Chapter 1: Entering the World of “The Way of Inquiry”
==============================
“Ding! ‘The Way of Inquiry’ has been fully downloaded. Would you like to enter the game now?”
“Of course!”
Lin Nan excitedly dove into the game pod.
The company that created this game, Galaxy Entertainment, made his previous favorite MMO, “Heavenly Domination,” as well.
The “Carefree Female Sword Immortal” he used had once ranked seventh on the server’s competitive leaderboard.
And let’s be real, “Heavenly Domination” was practically the national game; every young person was obsessed with it. It charged by playtime instead of pay-to-win mechanics, plus, it balanced gear differences in the arena. So, for him to make it into the top ten solo was truly remarkable—no doubt he had some mad skills!
But with the launch of “The Way of Inquiry,” the popularity of “Heavenly Domination” started to fade.
After all, “The Way of Inquiry” was the world’s first holographic Xianxia MMO, a groundbreaking milestone! Meanwhile, the old-school 3D games on computer screens were becoming as relevant as dial-up internet.
As soon as registration for “The Way of Inquiry” opened, “Heavenly Domination’s” servers went dark faster than you could say “pay-to-win.”
Players, who couldn’t even complain, were quickly drawn in by the grandeur and magnitude of “The Way of Inquiry.”
According to the official promo, the world of “The Way of Inquiry” was almost like another Earth set in the Xianxia universe. Time flowed almost in sync with reality, and any major events in the game only happened once. Unlike past MMOs where every player could farm the same boss and gear, in “The Way of Inquiry,” NPCs had life; if they died, they stayed dead—no respawn!
In other words, the earlier you logged in, the sooner you enjoyed the fun.
So, a horde of players rushed in the moment the game registered, including Lin Nan, of course.
But he failed to notice that “Heavenly Domination” was still running in the background on his computer. Though it had shut down its servers, the radiant figure of that ethereal female sword immortal was still standing on the lofty peaks, her gown fluttering lightly, overlooking the vast sea of clouds below.
“Game logging in… loading…”
Lin Nan’s consciousness immediately found itself in a vast, empty 3D space. Probably to help players adapt to the holographic MMO, it provided an area about the size of a football field for players to move around freely.
“Welcome to ‘The Way of Inquiry’…”
Lin Nan completely skipped over the system introduction, focusing instead on whether he could create a female character. Life was already hard enough; who wanted to see a bunch of beefy guys sprinting around? The elegant figures of oil-slick sister disciples were way more appealing!
Being able to control a female character in a holographic MMO? Now that would be awesome!
Appearance settings note: “Players can only create characters of their same gender. Appearance parameters can be adjusted by 20% from their real appearance.”
Oh come on, this game is seriously hitting below the belt! No female character? What kind of nonsense is that?
Fine, fine, whatever. Who can argue when “The Way of Inquiry” is this amazing? Other games can’t even compete!
“Detected that you already have an account registered in ‘Heavenly Domination.’ Would you like to log in with your existing account or create a new one?”
A soft female voice whispered in his ear.
Of course, he’d go with the original account—why waste time re-setting up usernames and passwords?
“Let’s use the original account,” Lin Nan said.
In the next moment, his entire figure was projected onto a nearby screen.
Lin Nan wasn’t bad looking; even without adjusting the appearance parameters, he could still hold his own. But wouldn’t it be better if he could enhance his looks a bit?
Just as he was fiddling with the parameters to make his face look sharper, the space suddenly trembled, and the parameters glitched out in an instant.
“Hey! I’ve been tweaking for so long and just when I was about to hit confirm, you guys pull this stunt!”
Lin Nan shouted in frustration at the empty space.
The next second, the whole space plunged into darkness, and alarms blared overhead, repeating incessantly.
“Warning… Warning… Data error… Rebooting…”
In an instant, Lin Nan lost all consciousness, and his physical body disappeared from the game pod.
When he woke up, over a month had passed since the game officially launched.
Of course, he had no clue about any of this.
As Lin Nan’s awareness gradually returned, he slowly opened his eyes to find himself lying on a relatively flat boulder amidst a rugged, steep hillside.
Where am I?
He distinctly remembered adjusting his facial parameters in the game’s entry space, and now suddenly he was here?
Could this be the newbie village?
He slowly got up, glancing around. A bit further away was a swirling fog; the distance blurred the line between reality and illusion. Beneath his feet was a hard black ground with strange patterns, red liquid seeping out of it.
Clearly, this was no friendly place.
Could the system have randomly assigned him to a villain faction?
Considering the promotional material for “The Way of Inquiry,” the official claimed anything was possible in this world, and choosing factions was the most basic operation one could perform.
In “Heavenly Domination,” his character was a stylish female disciple from the righteous faction, clad in white robes, making a striking impression wherever she went. He had planned to choose a righteous sect in “The Way of Inquiry” and continue living his Xianxia dream, but the system dumped him in this godforsaken place instead!
Just then, Lin Nan noticed something peculiar.
He seemed to have transformed into a woman.
He glanced down and was met with a voluptuous figure blocking his view of the ground. With even a slight movement, he could feel his upper body shaking.
Whoa, this game is way too realistic!
