Absolute Death Game

Seeing these four items, Xiao Buli pursed his lips and thought to himself that it really was a stroke of big "red" luck, with four people and just enough items for each.

In the past, when he was the guild leader dealing with loot, he had often played dirty, to the point where it had almost become a habit. Now, seeing the items Han Baiqiang had rolled, he realized that luck was indeed a real thing.

"So, how do we split them?" Xiao Buli asked.

"What else but to auction them off?" Li Baocheng was the first to speak up. "Whoever offers the most money takes the item, then we split the money from the auction equally."

Han Baiqiang’s eyes shifted as he laughed, "You rascal, you’ve looted more than one Gold Coin from those two NPCs you killed earlier, haven’t you? I bet you’ve got quite a sum in your bag. If we go to auction, the four of us together probably couldn’t outbid you, that’s not fair."

Li Baocheng, whose secret had been exposed, couldn’t help but his face turned red, thankful that no one could see him behind the screen.

"Then what do you propose we do?" he muttered.

"The international rule, ROLL the dice," came the response.

The so-called ROLLing dice means getting a random number within a certain range, similar to throwing dice, except the numbers are determined by the system.

"ROLL the dice? Does this game have a ROLL dice system?" Sun Bin asked.

This question really hit the nail on the head. Xiao Buli, who had been playing for so long, had never tried it. He typed the command /ROLL into the chat box and hit Enter with force.

System prompt: You ROLLED a 5, (1—100). n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

A 5! A black line immediately crossed Xiao Buli’s face—his luck was too rotten.

"There really is a ROLL dice system, so let’s do it," he said, unfazed. His inner monologue was simply, "That ROLL just now was just a trial run."

The other three didn’t make any fuss and promptly agreed, "Then let’s ROLL. Whoever gets the highest picks first, but can only choose one item."

"I’ll go first! I’ll go first!" As Han Baiqiang spoke, he eagerly ROLLed and got a 95.

"Nice luck," said Li Baocheng, "Now watch mine." He followed with a ROLL and got a 74, not too shabby either.

Sun Bin laughed arrogantly. "It’s my turn now." After his ROLL, however, a 13 came up, leaving him utterly speechless.

Xiao Buli thought to himself that although his rolls were always under 20, he couldn’t possibly do worse than Sun Bin. With a tap on the keyboard,

System prompt: You ROLLED a 4.

..........

Han Baiqiang smugly chose the Corpse Pill, as he was planning to follow the blacksmith path, and the Corpse Pill was quite valuable to him.

Li Baocheng picked the "Enslave Zombies" Skill Book. Though it was a lousy low-tier skill, it was still a Skill Book after all.

Sun Bin, having no other choice, picked the Pale Ring. In fact, he was quite content with this piece of equipment left for him. The 40 health points increase to his health limit was a very good attribute. You have to realize that his original health points were only 140, and with this ring, it was nearly 200, even 10 more than Han Baiqiang’s.

More health points meant he was less likely to die, which, for a game with only one life, was definitely a great thing.

Even though there was an attribute of -1 luck, his luck wasn’t high to begin with. The more lice there are, the less they bite, and he figured that the Luck attribute probably wasn’t all that important anyway. At worst, it meant he wouldn’t be likely to get good equipment from killing monsters—big deal, he could just avoid looting corpses in the future.

With the last item, "The Diary of Lu Jiang," a quest item, going to Xiao Buli by default for having the lowest roll, its value should not have been the least. However, with the game’s brutal difficulty, equipment that came directly into one’s hands was always more tangible than benefits from a quest that required completion. Who knew if the quest might involve risk?

After the items were distributed, Xiao Buli double-clicked the diary. Accompanied by a flash of golden light, a line of text appeared on the screen.

System prompt: You used "The Diary of Lu Jiang," and accepted the quest—The Last Wish of Lu Jiang. Completing Lu Jiang’s last wish will grant you Lu Jiang’s Blessing. Until you complete this quest, you will be haunted by the Soul of Lu Jiang, and your Luck will decrease by 2.

A semi-transparent figure suddenly materialized beside him, looking about eighty to ninety percent similar to the Zombie BOSS they had just killed. The only differences were the intact Leather Armor on the figure and a face that looked normal. This semi-transparent figure was called "Shadow of Lu Jiang," and clicking on it with the mouse revealed the label "Ghost—Unattackable."

"You must save her!" the Shadow of Lu Jiang said loudly, not only appearing as text on the screen but also audible through the headset. Moreover, the voice acting was quite professional, with urgency laced with pleading, and the pleading filled with determination, making Xiao Buli think that the voice acting for localizations of big foreign games must have really messed up not to hire him.

He glanced at the others, but they seemed to have noticed nothing about the figure that had abruptly appeared among them.

"You must save her!" the Shadow of Lu Jiang repeated, then ran a few steps beside Xiao Buli’s character, turned back, and again said, "You must save her!"

It seems this will just keep looping, and it’s just the same sentence over and over. Xiao Buli got a bit annoyed by the incessant voice, so he turned off the background music in the game settings, but the voice didn’t disappear.

"You must save her."

Damn, there’s no end to it, he simply took off his earphones.

