In the end, Mu Anqi still wasn't completely heartless. After all, no matter what, a game had to maintain "fairness." Maliciously disrupting the game's balance wasn't good, and it could even affect Nirvana Space's rating for this trial-run game.
The higher Nirvana Space rated a game, the more items could be exchanged with emotional value. Correspondingly, the higher the rating, the more players it could accommodate, and the easier it would be to launch the game. For those with low ratings, even after submitting an application, they could forget about getting approval to start the game within a month.
Seeing that the player had indeed been contaminated, the Dramatist quickly sent another message:
[Attention! You have been contaminated! Please find the Mountain God's divine water to remove the contamination.]
[Contamination: All attributes decrease in every aspect, and the contamination worsens as game time progresses.]
Game time wasn't the same as story time—if the game kept resetting and they never advanced the plot… then under the effects of contamination, the player might eventually become so weak they'd have trouble walking. In that state, if other players intentionally tried to get them killed, failing to clear the game would be very likely.
The player's expression was extremely ugly. He never expected that instead of getting props or clues, he'd end up with a debuff. The Mountain God's divine water? That was probably a drop from the final boss. This game… was really clever, forcing him in this way to push through the story quickly.
Just as the player gritted his teeth and decided to go back to continue exploring the game's plot, his vision blurred for a moment—the game reset again?! Someone killed an NPC again?
He suddenly realized: if the other players refused to cooperate, he might be forced into endless resets, his contamination stripping away his ability to resist. In fact, the villagers didn't even matter anymore—the most urgent thing right now was to find the other players and share information!
Finding the other players was also a problem. Fortunately, the game had just reset, so he quickly ran outside, shouting as he went, "Fate Drama! Gather! I have important information! After exchanging info, we'll reset the game!"
The NPCs' reactions were very realistic—some peeked their heads out to look at him, and those who had been chatting with other NPCs on the road turned pale. "Isn't that Zhao Tiezhu? What's gotten into him—has he gone mad all of a sudden?"
"How strange, could it be that the Mountain God is angry? Quick! Go call the village chief—"
The player felt utterly embarrassed, but social death in front of NPCs wasn't really social death! For the sake of clearing the game, he could sacrifice any unnecessary sense of shame!
A female player came out upon hearing his voice. She didn't rush to reveal herself to him but instead asked a villager, "Who's that again… what happened to him?"
"That's Zhao Tiezhu from the Zhao family… I don't know what happened either. Maybe he did something to anger the Mountain God and brought punishment upon himself." The villager looked at Zhao Tiezhu, who was yelling incomprehensible words as he ran wildly down the road, sighed, and then turned his gaze back to the female player. "Cuihua, how's the wedding preparation going? With something like this happening, we can't afford to anger the Mountain God again. Better urge the village chief to handle it… sigh, what a mess this is."
The female player had been holding back laughter a moment ago at the name "Zhao Tiezhu," but the next second, when she heard him call her "Cuihua"… she couldn't laugh anymore. In the game's background, her name was "Li Cuihua," just an ordinary villager, not one chosen by the Mountain God. She mumbled a few perfunctory words to brush off the villager, then quickly followed after the player called Zhao Tiezhu.
The game's rating was tied to the completion time, and the players not only weren't competing but actually needed to cooperate. Since every reset affected everyone, it was crucial that they share information and coordinate actions—otherwise, if someone was just about to get an important clue and a teammate's mistake caused a reset, that would be disastrous.
"Zhao Tiezhu" felt his stamina dropping. He hadn't even been running that long, yet he already felt somewhat tired. Thinking about how the game's story lasted seven days and they were only on the first day made his heart sink—who knew how many more resets lay ahead? Could he really clear this game?
He definitely couldn't tell the others about the contamination. Who knew what kind of thoughts that might stir up among the players? But after running for so long, why hadn't a single person come out to meet him? And what was wrong with the villagers? They had actually started shouting for people to catch him.
He wasn't crazy, he wasn't sick! The one that was sick was this world—Zhao Tiezhu really wanted to roar that out loud, but he still had some pride left.
"Come here!" the live-in player barked in a low voice. He threw out a smoke grenade, and thick smoke enveloped Zhao Tiezhu. Taking advantage of the cover, he rushed forward, grabbed Zhao Tiezhu, and dragged him into a nearby courtyard, pulling him straight into the woodshed.
Inside the woodshed, a female player was already waiting. Outside, there was a commotion—the villagers clearly had no idea what a "smoke grenade" was, and they appeared panicked and uneasy.
Another male player, who had heard Zhao Tiezhu's shouting from the street, also moved toward the commotion. His expression was grim—after all, that last reset had been his doing. While searching for clues, he had unfortunately been contaminated. Even though the system had warned him, he still tried killing an NPC to trigger a reset and test things out. The result was obvious—it was useless and only wasted a lot of game time.
Seeing the smoke grenade and the direction Zhao Tiezhu had been taken, he circled around, climbed over the courtyard wall, and made his way inside.
Naturally, Li Cuihua, who had been following Zhao Tiezhu, saw all of this. The group in the woodshed hadn't been there long before all five players for this game were finally gathered.
"Let's all introduce ourselves first," the live-in player suggested. "Just use the names from the game's background. Get used to them—otherwise, if we arouse the villagers' suspicion and hinder the plot's progress, it'll cause another reset."
