1 It Has Been Arranged

"Year 3401 of the Magic Calendar, Month of Rain, Day 26, Night…"

"Heavenly Flame was burning the city. The ground shook. It is as though doomsday had arrived…"

"The rings faded, the spiritual veins withered, and the nine floating cities returned to earth. The light of magic dimmed…"

"— Imperial History Prelude: Shattering Day."

...…

Xia Yuan opened his eyes.

In front of him lay a familiar mirror, but the person reflected in the mirror looked young and unfamiliar.

He had a good set of facial features, and his light black hair was slightly longer. His pale skin shone under the flickering candlelight, and his overall temperament seemed a little peculiar.

He raised his hand in disbelief and pressed it on his face while trembling slightly. Xia Yuan looked at the figure in the mirror who reflected his actions and took a deep breath.

Boom! Boom!

A loud explosion sounded outside the window, making the dazed Xia Yuan jerk.

He remembered that on this particular night, the thunderstorm had caused a short circuit. He had no choice but to light a white candle for himself.

In his memory, three days later—or more accurately, two days, 20 hours, and 16 minutes later—would be when the game that had been ahead of its time: "Mystical Era" would release its first trailer.

That would be when he began to announce his arrival to the entire society.

These mainstream online games were still stuck in the VR era. An unbelievable 98.25% immersion game was a huge blow to the entire gaming world.

The start of the beta test was a week after the trailer was released, which meant that it would start in ten days.

After the various studios confirmed that the promotions were not exaggerated but were actually true,

he decisively started to cancel all other gaming businesses and switched to < Mystical Era >.

When the 15-day beta test ended, ordinary players who could no longer bear the hype swarmed in. In an instant, the price of resources in the game soared. Countless people relied on this game and became rich overnight.

Half a month after The Mystical Era officially opened, the daily traffic of all the other games dropped to almost zero.

Numerous game companies' bosses had lost hair from the stress, and the wig industry had a small wave of popularity.

It was rumored that when 'Mystical Era' was released, there was a big game company boss who was unwilling to give up, going to his chief engineer of research and development department'.

He hoped that within three months, he could crack the technology behind the game helmets and gaming pods of The Mystical Era and develop similar equipment.

The chief engineer told him on the spot, in tactful and polite words, that he was dreaming.

If someone could crack the mechanism of that strange helmet within a year, he would chop off his own balls and gift it to that person to kick!

After the research and development department was met with a wall, the boss, who still had some hope, went to find his game engineer.

However, when he entered the personal office of the chief developer of games, he was shocked to discover that this guy was actually slacking off and playing Mystical Era during work!

Of course, the gaming companies' bosses would not sit back and do nothing. They hired some experts and professors to boast that the game was too realistic and might cause serious cognitive impairment to players.

Using this as an excuse, families would be able to make a move and completely ban this game.

However, for some unknown reason, these 'experts' quickly gave up. They did not influence the release of Mystical Era at all.

...…

Xia Yuan let out a long breath and stored his messy memories. He patted his face lightly and started thinking quickly.

Since he had been reborn to the time when "Mystical Era" had yet to release its trailer, he had to think of a way to get a place in the beta testing of "Mystical Era".

Although the game would be reset after the end of the beta testing, only by obtaining the qualifications to participate in the beta testing would one be given priority to purchase the first-generation game pods that was limited to the world.

There were only 5,000 game capsules on Xia Yuan's continent.

Apart from the 500 pre-allocated slots for the closed beta players, the remaining 4,500 were not available to ordinary people. They were even reserved before they entered the market.

The biggest difference between the first-generation gaming helmet and the gaming capsule was their time limits.

Considering that players needed to eat and go to the toilet, the helmet could only be online for 16 hours a day.

With the capsule providing nourishment through a nutrient solution, players could stay online for 18 hours. This resulted in the game cabin players having one-eighth more time than the helmet players!

For pro players, this was the difference between heaven and earth. Everyone's helmet was also tied to their identity, changing the equipment to avoid restrictions was not possible.

Other than that, there was also the nutrient solution that was compatible with the first-generation gaming capsule. It was also good stuff, but it was only sold to gamers who owned gaming capsules. The supply stopped after a month of sales. In the future, the price increase would be even more ridiculous than a house!

Before he was sent back in time, Xia Yuan was just an ordinary solo player and his family background was not considered rich.

As a matter of course, he did not get a place in the closed beta test. He did not buy the first-generation gaming capsule, nor did he stock up on the first-generation nutrient serum. All the opportunities to make money were missed by him.

When he was fighting the Boss, he didn't realize that his dodging skills were so good!

Although his skills and awareness were considered high-end, due to the time constraints of the gaming helmets, there was still a gap between him and the users of the first tier of gaming cabins.

This directly reflected in his income, causing him to still be cash-strapped when the low-priced and unlimited second-generation game cabins and nutrition liquids were released a month later.

