"I'm sorry, miss!"

In the hazy night with a touch of cool autumn air, it was a good time for night running.

At the dimly lit corner of an intersection, a man and a woman running towards each other collided head-on.

Su Nan barely managed to steady himself. Thanks to his long-term exercise, his reaction was quick, and he adjusted his body to the side at the first moment, greatly reducing the force of the collision.

Under the faint yellow light of the street lamp, he could see that the person he collided with was a tall, delicate-featured woman in her twenties, dressed in black.

The woman did not pay any attention to Su Nan and continued to run in the direction he had come from, very fast, and seemingly in a hurry.

"Running so fast, are you rushing to be reborn?" Su Nan muttered discontentedly as he watched the woman's retreating figure.

He didn't linger and continued to run forward at a steady pace.

Su Nan was a security guard working at a very famous five-star hotel in the city, which was different from ordinary security guards' positions.

Because the hotel was high-end, even the security guards' treatment was good. In return, the hotel demanded high standards from the guards, requiring excellent physical fitness.

Nightly running had become a daily routine for him.

The route he took for night running was not secluded. At this time, it was the peak hour for getting off work, and many people were running. Groups of sports enthusiasts could be seen everywhere, and there was nothing strange about it.

However, he hadn't run far when he couldn't help but look twice at two people coming towards him from the front.

They were two men running at a very fast speed. Oddly, they both wore duckbill caps and black masks that completely covered their faces.

Observing them without a change in expression, Su Nan found it strange that neither of them seemed to be here for a night run.

Rather, it seemed like they were chasing someone.

The reason was simple: running required quick breathing, and no one would wear a mask for a night run, let alone run so fast!

Su Nan didn't think much about it and maintained his pace, running forward. In his view, even if the two were indeed chasing someone, it had nothing to do with him.

...

About ten minutes later.

Dragging his exhausted body, Su Nan returned to his rented apartment.

After a quick hot shower, he started washing his sweat-soaked clothes out of habit.

Suddenly, he noticed something and reached into his pants pocket.

A metal ring in the shape of a bracelet appeared in his hand.

"Is this a bracelet?"

"How come I have something like this on me?" Su Nan frowned.

Under the light, upon closer inspection, he soon realized that it wasn't a bracelet.

The metal ring was composed of two semicircles, with an ingenious and delicate buckle in the middle that could be opened and closed. When put together, the seams were tight, and the whole had a silver-white luster, full of metallic texture.

Su Nan was sure that this thing didn't belong to him.

When he got off work, he had checked his pockets, and this item wasn't on him at the time.

"I ran home from work and didn't do anything else or come into contact with anyone. How did this thing get on me?"

Su Nan carefully recalled everything that had happened after work, trying to filter through it all.

Suddenly, he thought of something and furrowed his brows.

"It must be the woman who collided with me. She's the only one who had contact with me!" Su Nan's face changed slightly as he thought of many possibilities in an instant.

Obviously, the metal ring most likely ended up in his pocket when the woman he collided with took advantage of his inattention.

If that was true, it held an extraordinary significance.

No one would put something into someone else's pocket for no reason, even as a prank—it meant someone wanted to mess with you.

Su Nan didn't believe that the metal ring accidentally fell into his pocket from that woman.

Continuing to examine the metal ring closely, he noticed that some small characters and a combination of letters and numbers were clearly engraved on the inner side.

Demon World, RtU—5143

"Demon World? Could this be a game bracelet?"

Seeing the small characters and letters, Su Nan realized what it was.

He was very familiar with this type of letter combination, as similar combinations were often found inside many game bracelets.

After hundreds of years of development, online games had evolved from the earliest web games that could only be operated through pages and keystrokes into virtual reality games that could be directly controlled by one's consciousness via game warehouses.

Because game warehouses were expensive, and early game warehouses could only play designated games from game companies, virtual reality games were not widely popularized for a long time.

It wasn't until the advent of game bracelets that the situation improved.

Game bracelets had two functions: one was to store game software, so players only needed to purchase the corresponding game bracelets to experience different games.

The second function was to verify identity; for players, game bracelets were like personal identity cards, storing their personal information.

Su Nan had seen game bracelets before, and he was an avid gamer himself. In his bedroom, there was an expensive game warehouse.

However, all the game bracelets he had seen were made of plastic and contained sophisticated chips.

Now, for the first time, he saw one entirely made of metal, like the one in front of him.

According to the format of game bracelet codes, the text part represents the game's name.

"I'll find out if it's a game bracelet by looking it up."

