Chapter 20: “Don’t hesitate, run quickly!”
Translated by Addis of Exiled Rebels Scanlations
Editor: Karai
[Wow! That was amazing!]
[Thanks to the four big shots, I thought I was going to be demoted.]
[Summoner’s moves could make it into the annual highlights, right? What’s his name again?]
[Momo. I feel like once he levels up in the future, FireworksAndLanterns might not be able to hold the top spot anymore.]
[I’m curious about what rewards the big shots will give out. Maybe there will be two rewards?]
The prosperity experience rain fell across the entire server, and all online players received an experience gift. The low-level players soared up by ten levels directly, while the high-level ones didn’t move much. After ScarletFruit was revived, his level broke through the 40 mark, even jumping straight to level 52. He looked around at his teammates, who were also leveling up one after another, excitedly exclaiming, “Can I finally leave the newbie area now?”
He looked towards Momo, intending to express his gratitude, but saw the person in front of him suddenly turn into smoke and disappear, turning their original four-person team into a three-person team.
“Where’s big brother?” ScarletFruit was stunned.
Yu Zhen said, “He might have disconnected.”
ClearWind added, “That’s so unfortunate. Just finished the fight and then disconnected. We’ll go out again when he comes back.”
[Haha, why did he disconnect after finishing the fight?]
[Is Celestial Horizon still experiencing disconnections?]
[Hmm, maybe it’s due to the anti-addiction system?]
[It’s fortunate that it didn’t happen during the fight, otherwise it would’ve been difficult to clear the level.]
[Ah, summoner is so powerful!!]
The Misty Sea map was a mess, with the central stone monument glowing with white light, continuously emitting spiritual energy. This matched the server-wide gift mentioned on the stone monument about the opening of the Gate of Apocalypse. The game system automatically loaded an update, and players across the server engaged in intense discussions. ScarletFruit looked around for Momo but couldn’t find any trace of him, indicating that he had indeed disconnected.
After waiting for about ten minutes, the three of them didn’t see the summoner come back online.
“What’s going on?” ClearWind was also puzzled. “Did he lose internet connection or power?”
ScarletFruit suggested, “It’s possible.”
[You have completed the Misty Sea challenge. The map will close in ten minutes. Please be informed.]
“The map is going to close.” ScarletFruit noted, “It’s only around eight o’clock now, maybe he went offline to eat.”
Yu Zhen glanced at the rewards in his inventory and noticed the flashing messages from the friend system. He opened the messages and found a continuously flashing voice message titled ‘HealsFor25000’. Upon listening to it, he asked, “What’s happening with the game officials?”
25000 replied, “The ten-level rollback punishment caused a big commotion on the forums. The game officials just announced it when you guys finished the level.”
Celestial Horizon’s holographic game was initially touted for being operated by ApexMind computation. The investments poured into it were unprecedented, with both the temporary operating company and research institute being top-tier within the Star Alliance. During the game’s public beta, an influx of players flooded in, making it a favorite among players from various backgrounds.
Two months after its launch, the number of players continued to grow. Celestial Horizon’s built-in systems were all free, running at the highest efficiency, with sufficient capital and gameplay options to satisfy all player needs. It was nearly unmatched in any aspect compared to other holographic games, capturing the hearts of players from all fields.
During the public beta, many players disregarded the initially advertised intelligent confrontation, thinking that the so-called intelligence referred to the game’s AI level. It was only when the conditions for server-wide punishment were revealed that they realized the true extent of the game’s complexity.
“The announcement provided a simple explanation of ‘the Apocalypse’ mission, saying it’s just the beginning,” 25000 continued. “But server-wide punishments like this are rare. It means that in the future, similar series of missions like ‘the Apocalypse’ will trigger server-wide punishments. In return, participating players can receive extremely rich rewards, and all players on the server will receive gifts… It sounds good in theory, with many supporters, but also many critics. Personally, I think a game that remains unchanged is boring, and only Celestial Horizon dares to play like this.”
Yu Zhen fell silent for a moment after hearing this. “It’s indeed preparing, mentally preparing the players. Shared rewards and punishments across the server, openly stated quest conditions… Some players will take risks, while others will remain conservative. By taking this step, ApexMind is undoubtedly binding all players together.”
25000 took a sharp breath. “Is it that extreme?”
