Chapter 14: The Ruthless Player

Half an hour later.

【Drunk Party Chat Group (Online: 21 people)】:

Wo Si Ni Die: @Everyone,!!! Urgent notification, a huge piece of news. This link can download the genuine version of "Dark Lands". We don't need to rush to buy qualification anymore!!!

Is This Beaver?: Uh... What's wrong with Big Sister? She's starting to talk nonsense.

Shrimp Heart Pig Heart: I was about to sleep, and you scared me into a shiver. Did Big Sister go crazy because she couldn't grab the qualification?

Wo Si Ni Die: @Everyone, saying it again, this link can download the cracked version of "Dark Lands". Hurry up and download to enter the game together. I'll go notify Grandpa first to let him download the game too.

Word Ma Ya: Looks like it's real. She's even notifying Iron Grandpa. The strongest war god of this group is finally coming out of retirement. I'm going to download it right now.

Seeing the group owner mention going to notify "Iron Grandpa", the group members instantly realized this was no joke.

Iron Grandpa's game name is "Hit Iron", his real name is Li Tie, and he is the group owner Li Li Siyu's biological grandfather.

He was once a gene warrior in the Human Federation's Judgment Army, and when young, he went multiple times to suppress alien chaos forces that fled to Earth.

After retiring as a disabled veteran, Li Tie suffered from severe post-traumatic stress disorder. Memories of the war often surged into his mind, making him unable to distinguish reality from the battlefield. He was an unstable time bomb, ready to explode at any moment.

Under the guidance of a psychiatrist, Li Tie chose to enter a virtual game to continue being a warrior within the game.

He was the number one enforcer of the Drunk Party, switching between multiple games with them, and was a famous top-tier player in every single game.

Unlike ordinary players who play games for fun, Li Tie played games purely to vent the rage in his heart.

So the players in the group realized this was no joke and clicked the link one after another to download the game.

Fog Lamp City, Post-War Sanatorium.

Gym.

Hah~ Hah~ Hah~

Rapid breathing sounds rang out continuously. A burly white-haired man was performing bench press training. The weight on both sides of the barbell added up to a staggering 800 kilograms, already exceeding the limit ordinary people could bear.

Click!

The iron bar locked into the bench press rack. Li Tie slowly sat up, reached out, and connected the prosthetic limb to his severed left leg.

Standing up, his height reached two meters. He wore a tight training vest. Muscle lines stood out under the soaked sweat, every muscle like a carefully carved work of art, hiding terrifying power.

Just then, Li Tie's body trembled uncontrollably.

Battlefield scenes floated in his mind.

He wore black battle armor. In the distance was a mechanical army stretching endlessly. Accompanied by the roar of energy cannons behind him, he led his comrades in a charge against the alien mechanical army.

"Kill!"

In this moment, Li Tie once again could not distinguish reality from illusion.

After calming down, the training room was a mess, and his fists were stained with blood.

Slumping dejectedly on the ground, he gasped for air, his chest heaving violently with each breath.

Just then, the projector embedded in the ceiling activated. Interlaced light beams condensed before him into the figure of a youthful and beautiful woman:

Seeing the scene in the training room, the woman in the image looked worried:

"Grandpa, your condition has worsened again."

"I'm fine." Seeing it was his biological granddaughter, Li Tie's face rarely showed a smile, then he continued:

"Li Siyu, what do you need Grandpa for?"

"I found a new game very suitable for you. The download link is in the group. Grandpa, hurry up and download it."

"Okay, I'll go download it right now." Li Tie nodded immediately.

Closing the video call, he turned and entered the partitioned bathroom. After washing, he changed into a set of clothes, returned to the bedroom, and downloaded the file according to his granddaughter's instructions.

For virtual reality games, Li Tie did not hold too high expectations.

The virtual reality games he had played these years differed greatly from reality, with extremely poor immersion.

In his eyes, stress relief in a virtual environment was secondary; more importantly, he wanted to accompany his granddaughter to fight everywhere in the game.

One hour later.

Li Tie, appearing at the respawn point of Di Zhong Village, underwent a shift in mindset.

Stretching out his hand to feel the touch of the breeze brushing his fingertips, a hint of surprise appeared in his indifferent eyes.

What shocked him even more was that his lost left leg had real feedback in the game.

Walking two laps around the central square of Di Zhong Village, the realism of his left leg made him marvel, and also made him realize this game was completely different from the virtual games he had experienced before.

Just then, a game prompt rang in his mind:

【Player "Wo Si Ni Die" added you as a friend. Do you accept?】

After choosing to accept, a video call request popped up in the upper right corner. Li Tie clicked confirm again. Immediately, a semi-transparent light screen floated before him. A small chick with fiery red wings exclaimed excitedly to him:

"Grandpa, we have already left the village and set off towards the Blood Plain. Do you plan to explore alone or act with us?"

"I'll explore alone."

"Okay, I'll call you when there's an event."

"Iron Grandpa, go for it! Bring us flying later."

"Iron Grandpa, long time no see...!"

Besides his granddaughter, voices of other members of the Drunk Party greeting him also came from the video.

Regarding Li Tie's decision to act alone, the members of the Drunk Party were not surprised.

In their eyes, Iron Grandpa has always been a lone wolf type of player, only appearing during player-versus-player activities like guild wars or faction wars, leading the team in a charge with his powerful individual strength.

Leaving Di Zhong Village along the bluestone road, Li Tie went east alone, exchanging game content with the guide following beside him during the journey.

Five minutes later.

Li Zheng encountered the first monster since entering the game.

A cursed soldier, reeking of foul stench, slowly rose from the ground and raised a rusted, broken sword in his hand toward him.

At that moment, Li Zheng switched to his Gargoyle form.

Unlike other monster forms, the Gargoyle form was the monster form closest to human form; Li Zheng had chosen the Gargoyle precisely because of this form.

Facing the broken sword, the cursed soldier swung down at him; Li Zheng advanced actively, raised his hand to lock the cursed soldier's elbow joint, preventing the weapon from striking down, then stepped his right leg forward smoothly into the space between the cursed soldier's legs, twisted it outward, causing the cursed soldier to instantly lose balance and crash heavily to the ground.

Then Li Zheng's heavy punches rained down like a storm of wind and rain, smashing straight into the cursed soldier's head.

Before long, the cursed soldier's skull was shattered by the heavy punches, and the flame within his head extinguished.

At that moment, a wisp of black energy emerged from the dead cursed soldier, gathered briefly in the air, then flew toward Li Zheng and seeped into his body.

Instantly, an unprecedented sense of comfort erupted from within and spread outward, like drinking a cold beverage on a scorching summer day; his dormant body was thoroughly activated by the rush of this energy, and pores all over his body dilated.

The wonderful sensation vanished in an instant.

The first battle ended, yet Li Zheng could not help but frown; he had discovered a problem.

The game's tactile, olfactory, and auditory feedback, along with all other feedback, were identical to reality; only the pain feedback had a serious flaw.

When his fist struck the cursed soldier's bones, there was only feedback of force, but the pain feedback was drastically reduced.

This made Li Zheng feel extremely frustrated; he always felt something was lacking during combat.

He immediately asked the new player guide accompanying him if there was a solution.

Upon learning that the pain feedback could be adjusted, Li Zheng decisively summoned the function panel, selected System Settings, and dragged the pain feedback progress bar from its initial 10% all the way to the end.

After finishing all this, a smile appeared on the corner of his lips:

"Now this is interesting."

【That's ruthless!】

The new player guide standing nearby also raised a thumb at that moment, expressing respect for Li Zheng's action.

(End of this chapter)