"Sorry, beautiful!"

The night was shrouded in twilight, with a hint of autumn chill—perfect weather for a night run.

At the dimly lit corner of a street, two runners, a man and a woman running toward each other, collided squarely into each other's arms.

Su Nan managed to steady himself. His long-term training meant his reactions were fairly swift, and he instinctively shifted his body to the side, greatly reducing the impact.

In the faint glow of the streetlamp, he could make out that the person he had bumped into was a woman in her early twenties, wearing a black dress. She was tall and had delicate features.

The woman didn't give Su Nan any attention and continued to run in the direction he had come from. She was quick, almost in a hurry.

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

He didn't linger and kept running at a steady pace.

Su Nan was a security guard, but unlike ordinary ones, he worked at a very famous five-star hotel in the city.

And because it was an upscale hotel, even the security guards were well-treated. Accordingly, the hotel had high expectations, requiring excellent physical fitness.

His nightly run had become a part of his daily routine.

The route he ran on wasn't remote. It was rush hour, and there were many other runners, with pairs and groups of fitness enthusiasts commonly seen, nothing out of the ordinary.

However, he hadn't been running for long when two men running toward him caught his attention and made him take a second look.

They were two men running fast, but oddly, both wore duckbill caps, and black masks that completely covered their faces.

Keeping his cool, Su Nan found it strange. To him, they didn't look like they were running for exercise at all.

It was more like they were chasing someone.

The reason was simple: Running requires rapid breathing—no one wears a mask for a night run, let alone run so fast!

Su Nan didn't overthink it and kept up his rhythm, running forward. In his mind, even if the two really were chasing after someone, it wasn't his business.

...

About ten minutes later.

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

After taking a good hot shower, he started to wash his sweat-soaked clothes out of habit.

Suddenly, he noticed something and reached into his pocket.

A metal ring resembling a bracelet appeared in his hand.

"Is this a bracelet?"

"Why would I have something like this?" Su Nan frowned.

Under the light, he observed closely and quickly realized that it was not a bracelet.

The metal ring was made of two semicircles, with a clever and delicate buckle in the middle that could be detached and opened. When put together, it fit seamlessly, and the whole object shimmered with a silvery luster, exuding a metallic feel.

Su Nan was certain this thing wasn't his.

He had emptied his pockets when he finished work, and he didn't have this item on him then.

"I ran straight back here after work, didn't do anything else, nor did I come into contact with anyone. How did this thing get on me?"

Su Nan thought hard, trying to filter through everything that had happened after work.

Suddenly, he had an idea and his brow furrowed.

"It was that woman I collided with; she's the only one I came into contact with!" Su Nan's expression changed slightly as he quickly thought of many possibilities.

Clearly, there was a great likelihood that this woman had slipped the metal ring into his pocket without him noticing during their collision!

If that was the case, it meant something quite unusual.

It's unthinkable for someone to casually place an item in someone else's pocket, and even if it was a prank, it suggests someone wants to mess with you.

Su Nan did not believe for a second that the metal ring had accidentally fallen into his pocket from the woman.

Upon closer examination of the metal ring, he found several small characters and a string of alphanumeric characters clearly engraved on the inside.

Demon World, RtU—5143

"Demon World? Could this be a Game Bracelet?"

Recognizing the small text and alphanumeric combination, Su Nan realized what it was.

He was familiar with this kind of lettering on many Game Bracelets.

Online gaming had developed over a hundred years from the early days of simple web games played with keyboard commands to Virtual Reality Games operated directly through consciousness in the game warehouse.

Due to the costly production of game warehouses and the fact that initially, they could only run games designated by the manufacturers, virtual reality games were not widely adopted for a long time.

It was the emergence of the Game Bracelet that brought change.

The Game Bracelet had two functions: first, it stored gaming software, so if players wanted to experience different games, they only needed to purchase the Game Bracelet for those games.

Secondly, it served as identity verification; for players, the Game Bracelet was like a personal ID card that stored their personal information.

Su Nan wasn't unfamiliar with Game Bracelets; in fact, he was a seasoned gaming enthusiast with an expensive game warehouse in his bedroom.

But unlike those he had seen, which were mostly made of plastic with internal precision chips, this was his first time seeing a Game Bracelet entirely made of metal.

Judging by the format of the Game Bracelet's code, the text portion represented the game's name.

"Is it the Game Bracelet? Just check it out and you'll know."

