Hearing the system prompt sound again, Shawn Chen shook his head and decided not to overthink it. After all, this was a revolutionary game, and there were bound to be things beyond his understanding. He steadied his mind and said:

“Sealed Dust.”

“Name successful. The game will use your original appearance without any adjustments. However, you may purchase masks or veils in the store after entering the game to conceal your appearance. To help players quickly adapt, the pain sensation in the game will start at 5%, and the system will automatically increase it by 5% every ten levels. Other senses will be identical to the real world.

After entering the game, the system will randomly generate a lifelong talent for each player based on their overall characteristics. Every talent has its unique features, so make good use of it. When choosing a class, try to select one that matches your talent.”

“All right, enjoy the game! The game is about to begin… 10 9 … 3…2…1”

As the voice faded, a flash of light appeared, and Shawn Chen found himself standing in the novice village. Around him, white lights kept flashing, and people continued to appear, soon crowding the area.

“Is this the game?”

“D*mn, this is way too realistic.”

“This is just like reality.”

“D*mn it, who the hell touched my butt?”

“Uh, sorry, I just wanted to try the feel. I thought I was dreaming, but it’s really 100% realism.”

“D*mn it, then let me grab you to see how real it is!”

“No way! I’ve already confirmed it; it’s very real!”

The countless noisy voices around him made Shawn Chen almost unable to tell whether he was in the real world or the game.

“Welcome to Oracle. You were born in Novice Village No. 8365. Your starter gift pack has been delivered. Your talent has been generated. Your talent is [Source of Venom]. Please check it in your character panel.”

“Source of Venom? What the hell? How does someone as upright as me have anything to do with poison?” Shawn Chen was utterly confused because he knew that everyone's talent was determined based on themselves. He couldn’t figure out how poison was related to him.

Looking back, in reality, after Shawn Chen’s consciousness entered the game, his skin gradually turned pale, and toxins started to invade his bloodstream. A while later, when the game helmet collected a blood sample, it detected the presence of toxins in his blood. The game helmet ultimately absorbed most of the toxins from Shawn Chen’s body.

“Open the character panel,” Shawn Chen silently thought.

Name: Sealed 

DustLevel: 0

Health: 50

Mana: 50

Physical Attack: 10

Magic Attack: 10

Physical Defense: 5

Magic Defense: 5

Movement Speed: 5

Experience: 0/100

Strength: 5 (Affects Physical Attack, 1 point of Strength = 2 points of Physical Attack)

Intelligence: 5 (Affects Magic Attack, 1 point of Intelligence = 2 points of Magic Attack)

Constitution: 5 (Affects Health, 1 point of Constitution = 10 points of Health)

Vitality: 5 (Affects Defense, 1 point of Vitality = 1 point of Physical Defense and 1 point of Magic Defense)

Spirit: 5 (Affects Mana, 1 point of Spirit = 10 points of Mana)

Agility: 5 (Affects Movement Speed and Attack Speed, 1 point of Agility = 1 point of Movement Speed and 0.2% Attack Speed)

At the start, everyone’s attributes are 5. This makes it very fair, except for talents that add attributes.

Skill: Insight (Allows you to view information about monsters up to 10 levels higher than your own)

Talent: Source of Venom: Basic attacks or melee skills will inflict venom on the target (ranged attacks cannot trigger it), dealing 1 point of true damage per second, stackable once, lasting for 60 seconds. During the poisoning period, the target cannot heal. Feature: Each time you kill a target 5 levels higher than yourself, the venom damage increases by 1 point. Each time you kill a boss of at least your own level, the venom stack increases by one (each realm boss can only trigger this once).

Shawn Chen stared blankly at his talent. Although at first, it seemed pretty useless, after reading the feature, Shawn Chen felt his heart start to race. With his understanding of games, he could tell that if this talent were stacked later on, it would be terrifying.

He felt like he was about to soar! Houses, cars, money, girls—they were all within reach. At this point, he no longer cared whether or not he had any connection to poison; he only knew that this talent was awesome…

He quickly opened his inventory and opened the starter gift pack, as expected—a wooden sword and a cloth robe.

Wooden Sword: Physical Attack +2 (Novice Equipment)Cloth Robe: Physical Defense +1 (Novice Equipment)

Better than nothing, he immediately equipped them. His attack became 12, and his defense became 6.

He glanced at the noisy crowd around him, with the constant flashes of white light. He estimated that this novice village alone had nearly 10,000 people. According to the official announcement, there were 10,000 novice villages in Huaxia (China) alone. If every novice village were like this, it meant that as soon as the game launched, there were already over 100 million players in Huaxia. That was terrifying…

After finally squeezing out of the crowd, he tried to find an NPC to see if there were any quests, only to find that the village had only about ten NPCs, all surrounded by layers of players.

“Uh, forget it, even if there are quests early on, the rewards won’t be high. It’s better not to waste time. Hunting monsters is more efficient,” Shawn Chen thought to himself.

He walked towards the village entrance, leading to a grassland filled with hopping rabbits. At this moment, the entire grassland was already swarming with players, though white lights would occasionally flash, indicating that players were dying.

“Can people really kill such cute rabbits?” Shawn Chen wondered, surprised. He approached a rabbit and cast Insight on it.

[White Rabbit]Level: 1Health: 100Physical Attack: 12Physical Defense: 7Speed: 6Skill: None

Looking at the rabbit’s stats and then at his own, Shawn Chen’s mouth twitched. He finally understood why people were dying; without a team, most players couldn’t even defeat the weakest rabbit.

Before level 10, players' stats were almost the same. With the wooden sword, he had an attack of 12 points, and with the cloth robe, his defense was only 6 points. This meant he could deal 5 damage to the rabbit per hit, while the rabbit could deal 6 damage to him. The key was that the rabbit had 100 health, while the player only had 50 health. Early on, attack speeds were the same, so it was basically a one-hit-one situation, and the result was obvious. The most annoying thing was that the rabbit was slightly faster than the player, meaning that you couldn’t even run away if you were losing. Was this game serious?

“D*mn, the game devs are really evil. I’ve already been killed by a rabbit twice, can you believe it?”

“I’ve had it even worse. I was one of the first to get out here, and I’ve already died three times. After playing games for so many years, this is the first time I’ve ever been unable to beat a rabbit. How embarrassing!”

Although many players were dying, the sheer number of players was overwhelming. Often, as soon as a rabbit respawned, several players would swarm it. Without a team, the experience went to the last hitter, and as for the loot, it depended on who was quicker. So far, many rabbits had died, but occasionally, a copper coin or rabbit fur would drop. No equipment had been seen yet—the drop rate in Oracle was truly heart-wrenching.

“D*mn it, killing one rabbit only gives 1 experience point. I finally managed to snag one. How long will it take to kill 100 rabbits?” someone complained. Shawn Chen’s mouth twitched. Was this game really that hard?

Looking at the bustling players around him, it seemed impossible to hunt here. The rabbit he had just observed was already surrounded by a crowd. Forget it, I’ll go find another spot, Shawn Chen thought.