【Advice from the Veterans】
【Please keep the following points in mind to increase your chances of surviving your first 'crossing'.】
【First, do not trust ***.】
【Second, the number of times you can create a character is crucial. Make every effort to collect them.】
【Third, do not attempt to trust any native of the Smith World, especially do not reveal your identity as an occupier to anyone.】
【Fourth, do not try to befriend any players in the Smith World. There are traitors among the crowd, and compatriots from other worlds are not true compatriots.】
【Fifth.】
【You and I are deeply trapped in the hell of cause and effect. Please temporarily abandon the goodness that has settled in compulsory education.】
【Lie as much and as cautiously as possible.】
【That world does not need good moral character.】
......
Harper sat cross-legged in an empty white space, a cracked phone in his hand displayed an app.
The app was called "Smith Game", its icon was a blue-skinned, blond man making a ghost face.
Upon entering the app, Harper automatically received the ID number 18146.
【You are the 18146th guest of Smith】
The strange voice's words still lingered in his mind.
18146......
What kind of number was that?
But the top left corner of the app displayed the current "online number" as 9127.
Harper instinctively felt something was wrong.
He was now in a pure white space, unable to do anything.
The strange voice that had brought him here had disappeared without leaving any guidance.
Out of helplessness, Harper could only open the app to browse.
The Smith Game app resembled a game player community, with four main sections: 【Home】, 【Forum】, 【Product Page】, and 【Me】.
Although the design was simple, almost purely text-based, as if it was casually put together, it was well-featured.
Harper quickly figured out how to operate the app.
【Home】 was more like a "system-dedicated announcement platform" where he could see some important notifications.
For instance, when the 【World Alternation】 would start, or who became the 【Slayer】 after the end of the last 【Occupation Period】.
In short, many of the words were incomprehensible to Harper, but he could roughly guess their meanings.
The 【Forum】 was much more straightforward. It was a speaking channel exclusively for occupiers.
In the pinned post on the forum, Harper saw the text at the beginning of this chapter.
The poster was called "Hannibal", with an ID number of 621. His profile picture frame was green - Harper researched a bit and found that a green profile picture frame indicated that the person was currently online, or in other words, still alive.
Judging by the number of digits in the ID number, this person had been online for quite a long time and was an old player. Of course, Harper would selectively believe what he said.
Harper's gaze wandered through this text, with a few points needing special attention.
Firstly, what was the censored word in the first point?
For a three-letter word, Harper didn't think it was hard to guess - Smith.
This sentence was of high importance, placed first in order.
If it was not to trust Smith, then Harper's current situation was definitely not safe, and it was very likely that he had escaped from the dragon's den only to enter the tiger's den.
Secondly, what was the 【number of times you can create a character】, and how to collect it?
This point was easy to solve.
Also in the pinned post, there was a newbie guide post that explained a large number of specialized terms that appeared in the 【Smith Game】.
- It did start to feel a bit like a game now.
Harper found the explanation in the post.
【Number of times you can create a character】was, in layman's terms, the character's life in the game.
Character dies - deduct 1 point from the 【number of times you can create a character】- character starts the occupier's life again - game continues.
Character dies - no 【number of times you can create a character】- unable to restart - player dies.
Harper's premonition was correct, his current situation was not safe at all.
This was a gamble with life as the stake.
No wonder "Hannibal" said that one needed to make every effort to collect the number of times you can create a character.
The third and fourth points in the post were easy to understand, but the fifth point...
What was the hell of cause and effect?
Harper knew about the law of cause and effect, that everything that happens has a necessary cause.
Did this mean that his arrival in this pure white space, his participation in the so-called 【Smith Game】, was not accidental, but inevitable?
He pondered.
He told himself silently in his heart.
So his mind went back in time, and he caught the turning point of his life.
The young man he met on the day of the college entrance examination was definitely a problem.
No, perhaps his entire lucky life was a problem.
Harper rubbed his temples, opened his eyes, and continued to read.
There were not many products for sale on the 【Product Page】, the empty page only had two purchasable products.
Number of times you can create a character, Smith Coins*14999.
Skill loot box, Smith Coins*500.
Skills must be an important attribute, so by inference, nearly 15,000 Smith Coins must be a fortune.
After taking a look, Harper finally clicked on 【Me】.
【Me】 was a personal attribute page.
As a "new player", Harper's personal attribute page was quite clean.
......
ID: 18146
Forum Nickname: None
Name: Harper
Inherent Talent: Luck (Lost), Clear Mind
Skills: None
Number of times you can create a character: 1
......
Bang!
Harper's pupils vibrated, and his heart pounded.
Inherent talent, luck... lost?!
Shock left him breathless.
At this moment, the weird voice finally resurfaced.
A bunch of... data? appeared in the pure white space, fluctuating as if composed of various numbers and characters, producing character waves when it spoke.
"It seems you have noticed what's happening to you," it said.
Harper took a small step back: "Who are you?"
"I am Smith, Mr. Harper."
Harper was silent for a few seconds, forcibly suppressing the shock in his heart, although everything happening now completely exceeded his cognitive capacity.
"Are you talking about me losing my luck?"
"You are very calm, Mr. Harper."
"Should I be crazy? If it helps, I can defecate in the corner."
"Your calmness surpasses all people of your age group, Smith is very pleased."
It ignored Harper's vulgarity: "So I can give you more rights."
"Such as?"
"You have the chance to know Smith's secret, of course, it's not free."
"Your secret?"
"Smith knows everything, 1000 coins for a piece of information."
Harper's phone vibrated, and upon lowering his head, he saw that a new purchase option had been added to the "Product Page".
Smith's Secret, Smith Coins*1000.
Harper suddenly raised his head, the fire flickering in the depths of his dark pupils.
"So, I can know who took my luck?"
"After you pay the price of 1000 coins."
The flame of revenge ignited, scorching his heart.
The pain of losing his home and family made him sleepless night after night.
Harper spent the nights reflecting on his past life, etching the face of the hitchhiking young man deep into his heart.
Now, he finally had a chance for revenge.
"But before that, Smith suggests you take a look at your number of times you can create a character."
"You only have 1."
"This means that after you create a character for the first time and enter the Smith World, if you don't collect new times to create a character, after death..."
Smith's strange voice seemed to whisper in Harper's ear, low but deafening.
"...you will completely disappear from this world."
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