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"Magic Calendar Year 3401, Month of Rain, 26th, Night"
"Heaven's fire burning the city, earth trembling, as if the apocalypse"
"The circle fades, the royal line withers, the nine floating cities finally return to the earth, the magic radiance dims"
"——Empire Brief History·Prologue: Destruction Day"
......
Xia Yuan suddenly opened his eyes.
In front of him was a familiar mirror, but the person reflected within it was strangely young.
A handsome face with regular features, a head of slightly long, light black hair. The pale skin flickered under the wavering candlelight, giving off an eerie aura.
He raised his hand in disbelief, gently trembling, and touched his face. Staring at the silhouette in the mirror doing the same, Xia Yuan took a deep breath.
"Boom rumble——"
A massive thunderclap sounded outside the window, causing Xia Yuan, still in a daze, to shudder all over.
He remembered this night, the storm caused a power outage, and he had no choice but to light a white candle for illumination.
In his memory, three days later — more accurately, in two days, twenty hours, and sixteen minutes, a game years ahead of its time: "Mysterious Era," would release its first trailer.
It would begin offering semi-open beta testing qualifications to society, announcing its arrival to the entire era.
In an era where mainstream online games were still in VR, this nearly unimaginable 98.25% immersive game was a complete blow to the entire gaming industry.
The beta test server opening time was a week after the trailer release, which meant it would begin in ten days.
Once the major studios confirmed that the game's promotion was not exaggerated but indeed true,
they decisively began canceling all other game businesses, fully turning their focus to "Mysterious Era."
When the fifteen-day beta ended, ordinary players, who had been eagerly waiting, swarmed in. For a time, in-game resource prices skyrocketed, and countless people became rich overnight through this game.
Half a month after "Mysterious Era" officially launched, the daily activity of all other games nearly dropped to zero.
Countless game company bosses pulled their hair in frustration, leading to a small boom in the wig industry.
It was rumored that when "Mysterious Era" first came out, an undying gaming giant's boss, unwilling to give up, approached the company's chief engineer.
He hoped to decipher the principles of the "Mysterious Era" game helmet and game pod within three months and develop similar equipment.
The chief engineer politely and tactfully told him: he's living in a dream.
If anyone could decipher the principles of that strange helmet within a year, he would take his own balls down and offer them as a kick toy to whoever succeeded!
After hitting a wall with the technical department, the boss still harbored a glimmer of hope and went to find the game engineer.
But when he entered the personal office of the game's chief engineer, he was shocked to discover the guy slacking off, playing "Mysterious Era" during work hours!
Of course, the game company bosses didn't just sit idly by. They brought in some experts and professors, claiming that this game was too realistic and might cause severe identity recognition disorders among players.
Using this as a reason, they hoped to get the authorities to step in and ban the game entirely.
But for some unknown reason, these 'experts' quickly quieted down one by one, having no impact on "Mysterious Era's" launch.
......
Xia Yuan exhaled slowly, ending the whirlwind of memories, and gently patted his face, his mind racing.
Given that he had been reborn to this point in time before "Mysterious Era" had even released a trailer, he had to find a way to secure a beta test slot without delay.
Though the beta test would be wiped afterward, having beta test access was the only way to gain priority in purchasing a limited edition first-generation game pod globally.
The game officials only allocated five thousand game pods on the continent where Xia Yuan lived, with demand far exceeding supply.
Besides the five hundred slots reserved for beta players to purchase first, the remaining four thousand five hundred pods were inaccessible to ordinary independent players, being pre-ordered well before hitting the market.
The biggest difference between the first-generation game helmet and pod was the online time restriction.
Considering the player's need to eat and use the restroom, the helmet could only be online for a maximum of sixteen hours a day.
A game pod supplemented by nutritional fluid allowed for eighteen hours of gameplay, giving pod players an additional eighth of game time over helmet players!
To professional players, this was as vast as the difference between heaven and earth. Furthermore, each person's helmet was bound to their identity, making it impossible to switch devices to bypass the limit.
Additionally, there were the nutritional fluids paired with the first-generation game pods, which were also fantastic but only sold to players owning game pods, and the supply ceased after just a month, with prices soaring even more absurdly than real estate!
Before rebirth, Xia Yuan was just an ordinary independent player, with a modest family background.
As a result, of course, he didn't get a beta slot, didn't buy the first-generation game pod, nor did he stock up on the first-generation nutritional fluid, perfectly sidestepping all opportunities for wealth.
Even when fighting bosses, he didn't realize how good his dodging skills were!
Though his skills and awareness were quite high-end, the game time restrictions gradually widened the gap between him and the first-tier players using game pods.
This directly affected his income, leading to a month later, when the more affordable and unlimited second-generation game pods and nutritional fluids were released, he was still short on funds.
It wasn't until the game had been live for nearly three months that he just barely managed to gather the necessary funds, but by then, his level had already fallen behind the first-tier players.
