[Name: Wren Lux] [Attributes: Click to view details] [Current Survival Points: 23] [Game Identity: Player] [Current Location: Game Main World] [Maximum Remaining Playtime: 23 Days] [Detected that the player’s playtime is less than 30 days.
To avoid death, please refrain from sleeping as much as possible and acquire Survival Points immediately.] [Watch ads to avoid death.
Watch for one hour to gain 1 Survival Point, up to three times a day.] [Jianqu Construction Group is recruiting Instance testers.
Pay only 30 Survival Points for a chance to earn double Survival Points.] [Survival Point loans.
Stop touching high-interest loans.
Borrow first, use first, enjoy first.] [System Announcement — Welcome to becoming an Instance Constructor!] […] …
Wren Lux sat on the bench by the river, staring at the panel in front of her for a full three minutes.
The evening river shimmered with fragmented golden light.
The lights on the bridge had already turned on, one by one.
In the distance, the glass facades of high-rise buildings reflected the sunset glow, a blend of pinkish-purple and tangerine, as beautiful as a heavily retouched promotional poster.
That is, if one ignored her current expression.
It was actually a very beautiful scene.
The young girl sat quietly by the river, her smooth black hair falling to her shoulders in a casual yet perfect manner.
She had naturally fair skin that gave off a beautiful luster under the light.
Her facial features were soft and touching.
A few playful, disobedient strands of hair scattered around her pretty face, dancing in the river breeze, adding a touch of messy yet breathtaking beauty.
The sunset, the girl, the riverside.
These were all beautiful words.
However, this beauty was significantly diluted by Wren Lux’s current expression.
Simply put—she looked like a girl who had been trafficked deep into the mountains, utterly devoid of hope, only to discover that the person who bought her was also a woman…
‘Are you kidding me?’ “No…
is this right?!” Wren Lux muttered, looking at the system panel floating in front of her and the cluster of ads appearing at the bottom.
Perhaps this sight was already commonplace for the natives of this world.
But Wren Lux was not from this world at all.
This was only her second day since crossing over.
As for why she appeared in this world, simply put…
one day after work, she had a run-in with a hundred-ton dump truck.
Despite her best efforts to dodge, she couldn’t beat the laws of physics.
Consequently, the world lost a hardworking soul, and the road gained a newly flattened speed bump…
When Wren Lux woke up again, she found herself in an unfamiliar environment.
And her body wasn’t even her original one…
However, that wasn’t the worst part.
When she sifted through the young girl’s memories, she discovered something even more terrible—there was something fundamentally wrong with this world.
The good news was that this world shared many similarities with the one she had lived in for over twenty years in her past life; even the historical trajectory was roughly the same.
As long as she was a little careful, she could seamlessly transition into living here.
The bad news was…
This world seemed like it was ripped straight out of a sci-fi novel…
Having inherited the girl’s memories, she remembered it clearly.
One day, four years ago.
It was supposed to be an ordinary workday, but at 10:17 AM, every electronic screen across the globe went black simultaneously.
Then, mobile phones, televisions, mall billboards, and even hospital monitoring terminals—all the electronic screens flashed the exact same sentence: [Initiating Survival Protocol] Next— It appeared.
It looked different in everyone’s eyes.
Some said It was light.
Some said It was a giant eye.
Some said It was an inverted city suspended in the sky.
But without a doubt, It was not human.
Later, everyone referred to It as—God.
At that time.
Its voice echoed directly in everyone’s minds.
There were no language barriers.
There was no translation delay.
Everyone understood.
“Your world is about to become a battlefield.” “The Outer Realm is approaching.” “You cannot resist.” “Therefore—you need to become players.” “Grow.
Grow quickly.
The enemy is coming.” After leaving behind these baffling words, It vanished, but the entire world began to undergo a drastic transformation.
Everything began to be digitized and gamified.
Reality became the so-called main stage of the game.
Hideous monsters began appearing everywhere.
In the early stages, humanity barely managed to stabilize the situation relying on modern weaponry.
