Chapter 265: The Shocking Experience of Rebirth and Return

He clicked the virtual desktop icon.

Inside the game pod, his body automatically connected to the soft tubes; as the nutrient fluid gradually submerged him, his vision blurred.

This filled Ji Chen with immense curiosity.

He tried to resist this sensation, which felt like his consciousness being pulled away, but was surprised to find himself utterly unable to fight off the overwhelming drowsiness.

"Such powerful technology."

After returning to Earth, he had already gained a general understanding of the planet's current environment.

Before his transmigration years ago, he had read many novels, watched numerous anime, and seen countless movies.

The popularity of transmigration-themed stories remained consistently high.

Back then, young and impetuous, his heart was filled with longing for traveling to another world.

He had even imagined more than once that upon returning to Earth, he could act like the protagonists in those stories, delivering a satisfying display of dominance and slapping faces, basking in the envious gazes of the crowd.

But after spending over two hundred long years in that other world, time, that ruthless carving knife, had quietly worn away the passionate fervor of his youth.

The Iron Face-slapping plots he once obsessed over now failed to stir even a ripple in his heart.

He felt his heart, having weathered countless vicissitudes, had long lost its thirst for excitement.

But the truth was.

The environment on Earth had changed drastically since his return; even if he wanted to show off and slap faces, he lacked the capability.

The powerful Moon Erosion Clan commanded countless cutting-edge technologies, and the techniques he provided had failed to attract the attention of Data City's high-ranking officials.

The Data City administrator who spoke with him at the time had said this:

"We will arrange for professionals to rigorously verify the techniques you provided... However, given the current environment where spiritual resources are extremely scarce, it is highly probable that these techniques cannot be fully promoted and applied."

"The human race today, under the influence of the Moon Erosion Clan, has already forged a unique path of development entirely its own... Nevertheless, we thank you for your support."

The administrator was very polite, but Ji Chen could hear that the techniques he brought were not regarded with the importance he had imagined.

Yet, deep down, he found himself agreeing with what the administrator had said.

The output of spiritual resources was indeed the core factor influencing technological development.

But this conversation also made him feel immensely curious about the Moon Erosion Clan.

This was his first time entering a virtual game pod; this sensation, nearly like having his consciousness extracted, made him acutely aware of just how powerful the Moon Erosion Clan's technology truly was.

But what puzzled him was why the human race would trust the Moon Erosion Clan so completely.

In the era he came from, this simply would have been impossible.

After all, only independence and self-reliance offered a future; entrusting that future to an alien race was a level of trust he found truly incomprehensible.

And this was precisely the reason he had chosen to experience the virtual game.

Perhaps many questions would gradually be revealed during the process of experiencing the virtual game.

As his thoughts churned, darkness completely enveloped his vision.

A few seconds later, a sliver of light pierced the darkness, accompanied by low, epic music and a chanting sound that seemed to drift from afar, ringing in his ears.

Presented before his eyes was an aerial view.

The four great characters "Emperor Tomb Mountain Range" flickered briefly in his vision before vanishing.

The camera suddenly plummeted from the sky, piercing through surging black mist, while a blood-red crescent moon hung high in the firmament.

Dark red light spilled onto the towering mountain range; the ridges wound like giant dragons, and jagged black rock peaks pierced the clouds, resembling the ancient remains of gods and demons when viewed from above.

In the distance, the earth split open into deep chasms where magma surged beneath, hot steam rising to intertwine with the moonlight, forming a vast mist of blood.

A solitary figure floated above a tall tower with arms crossed, behind which loomed an evil eye waving tentacles, all set against the backdrop of a massive blood-red crescent moon.

At that moment, the viewpoint suddenly shifted, stretching rapidly toward the sky.

Clouds receded like a Black Tide; azure seawater lapped against white sandy beaches, while colorful mist floated like silk between sea and sky, refracting dreamlike rainbow hues.

The gaze plunged into the ocean, where massive coral reefs rose from the seabed to form naturally magnificent palaces; schools of fish leaped from the water, their scales shimmering like stars.

Ascension Island, the Ancient God Arena, the Shu Yan Domain... countless scenes flashed by in rapid succession.

The aerial camera shifted again.

A cold wind suddenly arose, and the scene was instantly swallowed by a pale white blizzard.

The camera swept rapidly across endless snowfields; auroras danced in the pitch-black night sky, towering glaciers stood majestically, and ice crystals howled in the fierce wind...

