Chapter One: The Invincible Boss Begins His Slaughter
In the vast, empty expanse of space, a battered, small spacecraft drifted aimlessly. Below, a hundred-meter-wide asteroid floated, and the ship lowered a mechanical grappling hook toward it.
A figure clad in a simple spacesuit hammered away at something atop the asteroid.
“Huang Yunshuo, damn it, hurry up! The hook’s energy is almost spent. If you don’t climb up now, you’ll be spending the night on that rock!”
A sharp, anxious voice rang out through the communicator.
Huang Yunshuo leisurely adjusted his slightly crooked helmet and replied irritably, “Why rush? Good work takes time! Didn’t a great person once say, don’t hurry, take it slow!”
“What I mean is, ‘Reforged Epoch’ is launching! There’s only one minute left on the countdown!”
Huang Yunshuo, clutching his miner’s pick, nearly coughed up blood.
“Haul me up, now!”
He shouted, stuffing several stones into his backpack, securing them, then slipped the pick into his belt and fastened the mechanical hook to his waist. “Pull me up, bro!”
The hook began retracting, but only halfway before it stopped.
“Keep going?”
The communicator’s voice sounded helpless. “Told you to come up earlier. Now look where you are? The hook’s out of energy. Maybe you should climb up yourself—it's only a few dozen meters.”
“To hell with climbing, games are more important! Who has time to climb now? I’ll just hang under the ship and not budge today. Let an asteroid come crash down if it dares!”
Cursing, Huang Yunshuo checked the hook, then activated the multifunction helmet’s special ‘Reforged Epoch’ connection.
“Beep, DNA scan.”
“Beep, iris scan.”
“Beep, citizenship verification.”
“Beep, ...”
Dozens of verification prompts echoed almost simultaneously and faded. Then—
A sudden rush of noise!
The scene before his eyes vanished, replaced by darkness in his mind.
“A black screen straight into the game? Damn, this is the Second World—couldn’t they at least play some epic background music to hype things up?”
Huang Yunshuo immediately complained.
Suddenly, the darkness began to glow faintly, distant clamor grew from barely perceptible to weak, then steadily louder.
“Biological target detected. Initiating extinction-level purge.”
A cold electronic voice, vast and thunderous, echoed as if from the sky itself.
Amidst a storm of fireworks, a colossal mechanical monster appeared—its humanoid head and spider-like body towering as high as a mountain.
As it spoke, it raised two rotating cannons, each several hundred meters long.
“That… big?”
Huang Yunshuo swallowed hard. This beast, thousands of meters tall, was the boss in the game?
How are you supposed to play against that?
Its health must be tens, maybe hundreds of billions. With regeneration every second, how many lives would it take to bring it down? Players might not even be able to force it to lose a single point of health.
“Charge, for the Arkess Empire!”
A roar from the ground thundered like spring lightning, countless battle cries soared, threatening to tear his eardrums. Huang Yunshuo’s vision blurred from the deafening noise.
“The Dark Demonic Cult won’t fall behind! Even if it’s a fight with no return, weak humans can never match our courage!”
“People of the Forest Hall, in this moment, we do not need peace!”
“Knights of Heaven, charge!”
“The Fourth Silma Dynasty reporting for duty, we fear nothing for honor!”
“The Silverlight Human Empire…”
Voices of countless leaders echoed from every corner, each raising their arm, accompanied by a tidal wave of shouts and cheers. It was less a deathmatch and more a feast of food and worship.
The smoke cleared, the scene sharpened.
Looking down from a thousand meters above, the people below were invisible—only a sea of armor and banners, coloring the earth, writhing as they surged toward the monstrous humanoid spider.
Magic, arrows, and artillery painted the world in dazzling colors.
Hundreds of thousands of archers fired in unison, a hundred thousand paladins charged, fully buffed, shoulder to shoulder. Countless flying races swarmed like locusts, darkening the skies. Mage legions unleashed volleys, fusing their spells into pillars of light dozens of meters thick!
Just then—
The mechanical monster raised its massive cannons, and apocalyptic fire thundered forth.
Boom, boom, boom—
In an instant, everything—leaders’ roars, warriors’ shouts, the howl of magic—all was obliterated by an overwhelming storm of laser fire.
The scene darkened again, silence returned.
Was that it?
The opening cinematic: NPCs massacred by the mechanical boss—what’s the point of that?
Even this powerful NPC alliance was wiped out instantly. What hope do players have?
Is the game trying to scare everyone off right at launch?
But ‘Reforged Epoch’ has replaced ‘Glacial Glory’ as humanity’s latest Second World.
It’s a civic duty—by supreme constitutional decree, every citizen must spend at least 360 hours per month in the Second World. Where else would people go if not there?
Shopping, dating, watching movies?
All those can be done in the Second World.
Besides, the likes of Huang Yunshuo’s ramshackle ship—or even the motherships carrying countless humans drifting through the stars—the limited commercial and scenic districts have been toured for decades, surely everyone’s tired of them.
“What game dares to scare off players right at launch? Second World is Second World. It dominates humanity’s virtual realm; no matter how reckless, there’s nothing we can do.”
Just then—
In the empty cockpit of the battered ship, a red warning flashed across the main screen. The alert repeated three times.
“Warning: a minor stellar particle storm is sweeping through the current sector. All personnel outside the ship are advised to suspend Second World login to avoid any unpredictable dangers posed by stellar particles.”
A bright login interface appeared before Huang Yunshuo.
A tall, curvaceous woman hovered in the sky, clad in a white mage’s robe. Her snowy hair flowed without wind, immense translucent wings beating slowly behind her. She held a staff as tall as a person, her jade skin luminous, her beauty indescribable.
“I am the Guide, Goddess of Nature, Brilliant Green Light Ming Ziwei. Adventurer, please begin character creation.”
Her voice was gentle and clear, like the murmuring of a stream.
Huang Yunshuo involuntarily squinted. Such a beautiful, long-legged woman—he wondered if she had consciousness of her own.
He couldn’t resist teasing.
“Miss Ming, right? Have you eaten? Do you have a boyfriend? If not, what do you think of me? Or should I just come find you—where do you live?”
“You may find me at the Eastern Forest Temple in the Hall of the Woods. Reminder: many of your companions have already completed character creation and are entering ‘Reforged Epoch.’”
“So stingy, fine, I won’t ask anymore.”
Huang Yunshuo waved his hand and turned to the character selection interface.