Yu Yu was one of today's struggling college graduates. When she received the invitation letter and wristband, she was eating instant noodles at home. Having just paid off her penalty fees yesterday, she now had only 207.65 left in her account.
And today was only August 3rd.
Fortunately, she would start her new job tomorrow. If she was frugal, she could make it through the month. Her new company was a game company, and she, Yu Yu, was specifically responsible for odd jobs.
"Eternal Darkness," Yu Yu muttered to herself. "This must be that mysterious game everyone's been talking about lately?"
"It just happens to be starting its test phase today. What a coincidence."
The wristband glowed with a blue light, like two intertwining beams. Yu Yu couldn't help but stare at it for a while. Before logging in, she decided to check the official website first. The website was completely black, with only a large countdown displayed: 8760:10:56.
Yu Yu looked around the site but found nothing. This game had nothing except the promotional slogan "Second World, Ultimate Experience."
There wasn't even the most basic introduction to the game world.
Come to think of it, how did the game company deliver these items to her? When she filled out the questionnaire, she hadn't provided her address, had she?
How strange.
Game loading...
Yu Yu entered the game and immediately looked down at herself. She was wearing a coarse hemp short shirt on her upper body and shorts of the same material below. Besides that, she had nothing else. Since the game was invitation-only, there weren't many people at the spawn point. She looked around, feeling the gentle breeze against her face and smelling a faint scent of decay. Everything before her seemed real.
"Incredible."
The blue-green stone brick pavement was uneven, carrying the essence of age. The guard wore armor full of battle scars, with a visible seam. Yu Yu didn't rush to accept any quests. Instead, she opened her character attributes. She had played many games and could consider herself a veteran player.
"Eternal Darkness" truly had unlimited potential. No wonder they dared to use an invitation system.
[Yu]
Identity: Townsperson
Profession: None
Level: 1
Money: 0
Reputation: 0
Spirit: 9
Will: 7
Perception: 5
Strength: 3
Agility: 5
Constitution: 4
Yu Yu poked at the screen a few times, trying to bring up term explanations.
...Nothing happened.
As expected.
After all, this was a game that didn't even have content on its official website.
She then looked at her status bar.
Life Force: 8 Spirit Power: 27 Armor: 0 Resistance: 0 Contamination: 0 Status: Cold (Strongly recommend finding a bonfire to warm up)
Yu Yu: "..."
She had played so many games, and even the stingiest ones didn't give initial characters single-digit health points. How was anyone supposed to survive?
"Second reality, ultimate experience..." Yu Yu muttered as she pinched her collar. So cold. The sky was gray and hazy, with no sun visible. The overall atmosphere of the game was somewhat gloomy. There weren't many people in the square. Yu Yu scanned the area and found only three NPCs near the entrance.
Two wore armor and looked like guards. The other was a woman wearing a black robe. They were also looking at her. Yu Yu walked over to them.
The robed woman: "Name."
"Yu."
The woman looked up at her. "Write it yourself."
Yu Yu looked down and wrote her online name.
"Race, gender, age."
Without hesitation, Yu Yu wrote down [Human, Female, 23].
This game's anti-addiction system was quite interesting, actually arranging NPCs to have players fill out forms. Yu Yu couldn't help but look at the NPC's head, which surprisingly had no name displayed. It seemed to be a functional NPC.
The guard's armor was incredibly detailed, with patterns she had never seen before. That crack looked more and more real the longer she looked at it, and the material... Yu Yu couldn't resist reaching out to touch it, then touch it again, and again. The texture actually felt real!
Guard: "..."
Robed woman: "..."
"What's so special about his armor?"
Yu Yu: "There's actually a crack here! This shows he's really poor. The developers paid such attention to detail."
A vein throbbed on the guard's forehead. "...I apologize, I forgot to repair it."
Yu Yu: "You can actually talk?"
A background NPC could actually respond to player actions?
