Ai Luo watched as the door of the hibernation pod slowly opened. It had been ten years. During the mental experiments, he went through eight years of painful experiments, and then spent more than two years abandoned inside the hibernation pod, with no one coming to claim him. He had no choice but to enter the game world and accumulate life points in order to survive.
His younger brother, Ai Wen, was vain and had run up a huge debt without daring to tell his family, and the interest kept rolling higher and higher. In order to repay the money, he secretly signed a contract with the mental experiment laboratory. But right before he was going to be taken away by the people from the laboratory, he suddenly became afraid and regretted it, because he knew that the experimental process would definitely be painful and terrifying, and the chance of surviving was very small. So he cried and begged his parents to save him. However, after signing a contract with the mental power laboratory, it was not something that could be solved simply with money. If Ai Wen did not want to become an experimental subject, someone had to take his place and become the experimental subject instead.
Ai Wen grew up being doted on by his parents from childhood, while Ai Luo grew up with his grandparents and only later returned to live by his parents’ side, so naturally, his feelings for his parents were not as deep as Ai Wen’s. But he never imagined it, he never dreamed of it! His own biological parents would join forces with his fiancé and deceive him into taking his younger brother’s place as the experimental subject of the mental power laboratory.
Two years ago, Ai Luo, as a failed experimental subject, was placed inside the hibernation pod, and no one ever came to claim him. Then just yesterday, the people from the laboratory transmitted a message into his brain through the hibernation pod, telling him that there were not enough hibernation pods anymore. They would either transmit him to the game space-time or let him leave on his own, but once he left the hibernation pod, without enough financial resources to sustain his life, he could only live for a little more than a year at most.
Of course, Ai Luo chose to go to the game space-time without the slightest hesitation.
People who have been experimental subjects in the mental power laboratory are usually much more powerful than the vast majority of other people after entering the game world, so they also receive more attention. The livestreaming platform even specially arranged an interview for him.
Before Ai Luo entered the teleporter, the reporter asked, “Before entering the game space-time, is there anything you want to say?”
Ai Luo watched the flying camera hovering in the air and stayed silent for quite a while. He recalled in his mind the pain worse than death that he experienced during these years of experiments. Then, with a gentle smile on his face, he said, “I want to say to my family, please wait for me. I will definitely go find you.”
Ai Luo had a smile on his face, but in the depths of his eyes was a crazed hatred that wanted to devour everything. No matter what situation he encountered, he had to come back alive. He had to make those people pay a price a hundred times more painful than what he suffered!
“It seems that you must really want to reunite with your family. I wish for you to be able to fulfill your wish. The viewers watching the livestream right now are also all very much looking forward to seeing your performance.”
Ai Luo smiled lightly again, then firmly and resolutely walked into the space-time teleporter.
At this moment, many of the viewers watching the livestream were very excited.
—Another experimental subject is about to enter the game. Although he is a failed experimental subject, he should still be somewhat more powerful than most other people, right? Even if he cannot go on a huge killing spree in all four directions, a smaller killing spree in all four directions should still not be a problem, right? I’m already starting to look forward to it. You definitely have to let me watch something satisfying and exhilarating!
—This person is really good-looking ah. But having such high looks has both advantages and disadvantages. It depends on how he uses it.
—I’m the most loyal face dog[2]颜狗 (yán gǒu) = “face dog,” slang for someone who is especially obsessed with a person’s looks. jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_3637380_1_2').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_3637380_1_2', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });. At least if he has a high appearance value, I can watch him and find it pleasing to the eyes. I hope he can survive through several more games.
—How about making a bet on how many games he can survive? After all, he is someone who has been an experimental subject. I think at least more than three games.
—That also depends on how good his luck is. What if he encounters hell-level difficulty in the very first game? He might not be able to hold on for long before dying.
—However, the NPCs in the game he enters are rather unlucky. They say that failed experimental subjects sometimes cannot even control themselves, so those NPCs will very likely be killed by him into a complete mess.
