Chapter 1
Chapter 1
The Witch and the Silver-Haired Girl
(After being locked in the black room, some individual chapters may feel disconnected.)
(Any chapter with fewer than 2000 characters has been deleted in parts.)
(It would not affect the overall plot too much.)
(The first review battle failed.)
(The second review battle failed.)
(The third review battle failed.)
【You Died】
Scarlet text once again covered the entire screen.
Gu Chuan leaned back into his gaming chair.
Seven days.
He had been playing a game called Era of the Divine Throne, repeatedly challenging the same hidden Boss.
The Witch, Scarlet Moon.
The origins of this game were unknown, yet it had completely absorbed Gu Chuan for seven days.
Scarlet Moon’s behavior was so advanced that she did not seem like a program at all. She could learn, predict, and even mock him.
Whenever those blood-red eyes of hers looked through the screen, Gu Chuan always felt that what she saw was him sitting in front of it.
Refusing to believe it, Gu Chuan took a deep breath and clicked “Fight Again” once more.
He controlled his character, a silver-haired girl named Ling Xi, trying to find an opening and strike at Scarlet Moon while under siege from countless demonic servants.
However, a spike condensed from shadow shot out from the darkness and precisely pierced Ling Xi’s ankle.
Scarlet Moon revealed a smile to her.
【You Died】
The screen did not immediately end, but instead switched to Ling Xi’s main point of view.
She was collapsing weakly onto the cold floor.
Within her field of vision, a pair of black leather shoes tied with red ribbons walked up to her.
Scarlet Moon was looking down at her from above.
Scarlet Moon took off her little leather shoes, and her foot clad in black stockings stepped on Ling Xi’s cheek.
‘So tenacious, like a little bug that just refuses to be crushed to death.’
‘But the game should end now.’
‘Scarlet Moon!’
Gu Chuan suddenly sprang to his feet. ‘One day, I’ll go in there myself and drag you down from that lofty throne!
And I’ll grind your face under my feet too!’
The moment his words fell, the computer screen twisted into a blood-colored vortex.
A tremendous force seized Gu Chuan’s consciousness, tore him away from the real world, and dragged him in without mercy.
…
A piercing chill rose from his back, finally awakening his senses.
When she opened her eyes, what entered her sight was a gigantic ancient tree.
Sunlight filtered through the branches and leaves, turning into scattered specks of light that fell across her face.
She tried to prop herself up, only to be enveloped by an unfamiliar weakness.
This body was far too light, and far too frail.
She lowered her head and saw a pair of hands that did not belong to her.
They were slender and fair, the nails neatly trimmed and rounded.
A delicate silver bracelet encircled her wrist.
She staggered to her feet, and a cascade of silver-white long hair spilled down to her waist.
She looked down to examine herself.
She wore a frost-white dress that shimmered faintly like moonlight.
Pure white over-the-knee stockings covered her legs, and on her feet were a pair of dark blue little leather shoes.
This face was one he had painstakingly crafted in the game.
This character was called Ling Xi.
And now, this face truly belonged to her.
Ling Xi opened her mouth, but only a trembling, girlish gasp escaped.
Her hands anxiously and urgently reached downward.
The mountain range that had accompanied him all his life had now become a smooth, flat basin.
Her brain crashed.
In her mind, only one thought flooded across like endless bullet comments:
“Where’s my huge buddy?!”
As a hardcore player who could carve a bloody path through countless high-difficulty games, mental resilience was one of his few strengths.
“Calm down, calm down…”
She muttered to herself in self-hypnosis, while patting her delicate little face with those soft hands.
From the looks of it, she had transmigrated into the game she had been playing.
And even become the character she had created.
As long as the character’s skills were still there, a mere beginner village…
She raised her hand, pressed her fingertips together, and aimed at a large tree in front of her.
However, that pale blue beam of magic did not appear.
Her fingertips were empty.
Ling Xi froze.
What was going on? Was the skill stuck in its startup animation?
Or was her mana bar empty?
Unwilling to give up, she tried again, this time switching to the most basic skill, 【Light】.
As long as there was even the slightest trace of magic within her body, it should not fail.
She spread her palm and focused her mind.
Then, nothing happened.
Now the problem seemed a bit serious.
A tremendous sense of crisis left her no time to dwell on anything else.
Instead, she lifted her head and began observing her surroundings.
An endless forest stretched out beneath her feet, and at the far end of the horizon, a massive and sinister Gothic tower rudely pierced into the gray sky.
Above the tower, black-red clouds gathered, the kind that filled one with unease at a single glance.
That familiar outline, that damned architectural style, that ominous color scheme—
Ling Xi’s pupils slowly dilated.
She knew this place all too well.
The lair of the Demon King Scarlet Moon, who stepped on her and humiliated her to her heart’s content after every failed attempt.
“This isn’t any beginner village!”
“They just dropped her right at the Boss’s doorstep.”
As Ling Xi stood there in shock, a crisp sound of a dry branch snapping came from the bushes not far behind her.
She turned around, her heart pounding wildly.
From the depths of the forest’s shadows, crimson points of light lit up in the darkness.
Then, one after another, demonic wolves stepped out from the gloom. Their bodies were as large as cheetahs, covered in tattered black fur, with black saliva dripping from the corners of their mouths.
They were not ordinary beasts, but monsters corrupted by the dark aura of this land.
Their target could not have been clearer.
It was Ling Xi.
“No way… did I pull aggro from the entire map the moment I stepped out?” Ling Xi’s mind raced frantically.
【Ding!】
Hope instantly ignited in Ling Xi’s despairing eyes.
【Beacon System Activated】
【Ability One: Absolute Attraction (Passive)】
Description: You are a lighthouse in the night, attracting the attention of the strong and of monsters alike.
Ling Xi: “……”
“Good grief, so it was you who attracted them here!”
She forcibly suppressed the urge to complain and hurriedly looked at the second entry.
【Ability Two: Energy Devotion】
Description: Actively cuddle closely with characters who harbor strong emotions toward you to replenish their energy.
You are the highest-grade power bank.
“……”
The system had set her up!
Was she only good for restoring other people’s mana?
The flame of hope on Ling Xi’s face went out.
In the instant she was stunned, the demonic wolf had already lunged forward with its claws extended.
Ling Xi instinctively raised her arm to block.
However, the anticipated searing pain did not arrive.
Instead, only the demonic wolf’s scream rang out beside her ear.
Ling Xi cautiously opened a slit of her eyes.
The scene before her left her frozen in place.
The demonic wolf that had leapt into midair seemed to have crashed into an invisible wall, its body suspended and immobilized in the air.
The next second, the surrounding shadows twisted and writhed, condensing into several sharp tentacles that instantly pierced and tore through the wolf’s body.
Its body shattered into fragments, falling down with soft thuds.
This bizarre spectacle did not end there.
The pack of demonic wolves around her were also pierced one by one by shadowy tentacles that erupted from the ground, not even managing to let out a single howl.
From beginning to end, it took no more than a second.
At the far end of her vision, a petite figure dressed in a black-and-crimson Gothic dress was slowly walking toward her.
And most clearly of all—
those black little leather shoes tied with red ribbons, the pair she could never forget.