Chapter 745 – Pangu’s Offer

Miaomiao carried both Xiong Zhenzhen and Liu Guang east and left the territory of Shu Han. However, as he traveled, he came across destroyed villages and towns, left behind by the warships of the Shu Han Republic.

Players were still there as none of their spawn points were destroyed. However, they seemed to be in an uproar as they gathered together to rescue the commoners.

As Miaomiao passed them, they waved their hands, trying to get his attention. He ignored them nonetheless.

By the time that they got to the southern region, where the Pirate Hunter City was, the battleships of Guan Yu were no longer in sight. The city was razed to the ground, and the Mao Clan’s manor outside the city was turned into a ruin.

Miaomiao sighed as he gazed at his destroyed house. Fortunately, he never stored valuable items in the manor, so he didn’t lose anything. However, he didn’t know how his family members were doing during the invasion when he was in seclusion.

“I guess I have to find a new home. How troublesome.”

Xiong Zhenzhen sniffed while she gazed at her closet, “My silk. My clothes.”

“Haiz.”

Miaomiao opened his system menu and accessed the cash shop. He purchased three new sets of fancy clothes for him, Xiong Zhenzhen, and Liu Guang. He also woke the insect girl up and stopped banging her.

“Let’s take a warm bath and change our clothes. We’ll pursue Guan Yu and Shu Han guys after this.”

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“AHH!!”

Chase woke up after a long nightmare. When he reopened his eyes, he found himself on the beach, where he fought against orcs and Onis during the invasion.

He panted while he slapped his chest and his arms, confirming that he was still alive.

DING

<Fatal Error. Unable to log out.>

<Fatal Error. Cannot transfer soul back to host’s body.>

<Fatal Error. The host’s physical body is deceased.>

“…”

Three red system panels floated in front of Chase. He stared at the screens and trembled.

“That was not a dream.”

Earlier, Chase had a bad dream. He dreamt that he logged out, but his body was dying. He lost his eyes, eardrums, and the ability to move. He saw nothing but darkness.

However, the game system was still operating. System panels appeared in his mind and asked him 100 random questions and forced him to play along within 10 minutes.

Although Chase didn’t understand what had happened, he blitzed through all questions before the time ran out. After he completed the questionnaire, the system screens initiated something, but Chase didn’t manage to read it. His consciousness returned to the game first.

Chase bit his lower lips.

‘Is this the cliché game novel setting? A protagonist getting trapped inside the game? No, it’s more like a protagonist died in the real world and get reincarnated into a game.’

Chase looked around. Although the experience was unique, he was neither excited nor happy. Instead, he was concerned about his future.

‘Is this still the game world that I was playing, or is this the new game world without other players?’

The answer soon revealed itself in front of Chase as many unconscious players regained their senses. Some of them also had the same reactions as him when they saw the fatal error messages.

“WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON!?”

“A-Am I dead?!”

Unlike Chase, most of them panicked. Some female players even cried.

Still, lunatics existed. Among them, a few isekai-novel fans got excited.

“HAHAHA! Screw world! I’m in the game forever!”

“I’m now an immortal!”

“Screw work! Screw the real world! Here I go!”

Chase clicked his tongue as he gave up on both types of players. Regardless of what they were feeling, the situation didn’t change.

First, they were at the bottom of the food chain as the local NPC’s strength was three digits in level. The nightmarish immortals were at least level 1,000!

As for the players, they could only get stronger by absorbing energy from spirit stones or killing monsters, which were scarce in the second game world.

Chase immediately thought of Miaomiao, who might be reliable in this situation. He rushed to the manor of the Mao Clan, hoping to find the clan members.

As soon as he arrived at the destroyed manor, his heart sank. He looked at the smoke and the destroyed settlements and fell to his knees.

“No! What happened here!?”

DING

While Chase was in shock, a new blue screen appeared in front of him, showing the letter of the game developers.

.

Dear Players,

Currently, the game server is under attack by Mu-Nyang Virus. All players in Pirate Hunter City and its neighboring regions are experiencing difficulties due to the damage to the game consoles, which affects your body.

The situation is very dire as many of our dear players have already lost their lives in reality. Fortunately, we manage to digitalize your consciousness and transfer it into your game avatars. Although it’s not what we envisioned when we created this game, every victim is still alive.

We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience, and we have prepared a solution for the players, who are trapped in the game. We have transferred 1,000,000 PACT to you as a token of apology so that you can use them to start a new life in the game world. In addition, we offer you a way to upgrade your game character as long as you accept our offer.

.

Chase clicked his tongue again. No matter how many PACTs the game developers gave him, it couldn’t compensate for losing his body in the real world. After all, living in the modern world was still a thousand times better than struggling in the fantasy world of cultivators, where everybody could be killed at any moment.

DING

After closing the letter, a million PACTs were added to his game account. A new popup window also replaced the closed screen, showing a new quest window.

