Chapter

"This isn't a game..."
"This isn't a game..."
Amidst such voices, the man dissolved into a faint purple silhouette, forcibly dragged into the void. If one looked closely, they would see within his shadow a fist-sized shard of crystal, battered and worn, occasionally flashing with a violet lightning that jolted the man's ethereal form.
He vanished only after being snatched away by some unknown force and delivered into a place of white light.

[Player: DS-54370681-157, Gender: Male, Affiliation: Yang City Third High School, Class 42973, Level: Lv0 (8 stars)]
[Attributes: Strength: 4, Agility: 3, Constitution: 5, Spirit: 6, State: Good]
[Affinity: Shadow Mana/Combat Affinity, Nature Mana Affinity, Water Combat Affinity]

On the wall of a tiny room no more than two square meters in size, this string of words appeared suddenly. The pristine white wall opposite him transformed in an instant, becoming as smooth as a mirror. The young man, known as DS-54370681-157, stepped out from the other side of the mirror, utterly unaware of all that had transpired within the void.

This young man was Liu Zong, a student at Yang City Third High School, twenty-two years old, and a prospective player in Yang City.

The reason for such a status was that, in this world, ever since forty thousand years ago, the game had become the main occupation.

Every human, after birth, was forbidden to touch the game until the age of eighteen. They were required to learn various knowledge and undergo a peculiar form of meditation. At the same time, they were instilled with a single belief: this is not a game, but a way of life, a means of survival.

After reaching the age of eighteen, they would enter high school, test their game affinity, study everything about the game, and, under the guidance of teachers, receive training and undertake tasks within the game.

As long as they succeeded in becoming an official player before the age of sixty, their lifespan would leap from the usual hundred years to three hundred years.

Of course, it was possible to become an official player after sixty and enjoy a three-hundred-year lifespan, but such players were deemed untalented, unable to ascend to higher levels, relegated to the most mundane jobs in the game world, or used as bait or cannon fodder for elite players.

Liu Zong's talent was respectable; at twenty-two, he had already reached Lv0 (8 stars). With continued effort, taking the final step before sixty would be effortless.

Yet, precisely because of his promising talent, the pressure upon him was immense. His parents had only become official players after sixty; ordinary folk whose current jobs involved mining games, farming games, and patrolling the city. Their daily earnings barely covered the family's living expenses.

Liu Zong's tuition was fully supported by compulsory education funds, the most basic welfare worldwide—enough for each person to study until sixty. If one wished to become a player quickly and reach Lv1, they either needed family wealth to attend a private school or had to earn it themselves.

When it came to Liu Zong's future career path, his choices were fraught with difficulty.

Every new player underwent an affinity test upon enrollment; the results determined their future profession. Typically, most players possessed three types of affinity, ranked from strongest to weakest. Liu Zong was unusual in this respect.

His affinity was particularly unique. At first, his family assumed his primary affinity was nature mana, since as a child he loved tending to plants and flowers. His mother even believed he would make a fine plant druid.

But at some point, Liu Zong began to have strange dreams at night, in which a man whose face he could never see demonstrated a rather ordinary set of boxing techniques. At first, Liu Zong paid little attention, but eventually, he realized his body had memorized the routine.

Whenever he engaged in physical training, he would unconsciously practice this set of moves, even the breathing and visualization during the exercises were flawless; the only thing he could not recall was the name of the boxing style.

On the day of his enrollment, his attributes revealed simultaneous affinity with shadow mana and combat, astonishing his parents, though Liu Zong knew it was the result of those boxing techniques.

Because his primary affinity was both shadow mana and combat, his first choice of profession became more complicated than for ordinary players.

A typical player with shadow affinity, if mana-aligned, could become a necromancer, death mage, or Daoist; if combat-aligned, they could pursue careers as death knights or shadow soldiers.

For someone like Liu Zong, who had both mana and combat affinity, the choices were much more complex. Although he could still become a necromancer or death knight, as his teachers said, it would be a waste.

Liu Zong had the potential to pursue a dual magic-combat profession.

But was it really so easy to pursue such a path? Not only did it demand extra training and effort, but the rarity of the profession meant Liu Zong spent a whole year in the library before settling on one reliable, confidence-inspiring career.

Not to mention the materials required for the job, and the skills he would have to forsake.

During his studies, the shadow in his dreams changed once more, seemingly connected to the knowledge he acquired. Insights into necromancy, undead lore, or shadow attributes would often trigger memories that didn't belong to him.

These memories were never as complete as the boxing techniques; fragmented, sometimes a fleeting thought, sometimes a full knowledge system. Regardless of how broken and incomplete they were, once they appeared, they became instinct, affecting Liu Zong's daily life.

Moreover, the shadow in his dreams would shift with his deaths in the game: sometimes clearer, sometimes more obscure, sometimes influenced by external artifacts, constantly changing—a source of frustration for Liu Zong, making him cautious in the game, unlike other players who cared little about dying in-game.

Even so, in pursuit of materials unattainable at his level, Liu Zong still accepted tasks as bait from time to time.

This time was no different. After stepping out of the game, Liu Zong placed the newly acquired unit of magical mercury card onto the left wall.

That wall was already covered in cards, forming something like a technology tree, documenting all the professions Liu Zong could pursue, the materials and knowledge each required. But Liu Zong was far from satisfied, for too many spaces bore the word "Vacant," and some spots were marked with strange question marks.