bookbashuk Chapter 90 Choice
Chapter 90 Choice
I haven't finished writing it yet, I'll post it later, I'm afraid I'll miss the deadline. Here's the first chapter of my next new book.
Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.
When Chen Su opened her eyes, what she saw was a low roof beam.
The wood was of poor quality, with wormholes winding like snakes. Sunlight streamed through the holes in the roof, shining on his face and making him squint slightly.
He lay on a hard bed with dry straw underneath him, and a damp, musty smell lingered around his nose.
The smell was so familiar, so familiar that it made his heart skip a beat:
"This is……"
He sat up abruptly.
I moved too fast and my vision went black for a moment.
Chen Su braced herself against the bed frame and waited for the dizziness to subside before slowly raising her head and looking around.
Earthen walls, muddy ground, a crooked wooden table with a half-bowl of cold millet porridge on it.
There was a pile of dry firewood in the corner, and a rusty wood-chopping knife hanging by the door; the window frame was made of nailed wooden strips, and the paper covering the window was yellowed and torn, with the wind blowing in through the gaps, carrying the unique scent of grass and trees from the mountains and fields.
Chen Su's gaze fell on her hands.
Those were the hands of a young boy, with large knuckles, rough skin, and thick calluses on his palms—marks left from years of hard labor. They were completely different from his original hands.
His original hand had distinct knuckles and long, jade-like fingers. That hand had once held a superior-grade flying sword, slain demons on the battlefield of myriad realms, and seized innate spiritual treasures.
A primordial spiritual treasure...?
He remembered.
At that time, he was in the matchmaking battlefield of "Battle for Immortality in Myriad Realms" competing with a sword immortal player for a primordial spiritual treasure.
The two fought for a full half hour, their battle so fierce it seemed the heavens and earth trembled. In the end, he bravely endured a sword strike from his opponent and seized control of the magical treasure.
and then?
Then the world spun around, and when I opened my eyes again, I was here.
[The Battle for Immortality Across Myriad Realms]
That was the most popular virtual reality game in his world, with hundreds of millions of players online at the same time.
The game is set in a vast universe with several major factions, including the Immortal Sect, the Demon Sect, the Buddhist Kingdom, the Confucian Court, and the True Martial Path.
These major powers, belonging to various worlds, have dispatched their cultivators to fight in newly discovered planes in order to compete for cultivation resources, improve their realms, and ultimately ascend to immortality.
The players take on the roles of those dispatched monks.
Search, attack, withdraw.
Search for resources, defeat your opponents, and escape alive.
The simple and straightforward rules have given rise to endless tactics and ways to play.
Some people like to go all out, bringing their best magic weapons and elixirs to fight; others prefer to play it safe—carrying only the most basic weapon, where winning is a huge bonus and losing is no loss.
Chen Su started out as a knife-wielding craftsman.
He started from scratch, engaging in tens of thousands of matches and life-or-death battles.
He climbed step by step to become a top player. He knew every detail of the game inside and out.
Including the place he is in right now.
Chen Su closed her eyes, and memories flooded back like a tide.
Jiang Kingdom, Cangwu Mountain, Qingniu Village.
This is where he was born when he first played "Battle for Immortality in Myriad Realms".
To be precise, it was the beginner map randomly assigned by the system when he first created his character.
In this low-level martial arts world, spiritual energy had only recently recovered, and cultivation civilization was still in its infancy. There were no immortals who could soar high and low, no supernatural powers that could overturn rivers and seas, and not even a single cultivator at the embryonic stage could be found.
This kind of low-skill, small world is jokingly referred to by players in the game as a "fish pond game".
Resources are scarce and opportunities are rare in the Fish Pond game. Players with a little ambition will leave through the teleportation array after reaching a certain level and go to a higher-level map.
Nobody will stay here any longer.
But Chen Su remembers that she stayed in that picture for a long time.
It's not that I don't want to leave, it's that I can't.
He had just entered the game and knew nothing about it. He wandered around Cangwu Mountain for half a month before finding his first medicinal herb, only to be robbed of it by a group of NPC herb gatherers. Those herb gatherers tricked him into leading the way, intending to kill him after finding the herb.
He narrowly escaped, but missed the earliest opportunity to open his meridians, falling far behind the other players.
"That group of herb gatherers..."
Chen Su opened her eyes, her gaze slightly somber.
If he remembered correctly, according to the original timeline, the herb gatherers would arrive at Qingniu Village in three days and find a local familiar with the mountain paths to guide them. What they were looking for was a Crimson Blood Ginseng.
Crimson Blood Ginseng. A first-grade elixir.
For ordinary people who have not yet opened their meridians, it is an excellent foundation for opening up the meridians and drawing qi into the body.
In the game "Contending for Immortality Across Myriad Realms", this is just the most basic introductory resource.
But in this real little world, it is an opportunity that can change one's destiny.
wrong!
Chen Su suddenly realized something.
He's not playing games right now.
He raised his hand, a thought forming in his mind.
A semi-transparent, pale blue light screen appeared before his eyes.
[Character]: Chen Su
[Cultivation Level]: Mortal Body (Unopened Meridians)
[Technique]: None
[Skills]: None
[Equipment]: Broken machete (ordinary iron)
[Storage Bag]: 1x1 (Remaining unlock time: 19 years and 364 days)
Chen Su stared at the last line and remained silent for a long time.
Storage bag.
That was the storage artifact he used in the game, containing all the valuables he had accumulated from tens of thousands of matches.
Magical artifacts, elixirs, talismans, cultivation manuals, jade slips, spiritual materials and rare treasures... their value is immeasurable, enough to drive any immortal sect in the vast world mad.
But at this moment, it is locked, and only one space is available.
This means that all his previous efforts have been wiped out, and now he has to start all over again.
If you want to unlock more storage pockets, you'll have to wait another twenty years.
Why twenty years?
Chen Su recalled the timeline of [Battle for Immortality in Myriad Realms]. The game's public beta launch date was exactly twenty years after he transmigrated.
In other words, he was twenty years too early.
He entered this world twenty years ahead of schedule, in his true form. Not a game character, not a virtual projection, but a real body of flesh and blood.
In games, players are immortal; they can revive after death, start over, and try again and again. But here, he only has one life.
Twenty years later, when the "Battle for Immortality Across Myriad Realms" officially begins, hundreds of millions of players will flood into this world. These players will have endless lifespans, the assistance of the system, and the support of the entire universe.
They will search, they will plunder, they will fight.
If he is still just an ordinary cultivator at that time, how will he compete with those immortal players?
Chen Su slowly clenched her fist.
He was a top player in the game because he had countless chances to try and fail. But now, he only has one chance.
He must take control of this world within twenty years, before the game begins.
They brought their own capital into the market.
He wasn't bringing magical treasures or elixirs, nor cultivation manuals—those were locked in his storage bag. What he wanted to bring was this entire world.
A complete small world is enough for him to establish himself in the struggle for immortality across countless realms.
This was the most important lesson he learned from countless matches: true masters never rely solely on personal strength.
Resources, influence, information, and strategic planning—these are the key factors that determine victory or defeat.
What he needs to do now is start from scratch.