Inside the private room at Sichuan Pavilion, the air was thick with the pungent smell of chili peppers.
The three of them looked at Shen Xing, their eyes filled with disbelief.
"S-class... Are you serious?"
Qin Lang asked instinctively, then shut his mouth.
He knew his friend’s character; he wasn’t the type to boast.
Still in shock, he quickly asked how Shen Xing had done it.
Shen Xing offered an explanation, saying he had basically used some tactics and set up traps at the village entrance ahead of time.
Once the monsters triggered them, he just went all-in, minimizing his own losses.
Of course, he had made all that up.
The main reason was his hidden Talent, Sacrificial Evolution.
This Talent was honestly a bit overpowered, raising his Soldier Types’ strength by more than a single tier.
Naturally, he didn’t tell anyone about it.
The three of them listened and nodded in understanding.
"Tactics, huh? This game has a ton of freedom, so you can really 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 fiend. A game like this is right up your alley."
The three of them didn’t doubt his explanation.
Shen Xing had played these kinds of games often in college. His Steam library was full of nothing but RTS and tactical RPGs.
He had over three thousand hours in Red Alert and was also an expert in a whole series of hardcore games like StarCraft, Total War, and Civilization.
In the years after he was paralyzed, he had poured even more of his time into all sorts of strategy games.
Shen Xing smiled. Seeing that topic was over, he casually asked, "By the way, did you guys feel anything strange after you finished playing?"
"Strange?"
The three of them paused, chopsticks in hand, their expressions puzzled.
Shen Xing observed their reactions, wondering, ’Am I really the only one who can use skills from the game?’
Just then, Xu Jiayi, who had been relatively quiet, suddenly spoke up. "Come to think of it, I did encounter something strange."
"During a battle, one of my Archers was critically injured by a monster, and a red notification popped up from the system."
"It said something about needing to protect my game character, or my real body would be affected."
The atmosphere in the room instantly grew tense.
"Protect your game character, or your real body will be affected?" Qin Lang frowned. "Don’t tell me if your character dies in the game, you die in real life?"
"No way!"
Lu Xiang was the first to jump up and argue, "I already died in the game, and I’m sitting here perfectly fine, aren’t I?"
"You died in the game?" Shen Xing’s gaze locked onto Lu Xiang.
"Yeah."
Lu Xiang casually chugged some beer. "Just my luck. The battle was almost over when a Three-Star Lost One suddenly rushed in and killed me with one swipe of its claw."
"And the game doesn’t even have a respawn function. I’m trying to figure out how to remake my character."
The room fell silent again. The other three stared at him, a strange light in their eyes.
"Hey, hey, you guys don’t actually believe that, do you?"
Lu Xiang felt a chill run down his spine from their stares. "It’s just a game. How could it possibly affect reality?"
"Besides, dying was for the best. I was getting tired of those crappy zombies anyway."
"I’ll just restart and roll the dice. Maybe I’ll get lucky this time and pull a Three-Star Soldier Type right off the bat!"
His optimistic attitude helped ease some of the others’ anxiety.
The four of them went back to 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 about to suggest Lu Xiang get a check-up at the hospital when he noticed the other man’s expression change drastically.
His already pale face turned ashen, then darkened to a deep purple in a matter of seconds, as if he’d been poisoned.
The others noticed the change as well and immediately stood up, alarmed and confused.
"Xiangzi, what’s wrong with you!?" Qin Lang asked urgently.
"My... my chest hurts so much..." Lu Xiang’s voice was incredibly hoarse as he struggled to rip open his shirt.
They saw a pitch-black hole right in the center of his chest, as if it had been gouged out by the sharp claws of some monster!
Immediately after, cracks spiderwebbed across his body, making him look like a piece of paper cracking under the sun.
With a sound like tearing fabric—RRRIP!—Lu Xiang shattered into countless pieces right before their eyes.
The thick stench of blood instantly filled the air, overpowering even the pungent smell of chili. The three of them froze in place.
As young people who had grown up in an era of peace, how could they have ever witnessed such a scene?
A living, breathing person had just died right in front of them, and in such a gruesome way!
But it wasn’t over.
A gray mist suddenly billowed out from Lu Xiang’s shattered corpse.
A frigid, dark, and terrifying sensation washed over them like a tide.
The three’s pupils contracted again, their faces etched with disbelief.
Because this Fog was exactly the same as the one in the game!
In just a few breaths, the gray Fog filled the entire private room and began to spread outwards.
In the blink of an eye, it had enveloped the entire Sichuan Pavilion.
The Fog flowed slowly around them, feeling like the cold hands of the dead stroking their skin, raising goosebumps.
"SHH... SHH..."
A rustling sound came from the center of the Fog.
Shen Xing focused his gaze and saw a tall, slender, dark figure slowly taking shape.
It was pitch-black, over two meters tall, with emaciated yet unusually long limbs.
A Lost One?
No, this was more terrifying and more powerful than an ordinary Lost One!
"Run!"
At that moment, Shen Xing couldn’t spare a thought for Lu Xiang’s sudden, violent death. A primal sense of danger urged him to flee immediately!
Qin Lang and Xu Jiayi snapped back to their senses and took off running.
However, the monster’s speed exceeded all their expectations.
Its emaciated body, carrying a damp stench, lunged like a bolt of lightning toward the closest person, Qin Lang.
Just as its black claws were about to pierce through his back...
BANG!
The private room’s window suddenly exploded.
Amidst a shower of glass shards, a long spear glowing with golden light shot through the air like a meteor, instantly piercing the monster’s body!
The immense force carried it through the air, pinning it firmly to the wall of the room.
Not only that, but the golden spear continued to emit an aura of Light, Scorching the monster’s body.
TSS... TSS...
In just a few breaths, the Elite Lost One melted into a pool of charred black liquid.
The suffocating pressure vanished, and the chilling Fog dissipated.
It was as if nothing had ever happened.
But the wrecked private room and the fragments of Lu Xiang on the floor were a constant assault on their senses.
"What... what just happened?" Xu Jiayi’s eyes were wide with utter confusion.
The other two also looked completely bewildered. The day’s events had completely shattered their understanding of the world.
"Allow me to explain."
The door to the private room was pushed open, and a middle-aged man in a gray trench coat walked in slowly, his hands in his pockets.
"And you are...?" Shen Xing watched the newcomer warily.
"I’m a field agent with the Jiang City Anomaly Handling Bureau."
The middle-aged man glanced around the room, his eyes finally settling on the fragments of Lu Xiang’s corpse. "I have jurisdiction over and handle all anomalous incidents in this area."
Qin Lang and Xu Jiayi remained silent, as if still processing all this information.
Shen Xing, however, was observing the man’s right hand. It hung casually at his side, a faint golden glow still lingering at his fingertips.
’Did he create that spear?’
’How come it feels so much like my Void Hand?’
"How interesting. Seeing you three is like seeing myself when I was younger."
The middle-aged man looked at the bewildered expressions on their faces and a faint smile appeared on his lips. "A few years ago, when I first encountered these incidents, I was just as green."
"Sir, can you please tell us what in the world just happened?"
Qin Lang took a deep breath and asked, "Why did our friend suddenly die so violently? And what was that monster?"