The fourth scene: Sen Luo Lin Jing.

The wind and snow dissipated, and vitality surged forth.

Ancient trees soared from the ground, their branches and leaves weaving together into a green canopy that blocked out the sun and sky.

Glowing mushrooms dotted the forest like stars, vines hung down, petals danced, and under the night sky, the earth sparkled as brilliantly as a galaxy.

At the end of the sequence, the image froze on a giant mushroom towering as high as the heavens, before the viewpoint shifted once more...

The rapidly flashing scenes left Ji Chen utterly stunned.

He could not imagine that these would be real scenes within a game.

In comparison, he would rather believe this was modern CG technology, with such realistic scenic experiences reserved only for opening cinematics.

At the very end of the opening sequence.

The camera suddenly accelerated, crossing forests, skimming over mountains, spanning vast oceans, and rushing toward a burning land.

On the crimson wasteland, three red suns hovered above the horizon, never setting.

Scorching winds whipped up dust and sand, forming swirling fire tornadoes across the land.

The image finally froze above a land of ruins covered in broken walls and shattered tiles; the music cut off abruptly, and a line of burning text appeared in the darkness:

[Welcome to the Monster World. Begin selecting your initial Fate Soul.]

After the burning text faded, Ji Chen's heart had yet to calm.

At that moment, his vision shifted to a blue crystal wall imprisoning dozens of monsters.

As his gaze focused on the first monster, relevant information about it immediately surfaced in his mind.

[Gargoyle...]

The selection of the initial ability at the start made Ji Chen immediately find it quite interesting.

Before his transmigration years ago, he had played quite a few online games.

In his memory, the most classic setting in online games was undoubtedly the iron triangle of professions: Warrior, Mage, and Priest.

All other playstyles were derived from these three professions.

Having dozens of profession choices right from the start, as in Monster World, felt extremely novel to him.

After carefully reviewing the abilities of various initial Fate Souls, Ji Chen's gaze finally settled on the creature in Containment Slot Number 2, a being with fire-red wings resembling an owl.

Immediately, relevant information appeared.

[Confirm selection of "Owl-Headed Demon" as your initial Fate Soul?]

Confirm.

The moment the thought arose in his mind, the Owl-Headed Demon rapidly enlarged in his vision, its sharp talons reaching straight for his Iron Face.

"Thought reading?"

The moment he had the thought, the selection was automatically completed.

Ji Chen gained a new understanding of the technological sophistication of this game.

In his eyes, the Moon Erosion Clan already possessed civilizational technology surpassing that of the White Demon Clan.

His choice of the Owl-Headed Demon was primarily related to his own combat style.

During his long journey in the other world, his combat method mainly involved releasing spiritual energy and converting it into telekinetic force to manipulate objects.

This ability had been personally taught by the Dragon Kin.

Including most members of the various races within their resistance army, the vast majority had learned abilities taught by the Dragon Kin.

Just as the Dragon Kin had said back then, the White Demon's greatest mistake in this life was summoning it to the other world, which destined the White Demon's failure.

In his perceptual view, his spine lit up like a galaxy.

The Fate Soul orb symbolizing the Owl-Headed Demon embedded itself into the first groove on his spine.

Instantly, an indescribable power surged into his body.

At this point, a prompt sounded again, requesting him to name his game character.

After a brief moment of thought, Ji Chen entered a line of text:

The Returner.

[Prompt: This game name has already been used by another player.]

The Explorer.

[Prompt: This game name has already been used by another player.]

The Reborn, The Traveler, The Guest of Return... every name prompted that it had already been used by other players.

Feeling helplessly resigned, Ji Chen entered again:

[Reborn and Returned But Still Can't Win]

[Challenger Prompt: Naming successful. Welcome to Monster World: Reborn and Returned But Still Can't Win.]

Ji Chen: ...

After the naming succeeded, the four great characters "Sun-Chasing Space" flashed in his eyes, and the crystal wall before him rapidly collapsed and dissipated.

In an instant, countless noisy waves of sound exploded loudly in his ears.

"We're all qualified players now, so speak louder in the future; you can't be blocked even if you enter the livestream room, hahaha!"

"New brothers look over here! A freshly formed team needs one Tank-style player; initial Fate Soul preferably Gargoyle or Rock Shield."

"Buying Sacrificial Power, 1 to 50, buying unlimitedly, fair prices for old and young alike, instant transfer, scammers may their whole family die!"