“Not an exaggeration,” Yu Zhen counted all the rewards. “From beginning to end, it has been provoking all players, using Celestial Horizon as a representative of an intelligent environment vs. players.”
“Setting that aside for now, how did you even get involved with this summoner?” 25000 asked. “Now, many people in the group are asking who this summoner is. His last 2% of moves were truly amazing; even FireworksAndLanterns is starting to worry about himself, hahaha.”
Yu Zhen saw the ID dimly lit in his friends list and said, “Is that so?”
Looking at Momo’s ID, he had a bad feeling.
Over the next few days, Yu Zhen didn’t see Momo’s ID come online at all. Despite many discussions on the forums, the summoner remained silent, and all information about him seemed to disappear into thin air, as if he were just a flash in the pan.
—
Inside Capital medical station, several people stood in front of the comprehensive ward, watching Su Mo undergoing examination. Just last night, the robot Lele directly sent a distress signal to the medical station. A bustling ambulance arrived at the entrance of the residential area, startling the other elderly residents in the family area.
When Su Mo arrived at the hospital, he wasn’t completely unconscious yet, but he was pale, sweating profusely, and looked unwell. After arriving, he was immediately taken to the medical room for examination and treatment. It took three hours before he came out.
Zhang Qi hurriedly rushed to the hospital upon hearing that Su Mo had an accident while playing a game. He dropped everything and came over, asking, “What happened? Is there a problem with the holographic equipment?”
Grandpa Zhang slapped Zhang Qi on the head. “You encouraged Xiao Mo to play games, look at what happened!”
Zhang Qi rubbed his head. “I bought the holographic equipment back then, and you all agreed, didn’t you?”
He didn’t expect such a thing to happen. Logically, there shouldn’t have been any problems with the equipment.
Dr. Wu came out of the medical room. “Well, from the current situation, we suggest observation in the hospital for some time. Some of his hormones haven’t returned to normal levels yet.”
Zhang Qi was terrified. He hadn’t been home for several years, and when he finally returned, such a big incident happened. “Doctor, what’s the cause of his illness? Is it because of the holographic equipment?”
“It’s related to the game to some extent, but not significantly,” Dr. Wu explained when he noticed Zhang Qi looked unfamiliar. “Are you his friend? Su Mo’s physical condition has been fluctuating over the years. During the examination, we found that his brain cells were more active than usual, which is the main reason for his sweating and headaches. Our holographic equipment is connected to the medical system. After knowing the identification number, we accessed some of his body data through proper channels. There’s no problem with the holographic equipment itself, but this is Su Mo’s first exposure to a holographic game,” Dr. Wu explained. “This situation mainly occurs in children under five years old who are exposed to holographic equipment for the first time. The brain cortex is active, hormones fluctuate, and the body exhibits a series of stress responses.”
“In simple terms, his body reacted involuntarily,” Dr. Wu said. “Under normal circumstances, this stress is mild and can be fully adapted to after adjustments. But Su Mo has an F-class physique, so this situation is magnified.”
In short, Su Mo needed to stay in the hospital for a few days until his body data returned to normal before he could be discharged.
Su Mo sat in a wheelchair, pushed by Lele, and went out of the room with Dr. Wu to the hospitalization area of the medical station. On the way, when Dr. Wu mentioned precautions, Su Mo remained indifferent. He had already budgeted for his situation in his mind. Frankly, being able to hold on until finishing the boss battle before disconnecting was beyond his expectations.
There weren’t many patients in the hospitalization area. Su Mo’s room was the only one lit on the floor. The electronic assistants in the medical station were very familiar with Su Mo. In the earlier years, Su Mo stayed in the hospital once a month, but in recent years, unless there were experimental accidents, he rarely visited the medical station. Several elderly people in the community who were familiar with Su Mo came to see him. When everyone else left, only him and Lele were left in the ward.
Lele’s screen showed a tearful expression as he accompanied Su Mo to play electronic chess, feeling uncomfortable. “You promised me you wouldn’t stay up late.”
Su Mo felt a bit wronged. “I didn’t stay up late this time.”
Lele thought carefully and realized he misspoke. He continued playing chess in silence.
The night was relatively quiet, contrasting with Su Mo’s daily gaming routine. For a moment, he seemed a bit slow to respond. Even though he hadn’t been playing the game for long, he seemed to prefer the freedom and vastness of that world.
Seeing Su Mo hesitate for a while without making a move, Lele hurriedly urged, “Su Mo!”
