Chapter 9

The man in the sunglasses flicked the ash from his cigarette and said, "If you often go online, you should remember that about a year ago, there was a period when a large number of mass disappearance news stories appeared, which were later debunked. That was actually the first appearance of the Illusion."

Jia Shuai was surprised and said, "So the government already knows about the existence of the Illusion? Then why..."

"Why don't they seal off the area where the Illusion is located?" The man in the sunglasses clearly guessed what Jia Shuai was going to ask and smiled, shrugging his shoulders. "Of course they did, but they soon found it unrealistic."

"How so?"

"Because the appearance of the Illusion in the real world is like this."

As he spoke, the man in the sunglasses put away the map, stretched out his finger, and drew a circle on the coffee table, then spread his fingers and placed them on it.

"Each Illusion initially appears as a hemispherical area with a diameter of 50 meters, shrouded in thick purple mist."

"The time flow inside and outside the Illusion is different. No matter how much time passes inside the Illusion, the outside world always experiences only 24 hours. After each opening of the Illusion, there is a cooldown period to reset the internal timeline, during which it is impossible to enter the Illusion. The higher the level of the Illusion, the longer the cooldown period."

The man in the sunglasses paused slightly and pointed to the upper right direction, saying, "You've also seen the mission bar—actually, Illusions with only a time limit are quite rare. Most of the time, there is also a main mission objective."

"If the players fail to complete the mission within the specified time, or if they are completely wiped out inside the Illusion, then something terrible happens—"

As he spoke, the man in the sunglasses drew a larger circle around the one he had just drawn.

"You mean the Illusion's range in the real world will expand outward?"

Jia Shuai's face changed slightly, clearly realizing that this so-called Illusion was gradually encroaching on the real world.

Currently, the Illusion has only been around for less than a year, and its impact on the real world is still minimal.

However, as time goes on, when the Illusion's range expands to a certain extent, it is easy to imagine the terrifying turmoil that human society will face as living space is greatly compressed.

The man in the sunglasses, seeing the changing expression on Jia Shuai's face, knew he had grasped the key issue and continued, "Not only that, the most troublesome thing is—unless a special item is used, no player can re-enter the same Illusion."

Jia Shuai finally understood and said, "So... this is why the government tacitly allows the existence of Illusion players?"

The man in the sunglasses raised an eyebrow, his expression speaking volumes.

"The number of standing troops in each country is fixed, and no one dares to risk starting a war by arbitrarily increasing the number of troops... Moreover, the death rate in the Illusion is extremely high, and the government cannot throw carefully trained troops into this bottomless pit."

"Based on the above points, although the government has not yet publicly recruited ordinary people to enter the Illusion, they still take a tolerant attitude towards us ordinary people who have become players... However, the frequency of the Illusion's appearance is increasing, and this secret will not be kept for much longer."

Seeing that Jia Shuai still had questions, the man in the sunglasses waved his hand and lifted his wrist to point at his watch.

"The things you want to know will naturally be told to you after we leave the Illusion. For now, we only have three days, so let's hurry and earn as many points as possible. The road ahead... is still long."

...

Under the infinite stamina provided by "Death Rebirth," Luo Jie almost worked non-stop for 24 hours, slashing at every zombie in his field of vision.

The entire mall, from the second floor upwards, was almost emptied by his relentless killing.

Wherever he went, whether in the corridors or rooms, only the remains of mutilated zombie corpses were left, and occasionally, dense piles of zombies of varying heights could be seen.

Pfft!

With a bright sword light, the head of the last zombie in his field of vision flew off, splattering the wall with dark brown blood.

Luo Jie mechanically looked around, his eyes hollow and terrifying.

"Oh... are they all gone?"

Luo Jie subconsciously wiped the blood from his face, finally regaining a semblance of a living person's expression.

Although "Death Rebirth" could restore his stamina and spirit at any time, the tedium of long-term repetitive killing was something he had to bear himself.

At some point, his main consciousness had shut down, and he was simply swinging his sword at anything that moved on autopilot.

Sitting on two stacked zombie corpses with a sword that was no longer recognizable, Luo Jie took a deep breath of the air, which was heavy with the smell of blood and decay, and pulled out a chocolate bar he had found in a tea room, putting it in his mouth. The sweetness melting on his tongue finally made him feel a sense of self.

