"Guys, let's finish work early today and play a few rounds of Chenghai 3C tonight?"
"Sure, it's been a while since I played. Let's invite Han Xing too."
In Xinyang City, inside an office building, two men were chatting.
Han Xing heard someone calling his name but didn't respond immediately. Instead, he kept his head down.
He was playing a pixel-style survival adventure game called *Sky Island Paradise* on his phone. The art style was fresh, and the music was upbeat.
The player starts on a floating block and expands their territory by exploring other floating blocks and gathering resources.
But the more Han Xing played, the more he realized this game wasn't as simple as it appeared.
While exploring, players would inadvertently trigger various side quests. These quests had different options, and each choice seemed to influence the direction of the story.
These side quests interconnected, building up a massive main storyline.
Besides the rich side content, the in-game character dialogues were quite vivid.
When conversing with the main character, the emotions unintentionally displayed by the in-game NPCs made Han Xing feel as if he was talking to a real person.
As he followed the quests, forgotten histories were uncovered...
All of this made Han Xing wonder: is this really a pixel game under 100MB?
Han Xing was deeply absorbed in it.
Just then, a prompt appeared on his phone screen.
[The game will undergo maintenance in ten minutes. New version content will be available soon. Please stay tuned…]
Maintenance? But the game had just launched a few days ago for beta testing, right?
Han Xing felt puzzled but saw a sturdy man appear beside him.
Cheng Jianyong patted Han Xing on the shoulder and squinted with a smile, "Watching some girl's video? You didn't even hear me talking to you."
Han Xing put away his phone and said, "I heard you."
"I'm just wondering, we haven't hit our department's target this month, and Chen Ergou is monitoring us every day. You really dare not work overtime?"
Cheng Jianyong chuckled boldly, "Overtime? Hell no!"
"With such a small salary, they still expect me to slave away for them? Even if a god comes down today, I'm leaving work early!"
Cheng Jianyong spoke confidently, but Han Xing looked at him skeptically.
Beside them, a man in a suit laughed, "Han Xing, don't listen to this guy brag."
"He got married right out of college, unlike us single folks who can do what we want. If he doesn't work overtime, who's going to feed his wife and kids at home?"
The man speaking was Shen Yun, who, along with Han Xing and Cheng Jianyong, had graduated from the same university.
The three of them were roommates during their four years in college, sharing similar interests. After graduation, they entered the same company and were Han Xing's only two friends.
Cheng Jianyong, feeling embarrassed by Shen Yun's remark, mumbled, "It's… it's just one day off… no big deal…"
Seeing his awkward expression, Han Xing and Shen Yun exchanged a smile.
"Speaking of which, it's been a long time since we played games together," Han Xing said.
Shen Yun's face revealed a nostalgic look. "Yeah, I really miss those college days…"
At that moment, a figure appeared behind the three of them.
"If you miss school so much, why don't you go back?"
Hearing this voice, all three of them felt a bad premonition.
It was the department manager, Chen Huaibo.
Privately, Han Xing and the others called him Chen Ergou. This guy was the boss's loyal lapdog.
With a dark face, Chen Huaibo demanded, "What are you three discussing? The department's performance hasn't been met, and you're thinking about playing games?"
"You lazy slackers. I make you work overtime for a few days, and you whine like spoiled princesses. Tell me, do you even want this job? If not, get out! Stop taking up space without contributing."
"There are plenty of fresh graduates out there without jobs. If you don't want to work, someone else will! You bunch of ungrateful brats!"
Shen Yun stepped forward, speaking coldly, "Watch your mouth."
His voice wasn't loud, but it carried undeniable authority.
The office fell silent, and a few employees cautiously peeked over, unable to believe someone had dared to confront Chen Huaibo directly.
"What did you say?" Chen Huaibo's face twisted in anger. "Do you think I won't call the boss right now and have you fired on the spot?"
Just as Shen Yun was about to respond, Han Xing waved his hand, signaling him to stop.
