Superhunt

Chapter 31: "Public Enemy of Players - Dispossessor No. 331"

Jonathan regained his composure and jumped out of bed, running to the window without even putting on his slippers. He yanked open the curtains, revealing the only working streetlight in the old and rundown residential area, casting a dim light to guide people home.

The faint light illuminated the garbage bins' hazy outlines, cracked stone tiles on the ground, and the silent surveillance cameras in the alleys. The neighborhood was quiet, without a single soul in sight.

It seemed like an ordinary night. People returned home and slept as always, waiting for the sun to rise and begin their routine days.

But Jonathan knew the seven days he had experienced were not a dream. It really had happened to him. Jonathan held his breath and whispered in his mind, "System?"

The holographic game panel appeared instantly, showing his skill descriptions and the super abilities he had gained during his time in the second world. The progress of the port bombing investigation had unknowingly risen to 25%, and all the information was laid out before him.

Jonathan gasped, his heartbeat skipping a beat. He had returned to the first world but could still summon the game panel. The game system followed him whether he was in the game world or the real world... so was the boundary between the game and reality still so clear?

No holographic game had ever been as realistic as "Red Soil." Jonathan knew that the world was real, but he had to treat it as a game and try to pass it to the end. The game system was one of the signs that helped him differentiate between the game and reality, convincing him not to lose himself.

But now, he also had the game system in the real world!

People could easily distinguish between games and life because they couldn't bring things from the game to reality and vice versa. Dying in a game meant being resurrected, and people could freely slaughter NPCs and commit heinous acts without guilt. But in the real world, everyone was normal, and no one would do such things.

"Maybe it's not as bad as I thought..." Jonathan muttered.

He walked over to the desk, took a utility knife from his pencil case, and, without hesitation, cut his finger. Blood flowed out, but the wound healed within two seconds!

This time, Jonathan lost all hope. Having left the second world, his regenerative ability was still with him.

The boundary between the game and reality had been broken! The abilities gained in the game were still in effect in the real world. The line between truth and illusion, game and reality, had become blurred.

It was as if Jonathan had been playing "Cyber Online," but when he quit the game, he found that the game system had followed him into the real world, turning his reality into "Earth Online," a gamified world.

The first and second worlds are two different gaming arenas!

What was even more frightening was that "Cyber Online" was not a single-player game but a multiplayer one. Jonathan wasn't the only player. The number of people playing "Cyber Online" equaled the number of people playing "Earth Online."

If other players also gained super abilities in the second world, they would bring those abilities back to the first world. Jonathan had a vague premonition that after tonight, players with awakened abilities would cause a massive disruption to the order of the first world.

He took a few steps back, sat down on his bed, and picked up the silver card from his bedside table. The words on the card were crystal clear: "Dispossessor · Jonathan, Number: 331."

It was like an ID card, an identity marker. Dispossessor was the profession, Jonathan was his real name, and the number was like an ID. Everything had seemed off ever since he received this silver card.

It was like a pass, granting Jonathan the qualification to travel between worlds.

Jonathan put down the card and picked up his phone, which had gone dark beside his pillow. He entered his lock screen password, and the screen lit up. It was now July 27th, 00:02.

He entered the game at midnight and left at midnight. After spending seven days in the game, it seemed that time in the real world had barely moved at all—everything was frozen.

Several night owls were chatting away with great enthusiasm in the chat group. Their messages flooded the screen one after another. Jonathan caught a glimpse of their conversation, which happened to be about "Red Soil." They wanted the game officials to open the second round of beta testing as soon as possible so they could get their hands on the game.

Playing the game? More like playing with their lives.

Jonathan gave a bitter smile. After a brief pause, he logged into the "Red Soil" closed beta player forum. What caught his eye was the red number of survivors: 9,630.

After spending a week in the second world, more than 300 out of 10,000 players had died.

Following crossing over, Jonathan started with the terrible, becoming an undercover agent walking a tightrope and facing danger at every turn. Sean also started with terrible, but if he had stayed quietly in the mental hospital, he would have been safe. Another player, Daniel, started as an ordinary person. Although he was poor, had bad luck, and got hit by a car, he wasn't in any mortal danger.

Jonathan believed those who started with the terrible and died as soon as they entered the game were in the minority. Even so, more than 300 out of 10,000 players had died, and each number likely represented a life.

As he scrolled down the forum, Jonathan's fingers froze. His pupils contracted, and his heart raced just as it had when he first returned to the first world.

