Ethan Clark's gaze lingered for a moment on the three-foot-long sword sealed in its scabbard on the wall, then shifted to a thought sensor.

The thought sensor.

A login device for the virtual world.

Only with this device can imperial citizens log into the virtual world, which is equivalent to humanity’s second world, and roam freely within it—entering one virtual world after another, each with different effects.

These virtual worlds vary: some are game spaces, some are experience spaces, some are living spaces, and some are learning spaces, each with its own type.

The entrance to the True Profound World is connected to this virtual world, which has been rolled out across the entire Galactic Federation.

"Ten million federation coins..."

Ethan Clark muttered to himself.

"Gu Fang fell off a cliff and died when he was struck by a rain of arrows. According to the rule in the True Profound World that everything resets upon death, I have to create a new character... which means I have to possess a new body..."

"My mental strength is not weak, so the selection time during possession will be longer. I hope I can find a body with decent talent during this period. Otherwise, based on my mental scale, I’ll have to wait more than ten days before I can choose again..."

As he thought this, Ethan Clark had already put on the thought sensor to enter the virtual world.

Chapter 4: Possession

True Profound World.

This was already the second time Ethan Clark had "created" a character.

As his consciousness entered a halo symbolizing "character creation," the surrounding space suddenly became thick and viscous, as if he were submerged in seawater, his whole body completely sealed off and unable to breathe.

Although this suffocating sensation was only a mental feedback to his consciousness and didn’t actually exist, this method of "creating a character" still made Ethan Clark somewhat uncomfortable.

After several minutes, this closed, sticky feeling gradually faded, and then a vast expanse of green mountains and clear waters appeared in his "vision."

"Wilderness?"

Very quickly, Ethan Clark determined his location.

There was no village ahead, no shop behind, and it seemed there was hardly any sign of people.

"This is definitely the worst luck. The spawn point when 'creating' a character is random, but it’s usually limited to a certain range. According to the official forum, characters created at the same time and in the same region generally don’t have much difference in their birth location... Last time I was born in a small town, so logically, I should be near a town now. But in reality, I’m in the wilderness? A completely uninhabited wilderness?"

Ethan Clark frowned.

But he didn’t look gloomy or complain about his bad luck.

Back in the day, someone even spawned above the ocean—that’s what you call truly hopeless.

After glancing around, Ethan Clark quickly picked a direction and "flew" away.

In their spiritual state, they were no different from what people in this world would call "ghosts," and their movement could only be described as "flying."

Ethan Clark's mental scale was 1447, allowing him to exist in this spiritual state for one hour.

However, after "flying" through this wilderness for nearly half an hour, he had to admit, speechlessly, that this place was extremely desolate. From the tall, dense forests and lush vegetation, it was clear there was no sign of human habitation nearby—in other words, this was truly a wilderness...

A truly uninhabited wilderness.

"It’s only been half an hour. If I go back now, it’ll take about five or six days to recover. To 'possess' a new character would delay me five or six days, but that’s still better than wandering aimlessly in the wilderness like this..."

Ethan Clark muttered to himself, planning to stop searching for a target to "possess."

He had to admit, the developers of this virtual world really went to great lengths for realism—even character creation could fail by chance... No wonder ninety-nine percent of virtual residents couldn’t stand these harsh settings and eventually chose to quit.

Just as Ethan Clark was about to calm his mind and let his spirit return to the virtual world, a figure hidden in the grass suddenly appeared in his "vision." He could vaguely make out...

It was a person...

"Hmm!?"

Ethan Clark's heart skipped a beat, and he quickly appeared above the figure lying in the grass.

"What a sword!"

Upon arriving above the figure, the first thing Ethan Clark noticed was not the person in the grass, but a gleaming sword tightly gripped in their hand.

Although the sword didn’t look impressive and seemed quite ordinary, with his years of experience using and appraising swords in the True Profound World, he could tell at a glance that this was by no means an ordinary sword—at the very least, it was not inferior to Sword Saint Samuel Hayes's "Qinghan" sword.

Moreover...

This sword gave him a strange feeling.

As if...

It was alive.