Chapter 94 Unique game (13)
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When it came to the secret of leveling up in the game, Lin Zhaohe immediately perked up.
Xiao Xu was also straightforward. He walked straight into the bedroom, opened the computer, and entered the game. He maneuvered the game character along a small path, steadily progressing to a place that Lin Zhaohe had never seen before.
Xiao Xu’s character stopped in front of a shop. The shop’s door was closed, with a locked iron gate displaying the shop owner’s phone number. Xiao Xu wondered if he could call it in real life. Even though there was no one else in the bedroom, he couldn’t help but lower his voice.
Xiao Xu said, “You know, the more things you experience in this game, the faster you level up. But time is limited, and to experience everything, you have to invest a lot of time. That’s what limits the speed of character progression.” That’s why even if most people spent twenty hours a day in the game, they couldn’t reach the maximum level in one go. No matter how hard you worked, you couldn’t surpass the restrictions imposed by the game’s leveling system.
While most people had only reached level fifty, Xiao Xu was far ahead, clearly possessing his own secret techniques.
“This game world was strange,” Xiao Xu said. “Most of the buildings and structures resembled the real world, and many of the NPCs were deceased people from reality.”
Lin Zhaohe: “So what?”
Xiao Xu: “So, I found another way to level up.”
As he spoke, Xiao Xu’s character tapped the iron door in front of him with a rhythmic beat. It creaked open, revealing what lay behind.
“If you go through experiences, you can level up. So, what if those experiences are someone else’s?” Xiao Xu said. “And if my character participates in a different manner…”
He spoke while swiftly maneuvering his character into the room.
The room was dark, with only a small lamp providing a faint glow. An elderly NPC sat silently in the corner, observing them.
Xiao Xu whispered, “During the early stages of fusion, I came here. I don’t have the memories of when my mother gave birth to me, and I always believed I was human.”
His character approached the NPC who had been sitting, prompting the NPC to stand up with a smile and say, “Xiao Xu, you’re here. What would you like to see today?”
Then several options appeared before them. Lin Zhaohe was taken aback. The names were unmistakably those of famous TV shows, movies, and even novels that had been completely obliterated. How could they exist within this game?
It was truly unfathomable.
“During the early stages of fusion, the restrictions weren’t as strict,” Xiao Xu said. “Although it was publicly discouraged, there were still underground sales happening. There was a shop near our school that offered rentals of novels, movies, games… they had everything.” Such shops had disappeared when the internet flourished, but due to the limitations of fusion, they made a comeback to adapt to the times.
The suppressed desires of people couldn’t simply vanish. Even though they knew consuming such content could have negative consequences, there were still those who took risks. Moreover, at that time, it was a fan’s world. Lin Yan hadn’t caused any tragedies, so people held hope for the future.
Xiao Xu didn’t even know that he was also fused. His mother fabricated memories of him being human. During the early stages of fusion, he even attended school for a few months, made friends, and learned about the places where these forbidden items could be rented.
Xiao Xu loved those things and quickly became immersed in them. However, such good times didn’t last long as the accelerated fusion dealt a heavy blow to unsuspecting people.
The Lin Yan incident seemed to be just the beginning of a disaster movie. Soon after, Xiao Xu’s school fell victim. In the blink of an eye, their school fused into a disaster movie, with numerous buildings collapsing and most of his classmates suffering injuries or losing their lives. Naturally, the small shop outside the school closed down as well.
Years later, Xiao Xu faintly remembered that the shopkeeper was a kind-hearted old man. It seemed he used to run a bookstore, which allowed him to acquire so many books. Both parties were exceptionally cautious during each rental transaction, but even so, just being able to read the contents of the books left Xiao Xu satisfied.
After the fusion, the bookstore closed down. Xiao Xu inquired about the whereabouts of the old man and learned that his grandson also attended the school but died in the collapse. The old man burned down his own bookstore and disappeared without a trace.
