Weird Game: I brought an old version bug

Outside the portal lies the twilight of a newbie.

The orange-red sky bathed the entire starting village in a warm hue.

Players were coming and going at the dungeon entrance; some had just formed a group and were about to go in, while others were slumped on the grass recovering their health.

Some people were also showing off their loot in the channel.

The members of the "Mad Warriors" team collapsed to the ground as soon as they left the instance, as if they had just fought a battle.

"I will never trust system recommendations again."

Mad Warrior plopped down on the grass, took out a recovery potion from his backpack, and gulped it down.

"The walkthrough for this lousy dungeon is full of traps."

Jiang Chen stood next to the dungeon entrance and opened his system panel.

The level jumped from level 1 to level 4.

[Remember the fastest online novel website: 1 ...

The experience gained from the boss battle and the dungeon rewards directly leveled him up three times.

A pair of blue crystal bracers have appeared in my equipment inventory.

【Crystal Wristband (Blue)】

[Attributes: Attack +12, Agility +5]

[Special Effect: Crystal Resonance - Deals an additional 10% damage when attacking crystal-type monsters]

And that fragment of the rule.

Jiang Chen took it out of his backpack and examined it carefully in his hand.

The fragments were small, about the size of a fingernail, irregularly shaped, with a pale golden sheen at the edges.

There are no words on the surface, only a wavy pattern that keeps changing—like an electrocardiogram, or some kind of running code.

He tried to touch the surface of the fragment.

The system popped up a notification as soon as my fingertip touched it.

[Should I bind rule fragments?]

After binding, you can choose one of your skills to customize.

[Note: Rule Fragments are bound items; once bound, they cannot be traded or dropped.]

Jiang Chen did not immediately confirm.

He needs to think this through.

Such precious items as rule fragments cannot be used casually on level one skills.

He closed the panel and put the fragments into his backpack.

Then he glanced around—the group from Mad Battle World had mostly dispersed.

Northern Wolf leaned against a tree, polishing the notch on the edge of his shield; Green Bamboo was counting his mana potion reserves; and Three Blades squatted on a rooftop not far away, his hat pulled low.

The timely rain is gone.

Jiang Chen looked around but didn't see her.

He walked a few steps into the starting village and found her on the steps behind the notice board.

She sat with her knees together, holding the crystal fragment of the mineral beast in her hands, staring at it blankly. The setting sun cast a long shadow over her.

Jiang Chen walked over and sat down next to her.

"What are you looking at?"

Shigure did not answer immediately.

She flipped the crystal fragment over, allowing light to shine in from different angles.

"I'm thinking about something," she finally said.

"What is it?"

"That pop-up window when the mineral crystal beast died..."

Shi Yu said slowly, "It says 'there is a data conflict between the two versions'."

"Um."

"The old version's weakness was three inches below the throat. The new version's weakness is the core of the chest."

She looked up at Jiang Chen, "So that means—this game does indeed have two versions."

Jiang Chen didn't say anything.

He knew what she was going to say.

"I used to just 'feel' different. I felt that what I saw was different from what everyone else saw, and what I remembered didn't match up."

Shiyu's voice was soft, but every word was clear: "But now I know. It's not that my memory is faulty—it's that the game itself is faulty."

She paused.

"My memories come from the old version."

"And I am a remnant of the old version of data."

She said this in an unusually calm tone.

It was as if she was stating a fact that she had already digested for a long time.

Jiang Chen remained silent for a few seconds.

"When did you figure that out?"

"Just now," Shigure said, "when I stepped out of the portal."

She looked at the crystal fragment in her hand. "The light within the fragment refracted for a moment, and I saw an image in that light—"

She raised her hand and pointed to the distant horizon.

"In that direction, about a day's walk, there's an entrance. Below the entrance is an underground city. Streets, houses, squares, fountains... it's exactly the same as the towns on the surface."

"Old Dawn City," Jiang Chen said.

Shi Yu suddenly turned her head to look at him.

How do you know that name?

"It's written on the information sign at entrance B07."

Jiang Chen said, "The information board under that metal door."

[Access: Old Dawn City, Third Administrative District, Reserved Interface]

Shi Yu opened her mouth.

"Old Dawn City..." she repeated the name, as if savoring the taste of each word.

"Dawn City. I don't remember the full name, but I do remember one thing—every morning, those glowing crystals on the ceiling would simulate the sunrise. First the east side would light up, then the west side, for fifteen minutes, the brightness gradually increasing. The people living underground used this to distinguish between morning and evening."

She described it in great detail.

It's so detailed it doesn't feel like a "recollection" but more like a "description of reality."

Those images were not blurry shadows, but complete scenes with temperature, light, and sound.

"How long did you stay there?" Jiang Chen asked.

Shi Yu remained silent for a long time.

"I don't know," she said. "It feels like... a long time. Long enough that I've gotten used to the absence of a real sun underground, and that those fifteen minutes of simulated sunrise are the start of my day."

She paused, "But now that I'm out on the ground and see the real sun and sky—it feels unreal."