Opening his phone browser, he directly searched for Demon World, and once the page refreshed, countless search results related to Demon World appeared on the screen.

"There really is such a game."

Su Nan's eyes lit up, and he clicked on one of the top links.

It was the game forum for "Demon World."

"What a trash game. It's been a week, and I haven't even completed the starting task."

"I'm out. I'm not playing the game; the game is playing me. Every day I log in, and I can't even survive for ten minutes!"

"You can't create this game without a decade of brain clots. I just want to know who came up with this game!"

...

Posts full of negative emotions caught his eye as Su Nan casually browsed the game forum, surprising him.

After a while, he finally understood what this game was about.

The so-called "Demon World" was a game that had been on the market for only a week.

The game's production company seemed to have some strange ideas. After the game was released, there was no advertising or promotion, and players couldn't even find the game's official website. As a result, very few people knew about this game.

What's even weirder is that there are no game bracelets for sale in the market. The game bracelets in the forum are all given away by the game company via express mail during the game's pre-order phase.

Some players estimated that so far, only a pitiful few thousand people have logged into the game, with many quitting after just a few tries.

The reason was simple: the game was too difficult!

In the game, players only have one life per day. Once dead, they can't log in to the game again for the rest of the day, making the game's difficulty skyrocket.

This was also why, after a week, many players still hadn't completed the novice task.

"Game tasks are divided into four difficulty levels: one-star is the easiest, and four-star is the hardest, with a huge gap between each star level."

"For players who haven't completed the novice tasks, if you want to quickly increase your strength, be sure to choose a one-star task. Do not choose tasks with a difficulty level of two stars or higher."

A pinned strategy post caught Su Nan's attention, posted by a player named Zhou Cheng.

This player must be very good, at least at the current stage of the game, he was top-tier.

"Although the rewards for tasks with a difficulty level of two stars or higher are greater, they are too time-consuming and exhausting. Even if you barely complete them, the difficulty of subsequent mainline tasks will also increase significantly."

"Instead of wasting time on novice tasks, it's better to quickly skip them and focus on daily tasks and mainline tasks."

"I used this method, and now I have completed two stages of the mainline task, and my demon sutra has been upgraded from beginner to great accomplishment."

Zhou Cheng's strategy attracted the attention of many players, and some did not agree with his method. In their view, higher difficulty tasks meant higher rewards, making the game more challenging.

Of course, these people are just a minority. More people agreed with Zhou Cheng's method, at least Zhou Cheng's rapid rise in a short time proved the feasibility of this approach.

But what can they do even if they agree?

The novice tasks were simply too difficult for them.

"God is terrifying. According to the estimates, to upgrade the Demon Sutra to Great Accomplishment, you need 14 points of Demon Power. I don't even have 2 points yet."

"No wonder he's a great god. Who doesn't want to quickly complete the novice tasks? But the problem is, our strength doesn't allow it."

Many players wailed under Zhou Cheng's strategy post.

They knew full well that novice tasks were a waste of time, but the problem was, the novice tasks were simply too difficult for them.

"Is this game really that difficult? I just don't know if I can log in to this game."

Looking at the content on the forum and glancing at the game bracelet in his hand, Su Nan became interested.

Normally, game bracelets are bound to a player's identity, and others wouldn't be able to log in even with the bracelet.

But there are exceptions. Some players play games not just for fun but also to make money. These people usually don't bind the bracelet to their identity so they can sell the bracelets later and make a profit.

With a try-it-out attitude, Su Nan went back to his bedroom, put on his bracelet, and entered the game warehouse.

[Consciousness connecting...]

[Connection successful!]

[Game bracelet detected, loading game...]

[Game loaded. Bracelet is bound to player "Fallen Leaf". You are not the owner of this bracelet, please use your own bracelet to log in.]

"Can't log in!"

"As I thought, other people's game bracelets are unreliable."

The virtual text information popped up in front of him, and Su Nan was not surprised. He just shook his head.

Just as he was about to open the game warehouse to exit, suddenly, the text in front of him changed, and a series of information popped up.

[Unknown error detected. Player 'Fallen Leaf' is deceased. This bracelet is now unbound, and you can log in normally.]

[The bracelet has been re-bound. You will now randomly inherit one ability from the previous player.]

[Ability random extraction in progress…]

[Talent ability extracted. Confirm whether to inherit.]

[Notice: Each player can only inherit the ability of a predecessor once. Please choose carefully.]

With a series of texts jumping, Su Nan was dumbfounded.

"The previous player is dead? What's going on?"