Sunlight filtered through the gaps in the leaves, casting dappled patterns in the forest. Yang Yu, armed with a sword, avoided the main road and followed a narrow path through the bushes, searching for solitary slimes.
The scorching sun burned his skin, while a cool breeze brushed against his face. The fatigue from long hours of traveling made everything feel incredibly real, as if he were truly in another world.
With a wave of his hand, a semi-transparent black panel appeared, displaying various categories such as attributes, items, skills, equipment, quests, and achievements.
[Attributes]
– Name: Yang Yu (ID: Rolling Potato)
– Level: LV 1
– Experience: 0/20
– Race: Human (Commoner)
– HP: 28/28
– MP: 30/30
– Stamina: 15/20
– Main Profession: None
– Sub Profession: Herbalist Apprentice (LV 1)
– Personal Attributes: Strength 5, Defense 4, Intelligence 6, Special Defense 2, Agility 12, Charisma 3, Endurance 2, Luck 1
– Free Attribute Points: 0
– Resistance: None
– Evaluation: You’re like Nobita from Doraemon, not good at anything, but at least you can run fast
[Items]
– Low-level Healing Herbs *10
[Skills]
– General: Attack (Barehanded), Defense (Barehanded), Passive – Auto-Translate (Your language is understood in this world.)
– Herbalist Apprentice: Passive – Herbalism (Identify low-level herbs), Passive – Farming (Increase yield by 5%)
– Skill Points: 0
[Equipment]
– Rusty Iron Sword: Attack +3
[Quest]
– You aspire to become an adventurer, but your parents strongly oppose it. You need to prove your abilities to convince them.
– Quest Requirements: Defeat one slime.
– Rewards: Startup funds 2000G, Low-level Healing Herbs 20, Experience 200, Three lottery draws (Newbie benefits: 50% skill, 20% item, 20% junk, 10% equipment)
– Abandonment Penalty: Experience gain -50%
[Achievements]
– None
– Reputation: 0
Nothing puts a player more at ease than seeing the game panel.
If not for the game’s poor stats display, Yang Yu might have believed he had truly arrived in another world.
One day ago, after battling non-stop for seventy-two hours in a new game by Company A with a hellish difficulty, he had collapsed into bed.
In his dream, he found himself in a room less than ten square meters, filled with game consoles from different eras.
From the nostalgic Atari to various modern game consoles, everything could be found there.
In the center of the room, a laid-back girl in slippers, eating chips and playing “The King of Fighters,” greeted him. As she manipulated the game controller to defeat the final boss, she introduced herself.
She claimed to be a goddess named Spade.
As a staunch believer in dialectical materialism, Yang Yu didn’t believe in gods.
“Hmm, I must be dreaming. I really shouldn’t stay up all night so often. Look, I’m having such a strange dream.”
While Yang Yu pondered whether to reduce his weekly all-nighters from four to three or two, Spade handed him a game controller.
“Wanna play a few rounds of The King of Fighters?”
Since it was a dream and she was offering to be defeated, Yang Yu didn’t hesitate. He took the controller and picked a character at random.
Who knows how much time passed…
“KO!!”
The flashing light from the TV illuminated Spade’s expressionless face as her character fell again. She put down the controller in silence. Despite using the cheap tactic of spamming waves in the corner with Orochi, she still lost to Yang Yu’s combo, utterly defeated.
The atmosphere instantly became awkward.
Yang Yu wasn’t sure what Spade was thinking. Counting this match, she had lost to him a hundred times.
Winning repeatedly started to feel a bit uncomfortable.
Yang Yu had considered going easy, but just the thought of it was enough. A true gamer never holds back, even if the opponent is a child. Next time, he would still show no mercy and crush Spade again.
As Yang Yu pondered how to ease the awkward tension, Spade pulled a game cartridge out of her shorts pocket. “You’re so good at games. How about trying one that I made?”
