Chapter 3: Yong Ye City
When Tang Cuo’s vision recovered again, he found himself standing in an unfamiliar room.
The room was not large, about ten square meters, equipped with a wooden bed, a simple bathroom separated by a fan-shaped glass door, and a tiny round table with two chairs. Looking at the decor, the bathroom was very modern, even having a wet and dry separation. However, the round table and the wooden bed exuded a Republican-era vibe, and the floorboards were as old and worn as an abandoned attic in a small Western-style house.
A strange style.
Tang Cuo only thought for a moment before walking briskly to the desk, because there was a stained-glass window here. Pushing the window open and looking out, an unfamiliar city sprang into view.
Thinking a lot was not as good as seeing it with his own eyes, and until this moment, Tang Cuo didn’t truly feel the reality of stepping into another world.
A massive black city stood majestically under the night sky.
To say it was black was because all the houses and roads in this city were black, giving the entire city a solemn and dignified atmosphere. But this wasn’t quite accurate either, because the roofs of some houses were paved with colored glazed tiles, like gems scattered across the huge city.
Moreover, the place was brightly lit. Faint sounds of revelry came from every corner of the city. It seemed that wherever a light shone, figures were moving.
This was a living city.
There were Western-style spires and tall towers, as well as Chinese-style multi-story pavilions and layered terraces.
Old-fashioned horse-drawn carriages clattered across the black stone roads ahead, while floating tracks full of futuristic technology coiled in the sky. Amidst the clanking sounds, a heavy industry-style steam train soared along the tracks straight into the clouds. The lights in its carriages looked like a ribbon of stars, or a soaring black dragon.
It was night, and there were neither stars nor a moon in the sky, but Tang Cuo’s vision was still very clear. This was because not only were there streetlamps on the streets, but a giant, glowing sphere adorned the tip of a tall tower in the distance.
It looked like a luminous pearl, and there was more than one. Based on Tang Cuo’s visual estimation, they were distributed evenly and regularly throughout the city.
Tang Cuo’s room was on the third floor. The area he was in seemed to be a residential area with Western-style buildings, all only two or three stories high. The black stone street downstairs was very long, with pedestrians walking by from time to time. There were men, women, old and young, and their clothes were quite modern, just with a lot of different styles.
Tattered rag outfits, wrinkled cloaks, camouflage windbreakers, and so on—everything you could imagine. Tang Cuo had only seen such a colorful fashion show in the beginner zones of large-scale online games.
Was this Yong Ye City?
Where were Chi Yan and the others?
A moment later, Tang Cuo cast his gaze back inside the room and quickly locked onto the coat rack by the door. A small golden bell was hanging there. Except for its size, it looked exactly the same as the one Tang Cuo had seen in the white fog space.
But Tang Cuo had no intention of paying attention to it. Instead, he directly grabbed the door handle. He pressed down, but it wouldn’t open.
“Ding—” The bell rang on its own.
“Now broadcasting the Yong Ye City Survival Guide for you: Players, please open the system panel and complete the basic settings based on your current character points within a ten-minute time limit. If you have any questions, please press 1; if there is a system malfunction, please press 4. Survival is not easy, please cherish your life.”
What the hell?
Tang Cuo narrowed his eyes. He hadn’t seen any system panel from beginning to end. Why was this broken game so annoying? He couldn’t even die in peace; it was simply more troublesome than being alive.
Thinking this, Tang Cuo even wanted to go to bed and sleep first.
Impatiently, he searched the room again, even rolling up his sleeves to look for any clickable buttons on his arm, but found nothing.
Perhaps this broken system was voice-activated.
“Open.”
No reaction.
“Open.” [In English]
It seemed it wasn’t English either.
“Go to hell.”
“Please use civilized language and build a beautiful Yong Ye City together.”
Tang Cuo couldn’t even be bothered to complain. He closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and when he opened them again, he found a holographic display panel in front of him. Moreover, no matter where Tang Cuo looked, the panel was displayed directly in front of him; it seemed to follow his line of sight.
As for the button to open and close it? Perhaps it was closing his eyes for more than three seconds.
