For no apparent reason, William Smith's finger twitched, the cursor spun again, and what appeared before William Smith were three virtual figures fully encased in metal armor—warriors.

　　"Player selects class—warrior. Please choose a class branch…"

　　"Class branch—Shielded Warrior. Please confirm!"

　　"Player has confirmed class: Shielded Warrior. Please select a race…"

　　"Player selects race: Human. Please name your character."

　　"Ding ding… Player Lucas Smith, Human, Novice Shielded Warrior, Level 1. Now entering the game, randomly assigning a starter village. Please wait…"

　　It was as if darkness before dawn; William Smith felt his vision go pitch black, the last ray of light shining into his pupils, and then his eyes instinctively squinted as the world began to fill with light.

　　Reflected in William Smith's eyes were rows of green-tiled, blue-bricked houses, smoke curling from the rooftops in the style of Jiangnan, birds chirping happily on the branches, the first rays of the morning sun just peeking over the eastern horizon, willows swaying in the breeze—it was the warmth of spring after a fresh rain.

　　William Smith looked himself over: in his left hand, a shield with several notches; in his right, a cracked wooden sword. William Smith shook his head and sighed, "As expected, beauty brings trouble! Impulsiveness is the devil—truly, the ancients did not deceive me."

　　He couldn't believe he had wavered in his decision because of a single sentence from that woman. William Smith felt that the forty years of his life, past and future combined, had all gone to waste.

　　Lifting his shield a bit, William Smith sighed to himself, "Forget it, I've already chosen my class anyway. It doesn't matter what class it is. The most important thing is, I've finally entered 'Skyrealm.'"

　　Thinking it over, William Smith let it go, raised his head, and prepared to stroll around the newbie village. But as he turned, the scene of the surging crowd in the central square left William Smith utterly stunned.

　　The newbie village square, covering at least a thousand square meters, was completely packed with swarming players. In this dense flow of people, everyone was moving in a constant state of friction, and the NPCs in the square were entirely swallowed up by the frenzied crowd. Shouts and curses echoed through the throng…

　　"Get lost, pervert! How dare you take advantage of me in the chaos? Do you think my chest is so easy to grope?"

　　"I'd rather grope a sow's butt than be interested in your chest. Next time, look in a mirror before you speak, miss. Couldn't you have increased your appearance by 30%? Oh, sorry, is this your face after adjustment?"

　　"What, you dare mock me…"

　　"Ah! My little brother! You vicious woman, how ruthless you are. Truly, the most poisonous hearts belong to women…"

　　The cursing and shouting rose and fell. William Smith even saw a few players lose their balance and fall to the ground, only to be trampled by countless feet—their meager level-one health instantly dropping to zero, turning into streaks of white light as they went off to chat with the goddess in charge of resurrection behind the mountain.

　　William Smith stared in shock at the ever-growing crowd before him, wisely taking a few steps back. Although William Smith had never entered 'Skyrealm' in his previous life, he had seen plenty of reports in the media and newspapers about how explosive the official launch was: ten billion people online across three planets; the newbie village trampling incident; the untold secrets between a thousand players and rabbits, and so on.

　　Recalling the reports about 'Skyrealm's' launch, William Smith, for the sake of his own life, abandoned the idea of going to the village NPCs for quests and then grinding monsters outside to level up.

　　The current level cap in 'Skyrealm' was 120. From later experience, William Smith knew just how hard it was to reach level 120. Even the first 10 levels, without anyone competing for monsters, would take at least half a month. Moreover, the Ark Quantum Computer's settings for 'Skyrealm' were extremely balanced: a monster's experience and drops depended on the maximum damage dealt by the player or team. Non-team players who dealt less than 20% damage to a monster got no experience; those who dealt more than 20% got experience proportional to their damage.

　　This setup dashed the hopes of powerful studios, guilds, or corporations to quickly power-level their elite players. But William Smith also understood: wherever there are people, there is a 'jianghu'; wherever there is a 'jianghu', there is conflict. Although this system was much more balanced than previous online games, the dark side of human nature could never be eliminated.

　　If you can't power-level your own elite players, then neither can other factions, guilds, or studios. This led to the increasingly rampant phenomenon of territory control in the early days of 'Skyrealm.'

　　Watching a large group of players with the same prefix in their names appear on the outskirts of the square, rudely pushing through the crowd and driving people out, William Smith let out a cold smile. Truly, the worst of human nature on display!