The cartridge was the type commonly used for Famicom games. Honestly, Yang Yu didn’t expect much from such a small-capacity cartridge, maybe something on the level of *Dragon Quest II* at best.
“Sure, let me see.”
“This game took me a lot of effort! Don’t be scared. It has a vast world and a complex story set in…” Spade excitedly explained the game as she inserted the cartridge into the Famicom and fiddled with the cables.
In summary, it was a typical RPG about heroes and demon lords.
The game had three starting points: Hero, Commoner, and Demon Soldier.
Each starting point represented a different difficulty level. Hero was the easiest, Demon Soldier was medium, and Commoner was the hardest.
Yang Yu could roughly guess the storylines for each path.
The Hero’s path was likely the classic story of defeating the demon lord; the Demon Soldier’s path was probably about conquering the world; and the Commoner’s path was about struggling to survive in a chaotic world.
Could a cartridge really hold all that content? If it could, it would either be a masterpiece or a complete mess.
Yawning, Yang Yu picked up the controller and waited for the game to load.
“This game doesn’t have saves and you only get one life. You’re good at games, right? If you’re really that good, choose the hardest starting point and show me you can finish it in one go!” Spade’s smile widened, still holding a grudge over losing a hundred times.
Yang Yu raised an eyebrow. There was a time when he couldn’t even beat the first level of *Super Mario*.
But over the years, after countless games, he had transformed into a seasoned gamer.
Whether it was the grueling challenges of the *Dark Souls* series or the intricate mechanics of *Nioh*, he handled them all with ease.
As a streamer specializing in high-difficulty games, he often set challenging goals for himself to entertain his audience and rake in donations. Completing an RPG on the first try without saving was just another day for him.
Back down? Not a chance!
“Piece of cake. Commoner it is. If there’s a hero in this game, I’ll make sure they become the benchmark for combat power.”
The selection screen appeared. Yang Yu moved the cursor to the Commoner option without hesitation and pressed the button. Suddenly, everything went black, and he found himself in another world.
At first, he was disoriented, but he quickly accepted the reality.
“That glasses-wearing girl was right! This is my very own Sword Art Online!”
Yang Yu’s heart raced as he excitedly opened the door to his room, only to be hit with a harsh dose of reality.
He was born into a family that ran an herb shop, the only child of his parents, Carl and Lisa, who doted on him.
Having often treated injured adventurers, his parents knew the dangers of such a life and strongly opposed Yang Yu’s desire to become an adventurer.
What to do now?
[Life is full of choices. Sometimes a seemingly insignificant decision can cause a butterfly effect, changing your life or even the entire world.]
[You are now facing your first major decision in life. You have big dreams, but your parents believe in a simple, safe life. What will you do?]
1. Convince your parents.
2. Listen to your mom and avoid hurting her.
3. Jump on the table and perform a silly dance.
[Time limit: five minutes.]
Wow, this game even has text-based adventure elements.
The first two choices were typical decisions about staying or leaving, but the third one… jump on the table and do a silly dance?
Are you kidding me? How could this not end with a beating from his parents?
But I’m really curious about what happens if I choose that. Maybe I’ll get some weird but useful item.
Yang Yu was tempted by the third option but chose to play it safe and picked the first option, which led to him receiving a quest to defeat a slime.
The realistic controls took some getting used to, and slimes were the perfect practice targets. Without hesitation, he began his quest.
Under the scorching sun, he continued his search. Suddenly, he heard rustling in the bushes nearby and saw a flash of blue.
Approaching carefully, he found a basketball-sized, round creature with a body that shimmered like a gem under the sunlight, a vivid blue like the sky.
It was the slime he had been searching for. He opened the panel to view its stats.
[Slime]
– Level: LV 5
– HP: 190/190
– MP: 60/60
– Attributes: Strength 37, Defense 146, Intelligence 36, Special Defense 176, Agility 17, Endurance 20
– Resistance: Physical 50%
Um… What?
WTF?
Sorry for disturbing you, goodbye!