There are very, very few people who can successfully survive in the game and return. Both their strength and luck have to be extremely strong for it to be possible. So even when an extremely powerful successful experimental subject enters the game, no one would think that he will definitely be able to return alive. Therefore, people who accumulate life and successfully return can be said to be extraordinarily lucky people.
And just as the other people watching the livestream were discussing how many games Ai Luo could survive, discussing his looks, and discussing his strength as a failed experimental subject, Ai Luo’s family, who were watching the interview, instead felt worried and afraid about it.
“What should I do?” Ai Wen said fearfully, his face looking terrible, “Ge[3]哥 (gē) – “older brother”; a casual way of addressing or referring to an older brother. jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_3637380_1_3').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_3637380_1_3', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], }); is about to enter the game world. What if he comes back alive? He definitely won’t let me off. What should I do then? I’m really so scared.”
Ai Mingsong and Sun Qian’s expressions also did not look very good. Although Ai Luo was their own biological son, things had already developed into how they were now, and they also hoped that he would not come back anymore. Otherwise, they did not know how they would face him.
Wells pulled Ai Wen into his arms and comforted him, “No one who enters the game can be certain to come back alive. Over all these years, the people who returned alive can be counted on one’s fingers. I don’t think he could possibly have that kind of luck, so actually, there’s no need to worry too much.”
Wells was Ai Luo’s former fiancé, and he was now engaged to Ai Wen. In fact, back when he and Ai Luo still had a marriage engagement, he was already secretly together with Ai Wen. When Ai Mingsong and Sun Qian were unable to make a decision, he was also the one who came forward to persuade them and got them to agree to let Ai Luo take Ai Wen’s place.
“But what if?” Ai Wen still felt very uneasy. He tightly grabbed Wells’s hand and said, “I heard that the probability of people who have been experimental subjects coming back alive is getting higher and higher. What if he also comes back alive?”
“Then let him come back. Could it be that I can’t even protect you?” Wells gently patted Ai Wen and said, “Rest assured. With my family’s influence, even if he really comes back alive, he won’t be able to do anything to you. I will definitely protect you.”
Ai Wen tightly hugged Wells and prayed in his heart that Ai Luo could die in the game as soon as possible.
Watching the livestream required applying for permission. They had previously not been interested in livestreams, so they did not have viewing permission. Wells had already decided to apply, but it would take some time for it to be reviewed. He wanted to see with his own eyes what Ai Luo looked like when he died in the game.
After going through random teleportation, Ai Luo had successfully entered the game world.
In the game world, there are players and NPCs. Players are people like Ai Luo, either people who were swept into the game by space-time, or people who came through teleportation on their own in order to accumulate life. As for the NPCs in the eyes of the players, they are actually people who originally truly existed in this world. They only possess the memories that belong to them in this world, and know nothing at all about space-time, transmigration, or games.
So for these players, the word “game” does not refer to the so-called virtual game, but rather a law of survival. Treating everything as a game and escaping from here at any cost and by any means makes it easier to survive.
When Ai Luo opened his eyes, he was standing on a street in a small town. The small town looked bustling and lively. Carriages would occasionally pass along the streets, while all kinds of shops stood on both sides of the streets, as if he had entered a beautiful yet retro oil-painting world.
The feeling of regaining his freedom made Ai Luo feel that even the air was sweet. His first reaction was not to think about the game, but to stroll around the street. Before the game began, he wanted to properly experience this feeling of freedom. The hood of his large cloak somewhat blocked his view, so in order to see more clearly, he simply pulled the hood back.
But just after he pulled back the hood of his cloak, more and more people began looking at him. Ai Luo had grown up being looked at by people since he was little and was already used to it, so he did not pay attention to it. He walked up to a fruit stall, picked up a fruit that looked very delicious, and looked at it curiously.
“Put it down!” The uncle selling fruit shouted angrily at Ai Luo, “Don’t dirty my things! Get lost!”
Ai Luo was stunned by the shout. He thought, It’s not like I’m not going to pay. Why are you being so fierce? But he did not say anything either. He put down the fruit, turned around, and prepared to leave.
