A deep gray-themed cybercafe, bustling with people coming and going.
The light rain outside didn’t dampen the enthusiasm of the customers for using the internet. As you put away your umbrella and entered through the front door, your eyes were immediately drawn to the prominent LCD display screen in the center, continuously playing the new expansion of “Genesis 3.0.”
Occasionally, people would pause to watch for a moment, but most just briskly walked past, heading to the counter to pick up their pre-booked virtual cabin information cards and proceed to swipe in.
When Jiang Shi left home, it wasn’t raining, so he entered the cybercafe without any shelter from the rain. His clothes had already been speckled with raindrops.
His slightly damp hair fell on both sides of his face, adding a fragile touch to his already attention-grabbing countenance, causing the customers coming to use the internet to subconsciously glance at him.
“Hello, do you have a reservation?”
The on-duty female attendant discreetly pinched herself a couple of times to avoid blushing too much when Jiang Shi shook his head.
Her voice became even softer, “I’m sorry, our cybercafe operates on a membership reservation system. Without a prior booking, we may not have any available virtual cabins for you.”
“It’s quite upscale now,” Jiang Shi casually touched his damp hair, smiling faintly. “No problem, or maybe I can phrase it differently. Is Bi Binghuo here? I’m looking for him.”
“Oh, you know our boss? Please wait here for a moment!” The attendant blushed a little due to his smile and hurriedly went to make the call.
Jiang Shi didn’t mind waiting, and his fingertips lightly tapped the counter to the background music.
Suddenly, there was a burst of cheers from the exhibition hall not far away.
Jiang Shi blinked slowly and followed the sound.
At first glance, he saw the fierce battle for the central holographic projection area.
The [Genesis Century Cup] was in full swing.
This afternoon, the Guild Ranking Tournament for the top eight guilds was taking place, and the results of this competition would determine which teams could qualify for the final of this year’s championship for their respective game guilds.
Many people in the crowd still held information cards.
However, it was clear that, at this moment, they would rather consume their computer time without reservation than miss the heated competition.
Jiang Shi took a quick look at the battle.
Just by observing the player survival status in this match, it was evident that the competition on-site was fierce.
The Night Raiders, ranked 10th, were almost completely wiped out, and their revival countdown was quite pathetic. The more times you die, the longer the revival time, which had essentially cost them their chance to compete.
As a result, the 8th, 9th, and 11th ranked teams had intensified their efforts to score kills.
Their position was relatively far from the BOSS point, so they seemed to have given up on earning significant points from the map BOSS, opting for a more conservative tactic to secure their position in the game.
On the other hand, the final stage of the BOSS battle had also reached a boiling point.
Three out of the four major BOSS in the entire map had already been defeated, with only the Death Hunter Bruce remaining.
He was located near the Icefield area.
The dazzling skills around the scene indicated that the four teams that had arrived were all eager to finish the game before other teams found the BOSS, and the competition was intense.
Among these four teams, the Blood Roses and the Crusaders were in the 1st and 2nd place in the point rankings for this round, while the other two were in 4th and 6th place. However, overall, the point difference between these four teams was not significant. Whoever could kill the Death Hunter Bruce and gain the massive points would undoubtedly take the top spot in the point standings and earn the crucial medal for this round.
Under the siege of the four teams, the boss’s health had dropped to a perilous 30%, and the hatred was temporarily on the Knight of the Blood Roses. However, in the competition for the boss, the situation was always changing, and no one knew what would happen until the end.
The audience nearby engaged in heated discussions.
“Spring God’s healing power is simply incredible. If they can’t take care of him, there’s no way to snatch the hatred from Blood Roses, right?”
“Who’s commanding the Crusaders this round? I don’t know what they’re doing, just roaming the perimeter, trying to score single kills. At this point, those minor point scores don’t make any sense!”
“What do you know? It’s called seizing opportunities!”
“I think they might be trying to delay the cooldown of the other teams. In the final team battle, having fewer troublemakers is also a good strategy.”
“Is that so?”
“But come to think of it, I haven’t seen God Yu. Where is he?”
