cnatrainingtips Chapter 1: A Game of Time Travel for Everyone
Chapter 1: A Game of Time Travel for Everyone
Head storage
Handsome men and beautiful women check-in spot
The afternoons in G City are always a bit sticky and hot. The sycamore leaves are curled up by the sun, and the cicadas' chirping is like a fully drawn bowstring, each sound taut in the air.
Lin Tian dragged his leaden legs along the sidewalk. His white shirt, which he had just squeezed out of the job market, was stained with dark sweat. The corners of the resumes he was clutching in his hand were already crumpled.
He is 22 years old and has just graduated from a second-tier university. This is his third month of job hunting.
The HR person at the company I interviewed with last week said with a smile...
"Our base salary is 3000, we only have one day off a week, and we don't pay social insurance during the probation period," he said, almost squeezing the water cup in his hand out of shape.
He was passing by a bubble tea shop when a TV in the glass window was showing a job posting. The big words "A monthly salary of over 10,000 is not a dream" were so bright they hurt his eyes.
"Is your current job something that involves antagonizing people?"
Lin Tian kicked a small pebble at his feet. The pebble hit the trash can and bounced away with a dull thud.
"3000 yuan to hire a beast of burden? One day off a week, and he has to be on call 24/7? Whoever wants this job can take it!"
He shrank further into the shadows of the bus stop sign, took out his phone, and glanced at the job postings on the app. The latest job postings were still...
"New Media Operations (No experience required, but you need to be able to edit, write, shoot videos, and also do customer service)".
Lin Tian irritably shoved his phone back into his pocket, looked up at the gray sky, and his Adam's apple bobbed.
"I'm so tired... I really wish Earth would just explode on the spot, so I wouldn't have to send out resumes, go to interviews, and be made a fool of anymore."
As soon as he finished speaking, Lin Tian caught a glimpse of an eerie orange-red hue appearing on the horizon.
The color spread extremely quickly, initially resembling spilled orange juice, but instantly transforming into a blushing crimson like the sunset.
Finally, in just a few dozen seconds, the entire sky looked as if someone had poured a bucket of scalding blood over it, the thick, dark red color pressing down heavily on the city.
"What is that?" someone screamed, pointing to the sky.
People under the bus stop looked up, their milk tea, cell phones, and documents scattered on the ground.
Someone took out their phone to take a picture, and the blood-red sky in the lens shimmered with an eerie glow;
Some people rushed into the store in a panic, shouting "It's the end of the world!"
Several high school students, just released from school, excitedly shouted while holding up their phones, "Holy crap! These special effects are even better than Pacific Rim!"
Lin Tian's heart clenched, and the hairs on the back of his neck stood on end.
He had read apocalyptic novels before, but when this scene actually hit him in front of him, the instinctive fear poured over him like ice water.
Just then, a completely emotionless voice pierced through everyone's minds, like a steel needle etched into their nerves:
[Congratulations to Blue Star for being selected to participate in the Interdimensional Battle Game. The game will begin in one minute, and everyone will be forcibly teleported to the game space.]
"Hallucinations?" A bespectacled office worker pushed up his glasses, his face pale. "I've been working too much overtime lately..."
"It's not a hallucination! I heard it too!" The middle-aged woman next to him screamed and grabbed his arm. "The Multiverse Conquest Game? What's that? Is it going to kill people?"
"Awesome!" A green-haired boy jumped up, his phone screen still displaying the interface of a competitive game. "Did I transmigrate? Finally, it's my turn to be the protagonist!"
"I hope the talent is a bit better..." someone prayed, their hands clasped together, their voice trembling, "Just don't start with some useless character..."
The crowd erupted into chaos, with cries, screams, and excited roars mingling together like a pot of boiling porridge.
Standing in the center of the chaos, Lin Tian felt a chill run down his spine—his earlier comment about "the Blue Star exploding" had actually come true?
"No way!"
He shouted towards the blood-red sky, but his voice was mostly swallowed up by the surrounding noise.
"I was just kidding! I'm sorry, okay? I actually love my job! I'd do it even for 3000 yuan a month with only one day off a week! Don't participate in any games!"
But the sky remained unresponsive, and the voice did not return. The second hand clicked to life amidst everyone's heartbeats.