Three posts with the "Official" prefix were marked in red and pinned to the top. The titles of these three posts were very simple.

The first post: List of Death Players.

The second post: Explanation of Player Professions.

The third post: Introduction to Basic Rules.

Jonathan didn't have time to read the posts from other players, so he clicked on the first one first.

The opening post contained a seemingly endless list of names. The list didn't disclose the players' real names, only their numbers and the time of death. It was like an obituary, yet it had an inexplicable, mysterious feeling.

"Walker 1 died on July 27th. Walker, 16, died on July 27th. Walker 536..."

Jonathan quickly skimmed the list, noticing that the highest number of deaths occurred during the first two days of the game. The number of deaths gradually decreased afterward, likely because the players had begun to adapt to the world and learned the rules of the second world. So, they started hiding, and fewer people died.

As he scrolled through the list, a line of text stood out due to its length, making it very noticeable. The line read: "Walker1368, killed by Dispossessor 331 on July 29th."

Jonathan stared in shock. Dispossessor 331 was him! The game officials had actually publicized his killing of Sean!

Feeling lightheaded, he exited the post and glanced at the forum's main page.

Roughly counting, there were dozens of posts in different languages with the number "331" in the title. Most of these post titles ended with question marks and exclamation points, with some even ending with a long row of question marks and exclamation points.

With a quick refresh, more and more posts with the number "331" kept appearing. Jonathan could only understand English, but the titles of several English posts on the main page were all related to him!

"Who is Dispossessor 331??"

"Why did Dispossessor 331 kill our own people?!"

"Is Dispossessor 331 a madman? Antisocial personality from birth? Have you made a mistake? You killed someone! This isn't a game; we've entered a real world with living people! Living people!"

"Damn, I spent those days in the second world working hard to earn money as a corporate slave, being extremely cautious not to overstep, while Dispossessor 331 is acting all high and mighty, daring to kill someone right away, and even one of our own people."

Jonathan covered his forehead and paced around the room to calm himself.

Panicking would not help. There were still two official posts left to read... He had to finish reading those posts first, which often contained the most information.

He walked to the kitchen, poured a glass of cold water, and gulped it down. As his thoughts cooled and he regained his composure, he clicked on the second post—Explanation of Player Professions.

The post's opening read: "There are two main professions in this game."

"Dispossessor, who gain power by hunting down and stripping special ability users of their super abilities."

"Dispossessors cannot awaken super abilities on their own and cannot gain power from potions containing special powers. The only way for Dispossessor to advance is by stripping abilities from others, excluding themselves. The super abilities stripped from others cannot be upgraded. To further enhance or evolve the stripped abilities, they must hunt down and kill same-level others with the same abilities."

"Walker, a profession that walks the world in human form to obtain power on par with the gods."

"Walker can awaken super abilities on their own and can also obtain power from potions containing special forces. Compared to Dispossessor , Walker's path to super abilities is not as treacherous. However, ability enhancement requires talent and opportunity. Some people can only reach a low level in their entire life, while others can gain power enough to rival the gods."

After reading the introduction, Jonathan had a more concrete understanding of the game.

Dispossessor followed a bloody path to advancement, while Walker followed a more traditional "leveling up" route.

He read the replies below.

1l: Who are the game officials?! I don't want to play this game anymore! I want to quit!

4l: Why set it up like this?! Is it fun to watch players kill each other?

13l: What would it be like if you explained these basic instructions before everyone entered the game?

25l: So, Walker is just prey? We enhance our abilities and then wait to be hunted by Dispossessor?

36l replying to 25l: We can fight back!

48l: How many people in the game are Dispossessor, and how many are Walker? The number of Dispossessor should be much less than that of Walker, right? The current official list of more than 300 deceased people is all Walker.

50l: Dispossessor can hunt people from the other world instead of players, right? To those Dispossessor lurking around, try to be human; at least don't harm your fellow players.

56l replying to 50l: Some people are already harming others; look at Dispossessor 331...

60l replying to 50l: So, you can just casually kill people from the other world? Do you really think this is just a game? What game has real deaths? What game is this realistic? Every person is a living life!

68l replying to 60l: Instead of letting Dispossessor target us, it's better to let them harm people from the other world. I don't want to die.

Jonathan stopped scrolling the page and fixed his gaze on the 85l.

85l: Is this the reason for the six pieces of advice given to us by the officials? Treat the game as a real world, and death is irreversible... And don't reveal your player identity to anyone. Once our player identities are exposed, we will attract suspicion, imprisonment, interrogation, and experimentation from not only the people of the second world but also the pursuit and killing of the Dispossessor.