“Yeah! The Crusaders have been blocking people outside for a long time. It seems like we haven’t seen God Yu for a while!”
…
…
…
“You’re talking about God Yu, as in Yu Weize?”
A group of people stared at the screen, and the sudden voice caught them off guard.
“Yeah, who else?” The audience, who had returned a bit impatient, softened their tone after seeing the speaker’s appearance. “You didn’t know that? Are you new to Genesis? A beginner?”
“I played during the first season, so I’m not exactly a beginner.” Jiang Shi glanced at the intense match on the holographic projection and raised an eyebrow meaningfully. “It’s been about five years, and I didn’t expect Yu Weize to still be playing.”
“That’s right, God Yu has indeed been the ancient deity who has been persisting since the early versions until now! Currently, probably only those few like Spring God have remained on the leaderboards, right?”
Speaking to this point, the audience couldn’t help but click their tongues in nostalgia. “Thinking about it, Blood Roses and Crusaders have been battling it out for a whole five years, real arch-enemies!”
After saying this and noticing that Jiang Shi was silently watching the holographic projection, the speaker continued, “But recently, there have been a lot of old players coming back. The concept of ‘game as reality‘ in Genesis is well-executed, and they’re not shy about marketing. The rewards for returning players are genuinely rich; it’s quite a deal.”
Jiang Shi finally smiled and said, “Indeed, I think so too.”
In the midst of the conversation, the health points of Death Hunter Bruce had dropped below 10%.
Someone in the crowd suddenly shouted, “The BOSS has gone berserk!”
As if it were a signal, the previously relatively peaceful holographic map suddenly became lively.
All four teams at the scene obviously didn’t want to miss this final opportunity. They simultaneously put in their efforts, and a string of kill messages filled the screen.
The dazzling skill effects were interspersed with the berserk attacks of Death Hunter Bruce, creating a chaotic scene.
However, amidst this chaos, Jiang Shi, in a corner that was easy to overlook, caught a fleeting black figure.
A hint of interest appeared at the corner of his mouth.
Silently, the mechanical array had been set up without anyone noticing.
The ID above that character’s head was indeed [Yu Weize] as mentioned earlier.
Positioned at the edge, he didn’t move closer. His straight back remained upright, and under the operation of his mechanical hands, several mechanisms were accurately placed from their initial positions into the crowd.
Avoiding the sweep of the surrounding skills.
Quietly moving, attentively waiting for an opportunity.
Jiang Shi naturally knew what this person was waiting for.
He squinted his eyes slightly, a hint of sharpness not easy to capture in his gaze.
8%, 5%, 3%, 2%, 1%…
The health points of Death Hunter Bruce were about to be depleted. Suddenly, a hand patted Jiang Shi’s shoulder, making his heart skip a beat in the tense environment.
“I thought you were someone else coming to find me, but I didn’t expect you to be back for real!”
Jiang Shi turned around and was hit by a wave of smoke, furrowing his brow.
Before he could respond, the cheers from the surroundings almost brought the roof down.
In that brief interruption, the outcome of the match had already been decided.
Jiang Shi glanced at the point tally on the projection, and he could see that after the Crusaders killed the BOSS, they had pulled significantly ahead of the Blood Roses.
They had secured the first place for this round!
Amid the cheers of the Crusaders’ guild fans, there were a few insults from the Blood Roses’ fans: “Yu Weize, this old schemer, always plotting in the shadows!”
Jiang Shi found it quite amusing.
In fact, this man had become known for his tactical genius five years ago.
He let out a small laugh but didn’t say anything and turned to look at the man in front of him.
With a friendly smile, he said, “Boss Bi, it’s been a long time. I suddenly wanted to play for a while today. Do you have any virtual cabins available?”
“You, you sneaked away without a word back then, and now you’re back to get special treatment from me?” Bi Binghuo said, glancing at Jiang Shi and crushing his cigarette butt. “But according to what Jiang Yan told me, when you went abroad back then, it was for… that.”
He gestured with a pointed finger to the head region, raising an eyebrow. “You also know that I pursued Jiang Yan for years. Now, you come back to use the computer here. If she finds out, won’t she kill me?”
