BZZZT—
Her phone vibrated violently. Xia Qiu, clutching a box of miscellaneous items with one arm, struggled to free a hand to grab it.
Passersby around her all received the same notification at that exact moment.
[WARNING! A megaquake is imminent. All citizens, please evacuate to open, flat areas immediately!]
The moment she read the word "megaquake," the ground began to shake violently. Xia Qiu’s legs gave out, and she stumbled forward.
A billboard by the roadside crashed down, heading straight for her head.
Blood blurred her vision. The sky tore open, a colossal fissure gaping like the grin of the Grim Reaper.
People and buildings were tossed about as if in a washing machine, spinning as they were sucked into the rift.
***
[Welcome to the survival game, "Old City." Desolate Continent loading...]
[Desolate Continent loaded. Player Xia Qiu, ID #741888, detected. Vital signs are normal.]
[Newbie protection activated. Duration: 48 hours. Time remaining: 47 hours, 59 minutes, 59 seconds...]
[Initial season on the Desolate Continent: Autumn.]
[Player ID: Xia Qiu. Please note: you have only one chance to change your name. Use it wisely.]
[When the winds of winter arrive, this place will become the Land of Eternal Silence.]
[Survivor chosen by the gods, can you become the salvation of the Old City?]
Xia Qiu heard a long string of electronic sounds as she groggily came to.
"What is all that mumbo jumbo...?"
Rubbing the back of her head, which ached faintly, her memories slowly returned. Her last memory before blacking out was a world of red and a giant fissure that looked like the maw of an abyss.
A sudden thought jolted her. Hadn’t she been crushed to death by a billboard in the earthquake!?
She shot up into a sitting position. Her palms rested on sun-warmed grass that gave off a distinct earthy scent. There wasn’t another soul in sight. Beside her lay the large box of miscellaneous items she’d been carrying when she left her job.
She reached up to touch her head. It was sore, but there didn’t seem to be a wound.
Wait, that fissure...
Could the earthquake have triggered some kind of spatio-temporal turbulence that sucked her into an Otherworld?
The sunlight on her face quickly made Xia Qiu dismiss her own theory. The sun was still hanging in the sky. She was probably still on Blue Star.
She scanned her surroundings. Her precious phone was gone—either lost or stolen. The contents of the cardboard box were neatly arranged, as if someone had tidied them up and placed the box here for her.
As her fingers brushed against the box, two lines of text suddenly appeared before her.
[Acquired: Cardboard Box x1]
[Cardboard Box: A flimsy storage container. It might have other uses.]
Xia Qiu reached out to touch the text, but her hand passed through and accidentally opened an ochre-colored panel. The panel was semi-transparent, not unlike those in other games she had played.
At the top were several categories: Personal Info, Index, Mail, and Private Messages.
At the bottom were: Inventory, Map, System Channel, World Channel, Friends List, and Rankings.
She tapped on Personal Info, and a 3D avatar of herself appeared below.
[Player: Xia Qiu (#741888) (Name Changeable, Changes: 1/1)]
[Status: None]
[Health: 100/100]
[Hunger: 100/100]
[Spirit: 100/100]
[Charm: 3 (An unremarkable, ordinary person)]
[Luck: 3 (Sometimes good, sometimes bad)]
[Strength: 3 (Gets winded just from chasing a rabbit)]
After scanning her brief personal information, Xia Qiu watched as her Hunger value ticked down to 99/100.
She pinched her own cheek hard. A dull pain spread, and her Health value also changed: 99/100.
Xia Qiu was speechless.
Oh, boy. The stream of gibberish she’d heard upon waking wasn’t a dream after all. It seemed she had really entered some bizarre survival game.
With no time to waste, Xia Qiu scrambled to open the World Channel on her panel. In just a few seconds, several messages had already flown by.
[Zhou Yutong: Is anyone there? Where is this place? Have I been kidnapped?]
[One Strawberry: I think it’s a survival game?]
[Zhang Lin: ??? Is this some kind of prank show? The 3D screen looks pretty realistic!]
[One Strawberry: Whoa, you really can change your name... I was just testing it out! I don’t wanna be One Strawberry! Waaah!]
There was no valuable information. Everyone was just as clueless as Xia Qiu.
Her friends list was empty. Tapping on a speaker’s name in the World Channel brought up two options: view profile and add friend.
She opened the map, and the panel unfurled into a scroll that resembled parchment. Only Xia Qiu’s current location was illuminated; the rest was shrouded in darkness.
Xia Qiu zoomed the map to its maximum size and tried taking a few steps back and forth. The lit-up area expanded slightly, but when she zoomed out again, the change was almost imperceptible.