Chapter 1 — The Gu of Pure Time
Year 2035.
Neural networks were no longer just an interface. They invaded the cortex, stimulated every nerve, every gland, every memory. Pain, pleasure, hunger, hatred… everything arrived with 97.4% fidelity. And the game *Insane Legends* — the most obsessive recreation that *Reverend Insanity* fans had ever managed to create — was the altar where that fidelity turned into addiction.
The original novel still had no ending. The community, faithful to the bone, swore that Ren Zhen Gu would one day rise from the digital ashes carrying the "sacred manuscript." Until then, *Insane Legends* was the only place where one could live the Gu path to its limit.
Silver hair. Black eyes. Rank 6.
Others called me the Bloodsucker Demon. I only smiled when I heard it.
The announcement came in a secret cave hidden deep in the map's Northern region.
Gu of Pure Time.
Elevates the body to its peak, purifies the bloodline, forces a physical rebirth, and pushes talent to its absolute maximum. An item that shouldn't even exist within the game.
Fifteen entered.
Me and fourteen others.
The traps were elegant. Wind formations that sliced skin like invisible blades, stone beasts that regenerated with their own spilled blood, corridors that folded in on themselves trying to swallow anyone who hesitated. I detected the pattern before the ground even trembled. A step to the left. A jump at the exact instant the fire formation opened. A precise cut to the joint of a six-legged beast while it was still calculating its trajectory.
A scream tore through the air behind me.
"AAARGH! My leg! MY LEG!"
Another player fell, the wind formation having opened his thigh to the bone. Blood poured out in hot jets. He dragged himself along, howling.
"Help! Someone— AAAGH!"
I kept walking. Not my problem.
When the walls finally opened into the deepest chamber, only five remained.
The Gu was at the center.
A yellow worm, long as a serpent, swallowing its own tail. Thin, translucent wings beat slowly, as if time itself slowed around it. Its presence made the air vibrate.
The other four looked at me.
Three of them were nearly identical: deep black hair, deep black eyes, black-and-red clothing flaunting the "Feng Yuan" style. One wore a deliberately torn cloak, another carried a bone fan, the third had his face covered by a half-moon mask. I let out a low laugh.
"Well, well… a whole batch of Feng Yuan Chuunibyou Syndrome. You probably smell like onions in real life, huh? Standing around posing as eternal demons, and when you take off the headset, your mom's still yelling at you to clean your room."
The one in the torn cloak snarled.
"Shut it, Bloodsucker. This Gu is mine."
The one with the bone fan gave a dry laugh.
"Yours? Dream on. I killed six just to get here. You didn't even come close."
The woman with white hair and blue scale armor crossed her arms.
"You two will die first. The Gu doesn't accept trash."
The masked one merely tilted his head.
"…kill them all."
The battle began without another word.
The torn-cloak one came first, a wind formation slicing the air. I dodged, but let the air blade graze my rib on purpose. The pain came sharp, hot.
"Hah… that's it."
He screamed when my fingers dug into his throat and forced the blood formation to turn against his own heart.
"NO— AAARGH! STOP! STOP!"
His scream choked on blood. He fell to his knees, hands clutching his chest, eyes wide.
"Please… I… AAAGH!"
The second came with the fan. The bone blade cut my shoulder. I smiled. The pain throbbed pleasantly.
"You're slower than you look."
I snapped his wrist with a sharp twist. The fan fell. I picked it up and cut his throat's artery in a single motion.
"GAAAH—!"
The scream came out wet, drowned in his own blood. He fell sideways, trying to stem the red spray with trembling hands.
"Mom… mom… it hurts… it hurts so much…"
The third tried to run. I caught him, pushed him back to the center, and made him watch.
"Stay. Watch."
He was shaking.
"N-no… please… I just wanted the Gu… AAARGH!"
The woman in blue scales came at me. Fast. Smart. Her water and blade formations crossed in deadly patterns. One cut opened my cheek. Another grazed my ribs. I laughed through my teeth.
"Harder. Come on, give me more."
She snarled.
"You're sick!"
"And you're taking too long to die."
At the moment the battle reached its peak — blood spraying, formations colliding, the ground cracking — a golden light exploded from the Gu.
It wasn't game light.
It was something that cut through the neural network as if reality itself had been torn.
The pain arrived.
Not the calibrated pain of VR. Not the pain the system allowed. It was an ancient, visceral pain, burning every cell, every memory, every fiber.
"AAARGH—!"
The scream tore my throat. Beside me, the others screamed too.
"STOP! WHAT IS THIS?! AAAGH!"
"MY BODY IS BURNING! HELP!"
"NO— NO— NOOOOO!"
The Gu vanished. The five vanished. The world vanished.
---
*Another point of view*
In a hall of black stone, far from any civilization, an old man laughed.
Five women surrounded him. All of them called him husband. Dressed in dark silk, eyes gleaming with ambition and desire.
"Did you get it, husband?" asked the tallest one. "The divine item from the other world… did you manage to seize it?"
The old man kept laughing, the cackle echoing like breaking bones. Malicious. Mad.
"Yes… yes… I got it."
Suddenly the laughter died.
His face hardened. His eyes went cold as blades.
"But… I consumed too much of the world's essence. I don't know why. When I used the world's will to interfere with the other one… I felt something change. Something in this world. Something I still can't detect."
The five women exchanged glances. None dared to ask more.
The old man just stood there, motionless, feeling the distant echo of a change he himself had set in motion — and which now slipped beyond his control.