Chapter 002: The Beginner's Village You Can't Escape!

This “Immortal Su” was likely an important NPC. Meeting her in the Novice Village was quite a stroke of fortune for Song Ye—a rare encounter indeed.

Song Ye immediately opened the map of the Xuan Ying Continent to check the location of the “Xuanqing Palace.” The Xuanqing Palace lay to the northwest of Qiuyu Village, but the map didn’t specify how far away it was or how long the journey would take. There were certainly many dangers between here and there, and with his current level of just one, Song Ye doubted he’d get far before meeting an untimely end. For now, the “Xuanqing Palace Invitation” would have to stay in his backpack, of no immediate use.

Still, Song Ye was curious about what kind of world lay beyond the village. He walked several dozen meters toward a distant hillside, only to suddenly feel his forehead smack into something invisible—a transparent wall that blocked his way. Immediately, a system notification sounded in his mind:

“You have not yet met the requirements to leave the village. You cannot leave Qiuyu Village!”

Song Ye quickly consulted the “Novice Guide” and only then learned that there were three conditions to leaving the Novice Village. First, the player’s level needed to reach level 10. Second, ten village tasks had to be completed. Third, the player must spar with five other players.

The first two requirements seemed straightforward—he’d likely complete them all in a few days. But the third was simply impossible for him. After all, there was only one player in this Novice Village—indeed, in the entire Xuan Ying Continent—himself. Where was he supposed to find five other players to spar with?

In other words, the third requirement was unattainable with only himself in the game world.

He wasn’t terribly concerned, though. He figured he wouldn’t be here alone for much longer. Either he’d be forcibly logged out soon like everyone else, or new players would log in before long. He estimated that within the day—or perhaps in a few hours, or even half an hour—he’d probably be disconnected.

He needed to make the most of his time, run a few more tasks, and widen his lead. He’d already completed three tasks today and earned one attribute point. Players’ attributes were divided into two categories: Vitality and Essence. Vitality represented physical strength, while Essence measured resilience. For example, his only skill, “Heaven-Shattering Slash,” depended on Vitality for its damage, and on Essence for how many times he could unleash it in quick succession.

Song Ye’s starting attributes were both 10, and he allocated the point he’d earned today to his Vitality, raising it to 11. He then sought out a lone wolf to test his damage output.

Heaven-Shattering Slash!

With one strike, more than half the wolf’s health bar vanished. The damage was indeed a little higher than before.

The rest of the time, Song Ye wandered around the village, waiting for new tasks to spawn. Not until dusk did a new task appear on his list—“Carry Water”—which required him to fetch two buckets of water for Aunt Zhang on the village’s east side. Completing it would reward another 100 experience points.

Night fell quickly, and Song Ye’s stomach began to rumble. Since he had entered this world physically, he naturally felt hunger. He’d originally thought network lag would force him out by nightfall at the latest, but as darkness settled, he found himself still trapped here.

Now, even finding a place to sleep had become an issue. The small village had no inn, and he had no silver in his pack. Fortunately, he’d caught a fresh tilapia earlier, which would suffice for a meal. He roasted the fish using what he could find nearby and satisfied his hunger.

After eating, the sky was already shrouded in darkness, and the moon hung bright and cold overhead. Chewing on a sprig of foxtail grass, Song Ye leaned against the village’s ancient banyan tree. Tonight, the heavens would be his blanket and the earth his bed. Perhaps, when he woke, he would find himself back on Hailan Star.

The night deepened and silence reigned, broken only occasionally by a dog’s bark. Song Ye didn’t even know when he finally drifted off to sleep.

…

In the real world, on Hailan Star, at the Global Bureau of Special Affairs, a woman in a tailored black business suit pushed open a grand door and entered, her heels clicking on the floor. She addressed an elderly man inside, whose Tang-style robe and white hair gave him an air of dignity.

“Grand Elder, the statistics are in,” she reported. “A total of 3,796,758 players logged into Xuan Ying Continent. Of these, 3,796,757 were forcibly ejected due to an unknown malfunction.”

The Grand Elder’s expression registered his astonishment. “So, there is still one player left inside Xuan Ying Continent?”

“Yes,” the woman confirmed.

“And do we know who this player is?”

She shook her head. “Many players did not register their information when they received login access. We can only track the total number of logins and logouts, not the identities of all players. Therefore, we have no way of knowing who remains inside the game world.”

The old man nodded, then said slowly, “Let us hope Xuan Ying Continent reopens soon. Hailan Star needs to draw strength from that world to face the coming catastrophe.”

…

Back in Xuan Ying Continent—

When Song Ye opened his eyes again, daylight had already flooded the sky, and he was still in Qiuyu Village, still beside the great banyan tree. A white mongrel slumbered nearby.

I still haven’t been logged out?

Song Ye scratched his head, grumbling inwardly, “Dogged Heaven, I dare you to trap me here for a whole month!” At the time, he thought being stuck here for a month was impossible. No matter how slow his “network” was, it shouldn’t take a whole month to log out.

But time passed quickly, and a month soon slipped by…

A month later, at Uncle Dong’s tea stall in Qiuyu Village, a man dressed as a constable entered, chose an empty table, and called out, “Uncle Dong, a bowl of hot tea!”

Song Ye came out carrying a teapot and an empty bowl. “Coming right up!”

The constable glanced at Song Ye. “Where’s Uncle Dong?”

Song Ye smiled slightly. “Uncle Dong is getting on in years. He and his wife were invited to enjoy a peaceful life in the county with their son. They’ve left the tea stall in my care.”

Uncle Dong’s wife was none other than Aunt Zhang. Over the past month, Song Ye had fetched water for her more than a dozen times. For Song Ye, “Carrying Water” was just another village task, but to Aunt Zhang, he became a warm-hearted outsider. Seeing him fishing for supper and foraging for wild vegetables, sleeping beneath the banyan tree each night with no roof over his head and no one to care for him, she found him pitiable. She persuaded her husband to let Song Ye sleep in the small room behind the tea stall.

Three days ago, Aunt Zhang and Uncle Dong left for the county with their son, leaving Song Ye to look after the tea stall. A month earlier, Song Ye could never have imagined he’d actually be stuck here for a whole month, much less inherit the tea stall in the end.

Over the course of that month, Song Ye diligently completed three tasks every day, accumulating thirty attribute points. Each time he leveled up, he received three more points. Now, at level fifteen, he had acquired forty-two points from leveling and, including the thirty from daily tasks, seventy-two attribute points in total—all invested in Vitality.

His current attributes were:

Vitality: 83
Essence: 10

He had fulfilled the first two requirements for leaving the village. The third—sparring with other players—remained impossible for him alone. He was not only trapped in this world but confined to this tiny Qiuyu Village.

He was much stronger than he’d been a month ago. Even a level-10 Wolf King couldn’t survive a single Heaven-Shattering Slash from him. Yet only by leaving Qiuyu Village could he unlock a second skill. Until then, Heaven-Shattering Slash was his sole move, already maxed out at level ten. The five remaining skill points had nowhere to go.