Chapter 1 Let's set sail, ███! [Please host for the audience...]
"...So he walked towards the sea, and the waves crashed into his astonished eyes. Once again, he was overwhelmed by the vastness of the heavens and the endlessness of time and space. He thought, 'So this is the sea...'"
The young man, huddled in front of the recording equipment, reached out in a daze and paused the incessant audio recording.
He slacked off for a while before lifting his head from his arms. His large, curly wolf-tail hair was now even more disheveled, and the red marks from the folds of his clothes on his cheeks softened his handsome, almost fierce face.
But as he slowly opened his eyes, the upturned shape of his eyes naturally revealed a lazy ferocity, and the gentle illusion vanished instantly. He stretched, his thin black vest covering his upper body, revealing unintentional muscle lines that stretched gracefully under the computer's glow, like a black panther that had just woken up and was stretching a bit.
The computer shows that it is 11:20 PM.
He was a little hungry.
Xue Chao racked his brains for anything in the villa that could fill his stomach. His gaze swept over the birthday candles beside him. The "2" had burned off its head, leaving only a sharp corner. Only then did he belatedly realize that today was his 23rd birthday.
A friend he had worked with before bought him a cake, which he casually left on the coffee table in the living room.
Later, the power went out at the villa where the old man was even older than him. He couldn't find his phone, so the birthday candles became his light source.
...It seems the phone isn't upstairs either; it must be inside the coat on the coat rack.
Xue Chao carefully saved the audio recordings for his new audiobook, casually draped a light jacket over himself, and walked down the stairs. The "3"-shaped birthday candle in his hand, still lit, passed through the dimly lit villa and was reinserted into the cake.
The man huddled in a chair in the living room, his long legs crossed somewhat "sadly," and lazily opened the phone he had found. The dense stream of messages from the project team made him frown, and even the sweet cake in his mouth lost its flavor.
Work is like bacteria; it multiplies without you even noticing. Xue Chao tossed his phone aside, trying to avoid the hassle.
Of all the things in the world, his birthday is the biggest.
Even without a birthday, he's still the oldest.
He glanced down at the childish cartoon cake. Doraemon's red nose was crooked from the birthday candles he had placed there, but it was still laughing heartily at him. In the antique vase next to the cake, the violets he had just placed were emitting a faint fragrance.
He suddenly felt that it would be a shame not to make a wish.
"The all-powerful Doraemon," Xue Chao lazily propped his head up, "wishes me a comfortable, carefree life, peaceful and simple, with good food and drink."
Sizzle...
The television screen directly in front of him suddenly lit up, and the sudden light made Xue Chao instinctively close his eyes for a moment.
Is the phone ringing?
wrong.
He was a beat slow to realize that he never used the TV in the villa, and the power cord had been unplugged long ago... So how did this thing turn on?
Suddenly, the television screen displayed a picture, dim and flickering amidst the static. It was a bright red equilateral triangle with an eye—the All-Seeing Eye—in the center.
Apart from the eyes, there are also spreading lines inside the triangle, like blooming rays of light, or like a rotating vortex.
The old-fashioned advertising style from the late 20th century features a line of rough yet striking blood-red regular script text below, stiffly jumping around: Infinite Games, cordially inviting you into the dream of freedom!
[Ding dong! Interviewee data verification in progress...]
[Loading assessment %#so██i%exam@%Y^%……]
【Currently #(*&) Core 3*#￥2】
The text that followed was all gibberish, the image kept twitching, the dark tones began to distort, and there was a constant hissing sound, giving the terrifying impression that it was burning itself up, like being infected with a virus.
The terrifying atmosphere, reminiscent of Sadako crawling out of a horror movie, completely dispelled Xue Chao's drowsiness. He frowned, quickly walked to the TV, and watched the screen buzz... buzz... thud!
Suddenly, celebratory fireworks exploded on the television screen, then returned to normal, accompanied by the excited voices of children:
Congratulations on your successful recruitment! Welcome to the united and friendly family of Unlimited Company!
