System Prompt: [Ji Luo] joined the group chat.
System Prompt: [I Am Not Jiahao] joined the group chat.
Accompanied by the group-entry notifications, everyone instinctively clicked on the newcomers’ avatars.
Ji Luo’s avatar was an ordinary landscape photo, which perfectly suited his identity as a soon-to-be college student.
But the moment [I Am Not Jiahao]’s avatar appeared, the atmosphere in the chat group instantly became dark and edgy.
It was a black-and-white anime profile picture.
The young man in the image had his head lowered, his bangs covering one eye, radiating a melancholic, broken aura that screamed, “Don’t love me.
There will be no happy ending.”
Lu Ziye almost spat the freshly delivered stir-fried rice noodles all over his screen.
“This vibe is way too accurate!
If Jiahao is actually older than a middle-schooler in real life, I’ll eat my phone right here!”
However, everyone in the group tacitly chose not to expose Jiahao’s persona.
After all, having a chuunibyou teammate in the game could occasionally provide some unexpected entertainment.
[Malou Also Has Dignity] casually changed the group name from “Loving Bald Family” to “First Test High-Player Top-Secret Operation Conference Room.”
[Malou Also Has Dignity]:
“Brothers!
Done eating yet?”
“Time for online classes!
I just found a video titled African Bro Teaches You How to Hand-Knead a Blast Furnace with Mud to Smelt Iron.
I’ve sent the link to the group.
Everyone go watch it!”
[Ji Luo]:
“Reliable.
After logging in tomorrow, let’s not go to the Abandoned Village first.”
“According to the terrain, the village is southeast of the church, while the Black Forest is directly to the north.
Tomorrow, we can sneak along the outer edge of the Black Forest.
That way, we can avoid the elite monsters in the Abandoned Village while gathering some new resources.”
[Kindergarten Boss]:
“I think that works.
Let’s make a few more wooden spears and stone weapons first.”
“An inch longer means an inch stronger.
They’ll still be more useful than poking things with a wooden stick.”
The more they chatted, the more excited they became.
Before long, they were already discussing how to use traps to lure and kill that giant bug in the Abandoned Village the following day.
…
Time quickly passed eleven o’clock at night.
Lu Ziye let out a long yawn, rubbed his aching eyes, and sent a voice message to the group.
“I can’t take it anymore, brothers.
My eyelids are fighting each other.”
“Playing games and arguing online all day has nearly boiled my brain.
I’m heading off first.
Everyone, be online at seven tomorrow morning!”
[Ji Luo]: “I’m going to sleep too.
See you tomorrow morning.”
[Kindergarten Boss]: “Everyone rest early.
We’ll continue moving bricks tomorrow.”
[I Am Not Jiahao]: “The physiological limits of carbon-based lifeforms are fragile indeed.
Good night.”
After saying their goodbyes, the group gradually fell silent.
About ten minutes later, half-asleep, Lu Ziye casually picked up his phone and glanced at the chat.
“Hmm?”
He muttered, “How come Malou hasn’t said anything for a while?
He was the most enthusiastic about spamming Lao Da with memes just now.
Did he literally chat himself to sleep?”
Lu Ziye didn’t think much of it.
He tossed his phone aside, rolled over, and promptly began snoring loudly enough to shake the heavens.
However, no one could have expected what happened next.
In the world of online gaming, there is one timeless truth:
Never believe a gaming buddy who says, “I’m going to sleep.”
Because behind those words often lurks the most shameless secret competition imaginable!
At twelve o’clock midnight, inside the game world…
Outside the window, the violent wind whipped through the Black Forest, stirring up clouds of gray fog and producing a sound like ghosts wailing and wolves howling.
Inside the dilapidated church, a faint white light suddenly flashed across the previously empty resurrection magic circle.
The light faded.
A thin, shifty-looking figure quietly appeared in the center of the magic circle.
[Malou Also Has Dignity] is online.
He tiptoed out of the magic circle and cautiously peeked at the pitch-black night beyond the church doors.
Although the terrifying roars outside were enough to make anyone’s scalp tingle, Malou’s naturally suspicious-looking face slowly curled into an extremely mischievous grin.