86l replying to 85l: Dispossessor 331 has set a bad precedent. If there are other Dispossessors, they may follow 331's example and hunt down Walker. Seven days have passed, and everyone must have some understanding of the second world. Think about it: is it easier to kill someone in the technologically advanced second world or in the technologically inferior first world? If we don't rise up and fight back, we will eventually become prey for the Dispossessor! Don't think everything will be fine by temporarily quitting the game. Our first world is also a hunting ground! A hunting ground for Dispossessor!

In Jonathan's view, the second world was cold and ruthless, but now the first world also developed a tendency towards the second world.

He was playing a cyber game and a battle royale at the same time. He was a hunter, and the rest were prey. The prey didn't want to be hunted down by the hunter, so they planned to fight back against the hunter.

Jonathan exhaled, exited the second post, and began reading the third post about the basic game rules.

"Players can travel between the two worlds but only have one life. If you die in either world, you cannot be revived."

"The cycle of the first and second worlds is seven days. The login time is based on New York time, with the game starting at midnight and ending at midnight."

"When staying in the first world, if a player dies, the list of casualties will be updated in real-time. If a player dies in the second world, the list of casualties will be announced when the player returns."

"For other rules, please continue exploring."

Jonathan carefully read through the post and saw the reply to the first floor: "If there really is a hidden hand behind the game we're participating in, then that hidden hand must be American; otherwise, why would we follow New York time..."

If there really was a hidden hand, who was that hidden hand? Was it God?

What was the purpose of God selecting so many players to enter the second world? Or was there no meaning at all, and it was just a joke of the gods?

Jonathan had finished reading all the official posts and returned to the forum homepage to read the players' posts one by one.

"How do I quit the game? Can I call the police? Will reporting the incident work?!"

1l: Quitting is impossible. When you sign the contract, you already miss your one chance to quit. Once the opportunity is missed, there won't be another one. The officials have said that only two paths are available: clearing the game or the character's death.

2l: Call the police if you're not afraid of exposing your identity and being caught as a lab rat. I don't think governments can deal with such a bizarre situation. This isn't war; it's the intersection and fusion of two worlds. We are pioneers and experiences. Just live a peaceful life in the other world with an easy mindset, enjoying the glory of high technology. I think it's worth it, like going on a trip.

2l really has a good mindset... Jonathan decided to learn from him.

"Can any deceased players say something? Are they really dead? I can't believe it..."

1l: How can they make a sound if they're dead? I'm inclined to believe that they are indeed dead.

"How do you gain super ability? Has anyone awakened and can share some experience?"

After several meaningless posts, a useful reply finally came.

12l: I have awakened but don't think I have any experience to share because I fell and then awakened. I won't disclose my super ability to avoid being targeted.

13l: What an incredible stroke of luck for you!

"I believe we have traveled to a parallel world, and my arguments are as follows."

1l (OP): My name in the second world is exactly the same as in the real world. As one of the 10,000 players, I don't think I am an exception. I believe other people's names should be the same as in the first world.

2l (OP): Although my appearance in the second world is not exactly the same as in the first world, it is very similar, probably about 70-80% similar! Moreover, the most important point is that my personality and interests in the second world are the same as those in the first world! There can't be such a coincidence in the world. I don't think I entered a game; I think I traveled to a parallel world and inhabited my parallel self's body.

3l: You are right, OP. I have to tell you, I have parents in the second world, while my parents in the first world passed away in a car accident a month ago. Guess what? My parents, in both worlds, look exactly the same! Their habits and tone of voice are very similar! I cried when I saw them for the first time after crossing over. I don't want to quit this game at all. It's a gift from heaven, compensation from fate. I can't treat that world as fake; it's real! I believe it's real!

4l (OP) replies to 3l: Best wishes, friend.

5l: I also have parents and family in the second world, but they are different from my relatives in the first world. Maybe 3L is a rare exception.

6l: Our appearances in both worlds are too similar, making exposing our identities very easy. Everyone should be careful.

"I was on the toilet taking a dump when I returned to the first world. Now the question is, can I continue when I go back to the second world?"

1l: You cross at midnight and return at midnight, so there's no time difference. Don't worry. When you go back, you will definitely be able to finish your business.

Jonathan refreshed the forum again, and many new posts appeared.

The title of one post caught his attention.

"Public Enemy of Players - Dispossessor No. 331, no one should have any objections to this, right?"