Volume One: Soaring with the Sword

Chapter One: The Wild Fox Becomes a Spirit

The Shushan online game masterpiece has been the talk of the town for several years now. The damned Fantasy International’s reputation for delays has already surpassed Blizzard’s from twenty years ago. I’m not really obsessed with online games, but as a devoted reader of "The Shushan Swordsman Legend," a classic xianxia novel, I even dream about how wonderful it would feel to "ride a sword through the skies, soaring into the nine heavens"!

According to the promotional materials, I specially set up a computer with the latest model of optical brain, so I could fully experience all the special effects in Shushan. When Fantasy International first announced the closed beta, I really didn’t have the time—exams were intense, and I had to prepare my graduation thesis. Now that the open beta has arrived, I just happened to have graduated. Since my family had already arranged a job for me, I didn’t have to scramble for employment like my classmates, so this time I was determined to be among the first to try it out.

Although Shushan’s open beta accounts weren’t as hard to get as the closed beta ones, it still took me a herculean effort to snatch one from a friend who worked in Shushan’s marketing. After downloading the latest game patch, I couldn’t wait to activate the neural connector.

Today’s optical brains are already in their fourth generation. Not only have antique devices like mouse and keyboard disappeared, even helmet-style VR gear has long been outdated. Now, with just a single cable and a stethoscope-like neural connector, you can transmit your brain’s thoughts directly into the optical brain—the simulation is far beyond what the old VR helmets could achieve.

A single Shushan account can create four characters. I had just created two human characters and was about to make a demon character when, out of nowhere, a stunningly seductive NPC beauty appeared, smiling as she stopped me: “Hello! In Shushan, you cannot create characters from different factions. Since you have chosen the human race, you cannot create a demon character!”

“What the... Oh my god! This woman is really something...” When I saw the two small characters “Grace Carter” above this NPC’s head, I immediately understood the meaning of “a beauty brings disaster.” This top-ranked enchantress of Shushan truly was a national beauty, breathtakingly gorgeous, with perfect curves and long, shapely legs...

Entranced by her charms, I completely forgot to listen to what else Grace Carter said. Since I couldn’t choose the demon race, I just randomly created two more characters without paying attention to their attributes. Only after Grace Carter disappeared did I suddenly realize I hadn’t checked the characters’ stats at all.

“Damn! Even a side character is still a person! If the stats are too low, it’ll be a pain!” I shouted as I considered deleting the two characters, but when my eyes swept over their stats, I was stunned and suddenly reluctant to do it.

Shushan characters have two types of attributes: innate and acquired. Innate attributes are fixed once the character is created and won’t change no matter how much you level up in the game—unless you obtain the legendary elixir, which can slightly improve them.

Innate attributes: Constitution, Comprehension, Fortune, Six Senses, Strength. The sum of these five values ranges from seventy to one hundred and twenty. If you’re not satisfied with the innate stats after creating a character, you can delete and recreate. By chance, one of my characters had unbelievably good luck: “Constitution 38, Comprehension 9, Fortune 40, Six Senses 23, Strength 10”—a perfect total of one hundred and twenty.

“Damn! This enchantress’s charm value is off the charts!” The highest innate stats among the characters I’d created before hadn’t even reached ninety. How could I bear to delete such a top-tier character?

Anyway, this was a good thing. Excited, I selected this character with super high innate stats and entered the world of Shushan.

“Tsk tsk! Look at this scenery—the sky is as blue as glass, the air is incredibly fresh, and the oxygen content is off the charts...” My starting location was a village beside Mount Qingcheng. Playing this kind of game for the first time, I really felt like Granny Liu entering the Grand View Garden—babbling nonsense while looking around to see what other players were doing!

Newly created characters only have a set of coarse cloth clothes. I secretly loosened my belt and took a peek. Hmm... this stingy Fantasy International didn’t even provide underwear! Thinking that the beauties around me might also be going commando, my gaze immediately became much more mischievous.

But before I could catch a glimpse of any beauties, two burly men blocked my way. “Hey brother! You just arrived too, right? We just picked up a quest that needs a three-person team. How about we do it together?”

After a brief chat, I learned that Shushan newbies don’t have any skills. To learn martial arts or spells, you have to complete quests. The two of them were friends in real life—one called Our Bun, the other Mint Flavor—and they had just picked up a quest to learn the basic sword technique.

Since I wasn’t familiar with the Shushan environment, I was more than happy to team up when someone asked. I opened the system and accepted the team invitation from Our Bun and Mint Flavor, and the three of us wobbled out of the village together.