Chapter 2

The indicator lights on the game helmet, which had been flashing incessantly, finally went out. The man, who had removed the helmet, remained silent, but the twinkling in his eyes betrayed the turmoil in his heart. From this day forward, the game that had accompanied him for many years would no longer be accessible. This was the end of an era, and perhaps... the end of the youth of a boy named Mufeng.

Mufeng, a professional gamer, was the notorious Thief King Xingxie in the game *World of Magic*!

Unplugging the game helmet, Mufeng walked to the storage cabinet at the back wall, picked up a clean cloth, and carefully wiped the helmet. Opening the cabinet, he saw it was filled with old or obsolete gaming equipment. He placed the helmet in the center with great care, closed the door, and hid the cherished fragments of memory.

The new game *Skyrim* would not be released for another half a month. Without a game to play, Mufeng found himself at a loss. However, finding something to do when there's nothing to do is a skill every otaku must have. Why not go to the gym? Physical exercise should never be neglected. Mufeng left his room and went to the third-floor gym.

Taking off his shirt, Mufeng revealed a physique that was truly terrifying.

Yes, terrifying! Mufeng was much more muscular than he looked. His well-defined six-pack abs were complemented by two sexy oblique lines below them. His chest muscles were solid, and his limbs and back were perfectly toned. His entire body was a perfect streamline of muscle, not a bit bulky. However... one thing ruined all the beauty.

It was a fist-sized emerald crystal embedded in Mufeng's left chest. Many green veins extended from the crystal, spreading across his entire chest. In fact, Mufeng's heart had long been gone, lost in that black summer...

Bodies littered the ground, blood flowed everywhere, and his parents' bodies fell before him... The cruel and bloody apocalypse had arrived.

A wolf! A bloodthirsty wolf! A wolf standing on two legs! Mufeng would never forget it. It was this creature that stole his heart! Even with his chest pierced by claws and his heart torn out, he still protected his little sister behind him.

Blood... endless blood. Could a person without a heart still live? Mufeng struggled to breathe, gazing at the blood-red sky as he felt his fragile life slipping away. Until that person appeared, replacing his heart with the green crystal. From that day on, he was no longer truly human...

Reborn, Mufeng's personality changed dramatically. He left his original gaming guild without a word, and the smiling paladin who had once guarded the stars and brought countless honors to the nation disappeared. A shadowy assassin, Thief King Xingxie, emerged. No one knew that these two characters were controlled by the same person. Wu Feng was the first to know!

"997... 998... 999... 1000! Phew..." Mufeng struggled to complete his thousandth push-up. To train, he had bought a lot of exercise equipment, and after completing a workout that most people could hardly imagine, he felt no fatigue at all. Mufeng's body had been transformed by the crystal, becoming a terrifying human machine.

For an otaku, Mufeng's exercise routine was almost mythical, surpassing even that of a special forces soldier. Perhaps, Mufeng's goal had already surpassed that of a special forces soldier. The brutal training was all for the day he could kill the terrifying creature that had taken his parents' lives and turned him into a half-human, half-monster!

"Hmm... Finally, my beloved!" After completing his inhuman training, washing away the sweat, Mufeng found a girl who looked like an angel standing on the sofa in the living room, waiting for him.

The girl had golden hair and wore a pure black Gothic princess dress. Her features were so delicate they seemed almost fantastical, and her eyes were as bright as gemstones, pure and innocent. She was holding a unique rabbit plushie and looking at Mufeng. Although her words seemed nonsensical, they did not diminish her angelic aura.

"Ku... I've been waiting for a long time. Hurry up! Offer me a delicious sacrifice!" Enjoying Mufeng's warm hand on her hair, the girl, named Kui, slowly raised her right hand and made a V sign in front of her ruby-red right eye. Her eyes, one blue and one red, were as mysterious as a Persian cat, and the happy smile on her lips was irresistible.

"Okay, okay, I'll do it right away. You've been taking your clothes off everywhere again!" It turned out that Kui had changed into this beautiful princess dress as soon as she came home from school. Her clothes were scattered all over the sofa and floor! Mufeng had to pick them up one by one. A short-sleeved white shirt, a blue school skirt, a pink bra, white cotton socks, and... well, blue and white striped cute underwear!

"Quick, put them away!" Seeing her intimate clothes in Mufeng's hands, the little girl finally blushed. It was just too hot, and she didn't want to wear her school uniform for a second longer!

With a helpless smile, Mufeng put away all the clothes. Of course, Kui was just his sister, and the "beloved" thing was just a delusion of her middle school syndrome.

At some point, Kui's style had become strange, and she started calling herself the True Blood Lord. Mufeng was forced to take on the role of her "beloved" who had signed an eternal contract. Mufeng just smiled and treated it as a rebellious phase of a little girl.

Opening the fridge in the kitchen, Mufeng found that he had used up too much food recently and forgotten to restock. It seemed that only two bags of dumplings were suitable for a quick meal.

The kitchen was open, and looking at Kui, who was eagerly waiting on the sofa, Mufeng felt a warm feeling in his heart. All the hardships of the past had finally turned into sweetness through his own efforts.

