Chapter 1 A Subtle Season

September, a subtle season.

She's like a graceful woman, about to change into a dress called autumn; the lingering warmth of high summer is the last wisp of silk gauze tied around her waist, while the pressure of the school year and the haze of quarterly reports are like a pair of safety shorts beneath that gauze.

Okay, let's get back to the point…

This September of 2055 undoubtedly belonged to Thriller Paradise. After the Pinnacle Melee S2 preliminaries began, Dream Inc. launched a corresponding promotional plan, hyping the competition to a fever pitch. In just a few days, all sorts of news related to it spread like wildfire across all media, and even many mainstream media outlets that used to disdain the gaming industry reported on it, making it the focus of unparalleled social attention.

Within the gaming community, this competition became the most eye-catching battle in recent years.

Five months after the server launch, a team-based format, a point-based ranking system… it wasn't hard to see that this preliminary system had a hidden meaning of "testing the mettle of studios."

If the final rankings of S1 were unconvincing due to too many unpredictable factors in the finals, then this time in S2... at least in the preliminary stage, each team had no excuses to make.

In fact, most game studios had unanimously reached a consensus—the preliminary results of the Pinnacle Melee S2 would likely determine the true ranking of each studio in the eyes of the majority of players.

Therefore, for those well-known game studios, from the moment of zero o'clock on September 5th, a fifty-day-long covert war had already begun.

Every day, the point standings they announced on their official websites were important cornerstones on the road to victory.

And for those professional players who were hailed as "stars," it was also a protracted trial.

The results of each round of the competition, the process of each team battle, and even every point of survival value lost in each duel... could all have an impact on the team's preliminary ranking.

From the perspective of casual teams, thirty-six matches were just thirty-six wins or losses; theoretically speaking, 108 points were the best possible result.

But from the perspective of professional powerhouses... 108 points were only "passing." "Total victory" was a must. As a team that wanted to compete for the championship, if they couldn't even achieve total victory in the preliminary round, which was like sifting sand, then what confidence did they have to win all the way through the knockout rounds filled with strong opponents?

And on the basis of total victory, they also had to ensure that each victory was won with the least cost and in the most efficient way possible... Only teams that could do this to the extreme could reach the top of the preliminary point standings.

Simply put, teams pursuing a high preliminary ranking had to treat every match and every moment in the entire thirty-six effective point matches with seriousness and allow no mistakes. They couldn't play with the attitude of "as long as we win in the end" like casual players. They were destined to put in more effort than ordinary players because... that's what it meant to be "professional."

"Getting paid to play games" was never as easy as it looked on the surface; in all fairness, the pressure of this was greater than taking a salary to do something else. Even though times were progressing, the ingrained prejudices in people's hearts still existed... No one would say that a soccer player was "getting paid to play soccer," nor would anyone say that a swimmer was "getting paid to play in the water," but the "professional gamer" profession was always judged with tinted glasses.

In fact, there was no fundamental difference between professional gamers and professional athletes. Both required talent, hard work, and a little bit of luck. Both had experience, skill, the ability to withstand pressure, and professional ethics. The biggest difference between them was that one used physical tools or venues as competitive tools, while the other used virtual electronic programs as competitive carriers. It was obviously unfair to look at those who engaged in the latter with different eyes simply because the entertainment tendency of the latter was greater than the tendency to exercise the participant's physical or mental strength.

When Dream Inc. promoted Pinnacle Melee S2 to the general public outside the gaming circle, they paid great attention to this point. One of their slogans was "Don't understand why someone can make a living by playing games? Then come see what they have that is so extraordinary."

As soon as such slogans came out, let alone the player groups who were involved in games, even those who knew nothing about the gaming industry or had never been exposed to Thriller Paradise were interested in this "Pinnacle Melee."

And all of this... was the groundwork Dream Inc. was laying for the "live broadcast" in the second half of the preliminaries.

By late September, after this kind of "only hearing the news but not seeing the shadow" hunger marketing had aroused people's curiosity, Dream Inc. then released a message—"Three days later, the live broadcasting rights for the second half of the preliminaries will be put up for public bidding."

This move not only allowed them to recoup all their previous promotional costs but also made them a killing...

Of course, these were all things that happened later. At least before September 20th, no one knew that the matches in the later stages of the preliminaries would be broadcast live. At present, the focus of most players' attention was still on how to play their own matches well.

Almost no one noticed... that at the beginning of this fifty-day preliminary cycle, the prelude to Ragnarok... had already quietly begun.

…………

Main Universe, Border of the Chaos Scorched Earth.

On the edge of this void, there stood a huge door—the Gate of Emptiness.

Back then... the battle between gods and demons shook the heavens and the earth. In the end, the Supervising God exhausted his divine power and used a life form with both divine and demonic characteristics as a sealing hub to seal the Fighting Demon into the gate.

After countless years... that ancient demon guard relied on absorbing the Fighting Demon's aura seeping from the door and successfully escaped the seal, and his whereabouts were unknown.

Fortunately, the Supervising God's Seal was indestructible, and even in the absence of the "wedge," it still persisted for quite a long time.

However... that kind of day has come to an end today.

Crack, crack...

After a series of dull cracking sounds, the dark gate shattered into debris.

In an instant, an ultimate demonic aura of unbelievably high density swept out from the gate.

Afterward, heavy footsteps came from the gate…

Thump, thump, thump…

A behemoth was walking out of the door unhurriedly. Every step it took made the whole earth tremble.

But... just as it walked to the door, only one step away from crossing it, it stopped.

"Hmm?" it said to itself, "Have I been in the ‘Void’ for too long… or has something strange happened to this universe…”

As it spoke, it had already raised a hand (forepaw) and stretched it out of the door. As a result... in less than two seconds, its hand exploded from the inside.

The dark demonic blood flowed down, giving off a fragrance like aged wine, strong and far-reaching.

This... was the most ultimate characteristic of the "Demon." From a data perspective, every drop of blood on its body, every breath it exhaled, was highly condensed energy. Compared to those ordinary things that exuded a fishy and foul aura inside and outside their bodies, it was simply a world of difference.

"Is this really ‘that universe’ where I used to be… why is the ‘pressure’ so small…” The Fighting Demon retracted its hand, and many black fibrous substances repaired its severed limb at a speed visible to the naked eye, “It seems that I need to spend some time to adapt to this new environment.”

As it spoke, it had already secretly channeled its demonic power and began to modify its body.

Wrapped in demonic energy, its figure began to shrink rapidly, and gradually... became humanoid.

Finally, after about three minutes, "it" became "he."

At this time, the Fighting Demon had transformed into a naked human male. He was about 1.9 meters tall, with a well-proportioned physique and a gloomy appearance. He had pale, frosty skin and naturally curly black hair. Looking at his exposed body, there was nothing that looked different from ordinary people.

“Hoo…” After successfully transforming, the Fighting Demon took a deep breath, and then, he stepped out of the gate that had trapped him for billions of years (the sense of time in the "Void" becomes infinitely long), and officially entered the main universe of Thriller Paradise.