The man in sunglasses flicked his cigarette ash. "If you're online often, you might remember—about a year ago, there was a wave of news reports about mass disappearances. Later debunked as hoaxes. Those were actually the first appearances of the Phantom Realms."
Jia Shuai looked stunned. "So the government knows about the Phantom Realms? Then why—"
"Why not just seal off the areas?" The sunglasses-wearer anticipated the question, shrugging with a wry smile. "Oh, they tried. Quickly realized it was impossible."
"How so?"
"Because this is what a Phantom Realm looks like in the real world."
As he spoke, he withdrew the map and traced a circle on the coffee table with his finger, then splayed his palm over it.
"Every Phantom Realm first appears as a hemispherical zone fifty meters across, filled with thick purple mist."
"Time flows differently inside. No matter how much time passes within, only twenty-four hours elapse outside. After each activation, a Realm enters a cooldown period where its internal timeline resets and it's inaccessible. The higher the Realm's level, the longer this cooldown."
He paused, gesturing vaguely towards his upper right. "You've seen the taskbar. Realms with simple time limits like this one are rare. Most have a primary mission objective."
"If players fail the mission within the time limit, or worse, get wiped out… that's when things get terrifying—" He drew a larger circle around the first one.
"You mean… the Realm expands outward into the real world?" Jia Shuai's face paled. The Phantom Realms were literally consuming the world, bite by bite. They'd appeared less than a year ago; their impact was still minimal. But over time, as their boundaries swelled, humanity's survival space would shrink, inevitably triggering catastrophic upheaval.
Reading Jia Shuai's troubled expression, the man continued, "And that's not even the worst part. Unless you have a specific item, no player can enter the same Realm twice."
Jia Shuai finally understood. "So… that's why the government tolerates Phantom Realm players?"
The man merely raised an eyebrow, his expression confirmation enough. "Every nation's standing military is finite. No one risks sparking a war by drastically increasing troop numbers… Besides, the mortality rate inside the Realms is astronomical. No country would throw its elite forces into that bottomless pit."
"Given all that, while the state hasn't openly recruited civilians yet, they tolerate us players who've already been marked… But Realms are appearing more frequently now. They won't be able to keep this secret much longer."
Seeing Jia Shuai had more questions, the man waved him off, tapping his wristwatch. "Answers will come after we survive this Realm. Right now, we've got three days. Focus on racking up points. The road ahead… is going to be long."
Fueled by the infinite stamina from [DEATH RECAST], Luo Jie slaughtered every zombie in sight, operating nearly twenty-four hours without rest.
He single-handedly purged the mall from the second floor upwards. His path was a grim tapestry of mangled corpses littering corridors and rooms, punctuated by grotesque mounds of the dead where he'd been overwhelmed.
Thwack!
The final zombie's head sailed through the air in a bright arc of sword light, splattering dark, viscous blood across the wall. Luo Jie scanned the surroundings mechanically, his eyes terrifyingly vacant.
"Oh… none left?" He wiped absently at the gore caking his face, a flicker of life returning to his expression.
While [DEATH RECAST] restored his body and mind, the soul-crushing tedium of endless slaughter was his alone to endure. At some point, his conscious mind had shut down, leaving only the primal instinct to swing his sword at anything that moved.
Perched on a stack of two corpses, his sword now indistinguishable beneath layers of filth, Luo Jie inhaled the thick, coppery stench of blood and decay. He shoved a piece of scavenged chocolate into his mouth. The sweetness melting on his tongue finally anchored him back to himself.
He pulled up his personal panel. The glaring red countdown in the taskbar dominated his view.
– 02:23:31.
"So it's come to this…" he murmured, his eyes shifting to the points tally.
135,270.
He blinked, stunned. He'd expected a large number, but seeing this staggering sum was still a shock, leaving him with a complex mix of emotions. He'd done it… but this first fortune of his new life was earned through sheer, brutal grinding. There was no elation, only bone-deep exhaustion.
"And still not enough…" Luo Jie raked greasy fingers through his equally greasy hair. [DEATH RECAST] restored his body, not his hygiene. Two days of relentless combat had left him smelling like the creatures he'd slain.
With less than two and a half hours left, scraping together another 100,000 points was impossible. He had to abandon one of the two E-Gold weapons. The choice was agonizing. Their roles didn't overlap, and their skills were uniquely powerful.
[River Puffer Poison - Engraved Blade] leaned defensive. Its Skill 3, Swordsman's Heart, offered crucial resistance against mental control effects.
[Plum Nightingale Poison - Engraved Blade] leaned offensive. Skill 3, Grudge Shadow, functioned like a mini fear/weakness aura. Skill 2, Bloodthirsty Edge, was a god-tier survival tool for mobs, converting damage dealt into healing, saving fortunes on potions.
Luo Jie's brow furrowed as he mentally simulated scenarios with each blade, weighing pros and cons. Finally, he made his choice.
[River Puffer Poison - Engraved Blade]
Type: Katana
Quality: E (Gold)
Level: Lv.1
Power: 250
Skill 1: Seven-Body Slash (Passive) – +100% damage to biological targets.
Skill 2: Gale Blade (Passive) – +50% Attack Speed, +15% Attack Range. Can damage ethereal/spirit targets.
Skill 3: Swordsman's Heart (Passive) – Significantly increases resistance to mental magic. Immune to Fear status.
Description: The blade of an ancient swordsman famed for his speed. Legend claims a wisp of the Wind God's spirit is sealed within.
Authentication Cost: 100,000 Points.
He chose [River Puffer Poison] over its counterpart for a critical reason. Objectively, the latter's skills were flashier. But [Plum Nightingale Poison]'s terrifying power came at the cost of zero defense – a trade-off only viable within a well-rounded team. The secret of his [Ajinsha] bloodline meant he couldn't afford stable team affiliations like in his past life. A defensive blade was his safest bet.
100,000 points vanished. The black katana dissolved into a blue-white wireframe model, stored automatically in his digital inventory. Watching his points plummet to five digits, the lingering regret vanished. Even with just [River Puffer Poison], he stood head and shoulders above all other newcomers. Demanding perfection was greedy.
Despite securing the E-Gold weapon, Luo Jie retrieved the [Executioner's Ghost-Head Broadsword] and [Knight's War Hammer] from the café kitchen ceiling, authenticating them into storage. His points dwindled further to 29,270.
With time still ticking, he inventoried his loot. Like any game, kills dropped rewards. Boss-tier monsters yielded eponymous chests, spilling points and high-grade gear. Common zombies like these spat out "Surprise Boxes" – square containers yielding mostly junk White-grade items. Occasionally, a Green-grade piece of gear or a skill might surface. Rumors persisted of Gold items appearing in these boxes, but Luo Jie had never witnessed it, nor even a Blue item. Likely just hype from shady merchants.
"Huh? A Title?" Luo Jie suddenly noticed the Title option now active on his main panel.
Titles weren't rare. Players earned them by fulfilling specific, often obscure, conditions within a Realm. Unlike games where only one title effect was active, these stacked – essentially un-upgradeable passive skills.