The system panel looked very similar to the ones Tang Cuo had seen when playing online games. It was divided into three sections: [Character], [Skills], and [Quests], which could be switched between. At the very bottom was an independent equipment bar with ten slots, but they were all empty. Tang Cuo originally wanted to reach out and tap it, but he found that the moment he had the thought, the [Character] interface popped up on its own.
[Character]
ID K27216: Tang Cuo
Initial Character Points: -8
Force: 0
Intelligence: 0
Charm: 0
Rating: A
HP: –
Allocate points at your discretion; no regrets allowed. Survival is not easy; cherish your life.
Tang Cuo: “…”
Allocate what points? Subtract from the negative score?
Tang Cuo opened the skill and quest panels as well, only to find them completely blank. Fine. He switched back to the character interface and fell into rare, deep thought facing these simple and easy-to-understand three point allocation categories.
Intelligence -8 might turn him into an idiot, Charm -8 might make him ugly, so after three seconds of deep thought, Tang Cuo chose Force -8. As for distributing the points evenly, that was impossible. Tang Cuo rejected mediocrity.
“Ding—”
“Detected that the player has completed the basic settings, generating character image immediately!”
Then, with a “click,” the lock opened, and with a “thud,” Tang Cuo fell. The pain of death returned to his body in an instant, gripping his internal organs and stripping away his physical and mental strength. A tide-like exhaustion followed immediately.
Sweat quickly soaked the stray hairs at Tang Cuo’s temples. He caught his breath, not in a hurry to sit up, and summoned the panel again to take a glance.
[Character]
ID K27216: Tang Cuo
Current Character Points: 0
Force: -8
Intelligence: 0
Charm: 0
Rating: A-
HP: 15%
Stunning beauties often bring disaster; courting death is unadvisable.
[Quests]
Stay alive.
The quest updated, but it was outrageously simple. The only thing to be thankful for was that although the pain returned, the wounds didn’t come with it; it was just weakness.
But there was no food in the room, no change of clothes. To survive, Tang Cuo had to walk out of this room.
Oh, wait, Tang Cuo didn’t bring absolutely nothing; he brought a Survival Assessment Report.
After a while, the pain eased somewhat, and his physical strength recovered a bit. Tang Cuo climbed up from the floor and picked up the “brick” again. As his only current property, Tang Cuo decided to take it with him. He could use it as a weapon if necessary, and he had checked—there wasn’t even a single piece of toilet paper in the bathroom.
Wait, could this thing be put into the equipment bar?
With a thought from Tang Cuo, the assessment report disappeared from his hand. Opening the equipment bar again, the icon of a book clearly appeared in the first empty slot.
He tried imagining taking it out of the equipment bar, and in the blink of an eye, it was back. So—
Was it really considered a piece of equipment?
Tang Cuo was lost in thought when, suddenly, a knocking sound came from the door.
Who could it be?
He narrowed his eyes slightly, a cold glint flashing through them. But very quickly, this cold glint was suppressed by laziness, and he went forward to open the door as if nothing had happened.
“Hello.” The person who came had a chubby face, was in his forties, had thinning hair but a kind smile. He wore a faded blue work uniform, carried a shopping basket in the crook of his arm, and every callus on his rough palms revealed his ordinariness.
“Yes?” Tang Cuo’s attitude was cold.
“You’re new here, right? Let me introduce myself. My name is Lu Wenming, and I live on this street. I came to ask if you need any help?” The middle-aged man smiled good-naturedly, took a flyer out of his shopping basket, stuffed it into Tang Cuo’s hand, and said, “Take a look: exchanging points for currency. One point for ten thousand RMB, very cost-effective. You don’t have anything in your room right now, do you? You can buy things here with RMB, and once you have money, you can survive here.”
Tang Cuo held the thin piece of paper, showing no emotion.
Lu Wenming was very patient and continued, “I won’t hide it from you, helping people without expecting anything in return doesn’t exist here, but I only charge a small processing fee. My combat strength is poor, and it’s hard to make a living doing other things. You young people are different; you can earn points back very quickly. Besides, there’s a protection mechanism for newcomers; you only get deducted five points for the first month. Exchanging money with me now just means paying a little extra processing fee, but I can provide you with some newcomer guidance.”
“Guidance?”
