CH 4.1

It was already dawn when Bai Lixin woke up again.

The sun shone brightly into the cave, and the monster was still in a coma, showing no intention of waking up.

Bai Lixin woke up on a piece of plush fur. He had never seen the fur of those monsters before, and he stroked the soft fur in some confusion.

Had this fur been here last night?

It probably was, but he was too tired yesterday and didn’t really look around very carefully.

All he remembered was that he was so tired that he fell asleep in the hot springs. As for how he came to this fur after that, he didn’t know.

The pajamas had dried and had a pleasant smell of grass.

Bai Lixin stretched and stood up, feeling refreshed. He looked down to fix his pajamas and then froze.

The second button was tied crookedly on top of the third.

With some embarrassment, he straightened the buttons of his pajamas and then looked around the unique cave.

Aside from the crystals and the hot spring, there were also many plants growing around the stone walls and the ground. They did not look like ordinary weeds, but rather like medicinal plants.

Bai Lixin tried to clench his fist. His muscles that had lost control yesterday had completely recovered.

Just when Bai Lixin was still surveying his surroundings, he heard a dull hum behind him. He walked up to the monster just when it was shaking its head and opening its four scarlet eyes.

The monster was stunned for a moment when it saw Bai Lixin, and then it saw the furs not far away.

The monster looked at the fresh fur on the ground and then at Bai Lixin, then its eyes suddenly rolled over and it fainted again.

Bai Lixin: “…”

Is that it? What about the guts about going to eat him yesterday?

He didn’t rush down the mountain, so he sat on his knees on the fur, propping up his chin with one hand: [System, are you there?]

Two seconds later, an electronic voice rang out in his head: [Hello, player, the assistance system is happy to serve you.]

Bai Lixin’s fingers fiddled with the blades of grass around him and asked, [What kind of game is this?]

The system quickly gave an answer: [This is an immersive escape game that exists to fulfill the player’s wishes. After passing the game, players can use their points to exchange them for items they can only dream of having in reality. However, once back in the real world, the player will completely forget all memories from the game.]

[This game world exists in a time gap between the real world and does not affect time and space in reality. In this world, the player thinks that decades have passed, but only a few nanoseconds have passed in the real world. Therefore, players who return to reality after having their wishes granted do not feel any discomfort, nor do they even know they have been in this world.]

Bai Lixin: [So most people didn’t come here on their own.]

System: [This is the result of the system’s detection. Once the system detects that someone’s desire value exceeds the threshold, it will bring them into this world.]

Bai Lixin smLixi: [So, you are a charity. What about those who were punished or died in the game world? Can they still return to the real world?

The system paused for two seconds: [Sorry, players enter the game world in their true bodies. If they die in the game, they will also perish in the real world, and they will never have existed in reality.]

The tips of his fingers were tinged with a little green. Bai Lixin’s thumb and index finger rubbed against each other for a moment before he reached into the hot spring to clean them.

[One more question, how is one considered to have cleared the game?

System: [As long as you can complete your personal mainline copy, you can pass the game. We have tens of thousands of copies of the game, and each person has a different mainline copy with different levels of difficulty and number of copies.]

The water immediately rippled as his fingers gently crossed the water surface.

Bai Lixin casually asked: [Individual mainline copies are also linked to luck value, right?]

System: [Congratulations player, your answer is completely correct. You are very smart, but there is no reward.]

Bai Lixin: […]

System: [Friendly reminder: You are now under the “Lingering Sickness” buff, with only 5% of your force left and in a weakened state. To view your character panel, click on the Attributes button in the bottom right corner.]

Bai Lixin’s fingertips stalled slightly as he swiped at the water. He noticed a row of blue buttons in the bottom right corner of his vision.

[Friends], [Attributes], [Quests], [Leaderboard], [Backpack], and [Points Mall] were among them.

He placed his consciousness on [Attributes] and tapped it. A translucent blue attribute box immediately appeared in front of him.

[Player Name: Bai Lixin]

[Life force: ? (Failed detection; Lingering Sickness buff in progress, force value weakened by 95%)]

[Intelligence: ??? (Failed to detect)]

[Luck: F- (Unbelievably unlucky)]

[Aura: ??? (Failed to detect)]

[Skills: None]

[Title: God of Misfortune (Unique)]

[Points: 150 (Common game currency)]

[Ranking: Unlisted]

Bai Lixin: “…”

What else can you tell from this panel but that you’re the king of the non-coms?

Bai Lixin closed the panel and opened [Friends].

[Number of friends: 0/0 (Not a single friend, hurry up and add friends to keep yourself away from social phobia!)]

It seems that the players who participated in a game together will not be added as friends directly, but will need to apply for approval.

After closing [Friends], Bai Lixin opened the [Quests] bar.

A blue dialogue box popped up immediately.

[(River God’s Bride) Trial copy: 25 participants, 15 survived.]

[Clearance mission: Survive 72 hours. (Progress 20:12:14/72:00:00)]

[Additional task: Find the truth about the River God’s curse. (Progress 0/100%)]

In addition to these two tasks, at the top of the dialog box was—

[Personal Mainline Copy Completion: 0/100%.]

Judging from the clearance task, 20 hours had passed since this copy started, and Bai Lixin suddenly froze, his eyes reverting back to the panel.

His parkour time yesterday was estimated to be only 1 hour, which meant that he had slept for almost 20 hours.

Bai Lixin gave a hard laugh. It was rare for him to sleep for such a long time except when he was around his lover, so it seemed that he was really tired last night.

Bai Lixin silently closed [Mission] and clicked on [Leaderboard].

A blue dialog box popped up, ranking a full 1000 people in order from top to bottom.

On the leaderboard.

The first place’s name was coded, but that didn’t stop his existence from being acknowledged.

His performance total was a whopping nine figures, trampling second place by an extremely large margin.

At the top of the blue dialogue box

[Performance score: 0, not on the leaderboard].

Bai Lixin closed [Leaderboard], and opened the [Points Mall].

The buttons in the [Points Mall] were all dark at the moment, and at the very top was a small line of text.

[During the copy game, it is not possible to purchase game props.]

Bai Lixin generally flipped through the things in the points mall, and you could see almost anything you could think of here.

From the smallest thing like a matchbox to the largest thing like an aircraft carrier or an aircraft.

Bai Lixin’s eyes swept around the mall before his eyes stopped at the clothing section.

Just when he was thinking about what to change into when he went out, his fingertips seemed to be hooked by something.

Bai Lixin pulled back his thoughts and looked into the spring.

The spring was crystal clear, and as far as the eye could see, all that remained was the smooth stone wall, except for the ripples and waves.

He took out his fingers with suspicion and rubbed them together. They were clear and moist to the touch, and there was nothing there.

Bai Lixin got up and did not continue to linger here. He dragged the unconscious monster and walked out of the cave.

Bright sunlight poured down, dotting the ground with mottled reflections. The breeze was very pleasant on his cheeks and the leaves rustled along with it.

The woods, which were a nightmare last night, had the sound of birdsong during the day.

Suddenly, Bai Lixin heard a wail of pain.

He turned around and saw smoke rising from the monster’s body from no other place than where the sun had shone.

The monster, awakened by the burning sensation, lay rolling on the ground. It wailed in pain and crawled desperately away from the cave.

But before it could take two steps, its body quickly twisted and distorted, and the two-and-a-half-meter-tall monster was instantly reduced to a puddle of blood with a “poof”.

Bai Lixin pursed his lips. He remembered that this monster was called a red spider.

It seemed that the red spiders could only move at night, and sunlight was their natural enemy.