1 Mass Grave

The rain has been pouring for one day and one night straight when outside, in the military's mass grave, an arm suddenly stuck out.

The night patrol got so scared he dropped his lantern and scurried back to the outpost to report to the Commander.

The Commander and the night patrol went together, scimitar and lantern in hand, leaving the outpost to carefully survey what he saw.

The two of them look out, only to see in the pouring rain, a silhouette silently sitting amidst the corpses.

The Commander lifts his lantern for a wider view, revealing the silhouette to be a soldier, wearing tattered leather armor, leaning on a stack of skulls, his back turned to them.

The Commander tightly grips his blade and asks in a low voice: "Who's there?"

From the pouring rain, only a faint sound returns: "I'm from the Vanguard Legion1, right now I'm too heavily injured to move"

He can't move?

The Commander's expression slightly relaxes, lowering his blade and walks forward: "Oh so you're a brother from the Vanguard, come, let me help you"

"Thank you"

"You're welcome, go to hell"

The blade slash separates the rain as a silver gleam flashed, cutting straight at the soldier's neck.

The Commander's slash was incredibly sharp and timed exceptionally well, cleanly hacking off the soldier's head, sending it rolling straight back down the mass grave.

One strike, no more nuisance!

The Commander smirks and sheaths his blade, but his face immediately warped: "Shi -----"

A silhouette jumps from the soldier's feet amongst the dead bodies, a cold silver gleam in his hand slashes through the Commander's arm.

The arm and blade were both cleanly sliced through, flying off as a splash of blood shot out from the cut is, but it was quickly drowned out and washed away by the howling night rain and wind.

As an intense pain rushes through his head, the Commander's face shows disbelief. His eyes reflected a silhouette descending from a jump.

A saber gradually grew bigger inside that reflection.

At the very next second, the saber stabbed straight into his eye socket.

The intense pain only lasted for a brief moment, as what came afterward was nothing but darkness.

A few breaths later.

The young man pulls his saber from the Commander's eye socket.

The Commander's corpse falls back, plopping straight into the muddy water behind.

The young man keeps his grip on the saber, standing still.

The night rain keeps pouring, wiping the mud from the young man's face, revealing a pair of shining pupils.

Suddenly, his eyes become sharp.

Right at his feet, the Commander's stomach inflates with a strange gurgling sound coming from the inside.

The young man took a deep breath, placed both hands on his saber and stabbed straight into the Commander's now-bloated stomach.

A shriek that cannot have come from a human resounds, a black mist suddenly and violently bursts from the Commander's stomach, as if something was desperately trying to escape.

Then, the Commander's stomach rips open as a dry thin black claw reaches out.

Before the horrid demonic claw could even attempt anything, the young man already starts to intensely twist the handle of his saber.

"Die!"

He uttered only one word.

The writhing corpse suddenly went limp as the demonic claw also dropped, no longer moving.

Everything went silent again.

Putrid black blood began to leak from under the Commander's corpse.

Seeing the black blood, the young man finally exhaled slightly and withdrew his saber.

He looks down at the creepy corpse, mumbling to himself at a low voice.

"Such a strange scenario, I wonder what the reward could be?"

The young man, seeming to hold a bit of anticipation, shouts in a low voice: "System!"

One breath, two breaths, three breaths.

Time slowly passes, but nothing happens.

In the dark night, only the sound of unending rain and wind persists..

The young man, seemingly a bit surprised, turned his head and probed his surroundings.

Behind him was the mass grave, under his feet was the demon's corpse, not far from there, a single militia was so scared that his lips were trembling.

"Strange" the young man mutters: "The Quest isn't cleared?"

The System is still silent, meaning the Quest isn't cleared.

The young man looks at the militia, suddenly feeling like there must be something that he missed.

The young man thinks hard, trying his best to move forward, but almost stumbled on his own feet.

Earlier he had to focus on killing the demon so he didn't notice, but now that he had a chance to loosen up, he found his whole body aching like it has been stabbed with a thousand needles.

His legs felt like lead, every step he took would drain him of all his energy.

This can't be right.

When the Apocalypse came, I know I already used everything I had to kill the last Demon Lord, but instead of being ejected from the game, I'm now in a body covered in wounds, dropped into this strange place.

Where is this place exactly?

The young man squints, slowly drags himself closer to the militia and proceeds with a salute.

