New Novel 'Death Game' Chapter One (Continued)

The girl, seeing this, immediately ran over to apologize: "Sorry, sorry, I didn't notice you. Are you okay?"

Qian glanced at the girl: she was wearing a set of primitive gear made of leather, with a prominent figure, long brown hair nearly reaching her waist with slightly curled tips, a beautiful and delicate face, appearing to be about 18 years old — truly an exceptionally beautiful girl.

"What do you think?" Qian said, slightly annoyed.

"Sorry~ I really didn't mean it. Can you tell me your name?"

Faced with the friend request from this player whose actual gender was still unknown, Qian refused: "Forget it, I don't like to interact with people too much."

"Are you still angry about what happened just now? I've already apologized."

Forget it, just deal with her for now! Qian murmured to herself.

"Speak. What do you need help with?" Qian said directly.

"You figured it out. Let me introduce myself first. My name is Anastasia, but if it's too much trouble, you can call me Xia. And you?"

"Just call me Qian. Go ahead, what is it?"

"Well… I watched your fight earlier, and you seem really good. Are you a beta tester? Could you teach me how to play the game?"

Since today was the first day of the game's public beta, it wouldn't be strange for a beginner to appear.

"Sort of! No friends. Is it just you?"

"No, there are two others as well, but I don't know what characters they've created. It's their first time playing, so we can't meet in-game yet. No worries, I'll contact them after I log off."

Qian looked at the wooden bow in Xia's hands and said, "Did you choose a bow as your starting weapon?"

A starting weapon is the initial weapon given to the player by the system after creating a character, and players can choose freely.

"Yes, why?"

"Choosing a bow at the beginning is fine because early MOBs (monsters) won't actively attack players, but later, without team support, bows are clearly at a disadvantage. Some MOBs can basically block bow attacks, and bows cannot be used for defense," Qian explained. "How about I give you a sword?"

After saying that, Qian opened the game menu and gave Xia a simple Japanese-style sword from her items.

A system prompt appeared in front of Xia: Player Chris-Qian has given you an item 'Simple Steel Sword'. Do you accept?

Xia chose to accept: Thank you!"It's nothing, I originally just wanted to practice 'sword skills' during the public test. Besides, that weapon can be obtained from both monsters and the weapon shop." "Eh?! 'Sword skills' ?" Xiya looked puzzled.\ Qian was slightly stunned: "You didn't just read the operation instructions, did you?"\ When asked this by Qian, Xiya awkwardly chuckled.\ Qian sighed helplessly, completely defeated by this girl's silliness; he was almost becoming an NPC for teaching gaming basics.\ "In this world, there are six types of weapons: knife, sword, spear, axe, bow, and blunt weapons. Players can equip any weapon without restriction; there are no specific weapon requirements, and each player can choose one or several weapons they like or are skilled in. 'Sword skills' are techniques gained by using knife-type weapons in combat. The same applies to other weapons; using different weapons will gain different skills. The skill cap is 10,000, and the higher the skill index, the harder it is to improve."\ "So what can these skills be used for?"\ "Some weapons require reaching the necessary skill level to equip and are not restricted by player level. Additionally, there are many non-combat skills, which can be considered virtually unlimited—you'll understand them slowly by yourself later! Anything else you want to ask?"\ "Hmm... aren't game characters supposed to have no magic? So why is there an MP bar? And why are there so many bars in different colors?"\ (How stupid can she be! Better just deal with her quickly and get back to my own business!)\ "The green bar is the HP bar, the blue bar is the MP bar, the purple bar is the SP bar, and the blank bar is the Rest, which is the stamina bar. Characters haven't learned magic yet, but it's not that they don't have magic. Magic skills can only be learned through special quests or skill book drops in the wild, and each magic skill is basically unique. Additionally, there are some magical items and weapons that consume MP when used. SP represents physical attack skills, which can also only be obtained through special quests or drops, and are used by consuming SP. Stamina is a rather over-the-top design in this game; every battle increases it by a certain value, with a maximum of 100. When stamina is above 70, battles are affected, and reaching 100 will put the character to sleep until it drops back to 50 to wake up. Got it?"\ "Okay, then teach me how to fight!"\ "First, equip the knife I just gave you!"\ "Oh." Xiya opened the menu and equipped the knife, while Qian swapped the bow for a sword.\ "Actually, it works basically the same way as in real life.""Qian explained: 'You just need to aim at the target and attack. Let's test your blade on that wild boar!' \ Xiya gripped the knife with both hands and assumed a ready stance. \ 'Don't be so nervous, relax a bit.' \ Xiya took a deep breath, adjusted her posture, raised the knife, and slashed at the wild boar. The wild boar's HP bar went down by half. Chuanshen stared at Xiya while the tusks of the boar charged toward her. \ It was the same situation as before; she was being chased by the wild boar again. \ 'W-what... should I do... Qian?' Xiya called for help from Qian while running. \ Qian was too exhausted to comment on her clumsiness anymore; perhaps 'clumsy' wasn't even enough to describe her. \ 'Don't be afraid. You can block its attack by using the knife to parry its tusks.' \ Xiya followed Qian's instructions and turned to block the boar's tusks with her knife. A crisp sound 'clang' rang out. \ 'Push it away, make it lose balance, then strike at its vital spot.' \ Xiya pushed the blade forward with both hands, and the off-balance boar exposed its unguarded abdomen. Xiya seized the opportunity and stabbed at its belly, successfully destroying the wild boar. \ 'I did it~ Qian~ I did it.' Xiya exclaimed joyfully. \ She was so happy just after defeating the weakest MOB. Even a newbie would slowly grow, after all! \ 'Mm, congratulations. From here, practice on your own! I'm logging off.' \ 'Ah~ so soon. Can't you stay a bit longer?' Xiya said with slight complaint. \ 'I'll teach you next time!' Qian completely ignored Xiya's complaint, opened the game menu, and suddenly looked puzzled. \ 'What's wrong, changed your mind?' \ 'The exit option… is gone.' \ 'No way!' Xiya also opened the game menu, selected the system page, her expression matching Qian's. \ The original page with the 'Exit' option had vanished. What neither they nor other online players realized was that a deadly game was waiting for them...