Chapter 1

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio

Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

It had rained for an entire day and night. A hand stuck out from the mass grave outside the barracks.

The night patrol soldier was so frightened that he threw his lantern aside and scrambled back to the barracks to report this to the Squad Leader.

The Squad Leader walked out with the soldier to check out the situation with his saber and a lantern in hand.

Both of them looked over and saw a figure sitting quietly in the pile of dead bodies through the heavy, sloshing rain.

The Squad Leader used the lantern to illuminate the figure. It was a soldier wearing leather armor and leaning against a pile of skulls with his back facing the light.

The Squad Leader gripped his saber tightly and asked in a low voice, “Who are you?”

The reply was a little muffled through the rain. “I’m a soldier from the Vanguard Battalion. I’m severely injured and I can’t move anymore.”

He couldn’t move anymore?

The Squad Leader’s expression relaxed. He carried his saber and went to the front as he said, “Oh, you’re one of our brothers from the Vanguard Battalion. Come, let me help you up.”

“Thank you.”

“You’re welcome. Go to hell.”

The saber cut through the rain and gave off a cold flash of light as it swung toward that soldier’s neck.

The Squad Leader swung his blade with no mercy, and he had timed it accurately. The soldier’s head was lopped off with one swing and rolled further into the grave.

One swing settled this matter!

The Squad Leader smiled maliciously as he pulled his arm back. Then, his expression suddenly changed. “What the…”

A figure suddenly jumped up from beneath that decapitated soldier’s corpse, and the cold glint in his hands passed through the Squad Leader’s arm.

The arm, along with the saber it was holding, was cut off and sent flying. Blood instantly sprayed from the wound and disappeared with the raging wind and rain.

The terrible pain hit him, and there was a look of disbelief on the Squad Leader’s face as he saw a figure leap up high.

A short knife was right in front of his eyes.

Then, the short knife was stabbed into his eyes.

The tremendous pain only lasted for a moment before everything went dark.

After a few moments…

The young man pulled the short knife out from the Squad Leader’s eyes.

The Squad Leader’s dead body fell backward into the mud.

The young man held onto the short knife and quietly stood where he was.

The night rain continued to beat down, and it washed off the mud on the young man’s face to reveal a pair of bright eyes.

Suddenly, the young man’s eyes became sharp.

The stomach of the Squad Leader’s body at his feet swelled up violently, and there was an eerie rumbling sound coming from inside it.

The young man took a deep breath, held his knife with both hands, and used all his strength to stab it into the Squad Leader’s stomach.

An inhuman shriek could be heard as the Squad Leader’s stomach released a black mist. The skin on the stomach kept heaving up and down unsteadily as if something was struggling inside with all its might.

With a ripping sound, the Squad Leader’s stomach burst open, and a blackened, dry, and skinny claw came out.

Before this terrifying claw could do anything, the young man held the handle of his knife with both hands and used all his strength to twist it.

“Die!”

The young man spat out this one word.

The corpse that had been wriggling wildly suddenly froze. The demonic-looking claw also slowly fell and no longer moved.

Everything fell silent once more.

The stench of black blood slowly started seeping out from beneath the Squad Leader’s corpse.

The young man finally breathed a small sigh of relief when he saw the black blood and took some effort to pull his short knife out.

He looked down at the creepy looking corpse on the ground and started murmuring to himself.

“This is such a strange scene. I wonder what the mission reward will be.”

The young man looked forward to this and called out, “System!”

One breath. Two breaths. Three breaths.

Time slowly passed, but nothing happened.

In the dark night, he heard nothing else but the sound of the wind blowing and the rain falling.

The young man tilted his head in surprise and looked at what was around him. Behind him was the mass grave, beneath his feet was that demon corpse, and not far ahead of him was a soldier who had collapsed to the ground in fright, and even his lips were trembling.

“That’s strange.”

The young man was puzzled. “Could it be that I haven’t completed the mission?”

The system remained silent, which normally meant that the mission wasn’t completed.

The young man looked at the frightened soldier in front of him and suddenly felt that he had missed something.

After thinking about it for a while, he tried hard to take a step forward but nearly ended up falling into the mud instead.

Earlier, he had focused all his energy into killing that demon off and didn’t feel too much. But now that he had calmed down, he realized that there was pain all over his body, and the pain was killing him.

His legs felt like they were carrying lead weights. Every step he took required all the strength in his body.

There was something very wrong.

When the apocalypse had been about to fall on them, he had used all his strength to kill the Ultimate Demon Lord. But instead of getting out of the game, he sustained all his injuries and came to this strange place.

What place was this?

The young man frowned and slowly staggered his way to the frightened soldier and saluted him.

“Gu Qingshan, reporting from the Valiant Cavalry Battalion.”

