The ‘Unfair’ Online Game
“Iris scan complete. Verifying DNA…
“Verification complete! Welcome to the game world of ‘Tomorrow’! We wish you a pleasant gaming experience!”
In the middle of a gaming hall of formless chaos, Meng Jingtian listened in stupefaction to the string of notifications, his mouth dropping. “Hey! Wait! Do I not have to create my character?”
As a hardcore gamer, he was extremely confident in mastering a new game, but ‘Tomorrow’ had given him a surprise.
But he supposed that it was to be expected from a trans-generational online game published by the United Nations. Meng Jingtian couldn’t help but be somewhat excited.
In the blink of an eye, a boundless panoply of stars appeared before Meng Jingtian. He found himself hurtling at high speeds like a comet toward a massive, multi-colored planet.
Leaving a trail of fire and lightning behind him, Meng Jingtian quickly broke through the atmosphere of this planet. At his side were many other ‘comets’ just like him.
Meng Jingtian vaguely understood, remarking to himself that these were probably other players.
Truly a big production! The opening CG was so grand and realistic, immediately taking one’s breath away.
As the comets swept across the sky, one was given a panoramic view of the game world. Meandering mountain ranges covered the landscape like slumbering dragons, rivers and lakes like silver belts and pearls, and dignified and ancient cities of various styles studded the landscape.
“This is… the imperial palace of the main city? It can’t be, right? The game talked about being a second life and that birthplaces would be random, but how could I be this lucky?”
Meng Jingtian grew rather alarmed as he watched a majestic imperial city expand before him.
The comet he had turned into was heading straight for the imperial palace.
But he quickly realized that there were quite a few ‘comets’ heading for the imperial palace. Before he could fully descend,
boom!
He crashed into a bunch of other ‘comets’ that had been flying toward the imperial palace.
“Ding! Reincarnation failed. Please re-enter the game!”
This was the notification all the players who had been caught in the crash simultaneously received. After a momentary shock, they all angrily cursed.
But two of the players did not receive this notification.
One of them was Meng Jingtian. At the moment the comets collided, his comet’s angle caused him to ricochet into the sky, far into the distance.
“Ding! Congratulations! Reincarnation successful! Please inspect your character profile.”
When Meng Jingtian heard this notification, he discovered that he once more had a physical body. He could feel the warm sunlight on his body and a slightly salty sea breeze.
Truly, the first virtual online game with 99% realism! If he didn’t know for certain that he was in a game, he would have believed that he had transmigrated.
“Inspect character profile!”
As he hadn’t gone through the character creation process, and the game was generating everything, Meng Jingtian was extremely anxious to know what his initial stats were. This would decide how he would choose to develop his character in the future.
Name: Meng Jingtian
Race: God Race
Talents: Divine Might, Belief Halo
Starting Skills: Divine Recovery, Divine Punishment, Divine Examination, Belief Boost
Level: 1
Basic Stats Panel:
Strength: 10
Agility: 10
Constitution: 10
Spirit: 10
Divine Power: 10
Believers: 0
“Dingding!” As Meng Jingtian was inspecting his stats, he heard several more notification tones.
Meng Jingtian quickly found an exclamation point on the virtual information panel. Someone wanted to add him as a friend.
Having just finished the verification process as well, Cai Minghou impatiently sent over a message. “Brother Tian! Where did you reincarnate? This game is really different! Didn’t we normally complain about how reincarnation skills sucked? But now, we’ve both reincarnated.”
This fellow was one of Meng Jingtian’s best gaming friends, having already played through three or four games with him.
“Oh! I seem to be on an island.” Meng Jingtian looked around and murmured in shock, finding himself to be all alone on a barren island.
“No way! Did you get reincarnated as a fisherman? Your luck really is just awful!” Cai Minghou teased, finding the situation rather amusing.
“Fisherman?” Meng Jingtian muttered. Instead of telling Cai Minghou about his situation, he asked, “Why don’t you talk about yourself? What did you reincarnate as?”
“Haha! Your Brother Hou is awesome! I got reincarnated in the Golden Goose Mercenary Company of Black Tortoise City, and I was reincarnated as the Second Master! I even have a little servant NPC under my command! Why don’t you let this brother take care of you?” Cai Minghou smugly replied.
Meng Jingtian didn’t answer. Instead, he quietly opened up the game’s forum. He now somewhat understood why this game advertised itself as the first ‘unfair’ online game, a second life.
The very moment they entered the game, the players were on unfair footing. They all had a chance to reincarnate, but once they truly entered the game, they began their second lives, each with a different starting point.
“This is a scam! Can anyone tell me what to do now that I reincarnated as a beggar?”
“Delete your account!”
“Haha, keep playing! Maybe you have some hidden identity?”
As expected, the forum was rife with intense discussion. The completely random character creation was clearly a topic of keen player interest.
“The young city lord of Hundred Flower City is recruiting strong players! Generous salary!”
“Special Report: The luckiest guy in history, Player Nangong Qi has reincarnated into the imperial clan.”
“Official Announcement: The number of players logging in at opening time was too great, leading to errors that caused the reincarnations of some players to fail. We express our utmost apologies…”
The game had only been open for five minutes, but the forums were already full of screenshots and info. Meng Jingtian quickly browsed through it all before closing the forum.
This was the early stage of the game, so beating up monsters and leveling up took first priority.
But when he came back to his senses, he once more realized that he was on a completely barren island. The island wasn’t large, and all he could see around him was a boundless ocean. He simply had nowhere to go.
Let alone monsters, this island only had a few stalks of grass.
“This sucks!” Meng Jingtian’s mouth twitched as he kicked at the ground and cursed his bad luck.
The game had given him a pleasant surprise, almost reincarnating him in an imperial household, but he had unexpectedly been knocked away.
It wasn’t like he cared, as he was used to all kinds of roles. Just giving him some ordinary background was good enough.
But then, the game gave him another surprise. He was reincarnated as some apparently awesome ‘God Race’, something that the game had never advertised. This could even be a hidden race.
But before he could celebrate, he discovered that he was a prisoner! What the hell? Couldn’t he just play the game properly? What was with all these twists and turns?
“Owwooo!” With a bestial roar, Meng Jingtian felt the island beneath him move, and a head that looked like a mix of a dragon’s and a turtle’s emerged out of the sea.
Black Turtle: Yu Ming (Divine Beast)
Level: 100
Skills: ???
Belief: 0
Friendliness: 50
“Big… Big Bro, we can just talk! There’s no need to fight!” Upon seeing the information above the big turtle’s head, Meng Jingtian wanted to cry. Whether or not this fellow could understand, he at least had to try and talk things out.