A middle-aged man with thinning hair and a beer belly sat on a large leather chair in the office and said to the young man standing opposite him.

"Why?" Shawn Chen asked angrily.

In fact, he had a rough idea of what was going on. Wasn't it just last night that he caught him doing something with the secretary? What's the big deal?

"Because I'm the boss..." the middle-aged man said triumphantly.

"This guy must be afraid I'll tell," Shawn Chen thought to himself.

Although he wanted to tell him that he wasn't a gossip, he thought better of it. With a boss like this, even if he stayed, he might be given all sorts of trouble.

"If you want to fire me, you can, but according to the law, the company needs to pay three months' salary if it unilaterally terminates an employee," Shawn Chen said. Since he was leaving anyway, he might as well maximize his benefits.

"You're thinking..." the middle-aged man was about to let out a curse, but suddenly thought that if this matter really got out of hand and his wife found out, it would be trouble. In the end, he could only suppress his anger and said, "I don't need your measly money. Get your money from finance and get out."

Soon, Shawn Chen settled his salary with the finance department, packed up his things and left the company. Looking at the bustling crowd on the street, he didn't know where to go for a while. He had graduated two years ago and had achieved nothing. Now he had even lost his job. You know, in a city like SZ, you need money as soon as you open your eyes, and without income, you can't even afford to put a hot dog in your instant noodles.

"Forget it, I'll just keep looking for a job," Shawn Chen thought to himself.

Just then, a poster flew towards him and stuck to his face. Shawn Chen took it off and saw that it was a promotional picture of the recently globally popular game "Oracle."

In the past month, the advertisements for "Oracle" had been ubiquitous. It was said that the game's mainframe was not of the current civilization, but a product of a cross-generational era. The specific origin of the mainframe was not announced. The game was jointly developed by the world's top five online game giants through the mainframe, and could achieve 100% realism, which means that the five senses in the game were exactly the same as in the real world.

"It's really a cross-generational game," Shawn Chen sighed. Unfortunately, this game wasn't played on a computer, but required a gaming helmet to play.

"D*mn, a helmet costs 10,000 dollar, and I haven't saved up 50,000 dollar in two years of work."

"Wait, no, I just got three months' salary, exactly 10,500 dollar. Why don't I..." Shawn Chen's heart moved. This game was completely different from traditional games, and it could be said to have unlimited possibilities. As someone who often played games, Shawn Chen could see this.

However, while he had confidence in the game, he had no confidence in himself. This game was for players all over the world. At that time, those big-name players in the online game world and those rich people who had nowhere to spend their money would definitely be the first to choose this game. Although he had played many games, his skills... well, he definitely couldn't compare to those people.

"This is a gamble," Shawn Chen muttered. After all, for him, 10,000 dollar almost emptied his pockets. With the remaining few hundred dollar, he couldn't last a few days in a city like SZ. Except for the salary he got today, he actually only had 200 dollar left in his card, which meant that if he didn't make any money in the game, he wouldn't even be able to pay his rent by the end of the month.

"D*mn it, let's gamble. At worst, I'll sleep under a bridge. If it really doesn't work out, I'll just find another job. Besides, I like playing games anyway, and now that I have this opportunity, I can't give up."

No sooner said than done, Shawn Chen took a taxi to the nearest helmet sales point. Why did he take a taxi when he was so poor? Because "Oracle" would officially open at 12 noon today, and it was almost 10 o'clock now. How could he not be in a hurry? Since he had decided to play, he couldn't be left behind.

When he arrived at the sales point, he saw a long queue and once again marveled at the popularity of the game. The game helmets had been on sale for a month, and it was said that there were a lot of people queuing up to buy them every day. Now that the server was about to open, there were still so many people.

Shawn Chen waited in line for more than an hour before he could buy a gaming helmet. Looking at the time, it was 11:25 pm. He quickly hailed another taxi and rushed home. On the way, he kept urging the driver to hurry up. Finally, he arrived home at 11:50 pm.

Suddenly, he felt a little hungry. Remembering that he hadn't even had breakfast today, he knew that he wouldn't be able to come out for a while once he entered the game, and his body definitely couldn't hold up.

At this time, it was too late to cook or go out to eat, so he searched everywhere in his house and finally found a bag of bread that he didn't know when it had fallen under the bed. Seeing that the package hadn't been opened, Shawn Chen didn't think too much about it and tore it open, finishing it in three bites.

Burping, Shawn Chen slowly put on the gaming helmet. The time was 11:55 pm.

"Eh, why do I feel a little pain in my stomach?"

Shawn Chen's consciousness quickly entered the game, and a grand scene appeared before him. It was a battlefield, and countless attacked the tiny humans below. There were also countless monsters on land chasing after the fleeing humans, and those who were caught were almost torn to pieces.

Among the humans, there were also countless strong people resisting the attack of the monsters. There were mages wearing noble robes standing in mid-air, operating various elements to attack the monsters below on a large scale.

There were archers who held bows and arrows and fired frantically at the aerial monsters.

There were shield guards who held up their shields and stood at the front, one against a thousand.

There were warriors who held war axes and fought seven in and seven out among the monsters.

There were also assassins who appeared and disappeared, harvesting the remaining blood of the monsters.

Behind the crowd, there were priests wearing white robes, like holy angels, constantly healing their teammates.

These were the six major professions of Oracle: mages, archers, shield guards, warriors, assassins, and priests.

Although there were many strong human beings, they could not withstand the overwhelming monster army. In the end, all the humans on the battlefield were killed, and countless monsters roared in the battlefield, as if showing off their victory.

Shawn Chen looked at the scene in front of him in shock, the feeling of being there made his hair stand on end. It was too terrifying, not like a game at all, but like something that really happened.

Just as Shawn Chen was shocked, the scene changed, and Shawn Chen suddenly found himself in a large hall. At this time, a system prompt sounded:

"Brainwave scanning..."

"Scan complete..."

"Blood sample extraction..."

Shawn Chen suddenly felt a sharp pain on his scalp.

"What the hell, does the gaming helmet even prick?"

He waited for a while before hearing the system prompt...

"Blood sample extraction complete, DNA binding in progress..."

"Binding complete"

"Identity verification in progress..."

Name: Shawn Chen

ID card: 328517

Age: 24

Nationality: China

Your bank card has been bound and you can now make cash transactions in the game.

...

"This is a game?..."

Shawn Chen stared at the space in front of him as if he had seen a ghost. D*mn, just a simple scan and it even checked his household registration, how terrifying is that?

Here's a more natural-sounding English translation:

Shawn Chen felt a sudden prick on his scalp.

"What the heck, does the gaming helmet have needles?"

He waited a bit before hearing the system prompt...

"Blood sample extracted. DNA binding... complete. Verifying your identity..."

Name: Shawn Chen

ID card: 328517

Age: 24

Nationality: China

Your bank card is now linked. You can make in-game purchases.

...

"This is a game?..."

Shawn Chen stared at the space in front of him in disbelief. Just one scan and it got all his personal info, including his household registration? How creepy is that?