"Everyone, stop arguing and listen to me. I'm selling a brand-new cheat for Monster World: infinite sacrificial power, infinite strength, infinite stamina... and it skips the one-hour resurrection cooldown. Guaranteed authentic. Price: one billion sacrificial power. No after-sales service."

Various shouts clamored together, giving Ji Chen an instant headache.

Glancing around, he saw dense crowds of figures surging like a Black Tide.

Tens of thousands of novices, all wearing the same coarse black robes as him, packed the entire square space.

Some players bumped around like headless flies, some squatted on the ground studying something, and many more stood frozen like him, struck speechless by the exaggerated sea of humanity.

In the distance, flashes of white teleportation light ignited periodically; each flash sent another novice player out.

Yet immediately, even more dark, pressing figures joined this boiling ocean.

This was no novice village; it was more absurd than the Spring Festival train stations in his memory.

In such a congested scene, finding even a single crack to slip through seemed impossible.

But Ji Chen's attention quickly shifted to himself.

His expression suddenly froze.

He looked down at his hands.

The skin, once covered in cracks and dry as tree bark, was now smooth and intact, glowing with health under the virtual scene's light.

His fingers had become slender and powerful; as he slightly flexed them, his joints emitted crisp sounds, devoid of the familiar stabbing pain from his memories.

He abruptly pressed a hand to his chest.

The grotesque scar that once stretched from his collarbone to his abdomen had also vanished.

Through the coarse black robe, he could feel a young, vigorous heartbeat pounding within his chest.

Although the white hair on his head still cascaded over his shoulders like snow, twisting his neck revealed no stiffness caused by aging.

"This..."

Ji Chen's heart shook; subconsciously, he jumped on the spot, the long-lost sense of lightness nearly making him stumble.

His once-decaying organs no longer dragged down his movements, and his atrophied muscles tightened anew.

He tried throwing a punch at the air; though soft and powerless, far inferior to that decayed body of old, the fluid sensation of perfect coordination between joints and tendons made his eyes burn with heat.

There was no lingering ache from old wounds, no suffocating sensation of organ failure.

He greedily drew deep breaths of air; even the extent of his lung expansion was a luxury once unimaginable.

This made Ji Chen realize that this data-reconstructed body had returned him to the state of his youth.

At this moment, he slowly closed his eyes, letting that long-forgotten lightness flow through his body.

He inhaled deeply, then exhaled slowly; the sound of rushing blood was clearly audible beside his ears.

Feeling the vitality radiating from every strand of qi and blood within him, he felt like withered wood encountering spring, bursting with vibrant life from the inside out.

After a long while, Ji Chen opened his eyes.

Suppressing the excitement in his heart, a smile floated onto his Iron Face:

"This game... truly exceeded my expectations. It seems the rest of my life will be quite interesting."

Moving slowly forward with the crowd, he tried to dodge, but the throng still pressed against him.

Sweeping his gaze around, he saw not only human players but also many figures of different races.

Just then, a player of another race squeezed next to him and looked over:

"Bro, what Soul Soul did you start with?"

Facing the inquiry, Ji Chen smiled and replied:

"Eagle-Headed Demon."

"What a pity. I was thinking of teaming up with you. The Eagle-Headed Demon Soul Soul is indeed strong, but its starting combat power is too low. We'd definitely have to fight over monsters once we get out, and teaming with you wouldn't offer efficient kill rates."

Saying this, the otherworldly player waved his hand with a look of pride, condensing a golden, burning battle axe:

"I started with the Strength Barbarian Axe, perfect for rapid leveling in the early game before switching to a damage-tank build later. This is the strongest opening choice."

Ji Chen smiled and nodded, offering no argument.

He knew very little about this game and truly didn't know which starting Soul Soul was the strongest.

Unlike other players who consulted massive amounts of data before entering the game to compare which Soul Soul was the version's true god, he cared only about the experience, not which playstyle was stronger.

Before entering the game, his understanding of the Monster World was limited to the various monster data in the Monster Bestiary.

But this monster data was clearly useless now.

After all, this newly opened area was the latest scene, a new region that even veteran players had not yet explored.

He planned to wait until he left the scene to practically understand how it felt to release his abilities.

Although the game claimed to possess perfect physical simulation mirroring reality, even if the scene's realism was pushed to the extreme, the skills within the game were ultimately fabricated falsehoods.

There was a fundamental gap between them and true extraordinary power, a difference that clearly could not be compensated for within the game.

Integrating falsehood into reality would inevitably create various awkward discrepancies.

