Chapter 1 The Beginning

Great Horn Mountain Gathering Place, one of the starting points for new players on Aquamarine Star.

Mad Blade Raging Sword's vision blurred, and he found himself in a square. Beneath his feet was yellow earth, and the coarse air filled his nostrils. It was incredibly real; he could even feel the warmth of the sun. He lowered his head to pinch his arm, and the muscle texture was almost identical to reality, leaving him amazed.

This was a small square, surrounded by hundreds of players curiously sizing each other up. He could see their player nicknames floating above their heads.

Wooden and stone encampments were built around the square, and NPCs dressed in simple animal skins appeared in twos and threes in the distance, pointing and seemingly whispering.

Following the newbie guide he had received when creating his character, Mad Blade Raging Sword brought up his panel to check his Level 1 character stats. Just like the official website information, he received a newbie three-piece set as a standard starting gift: a cloth shirt, pants, and boots that would never drop, but had no attributes other than providing modesty.

He noticed a guy next to him tugging at his pants, trying to take them off, but all his efforts were in vain. He looked disappointed and said, "Can't get naked, bad review!"

What the hell? What censored word did you just say? What are you trying to do?!

Mad Blade Raging Sword was horrified and quietly moved away from the guy.

Mad Blade Raging Sword was an unknown professional player, new to the pro scene and still a tender newbie. He had heard that the International Gaming Alliance was preparing for a professional league even before *Galaxy* was released, so he paid close attention. When the highly anticipated closed beta opened, Mad Blade Raging Sword asked the club's higher-ups for a precious beta access.

Being one step ahead of others during the pioneering stage allowed one to stay ahead at every step. Mad Blade Raging Sword was full of ambition.

The players in the square were buzzing with discussion.

"This is so realistic."

"What are we supposed to do now?"

"Is there any hint?"

At that moment, an old white man with white hair and beard, a commanding presence, and resembling a white-haired lion king, came before the crowd and said loudly:

"You outsiders, if you want to eat, find yourselves a job. Our gathering place does not welcome idlers. Hmm, the crops in the fields need to be harvested, and the tailor shops and weapons shops in the south also need skilled workers. A batch of goods has just been transported to the entrance of the gathering place and needs people to load and unload them. In short, as long as you are diligent, you won't starve."

The players noticed that next to their health bars were two boxes, representing hunger and thirst. Once both dropped to zero, they would receive the [Hunger] and [Thirst] debuffs, weakening their attributes and causing their health to steadily decline until death.

Mad Blade Raging Sword cast Detect on the old man.

[Based on your level, you have obtained the following information]

[Sanders – Village Chief of Great Horn Mountain Gathering Place]

[Level: ?]

[Attributes: ?]

[You can consider him a beginner village chief]

[Danger Level: Medium]

Players have a Detect function that allows them to see the names and information of NPCs, but if the level difference is too great, the information will be incomplete.

The color of an NPC's name represents their faction relationship: green for friendly, yellow for neutral, and red for hostile. Danger level represents the difference in strength between the player and the target. The current players are all Level 1 newbies and cannot see Sanders' specific attributes.

"The weapon shop sells guns, ammunition, and melee weapons. The market has many people selling food and water. The beast farm in the west can rent packhorses for riding. If you want to leave, a public transit railway station is a few kilometers north. If you want to learn various life skills, the blacksmith shop and tailor shop are good choices..."

According to Sanders' description, everyone roughly understood the situation. The gathering place could only provide job changes for a few life sub-professions and a [Beginner Hunter] combat profession, all of which required money for training.

The players' maps were currently covered in fog of war, a dark expanse. More information about the planetary background, maps, and power dynamics needed to be explored to light up the panel map. There were many elements to explore, giving Mad Blade Raging Sword a *Maiden Scroll 21* vibe.

Ultimately, initial activities all required money.

So, doing life quests to earn money was essential at the beginning?

"I wonder if we can directly do monster-slaying quests?"