And his outfit was a mysterious and flowing black silk dress, with a sheathed sword strapped to his back—a pitch-black sword.
Drawing the sword revealed a completely black blade, the complete opposite of the celestial sword he wielded before in “Heavenly Domination.”
This… is definitely the look of the villain disciple!
Being able to play as a female character is cool and all, but can’t it avoid making him a villain?
“System? System? This is totally your fault, right?! Can you please let me choose a character again? I don’t want to be a villain! I want to be an ice-cold, pure, white-robed fairy!”
Lin Nan yelled twice in frustration before the system finally showed a data panel in front of his eyes, as if it had taken its sweet time to respond.
Name: Lin Nan
Gender: Female
Level: 1
Faction: Unknown
Skill One: Black Snow (Level 1, skill power linked to Cold Value, skill effect unknown)
Skill Two: Flowing Wind (Level 1, agility skill, consumes stamina upon activation, no cooldown)
Skill Three: Illusory Sea (Level 1, exclusive skill of the Black Wind Sword, cooldown unknown)
P.S.: All skills can be upgraded, but skill levels cannot exceed character level.
Talent: Passive Upgrade: gains 5% of current experience every 24 hours (Unlock condition: Cold Value must remain above 100; your current Cold Value is 10. If Cold Value drops below 100, passive upgrade talent will disappear).
Outfit: Black Robe (Currently equipped, provides a 10% all-attribute bonus, attacks inflict poison damage, losing 5% of current health per second).
Weapon: Black Wind Sword (Automatically activates a stun buff when drawn; generally stuns lower-level opponents for 1 second based on your level. This skill can be upgraded, but the upgrade conditions remain unknown. Buff cooldown: 1 hour).
Lin Nan scanned his status from top to bottom, feeling a mix of confusion and excitement.
Is this how the rookie treatment works in “The Way of Inquiry”?
She was only level 1! The game was gifting her with outfits and weapons, and the stats were exceptional.
The robe she was wearing was practically the ultimate gear for the later stages—10% bonus across the board? In “Heavenly Domination,” people would have been fighting over it!
The Black Wind Sword was also a treasure—1 second of stun? That’s a serious crowd control ability!
During a skirmish, just waving that sword could obliterate the enemy!
What if, in “The Way of Inquiry,” such gear was as common as cabbage, with every newbie starting off with one? The game developers must be ridiculously generous! If everyone had gear like this, wouldn’t the game become a cakewalk, with experts everywhere?
And that passive upgrade talent, while it seemed trivial, offering a 5% increase daily would become a game-changer at higher levels—upgrades demand massive experience. With this talent, she could zip through levels effortlessly.
Suppressing her excitement, Lin Nan took another look at her stats and noticed something odd.
Why was there no option to log out of the game?
No matter how hard she searched, that blasted log-out option was missing! Now Lin Nan was starting to panic.
What’s going on?!
At that moment, the system seemed completely unresponsive, offering her no answers.
Then she suddenly remembered that the game pod had a setting: once players entered the game, they couldn’t stay logged in for more than 8 hours, after which they would be forcibly logged out and stuck in an unloggable state for 2 hours.
This was a national regulation to prevent gaming addiction.
So even if she couldn’t log out now, she would be forcibly disconnected once the time was up. Then she could file a complaint with the game company!
Given her current situation, the system was ignoring her cries for help. Since she was already in the game, she might as well explore her surroundings.
While she was dying to investigate her new body’s secrets, currently she was in the middle of nowhere. If a creep popped out of nowhere—that would be an utter disaster! After all, could there possibly be anyone else here in this realistic world outside of her character?
But even if this was a villainous newbie village, there had to be some guiding NPC around, right? She wandered the sprawling hillside but not a single soul could be found.
This system really had it out for her, allowing her to play a female character and giving her some flashy gear but nothing else seemed to go her way.
“I’m so annoyed! Really, so annoyed!” Lin Nan couldn’t help but shout.
“Cold Value -5, your current Cold Value is 5. Please note that once your Cold Value drops to zero, your passive talent may never activate again.”
The system’s voice echoed in her head.
Seriously? When I need you, you don’t show up, but when I’m losing Cold Value, you’re there to gloat?
Calm down, calm down!
She was pretending to be a lively, cute girl after all; even if she couldn’t see her appearance without a mirror… she was being forced by the system to change her character trait. Well, if it wasn’t for that passive experience increase talent, she’d be livid right now.
Keeping her anxious emotions in check, Lin Nan began walking with a serene confidence, as if she were as familiar to the area as she was to her own home.
“Cold Value +5.”
She finally figured out how to regain some Cold Value.
As she was pretending to be calm while her inner turmoil raged on, cautiously stepping down towards the fog-swept mountainside, a sudden gust of wind swept away the white mist at the mountain’s foot.
As the fog dissipated, out appeared over a hundred warriors, armed with various weapons, ready for battle.
The instant they saw Lin Nan suddenly materialize, they froze.
The distance between them was no more than 60 meters.
Among them strode a tall woman, her face like a cold frost, dressed in a long black dress, her black hair flowing with the wind, and a pitch-black sword sheath strapped to her back; even her lips seemed to carry a hint of greenish hue.
Not a single one of the crowd dared to move.
Could it be… she is the hidden boss of this map?