This incident remained deeply embedded in Xiao Xu’s memory until he entered a game called “Earth Online.”
At the beginning, Xiao Xu, like everyone else, obediently focused on leveling up. He controlled his character, attending classes, experiencing part-time jobs, and engaging in romantic relationships with other characters.
As he became familiar with the game’s content, he realized that it was set in the pre-fusion world. In this world, was the old man who ran the bookstore still there?
With this thought in mind, Xiao Xu maneuvered his character to the front of the shop. He felt a sense of disappointment when he saw the tightly shut doors, thinking that he had gotten his hopes up for nothing. After all, books were banned in the real world, so why would they exist in the game? He was about to leave when something crossed his mind, causing him to halt in his tracks.
His gaze returned to the iron door, and Xiao Xu took a deep breath. With a rhythmic pattern, he knocked on the door before him.
The brief wait felt agonizingly long. Xiao Xu thought he would be disappointed, but to his surprise, the iron gate slowly lifted, revealing a familiar face behind it — even though it was a blurry NPC, Xiao Xu’s eyes couldn’t help but moisten.
From that moment on, Xiao Xu embarked on his unique journey of leveling up.
Just as he had speculated, reading books and watching movies counted as experiences, and they provided a substantial amount of experience points. Xiao Xu quickly ascended to several tens of levels, securing his position at the top. The higher his level, the more places he could visit. At the same time, he became aware of the unusual nature of this game. It was rumored that after reaching level one hundred, additional features and systems would unlock. However, no one had reached that level yet, so everything remained unknown.
Judging from the current situation, it was evident that Xiao Xu was not the only one who had discovered this method. However, each person had their own unique path.
Finally, Lin Zhaohe no longer had to grind like a regular nine-to-five job to level up. Although the reason for this situation in the game remained unclear, Lin Zhaohe was too eager to level up to pay much attention to it.
As expected, using Xiao Xu’s method, by the time dawn broke, Lin Zhaohe had already reached level eight. With just one more day, he would be able to achieve the tenth level that Lin Yan had mentioned.
Lin Zhaohe asked Xiao Xu if there was anything special about reaching level ten. Xiao Xu shook his head in confusion and replied, “No, reaching level ten just allows you to leave the beginner’s village, but there’s nothing particularly special about it.”
Lin Zhaohe became even more puzzled but could only wait for his own account to level up.
Watching his character ascend level by level, Lin Zhaohe’s mood grew increasingly tense. He had a persistent feeling that what Lin Yan had said was very important, important enough to potentially change many things.
Ding-dong. A colorful radiance emanated from Lin Zhaohe’s controlled character, and the number nine above its head flickered a few times before turning into ten.
Finally, Lin Zhaohe’s character reached level ten. He sat there for a while, but there was no significant change as he had imagined. Lin Zhaohe felt a sense of confusion, thinking, “Nothing happened at all.”
“Exactly, nothing happened,” Xiao Xu said, looking at Lin Zhaohe’s expectant expression, puzzled. “Did you think reaching level ten would reward you with a newbie gift package or something?”
Lin Zhaohe: “……”
Xiao Xu: “I already told you, there’s nothing special.” He found Lin Zhaohe’s expectations to be inexplicable.
Although unwilling to believe it, the harsh reality was right in front of him, leaving Lin Zhaohe with no choice but to believe. He suddenly stood up, pointed outside the window, and regardless of whether Lin Yan could hear or not, unleashed a string of curses, saying that these game pyramid scheme scammers would eventually suffer. Playing games and deceiving people every day, huh? “F*ck you, may you suffer from constipation when taking a sh*t!”
On the other side, Lin Yan, who was in the middle of a quest, suddenly sneezed forcefully.
Lin Zhaohe was fuming with anger. He had diligently completed quests, only to reach level ten and see nothing. He couldn’t even leave the beginner’s village without finishing a beginner’s quest.
