""Gods and Demons"" has been open for three months, with over fifty million players. It’s conservatively estimated that after a year, the number of players will surpass one hundred million—and note, that’s just the players. Besides these players, there are also people who don’t play the game but use the virtual platform created by ""Gods and Demons"" to play cards, chat, make friends, go on virtual tours, or even work. So, the final population of the ""Gods and Demons"" world will reach several hundred million, or even over a billion. This place will truly become a second world in every sense.

　　John Carter said, “So the rewards for being the first to clear the new instance and the first to reach level 30 were also issued by the AI ‘Myth’?”

　　“Yes, sir.”

　　“Alright, even if that’s the case, I missed the new instance yesterday and stood up the Tianzun Guild, causing their entire team to be wiped out. Do you think a single skill book and a ring can make up for my loss? This was a problem with your system, but I’m the one who has to bear the consequences.” When John Carter said this, he felt a bit guilty. Although he didn’t know why the Slayer character had crossed over into the real world, he was sure it wasn’t a system error. Still, he was annoyed by the customer service’s “money talks” attitude, so he figured he might as well push his luck.

　　The company operating Pangu City is Tianjiao Games. Businessmen care about profit, so naturally, they want to protect the interests of VIP players, hence the priority system.

　　And customer service, for the sake of their performance, will treat VIP users with extra care. If it were an ordinary customer, they usually wouldn’t bother to call. There’s nothing to be done about it—after all, there are only so many customer service reps, and they simply can’t notify everyone.

　　The customer service lady hesitated for a moment, then said, “Alright, we’ll throw in a quest scroll. Although it’s only a B-level scroll, it can bring you a considerable amount of experience.”

　　“That’ll do.” John Carter also knew when to quit while he was ahead. After all, he was already getting more than he deserved.

　　After hanging up, John Carter didn’t log into the game right away. Instead, he called Mule first.

　　It took quite a while for the call to connect. On the other end, Mule’s lazy voice came through, “Damn, what’s wrong with you, calling me so early in the morning? Don’t you know I was ‘working my ass off’ last night? Today I finally get to sleep in… Ow! Ow, that hurts, honey, be gentle!”

　　At this point, Mule suddenly cried out in pain. Apparently, Mule’s wife thought he was being too explicit and, feeling embarrassed, pinched him.

　　Listening to Mule’s nonsense, John Carter felt a warm glow in his heart. He knew this would be his brother for life. “Mule, it’s already ten o’clock, how is that early? Yesterday… was it you who transferred money to my account?”

　　“Jeez, man, you woke me up just to ask that? Couldn’t you have called in the afternoon? And can you stop talking about money all the time? I helped you because I trust you, because I believe you’ll make it big in the Huaxia region one day. Haha, when that happens, I’ll count on you to be my backer so I can throw my weight around.”

　　“Alright!” John Carter didn’t say anything more. At a time like this, even saying thank you would be too much.

　　“Hurry up and hang up, any more and it’ll get sappy. Don’t bother me for the next hour, whether you have something or not. I need my ‘morning exercise’… Ow, ow! Honey, I was wrong…”

　　John Carter hung up the phone with a smile and took a deep breath. He picked up his gaming helmet—time to clear the instance again! In exactly two hours, the new instance would open once more.

　　Even though he now had Slayer appearing in the real world, he still needed some initial capital to start a bounty hunter company, so John Carter planned to make money through ""Gods and Demons"".

　　Logging into the game… password correct… loading, please wait…

　　However, something completely unexpected happened. His consciousness didn’t enter the virtual world, but instead entered the real-world Slayer “Famous Sword.” The scene before his eyes was still the dorm room.

　　What the…

　　John Carter exited the game and logged in again, but the result was the same.

　　How could this be? John Carter stared speechlessly at his “real body” wearing the helmet. Was he unable to enter the game now?

　　Just then, John Carter suddenly felt his inventory move. When he checked, he found three new items in his backpack:

　　Ghostfire Ring: Agility +10, Stamina +5, increases backstab damage by 5%.

　　Skill Book: ""Deadly Strike.""

　　Quest Scroll.

　　Huh?

　　John Carter was stunned. Weren’t these the compensations promised by the game company? They had actually been transferred to the Slayer puppet “Famous Sword.” Could it be that the “Shadow Blade” in the game and the “Famous Sword” in the real world were always connected?

　　If Shadow Blade levels up in the game, does Famous Sword in the real world also level up?

　　If Shadow Blade learns a new skill in the game, does Famous Sword in the real world also gain a new move?

　　Or maybe, Shadow Blade and Famous Sword are actually the same entity, and he only has one game account, which can be logged into both the virtual network and the real world.

　　John Carter found this more and more unbelievable. He believed that no matter how absurd things seemed, they could be explained by the rules of this world. Famous Sword, Shadow Blade, the mysterious game company, the super AI “Myth”—was there some unknown secret hidden behind all of this?