Such news was nothing short of a bolt from the blue. The origin of the concept of psychic power value can be traced back to the early 22nd century, when the development of epoch-making gaming helmets ushered online games into a fully immersive era, introducing the concept of psychic power. Later, the assessment of psychic power was also extended to become the gold standard for measuring a person’s mental strength. A normal adult’s psychic power value is about 50-100, while William Smith’s value of 5 is barely equivalent to that of a normal one-year-old infant.

Wearing a gaming helmet to enter the game, after countless experiments, experts determined that it would deplete a person’s psychic power, that is, mental strength. In the following decades, experts established the optimal gaming time for people—12 hours—during which a normal person’s psychic power would be depleted by 15 points. But for William Smith, four hours of gaming had already become his absolute limit.

William Smith had tried every possible method to increase his psychic power: physical training, acupuncture, traditional Chinese medicine, qigong—he tried countless ways. In the end, he gained a strong body, but his psychic power showed not the slightest increase, and he could only give up in vain.

Yet even with only four hours of gaming time per day, William Smith still reached the pinnacle in “Eternal Radiance.” Even though he was nameless, he was already at the top!

To gain and then lose, to be unable to obtain is emptiness—the greatest of all suffering! The deepest of all sorrows! This is the pain of unfulfilled desire!

As for the soon-to-be-released epoch-making online game masterpiece “Sky Vault,” jointly developed by the gaming teams of Earth, Moon, and Mars, and monitored by the main AI brain Ark, it was known as the overlord of the second world, boasting a claimed realism of over 95%. This, without a doubt, drove countless players in the Interstellar Alliance mad with excitement. Correspondingly, the requirements for the gaming helmet also rose sharply. What William Smith could not bear most was that “Sky Vault” required a minimum psychic power value of 15.

Fifteen... what a blood-red, terrifying number!

For a normal person, even a child, it was a trivial value. But for William Smith, it was like a chasm separating him from his favorite game, placing them in two different worlds.

What use was his exceptional gaming talent then?

Like an icicle in winter, so fragile it could not withstand a single blow. Even a gentle tap, or a ray of winter sunlight, would cause it to instantly evaporate into the air, vanishing without a trace.

“Sorry!” William Smith gave a bitter smile, casually closed the overwhelming “Sky Vault” advertisements on the AI screen, and flopped onto the bed, wishing he could sleep forever.

“Someone set a fire... everyone, get out!” A faint voice sounded, and moments later, the commotion boiled up like a pot of porridge. A whiff of acrid smoke seeped in through the crack under the door.

“Arson!” William Smith’s muddled mind jolted awake, and he sprang up from the bed.

Grabbing the bedsheet, he leapt out the window, nimbly climbed onto the emergency ladder beside the sixth-floor balcony. Down below, the sparse crowd was fleeing outside, cries and screams filling the air...

Chapter Two: Fate’s Joke

In a person’s life, perhaps the most unforgettable thing is first love, and the most painful is parting by death. But when faced with a disaster, whether natural or man-made, at that moment, in that scene, there is not so much pain as there is fear and confusion at the prospect of sudden doom—like a nightmare that seems long but is actually short, with no knowing when one will wake up.

Yet for William Smith, he felt nothing about this man-made disaster. Even as he sped down the emergency ladder like a monkey, with thick smoke and flames chasing behind him, the skin on his back prickling with the burning heat, deep inside, William Smith felt no fear or tension. Perhaps it was because he had experienced so many hyper-realistic virtual scenes in “Eternal Radiance” over the past three years, or perhaps he simply had enough confidence in his ability to handle himself in such situations.

When William Smith reached a safe corner after descending the emergency ladder, most of the residents of the building had also evacuated to safety, and people’s moods began to stabilize. The residents didn’t seem worried about the firefighting; even though it was the middle of the night, the 23rd-century emergency response system was extremely advanced, and the distant wails of ambulances and fire trucks could already be heard.

The only thing that made William Smith unhappy was that, after all, it was the house he had lived in for nearly ten years, and he had deliberately left behind the gaming helmet that had accompanied him for three years. After all, with only “Sky Vault” left among online games, it was now meaningless to him. He might as well say goodbye to his beloved game in this way.

“Little Emily is still inside! Can someone please go save her? Please, save her...!” A familiar voice called out not far away.

“Uncle Foster, don’t worry! The fire truck will be here in two minutes at most, just wait a bit...”

“Yes, Uncle Foster. The fire is so big, none of us have professional training. If we rush in, we’ll just be throwing our lives away!”

“Ah, who could be so thoughtless? Little Emily... such a lovely girl, something mustn’t happen to her...”