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Special Quest: Pangu’s Offer

Due to a certain accident, the creator of the universe, Pangu, has offered you compensation. If you accept, your game character will be upgraded to a legendary-grade character, and you will obtain five legendary-grade skills or spells of your choice from the list. You will also obtain 1,000,000 essence cores, 1,000,000 soul stones, and a myth-grade cultivation method from Pangu himself.

This offer is to ensure that all survivors of Mu-Nyang’s recent attack can enjoy their new lives and the new reality.

Question Objective: Cut your fingertip and drop your blood on this quest panel.

Failure Condition: You don’t complete the quest within one day.

Failure Penalty: You will no longer be able to use the game system.

Note: By accepting the offer, you will automatically become an Apostle of Pangu.

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After reading through the quest content twice, Chase bellowed.

“SCAMMER!”

Chase knew what this action would do to him as he had learned it from the game’s lore – Mortals used signatures to represent themselves, but immortals used their blood as signatures of their souls.

In short, giving his blood to the game system would bind his soul to a strange contract that he couldn’t even read the terms and conditions.

“What apostle of Pangu? I’ll become a freaking slave if I take this offer! But hell, removing my game system? Really?!”

Chase lost it. He paced in front of the destroyed manor and mumbled to himself.

As Chase hesitated, many players chose the easy way out.

BOOM

BOOM

On the beach, pillars of light shot up to the sky as players dropped their blood to the system screens. Their characters underwent an evolution, and their talents bloomed. Moreover, they received all promised items and cultivation resources right away.

Chase looked back at them. He clenched his heart as he was jealous.

He wanted to take the offer, too, but he couldn’t trust the game company. He had a hunch that the title of Pangu’s Apostle might come back to haunt him later.

As Chase was drooling, someone came out of the manor.

.

After taking a long bath, having sex in the bath, and retaking the bath, Miaomiao put on a new set of casual modern clothes from the cash shop and came out to see the commotion outside.

BOOM

BOOM

The pillars of light alarmed Miaomiao as he saw countless karma strings descend from the sky. All karma strings bound the players in the beacon of light and fed them curses.

Miaomiao recognized the curse. It was similar to his brainwashing abilities in the past, but it was stronger. With the addition of karma strings, those players lost their freedom, and their souls would be imprisoned under the owner of those karma strings for the rest of eternity.

He looked up, waiting for Mu-Nyang to give him a suggestion or order. However, the cat didn’t give him any instruction this time.

Without Mu-Nyang’s intervention, Miaomiao turned his attention to Chase, who was still hanging around the area.

“I see that you’re still alive.”

Hearing the voice of Miaomiao, Chase came back to his sense. He kowtowed to Miaomiao.

“S-Senior! I’m abandoned by my home world, and I have nowhere to go! Please allow me to follow you or serve you!”

“Hmm?”

Miaomiao helped the teenage up and stared into the latter’s eyes, reading his facial expression and karma. By scanning through Chase’s karma for a minute, he could now see the quest panel and Pangu’s offer.

“I see. Is Pangu seducing you?”

“Yes! How did you know?!”

“Pangu is obviously the evil god. Remember this. The real god is Mu-Nyang, the OG Chaos Seraphim, and the Alpha Cathulhu. If someone told you that the universe is created by Pangu, they were wrong! Whatever Pangu and his friends told you to do, do not do it or your life will become miserable!”

“…”

Chase gulped. He reread his quest menu and took a deep breath. Then, he revealed everything he knew to Miaomiao.

“S-Sir. I have a confession. You see, otherworlders are gamers, and this world is a game. And…”

.

An hour later, Chase stopped talking. His throat was dry because of the long talk, and his voice became hoarse. He gazed at Miaomiao to see his reaction.

Miaomiao’s expression was indifferent. He let out a long sigh.

“I already knew all of that. Otherworlders are humans from another world, and everybody thought this world is a game. But in reality, we live in the same universe. Pangu created game avatars for his players and transfer your souls here to my world, but he doesn’t tell you that the world isn’t a game.”

Chase was taken aback as he didn’t expect Miaomiao to know more than him.

Miaomiao passed Chase a bottle of water. He coughed and tampered with his NPC menu to offer him another quest. While he was at it, he asked Chase.

“Before I start telling you my version of the story, what do you define as a protagonist?”

“A protagonist? You mean, the main character of a story?”

“Yes. What do you know about protagonists?”

“Simple. They’re the main characters, and stories revolve around them. Movies, novels, comics, and many types of story-telling methods focused on them and let the audience experience the stories by using the main characters’ perspective.”

Miaomiao revealed his signature smirk and looked up.

“What if I tell you that our entire universe is a compilation of multiple stories, and many protagonists exist at the same time?”

“???”

“For a starter, this universe’s story begins with the perspective of an ancient Chaos Seraphim by the name Mu-Nyang. It’s going to be a very long story…”