1 Countdown to the Game's Shutdown

Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios

Great Xia.

Night time.

At the entrance of Jianghai University.

In a ten-meter-square security post, a hanging bulb flickered slightly. The light was unstable and covered in dust. It looked old. The surrounding piles of empty instant noodle packets and empty cola cans revealed their owner's daily life. There was also an old-fashioned desktop computer on the table.

"You need to swipe your card to enter and leave the school," Qin Mu said to the students. As a security guard of Jianghai University, he naturally had to pay more attention to this.

"I forgot my school card in the dormitory. Can you make an exception?" A boy frowned.

"No," Qin Mu said indifferently.

"It's not like I don't have one. Can't you…" The boy was about to flare up.

"Jiang Cheng… try to understand. Go back and get it. We'll wait for you." A female voice advised.

The young security guard glanced from the corner of his eye and exclaimed internally, 'What a beautiful lady.'

She was a beauty with a cold temperament, especially the alluring eyes under her long eyelashes. Standing in the middle of the few of them with an extremely domineering aura, it seemed that she was the backbone of the group.

The black silk dress made Qin Mu extremely interested, but the coldness in the other party's eyes was obvious. The words 'don't approach me' were basically written on her face.

Qin Mu shook his head and didn't ask for trouble. They were not people of the same status.

"Old Wang, help me take care of this."

"Alright!"

Thus, he returned to the security post.

As usual, he sat at the table and clicked on the dazzling icon on the screen with his mouse. Then, he put on a special helmet.

A beautiful animation was being shown. After the word 'TIMI' flashed past, three words appeared: 'National Cultivation World'.

His consciousness was completely immersed in the game.

….

Peak of the Six Realms Mountain.

Eighteen ancient immortal beasts acted as mountain guardians. Auspicious auras soared into the sky as divine dragons rode the clouds. Above them was a huge palace.

Immortal Emperor Hall.

"Greetings, Immortal Emperor."

These were all beautiful women. All of them were extremely captivating and had hot figures. Their cultivation levels were extremely high at the Immortal Realm.

Qin Mu stood at the entrance of the palace and looked at the actions of the mortal world. He lazily acknowledged them. These were all Holy Daughters and talented women sent here from the various Holy Lands. They were all quite good-looking, so he used them as maids.

With a flash, he crossed the vast mountains and seas and arrived in the fields. His clothes were tidy and his feet tapped on the ground like a dragonfly touching the water.

Looking at the sweating farmers working in front of him, he was already used to such a sight. In their eyes, he did not seem to exist. A bitter smile appeared on his lips.

These were all NPCs in the game. They did not have the ability to think. When he encountered a character with a mission, he could open the dialogue box and chat. Even if it was just a few words, it was a line that the system had long prepared…

A cool breeze blew past and the rice ears collapsed. Immediately, the stones on the ground trembled slightly as horse hooves came from afar.

A group of ferocious bandits attacked from afar.

"Hurry up and hand over the treasures in your hands, or you will die without a grave!"

The leader of the bandits shouted. After saying that, he fell silent and waited for the players' reaction.

Qin Mu didn't even glance at them. He had an impression that this was a trial and opportunity. As long as he defeated these bandits, he could obtain the villagers' reward.

He exhaled. White smoke rose and the sky flashed. Black light appeared and a bolt of Nine Heavens Divine Lightning as thick as three people instantly descended from the sky. The bandit in front of him was directly blasted into pieces.

In just a short breath of time, a ten-thousand-meter pit was smashed into the ground. Trillions of living beings were directly annihilated. This was the power of the divine lightning.

However, in the next second, time seemed to have reversed. Data streams and black starlight flickered. Everything reset and returned to how it was before. The farmers still worked as usual.

"I have to thank you for your help. Hero, please accept our gift."

[Completed the mission and obtained the gratitude of the villagers. Reward: 10 iron ores.]

"Hero, may I know your name?"

A woman walked out from the villagers. Her hair was disheveled and her face was covered in dirt. However, looking at her fair hands, one could tell that she was beautiful.

Qin Mu looked at the woman and recalled.