"Proud Steed Battalion, Gu Qing Shan. Reporting for duty"

"You, you, you killed the Commander!" the militia trembles.

"He was not human" Gu Qing Shan replies while evaluating the militia.

He is wearing an old model of leather armor. Even the most hated Battalion in the military wouldn't be issued these old antique toys that had no conduit for spirit energy.

Gu Qing Shan then looked again at himself, only to see the same type of antique toy on his body. All of his original equipment is gone.

This is strange.

The militia leaned slightly closer to the mass grave to look at the Commander's deformed corpse still laying in the mud.

The militia hesitatingly spoke: "Bu-but… But when you killed him, how did you know he wasn't human?"

Gu Qing Shan shrugs: "I was only being careful, he attacked first"

Gu Qing Shan went back, dragged the Commander's corpse straight in front of the militia's face for him to see.

"Look, this is a Skinning Blood Demon"

Gu Qing Shan uses his saber to peel open the Commander's stomach, revealing a monster with a jet black body, a terrifying face, and strange vertical pupils.

Seeing the monster's corpse with his own eyes, the militia was even more shaken.

Remembering his comrades that have been strangely dying one-by-one for the last few days, he felt a chill down his spine, finally holding gratitude for the young man in front of him.

The militia calms himself down and asks: "You said you were called Gu Qing Shan?"

"Yes"

"From the Proud Steed Battalion?"

"Yes"

"Your badge?"

Gu Qing Shan takes out his badge, checks it himself first before throwing it to the militia.

The badge is much heavier than I remembered.

With the current level of Smithing techniques, a simple identification badge can be made as light as a sheet of paper, so why does this weigh so much? It's easily a kilogram.

The young man becomes even more confused.

The militia takes the badge and checks carefully to see that 6 beautifully calligraphed words were inscribed: "Proud Steed Battalion, Gu Qing Shan''.

The badge is real.

The militia breaths out, no longer nervousness on his face, only a lot of fatigue: "Finally a living person, come, we can't stay long outside, come with me into the outpost"

What he's saying is true, Gu Qing Shan lightly brushes his chin and replies: "Yes"

The militia returns his badge, turns around to go back into the outpost.

Gu Qing Shan receives the badge, carefully looks at it again.

-------This badge isn't just heavy, it's also made entirely of bronze alloy with a few words inscribed on the outside.

This terrible level of workmanship is hard to look at for even an amateur, clearly the obsolete kind--

The obsolete kind…?

Gu Qing Shan suddenly thought of something. A fearful thought that flashed in his mind.

He immediately looks up, his sight set on the militia in front.

Old-type leather armor.

The answer is so inconceivable, that Gu Qing Shan couldn't keep himself from asking: "Brother, what year is it right now?"

The militia looks back, slightly confused with his question: "It's currently year 681, Peace Dynasty"

Gu Qing Shan is baffled.

Suddenly, information streams began to flow in front of his eyes like a waterfall, forming a clear-blue, tide-like filter.

[Ting]!

A cold mechanical voice.

[The current time as confirmed to be year 681, Peace Dynasty]

[Time flow stable, confirmed to have escaped from space-time vortex]

[Conclusion: Successfully escaped from the Apocalypse]

[Identity reestablished, current identity: Human, Vanguard Legion, Proud Steed Battalion soldier]

The System is finally active again, but Gu Qing Shan didn't feel at all happy, only a sense of absolute disbelief.

Year 681, Peace Dynasty? The game hasn't even started yet in this time period!

This period is supposed to be nothing but a part of the game setting, a bygone history, people from Reality haven't officially entered this horror game of a different world yet.

When the first players entered the game, it was already an entire year later.

Could it be I've returned to before the game started?

But when, what about Reality? Could I have also returned back in time in the real world?

Gu Qing Shan's heart starts pounding uncontrollably, he immediately looks around again.

In front of him, the militia was quite far away inside the outpost gates.

Besides the gates, spirit energy from the Invisibility formation2 faintly drifts out.

Looking past the outpost to afar, in the middle of the desolate countryside, you can almost see a gigantic silhouette amidst the rain, flickering in and out of sight.

Gu Qing Shan slowly lifts his arm, and bites into it.

Two lines of teeth marks clearly show up on where he bit into, even a bit of blood drips out.

It hurts!

This isn't a dream!

Gu Qing Shan stood still like a statue, unmoving in the intense rain, not minding the chilling rain water soaking his body.