Global Game: Developing a Knight Clan

Chapter 448 - 72: New Player, New World (Part 2)

"A short life? What can I do about it? I don’t have Extraordinary Talent, and I’m not suited for Genetic Enhancement. Anyway, I’ve come to terms with it, Grandpa. I’m just useless, so I’ll just be useless. I’ve already accepted reality."

"But don’t worry, Grandpa. I won’t let our family’s Bloodline die out."

"In short, you’ve definitely failed in raising me. That’s why I’m casting a wide net everywhere, right? Grandpa, just give me a little more allowance each month, and I promise I’ll do my best to give you a few great-grandchildren to hold. That way, you can start training a new ’character,’ can’t you?"

"...."

Yue Xin had too many absurd arguments.

This was also why his grandfather couldn’t stand the sight of him.

But that was just on the surface. Deep down, what he felt most was helplessness.

After all, given the circumstances, it wasn’t entirely Yue Xin’s fault that he had become a ’Huang Mao’.

He was born that way. What could be done?

Besides, he was the sole heir to the Bloodline. His grandfather could only put up with him and give him more allowance in the hopes of getting a ’new character’ to train sooner rather than later.

However, as for the results...

Before a new character could be trained, in the third year after Yue Xin dropped out of school, the True Game released another ’large batch’ of Player slots.

And as fate would have it, Yue Xin won a Player slot.

But his grandfather, who had strived his entire life, did not.

If looks could kill, Yue Xin definitely would have felt it.

The ’indignation’ his grandfather felt upon hearing the news.

On one hand, there was the grandfather, a man who believed that the Celestial Dao rewards diligence and had struggled his entire life just to barely become a Middle Tier Transcendent.

On the other, there was the good-for-nothing Huang Mao grandson, an ignorant layabout who chased women and constantly got into trouble.

The grandfather didn’t get a Player slot, but the grandson did.

Where was the justice in that?

Even though the grandfather knew his ’Huang Mao’ grandson might not have truly wanted to become a delinquent, he still felt an inexpressible jealousy and resentment.

But no matter what, despite all his resentment and indignation, the old man could only swallow his bitterness. Half heartbroken and half hopeful, he earnestly impressed upon Yue Xin how precious the ’Player slot’ was and what a ’heaven-sent opportunity’ it represented.

In short, he was terrified that Yue Xin would pull some stupid stunt right after entering the game and get himself killed.

What could Yue Xin say to that?

Was he born wanting to be lazy?

No!

The cold stares from others, the disdain from his peers.

There was so much gossip.

Yue Xin had lost count of how many times he had heard people wonder, both openly and behind his back, how a powerful and self-disciplined retired military officer like his grandfather could have such an ignorant, good-for-nothing grandson.

Did Yue Xin want to turn out this way?

When he was ten years old, still just a boy, Yue Xin had been filled with nervous excitement, believing he too could become a Transcendent like his grandfather, or even his late father.

But what happened?

In front of all his classmates, who had looked at him with expectation and admiration, he was tested and found to have ’no’ Extraordinary Talent.

In that moment, Yue Xin truly understood what it felt like to fall from heaven into Hell.

The leader of the pack instantly lost his ’status.’

He even got a taste of the fickleness of human nature, a cold truth usually reserved for adults.

But even then, Yue Xin refused to give up.

After all, his grandfather was there to comfort him, even telling him that if he mastered martial arts, the path of Genetic Martial Arts was still a viable option.

At the time, Yue Xin believed this too.

’So what if I can’t be Extraordinary? Becoming a Genetic Warrior, an ’Armored Warrior’—wouldn’t that be cool too?’

But reality soon came to slap him in the face.

Because on his eighteenth birthday, during the school-wide ’paid’ genetic enhancement test, Yue Xin, despite being built like a bull, was dealt another cruel blow by reality.

Unsuitable for Genetic Enhancement?

This meant that injecting Yue Xin with Genetic Enhancement Liquid would be like injecting saline solution into a Divine Body—completely useless.

That was when true despair began to set in.

Yue Xin gave up.

He began his downward spiral.

He lost all motivation for his studies, and the same went for his martial arts training.

After all, could a normal person who practices martial arts really beat a Transcendent or a Genetic Warrior?