“Ai Luo?”
Ai Luo heard someone calling his name and immediately looked up.
“You actually dare to come to Rose Town?” Archie looked at Ai Luo with eyes full of hatred and anger and said, “Do you really think we won’t do anything to you, so you deliberately came here to provoke us?”
When Ai Luo saw Archie’s familiar face, the memories he had in this world were immediately automatically triggered. Ai Luo looked around, only then discovering that the gazes those people directed at him were very wrong. Almost every person’s eyes carried an angry expression.
Ai Luo, who remembered everything, somewhat anxiously wanted to leave as quickly as possible. Suddenly, an egg flew from somewhere and happened to hit him on the head. Ai Luo froze and raised his hand to touch it. It was not very painful, but the egg was rotten, and it smelled very bad and unpleasant.
Ai Luo only froze for a moment before suddenly, things began continuously being thrown at him from all directions.
“You actually dare to come here. Get out of Rose Town!”
“Get lost! Don’t dirty our place!”
“I’ll beat that shameless bastard to death!”
“Hit him! Beat him to death!”
The residents of the small town angrily threw things at Ai Luo. Some threw rotten vegetables, some threw rotten eggs and fruit, and some even threw stones at him. Ai Luo could not block them all and could only immediately run away, but those people still kept following behind him and throwing things at him.
“Young Master Ai Luo!”
Ai Luo heard someone calling him and looked up. It was a coachman sitting on a carriage by the side of the street.
“Young Master Ai Luo, come quickly!” Seeing Ai Luo stop where he was, the coachman called out anxiously.
Ai Luo immediately ran over to the carriage, then quickly got into the carriage and closed the door. The coachman immediately drove the carriage away quickly.
Ai Luo raised his hand and wiped his face. Just now, his face was hit by some rotten fruit whose name he did not know. Now his face was sour and smelly. Lowering his head and looking at his thoroughly disheveled appearance, he now understood why he used the hood of his cloak to cover his face.
Ai Luo closed his eyes and began using his memories to learn some information that was useful to him.
Only after quite a while did Ai Luo finish learning all the information about himself in this world. He frowned and opened his eyes, turned his head to look out the window, and then told the coachman to stop the carriage by the roadside.
After getting off the carriage, Ai Luo looked at the manor in the distance, surrounded by fields of roses. That was the main stage of this game world, Rose Manor, a place he could not go to, yet had to go to.
Suddenly, he heard the sound of running horses’ hooves. Ai Luo turned his head and looked over. Several people were riding horses toward this side. The person in the lead was tall and sturdy, and sitting on the horse, he gave off a strong sense of oppression. His blond hair was extremely dazzling under the sunlight, but what drew even more attention was the mask on his face. The left half of his face above the corner of his mouth was covered by the mask. This person was the master of Rose Manor, Count Fronde, and also his former fiancé.
Fronde pulled the reins tight and made the horse stop. Looking down from above, he coldly watched Ai Luo, who was in a thoroughly disheveled state, with his face red and purple in patches.
Ai Luo raised his head and met his gaze. In this world, he and Fronde had a marriage engagement. But after Fronde’s appearance was ruined, not only did he propose breaking off the engagement, he also stole the lifesaving antidote that Fronde needed. Thus, after the engagement was broken off, he was permanently forbidden from entering Rose Manor.
After the two looked at each other for a while, a person behind Fronde rode his horse forward. He looked at Ai Luo with an angry expression, raised the whip in his hand, and was about to lash it at Ai Luo, but Fronde raised his hand and stopped him.
The one Ai Luo met just now in Rose Town was Fronde’s second nephew, Alqi. This one who was about to strike him with the horsewhip was Fronde’s eldest nephew, Andre.
Fronde gave Ai Luo a cold look before riding away. As the others passed by Ai Luo, they all glared fiercely at him.
Not only did everyone throughout Rose Manor hate him, even those people in Rose Town who had received Count Fronde’s kindness were also extremely disgusted with him. Ai Luo had already sensed just how difficult it would be if he wanted to complete the mission.
References[+]