[The first instance has been loaded for you, 3, 2, 1—]
Please host a fantastic game for the audience!
Xue Chao's vision went black for a moment, and then the clear sound of rain entered his ears, a mournful patter.
The windows were tightly closed, but Xue Chao still felt a chilling wind, which silently crept into the room through the cracks, enveloping him.
The weather forecast said it would be sunny for a week.
Xue Chao immediately got up and went to the window, but he didn't see the neighbor's three-story villa covered with lush greenery. The boundless sea stretched out and disappeared into the distant mist. The lights illuminated the outline of a harbor in the sea, like the glowing eyes of a bat in a dark cave.
"..."
He pinched himself hard, hissing in pain. If he wasn't still dreaming, then it must really be haunted.
“Infinite game”, “dungeon”... Xue Chao’s face darkened as he recalled the popular horror novels he had previously dubbed. Could he have also entered a similar horror world?
...Was it Doraemon or the judge of the underworld who granted his wish?
In the scene, the all-seeing eye, which looks like a texture, suddenly blinks, and a pixelated little bird squeezes out from the slit of its eye. It looks like a chick that has just been laid from a bird's egg. It is grayish-blue and has a white belly.
It flapped its wings merrily, but the frame-by-frame stuttering, accompanied by the grating sound of snowflakes, created an eerie feeling of constant teleportation.
The child's voice just now came from it: "Hello, Mr. Game Host! I am the work assistant assigned to you by the company. You can call me 'Bennu'. I will assist you with the preparations outside of the game!"
[Already in standby mode...]
[4 minutes and 44 seconds until the game starts]
[The host of this game, please prepare in advance!]
【00:04:43】
【00:04:42】
The countdown offers no buffer time, ticking away like a time bomb, forcing one's heart to beat to a cold, relentless rhythm. Under the dual pressure of changing space and limited time, everything is unknown.
Xue Chao was so stunned that he could only calm down first.
4 minutes and 44 seconds, that's fucking lucky.
"A beginner's guide?" Xue Chao sighed, quickly accepting the situation. "What should I do?"
Suddenly, the snow-like screen seemed to rise from two dimensions to three dimensions, like a rotating kaleidoscope, extending inward continuously. The dense lines, like an intricate neural network, crisscrossed and moved forward. In an instant, he seemed to glimpse a corner of the vast universe.
With just one glance, Xue Chao felt so dizzy he wanted to vomit.
What an impolite company.
[A copy of the file has been loaded for you]
According to available information, this should refer to the rights associated with the identity of a "game host".
When it comes to hosts, the first thing that comes to mind is "driving the process," and it's always better to know the content in advance than to be clueless.
The overview view zooms in instantly, pinpointing a point where a file icon appears.
The pixelated bird hopped and pried open the corner of the file, instantly revealing black text on a red background that filled the entire screen.
Xue Chao's heart, which had just settled down, jumped again.
[File No. 9502]:
※The file has been updated to the latest version.
Dungeon Name: Set Sail, ███! [To be unlocked]
Former name of the instance: The Lost Orlaug
Dungeon Difficulty: Three Stars - Asylum
Dungeon opening count: 7
Highest popularity score for the instance: 36/100
Previous host's comment: [Sorry, you do not have permission.]
Achievement obtained from the instance: [Sorry, you do not have permission]
Dungeon Type: [To be unlocked]
Main Quest: [To be unlocked]
Side Quests: [To be unlocked]
████: [To be unlocked]
Recommended host's role in this instance: [To be unlocked] (This instance does not support free selection)
Recommended number of players: 8
...
The pixelated bird on the screen kept observing him: "Your resilience is excellent! Many hosts waste their precious screen time on questioning and crying the first time they're on air!"
"You'll let me go back if I cry?" The message flashed quickly through Xue Chao's dark pupils. A lazy smile habitually hung on the corner of his mouth, as if he didn't care much even if the sky were to fall. "Say something useful—the main quest is for 'players,' right? So what's the 'host' for?"
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