So, he simply let loose, no longer fixated on leveling up and increasing his strength, but instead, he wandered back and forth through the continent's major well-known libraries.
He began studying the "background story" documentation from various places, trying to find clues related to treasures, hidden quests, hidden professions, etc.
Players of this type are collectively known as story players, and their numbers are quite large.
Xia Yuan's logical analysis, insight, and luck were all decent. In the end, he really unearthed several hidden quests and ruins through meticulously collected and organized materials, obtaining quite a few good items and returning to the first-tier in strength.
This earned him quite a reputation among story players, earning the nickname — "Lucky Silver Hand."
During this process, he accidentally unlocked a hidden title: [Junior Ruins Scholar], which granted a 5% price bonus when trading unidentified ruins items.
From then on, a new world's door opened for him, with "Mysterious Era's" incredibly authentic background story enchanting him to the point where he neglected the main storyline to explore ancient mysteries.
Crackle——boom rumble——
Another enormous thunderclap echoed across the sky, pulling his thoughts back to reality.
"There are still ten days before the beta starts, that's enough..."
Temporarily setting aside his thoughts, looking at his younger self in the mirror, an uncontrollable smile crept onto Xia Yuan's face.
At this moment, he was filled with grand emotions and couldn't help but slightly raise his chin, placing his left hand behind him, and spoke with vigor.
"A heroic figure shines on sun and moon, strategies concealed within the mind. On the path, people are like jade, the gentleman is unmatched——"
"Crack——boom rumble——"
As if responding to his words, a gigantic thunderclap echoed once more across the sky.
In the sound of thunder, the quietly burning candle flame suddenly flickered, and the room's shadows slightly writhed, as if imbued with life.
Xia Yuan didn't notice the slight change in the candle flame, but as he gazed into the mirror's reflection, a slight surge of impulse arose within him, slowly lifting his right hand, and his lips started to move.
Come to think of it, it's been a long time since I've done this.
The rain outside intensified, with pea-sized raindrops pattering against the glass, and the blinding lightning continuously cleaving the gloomy night sky, with the enormous thunder ever-present.
In the dimly lit room, a strange and inexplicable scene unfolded ——
Under the flickering candlelight, a young man appeared possessed, repeatedly making peculiar gestures in front of the mirror.
He seemed to be chanting some eerie syllables in a rhythm, as if conducting some ancient, evil ritual!
"Rock paper——scissors!"
"Rock paper——scissors!"
......
After some time, as his right hand protested with slight soreness, Xia Yuan finally decided to stop this pointless act.
Undefeated in a single round, that's just like me!
Nodding at the mirror with a nonchalant expression of self-praise, Xia Yuan turned to leave the bathroom...
......
?
At that moment, his movement suddenly froze.
Wait...In the second-to-last round just now, when I showed paper...did he just show...scissors?
Recalling a certain detail from earlier, Xia Yuan blinked, and his smile gradually stiffened.
Can I really lose to the mirror in rock-paper-scissors?
Although the time was still the peak of summer in August, Xia Yuan felt a chill in the air.
Slowly turning his head to look in the mirror, he cautiously raised his right hand, and the reflection's movement remained synchronized.
Did I remember it wrong?
He sighed slightly in relief.
"Right, how can a reflection move on its own?"
On the living room coffee table, the electronic watch's dark display showed a line of icy red numbers:
[23:59:59]
Though Xia Yuan reassured himself, he still decided to quickly leave the place.
But as he picked up the candle and turned to leave, the flame inexplicably flickered and then silently extinguished! The room plunged into darkness——
He shuddered, feeling a cold sweat break out on his back.
"Boom rumble——"
At that moment, a massive blue-white lightning bolt tore through the night sky, accompanied by deafening thunder, instantly lighting the room as bright as snow.
At that instant, he noticed a detail that made his hair stand on end: the reflection in the mirror had a silent, bizarre arc at the corner of its mouth!
As if sensing his gaze, the reflection abruptly turned! Its eyes, somehow transformed into pure black and white, locked straight onto his face!
Xia Yuan felt chills all over, his brain frantically urging him to flee, but his legs were immovably heavy as if filled with lead.
The next second, the light from the lightning vanished as suddenly as it appeared, returning the mirror and reflection to total darkness.
Yet those black and white eyes of the reflection remained unmistakably clear and strange.
Staring at the mirror, Xia Yuan felt cold all over. As their eyes met, a twisted, icy stream of information came from the dark mirror, through their connected gaze, and into his brain.
It was an excruciatingly unsettling sensation, as if thousands of small black ants were crawling into the grooves of his cerebral cortex.
The content of the message was only a short sentence:
"At the end of seven alternations of light and darkness, you will arrive at, Unival——"
As he passively received a massive injection of mental information, Xia Yuan convulsed violently as if electrocuted, painfully holding his head with both hands.
In the next instant, the ceiling light suddenly turned on, its soft cream-colored glow dispersing the room's darkness.
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