But for the game to achieve such realism had already surpassed his expectations.

Finally, following the crowded masses to the scene's exit, he passed through an invisible barrier along with the crowd, and instantly his body was enveloped in white light.

When his vision cleared, the scene presented before him left Ji Chen stunned.

Staying in the pure white space scene, empty except for novice players, one could still sense the feeling of a virtual world.

But upon leaving the spatial scene, he could find not a single flaw in the view before his eyes.

At the horizon's end, three dim little suns hung in a triangular formation high in the sky; their scattered light was not glaring, as if softened by some invisible filter, casting a warm glow that made the scene resemble twilight.

At this moment, Ji Chen squatted down and reached out to touch the ground.

The tactile sensation transmitted through his fingertips stirred a thrill in his heart.

Picking up a small stone, every edge of the grit on the rough sandstone surface was clearly distinguishable; his fingertips could feel the subtle temperature differences of the rock under the sunlight, and upon close inspection, even minute weathering patterns were visible.

Grabbing a handful of sand, the trajectory and weight of the grains slipping through his fingers, even the form of the dust drifting in the air, were identical to reality.

The only difference was that the gravity in the Monster World scene seemed slightly different from Earth's.

But experiencing it through a body reshaped by data, this perception might contain deviations.

After all, once body strength changes, the perceived gravity also shifts.

Standing up, he gazed toward the horizon.

His pupils trembled slightly at this moment.

The realism of this world had already surpassed the scope of simulation within his cognition.

He could not imagine what kind of technology could manufacture such authentic physical laws.

Having lived for over two hundred years, he never expected to receive such a shock immediately upon returning to Earth.

A scene constructed virtually actually possessed a more realistic sensory impact than reality itself.

Feeling the warmth of the light from the three suns on the back of his hand, Ji Chen stood dumbfounded.

"Old man, move aside. There's no respecting the old and caring for the young in the game. Block the door again, and I'll beat you."

Hearing the voice from behind, Ji Chen decisively stepped aside. He saw a three-meter-tall otherworldly player carrying an earth-yellow shield walk past him, who then turned his head and glared at him.

Facing the provocation, Ji Chen offered no response.

His heart was still immersed in shock.

The more he understood, the more he felt that the technical content required to create such a realistic scene, not to mention the terrifying resource consumption, was immense.

Even the Dragon-Blooded, whom he regarded as omnipotent, would find it fundamentally impossible to achieve this.

What made it even more unbelievable was the air here.

A gentle breeze blew, and he smelled a scent he had never experienced before.

It seemed to be the mineral scent of scorching hot rocks, carrying a plant-like fresh fragrance similar to mint, along with an indescribable slight burning sensation.

The key point was the concentration of spiritual energy in the air.

Even the otherworld where he had struggled for two hundred years could not compare to it by a long shot.

They could not even be said to be on the same level.

The spiritual energy concentration here was over a hundred times stronger than in the otherworld, perhaps even more.

Ji Chen unconsciously took another deep breath.

Instantly, his lungs felt as if injected with a pool of clear spring water.

Every subsequent breath filled him with satisfaction; nearly substantial spiritual energy particles surged through his trachea into his body, transforming into a warm trickle within his chest, sweeping away all the fatigue accumulated from adapting to Earth's environment over recent days.

Ji Chen closed his eyes again, and the laughter of the Dragon-Blooded floated into his mind:

"Chen, you have never experienced the charm of a Great World, so you are destined unable to understand a world capable of birthing powerful races. Every breath can bring optimization to the level of life... Don't disbelieve it; the energy you currently obtain through hard cultivation might not even compare to normal breathing in a Great World. The only difference is that normal breathing cannot utilize the energy, allowing only passive evolution, whereas through the cultivation method I taught you, you have already learned how to utilize energy."

Recalling it now, Ji Chen finally understood the meaning behind the Dragon-Blooded's words.

He also understood why the Dragon-Blooded would use "inhaling and exhaling the essence of the world" to describe cultivation; just as at this moment, every breath was extracting the purest life energy from the air.

He used his skin to feel the flow trajectory of the spiritual energy brought by the breeze.

Invisible energy brushed over his brow bone and nose bridge like silk, finally surging into his body with his breath, stirring and spreading within him.

This sensation made Ji Chen intoxicated.

Originally entering the game with merely an experiential mindset, this game had instead brought him too much shock and surprise.

He realized that the rest of his life might become very interesting.

(End of Chapter)