile phone on the bedside table. Now, he reached into his trouser pocket, and his phone was actually there again.

The style of the phone had changed, and it now appeared more advanced. When he opened it, there were three unread messages displayed on the screen.

An external plug-in investigation result, a game reward, and a game statement.

“Hey, how come I can’t check this?” Shen Qingcheng asked, poking at the plug-in investigation result. He really wanted to know how he, a lliberal arts student, was supposed to have come up with a plug-in.

Chen Ge didn’t look at his phone, trying to respect his privacy. Instead, he recalled his own experiences as a novice and said, “You need to agree to the game statement first.”

Shen Qingcheng opened the statement, scrolling straight to the end without reading it.

“Do I just click to agree?”

“If you don’t mind live broadcasting, sure. There’s a default streaming agreement inside, although I’m not very clear on the specifics. I heard that your income from broadcasting can be converted into real currency and directly transferred to your account when you return to the real world.”

Chen Ge had just conveyed a lot of important information at once. Shen Qingcheng stared at him for a second, considering, before he clicked to agree.

He was dead, and didn’t have anybody left to go back to. Was there really a point in even trying to make it back? He was probably going to be stuck in the game forever.

Chen Ge rubbed the back of his head, embarrassed. “Don’t look at me, I really don’t know if it’s true or not.” When he’d first heard the news, he had been thrilled.

“Brother, I think we should continue to have a nice chat about this.” Shen Qingcheng patted his shoulder.

This time, Chen Ge was very cooperative.

“You should set a code name first.”

He reached for his own terminal, rapidly refreshing the newcomer list.

Three minutes later, the code name in first place of the rookie list really did change. There was a high possibility that the man beside him really was the rookie king.

However, at this time, Chen Ge’s heart wasn’t only filled with the surprise of meeting a big thigh¹ to hold…

He asked with inexplicable emotion in his voice, “Have you changed it?”

“It’s been changed.” Chen Qingcheng began to complain regretfully, “All the code names I liked were already occupied, so I randomly chose one.”

“Which ones did you want to use?”

Shen Qingcheng touched his chin. “Old Demon Shen, Great Demon King…”

Chen Ge looked at the code names on the list again, heart trembling. Good thing he hadn’t chosen randomly when he had just been starting out. Who could stand a code name like “Alluring Beauty”?

The man beside him was still talking. “Well, I am beautiful, and at least it doesn’t seem like too lofty a name. It’s quite an appropriate name for me.”

Chen Ge glanced at his face. He really was quite beautiful…

Their conversation didn’t draw the attention of anyone else, but the code name on the list certainly did. People all over the platform were discussing it. Was the rookie king a beautiful girl this time? Otherwise, who in the world would pick such a code name?

According to some, it was debatable whether the rookie king was beautiful, but they were definitely a girl.

Shen Qingcheng listened to everyone’s discussion closely, nodding from time to time. He gossiped more actively than Chen Ge, despite being the topic of conversation.

Chen Ge thought: this thigh is definitely not what I expected.

There were more and more people coming in, and the full platform wasn’t suitable for the exchange of more sensitive information, so Chen Ge and Shen Qingcheng went to Chen Ge’s personal space.

Personal spaces were bound to a single player, and they could stay in it to rest or prepare between copies.

Outside of copies, these game spaces were absolutely safe.

“Official copies are different from test copies. They are more difficult and require surviving for a longer period of time, usually somewhere in the range of half a month to a full month. The clearance tasks also change--you can survive to the end, or solve all the storylines to end the copy early.

“However, the game doesn’t reward clearing through dragging the time out. You only get one survival point for every day you survive--not enough to exchange for a good item at the mall. The rewards for solving a storyline, on the other hand, is much greater.””

Chen Ge had relied on doing the bare minimum to get through his copies, and had never met a big shot who actually solved all the storylines to finish the copy.

“I have a question,” said Shen Qingcheng as he raised his hand. “What if a player solves the storyline on the first day, and they get less of a reward than they would for just surviving the month?”

Chen Ge wanted to laugh. Solving a storyline on the first day? He must be dreaming. Then he remembered that Shen Qingcheng really only took two hours to clear the test copy, and he could only remain silent for a second.

“It doesn’t work like that. If a player clears the storyline on the first day, they will get both the storyline reward and the survival reward.

“Other players will only get one day’s worth of survival points, and additional rewards based on how much they know about the storyline.

“And the reward for solving the storyline is much more than surviving.” He considered for a second. “It’s at least 50 survival points, I think.”

Surviving the whole copy would only net a player 30 points at most, plus it was uncertain that they’d be able to survive that long in the first place.

Shen Qingcheng put his hand down. “Okay, go on.”

Chen Ge continued, “Survival points can be exchanged for props that have many functions. You can check them out at the mall later. In addition, you can trade for rest coupons and real-world coupons. I’ve heard that copies will drop rest coupons, but never real-world coupons.

“The most important thing is that props can be dropped, and survival points can circulate between players.”

“What’s that mean?”

Chen Ge said heavily, “If a player kills another player in the copy, they can inherit all the survival points and some of the props of the killed player.”

He remembered the copy he’d just finished. There had been a newcomer who didn’t understand what was going on, and had only passed the test copy.

No one had taken her under their wing, and so she ignorantly exposed that she was a newcomer as soon as she entered the copy, and was killed by a certain player.