“Don’t worry, if I could come back, it means I’m almost fully recovered. Besides, my sister already has a boyfriend, so you don’t have to keep thinking about her.”
Jiang Shi, with his hands in his pockets, leaned casually against the wall behind him, looking harmless. “Today, I’ll buy a two-hour pass and log in for a while. She won’t find out.”
“I know about her having a boyfriend; I’ve even met the guy in person. You don’t have to specifically come here to twist the knife in my heart.”
Bi Binghuo appeared somewhat conflicted. After a moment of contemplation, he finally clapped his hands. “Alright, Xiao Guo will set you up for two hours! It’s cabin 666 in section E, my reserved spot. Speaking of which, back in the day, you were in section 1… Ah, it’s really a shame that you don’t play anymore.”
Jiang Shi smiled but didn’t respond. He said his thanks and went to the front desk to have the attendant open a pass for him.
The deep gray-themed holographic cybercafe was divided into five sections: A, B, C, D, and E, with the quality increasing as you moved further back. As the owner of the cybercafe, Bi Binghuo naturally reserved the best top-tier virtual cabin for himself. Those who could afford this area either had well-paying real-life jobs or were professional gamers with high demands for virtual cabins.
As Jiang Shi walked towards section E, he couldn’t help but feel a bit nostalgic. Back then, when he and his old buddies were pioneering the game, they could never have imagined that five years later, Genesis would become a globally popular phenomenon.
Now, it not only led electronic sports into the era of full immersion but also spawned a range of peripheral industries dependent on this virtual world for survival.
More and more people were entering Genesis for profit, gradually making this virtual world a second parallel dimension for humanity.
[The game is reality].
Just as the concept presented by Genesis, this holographic game indeed opened up a new era.
However, Jiang Shi didn’t have any other thoughts for the moment. He had just completed a phase of treatment abroad and returned to China. The reason he had this sudden urge to visit this cybercafe not far from home was mainly due to the official invitation message from Genesis sent to all returning old players.
Every two years, there was a major data update, and this year marked the second version change for Genesis. The 3.0 version had opened up new levels and skills beyond the existing framework, and along with the consolidation of all servers, it provided very generous incentives for old players who had quit.
As the cybercafe audience had just mentioned, it was indeed a good time for a comeback.
Jiang Shi skillfully lay down in the virtual cabin, swiped his card, and logged in. Following the system prompt to read his iris, his personal data was successfully entered. He didn’t create a new character but directly activated an account that had been sealed due to inactivity for a long time in the first district.
Confirming login.
As the familiar character modeling appeared before his eyes, a system notification message popped up at the same time:
[Dear Genesis player, it has been 1866 days since your last login to the game. The Returning Player Benefits System has now been successfully activated. With the 3.0 version, all data is shared from the first district to the tenth district. To provide a better gaming experience, all returning players are eligible for one free name change. If not used, you will need to purchase a name change card after your first login. Would you like to use this free opportunity? [Yes] or [No].]
Jiang Shi’s gaze lingered on the choice for a moment. Although a name change card wasn’t too expensive, considering the ‘free gift‘ aspect, it was better to make use of it. He didn’t hesitate too much and chose “Yes.”
One message after another continued to appear:
[Please enter the game ID you want to change to.]
[The game ID you want to change is ‘Material Main Account.’ Are you sure? [Yes] or [No].]
[New ID successfully changed, importing game…]
[Import complete.]
The screen in front of Jiang Shi darkened. Then, as the light returned, a clear system prompt echoed in his mind:
[Welcome back to the Genesis continent.]
Author’s Note:
Here we go, the story begins! It’s been a while since I’ve written my immersive holographic style. All rights for this story are reserved by the author.
PS. About the secondary CP (couple pairing) written at the very beginning, I hope not to ask about it later.
There’s a secondary CP, like the sister and her boyfriend, but I won’t be dedicating separate content to the secondary CP. This should make it clear enough.
AAAAA so excited (´༎ຶ ͜ʖ ༎ຶ `)♡ thank you for picking this up T.T .I thought it would take years before I see this in the completed tag and read the novel. So this was a nice surprise.