Lin Zhaohe, resembling an enraged bull with red eyes, made Xiao Xu silently retreat to the side, deciding not to provoke him for the time being.
Lin Zhaohe recalled the painful sleepless night he had endured. With bloodshot eyes, he viciously muttered, “You damn scammer who deceived me into playing this game. Next time I see you, I’ll make sure to take good care of your a*s with a banana.”
Then, he took on the newbie quest to leave the beginner’s village and glanced at the quest instructions. Suddenly, the anger on his face disappeared in an instant, replaced by astonishment and dread.
The main storyline quest at level ten, which should have involved catching cats and finding dogs, had now transformed into a name that felt completely out of place in its surroundings: “Lost Divinity.”
This seemed to be a series of quests, and Lin Zhaohe had only received the first stage.
In theory, there was nothing particularly remarkable about it, but Lin Zhaohe noticed the first sentence of the quest: “In that world, the merciful divinity had acquired its own name.”
Clearly, it was the same introduction Lin Zhaohe had read on the book with his pen name in the library.
Lin Zhaohe meticulously compared every word and phrase, making sure he hadn’t misread or missed anything. He stared at that sentence, as if trying to drill a hole through the screen with his gaze.
Xiao Xu was also startled by Lin Zhaohe’s expression and dared not speak for a while. It was only when Lin Zhaohe turned to look at him that Xiao Xu whispered, “Brother Lin, what are you looking at me for?”
“Have you done this quest before?” Lin Zhaohe asked.
“Yeah,” Xiao Xu replied. “Everyone at level ten has done it. It’s a series of quests. I’m currently at level ninety and only halfway through. The quests are quite interesting. Many people rush to level up just to complete them faster.”
Lin Zhaohe: “How interesting.”
Xiao Xu: “No one would dislike being a savior, right? The main character is exactly that—a savior.”
Lin Zhaohe remained silent and controlled his character to accept the quest.
The level ten quest was straightforward, simply helping unfortunate characters by delivering items to them.
Each of these unfortunate individuals had their own stories of misery. Elderly couples who lost their only child, pitiable children who lost their fathers at a young age, dancers who lost their legs, painters who lost their eyesight—they all had their own regrets and pains.
At the same time, the game world’s worldview began to unfold. It seemed that some hidden disaster was about to occur, leaving NPCs perplexed and restless. Even more restless were the players who were addicted to the game. They had grown weary of the world’s countless problems and didn’t want the game to be like reality—filled with flaws.
As Lin Zhaohe completed the quests and witnessed the countless tragic encounters, he began to place his hopes on the “divinity.”
“Divinity” was a code name and a legend. No one had ever seen it, but the number of believers was increasing.
The quest described, “Faith can grant power to the divinity. The purer and more abundant people’s faith is, the stronger the divinity becomes. It can expel all things that cause human suffering, bringing peace and happiness to the world. Believe in the divinity, trust it, and it will not disappoint any follower.”
Lin Zhaohe stared blankly at the quest description.
“The divinity has eyes more beautiful than demons, with jet-black hair and pupils. Their skin is as fair as snow, and their smile blossoms like a spring flower. They always hold compassion in their heart and show mercy to all beings. They are the only hope to save humanity from fire and water.”
As Lin Zhaohe read this passage, Zhuang Lao’s incredibly beautiful face came to mind. Finally, Lin Zhaohe understood why Lin Yan was so eager for him to reach level ten—to witness these descriptions with his own eyes.
What terrified Lin Zhaohe even more was how familiar these words seemed to him. If he hadn’t confirmed that he hadn’t written them, it felt as if every stroke was personally written by him.
Or perhaps, at some point, he did write this story, but his current self had lost all memory of it.
Lin Zhaohe took a deep breath and smiled bitterly. “Do you all like this quest?”
“Yes,” Xiao Xu answered. “Everyone likes it.”
They also liked the merciful divinity depicted in the quest.
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