“Coming,” Su Mo responded without much thought and made a move. Chess seemed to have become a bit dull. “Lele, holographic games are really interesting.”
Lele asked, “Isn’t your head hurting anymore?”
“It is,” Su Mo smiled. “But the game is really fun. I have to work hard to live longer, or else I won’t have much time to play.”
Lele was stunned for a moment, then cheered, “Long live Su Mo!”
Su Mo replied, “Of course.”
Outside the ward, Dr. Wu quietly closed the door without disturbing them. He knew how difficult it was for Su Mo to talk freely about life inside the ward. Yet, despite everything, the boy still faced life optimistically.
After two days in the hospital, Zhang Qi came to see Su Mo again, bringing along a pile of gifts. Afterwards, he went to Dr. Wu’s office.
Dr. Wu was a bit surprised to hear Zhang Qi’s question. “So, you don’t agree with that child playing games?”
“Actually, I understand. Ultimately, it’s because he got too excited playing games, leading to a stress response. I didn’t anticipate this when I gave him the holographic equipment. It’s hardest to control emotions during gaming,” Zhang Qi sighed. “Is his condition appropriate? We’re very worried.”
“Actually, you should ask the child’s opinion more. He’s an adult now and understands his condition. He’s also quite determined,” Dr. Wu said simply. “For patients like him with an F-class physique, under normal circumstances, we suggest reducing various exposures. But Su Mo is different from ordinary F-class patients. This is related to his own situation. His various data are better than other patients, and some aspects are even stronger than E-class. This situation is quite rare. His mentor also asked about this issue several times during his hospitalizations, whether this child is suitable for research. After discussing the data comprehensively, we agreed,” Dr. Wu pulled up some public data for Zhang Qi to compare. “On the left are ordinary F-class patients, and on the right is Su Mo. You can see that his condition has been gradually improving over the years.”
Zhang Qi was somewhat surprised. “But if there are further problems…”
“Our research suggests that appropriate physical stimulation is necessary for patients with an F-class physique. Doing research and playing games are both good ways to promote the physical and mental health development of patients. Su Mo is very intelligent. He knows how to make choices and restrain himself. Excessive restriction isn’t a good thing. It’s better to give him some space to adjust on his own,” Dr. Wu gave his suggestion and then added, “Of course, playing games is good, but it’s better not to stay up late like this again. He’s just turned 18, so you need to supervise him together.”
On the fourth day of hospitalization, Su Mo’s examination results came out, showing that everything had returned to normal.
Zhang Qi came to pick up Su Mo from the hospital. Su Mo had been to the hospital many times and was used to going alone. Seeing Zhang Qi making such a fuss, he couldn’t help but say, “Qi-ge, you really don’t need to come.”
Zhang Qi wouldn’t take no for an answer. “There’s no need for these polite words now. Let’s have a meal together before I take you home.”
During the meal, Zhang Qi brought up the topic of the game. “During your hospitalization, I sent your loader to Celestial Horizon for maintenance. The original medical components were not comprehensive enough. This time, based on Dr. Wu’s advice, several functions have been added to your loader. Oh, and this time, no more staying up late.”
Su Mo paused at his words.
“You listening?” Zhang Qi asked.
Su Mo snapped out of his thoughts and smiled. “I know, thank you, Qi-ge.”
Returning to the community, Su Mo couldn’t avoid the concern of various elders. By the time he got home, it was already past three in the afternoon. Su Mo went to the lab to check the data he hadn’t seen in a few days, then caught up on various messages and friends’ concerns accumulated over the past few days. When he finally had time to go online, it was already the next morning. After getting up in the morning for some exercise, he returned to have breakfast and take medicine under Lele’s watchful eye. Only after the little robot nodded in satisfaction was he allowed to go online.
Lele said, “You have to take a break after playing for two hours!”
Su Mo readily agreed, “Mm-hmm.”
After not playing the game for a few days, there had been earth-shattering changes in the game world.
When Su Mo logged in, he wasn’t in the Misty Sea map anymore but in a place he had never seen before—a map called Sunset City, accessible after reaching level 40. Outside the city, the land was sparse, somewhat desolate, with sand swirling in the wind. In the distance, he could see the flags of taverns. Other than that, there were no other figures in sight, making it unusually quiet.