“Sleep my ass!
Get up and party!”
Malou chuckled wickedly and skillfully opened his attribute panel.
At this moment, his experience bar was surprisingly sitting at:
[40/100]
Of those forty experience points, twenty had come from killing the Aberrant Corrupted Corpse when he first entered the game, while another twenty had been earned from helping Sivier build the cabin.
He was only sixty experience points away from reaching Level 1!
“Those normies, Old Lu and Old Ji, usually look pretty capable, but the moment night falls, they become as timid as quails.”
Gripping the sharpened wooden spear tightly, Malou sneakily glanced at the ink-black sky beyond the church.
“Everyone says the wilderness at night is hell, but high risk often means high reward!”
“What if some low-level monsters happen to spawn near the edge of the church’s barrier tonight?”
“As long as I quietly poke a few of them to death and get those sixty experience points, I’ll hit Level 1!”
“Then tomorrow morning, when they log in, I’ll scare them all to tears!”
Just imagining tomorrow morning—when he could proudly display his dazzling Lv.1 status, casually stick one hand into his pocket, and lecture everyone about the higher realms of gaming—made Malou tremble with excitement.
Dangerous night?
Faced with the paranoid spirit of modern players who would rather die than let their teammates outdo them, even the Great Old Ones would have to step aside!
“Hehehe…
Brothers, I’m sorry.”
“I’m taking the throne of the first Level 1 player on the entire server!”
Malou hunched over like a weasel sneaking down a mountain, dragged his crude wooden spear behind him, and gradually disappeared into the unknown darkness.
At this moment, after [Malou Also Has Dignity] left the church, Lynn’s consciousness slowly awakened within the divine statue.
“Isn’t that the player called Malou?”
Lynn was puzzled.
“Didn’t this group of Fourth Calamity players say they were logging off to sleep?
Why is someone sneaking back online in the middle of the night?”
But after thinking about it, Lynn immediately understood.
This is what modern online-game involution looks like!
You think your teammate has logged off to sleep?
Wrong!
They’re merely pretending to rest while secretly logging back in during the middle of the night to grind levels, preparing to amaze everyone the next morning!
For this kind of high-quality wage slave who voluntarily works overtime without demanding wages—and even risks his life to do so—Lynn the capitalist naturally welcomed him with both hands.
“However…
the darkness outside is no joke.”
Looking at Malou’s disappearing back, Lynn couldn’t help feeling curious.
He was currently trapped inside the divine statue and couldn’t leave the protective barrier.
In fact, he had no intuitive understanding of what the outside world was like at night.
From the memories of the statue’s original owner, he only knew that the danger level at night far exceeded that of daytime.
This was the perfect opportunity to use this stubborn player as a scout.
“System, can I view the player’s first-person or third-person perspective while they’re in the wilderness?” Lynn asked inwardly.
[Ding!]
[To activate the Deity’s Gaze function, 1 Faith Value is required per hour.]
“One coin an hour for internet access?
That’s quite a bargain!”
Lynn paid without hesitation.
Although the five unlucky players had been wiped out by that giant bug earlier in the afternoon, costing him fifty Faith Value that he had spent to reconstruct his physical body and making his heart ache, there had at least been some compensation.
Before those three players died, they had stubbornly smashed three Tier-0 Corrupted Villagers to death with bricks.
According to the system’s underlying energy-conservation rules, killing a Tier-0 cannon fodder unit allowed the system to extract ten Faith Value.
Lynn unceremoniously extracted nine points.
The remaining one point was converted into ten experience points and two Ash Coins, which were then distributed to the players.
Those three small monsters had therefore restored twenty-seven Faith Value to Lynn.
Although he was still operating at a loss overall, at least the bleeding had stopped.
“Malou, oh Malou…”
“You’d better pull your weight tonight.
Try to kill a few more small monsters and restore some health for your boss!”
Full of anticipation, Lynn activated the system panel.
His vision instantly switched to a third-person holographic perspective positioned above and behind Malou.
At that moment, it was exactly like watching a three-dimensional immersive livestream.
Even the surrounding environmental sounds and the howling wind were perfectly synchronized.