“You… you… you killed the senior officer!” stammered the soldier.

“He wasn’t human,” replied Gu Qingshan as he looked the soldier up and down.

This soldier was wearing an ancient sort of leather armor, and this sort of armor didn’t even have any Spirit-Powered Devices. Even the least-respected troop in the army wouldn’t wear such an outdated thing.

Gu Qingshan looked back at himself to find that he was wearing the same type of outdated armor as well. All those devices and weapons he used to have had all vanished into thin air.

This was really strange…

The soldier took a quick glance at the mass grave. The Squad Leader’s strange corpse was still lying in the mud without moving at all.

The soldier asked a little suspiciously, “But… but when you killed him. How did you know he wasn’t human?”

Gu Qingshan shrugged and said, “I was just being cautious, but he made the first move.”

Gu Qingshan walked back and pulled the Squad Leader’s body back to where the soldier was so that he could have a good look.

“See, this is a Skinning Blood Demon.”

Gu Qingshan used the short knife to open up the Squad Leader’s stomach to reveal a completely blackened creature with vertical eyes and a vicious looking face.

When he saw this strange corpse for himself, the soldier was in greater shock.

When he thought about how his fellow soldiers had mysteriously died for no reason over the past few days, he felt a chill in his heart, but he also finally started feeling grateful toward the young man.

The soldier calmed his heart down and asked, “Your name is Gu Qingshan?”

“That’s right.”

“From the Valiant Cavalry Battalion?”

“That’s right.”

“Where’s your waist tag?”

Gu Qingshan pulled out his waist tag and took a look at it himself before throwing it to the soldier for inspection.

This waist tag was heavier than he’d imagined it to be.

Current forging technology could make identity waist tags as light as a piece of paper, but for some reason, the waist tag he’d just taken out was as heavy as a steel weight.

The questions in the young man’s heart continued to pile up.

The soldier caught the waist tag and looked at it carefully. It did have the five words “Gu Qingshan, Valiant Cavalry Battalion” on it, and the surface of the waist tag was surrounded by a glow that seemed alive.

This waist tag was a genuine one.

The soldier exhaled deeply. The tension on his face faded and was replaced with fatigue. “Finally, a human who’s still alive. Hurry inside. It’s no good to stay outside for too long. Come with me to the barracks.”

This was the correct reaction. Gu Qingshan nodded slightly and replied, “Okay.”

The soldier threw the waist tag back to Gu Qingshan and turned to walk toward the barracks.

Gu Qingshan caught the waist tag and looked at it carefully again.

This waist tag wasn’t just heavy. The entire thing was actually made from bronze, and the few words on it had been carved rather crudely. It was ugly and clumsy, and the style was so outdated.

The style was so outdated…

Gu Qingshan felt a light flash through his heart, and there was an indescribable fear that filled it.

He suddenly lifted his head and fixed his gaze on the soldier in front of him.

Ancient leather armor.

The answer was so incredulous that Gu Qingshan couldn’t help but yell out, “Bro, what year is it?”

The soldier turned and looked at him strangely. “It’s Cheng Ping 681 now.”

Gu Qingshan was completely stunned.

Suddenly, a rush of data poured down in a mass of blue light like a huge wave, flashing across Gu Qingshan’s eyes.

HHOOONNGG…

An icy, robotic voice suddenly rang out.

“The year is confirmed to be the last year of Cheng Ping.”

“Time Stream is stable. Confirmed to have left Space-time Turbulence.”

“Analysis: Successfully escaped apocalypse.”

“Identity reset successful. Current identity: Soldier from Valiant Cavalry Battalion, Human Army Vanguard.”

The system was finally activated, but there was no joy in Gu Qingshan’s heart. He only felt that everything he was seeing was difficult to believe.

How could it be the last year of Cheng Ping? The game hadn’t even started yet!

This was a time that was just part of the game’s background and history, and the humans of the real world hadn’t officially entered this horrific game realm yet.

Players would only enter the game one year later.

Had he returned to a time before the game started?

What about the real world? Had he also gone back in time there?

Gu Qingshan’s heart tightened, and he started looking around him.

The soldier in front of him had walked quite a distance ahead and had passed through the main gate of the barracks.

The Concealment Magic Formation on the barrack gate occasionally gave off a Spirit-filled glow.

He looked beyond the barracks and could roughly make out a huge shape in the dark and distant empty plains, but it disappeared in the heavy rain.

Gu Qingshan slowly lifted his arm and bit down hard on it.

A row of teeth marks appeared on his arm, and the part that his teeth had sunk in further was beginning to bleed.

It hurt!

This wasn’t a dream!

Gu Qingshan stood in the heavy rain without moving as if he was a statue. He let the icy, cold rain fall from the sky and drench his body.