But as the gamification process accelerated, many cutting-edge modern weapons became unusable…
or more accurately, they required specific conditions to be used.
These so-called conditions varied wildly.
It could be reaching a certain attribute threshold, acquiring specific buffs, or needing certain items.
And the primary channel to meet these conditions was to play the game, or more accurately…
to enter ‘Instances’.
These so-called Instances were worlds that appeared alongside the digitization of reality.
Distinct from the real world that served as the main stage, these worlds were bizarre and diverse, encompassing everything imaginable.
Anyone could enter them simply by paying Survival Points.
And as long as they cleared the Instance, they would receive certain benefits.
For example, the Instance with the highest clear rate at present was called [Lone Ranger].
It was a modern-background Instance with an entry fee of 150 Survival Points.
After entering, the player had to roleplay as a solitary soldier, evade enemy detection, cross the frontlines alone, infiltrate the enemy’s rear, and reach a spy safehouse.
During this time, players could choose different routes.
They could open fire, bribe enemy soldiers, rely on sheer willpower to crawl forward on their bellies, or even defect to the enemy and report the spy safehouse, acting as a traitor to lead a capture squad—which also counted as completing the mission…
As long as it was an action the player could think of, they could do it.
The game system would then award a rating and rewards based on the different routes chosen and the player’s performance during the process.
The reason this Instance had the highest clear rate was due to the military’s presence…
Rumor had it that this Instance was on the verge of becoming a proving ground for the military to test the mettle of their soldiers.
At the same time, they reaped substantial rewards.
There was no need to mention those who got low ratings and merely received attribute points or item rewards.
Rumor had it that most people could acquire a passive skill called [Stealth] in this Instance, which significantly reduced the probability of being discovered by monsters.
Those with strong capabilities could even obtain passive skills like [Lone Courage] or [Firearm Comprehension].
The former allowed players to gain a certain attribute boost when alone, while the latter was even more formidable, allowing players to modify firearms and make them easier to handle.
At a time when the conditions for using modern weapons were becoming increasingly stringent, its value was evident.
Incidentally, quite a few people had tried the traitor route, but rumor had it that only one person had ever succeeded.
This was because it required excellent eloquence to persuade the enemy; otherwise, the probability of being discovered and executed on the spot was extremely high.
Currently, due to the military’s presence, ordinary people didn’t have many opportunities to try it anymore.
Most Instances were generated by the system.
A small portion, however, came from the public.
Yes.
After everything was digitized and gamified, ordinary people could not only become players but also Instance Constructors.
These Instances, distinct from the system-generated ones, were called civilian Instances…
After a player submitted a constructed Instance, the system would automatically rate it.
Then, the constructor could independently decide whether to open it to the public and how many Survival Points to charge as an entry fee.
After players cleared these civilian Instances, the system would similarly grant rewards based on factors like the Instance completion rate, the inherent quality of the Instance, and the player’s performance.
Truly excellent civilian Instances even had a chance of being officially incorporated into the system.
Theoretically speaking…
talented players would become Instance Constructors, then design Instances based on frontline conditions to provide powerful items or passive skills to the soldiers protecting ordinary citizens.
At the same time, they would filter out more powerful players, and subsequently create even more Instances based on their feedback.
It was a perfect cycle.
But while the theory was perfect, reality was not.
Remember?
This world shared many similarities with the one Wren Lux had lived in for over twenty years in her past life; even the historical trajectory was roughly the same.
But ‘roughly the same’…
meant there were differences.
In this world, the Cold War lasted much longer than in her past life, and it was a Cold War between three nations.
During that period, almost everything was geared towards preparing for war.
Even after the Cold War ended, this state of affairs was maintained out of sheer inertia for a long time.
And after the Cold War ended, entertainment had only just begun to emerge.
Then the world began to gamify.
The most fatal part was that an event similar to the Atari video game crash from Wren Lux’s past life had also occurred here.
Moreover, the timing was right before the world gamified.