“If the player doesn’t have any special items to save themselves, they will be eliminated from the game,” Chen Ge said. “I don’t know what happens to them in the real world.”

Shen Qingcheng looked at him, and saw the grief in his face.

Chen Ge asked, “Do you have any questions?”

“Let me think for a second… Oh wait, I’ve got one.” He asked curiously, “Why are you answering my questions so honestly?”

Despite having aimed for this since the beginning, Chen Ge was a little embarrassed as he answered, “I want to hug your thigh.”

He was being totally honest.

Shen Qingcheng said, “I’ve only passed one copy. You must be more experienced than me.”

Chen Ge shook his head. “If the ranking was based on seniority, God 7 would definitely not occupy the first place in the rankings. God 7 was the last rookie king, and now it’s you.”

Shen Qingcheng suddenly realized that the game had said something about him being number one when he’d completed the clearance task. He got up and touched Chen Ge’s head, like he would a dog or a child.

“Hug it, then.” Shen-ge² will act as a good thigh to hold on to.

Chen Ge: …

He took the opportunity to change the topic and said, “Shen-ge, don’t worry, if you don’t say anything after entering the copy, no one will know who you are, and I definitely won’t disturb you until I’m at a critical juncture.”

Of course he had to be careful. If Brother Shen turned out to be a radical, he would be the first to die.

But if it really was a critical moment… If he didn’t ask for help, he would die, and if he did, he might die. It was better to risk it.

“So you’re not stupid,” Shen Qingcheng, who could tell what his thought process was, said in surprise. He didn’t mind Chen Ge’s raised defenses, and said, “Children like you should be smart and keep themselves safe.”

He added, “I’m going back to my personal space for a while, but before that, do you want to come with me to the next copy?”

In order to enter the same copy, players had to form a team in advance.

Chen Ge hesitated. He had just finished an copy and had three days off, while the rookie only had one day off. If he agreed, he’d have to enter that night.

But the other party was the rookie king… He couldn't miss this opportunity to build a good relationship--who knew if it would come again?

So he nodded, “Okay.”

Shen Qingcheng glanced at him with a smile, and Chen Ge had the feeling his motivations had been seen through. He clicked on his terminal to return to his own personal space, disappearing in front of Chen Ge.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Shen Qingcheng was stunned when he saw his personal space. This shabby room, with no sofa, bed, wardrobe, table, chairs, or even snacks, was his personal space?

He had thought that Chen Ge’s room was boring, but it seemed that he had misjudged the other party. Whoops.

Shen Qingcheng sat on the ground--out of sight, out of mind--and checked his terminal.

“The results of the plug-in investigation are as follows: the player’s overflow attribute will be permanently reduced in the copies. As compensation, the player’s item store has opened a new mode, and all items are now 10% off.”

Shen Qingcheng’s face darkened as he read the message. What kind of stupid game was this? Where was he even supposed to have gotten plug-ins?

It wasn’t that he was being humble; he really didn’t have the technical ability, and honestly, his only skill was killing ghosts.

He was incredulous, immediately finding the customer service contact under the message. He typed, “Did you find evidence that I was using a plug-in to cheat?”

The usually slow customer service responded quickly:

“No, so the player is being compensated.”

Shen Qingcheng was shocked. “You penalized me even though I wasn’t cheating?!”

“It’s just downgrading the overflow attribute a little,” corrected the customer service. “The ‘Deterrence’ and ‘Flaming Eyes’ buffs on the player affect the game NPCs, so the game balance is affected.

Shen Qingcheng laughed. How could he blame them for his own strength? This explanation really made him feel quite self-satisfied. Whatever, even with his power level lowered, he was still strong. He would just regard this as going on a vacation where he had to stay low-key.

He moved on to the next message.

“The player completed the objective: Escape from Mount Mang. 10 survival points will be rewarded. The clearance time is 1 hour and 52 minutes, breaking the previous record. 100 survival points will be rewarded.”

Shen Qingcheng tried to scroll down, but that was it. He only got 110 points in total?

And that was with the record-breaking reward. Would other players only get 10 points? This game was really too stingy.

Shen Qingcheng shook his head.

There wasn’t much time left before he would have to enter an official copy. He clicked into the mall to check if there were any preparations he could make. As a rookie player, he could only carry one prop into the copy.

There were two types of props in the shopping mall: life types, and competition types.

The former were used in the personal space, and could be used to decorate the room or exchanged for entertainment or food. The latter were used in copies, and were generally either defensive props or attack props, which could cause damage to spiritual creatures.

Shen Qingcheng suddenly understood why the test copy reward was 10 points--the cheapest competition prop in the mall was exactly 10 points.

Glancing over the names of the props, he made a face, then placed his order.

【 You have received a new life gift package. The original price is 100 points. The price paid is 90 points. 】

【 You have obtained an attack item: Mama Rong’s Silver Needle³. The original price is 10 points. The price paid is 9 points. 】

【 Survival point balance: 11 points. 】

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After a few hours, it was time to enter the copy.

TLN:

¹ Hugging a thigh is basically relying on someone who is more powerful (in terms of money, influence, strength, skill, etc.) Kind of like having a sugar daddy, or a doting older sibling.

² Ge (哥) means elder brother, but is used to address slightly older men affectionately.

³ Mama Rong is a villain from the Chinese drama 还珠格格.