Chapter 366: Newbies with a Death Wish

Ever since her son immigrated, Jiang Lian had subconsciously known she wouldn’t have much interaction with him in the future.

After all, she likely couldn’t even count on him to support her in her old age.

Of course, she had come to terms with it now.

She had raised him, after all, and you only live once.

There was only so much she could control.

She had enough money for her own retirement.

As long as someone was there to handle her affairs after she died, that would be enough.

But now, playing the game, Lian Yueqiao felt like she could keep going for several more decades.

Before her son’s call, she had received a mysterious phone call. The person on the other end had advised her not to reveal her identity as a player.

Jiang Lian didn’t know why, but when her son’s call came, something suddenly clicked.

So, she denied it without hesitation.

Hearing that his mother wasn’t playing that particular game, her son seemed to let out a sigh of relief, yet he also sounded a little disappointed. "Oh, is that so? Didn’t Aunt Yue say you bought a game pod?"

"I’m not playing *that* game. It’s just, after hearing that this famous game was virtual reality, I got interested in VR games in general. I bought a pod just to be trendy and keep up with the times." Jiang Lian was impressed with herself; she could lie without so much as blinking.

Aunt Yue was the cleaning lady who came by part-time.

’Looks like I’ll have to start cleaning the house myself,’ Jiang Lian thought.

It wasn’t a very big apartment, anyway.

"Is there anything else? I’m about to head out to the supermarket."

Her son started to ramble on, reminding Jiang Lian to take care of her health.

It was better to play fewer games.

Jiang Lian listened, feeling a little impatient.

After hanging up, she sat right where she was, lost in thought.

She couldn’t help but feel a little resentful.

He was her only son, and with her husband having passed away early, she had no one else.

She had never asked her son to be a huge success, but she never imagined he’d be so successful...

...so successful that after studying abroad, he would choose to immigrate without a second thought.

That was his choice. Jiang Lian couldn’t control him.

But with her son gone, she was once again all alone.

Just her.

She hadn’t always been interested in such trendy things; she had just been so bored that she started looking for hobbies.

From gaming to surfing the web, she tried all sorts of things, chasing the trends of the younger generation.

It was how she made her later years feel less lonely.

That is, until she stumbled upon the Broken Sect game.

The fact that the game was virtual was beside the point; in it, Jiang Lian had truly found the meaning of a second life.

Someone like her needed this game more than anyone.

The game was full of adorable little creatures, and many other players were happy to keep her company.

As a life-skill player, she never lacked for things to do and was having an absolute blast.

She was having so much fun that she rarely even thought about her son.

Thinking about it now, the emotional bond felt even more tenuous.

Her grandson only came to visit every other summer, and her son and daughter-in-law were hardly of one mind with her.

’What can an old woman like me do about it?’

’I should just focus on living my own life to the fullest.’

Her phone started beeping. BEEP BEEP BEEP.

It was another player from the game.

[Mao Yuzhu: Ms. Yue Qiao, Su Daqiang is heading over to the Spirit Fox Sect area to open up the zone, and he needs to bring a group of life-skill players. I heard there’s a river there that the Spirit Fox Sect used to use for raising Water Spirit Beasts. Are you interested in going there to raise a batch of Water Spirit Fish? People say you’re amazing at raising fish, and I want to open a seafood restaurant, so I’ll need a huge supply.]

A fond smile touched Jiang Lian’s lips as she read the message.

She replied: [You’re opening so many restaurants. Does Wang’an County really need that much supply? Can you sell it all?]

[Mao Yuzhu: Not just for Wang’an County! A group of our players has made it to the Dragon Frost Swamp, right? We can open shops there, and our goods can be transferred instantly through the system. We’re already selling out of Spiritual Wine, so now we’re developing all kinds of Spiritual Energy Food!]

These were all sources of Spirit Stones for the Longevity Sect.

The Longevity Sect now had a complete business plan.

Thanks to the new locations unlocked by the system, they were beginning to expand on all fronts.

Once these supply chains were established, the Longevity Sect would never have to worry about a shortage of materials or Spirit Stones for its new disciples.

The day their Longevity Sect became the number one sect on the Yunzhou Continent was close at hand!

Of course, where some found joy, others found sorrow.

While some players chose to develop steadily within the Sect, others were eager to court death.

Just as Song Jiulai had predicted, half of this new batch of disciples were restless.

They chose other Sects.

Of course, choosing a territory near the Longevity Sect was still acceptable. Right now, even joining the Sea View Sect wasn’t a problem.

Players had discovered it was safer to go by the title of Loose Cultivator; they didn’t have to be obsessed with joining a Sect.

But some still chose to start the game on hell mode.

For example, those who chose the Taixue Sect weren’t nearly as fortunate.

Not everyone could be as lucky as Liu Bo. Of the batch of players who had just entered the game, eleven of them were dead within a short time.

The players who died were raising hell on the forums.

Some were killed by demon beasts.

Others were killed by other Cultivators.

A few Cultivators had stumbled upon newly-spawned, defenseless players and killed them just for the heck of it.

Perhaps with more players in the world, their collective luck wasn’t as good.

Even Song Jiulai commented, "What a pointless way to die."

"Yeah, who could have known? There wasn’t even a chance to save them," the system sighed as well. "These player slots can’t be refilled. What a waste!"

"See? This is why I said it’s best not to choose an outside Sect to start with until you have some power. How could the outside world ever be as safe as our own nest? I’m just glad I haven’t opened up access to the Dragon Frost Swamp yet."

If he had, the number of player deaths would only be higher.

If so many died right after entering the game, then as the game progressed, there were bound to be others who’d get themselves killed through their own actions.

However, there were also players in a state somewhere between dead and not-dead.

They were the truly unlucky ones.

They had been captured by Cultivators—the kind who did their dirty work in the shadows.

Among the players who chose to start in the Taixue Sect this time, three of them decided to stick together.

They went in a completely different direction than Qing Guo had.

Finding a path forward in this vast, endless swamp was no easy task.

They hadn’t been traveling for long when a Cultivator appeared out of nowhere and grabbed them.

"Heheheh, look what we have here! Three top-quality specimens!"

The sudden voice made the three new players jump, and before they could even react, everything went dark.

It was as if they’d been thrown into some kind of sealed space.

The new players began to panic, screaming and shouting.

"Nooo, we haven’t even gotten to play the game yet! Are we going to die already? This can’t be happening!!"

"Damn it, that two percent survival rate wasn’t a joke! How did we get so unlucky?!"

"System, System! I want to quit the game! I want to log off and trade in my points to save my life!"

But the system was cold and merciless. "You can log off, but I can’t guarantee what will happen while you’re away."

That was tantamount to just handing their puppets over to someone else; the system would take no responsibility for what happened to them.