Before logging off that day, the experience rain had boosted his level to over 50, and being the one to finally slay the Misty Sea Monster, he alone absorbed its experience, seemingly without doing much, and his level had already reached 58. He checked his friends list; it was still early, and the others hadn’t logged in yet.
Now he finally had time to check the rewards he had obtained. In total, there were three rewards in his inventory, the most eye-catching being the slightly greenish spirit pet egg.
[Mysterious Spirit Pet Egg: Chance to obtain when killing the Misty Sea Monster, quest-type spirit pet egg, hatching method needs to be explored on your own.]
Su Mo realized for the first time that spirits could exist in egg form, not just caught directly, “Customer service, what’s the deal with this spirit pet egg?”
The customer service responded, “Dear, the gameplay of spirit pet eggs needs to be explored on your own.”
Su Mo paused, “Can I know what species this is? Does it need manual incubation or is there a special method?”
He looked at it for a while, but the surface of the egg had no regular patterns, and he couldn’t tell what species of egg it was… Was it some kind of oviparous creature?
Customer service replied, “Dear, you can try it out. This is the Global fantasy world, where anything is possible.”
After observing for a while and not knowing how to deal with the egg, he asked the customer service for more detailed information, but they didn’t provide any. He planned to ask others later in the evening.
The Misty Sea Cave counted as a quest. After clearing it, he received 30 permanent attribute points and [Special Quest of the Misty Sea] in addition to the participation reward for the Apocalypse’s task, [Apocalypse Gate Treasure Chest].
[Congratulations on obtaining the rare material [Heavenly Cloud Fabric] x1]
[Congratulations on obtaining the quest weapon [Floating Cloud Lantern] x1]
“Weapon?” Su Mo took out the Floating Cloud Lantern.
The quest reward from the Misty Sea was a summoning-type quest weapon, a weapon that can be equipped at level 50, precious and gold-colored. Most importantly, this weapon turned out to be upgradeable—a rarity in Celestial Horizon’s weapon system. The weapon was a staff-like item, with a length adorned with auspicious cloud patterns, and the head resembling a flowing cloud lantern. The entire staff was black and white, with intricate gold patterns, vastly superior in craftsmanship compared to manually crafted weapons.
Su Mo checked the materials required for upgrading the Floating Cloud Lantern and then looked them up on the trading platform. Even the cheapest materials cost 1000 gold.
“…”
While the basic stats of upgradeable weapons were higher than other weapons, the materials needed for upgrades were either extremely difficult to obtain or exorbitantly expensive. He also checked the Heavenly Cloud Fabric. Information provided by customer service indicated that it was an advanced material used to synthesize level 80 gold-tier armor, non-tradeable, and part of the newly updated material system in Celestial Horizon.
He decided to postpone upgrading the weapon for now. He had leveled up too quickly, leaving many Sect skills behind. He needed to spend his money wisely.
At this moment, a green online notification flashed, followed by a friend’s team invitation from [ScarletFruit14].
Su Mo hesitated for a moment before agreeing to join the team. ScarletFruit’s voice immediately came through the voice channel, “Bro!!! Why did you just come online? I thought you quit the game!”
“I had some things to take care of these past few days,” Su Mo replied without elaborating, quickly checking ScarletFruit14’s level. “Aren’t you already level 60?”
ScarletFruit couldn’t help but express his excitement, “Yeah! Thanks to completing the quest, I was able to escape the grind.”
Su Mo closed his backpack, intending to teleport back to the Sect headquarters to learn skills. “Do you need something from me? Or have you been ambushed again?”
“I’m not that unlucky. But these past few days, the game feels different without you…” ScarletFruit was saying when he suddenly remembered something. “Wait, where are you right now?”
Su Mo casually answered, “Sunset City.”
“Inside or outside the city?” ScarletFruit asked with a serious tone.
Su Mo was slightly puzzled but still replied, “Outside the city.”
ScarletFruit’s tone became grave, “Bro, as a comrade-in-arms who fought together, I’m giving you sincere advice.”
Su Mo was intrigued, “?”
“Don’t hesitate, run away as fast as you can!”
Before Su Mo could fully comprehend the situation, ScarletFruit’s voice in the team voice channel was interrupted. Su Mo suddenly felt a chill, and before he could react, sharp blades flashed before his eyes. He couldn’t see the assailant, but a single strike took away half of his health.
Invisible and deadly; it was an assassin.
