Chapter 2 (1/2)
Translator: Atlas Studios
Editor: Atlas Studios
“I’m not looking for Gautama so that he can save me. What if all of these were that fellow’s handiwork?” replied Tang Luo.
Gautama—the professional blame-taker.
Everything was Gautama’s fault. The various instances of him corrupting added together could go a full round around the Earth.
“What an interesting way of thinking. You’re a monk?” asked the owner of the husky voice with his eyes on Tang Luo, who had already gotten to his feet.
A baldie might not necessarily be a monk. He could also be a poor unfortunate balding man.
There weren’t any monastic ordination scars1 on Tang Luo’s scalp.
However, this was already a contemporary age. It was very normal for monks not to have ordination scars too. That was why he had asked.
“Yes.”
Tang Luo turned around.
The owner of the husky voice was a truly plain and ordinary middle-aged man. Neither tall nor short, he leaned towards a muscular build and had the typical beer belly that most middle-aged men couldn’t rid themselves of.
The standing Tang Luo also got a clear look at the full view of the train carriage. Compared to the original train carriage, the current one was significantly shorter.
There were five other people, three men and two women, other than Tang Luo and the middle-aged man speaking to him.
Out of all of them, that middle-aged man was the oldest.
The youngest was a male high school student in his school uniform, who had some black fuzz on his upper lip.
Everyone else looked to be young adults in their twenties, including Tang Luo.
The exchange between Tang Luo and the middle-aged man had clearly gotten the attention of the others.
Some of them got up while some craned their necks and peered at them. They were all watching the two of them.
The middle-aged man didn’t ask Tang Luo anything else. Instead, he clapped his hands and diverted everyone’s attention from the duo to just him alone.
“Looks like everyone here is new. Let me give you a simple introduction of the situation,” said the middle-aged man.
“GANTZ1, Dimension of The Gods2, World of Reincarnation3?” Someone raised their hand and brought up their queries.
While the three terms put a look of realization on some of their faces, some people became even more mystified.
In an era where information was abundant and easily available, there would always be people who could grasp the situation.
Even if they didn’t really understand what exactly had happened, at least, they did not say any of the following things:
“I don’t believe any of it, all of this is fake! C’mon out, cameraman.”
“My father is XX. How dare you kidnap me?”
“I’ll give you any amount of money you want, just send me back home.”
…
Everyone was adopting a wait-and-see approach.
To put it in professional jargon—the quality of the newbies this time was relatively high.
Since he was facing the group of high-quality newbies or amateurs for short, the middle-aged man nodded and replied, “More or less. Simply put, we’ve been chosen to enter a special place to complete a mission.
“However!”
The middle-aged man paused for a moment before he went on. “It’s not World of Reincarnation or whatnot. Most people prefer to call it The Game of Gods and Demons. We are a group of ‘players’. To be more precise, players entering a dungeon and risking our lives to complete the mission.”
The bespectacled man, seemingly a university student, who had raised the question earlier, asked, “And then we’ll receive rewards and points that we can exchange for items and become stronger?”
As he spoke, he even pushed his glasses up. He gave off a feeling very much like those calm, wise men types.
Of course, this was on the precondition that one overlooked his cute pink bear-patterned pajamas and bedroom slippers. The girliness spilling out was very much eyebrow-raising.
The middle-aged man shook his head slightly. “No, there won’t be any points awarded. You’ll only receive rewards after mission completion. If you wish to become stronger, you can either reap benefits while doing the mission in the ‘dungeon’ or receive rewards after mission completion. At least, that is what I understand so far.”
He didn’t mind ‘Spectacles’ here raising questions. He was even very happy to explain the situation to everyone through such a question-and-answer format.
They were all in that together.
Favors that didn’t require much effort, like providing the information he knew so that newbies could get into the situation more quickly, were things that Zhou Zhenguo, the middle-aged man, didn’t mind doing.
There might be people who liked to kick up a fuss about things like this. However, Zhou Zhenguo wasn’t one of them.
“What kind of rewards are there?”
“Skills. This centers around skills, that’s why it’s called a game,” replied Zhou Zhenguo.
“Will we be directly obliterated if the mission fails? Since there isn’t anything like points that can be deducted.”
“Yes, most likely. But I’ve also heard from others that it isn’t so much as obliterated but disappeared.”
“Disappeared?”
“Yes, disappeared. Or going missing mysteriously, because there is no way of proving whether they are really dead. But there’s no need to be so worried. You won’t disappear with just one failed mission. It probably happens after three to five times. I’ve failed my missions a few times, but I’m still alive and kicking.”
“Alright.” The bespectacled man in pink pajamas nodded.
Zhou Zhenguo asked, “Are there any other questions? I’ll tell you everything I know—”
He had only just spoken when the moving train began to slow down before coming to a stop a few seconds later.
The one and only door in the train carriage slowly opened. It was a pitch-black world outside the train carriage. The light from within streaming out through the open train doors could only light up an area that didn’t even reach a square meter.
Beyond a square meter, everything was dark.
Obviously, the train windows coated with a layer of dust and grime also prevented them from surveying their surroundings through the windows.
Even without the dust, what they would see would also just be a reflection of the train’s interior.
Zhou Zhenguo cast a glance at the pitch-black world beyond the train doors and released a breath. Then, he said, “Let’s go. We can talk while we walk.”
After that, he stepped forward and walked right towards the train doors.
Spectacles followed behind him immediately without any hesitation.
The other two men also followed after them. The two remaining women probably knew each other. They stood very close to each other and hesitated for a moment before they followed after the rest.
Just as Zhou Zhenguo was about to lead the charge and leave the filthy but brightly lit train carriage, Tang Luo opened his mouth.
“Benefactors1, please wait a moment.”
Zhou Zhenguo paused in his tracks and looked back at him. With a slight frown, he said, “Monk, what questions do you have? Let’s talk while we walk.”
“You’re mistaken.” Tang Luo shook his head with one of his hands held upright before his chest. At once, a sense of serenity and placidity emanated from him.