It was not until the third month after the opening of the game server did he manage to gather what he needed. However, by then, his level was already far from the first tier players.

Hence, he decided to let himself go. He was no longer obsessed with leveling up and increasing his strength. Instead, he traveled back and forth between the various famous libraries on the continent.

He began to study the documents that recorded "background stories" and tried to find clues related to treasures, hidden missions, hidden occupations, etc.

Such players were collectively known as Plot Players, and there were quite a number of them.

Xia Yuan's logical analysis ability, insight, and luck were all pretty good. In the end, through the meticulous gathering of informations, he dug out several hidden missions and relics. He got quite a few good things and returned to the first tier of players.

This made him quite famous among the Plot Players, and people gave him the nickname "Lucky Silver Hand".

During this process, he had incidentally unlocked a hidden title: [Beginner Ruins Scholar]. When trading unidentified relics, the price could be corrected by 5%.

From then on, the door to a new world was opened to him. The incomparably real background story of "Mystical Era" fascinated him, and he even treated the exploration of ancient mysteries as a main quest.

Crack—Rumble—

Another loud explosion echoed through the sky and brought his thoughts back to reality.

"There are still ten days before the start of the closed beta test. That should be enough…"

He temporarily put down his thoughts and looked at the young version of himself in the mirror. He could not help but smile.

For a moment, he was filled with lofty sentiments. He could not help but raise his chin slightly, put his left hand behind his back, and spoke with great emotion.

"A valiant and heroic bearing that illuminates the sun and moon, hidden in the womb of the Sutra. He is like jade, the young master is peerless—"

Crack! Rumble!

As if responding to his words, a huge thunder resounded through the sky.

Amidst the thunder, the silent burning candle suddenly swayed. The shadows in the room squirmed slightly as though they had obtained life.

Xia Yuan did not notice the slight change in the candle flame, but when he stared at the reflection in the mirror, he could not help but get excited. He raised his right hand gently, and his lips slowly opened and closed.

Come to think of it, it had been a long time since he had done that.

The rain outside the window became even heavier. Large drops of rain pattered against the glass. Piercing lightning continuously split the dark night sky, and the loud sounds of thunder could be heard incessantly.

A strange scene appeared in the dark room—

Under the flickering candlelight, a young man seemed to be possessed as he kept making strange gestures at the mirror.

He was also chanting weird syllables according to a certain rhythm, as if he were performing some ancient and evil ritual!

"Rock, paper, scissors!"

"Rock, paper, scissors!"

...…

After a while, Xia Yuan finally decided to stop this meaningless action because his right hand was slightly sore.

I didn't lose a single match. As expected of me!

Xia Yuan nodded at the mirror as if nothing had happened and prepared to leave the washroom…

...

?

At this moment, he suddenly stopped.

Wait a minute… In the second last match, when I took out the cloth… did he… did he take out the scissors?

Recalling a certain detail, Xia Yuan blinked and his smile froze.

How can I lose to a duel with a mirror?

It was still mid-August but Xia Yuan felt the air turn cold.

He slowly turned his head and looked at himself in the mirror. He raised his right hand tentatively, and his reflection was still in sync.

Did he remember wrongly?

He let out a sigh of relief.

"That's true. How could the reflection move on its own?"

On the coffee table in the living room, on the electronic clocks black display screen, the blood red color formed a line of cold numbers:

[23:59:59]

Although he assured himself that everything was alright, Xia Yuan still decided to leave quickly.

However, when he picked up the candle and was about to leave, the flame flickered for some reason and then extinguished silently! The room instantly fell into darkness—

Xia Yuan shuddered and cold sweat broke out on his back.

Boom! Boom!

Right at this moment, a huge bolt of blue and white lightning streaked across the night sky. Accompanied by the deafening thunder, the blinding lightning illuminated the room.

At this moment, all the hair on his body stood on end when he noticed a detail: the corners of the figure in the mirror's mouth silently curved into a strange arc!

As if sensing his gaze, the reflection in the mirror suddenly turned its head! Unknowingly, its eyes that had turned pure black and white turned and stared straight at his face!

Xia Yuan's hair stood on end. His thoughts was going crazy as he tried to escape, but his legs were as heavy as lead and would not move.

In the next second, the light brought by the lightning disappeared in an instant, and the mirror and reflection returned to darkness.

Only the black and white eyes were still clear and strange.

Xia Yuan stared coldly at the mirror. As their eyes met, a stream of cold and distorted information flowed into his brain through the dark mirror.

It was an extremely uncomfortable feeling. It was as if thousands of little black ants were crawling inside the gullies of his cerebral cortex.

There was only one sentence in the message:

"At the end of the seven cycles of light and dark, you will come, Eunival—"

After receiving a large amount of spiritual information, Xia Yuan started trembling violently as if he had been electrocuted. He held his head in pain.

The next moment, the ceiling light suddenly lit up, and a soft white light shone down, dispelling the darkness in the room.