"...Yes, I can actually talk." The guard's face grew even darker.
The robed woman held her forehead. "Outsider, do not provoke the guards."
Afraid that she might cause more trouble, the robed woman didn't bother to satisfy her curiosity. She made a copy of the completed form and handed it to her. "Don't lose this, or you'll be treated as a vagrant and expelled from town."
"Are there no quests?"
Robed woman: "...You can check the Academy, Town Hall, or Tavern."
Yu Yu took this as a quest and immediately ran off.
She was genuinely curious now. At this time, players began to appear in the square, materializing one by one in their coarse cloth clothes. As she walked away, Yu Yu could still hear voices.
"What material is this robe made of? Why is it so shiny?"
"Wow, this armor is so cool! Can you take it off and let me wear it?"
"...Please stop touching my armor."
Patience.
Half a day later, Yu Yu appeared outside the city. She had visited the Academy, successfully became an apprentice spellcaster, and learned one spell while obtaining three more on credit.
They were [Candlelight] [Gust] [Ignite] [Acid Ray]
[Candlelight] [Tier: 0 (Cantrip) School: Evocation Casting Range: Near Casting Area: 3-meter radius around target Duration: 5 minutes Consumption: 3 Incantation Time: 3s Proficiency: Beginner (0/100)]
She had also accepted an Academy quest:
[Pest Extermination (I)]: Kill ten worker bugs. (The Grand Administrator of Silver Moon City will soon inspect our Crescent Moon Town. How can we let the Grand Administrator see these filthy bugs? Kill them, and do what you wish with the remains.)
Yu Yu had to ask NPCs to find the bug nest located at the East Gate. She was probably among the first batch of players to enter the game, so her progress was the fastest. Along the way, she marveled at the realism of the NPCs in "Eternal Darkness." They could even allow credit.
Once outside the city, the light noticeably dimmed. Even the ground, which had been fairly clear before, was now difficult to see. Without a minimap, Yu Yu could only rely on her own eyes to find monsters.
[Gust] [Tier: 0 (Cantrip) School: Elemental Casting Range: Near Casting Area: 3 meters Duration: 1 minute Consumption: 1 Incantation Time: 1s Proficiency: Beginner (0/100)]
[Ignite] [Tier: 0 (Cantrip) School: Conjuration Casting Range: Near Duration: Instantaneous Consumption: 5 Incantation Time: 3s Proficiency: Beginner (0/100)]
[Acid Ray] [Tier: 0 (Cantrip) School: Evocation Casting Range: Far Casting Area: 20 meters Duration: Instantaneous Consumption: 5 Incantation Time: 3s Proficiency: Beginner (0/100)]
Not far beyond the city gate was a pile of rubble, where the daylight grew even dimmer. Yu Yu didn't know what the bugs looked like, but she resisted the urge to cast Candlelight.
Besides her pitiful life force, her spirit power was only a meager 27 points. Both Ignite and Acid Ray required 5 points to cast, so she couldn't waste them.
The gray-brown soil made faint sounds as she stepped on it, and a subtle smell of blood lingered in her nostrils.
Yu Yu felt uncomfortable.
Although she knew it was a game, she instinctively lightened her footsteps, fearing that a giant bug might suddenly appear.
"Buzz buzz..."
Yu Yu stopped in her tracks.
Moving even more carefully, Yu Yu walked toward the source of the sound.
A white silken nest sat among the rubble. The surrounding rocks, as tall as a person, were all wrapped in bug silk. In the dim daylight, the depths looked pitch black, appearing quite terrifying and gloomy.
On the ground, black bugs the size of watermelons made buzzing sounds as they crawled around. And deeper inside, there were bugs as large as millstones lying in wait.
Yu Yu: "..."
Excuse me, goodbye.
Yu Yu fled at top speed, and spent half a day at the city gate building up her courage. After muttering to herself for a long time, she finally began to think about how to kill the bugs. Though she had only caught a glimpse, she had seen that those bugs were the so-called worker bugs.
