Chapter 10: Sacrifice
The forum sections were just as I remembered from my past life—even the categories were exactly the same.
Daguerre's Medal (Welcome Area)
[Daguerre's Flag (Recruitment Area)]
…
By now, there were already countless posts and comments.
He even spotted a few familiar IDs in the trending posts, like Emperor Beifeng and the famous strategy guru Beixuan Tingfeng.
Many professional guilds had already set up shop in the recruitment area and started posting for members.
For a moment, Zhou Ning was struck by a strange sense of displacement, as if the world had moved on without him.
Wait a minute…
Zhou Ning was suddenly struck by a question: If I've been transported into the game world, does another version of me still exist back in the real world?
He thought of the movie Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. Because of time travel, two Harry Potters appeared in the same time and space. The younger Harry saw the older, time-traveling Harry watching him, and the older Harry later cast a spell to save his younger self.
I was confused watching the movie back then, but now that it's happened to me, I get it completely.
Hoping against hope, he tried to enter the username and password from his past life.
[The user is not registered. Please re-enter.]
He tried clicking "Post."
[Unregistered users are not allowed to perform this operation.]
Next, he tried "Register."
[User IP not detected. Real-name authentication cannot be performed. Please check your network.]
Movies are just movies, after all. Totally useless as a reference. Fuck!
After a series of failures, Zhou Ning finally gave up.
It seems I'm stuck as a visitor, a lurker who can only read posts but never reply.
Well, I might as well watch the video.
He clicked on the pinned post on the homepage to play what was essentially the first episode of a series—"Sacrifice."
The video began to play, accompanied by a rousing score.
A quote appeared on screen: We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.
The opening scene showed the sky over Darklan, the capital of Braxton. Half of it was blanketed in heavy snow, while the other half was battered by torrential rain.
The camera panned forward, starting from a towering clock tower and sweeping through a bustling trade district. The streets were packed shoulder to shoulder, and someone was even walking a thunder lizard through the city.
It was a scene of prosperity.
The view then plunged downward, revealing a huge, ancient god imprisoned deep beneath Darklan. Green, malevolent flames licked at its body as it threw its head back and roared.
Clang…
The bells in the clock tower tolled, and the camera suddenly zoomed in on the statue of the four heroes standing on the banks of the Seton River.
A single tear of blood welled up in the eye of the central statue—Sir Archibald, the Flame of Justice—and streamed down its stone cheek.
The scene switched again to a dilapidated mansion, where several black-robed cultists were presiding over a dark ritual.
Zhou Ning froze. ??? Wait, why does this look so familiar? No, not just familiar—I know this place.
The video cut to a dark cell filled with people, their muffled sobs echoing in the gloom.
Through this montage of scenes, the audience was given the basic outline of the plot.
A thousand years ago, the enormous ancient god was subdued and imprisoned underground by four legendary heroes, the mortal representatives of the gods. The city of Darklan was built atop its prison.
Centuries ago, the gods waged a war over faith that ended in mutual destruction. They fell into a deep slumber, and the war so disrupted the laws of the elements that they became profoundly chaotic. This cataclysm warped reality itself, causing the weather in Apocalypse to become erratic and making it difficult for mortals to gain supernatural powers. Furthermore, the old battlefields of the gods became zones of rampant elemental energy—forbidden lands known as "weather tides"—impassable to humans.
A millennium later, the story of the God War was something people only read about in ancient texts. The old god locked beneath the city had been all but forgotten, and only the statues of the four heroes on the banks of the Seton River remained as a testament to their deeds.
Now, a cabal of cultists sought to destroy the world by using sacrificial rituals to summon demons from another realm. And this is where the story began.
The video then fast-forwarded, showing captives being taken out for sacrifice one after another.
Soon, the points of the hexagram array in the shrine began to light up, and a huge, bloated, spider-like demoness was summoned forth. The cultists erupted in cheers.
It's starting… Zhou Ning felt an urge to cover his face. What is this? Why am I suddenly in the spotlight?
The video jumped between quick cuts of young men being fed to the demon, Marion, as sacrifices.
Suddenly, the camera's perspective shifted to Zhou Ning and locked onto him. A nameplate popped up above his head: Wayne Stewell. Zhou Ning was caught completely off guard.
At the same time, a torrent of scrolling comments flooded the screen like a snowstorm.
"HIGH ENERGY WARNING AHEAD!!!"
"Omg, he's so handsome! Kinda looks like KunKun, right girls?"
"KunKun your ass! Stop trolling."
"PAY ATTENTION EVERYONE! DON'T SKIP THIS PART! IT'S THE BEST PART!"
"Look how calm he is. Something's definitely up!"
"WAYNE IS MY HUSBAND!!!"
Zhou Ning was speechless.
Well, it's nice to be praised, but I'm not exactly proud to be compared to KunKun, you know?
I have to admit, I do look pretty handsome in the video, resting with my eyes closed. And next to me is that chubby kid, crying with snot running down his face.
My looks were already a solid 98 out of 100, but next to this little guy, they shot up to a 120. It was basically a critical hit on anyone watching for the first time.
It's like they say, you always need a foil to make you look better. Sorry, kid, you drew the short straw.
On screen, the cell door creaked open. Three black-clad members of the Curse Cult filed in and dragged both Zhou Ning and the fat kid out.
The video version of Zhou Ning frowned, his hands fumbling with the ropes behind his back. The camera even zoomed in for a close-up of his hands. Though bound, his fingers were a blur of dexterous movement, and the tight sailor's knot quickly came undone.
Even with the rope loosened, his expression remained impassive. He waited until the sacrifice began and he was shoved toward the spider monster. Only then did he make his move, drawing his gun and baring his fangs!
The stream of comments reached a fever pitch.
"SO BADASS!"
"Damn! Laying low, biding his time, then BAM—the kill! I'm so hyped!"
"Gorgeous, strong, and tragic... this guy is 100% the protagonist. Anyone who disagrees can fight me."
"I AGREE!!! SO AWESOME!"
Watching it from an outsider's perspective, even Zhou Ning had to admit he looked damn cool.
In the video, when he pulled the trigger on Marion, the director had deliberately used a long shot. The scene resembled Don Quixote charging the windmill, creating a powerful visual impact.
Next, facing the combined assault of Marion and a group of Curse Cult members, Zhou Ning calmly spun the cylinder of his revolver, reloading it. He then kicked off the ground with his right foot, launching himself into a dive that carried him clear of a heavy blow from Marion. The attack slammed into the floor where he'd been standing, leaving a long crack in the stone.
He completely outmaneuvered the massive, supernatural monster.
Zhou Ning then charged forward, weaving into the blind spot of several charging cultists. He fired two shots on the run, taking down one of them and interrupting a lesser boss's fireball spell. He had even predicted the fireball's trajectory, diving out of the way just in time for it to slam into Marion as she rushed toward him.
As he hit the ground and rolled, the hem of his black academic robe flared out behind him. The entire sequence was impossibly graceful.
The comments exploded with praise; the viewers were loving it.