What a joke.

With both paths blocked to him, he once again faced a storm of ridicule and sarcasm from everyone around him.

Yue Xin changed completely.

He didn’t become quiet and withdrawn.

Instead, he completely let himself go.

Skipping class, getting drunk, even street racing in hovercrafts—he did almost everything he’d never dared to do before.

If he hadn’t been born into a family of Transcendents.

If his grandfather and late father hadn’t been Transcendents, people wouldn’t have had such high expectations for him from a young age.

If Yue Xin had just been an ordinary person born into an ordinary family, not being able to become a Transcendent or a Genetic Warrior wouldn’t have been a big deal.

After all, neither Transcendents nor Genetic Warriors were numerous, not even on Blue Star.

Therefore, ordinary people made up the vast majority of the Blue Star Human Race.

So, was it really a big deal?

Of course not.

But unfortunately, this world has no "what ifs."

Was Yue Xin content to accept this?

Of course he wasn’t.

But what could he do if he wasn’t?

So, becoming a ’Huang Mao’ was just an outward sign that Yue Xin had given up on himself.

He seemed to have figured it all out, seemed to have sunk completely into depravity, living in a world of his own making.

But deep down, the regret and resentment had always accompanied him.

Therefore, one could only imagine the tempest that raged in Yue Xin’s heart when, without a shred of hope, he suddenly learned he had won a Player slot.

What was a Player slot?

It was the last chance for every ordinary person on Blue Star to defy their fate!

Because the True Game didn’t care about a person’s real-world talent!

As long as their progress in the game wasn’t cut short, anyone had the chance to become a Transcendent, or achieve an even greater future.

And so, the moment Yue Xin finally logged into the game under his grandfather’s expectant and complicated gaze...

...Yue Xin found himself inhabiting the body of a native on a continent called the Reit Arnold Continent.

It was a small, remote, and peaceful village.

The sun shone brightly in the sky, and the air around the village was filled with the ceaseless chirping of birds and buzzing of insects.

In the fields, one could clearly see industrious villagers who had already begun their day’s work.

’A Middle Ages World?’

’I wonder how you start on the Path to the Extraordinary here.’

The True Game had been updated long ago.

For a long time now, the True Game hadn’t had any so-called tutorial quests.

However, the familiar interface panel was still there, and quests were now triggered randomly.

More importantly, the True Game had long ago implemented a time dilation: one day in reality (eight hours online) was equivalent to one hundred days in the game.

In other words, Players could experience one hundred days of gameplay through consciousness projection for every eight hours they spent in the game.

Because of this, the True Game had long since done away with the so-called Inference Day rewards.

All that remained were the hundred-day rewards given after each logout.

As long as a Player managed to survive those hundred days, they would receive a small reward, regardless of whether they completed any quests or made any progress.

This was the case for the eight million veteran Players in the Star Empire.

Many of them could no longer easily trigger meaningful quests, so the hundred-day rewards—a few Low Tier Magic Crystals or some Low Tier Artifacts—were less than scraps to these veteran Players.

Nowadays, the only way for veteran Players to trigger substantial hundred-day rewards was to advance in rank or participate in wars between civilizations.

But obviously, such opportunities were few and far between.

Therefore, most veteran Players, who were also Middle-High Tier, now focused more on earning merit for the Star Empire.

After all, during times of peace, the rewards for merit from the Empire were far better than those from the True Game.

Of course, the rewards for new Players in a New World were still substantial.

But such opportunities had been rare in the one hundred and sixty years of Blue Star’s history with the game.

A Blue Star Person like Yue Xin, who managed to snag one of the ’million’ new Player slots, was considered incredibly lucky.

Yue Xin gazed at the small village before him, his heart pounding with excitement. His entire spirit felt revitalized.

But just as Yue Xin was about to explore the village and find a way to trigger a quest...

...a terrifying black cloud of smoke suddenly came rolling across the sky from the far distance.

The black cloud blotted out the sky and sun.

The mere sight of it left Yue Xin stunned.

Yet, in the face of this terrifying sight, not a single one of the humans in the village seemed to notice.

Those toiling in the fields continued their work without even looking up.

And in that moment, as Yue Xin stood there in a daze, the very first quest of his new life as a Player was triggered!