She was the princess of the neighboring empire. Because she was being hunted down by her enemies, she had fled here. It was considered a hidden opportunity to unlock this mission. As long as he easily and cleanly killed the bandits, it would be triggered. She would find someone to help her take revenge and then kill her way back to the empire to regain power. It was a long storyline. Back then, when he had gone through this mission five times, he had triggered this hidden storyline.

Qin Mu put away his thoughts and shook his head. He didn't want to think about it anymore. He didn't care about these rewards. So what if it was the empire? The current him could easily destroy the Divine Kingdom. He was just revisiting an old place.

"There's no need. Good luck to you. I don't want to be stabbed by you again. So what if I help you fight for the throne? In the end, I'll still be attacked by you. It's very unpleasant." With that said, Qin Mu flew away with the wind and left, leaving only the NPCs behind.

Looking at the departing Qin Mu, a strange light appeared in the woman's eyes.

Qin Mu arrived in the sky and looked at the countdown at the center of the world.

[00:05:36]

Qin Mu took a deep breath and said, "It'll be shut down in five minutes. Sigh, this game has given me so much joy and warmth. What a pity…"

The game that Qin Mu was playing was an extremely popular game from ten years ago—National Cultivation World.

This game used the latest VR projection and holographic consciousness immersion technology. It was extremely close to restoring the ancient Immortal Dao culture. It successfully exported the culture to the world and created a popular trend.

No matter which country it was, everyone played this game. It was mainly because the requirements for this game were not high. With low specifications, even ordinary computers could run it.

This naturally included Qin Mu from ten years ago.

However, this game had already been on the verge of bankruptcy five years ago. The parent company's capital chain had already broken and could no longer be maintained so one played this game anymore.

Five years ago, it had already closed all the global servers except for Great Xia.

The current server no longer had a sales channel in the market, so once a player deleted the game, they could not log in again.

Qin Mu was now the last player in this game and had not seen anyone else for a long time. How long had it been? Thinking back carefully, it had been a few years. In any case, he was the only player in this world.

On the far right floated the game friend list. The words in the dialog box were also from three years ago. There were records inside. It was a player called "Fierce Emperor of the Heavenly Gang". He was the last player Qin Mu communicated with.

Qin Mu still remembered the scene back then.

"I'll leave the equipment to you. I can't continue playing this game anymore. I have to go and deal with life. Goodbye and see you if fate allows us to." With that said, the portrait quickly darkened.

"We can't go back to that time anymore."

Qin Mu sighed. Even if his strength reached the first place on the entire board, what was the use?

There was a golden list in the upper right corner of his portrait. The first was a player called Immortal Emperor Qin Ming.

This person was himself.

This was the Heavenly Dao Golden Ranking Board. It was arranged by the system. It ranked the background force of cultivators, cultivation potential, Heavenly Dao providence, and other values.

Apart from that, there was also the Force Ranking, the Immortal Artifact Ranking, the Divine Pet Ranking, and the Dao Companion Ranking. The first on each ranking and the owner of the golden name were all one person. That was him, Immortal Emperor Qin Ming.

Looking at the mountain of treasures and divine artifacts in his bag, he sighed. Now that he was the only one left in the game, these treasures were meaningless.

[00:00:10]

[Countdown to shutdown. 10, 9, 8…]

"Sigh, I should just obediently live life." He sighed and finally clicked the exit button.

He took one last look at this world and left the game.

[3, 2, 1…]

[Server has been closed and the game has been materialized. Ten seconds left.]

[10…]

As Qin Mu's consciousness returned to reality, the darkness in front of him made him at a loss. He looked up and discovered that the light had disappeared.

"Sigh, it's time to change the light bulb."

"Gulp…"

His stomach protested.

Qin Mu sighed as he looked away from the flickering screen.

In the game, he was the high and mighty Nine Heavens Immortal Emperor. He looked down on all living beings and destroyed an empire in one go. However, in reality, he was only a security guard working from nine to five.

"I need to hurry up and eat. I still have to be on duty later." Qin Mu tore open a bag of instant noodles and took out a metal bowl to put the noodles in. He also ate the tiny pieces left in the packet.

[3, 2, 1, materializing the game…]

"Game materialization? What the heck?" Qin Mu muttered as he placed the seasoning packet and vegetable packet into the bowl in an orderly manner. Then, he raised the kettle and poured hot water in, confused.

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