A guild leader asked. Mad Blade Raging Sword recognized him as Cut-into-Eighteen-Pieces, the guild leader of the Kill-The-World Guild. His name revealed his personality, and he was probably from the Guangdong province of China.

Unexpectedly, Sanders muttered a few words about what monster-slaying meant, and then burst out laughing, "With your little bodies going to hunt beasts, you're simply courting death. Do you see that mountain range? If you're not afraid of death, go into the mountains and hunt. I will give you corresponding rewards based on the prey you catch, but as I see it, you can't even beat the weakest Gray-Backed Hyena."

Everyone looked over and saw lush forests in the distance, with towering, majestic mountains that seemed to pierce the sky. Clouds surrounded the peaks like winding giant pythons. The magnificent scenery captivated many players; the details were too realistic, a world apart from the textured scenery of other virtual online games.

Cut-into-Eighteen-Pieces didn't believe it. He led a few guild elders, bought crude melee weapons with the hundred Aquamarine coins they started with, and immediately rushed into the mountains.

Before long, the group returned dejectedly.

Cut-into-Eighteen-Pieces looked terrible. The beast he encountered was a gorilla bigger than a human. As soon as he raised his knife, the gorilla blasted him in the head with an Old Ape Throws Dung. He randomly resurrected nearby, and ten thousand comical beasts galloped through his mind.

Why is the monkey's attack method throwing shit! Does it have to be so close to life!

He could vaguely smell the scent of destiny, and Cut-into-Eighteen-Pieces' stomach churned, making him want to vomit.

I don't object to the realism of the details, but adding a smell to the poop is definitely the developer's perverted taste!

"Damn, the monsters are too strong!"

"I died before I could see clearly!"

"One slash only deals 1 point of damage!"

"Damn, the [Crude Stone Knife] I just bought dropped!"

Death deducts experience based on the total level, and resurrection time increases cumulatively. The first death takes only ten seconds, the second takes one minute, the third takes five minutes, and the fourth takes half an hour, and so on. The resurrection time resets once every six in-game days.

The death penalty wasn't light. Players could only die a maximum of ten times within six in-game days. Once the limit was reached, they were forced offline and could only log in again the next real-world day. It was said to be the latest anti-addiction measure, even more effective than the fatigue system in *Sky Island and Maiden*. After students used up their daily death allowance, they could only obediently go offline and study. After *Galaxy* introduced this setting, Yang's Internet Addiction Treatment Technology, a decades-old tradition, gave the first bad review, probably because their business was affected...

The players immediately dismissed the idea of ​​fighting monsters and focused on running errands to earn money. Hundreds of players ran around, doing tasks with great enthusiasm, adding bricks and tiles to the socialist construction of Great Horn Mountain.

Sanders stroked his beard with a gratified expression. These outsiders are very diligent, with cultivation value.

"The rewards are too small, only fifty coins!"

"Leveling up is so slow, I did tasks for half an hour just to accumulate enough experience to level up."

"The sense of control is so real!"

"Hitting yourself also causes health loss, awesome."

"Are you stupid?"

The beginning was both challenging and not purely tormenting to players. While possessing extremely high freedom, it also provided optional newbie goals. It was full of fun, making people gnash their teeth while enjoying themselves. This feeling of pain and happiness made the players unable to resist fantasizing about the game developer's wife in eighteen different positions.

Today, we are all Old Wang!

……

"Are you also a professional player?"

Mad Blade Raging Sword heard someone call him. He turned around and saw three players walking over together. Mad Blade Raging Sword recognized them all: the super popular master in the professional circle, the genius player "Flash Fried Rice," the super master "Moonlight Everlasting" who had fought in various virtual game professional leagues for ten years, and the esports beauty "Jiang Yu Luo" with tens of millions of fans. The one speaking was Moonlight Everlasting.

Facing these big shots in the same industry, Mad Blade Raging Sword felt like he was suddenly shorter and asked nervously, "Is there something you need?"

Moonlight Everlasting smiled and said, "I don't know if you noticed, the map sold in the market costs three thousand Aquamarine coins, but the reward for newbie quests is too little. Basically, no one will buy the map."