“You just got here, so you don’t know, right? What exactly Yong Ye City is, how to use points, how to do quests, where to buy things—you’ll figure these things out yourself after a while, but knowing a bit earlier means being a bit more prepared, right? Look, I’m not hiding anything, let’s be straightforward, honest business.”
“Do you offer credit?”
“Ah?”
Lu Wenming was stunned. He had been doing this business for so long, and this was the first time he had heard a newcomer ask for credit. Recovering his senses, he blinked his eyes, looked at Tang Cuo, not knowing whether to laugh or cry, and said, “How can I offer credit? There’s no such thing as credit in Yong Ye City. After all, nobody knows if the person in front of them will be gone tomorrow. How would I get the debt back if I give credit? No credit, only high-interest loans, five times the principal and up.”
Tang Cuo: “Oh.”
Perhaps because Tang Cuo’s reaction was truly different from other newcomers, Lu Wenming carefully observed his expression, and the smile on his face faded a bit. He considered it and asked, “How about you think it over again?”
Tang Cuo: “I’ve thought it over.”
“You plan to buy?”
“No, I plan to borrow.”
In the next second, before Lu Wenming could react, Tang Cuo directly grabbed his hand, dragged him into the room, closed the door, pressed him against the door panel, and twisted his arms behind his back. The sound of the door closing was very soft; Tang Cuo deliberately held back his strength at the moment the door closed.
The shopping basket fell to the floor, and papers scattered everywhere. Lu Wenming opened his mouth to exclaim, but his mouth was covered.
“If you cooperate obediently, you can live. If my guess is correct, everyone has already died once. Dying again should end up worse than death.”
“Mmph! Mmph!” Lu Wenming nodded frantically.
Only then did Tang Cuo release the hand covering his mouth, but only moved it down a bit. Cold fingertips rested on Lu Wenming’s neck, as if they could snap it with just a little force.
Lu Wenming broke into a cold sweat. Which newcomer wasn’t full of mistakes when they first arrived here? They were either completely clueless, acting like idiots, or terrified out of their wits by the shadow of death. Even the most resolute person needed time to adapt, and a little coaxing would get them hooked. But what about the guy behind him?
Looking back at their initial encounter, Lu Wenming beat his chest and stomped his feet in anger internally. He should have left the moment he realized Tang Cuo was different. What made him harbor wishful thinking?
“I-I really didn’t lie to you. The exchange rate in Yong Ye City right now is one to twenty thousand. After I collect the processing fee, I still have to hand over a portion. What ends up in my hands might not even be a single point! Newcomers will all eventually go exchange points. Even though one point for ten thousand isn’t much, it’s enough to survive the first few days. I’m just trying to make a living too; please have mercy, don’t hold it against me…”
“RMB is useless; points are the hard currency.”
Lu Wenming froze upon hearing this, because Tang Cuo used a declarative sentence. For a moment, he almost doubted if Tang Cuo was a newcomer. His moves were ruthless, and he could detect the problem so quickly. He pursed his lips tightly in a standoff for a few seconds before finally answering tremblingly, “It’s not entirely useless… really! Most daily necessities and food are still bought with money. Points are very precious, so money is still useful; it’s just, it’s just…”
“It’s just not that useful.” Purchasing power had dropped, but it was better than toilet paper.
“Yes, yes, yes, exactly like that.” Lu Wenming agreed repeatedly, cooperating actively, “You’ll still need to use money anyway. How about I sell you one point for twenty thousand according to the market price? I won’t make a single cent off you, just treat it as making a friend. No, no, no, thirty thousand! How about thirty thousand?”
Tang Cuo finally let him go and said, “Twenty thousand, borrowed for three days.”
Lu Wenming regained his freedom and exaggeratedly wiped his sweat. He didn’t bargain with Tang Cuo anymore, picked up the shopping basket with an apologetic smile, and took out the money from inside. As he took it out, he kept sneaking glances at Tang Cuo. When he handed two stacks of money to Tang Cuo, the ingratiating smile on his face was practically piling up into a mountain.
“Do you want to count it?” he said.
Tang Cuo didn’t answer, which made Lu Wenming’s hair stand on end, and the hand holding the money couldn’t help but shrink back a bit. But right at this moment, Tang Cuo reached out and took it.