He spoke first. "My name here is Wang Erma—yeah, like in the saying 'Zhang San, Li Si, Wang Ermazi.' The game's naming sense really isn't great. I've also got a special role: the day after tomorrow, I'm being sent up the mountain to marry into the Mountain God's household. So my time's pretty tight. If anyone's got important information, I hope we can share it. There's no competition between us—the sooner we clear the game, the higher everyone's rating."
"You're the… groom? So the Mountain God's a woman?"
"Don't know. It's a god—we can't say whether it's male or female," Wang Erma said.
"Alright then. I'm Li Cuihua. I haven't found any particularly useful information yet," Li Cuihua said. "But I do think there's something strange about the villagers—can't quite put it into words. I haven't encountered any special events yet, so I'm not sure."
"I'm Zhao Tiezhu. I…" He sighed, his expression complicated. After hesitating for a moment, he spoke in a low voice. "I can only remind everyone—some places in this village are traps. You might think they're clues, but once you touch them, you'll find they're actually curses. As for the specifics, I can't say more—I have to ensure my own safety, after all. Oh, and if possible, Wang Erma, I want to go with you on the day you get married."
"It's marrying in!" Wang Erma corrected. "You can come along if you want, but I don't know what the situation will be like then."
"I'm… Sun Goudan." When he said the name, he ground his teeth, clearly full of disdain and resistance toward this randomly assigned story name. But there was no helping it—since everyone else was using their in-game names, he wasn't stupid enough to expose his real one. "What I want to say is the same as Zhao Tiezhu's—when you marry in the day after tomorrow, I'll go with you too."
After he said that, Zhao Tiezhu gave him a sympathetic look. Zhao Tiezhu leaned closer and whispered, "Contaminated?"
"…Yeah." Sun Goudan caught the "fellow sufferer" look in Zhao Tiezhu's eyes and felt utterly conflicted. He really didn't want to be "fellow sufferers" with this guy! But what could he do—every time players entered a new instance, the first thing they did was look for clues and explore everywhere. Whenever they found something strange or eerie, they'd check it out—especially if it looked like an item. Who could've guessed that touching it would cause contamination?
"I'm Zheng Dajuan," the last female player said. She paused slightly before continuing, "The Mountain God doesn't discriminate between male and female. I've asked around—there have been brides married to the Mountain God before, as well as grooms marrying in. The Mountain God leaves a mark on a household every so often, and within that household, there will always be an unmarried man or woman of suitable age."
"What if the chosen household has fraternal twins or identical twins?"
"…Then they both go—either marry off together or both marry in," Zheng Dajuan said expressionlessly. "And no one who's gone up the mountain has ever come back. That's what the villagers say. I don't know if those chosen ones were former players."
"So they might have died… or cleared the game?" Li Cuihua thought for a moment, then asked, "Maybe we could try going up the mountain ourselves?"
"I've already tried that," Sun Goudan said. "We can see the mountain, but there's no road leading to it at all. It's strange—mystical, even. I figure the path only opens when the Mountain God's wedding takes place."
"So that means the day after tomorrow will be our first chance," Sun Goudan said, looking at Zhao Tiezhu. Both he and Zhao Tiezhu were contaminated—they couldn't afford to waste a single moment and had to seize every opportunity to clear the game.
The players had no more information to share, so they agreed to meet in Wang Erma's woodshed every four hours. If it wasn't safe to go out at night, they could skip the meeting—but every morning at eight, everyone had to gather in the woodshed. If any player failed to show up, the others would immediately go to that player's home to check on them and make sure they were safe. Maybe the village clock wasn't accurate, but their "story time" definitely was. Each player could see it, so there was no way anyone could claim not to know the time.
As for the actual game time, it wasn't displayed anywhere. Wang Erma, thinking in a conspiratorial way, suspected that this was the monsters' twisted sense of humor—meant to dull their awareness of how much game time had passed, to make them think that "resets" weren't a big deal, and then mock them cruelly through the endgame ratings and evaluations.
Outside the courtyard, the noise grew louder as villagers went from house to house searching until they soon reached this one. Wang Erma and Zhao Tiezhu ambushed one of the villagers and killed him, triggering another game reset.
The scene flickered, and Zhao Tiezhu found himself once again back at the spot where he had tried to touch the "contamination." Silently, he turned and went home, planning to ask the Zhao family for more specific information about the Mountain God.
Author's note:
Thanks to the wealthy lady "Miao Xiaomi the Great" (ID: 18852043) for the deepwater tip!~ Hugs and kisses to the rich lady!
Since some readers might not go back to check the synopsis, I'll repost my new announcement here:
Updates in May will be irregular! You don't have to check every day—just come back when you see the "updated" notification! Once my thesis defense is over, I'll resume daily updates!
Also, there will be no more extra updates for deepwater tips. First, I really can't handle it physically anymore; second, it doesn't feel right—it seems like I'm encouraging everyone to send rewards. I truly appreciate all the generous ladies who've been tipping and supporting me, and I'm deeply thankful for everyone's love for this story! I remember a reader once commented about saving up for a deepwater tip—your kind thought means a lot to me, but please don't cut back on your own living expenses just to tip me. Be rational!
As for updates, after May, if I have inspiration or energy, I'll still challenge myself with things like six updates a day or ten thousand words on weekends. But forcing out content only hurts quality, and it's hard for me to write that way too. That's about all I wanted to ramble on for now. Lately I've been anxious every night about my graduation defense—my thesis is only on its second revision right now…
Ah, lastly, some words of blessing:
I wish everyone success at work, great achievements in your studies, prosperity, and good fortune in everything you do!