Jiang Chen leaned against the railing of the steps, gazing at the distant sky in silence for a while.

There's a question I've always wanted to ask.

Shi Yu looked at him.

"How did you survive in the old version?"

Jiang Chen asked, "The system announcement said that the data from the old version has been cleared. If all the data was cleared, why is your data still there?"

Shiyu did not answer.

She lowered her head, looking at the crystal fragment in her hand, and remained silent for a long time.

"I was just trying to remember..."

"I think back to what happened before I entered this game."

"but--"

She raised her head, a slight tremor in her eyes.

"I can't remember."

"I can't remember who I was before I entered the Abyss Game. Where I lived, what job I did, whether I had family—I remember none of it."

For the first time, her voice showed fluctuation.

"I only remember things from the game. I remember how to navigate the underground city, where the mineral monsters' weaknesses are, and those people—"

She suddenly stopped.

Jiang Chen noticed the change in her expression: "Who are they?"

Shiyu frowned, as if she was struggling to grasp something.

“There was someone…” she said, “the person I was waiting for under that glowing crystal. I’m starting to remember—not his face, but the way he spoke.”

"What kind of person?"

He doesn't smile much.

"But he always speaks to me very slowly."

The sound of rain grew softer and softer.

He said, "Shigure, after this update is finished, I'll take you to see the surface."

Her eyes suddenly reddened.

"Update complete..."

She repeated those four words, her voice trembling slightly.

"Then the update came. But it didn't take me to the ground."

Jiang Chen was silent for a few seconds, then asked a very crucial question:

Was that update a forced system update, or was it manually initiated?

Shi Yu looked up, tears welling up in her eyes.

"I don't know," she said, "but I feel..."

"My survival was no accident."

She looked at Jiang Chen, and for the first time, a resolute look appeared in her eyes.

"Someone kept me here."

"Someone saved me somehow before updating."

"But I don't know who that person is—"

She gripped the shards tightly, her knuckles turning white.

"I can't remember his face or his name. I only remember the tone of his voice—slow, steady, as if he were saying something he was sure he could do."

She looked up.

"I remember more than just these."

"I also remember—he said something at the time."

"What did you say?"

Shi Yu looked at Jiang Chen, her eyes becoming very deep.

He said, "If you survive, don't believe anything the system tells you."

He said the information provided by the system isn't necessarily true. What the system doesn't say is the most crucial.

She paused.

"Like this instance today."

"The system recommends route A, saying route B is a 'high-risk collapse zone.' But the real danger is on route A, and the real value is on route B."

"Every word the system says could be the opposite of what it says."

Jiang Chen's mind raced.

If even official announcements can't be trusted—then the underlying logic of this game is completely different.

He stood up and dusted off his pants.

"Let's go grab some food first."

Shi Yu was taken aback: "You can eat in a game?"

There's a restaurant in the starting village.

Jiang Chen pointed to a small house with a sign hanging at the entrance of the village. "I saw it when I passed by just now. I don't know what the food in the game tastes like, but it's better than just sitting here thinking."

Shi Yu looked at him for a long while, and then her lips twitched slightly.

That was the first time Jiang Chen had seen her with an expression that was almost a smile.

"Do you always do this?" She stood up and brushed the grass clippings off her skirt.

"What?"

"After discovering so many abnormal things, my first reaction was not fear, but to go eat."

"Thinking is less efficient when you're hungry."

Jiang Chen said, "It's a professional habit."

Shi Yu followed behind him for a few steps.

"Jiang Chen".

"Um?"

"What I'm thinking about isn't just the city."

"I just remembered something else—"

Jiang Chen stopped and turned to look at her.

Shi Yu's gaze fell on him, with an unprecedented seriousness.

"Fragments of the Rules—"

"Don't use it on your attack skills."

"You use it for 'observation' skills."

She spoke, word by word.

"Because what you'll face in the future won't be solved by brute force."

Jiang Chen looked at her without saying a word.

He opened the system panel and, without hesitation, clicked on the confirmation of binding the rule fragment.

[Rule fragments have been bound]

Please select the skill you want to rewrite.

He hasn't learned any skills yet.

But he knew Shiyu was right—in this game, the strongest fighter isn't necessarily the one who survives to the end.

Only those who can understand the rules are qualified.

Jiang Chen turned off the panel.

"Let's go."

"Let's fill our stomachs first—tomorrow, we'll go check out that entrance you mentioned."

Shiyu followed in his footsteps.

After walking a few steps, she suddenly spoke:

"Jiang Chen".

"Um?"

"Thank you."

The sound of the rain was very low, so low that it was almost carried away by the evening breeze.

"Thank you for being the first person to believe me."

Jiang Chen didn't turn around, he just waved his hand.

The evening breeze swept through the streets of the starting village, causing the lanterns in the tavern to sway slightly.

On the distant horizon, the last glimmer of orange-red light is fading away.

Night fell.

And deep underground, unseen by them, the pale hand at the entrance to A01 still grips the door frame.

It was not taken back.

They didn't take a single step forward.

It's like they're waiting for something.

Or rather—it's like waiting for someone. Finally back.