CH 3.1

[“The Bride of the River God” is a copy of the trial game.]

[There is a remote community called River God Village, and the River God curses that community. Every three years, the village must dedicate a virginal maiden to serve as the River God’s Bride; otherwise, the River God will punish the village by flooding it.]

[The agreed three-year deadline for the sacrifice ends 71 hours later.]

[Copy completion condition: Survive for 72 hours.]

[Additional sub-quest: Find the truth about the River God’s curse.]

[The trial level activates the Player Protection Mode. It is forbidden to attack other players during the game, otherwise it will be considered a violation and will be punished.]

[Punishment: Beheading.]

[There are 25 players in the game, and the total points of the copy is 5000. Points will be distributed according to the performance rating of the last surviving player. The higher the performance rating, the more points you get.]

The cold electronic voice was transmitted into all the players’ minds. They could only hear the sound, but it was pitch black in front of their eyes.

[The copy is loaded and the game process will be live-streamed. I wish the players a happy game.]

[Ding, warning! As night falls, the monstrous Red Spider will come out to capture people! All players, please move to a safe spot immediately.]

A sharp alarm sounded in their heads, and all the players’ eyes swayed as they finally saw the scene in front of them.

It was a mountain forest surrounded by a group of trees, and at the end of the crowd’s sight was a quiet little village.

Above one of the sets of houses hung a red inverted triangle sign and a few golden words: [Safety Point].

Bai Lixin looked around him. Around him stood more than 20 people, almost all with confusion and vigilance in their eyes.

Above each person’s head were their respective buff bonuses on display.

A winding river spanned the middle of the mountains and the village.

The blood-coloured moon hung from the dome. The moonlight shone on the upper reaches of the river, staining its water’s blood red.

The surrounding area was terrifyingly still and eerie.

Suddenly, the leaves rustled in all directions, and before the crowd could react, a huge figure suddenly descended from the sky with a bang!

A few gasps rang out in the air when they finally got a good look at the object.

It was a monster!

The monster was two and a half meters tall, with extremely long limbs, much like the aliens in science fiction films. It had thin calves and thick thighs that were connected by a flexible joint in the middle and thick, heavy paws. One could tell the strength of its legs at a glance.

A thick layer of black fluff covered its back. There was a wrinkled, white dead face inland with four red eyes and a grin that pulled the corners of its mouth from its left ear to its right.

The monster’s thick, heavy legs stamped on the ground with a loud “clunk” and a red tongue of about twenty centimeters stretched out, a piercing laugh emanating from its throat.

The monster’s arm was raised high in the air, and a cold light immediately passed in front of a player’s eyes.

Before the player could scream, he felt pain in his body. He looked down to see a hole in his stomach and his intestines spilling out in a gush of blood!

A light of disbelief flashed in the player’s eyes as he looked around him for help, only to find that the players around him had already scattered in all directions!

The player reluctantly fell to the ground, his life force rapidly draining from his body. He lay on the ground in despair, reaching out to the backs of the players.

Help me! Help me!

At that moment, the only word remaining in the minds of the other players was: Flee!

Run!

Run away!

The path was rugged, and the players weaved their way through the dense forest in a panic. Sharp branches cut through their skin and pierced the soles of their feet, but they were oblivious to them.

In the face of their desperate need to survive, escape was the only thing on their minds.

Then, a second, a third, and more monsters fell around the players.

Unlike the desperate and frantic players, these monsters slowly followed behind the players. Like the powerful standing at the top of the food chain, they looked down on the group of potential prey, chasing them and teasing them.

Bai Lixin observed the players as he ran, and he noticed a light golden buff symbol appear above the heads of all the players.

Some were increasing force value, others were increasing speed.

Although the buff additions were different, they were all additions at a glance.

Xia Chi quickly ran up to Bai Lixin’s side, and the other player curiously looked up at the buff above Bai Lixin’s head.

[Life Force value weakened by 95%]

As the two looked at each other, Bai Lixin saw shock and sympathy in the other’s gaze.

Bai Lixin lifted his eyes to look at Xia Chi’s buff.

[Force Value Plus 500%]

Bai Lixin: “…”

Damn it!

Is the difference between Lucky Value A and F- that big?

Suddenly, a monster landed behind them and stuck to them.

Noticing that the monster was chasing after the two of them, Xia Chi gritted his teeth and shouted, “Brother, I’ll distract him; you run!”

Xia Chi threw the fruit in his hand at the monster as he ran in a direction away from Bai Lixin, not forgetting to taunt the monster as he did, “Monster, come after me if you can!”

The prey it was chasing suddenly split up, and the monster stopped in its tracks in confusion.

The next second, it turned its head and roared in anger as it continued to chase Bai Lixin.

Bai Lixin: “…”

Xia Chi: “…”

Xia Chi stopped in his tracks and shouted impatiently at the creature with a dumbfounded expression, “Ugh, you’re chasing the wrong one!”

Just as his words fell, another monster rushed in front of him.

Xia Chi shouted “Fuck!” and turned to run for his life.

Bai Lixin had to shout at him, “Run! I’ll see you in the village!”

…

In the game hall where these players could not touch at the moment, countless veteran players were watching from the live broadcast room.

There are four types of live broadcasting rooms.

Novice Trial Bureau, Heartbeat Low-End Bureau, Thrilling Mid-End Bureau, and Death High-End Bureau.

There was an influx of viewers at the moment in the rarely watched novice trial game.

[Guys, are you also here to watch the guy who broke the warm-up game record?]

[Yes, 31 minutes is twice as fast as the previous record of 62 minutes! This newcomer is amazing, and there will be a lot of big guilds coming for him.]

[That’s only if he can survive the trial mission. This newcomer is afraid of the pill.]

[The luck value is too low. F-? I’ve never seen such a low one before. The copy and character he drew are not good either. The River God copy is notoriously difficult and has a survival rate of only 10%.]

The scene showed the stunningly beautiful youth in pajamas weaving through the dense forest, the monsters behind him getting faster and faster.

The youth’s skin was as soft and white as snow and as delicate as a white porcelain doll. He should have been in a magnificent palace, not in this thriller.

[Once the “Red Spider” catch up with him, there is no chance of survival. This monster is still my nightmare.]

[Why were such ferocious monsters placed in the trial copy? I pity this little beauty.]

[I heard that the system was infected with a virus and implanted the data of the “Red Spiders” into this copy.]

[I remember this copy was closed due to a bug; how come it was suddenly restarted?]

[Who knows, maybe these players are just unlucky in general.]

……

The leaves around him kept sweeping backwards, and Bai Lixin was as nimble as an athletic fox, weaving flexibly through the woods.

But the monster behind him had no intention of letting him go. He saw that the monster was about to catch up with him, and a cold light flashed in Bai Lixin’s eyes.

He suddenly grabbed a tree trunk with one hand, bent his legs and tensed his shoulders, using the force of his running to deliver a heavy roundhouse kick that hit the monster’s skull with great speed and accuracy.

There was a loud bang.

The monster only felt its brain buzzing. It swayed left and right for two steps, then fell head-first to the ground with a bang.

Bai Lixin’s legs were now shaking. He shook his trembling legs and stepped on the monster’s head with a cold look in his eyes, “Do you really think I’m a sick cat if I don’t do something? Even if I only have 0.5% of my force value left, you still have to call me dad!”

The monster slumped to the ground in pain. Just when Bai Lixin had released it and was preparing to leave, the monster suddenly threw back its head and let out a shrill wail.

The next moment, all the monsters that were toying with the other players stopped in unison and turned to dart in the same direction.