"Eh, this game is pretty realistic."
"Right, but how do we play it?"
"I don't know, there are a lot of shops over there, why don't we go check them out?"
...
Player incarnations looked around with great curiosity.
At that moment, Su Mo was also immensely shocked. He tried calling out.
"Interface!"
Just then, a special metal bracelet, which Su Mo didn't realize he had been wearing on his left hand, suddenly made a sound.
A virtual projection display shot out from it, showing just two features on the entire screen: one for logging out and one for quest prompts.
There was nothing else, no character interface, nor any kind of inventory.
It was as clean as it could get, and if it weren't for the logout button, Su Mo might even start to doubt whether he had come to another real world.
Besides these, Su Mo also noticed a number 0 displayed on the metal bracelet.
He had no idea what purpose it served.
Su Mo didn't continue standing in place. He walked towards a nearby shop.
He entered a small grocery store, where shelves were knocked over and items covered in dust, and some food had gone moldy.
Su Mo tried to pick up a bottle of mineral water to check if it was still drinkable. He unscrewed it, sniffed it, and finding no strange smell, took a sip and tried to swallow.
Gulp~
The sensation was super realistic, unbelievably so, with no noticeable difference from reality.
However, the more real it felt, the more inherently dangerous Su Mo found it. He began to look for a weapon for self-defense. As the saying goes, caution is the parent of safety.
He went to the tools section and found hammers, kitchen knives, and a few pocket knives there, but nothing else that seemed to be more lethal.
Su Mo first unwrapped a pocket knife and cautiously drew it across his fingertip. As expected, a fine cut appeared, and a trickle of blood emerged.
He also felt a hint of pain, but Su Mo sharply deduced a critical piece of information from the sensation of pain. The pain here was about fifty percent of what it would be in the outside world, but even that fifty percent was startling enough.
Just then, Su Mo heard screaming from outside.
His nerves tensed, he ran out of the store, only to be taken aback by the scene before him.
He saw four garishly dressed young men, smiling wickedly as they surrounded a rather attractive young woman.
"Babe, let big brother kiss you, it's just a game, you've got nothing to lose."
"Yeah, don't be scared, maybe we'll take you for some fun if we're happy!"
...
The other players watching this scene looked hesitant. A man had gone up to intervene earlier and ended up beaten half to death; he was still lying on the ground groaning in pain.
It seemed this game had no specific order, with a wildly open degree of freedom and no constraints whatsoever.
The frightened girl wanted to log out of the game.
But the leader of the group reached out and touched her face, interrupting her attempt to log out.
"Where do you think you're going, sweetie?"
"You're shameless..."
"Oh, we're shameless, but what can you do about it?"
....
Watching the scene, Su Mo stroked his chin and fell into deep thought. He was beginning to have a hard time understanding what this game was about. There seemed to be no enemies. Could it be that the players themselves were the enemies?
At that thought, Su Mo suddenly felt eager to try. Technically, verifying this tricky question would be difficult, as he couldn't just hassle other players without good reason – that wasn't his principle.
But now that there was an opportunity, Su Mo decided not to hold back. He stealthily walked up behind the four young men and placed his hand on the shoulder of the leader.
"Who's that?"
The young man turned around angrily shouting.
Only to be met with a hammer to the face.
Bang!
The head of the young man in front exploded like a watermelon, and he collapsed.
The other three youths were also splattered with a mix of red and white fluids, and they wet themselves on the spot.
That included the girl who was harassed; she passed out immediately.
"Ah! Someone's been killed!"
The onlookers scattered, running for their lives at the sight.
The last scene was also witnessed by someone in the distance.
Only Su Mo, covered in blood, remained standing at the scene, deep in thought. He had killed a player, yet there had been no notification, no indication of any reward – what was the point of the game?
Never mind, he could deal with puzzling questions later. Su Mo turned and left, planning to explore the surrounding buildings further to see if there were any other gains to be had.
He entered an apartment building, using the hammer in his hand to forcefully break open the sealed doors and went into a resident's apartment.
A musty air hit him in the face; the space inside was cramped, with furniture strewn about.
Su Mo didn't stand idle; he started rummaging through drawers and cabinets searching for anything valuable.
And indeed, he found some notable items – two women's gold necklaces and a men's gold ring. Su Mo weighed them; together, they made for a decent amount.
If the official setting was to be trusted, these items could be converted into actual gold, though he didn't know what the exchange rate was.
It was at that moment that the gold necklace in Su Mo's hand accidentally came into contact with his bracelet.
A notification message popped up on the bracelet.
"Do you want to convert the gold jewelry into gold points?"
"Yes."
Su Mo's expression shifted slightly as he tapped on the bracelet.
Suddenly, the two necklaces and the ring in his hand vanished, replaced by the gold point value displayed on the bracelet, which changed from 0 to 0.1.
As he observed the change in value, he found a bit of direction. Gold and silver, which could be converted, must be important to the game.
And if there were no accidents, there was a probability of finding gold and silver jewelry in ordinary residents' homes.
However, the difficulty of searching was relatively high, and the quantity was certainly not abundant.
There was one place where these items were rather plentiful, the gold shop.
With this in mind, Su Mo left the apartment.
Half an hour later, Su Mo appeared in a large shopping mall, which he had managed to enter after some effort by breaking through a small door.
The whole mall was eerily quiet and dim, giving one a creepy feeling.
Of course, Su Mo didn't care one bit; he began to search for anything of value.
However, contrary to his expectations, many of the stores on the first floor had empty counters or items of little value – such as appliances, luxury bags, cosmetics, and the like, all useless to him.
The only slightly useful thing was a backpack that Su Mo found amongst the items, and he could use it to carry things.
Soon, as he searched, Su Mo found a half-closed iron door in a corner.
He slowly opened the door and carefully walked in. It was dark inside, but after looking closely, he could see shelves laden with goods.
Walking in, Su Mo started to search through the items on the shelves, which contained a wide variety of things.
Then, Su Mo opened the backpack he brought along and began to pack some useful living supplies.
A small knife.
A bundle of rope.
A box of lighters.
A bottle of alcohol.
...
Just as Su Mo was intently packing away.
Bang~
The door to the storage room was suddenly closed.
"..."
Su Mo immediately turned and sprinted towards the door with the speed of a hundred-meter dash in seven seconds, slamming into it to try and open the iron door. But he was a step too late; the grinding sound of something heavy being pushed against the door outside had stopped.
Without a doubt, the door had been blocked; and to make matters worse, this particular iron door swung outward.
"Open the door!"
Su Mo said in a deep voice.