~Edit and rewritten by Rikhi, Reiya_Alberich, ReiNyam~
Not the ones as big as millstones, but the watermelon-sized ones. She looked around again and realized a problem: all these bugs were inside the nest. How was she supposed to fight them?
Was she expected to charge face-first into the bug nest?
That was definitely not an option.
Gust, Ignite, Acid Ray, Candlelight.
Yu Yu thought for a while, then scouted the terrain again. She quickly found a picturesque pile of rubble. How picturesque was it?
It was tall enough, easy to climb, positioned less than twenty meters from the bug nest, with a clear view of the nest entrance, and offered an easy escape route. Most importantly, the bugs probably couldn't climb up to it. Since the ray had the longest range, she planned to use it to lure the bugs.
Yu Yu began reciting the obscure incantation, mispronouncing the syllables three times before succeeding on the fourth attempt. Sickly green light gathered at Yu Yu's fingertips as she looked toward the nest entrance.
It was only then that she realized a problem: was this skill visually guided?
What if she missed?
The sickly green ray shot out with a "zzt" sound.
The bug nest became agitated.
Spirit power -5, leaving 22 points. Failed casts hadn't deducted any spirit power.
Soon, three watermelon-sized bugs ran out of the nest.
Yu Yu breathed a slight sigh of relief.
Beginner monsters. If they had all swarmed out at once, how could she possibly fight?
Being unintelligent was appropriate.
Since when were bugs smart?
Halfway through their charge, the three bugs scattered, turning in circles on the spot, still at least seven or eight meters away from Yu Yu.
Their aggro range didn't seem to be very long.
Yu Yu thought for a moment, then cast another Acid Ray.
Spirit power 17.1 points. Besides what she had used, she had recovered 0.1 points.
Hit again, the three bugs immediately perked up and rushed toward the rubble where Yu Yu was located. Then, predictably, they ran around in circles at the base of the rock.
Yu Yu breathed a sigh of relief and switched to another spell.
[Ignite]
One bug suddenly burst into flames. Dark red fire flared up, causing the bug to squeal and writhe. The other two bugs moved away from it.
Yu Yu cast Gust.
The flames didn't change at all; the wind couldn't affect them.
Perhaps she should have chosen Magic Flame instead. Magic Flame probably belonged to the same Elemental school as Gust, while Ignite was from the Conjuration school.
This was Yu Yu's guess, which needed verification, but she was almost certain it was correct.
The spell classification in this game was different from others. Instead of the usual fire, water, thunder, and light, Yu Yu had already seen several schools just among the cantrips, including [Evocation][Elemental][Transmutation][Universal]and more.
Unfortunately, the game's official website was just a black screen with nothing but a countdown, not even publishing spell classifications. They were too arrogant. There wasn't much more to say about what happened next. The bugs were persistent, determined to attack her no matter what, so Yu Yu just kept regaining spirit power while fighting them.
The damage from Acid Ray was underwhelming. When a bug was hit, it only lost about a fifth of its health, but its body would emit a greenish glow. Add an Ignite that burned for a while, and it was just enough to burn away the last bit of the bug's health.
Acid Ray likely had a corrosive effect, but since the game didn't provide skill descriptions, Yu Yu could only make a mental note and decided to report it on the forums after logging out. After a long waiting period, she finally killed ten bugs.
Each gave 7 or 8 experience points. Her experience was now Level 1, 75/100.
Her eyes involuntarily looked toward the bug nest again. In reality, misty fog rose from the distance, gradually covering the ground and enveloping everyone. Meanwhile, in the Crescent Moon Town Hall, noisy commotion broke out.
"Lord Administrator! I want to file a complaint against these outsiders!"
The blacksmith's face was bright red. "They were climbing through my windows right in front of me!"
"Breaking into my chests!"
He roared, "And trying to take off my pants!!!"