Actually, Mufeng and Kui were not blood-related siblings. Kui was a beautiful mixed-race girl, while Mufeng was an orphan adopted by Kui's parents, with no foreign blood at all.

Kui's father had married a British wife while studying in the UK, which was why Kui had golden hair and blue eyes. The little girl had inherited her mother's beauty completely. As for Mufeng's background, it had become a mystery after his parents' death.

The sudden death of his parents disrupted Mufeng's simple life as a high school student. When he started managing the household, he realized that his carefree parents were actually living paycheck to paycheck! And the house they were living in... still had ten years of mortgage to pay! Plus, he had a sister who was alone and helpless. How could a high school student bear all this?

Kui still had some relatives on her father's side, and her mother's family in the UK was not completely out of touch. Mufeng wanted to entrust Kui to someone who could raise her. If he raised Kui himself, her life would be very hard. He could give up his parents' inheritance. But... Kui refused!

"No! I don't want anyone else to be my dad. My dad and mom will always be only one! Brother, don't leave me!~" When the elementary school girl Kui grabbed Mufeng's sleeve and said this, Mufeng's heart was deeply pierced. Since his parents' death, he had been pretending to be strong, but in front of the little girl, he finally broke down!

"But... I'm afraid I can't take good care of you!" Seeing Kui like this, Mufeng couldn't stop the tears from streaming down his face, no matter how hard he tried to hold them back.

"Because it's just me! Without me, brother will surely feel lonely! We are siblings!" Kui buried her angelic face in Mufeng's shirt, refusing to let go of his sleeve.

"I understand... I will raise you! Kui, as long as we have each other, this family will not fall apart!" Squatting down to look Kui in the eye, Mufeng made a promise to her as a man!

Thus... Mufeng abandoned the legendary paladin and started training a thief, who was unbeatable in PvP. Using another identity, he swept through all the online and offline tournaments, earning all the prizes, and finally brought his and Kui's lives back to a happy level.

"Dumplings are ready!" Placing two steaming plates of dumplings on the table, Mufeng smiled at Kui.

"Hmm... Today's offering is also delicious! Mmm!~" Watching his cute sister Kui eat one by one, Mufeng felt a deep sense of satisfaction. But he knew better than anyone that if he wanted this life to continue and not let Kui suffer, he had to make money in the new game *Skyrim*!

Being a professional gamer was now Mufeng's job, so the success or failure in the game was very important to him. Using the time before the game's release, he collected a lot of information about *Skyrim* and finally made a decision. In the new game, he would abandon his familiar class and choose a new, unknown class: the Demon Hunter!

This was a risky decision. Mastering a class was very difficult, and before *Skyrim* was released, no one knew what it would be like. Moreover, *Skyrim* used DNA binding and did not support multiple character creation, allowing only one character at a time. If the Demon Hunter turned out to be unsuitable, the loss of deleting and re-creating a character would be significant.

The Demon Hunter specialized in crescent-shaped dual blades. For equipment diversity, daggers, knuckles, and one-handed swords could also be equipped, but the top-tier Demon Hunter weapons would definitely be dual blades. To get used to the attack style of the crescent blades, Mufeng specially bought two full-steel models of the Ashen Blade and built a human-shaped target in the corner of his room.

For ordinary people, just lifting one of these full-steel models with both hands would be incredibly heavy. Mufeng, however, had to wield two of them and launch fierce attacks! Fortunately, he had a terrifying physique, and facing the dummy, he could wield the dual blades with incredible speed, even creating afterimages.

Swinging left and right, Mufeng experimented with various attack and defense possibilities. Although the game would not be as realistic, practicing in advance was definitely beneficial. The dual blades flew up and down, cutting the dummy to pieces, and a final horizontal slash decapitated it completely!

"Phew..." Perfectly finishing his move, Mufeng was very satisfied with the destruction he had caused. Over the past few days, he had completely mastered the attack style of the dual blades.

While training, Mufeng gathered more important information about *Skyrim*. *Skyrim* was developed by the mysterious company Tianji, which had acquired Blizzard a few years ago, achieving a leap in game technology. The breakthrough 99% realistic virtual reality technology alone far surpassed the original holographic helmet.

The game mode also saw new breakthroughs, sweeping away the simple level-up tasks and incorporating elements of action games. The monsters had high intelligence and many variables, reducing the tedium of grinding and allowing players to focus on the game at any time. However, this also increased the game's difficulty. More emphasis was placed on the wild, and some powerful world bosses could drop equipment that was even higher in level than the current highest difficulty raid!

As for the classes, there were known to be over a dozen. Although Tianji was hyped up, the specific information about each class remained shrouded in mystery.

*Skyrim* had a daily playtime limit of twelve hours and could be played during sleep, with the quality of rest being even better than normal sleep. This was a great benefit for office workers and students, allowing them to avoid falling too far behind high-level players due to work and study. After the game's release, although Mufeng would be busier, he could still take care of Kui by using his sleep time to play.

Finally, the highly anticipated *Skyrim* server opening time arrived! Determined to make a mark in *Skyrim*, Mufeng entered the game pod ten minutes early.

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