Opening his personal main interface, the most prominent countdown on the right side of the mission bar had turned red.

—02:23:31.

"So it's already this time..."

Luo Jie muttered to himself, his gaze then turned to the points column.

135270.

He was clearly taken aback. Although he had expected it, seeing this enormous number of points still left him with a mix of emotions.

He really did it...

However, earning this first pot of gold in his rebirth was truly too hard, completely achieved through non-stop effort, which made it difficult for Luo Jie to feel the joy of sudden wealth.

"But it's still not enough..."

Luo Jie scratched his greasy hair in distress. "Death Rebirth" only restored his physical state, not the impurities that had been expelled from his body. After two days of non-stop fighting, he smelled almost as bad as the zombies.

With less than two and a half hours left, it was clearly a pipe dream to try to earn another 100,000 points, which meant he had to give up one of the two E-grade weapons.

This decision was undoubtedly difficult. The two weapons had different roles and skill effects, making it hard to say which could replace the other.

The "Seal Blade · Fugu Poison" was more defensive, with the skill "Sword Master's Heart" effectively reducing the likelihood of being controlled by mental spells.

The "Seal Blade · Meiying Poison" was more offensive, with the skill "Curse Shadow" acting as a small area fear and debuff aura, and the skill "Bloodthirsty Blade" converting damage to healing, making it a powerful tool in group battles, not only increasing survival chances but also saving on the cost of healing potions.

Luo Jie frowned, constantly simulating the pros and cons of using each blade in his mind, and after much deliberation, finally made his decision.

"Seal Blade · Fugu Poison"

Type: Katana

Quality: E (Gold)

Level: LV1

Power: 250

Skill 1: Seven Body Cut (Passive) — +100% power against biological targets.

Skill 2: Wind Blade (Passive) — +50% attack speed, +15% attack range, can damage ethereal targets.

Skill 3: Sword Master's Heart (Passive) — significantly increases resistance to mental spells, immune to fear status.

Description: The katana of an ancient Japanese sword master known for his speed, said to contain a fragment of the wind god's soul.

Certification Cost — 100,000 points.

Luo Jie chose the "Seal Blade · Fugu Poison" over the "Seal Blade · Meiying Poison" for his own reasons.

To be fair, the latter's skill effects were far more eye-catching.

However, the terrifying power of the "Seal Blade · Meiying Poison" was built on the complete sacrifice of defense, and this extreme offensive power could only be maximized in a well-equipped team.

But the secret of the "Subhuman" bloodline meant he could no longer stay in a fixed team for long periods, as he had before his rebirth.

Therefore, the defensive "Seal Blade · Fugu Poison" was undoubtedly the best choice.

100,000 points flowed away, and the black katana turned into a blue-white grid model, automatically stored in the digital storage space.

Seeing the points on the main interface drop by a significant amount, Luo Jie, who had been hesitant about this choice, suddenly felt at ease.

Even with just the "Seal Blade · Fugu Poison," he was already at the top of all new players. What more could he ask for in terms of absolute perfection?

Despite having the E-grade weapon, Luo Jie did not forget the two "Executioner's Ghost Head Great Saber" and "Knight's Hard Hammer." He turned back to the second-floor café, retrieved them from the ceiling in the kitchen, certified them, and stored them in the digital storage space.

At the same time, his points decreased to 29,270.

With time still relatively ample, Luo Jie took the opportunity to count the loot from the past two days.

Indeed, just like in a game, killing monsters also dropped items.

Large and small boss-level monsters generally dropped treasure chests with their name prefixes, which could contain large amounts of points and high-quality equipment.

Zombies, as cannon fodder, dropped square boxes called "Surprise Boxes," which mostly contained white-quality items.

Of course, if one was lucky, occasionally some decent green-quality equipment or skills could be obtained.

Although there were rumors of someone opening a golden item from a Surprise Box, Luo Jie had never seen it with his own eyes, not even a blue item. It was probably just a rumor spread by unscrupulous merchants to hype up the price of Surprise Boxes.

"Huh? This is... a title?"

Suddenly, Luo Jie noticed that his main interface had somehow activated a title option.

Titles were not rare.

In the Illusion, as long as a player unintentionally met certain conditions, they would receive a specific title from the system.

However, unlike in games where only one title could be active at a time, these titles could stack, and could be considered passive skills that could not be upgraded.