At that time, the market was flooded with shoddily made, homogenized games, which had completely destroyed the gaming industry.
It was inherently deficient.
Coupled with the later emergence of scamming civilian construction groups stirring up trouble.
Under these circumstances, how could anyone expect civilian Instances to be any good?
…Ninety percent of civilian Instances were garbage, pure trash designed to scam Survival Points.
For example, the ad on Wren Lux’s panel about the Jianqu Construction Group recruiting Instance testers was a hundred percent a scam.
It was definitely the kind of garbage Instance where, even if cleared, one would only receive meager rewards and an F-rank rating.
It was even highly likely that the clear conditions themselves were traps.
Yet they had the ability to place ads on the players’ panel pages, which clearly meant they had already scammed quite a few people.
Because placing an ad there required at least tens of thousands of Survival Points.
Tens of thousands of Survival Points.
Survival Points…
Thinking of this, Wren Lux suddenly snapped back to reality.
Looking at the pitiful 23 Survival Points on her panel, she pursed her soft red lips, feeling entirely unwell.
These so-called Survival Points were the byproduct of everything being gamified.
Simply put, this stuff was like a prepaid time card…
After everyone became players, they all received Survival Points proportionally.
Survival Points could be traded, used to purchase anything a player could imagine in the system shop, and were required as entry tickets to enter Instances.
Most importantly.
Players needed Survival Points just to stay alive.
One Survival Point was automatically deducted every 24 hours.
If it reached zero, the account was deleted on the spot—meaning death.
And at this moment, Wren Lux only had 23 Survival Points left, which meant…
she only had 23 days left to live.
As for why she had so few…
it was mainly because the original owner of the body was very timid.
She had never dared to enter a system Instance before, and recently, she had been scammed out of a large sum of Survival Points by a civilian Instance.
This made her even more terrified.
Her parents divorced when she was seven.
After they formed new families, neither wanted her.
She and her grandmother depended on each other for survival.
She had a shy personality, and after her grandmother passed away, she was left all alone.
She didn’t dare to enter system Instances and had no friends, only daring to stay cooped up at home.
Then, the one time she finally managed to trust someone…
She was scammed…
And then, then Wren Lux arrived.
The moment she opened her eyes, she was faced with this baffling world, a mere 23 days of lifespan remaining, and a body completely different from her previous life.
Yes.
In comparison.
The body was actually the smallest problem.
Even though when she first arrived, she had gone to the bathroom in disbelief to check three times…
“You might as well just let me die.” Wren Lux pursed her glossy red lips and lowered her head in frustration.
Then she saw her own full curves, which bulged no matter how tightly she bound them, rising and falling with her breaths…
She wanted to die even more.
‘Why don’t I just give up?’ Wren Lux retracted her gaze, thinking with a bit of self-abandonment.
She could just treat these remaining 23 days as end-of-life hospice care…
However.
The moment this thought popped up, she remembered the agony of the instant she died in her past life.
“…” Wren Lux fell silent for a moment.
She looked down at her chest again and suddenly felt that this wasn’t entirely unacceptable…
Mainly because she didn’t want to experience death all over again.
In the face of death.
It seemed like all other problems ceased to be problems.
So the only problem now was—how to survive?
Wren Lux took a deep breath, dispelling the terrifying memory of her near-death experience.
Frowning slightly, she began to analyze the situation.
Watch ads?
She could watch them for a maximum of three hours a day, and there seemed to be a limit to the number of times she could watch ads.
It was nothing more than prolonging her dying breath.
Participate in system Instances?
She lacked confidence, currently had no spare Survival Points to pay the entry fee, and the risks were simply too high.
Take out a loan?
Setting aside whether she could even get one, even if she could, Wren Lux wouldn’t dare.
The interest rates were exorbitant, and her Instance earnings would be forcibly garnished.
If she lacked the ability, borrowing against the future would only make her die faster.
Then there was only one path left.
Wren Lux looked at the final message on the panel—[System Announcement — Welcome to becoming an Instance Constructor!]