C6 The First Experience of the Game!

When Shadow of Wind regained consciousness, all he saw was darkness. A single line of text floated before him: Do you wish to revive (You have one free revival remaining today).

Without a second thought, Shadow of Wind chose to revive. In the blink of an eye, he was back under the statue in the rundown village, surrounded by curious players.

Two flashes of white light appeared beside him. I'm Really Handsome and Running Towards the Sunset materialized. They exchanged glances until I'm Really Handsome ventured, "Did that thing just explode?"

"It did," Shadow of Wind and Running Towards the Sunset confirmed with a nod.

"Looked kinda familiar, didn't it?"

"Definitely familiar!"

"That's got to be a copyright issue, right?"

"Seems like it!"

Their absurd exchange drew the attention of other players. One of them, smiling, called out, "Hey, Wild Waves, did you guys respawn or teleport back to town? Run into any monsters?"

Shadow of Wind was torn between laughter and tears but saw no point in keeping secrets. After a moment's pause, he admitted, "We encountered... Creepers. And yeah, all three of us got blown up."

Creepers, one of the most common monsters in my world. Any gamer would recognize them. So when they heard his story, laughter and teasing followed.

"So it really is 'your world' huh? You've even got Creepers?"

"Talk about infringement, you might end up in court!"

"Wait, does that mean the zombie earlier was from my world too?"

"What are the game developers thinking? With such advanced tech, why copy monsters from somewhere else?"

No one doubted the truth of Shadow of Wind and his companions' story; their bewildered reactions post-resurrection were clear for all to see. Just then, a series of white lights flashed, signaling the revival of over a dozen players.

"Did you guys get taken out by Creepers too?"

Shadow of Wind looked at the dazed players and asked with curiosity.

"Creepers? Aren't those from my world?" one player responded, looking at Shadow of Wind oddly before adding with a shudder, "Our squad got turned into a beehive by seven or eight Skeleton Archers. Man, it was brutal."

"You got off easy. The three of us were cornered by over ten zombies, gnawed on bit by bit until we died. I was so terrified I almost logged off," gasped a player crouched on the ground next to me, his face etched with horror.

Shadow of Wind took stock of the situation. The fallen players had been slain by skeletons, zombies, creepers, and spiders. That meant there were at least four types of monsters lurking near Beginner Village. And the deaths were strikingly similar: all due to being ambushed by monsters they hadn't noticed. Except for his squad, who had spotted the monsters but still got blown away in an instant.

"This game is tougher than I imagined..." Shadow of Wind thought, his head throbbing at the realization that there were no more free revives for the day. He had never faced such a challenging start before.

Faang Qiubai was also nursing a headache. Sure, reviving players didn't take much energy, but for them to be so recklessly dying without even putting up a fight against the monsters? That was excessive. Half the players who ventured out were already dead, and the other half hadn't even encountered any monsters yet. Though he suspected their fate would be much the same.

"Wait! Where's my weapon?" screamed a player suddenly.

The plaza erupted with a chorus of similar cries. The resurrected players discovered their weapons were missing, without exception.

"You've got to be kidding... Do we have to run back to our corpses to retrieve our weapons?"

"A 100% drop rate from monsters? If we go out fully geared, we'd be spitting blood!"

"This is way too hard! Screw this!"

"Maybe it's a bug. Should we report it on the forums?"

"Come on, let's go make those lazy developers listen. No one can keep playing like this!"

The players quickly agreed and logged off en masse to vent on the forums. But upon arriving, they found that in less than an hour, the number of posts had skyrocketed to more than ten times the usual volume, with nearly all of them seeking details about the game.

Running towards the sunset had intended to post about the equipment drops, but seeing the flood of inquiries, he couldn't resist starting his own thread. After a moment's thought, he titled it: "Experience the thrill of being the world's number one. I proudly claim multiple firsts!"

I jotted down my in-game experiences and hit send. As I ran towards the sunset, I felt a twinge of regret that the game's photography feature wasn't enabled. I could've showcased my battle scars in all their glory. But after posting, a quick refresh of the forum revealed several similar threads.

Elite Player Review: Nako's First Day in the Game

Shocking. The monsters in the game actually shot inside them. More than once!

A flawless one-hour gaming experience!

Scandalous! They were doing unspeakable things out in the wilderness!

Some of these titles were undeniably sensational. Even players fresh from the game, like myself, were tempted to click on the second post, the one with the longest title.

The original poster went into graphic detail about how their squad was ambushed by a horde of Skeleton Archers and riddled with arrows... Indeed, they had been shot inside multiple times...

After clicking through a couple of posts, I noticed that both my username and those of the other posters were highlighted in blue—a clear indicator of authentic players. As soon as these posts went live, they were swarmed by a frenzy of responses from netizens.

Have you eaten your meal yet?: Damn, does this company have no shame? All talk and no pictures!

DIRO: How much are these shills getting paid? At least make your posts look legit!

77: Welcome to the UC Shock Department. These titles are just too much...

A Dead Salted Fish: Where are the pictures? The videos? There's nothing. Who would believe this?

Her Majesty the Queen: Exactly. Others might start with a single image and build hype from there, but here we don't even have that!

I was about to make a post in defense of the game's creators when a private message caught my eye. It was from Shadow of Wind: "Don't delay. Log in now!"

With a huff, I dismissed the naysayers. Who cares about those sour grapes? It was time to dive back into the game. I swiftly donned my helmet and collapsed onto the bed, reentering the virtual world.

Standing beneath the statue once more, I was startled by a player missing a leg, being carried by others. The sight of his mangled, bloodied form was as if he had just come back from Syria.

"What happened?" Seeing Shadow of Wind standing nearby, he dashed toward the sunset and hurried over to inquire.

"Just fought off a bunch of monsters and then ran into a creeper. Got lucky it didn't blow me up," Shadow of Wind explained with a nonchalant air.

For some reason, as he ran toward the sunset, the thought of being blown up by the creeper suddenly seemed like a stroke of good fortune. Imagining all his teammates dead and himself lying there, missing limbs, sent shivers down his spine.

It wasn't long before the player must have opted for the healing feature. Everyone watched as his limbs swiftly mended and the gory remnants on his skin vanished without a trace. He sprang to his feet, feeling his body, and burst into triumphant laughter: "Hahahaha, this healing effect is freaking amazing!"

Running toward the sunset, he just shook his head; he hadn't been nearly as thrilled during his own healing. Meanwhile, Shadow of Wind approached with courteous curiosity, "Did you gain any experience from the creeper's demise?"