The background color of the forum gleamed with a cold, metallic sheen. The page was exceptionally simple, and the functions were monotonous—only posting, replying, and private messaging were available.

However, in the upper right corner of the forum, there was a conspicuous blood-red Arabic numeral: "10000".

Next to "10000" was a line of small text—"Number of Survivors".

For some reason, when Blake White saw the words "Number of Survivors," her heart skipped a beat and she felt a sudden pang of anxiety.

There were dozens of posts marked "new" floating in the forum. The forum had just opened, the players had just registered, and all the posts were newly created. Blake White refreshed the page, and another dozen or so posts popped up. The post titles were in English, Japanese, Russian, and Chinese—ten thousand players from all over the world had gathered in this tiny forum.

Blake White could roughly piece together the general meaning of the English titles, but as for the other languages, she couldn’t translate them at all.

She skimmed through the existing Chinese posts and found that the titles were things like "Here to start exploring," "Any players from Shanghai? Let’s meet up," "My name will definitely be in the top 100 posts"… all pointless chatter.

She hesitated for a moment, then clicked to create a new post, typing in the title: "Does anyone else think the 'Six Tips for Players' are a bit strange?"

After finishing the title, Blake White's mouse hovered over the post button for a long time without moving.

She recalled the line, "Please treat the game world as the real world," and the following warning, "You only have one life, death is irreversible." Then she looked at the blood-red number "10000" at the top of the forum, and felt as if something deep in her mind had been struck.

She suddenly felt a chill run down her spine, but couldn’t pinpoint where the sense of dread was coming from.

The feeling came out of nowhere, almost absurd.

Blake White rubbed her forehead.

How could the plot from a fantasy novel—"entering a full-immersion game is actually traveling to a real world"—happen in reality?

But even after trying to reassure herself, Blake White still, on a whim, deleted the post content and decided to just lurk and observe for now.

She kept refreshing the forum, reading through each of the Chinese posts.

A few minutes later, a new post caught her attention.

"The game company never mentioned how they’d send the game equipment. Has anyone received a VR helmet or installation package?"

The moment she saw this post, someone knocked on Blake White's door.

She instinctively stood up, walked to the door, and looked through the peephole, but saw no one.

She waited a few minutes, then slowly opened the door, noticing a small, pitch-black box lying quietly on the ground. There were words on the box—"Crimson Earth".

Blake White opened the box and found a silver metal card inside. The card’s design was intricate yet delicate, with interwoven lines forming a mechanical hand.

"This is… a game commemorative card?" Blake White turned the card over, and immediately shivered.

She remembered that she had never filled in her address on the official game website, so how did this card get delivered?

Blake White felt a pang of unease and, still in her slippers, went downstairs.

She lived in an old residential complex with outdated facilities, but there were surveillance cameras installed nearby.

A few elderly men and women were sitting at the entrance playing mahjong. The neighbors all knew each other. Blake White asked, "Auntie Zhang! Did the delivery guy come by just now?"

"No, Xiao Li usually comes around three in the afternoon, doesn’t he?" Auntie Zhang pushed a row of mahjong tiles forward, beaming. "Oh, I win!"

"Did anyone go upstairs just now?" Blake White pressed.

"Nope." Auntie Zhang was busy shuffling the tiles, not even turning her head.

Hearing this, even though it was the sweltering heat of July, Blake White felt a chill down her back.

If no one went upstairs, then who knocked on her door? She had never filled in any address information, so how did the "Crimson Earth" game card get delivered right to her doorstep?

She had just finished signing the game agreement, and the card was delivered—no more than five minutes apart…

Blake White looked down at the silver metal card in her hand and turned it over.

There were a few words engraved on the back of the card.

—"Depriver · Blake White. Number: 233."

233 was the game nickname she had just entered, and also her forum registration order.

In an instant, Blake White felt her scalp tingle.

The way things were developing, it seemed to be hurtling straight toward something bizarre.

Chapter 2: The Lightless Sea 02

Blake White curled up on her bed, staring at the glowing phone screen.

It was midnight, and she couldn’t sleep at all.

The events of the day had been strange enough to leave her unsettled and unable to rest.

All day long, Blake White had been refreshing the forum, browsing posts from the closed beta players. She couldn’t really understand the foreign languages, so she thought about taking screenshots and running them through a translation app, but her phone notified her that screenshots were disabled on the webpage. Blake White had no choice but to copy the letters onto paper and then take photos to translate them.

The number of registered users on the forum was rising, the number of posts was increasing, and quite a few people shared her confusion. Some were already asking about the "Six Announcements for Players" and the bloody ten thousand survivors displayed at the top of the forum.