Chapter 56: A Thousand Ways to Die

An unchanging scene, shifting roles.

Death remains constant, only the manner of dying changes.

Within minutes, Fang Ju had experienced being swarmed and bitten to death by zombies, killed instantly by a lightning-fast attack, defeated by an endless combo under the moonlight, bludgeoned with a frying pan, crushed by a tyrannosaurus, run down by a motorcycle, pushed to his death by an arrow tower, and struck dead by a palm descending from the heavens...

Over and over, he was brutally slaughtered. In mere dozens of minutes, Fang Ju nearly enacted "A Thousand Ways to Die," and even Alpha Ji seemed to be running out of tricks.

She glanced at Ye Chao, who was watching with interest. "Aren’t you worried that this blockhead will develop psychological trauma from my torment?"

"Psychological trauma? What’s there to be traumatized about?" Ye Chao was baffled.

He’d stopped Alpha Ji before mainly to maintain her image. After all... she would be the influencer, host, administrator GM, and hold many roles; a poor image would hinder promotion.

As for Fang Ju’s repeated deaths and resurrections, Ye Chao cared little. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have spent so long idly snacking and watching.

Ye Chao's attitude... Looking at Fang Ju, it was true. Despite his repeated, gruesome deaths, the man showed no sign of discouragement. Instead, his face was stubborn, like an angry square-faced bird.

Moreover, though he kept dying, it couldn’t be denied that his survival time was steadily increasing.

Thinking carefully, it made sense...

The world was on the brink of destruction, yet these new humans thrived. Their psychological resilience was far beyond the previous disaster generation, who would be shaken by a mere scratch or beaten into depression and suicide.

It was, perhaps, the fault of the times!

Those who grew up in an era of hardship, separation, and adversity were naturally far sturdier and weatherproof than the greenhouse flowers of a civilized age.

It was just a game after all; even if the game became reality, as long as the rewards for clearing it were great enough, these people would charge forward regardless.

Well then... Alpha Ji’s mood was soothed.

With a snap of her fingers, everything vanished. Alpha Ji appeared before Fang Ju once again.

"You who want to strive, to grow strong, to sweat and chase youth beneath the sunset..." Her impassioned, slightly melodramatic speech was cut short by Fang Ju.

"Why are you back again?" he grumbled, unimpressed.

Fang Ju had grown accustomed to dying. Not dying felt odd now. "Honestly, this place is pretty interesting. Don't stop, keep going!"

He’d taken the interlude for the main act.

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[Fang Ju's favorability -100]

Dealing with iron-willed men like Ye Chao was truly hard to maintain any favorability!

"...Do you want Learning Mode? Training Mode? PvE Mode? Balanced Mode? or Combat Mode?" Alpha Ji had lost patience; fixing him was impossible, and it only wore her out.

Reciting her lines as per the script, her expression was blank and calm, like the inner drama of a certain TV character.

After mechanically reciting her lines, Alpha Ji waved her hand, displaying five large icons—Learning Mode! Training Mode! PvE Mode! Balanced Mode! Combat Mode!

It was the proper beginning of the newbie tutorial.

Learning Mode—essentially culture classes in the virtual space. A familiar formula, a familiar taste.

Training Mode—just like the various college entrance exam events.

Although weightlifting and sprints lacked practical meaning, some events tested extraordinary abilities, including martial arts, where pure technique could be honed.

PvE Mode—as the name suggests, players fight NPCs to the death.

Modes included but weren’t limited to anti-terrorism, deathmatch, payload, capture the flag, domination, battle royale, etc...

But Alpha Ji followed the developer tradition of trickery; currently, only Anti-Terrorism was available, on a single map: fy_iceworld.

Balanced Mode—also called Entertainment Mode, similar to PvE, but both sides were real players, with the same attributes as PvE, using classic disaster-era hero characters.

Lastly, Combat Mode, the paid mode, priced at a third of a helmet.

Players must upload their height, weight, and other detailed data to the data space, which then creates a virtual body identical in attributes to their real self—even including abilities.

Thus, one could endlessly hone advanced combat skills with unlimited stamina and ability.

And, of course, the virtual space’s greatest feature—immortality.

In reality, practicing moves always faces a huge dilemma: life is singular! People dare not go all out; with layers of protection, the process is cumbersome, and the training is nothing like real combat...

But in the virtual world, none of that matters!

Of course, Fang Ju had tested this hundreds of times already.

Listening to Alpha Ji’s introduction, Fang Ju was stunned... "Is this really how it’s played?"

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He thought for a moment, glanced at the icons, and waved his hand. "Why make it so complicated? What we just did was pretty good. Don’t stop, keep it up."

"Oh, and a suggestion... The monsters earlier were too strong, I couldn’t hold out at all. Can you start with weaker ones, so I last longer, then introduce stronger ones as I improve..."

Military training camps weren’t much different: starting with simple challenges, from juvenile to adult, from few to many, then switching to tougher beasts until the arena couldn’t contain them.

He’d never played games before, and now he was offering suggestions to the developer?

Those major studios—when have they ever listened to player feedback?

[Fang Ju's favorability -100]

Play if you want, leave if you don’t! Alpha Ji nearly voiced her thoughts, using all her strength to hold back.

Those big studios may do it that way, but they never say it aloud; the façade must be kept.

"The endless mode earlier is paid, and charges by the minute. You played for free for so long—what’s there to complain about?"

The truth was, following the program step by step was easy for her; the manual mode just now was a hassle, nearly impossible to turn into a separate mode.

"Alright." Hearing it cost money, Fang Ju quickly withdrew.

He began to properly try out the modes...

How does the saying go?

A AAA title, developed with hundreds of millions of dollars, thousands of team members, countless engineers and story designers, years of painstaking development, all just to make the game more engaging and attractive...

And yet, a common woman in her twenties, with a barren life and dull soul, whose only asset was the collagen in her young face that could stir a man’s primal urge—what confidence could she have to compare herself to the wisdom of thousands of engineers over years?

Games are just that addictive!

So, after Alpha Ji’s gentle reminder to "play in moderation," Fang Ju reluctantly exited the "trial," and it was already morning; Ye Chao had slept and woken again...

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