Weird, my gaming life

Wang Hao's nerves were constantly on edge.

The young man finally turned his face, which made Wang Hao breathe a sigh of relief.

The young man's face was not the bloody mess he had imagined, but rather delicate and somewhat childish.

She looks to be only seventeen or eighteen years old.

But his eyes were as calm as a bottomless ancient well, without a trace of the spirit a young person should have.

He looked at Wang Hao and Green Hair, who were pale with fright at the door, and frowned slightly, like a hermit whose meditation had been disturbed.

"What is it?"

His voice was flat, revealing no emotion.

The green-haired youth was so frightened by that look that his legs went weak and he almost knelt down.

His lips trembled, and he could barely speak: "Out...outside...there's a monster! Killing people! He...he drained people dry!"

Wang Hao grabbed Green Hair, who was about to collapse, and forced himself to calm down.

He stared into the eyes of the young man in the courtyard and described what he had just seen in rapid speech:

"A man in a suit, whose shadow moves, ensnares people, and turns them into dried-up corpses in seconds..."

The more detailed his description, the greater his fear became.

That image was branded into his mind like a hot iron, impossible to erase.

The young man in the courtyard listened without showing any expression, but a subtle hint of understanding flashed in his calm eyes.

"That's a trick."

The young man spoke in an extremely flat tone, as if he were saying, "The weather is nice today."

"sly?"

Wang Hao was slightly taken aback. Although he had already learned about this word from the game's official website and had been looking forward to it immensely.

But once he actually got into the game, he discovered that the monsters that were originally just meant to scare him were far from the thrills he had imagined, and they didn't provide him with anything like the excitement he had ever seen before.

Instead, they want to eat people.

Everything in this game felt so real, from the pain to the environment, that he felt as if he had truly entered a bizarre world.

The players who fled just now screamed so pitifully and in such pain, and it wasn't just because of fear.

Moreover, he still hasn't figured out how to quit the game, which is what worries him the most.

"This is the City of the Abyss. You outsiders are the first sacrifices, and also the first... survivors."

As the young man spoke, he withdrew from his stance and casually picked up a towel from the wooden shelf next to him to wipe his sweat.

His bare upper body was covered with well-proportioned muscle lines, and his skin seemed to hold explosive power.

"Sacrifice...survivor..." Wang Hao chewed on these two words, a chill rising from the deepest part of his heart.

The young man didn't explain further, but simply pointed to a row of water tanks in the corner of the yard.

"If you want to live, stay. If you don't want to live, you can leave now."

He paused, his gaze sweeping over Wang Hao and Green Hair's pale faces. "Of course, whether you live or die depends on yourselves."

"Stay! We'll stay!" Green Hair didn't even think twice before scrambling into the yard, as if that threshold were the boundary between life and death.

Wang Hao took a deep breath and followed him inside.

The moment they stepped inside, the vermilion door creaked shut automatically. The chill and stench of blood outside seemed to be completely shut out.

"What... what can we do if we stay?" Wang Hao asked cautiously, looking at the young man. "Can... can you teach us how to deal with that monster?"

The young man glanced at him, his eyes filled with scrutiny.

"If you want to learn martial arts, you have to do chores first."

He pointed to the wooden dummy dummies in the yard, which were riddled with holes from being beaten, and said, "Fetch water, chop wood, clean weapons, sweep the yard. When your bodies are no longer so fragile that they break at the slightest touch, then come and talk to me about learning martial arts."

His words were like a bucket of ice water, extinguishing the glimmer of hope that had just begun to ignite in Wang Hao's heart.

There are no attribute panels, no career mentors, and no one-click learning. All that exists is the most primitive and clumsy manual labor.

This isn't playing a game; it's being exiled to the frontier.

"I...we..." Green Hair opened his mouth, wanting to say something.

"Bang! Bang bang!"

Suddenly, the gate to the courtyard was pounded loudly from the outside, accompanied by terrified cries.

"Open the door! Open the door now! Help!"

The young man frowned, walked to the door, and unlatched it.

Outside the door, seven or eight players scrambled in, their clothes disheveled, their faces streaked with tears and terror.

One of the female players even collapsed to the ground and burst into tears.

They are another group of survivors.

"It's...it's terrifying outside! That thing is still killing people!"

"Please, please, let us hide!"

The young man didn't speak, but simply stepped aside to let them in. After everyone was inside, he closed the door again.

The new players either slumped down or huddled in the corners, trembling with fear after surviving the ordeal. For a moment, the only sounds in the courtyard were suppressed sobs and heavy breathing.

The young man ignored them and walked to the center of the courtyard to resume practicing his punches on the wooden dummy.

"Bang!"

"Bang!"

Each punch was powerful and heavy; the explosive sound of the air was like a heavy hammer blow to the heart of every player.

The monotonous yet powerful striking sound, in stark contrast to the deathly silence outside the door, strangely brought a sense of security.

Looking at the figure practicing boxing from behind, and then at his utterly terrified "companions" beside him, Wang Hao suddenly understood something.

In this world, crying and fear are the most useless things.

The young man was right; strength is the only thing we can rely on to survive.

He took a deep breath, walked over to Green Hair, and patted his still trembling shoulder.

"Stop crying. If you want to live, come with me."

After saying that, he ignored Green Hair's reaction and walked straight to the water tank.

Beside the water vat were several wooden buckets. Wang Hao gritted his teeth and used all his strength to barely lift one of the half-full buckets. The water inside spilled out, soaking his trouser legs; it was icy cold.

He painstakingly carried the bucket to the center of the yard and placed it at the young man's feet.

The young man practicing his boxing paused, turned his head, and glanced at him.

Wang Hao was panting heavily, unable to utter a single word, only looking at him with his eyes.

The young man was silent for a moment, then looked away and said calmly, "Go over there to register."

He gestured with his chin towards a side room in the corner of the courtyard.

Wang Hao looked in the direction he pointed and saw a wooden sign hanging at the entrance of the side room with the words "Registration Area" written on it.

He put down the bucket and walked towards the side room. Green Hair hesitated for a moment, wiped away his tears, and followed.

Pushing open the door, the room was very simple, with only a table, a pen, and a thick roster.

An older man, dressed in the same black uniform, sat behind a table, watching them expressionlessly.

"Name," the older man asked, his voice hoarse.

"Wang... Wang Hao."

"Write your name here." The man pushed the roster towards us.

Wang Hao picked up the pen, which looked like it was made of some kind of animal feather, dipped it in ink, and quickly wrote his name on the roster.

Seeing how readily he agreed, the Demon Suppression Division disciple registering his name couldn't help but glance at him again.

"Not bad. Being able to remain calm and composed when facing something strange for the first time is a good sign."

"Next." The man nodded to Wang Hao and couldn't help but praise him.

Seeing this, Green Hair hurriedly stepped forward and tremblingly wrote down his name.

"alright."

The older man closed the register. "From now on, you are all registered disciples of the Abyss City Martial Arts School. Go out and clean up those corpses at the entrance."

Wang Hao and Green Hair froze simultaneously.

"Clean...clean up the corpse?" Green Hair's voice trembled.

"What, you're afraid?"

The registered Demon Suppression Division disciple slowly stood up and walked to the two people.

Their height, which was half a head taller than theirs, created a strong sense of oppression.

"You can't even touch a dead person, yet you want to learn martial arts?"

"Remember, here, those who do nothing have no right to live."