He opened the browser on his phone and directly searched for Demon World. The page refreshed, and the next moment, a plethora of results about Demon World filled the screen.

"So there really is such a game."

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

It was the Game Forum for "Demon World."

"What kind of garbage game is this? It's been a week, and I still haven't completed the beginning Task."

"I'm out, I'm out. It's not me playing the game; it's the game playing me. Every day I log in to the game, I can't even survive ten minutes!"

"Without a decade of brain embolism, you can't possibly plan out this game. I just want to know now, who is the genius behind this game!"

...

Posts filled with negative sentiments greeted his eyes. Browsing casually through the Game Forum, Su Nan was quite surprised.

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

The so-called "Demon World" was a game that had just hit the market a week ago.

Strangely, the game's production company did not engage in any advertising since the game's launch. Players couldn't even find the official website of the game, which led to very few people knowing about it.

Even weirder, there were no Game Bracelets for sale anywhere, and the Game Bracelets used by players on the forum were all gifted via courier during the game's early reservation phase by the game company.

Some players have counted that so far, there are only a pitiful few thousand players who have logged into this game, and many have quit after a few tries.

The reason is simple: the game is too difficult!

In the game, players only have one life per day. Once dead, they cannot log in to the game again for the rest of that day, and the game's difficulty is maxed out.

This is why, a week has passed, and many players still haven't completed the beginner's Novice Task.

"The Task Difficulty of the game is divided into four levels: one-star is the easiest, four-star the most difficult, with huge gaps between each star level."

"I advise players who have yet to complete the Novice Task: if you want to quickly enhance your strength, you must choose a One-star Task for the Novice Task. Do not select tasks above the two-star difficulty."

A top-strategy post caught Su Nan's attention; it was made by a player named Zhou Cheng.

This player was obviously very impressive, at least at the game's current stage, he was a top-tier existence.

"Although tasks above two-stars come with more rewards, they are too time-consuming and draining. Even if you manage to complete them by force, the difficulty of subsequent Mainline Tasks will also significantly increase."

"Rather than wasting time on Novice Tasks, it's much better to rush through them and focus on tackling Daily Tasks and Mainline Tasks — that's the right way."

"I have used this method, and now I have completed two sections of the Mainline Task. I have improved my Demon Sutra from the beginner level to Great Accomplishment."

Zhou Cheng's strategy attracted a lot of players' attention. Some players did not agree with his approach, thinking that higher difficulty meant higher rewards and more challenge in the game.

Of course, these players were in the minority; more people agreed with Zhou Cheng's method. At the very least, the rapid rise of Zhou Cheng in a short time had already proven the viability of his approach.

But what did their agreement matter?

The Novice Task was still too difficult for them.

"Great God is awe-inspiring. It's estimated that reaching Great Accomplishment in the Demon Sutra requires 14 points of demon power, and I haven't even gotten 2 points of demon power."

"True Great God, showing off as usual! Who doesn't want to complete the Novice Task as quickly as possible? But the problem is, we don't have the strength."

Under Zhou Cheng's strategy post, a great number of players lamented.

They knew all too well that the Novice Task was a waste of time, but the problem was, the Novice Tasks were too, 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 of the forum and glancing at the Game Bracelet in his hand, Su Nan became interested.

Normally, the Game Bracelet's tie-up with a player's identity meant that others could not log in even if they got hold of the bracelet.

Of course, there were exceptions. Some players didn't play games just for fun but to make money and often didn't bind their bracelet with their identity, so they could sell the bracelet later and make a profit.

With a try-and-see attitude, Su Nan returned to his bedroom and entered the game warehouse while wearing the bracelet.

[Consciousness connecting...]

[Connection successful!]

[Game Bracelet detected, loading game...]

[Game loaded, this bracelet is bound to the player "Falling Leaves". You are not the bracelet's bound player, please use your own bracelet to log in.]

"I can't log in!"

"Figures, someone else's Game Bracelet is unreliable after all."

Virtual text popped up before his eyes, and Su Nan was not surprised, 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 messages popped out.

[An unknown error has occurred. The player 'Falling Leaves' detected to be dead. The bracelet is now without an owner. You can log in normally.]

[The bracelet is now re-bound. An ability from the previous owner will now be randomly inherited.]

[Random ability draw in progress...]

[Talent ability drawn. Confirm Yes/No to inherit.]

[Note: Each player can only inherit a previous player's ability once. Please choose carefully.]

A stream of text scrolled past, leaving Su Nan utterly confused.

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