Lu Wenming’s shrinking hand was firmly grabbed, his heart skipped a beat, and his face, previously piled with ingratiation and fear, instantly revealed a vicious glint. The transformation happened in an instant. Lu Wenming let go of the RMB, drew a card from it with lightning speed, and with an angry shout, flung it at Tang Cuo.
“Go!”
The card spun in mid-air, but in his eyes, it was playing in slow motion, allowing Tang Cuo to clearly see the contents of the card face.
Tarot card, The Magician.
An unknown combat mode meant endless danger.
Tang Cuo retreated rapidly. At the same time, with a flick of his wrist, he threw the two stacks of RMB forcefully at the Tarot card. The banknotes scattered with a rustling sound, but the moment they brushed past the Tarot card, they suddenly caught fire.
If one banknote was a ball of fire, two hundred were countless balls of fire. All the banknotes spontaneously combusted without any wind, and in the next second, the fire suddenly grew massive. The powerful heat wave almost roasted Tang Cuo, who had retreated early, on the spot. He could even smell a hint of burnt hair.
“Idiot!” Lu Wenming, with a gloomy face, gave Tang Cuo the middle finger. Against a Fireball spell, using a move like scattering flowers from the sky—he had never seen such an idiotic way to die.
This newcomer was nothing more than this. Getting accidentally caught by him earlier must have been because that pretty boy face was too deceptive. Clearly a thug who committed arson and robbery, yet he looked as proper as if he grew up speaking under the national flag. Truly fucking righteous-looking.
But despite his thoughts, Lu Wenming was already much more cautious now. He raised his hand to recall the Tarot card and turned to leave, not wanting to know the full process of Tang Cuo burning to death at all. However, the moment he grabbed the door handle, a heavy object flew through the air, hitting him right in the back of the head.
“Thud!” Lu Wenming smacked his head against the door panel again, his head almost splitting open, making him roll on the floor in pain.
The Fireball spell dissipated directly as the user fell to the ground, as if everything just now was an illusion. Tang Cuo walked over as if nothing had happened, picked up the “brick” from the floor, and smiled for the first time.
He looked at Lu Wenming: “Idiot.”
Amidst the pain, Lu Wenming was consumed by extreme anger. He never expected Tang Cuo to be completely unharmed under the Fireball attack. Was he even a newcomer?!
He looked up in horror, only to see the glass door of the bathroom wide open behind Tang Cuo. There was only one truth—when the massive fire engulfed him, Tang Cuo had narrowly dodged into the bathroom. And since Lu Wenming was in a hurry to leave, he didn’t wait for the fire to spread inside, so he was KO’d on the spot.
Figuring this out, Lu Wenming’s face instantly turned ashen. He knew he had no chance of turning the tables anymore. In terms of intellect, or even luck, he was inferior to the young man in front of him.
Tang Cuo was not someone to be trifled with, and Lu Wenming had no certainty about his impending fate.
“I just want to know, how exactly did you suspect me?”
“Occupational hazard.”
Lu Wenming couldn’t possibly know that Tang Cuo was a detective. He observed everything and suspected everything.
In a city that exuded abnormality everywhere, ordinary people were not ordinary. Lu Wenming seemingly honestly admitted to taking kickbacks, retreating to advance, wanting to gain Tang Cuo’s trust step by step. But he didn’t know that Tang Cuo was always stingy with his trust.
Lu Wenming also didn’t know that Tang Cuo’s batch of newcomers, before entering Yong Ye City, had triggered the Lucky Wheel because their grades were too poor. After experiencing a game, strictly speaking, they were no longer pure newcomers.
What he was even less likely to know was that Tang Cuo’s points were negative, so this business transaction could never have been completed from the start.
Tang Cuo had no interest in explaining so much. He pulled up the system panel to take a look.
HP: 3%
You are one step away from death.
__
Author’s Note:
The basic settings of Yong Ye City will be revealed one by one in the following text. Because this is a brand new world involving many aspects, if you see something that hasn’t been explained, it’s probably scheduled for later. Piling it all together would be rather boring.
To sum it up in one sentence, this is probably a “dark utopia.”