"You must save her!" the voice still stubbornly penetrated his ears. The problem is, save whom? This mission is so vague, why can’t it be clear?

Wait a second, Xiao Buli suddenly noticed something that was not quite right. Why hadn’t the diary disappeared? In the past when he played games, mission items would usually vanish once the mission was triggered, but that "Diary of Lu Jiang" was still in his inventory. He clicked on it with his mouse and discovered it was actually a readable file.

Perhaps it contained information on the mission. Thinking this, he clicked to turn the pages and some scribbled text immediately appeared before his eyes.

March 4th, sunny weather:

Today is a good day, oh what a good day! I actually gained Taming Skills from feeding pigs. Could I be the protagonist of a novel? Hmm, it really is possible. Might as well write it down.

March 5th, sunny weather:

The pig farm owner asked me to cut grass. I was reluctant at first, but then I unexpectedly gained expertise in one-handed swords from cutting grass. So cool, I seem to be able to learn Swordsmanship now. I wonder who teaches it.

March 6th, overcast weather:

It’s raining outside, the first rain this spring. I wonder how my sister is doing. After asking around the village for a long time, I found out the militia captain teaches Basic Swordsmanship. Although it’s nothing fancy, I still learned it. My poor silver coins!

There were dozens of such entries, and the more Xiao Buli read, the stranger he found the diary to be. It seemed like it was recorded by a player just like him. How did it become a mission item?

March 12th, sunny weather:

Today is Sunday, as usual, I went to see my sister. There doesn’t seem to be any sign of improvement. Looks like I have to work even harder. I hope I can pass this month’s assessment smoothly.

Sister—with no sign of improvement? Xiao Buli keenly caught a clue and continued reading. The sister was mentioned several more times. It seemed like this Lu Jiang had a sick sister, and he became a professional gamer to treat her illness.

March 21st, overcast weather:

For the highest treatment and income, I’ve decided to go to the Black Wilderness tomorrow to farm the BOSS. Although it’s a bit difficult, the Black Wilderness is the easiest map and there should be no problem. To be honest, I’m quite apprehensive about going alone, but luckily my colleagues are really righteous. After hearing about my sister’s situation, they agreed to go with me.

I just hope nothing goes wrong.

There was nothing after that, just a blank space.

After reading the last entry, Xiao Buli had pieced together the events. If this diary wasn’t a game Easter egg intentionally created by the programmers, then obviously, this Lu Jiang, like him, was an employee of the company. He had somehow obtained this object that could record text and entered his gaming progress into it. Then, when he and his teammates went to fight the BOSS, they were wiped out.

Based on what happened to him becoming a zombie and the story Wu Tao had told Xiao Buli about the team wipeout, Xiao Buli felt that Lu Jiang was likely one of those new people, and the one who caused the team wipeout, because he was killed by a Corpse-driving Warlock, resulting in him turning into a zombie, with the diary becoming a mission item left on the zombie’s body.

But if that’s really the case, then how should he complete the mission? Is he supposed to take down that Corpse-driving Warlock to avenge him? But that Corpse-driving Warlock has already been wiped out by the White Tiger Group!

"You must save her!"

This voice just happened to come faintly from the earphones at that moment.

Save her? Save who? Is it to save his sister? But that’s something that happened in real life. Are they saying that by saving his sister in reality, he can complete the mission? But how could there possibly be such a connection between the game and reality?

Xiao Buli looked at the semi-transparent figure on the screen with confusion. It seemed to sense his gaze, and the continuously pacing semi-transparent figure stopped. The figure faced the screen seriously, its eyes earnest and imploring, "You must save her—please!" he said, almost begging.

For some reason, Xiao Buli felt that those words were truly spoken to him—the him outside of the screen.

"FUCK!" This is insane. He jumped up from the chair abruptly, nearly knocking the stool over in his panic. Looking again, the Shadow of Lu Jiang had returned to its original form.

The others looked at him strangely, not understanding his outburst. Xiao Buli waved his hand dismissively, "No good, I can’t hold it in anymore. You guys wait for me, I need to use the restroom. I’ll be right back."

He ran out as soon as he finished speaking.

Rushing into the restroom, he turned on the faucet. Xiao Buli fiercely splashed the cold water onto his face. It’s just a hallucination, just a hallucination. Otherwise, it’s just a coincidence. There’s no way there are such supernatural things in the world! He kept muttering to himself.

When he lifted his head, however, the mirror above the washstand reflected a figure standing behind him. It was Lu Jiang—the man with the hood, who was standing behind him with his hands in his pockets. Xiao Buli whirled around sharply, and indeed it was him.

The man with the hood—Lu Jiang, seemed a bit off. His body looked very strange, part of it seemed very real, while another part had a semi-transparent look, some of it looking as if it were fading away, like a 3D image with less-than-ideal effects. Only it appeared in a more horrifying manner.

Lu Jiang opened his mouth as if he wanted to say something, but all that came out of his throat was a series of indistinct whimpers. Xiao Buli felt all his hairs stand on end as he edged towards the door, and as he bolted from the restroom, he thought he heard the ghostly words of that spirit—"You must save her!"