Lin Tian silently counted in his mind: 50 seconds, 30 seconds, 10 seconds...
As the last second elapsed, he felt as if all the blood in his body had been drained away, and then he was gripped by a tremendous force.
The blood-red sky, the chaotic crowd, and the sticky, hot wind before my eyes were all rapidly fading.
His body transformed into a blinding white light, disappearing completely from the spot along with the city where he had lived for 22 years.
The dizziness felt like lead-filled cotton, completely blocking Lin Tian's senses.
He didn't know how long he had been floating until he felt a cold touch on the back of his head, which made him suddenly open his eyes.
What comes into view is a pure white expanse.
It wasn't the stark white of a hospital, nor the cold white of snow, but a soft yet ubiquitous white, as if the whole world had been soaked in milk.
He lay on a smooth surface, cool to the touch, with a metallic feel, yet not as hard as steel.
Lin Tian struggled to sit up and found that he was still wearing the same white shirt that was soaked with sweat, but the resume in his hand was gone.
He tentatively touched his pocket, but his phone was gone—it seemed that when teleporting, nothing could be brought along except the person themselves.
Is anyone there?
He shouted, and his voice echoed through the empty space, forming faint reverberations before quickly dissipating without leaving a ripple.
There was nothing else in the white space except him.
There were no walls, no ceiling, and he couldn't even tell up, down, left, or right; it was as if he were floating in a boundless void.
Lin Tian stood up and spun around in place.
Clips from science fiction movies he'd watched in college suddenly flooded his mind; the scenes of imprisoned consciousness and destroyed bodies sent chills down his spine. He tried calling out again, "System?"
No one responded.
"Game sprite? GM?"
It remained deathly silent.
He began to pace, his footsteps making no sound on the white ground.
Time seemed to lose its meaning here. He didn't know how much time had passed, and could only pass the time by counting his breaths—inhaling, exhaling.
On his 127th inhale, he stopped and stared blankly at his palms.
The anxiety, fear, and resentment I felt in G City just now seem to have been filtered out by this white expanse, leaving only a numb sense of bewilderment.
The Multiverse Domination Game... what exactly is that?
It's a fighting game like PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds.
Or is it a simulation game like The Sims?
What happens if I die? Can I really go back to Earth?
Countless questions swirled in my mind, but I couldn't find the answer to any of them.
Just as he was about to be driven mad by the silence, a ripple suddenly appeared in the air in front of him.
A fist-sized, colorful orb of light appeared out of thin air and hovered half a meter away from him.
The surface of the sphere shimmered with red, blue, and purple colors, like a crumpled rainbow candy.
"Greetings, esteemed adventurer."
A clear, childlike voice came from the sphere of light, its gender indistinguishable, and it had a slightly mechanical quality.
"I am your game guide wizard."
Lin Tian, as if grasping at a straw, took two steps forward:
"Game guide? Where is this? Can I quit the game and go back to Earth?"
"This is the initial data space." The sphere of light trembled slightly.
"The vital signs of all life forms participating in the Multiverse Conquest game will be digitized here, and initial talents will be generated."
It paused, then said in a completely flat tone...
"Once selected, you cannot leave. Until the game ends, or... you are permanently disqualified from participating."
Lin Tian's heart sank:
What does it mean to be disqualified from the competition?
"That is, the soul data is completely erased."
So, if someone dies, they really die? The "game" I heard about in G City just now was no joke at all.
Lin Tian opened his mouth, wanting to say something, but found his throat tight and he couldn't utter a single word.
"Would you like to view the game rules?" the guide asked.
"……look."
As soon as he finished speaking, a semi-transparent blue panel suddenly appeared in front of Lin Tian's eyes, densely packed with black text, more than a hundred lines in total.
He forced himself to calm down and read it word by word—
[Summary of the Rules for the Battle for Supremacy in the Multiverse]
1. All participants will be teleported to different beginner continents, where they will level up by completing tasks, killing monsters, and plundering resources.
2. Talents, skills, and equipment are divided into ten tiers: F, E, D, C, B, A, S, SS, SSS, and God-tier. The higher the tier, the stronger the effect and the more difficult it is to obtain. The highest initial talent tier is SSS.
3. Dying in the game will not directly erase your soul data, but it will deduct one level and randomly drop 50% of the items in your inventory.
. . . . . .