Chapter 24
Beginning
Is it stuck?
Sensing that something was amiss, Zhou Mu tried pulling out the game menu, but he failed.
“Game pod, log off.”
Nothing.
“Game pod, forced disconnection!”
There was still no reaction.
A trace of fear surfaced from his heart. He had read an urban legend on a forum that someone had died in a game pod due to a malfunction.
He had always written it off as a joke. After all, the VR game pod wasn’t connected to the back of his head. There shouldn’t be anything that sounded too sci-fi like being trapped in a game pod.
But when he realized that he couldn’t log off normally, he couldn’t help but let his imagination run wild.
“Game pod, forceful eject! Contact customer service!”
As Zhou Mu shouted all kinds of emergency orders, he raised his hand and planned on ripping off the VR helmet on his head.
However, he was stunned the next second.
What his hand touched wasn’t the helmet but his face.
Before he could figure out what this meant, Zhou Mu’s vision suddenly lit up again. In front of him was a starry scene—he had returned to the treasure hall he was in before going offline.
What’s going on…
Zhou Mu tried touching his face. At this moment, he wasn’t wearing a VR Helmet. He then touched the spot on his neck where the zipper of his sensor suit should’ve been, but he could only touch his Adam’s apple.
This meant that he wasn’t wearing a Force Transmission suit or a VR Helmet that could simulate his five senses.
However, he still saw the scene of stars filling the Treasure Hall. It even looked clearer than before.
It was as clear as the real world.
An extremely ridiculous possibility surfaced in Zhou Mu’s heart, causing his heart to race.
Then, I’ll test it…
Zhou Mu gulped.
Teleportation
There was no game UI interface or character interface, but when Zhou Mu thought of using Teleportation, a gorgeous and complicated nexus automatically appeared in front of him. Then, many specks of light that symbolized ‘coordinates’ appeared in his mind.
In Doomsday Watcher, Teleportation was equivalent to a ‘quick travel’ function. Therefore, to teleport to a certain location, players had to first visit the location and unlock the ‘coordinates’ there.
Zhou Mu tried choosing the coordinates that symbolized the round table. As the nexus flashed, he appeared in the seat where he had bid farewell to the Judges.
Even the ‘loading’ interface during Teleportation in the past no longer existed.
He looked at his hands in disbelief, finding it unbelievable that everything in front of him was real.
So, did I… transmigrate?
No game in the world could complete a player’s instructions with a thought. If he hadn’t gone crazy from the pressure of work, there was only one possibility—he had transmigrated to the world of Doomsday Watcher.
It was difficult to say what complicated changes Zhou Mu’s emotions had undergone after he realized that he had transmigrated, but one thing was certain—he definitely didn’t have the intention of returning.
Zhou Mu didn’t have any attachment to the real world, especially after his parents passed away a few years ago. Compared to the company and his extended family, having just lived on in reality thanks to inertia, he often felt that the world in Doomsday Watcher was a reality that belonged to him alone.
Now that he had really come to this world, he naturally felt uneasy and terrified. After all, this was a world where magic and gods truly existed—a world filled with danger.
However…
Zhou Mu focused slightly. The plethora of magic he had learned in-game naturally appeared in his mind. He felt that as long as he was willing, he could use such powers at any time, just like when he used Teleportation.
For a moment, he trembled from excitement.
It wasn’t an exaggeration to say that as a product of his Perfect Clear goal, the character named William Kane in this save was inexplicably powerful based on the game’s framework and background story.
In the game, other than some Bosses that required special conditions to defeat, he was confident in taking down even the strongest hidden Boss publicly accepted on the player forum—Incarnation of Nothingness.
Zhou Mu took a deep breath and calmed down slightly.
He needed to calm down now…
Since he had transmigrated and become the perfect-clear account of William Kane, he had to confirm the level of his strength and see how the mechanisms of his various abilities were different from in-game. Then, he had to find his former companions…
But speaking of which, why has the round table hall appear to be in ruins?
After making up his mind, Zhou Mu noticed that something was amiss.
He looked around. For some reason, the previously gorgeous and magnificent round table looked like it had been abandoned for a long time. It was covered in a thick layer of dust.
The murals on the dome had faded to an unrecognizable level. The Holy Spirit statue on the wall had been weathered into a beehive-like irregularity, and the flags hanging had long been reduced to dust.
In the entire round table hall, only the obsidian round table and the heavy adamantine door remained intact.
How long has it been? I left only a few minutes ago. None of this makes sense…
Zhou Mu muttered in confusion before shaking his head.
He had already transmigrated, so how could there be any logic? Perhaps he had transmigrated to an era many years later.
With this in mind, the uneasiness in his heart increased.
If he hadn’t transmigrated to an era where the game plot happened, much of the information he knew would’ve lost its usefulness. More importantly, he didn’t know if his companions could be found again.
In short, he had to find someone to ask about the situation. At the very least, he had to figure out the era he was in.
Life Detection
Upon having this thought, Zhou Mu activated a support spell. Invisible ripples spread out from him, and soon, the entire Twilight Fortress was within his casting range.
Any creature’s outline would be outlined by light-green lines after being touched by the invisible ripples, allowing Zhou Mu to see them even through obstacles.
Unlike in-game where one could only detect humans or other medium-sized creatures, even small lifeforms like rats and insects were outlined here.
Was this in line with the description of the skill in-game? Detection of all life auras in a large area.
Zhou Mu suspected that creatures like bacteria had also been detected, but he couldn’t see them.
Zhou Mu stood up in thought. Lightning flashed on his right hand, and a deep spatial rift opened. His hand reached in and pulled out a staff that was completely made of Frost. The tip of the staff was embedded with a blood-red magic sphere, and streams of light extended from the magic sphere to cover the entire staff like a spiderweb.
Withering Cold was the magical medium he used the most in-game not because it was strong, but mainly because it looked very cool.
The reason why Zhou Mu took out his magical medium was also very simple. He had seen the outlines of three human figures in the range of Life Detection. But other than one human figure on the ground that looked no different from a human, the other two had limbs that were too long for humans and huge heads.
That distinct appearance reminded him of a monster in-game.
Subdemon…? It’s actually inside the Twilight Fortress…
Although Zhou Mu didn’t know how much time had passed, Twilight Fortress was originally built to fend off demonic creatures from the Moon Realm. No demonic creature should be able to stroll around and retreat unscathed here.
Zhou Mu rubbed the magical medium in his hand and thought to himself.
This was the only thing that shouldn’t have changed no matter how much time had passed.