Han Xing looked at Chen Huaibo. "Quit yelling. Isn't it obvious that you want us gone so you can bring in your relatives?"
"Chen Huaibo, don't act like we don't know what you're up to." Han Xing scoffed.
"You…"
"You what? Go ahead, report us to the boss. See if he'll fire us."
Han Xing was confident because, despite the department's poor performance, the three of them had contributed the most.
Chen Huaibo was shaking with anger. He never expected Han Xing, usually so low-key, to stand up to him.
He was about to grab Han Xing by the collar when Cheng Jianyong suddenly stepped in front.
"Chen Ergou, are you really thinking of getting physical?" Cheng Jianyong's tone was threatening, his large frame exuding an intimidating aura.
Chen Huaibo withdrew his hand, his expression darkening as he looked at the three united against him.
Just as Han Xing was about to pull Cheng Jianyong back and stop him from escalating things, his vision suddenly went black.
In that moment, everyone heard a system announcement.
"The new version update is complete. In three minutes, all of Blue Star's humans will enter this game."
"Game rules: This is a world without land. Floating islands of various sizes drift in the sky. Each island holds opportunities and dangers, but first, you must find a way to survive."
"Shortly, each player will be granted a floating piece of land. This is your core territory, the foundation of your future sky island. If it is destroyed, you will lose everything."
"You can control your territory to move through the air, approaching islands shrouded in clouds. Explore them, gather survival resources, or claim them to expand your territory."
"Islands contain opportunities, but also terrifying dangers. Each of you has only one chance to survive. Failure means death, so choose carefully..."
"The elderly and children, along with other vulnerable groups, will be introduced into the game one month later and placed with their respective relatives…"
"Now, welcome to *Sky Island Paradise*."
When Han Xing regained his vision, he found himself floating tens of thousands of meters in the air, with nothing but a vast empty sky below him.
High above the clouds, a gentle breeze blew, and puffs of clouds floated around him.
An overwhelming sense of fear gripped him.
At that moment, a personal panel appeared before him.
[Name: Han Xing]
[Race: Human]
[Occupation: None]
[Level: LV0]
[Strength: 3, Agility: 2, Spirit: 4, Endurance: 5]
[Skills: None]
[Talents: None]
Then, a system prompt sounded again.
"Please choose your class path as soon as possible."
"The five main class paths are: Warrior, Mage, Priest, Hunter, Rogue. When players reach a certain level, they can advance their class through class scrolls."
Han Xing was stunned for a moment, and his initial panic slowly gave way to excitement.
You could choose a class!
Not only that, but these five class paths were identical to the ones in the mobile game he had been playing!
Although he had only played that mobile game for a few days, Han Xing had a deeper understanding of these classes than most people.
From the names alone, you could tell their specialties: Warriors excel in close combat. At a certain level, they can advance to Swordsmen or Berserkers, with further advancements to Sword Masters and Berserker Gods…
Mages control elements with magic to deal damage to enemies. Later, they can advance to Elementalists or Illusionists, and their further classes are Elemental Masters and Weavers…
The other three classes followed similar patterns, each having two advancement paths and further upgrades.
If nothing unexpected happened, most people would only be able to choose from these ten advanced classes.
"I played as a Hunter before, so choosing Hunter now would give me an advantage."
"The key thing is, while playing that mobile game, I heard an NPC mention a hidden Hunter class..."
That hidden class was called *Wild Ranger*!
If the early stages of this game were the same as the mobile version, then Han Xing would have the upper hand and be the first to unlock that hidden class!
With that thought, Han Xing had already made up his mind. Just as he was about to choose the Hunter class, a solemn system notification rang in his mind.
[Player "Han Xing" detected to be highly compatible with this world's fate. Personal talent, *Divine Craftsman*, has been activated.]
[*Divine Craftsman (SSS rank, unique hidden talent): You will never fail when crafting any item, and the chance of producing high-quality items will greatly increase.*]
Han Xing stood frozen for a moment, then exclaimed in shock, "What the heck?!"