A wave of complex emotions washed over Fang Zhen.
After a long moment, he let out a long breath, put the letter away, and walked over to the computer tower.
The black tower wasn't particularly large. Fang Zhen picked it up; it was a little heavy.
He carried the tower to his computer room.
Fang Zhen lived in a two-bedroom apartment. He had converted the smaller, north-facing bedroom into a computer room, which contained a custom-built, cream-colored computer desk.
Currently, there were two monitors on the desk—one Philips and one Samsung. Fang Zhen claimed it was for work convenience, but in reality, it was to make gaming and watching movies more enjoyable. He had learned how to set up the dual-monitor display online.
Fang Zhen first shut down his old computer. Then he swapped the power supply, unplugged the USB, power, and graphics card cables, and connected them all to the new computer tower.
He pressed the power button.
The monitor lit up.
Fang Zhen looked over. There was only a single icon on the desktop.
It was a swirling, seven-colored vortex.
Fang Zhen clicked the icon.
A dialog box immediately popped up on the screen.
"Welcome to Dungeon Life."
"Please create your profile."
'A game?' Fang Zhen wondered, looking at the text on the screen.
He followed the prompts and began creating a profile.
"Name: Fang Zhen
Gender: Male"
Fang Zhen had only entered his name and gender when a new prompt appeared: "Auto-generating content."
"Generating data..."
"Generating data..."
"Name: Fang Zhen
Gender: Male
Level: 0
(Baseline for an average person is 10.)
Constitution: 13
Strength: 11
Agility: 10
Spirit: 13
Perception: 11
Class: None
Current Traits: ???, ???, ???"
Fang Zhen's eyes widened slightly in surprise as he saw the auto-generated data.
'These stats are actually pretty consistent with my self-perception.'
Fang Zhen had a better understanding of himself than the average person; you could say he was self-aware.
He had always been in good health, rarely even catching a cold. In the last ten years, he hadn't needed an IV drip for anything besides getting anti-inflammatories after a wisdom tooth extraction.
Due to his job, he spent a lot of time in front of a computer and rarely worked on his strength or agility. He did the occasional push-ups or used a grip trainer, which helped him maintain a certain level of fitness.
His Spirit and Perception scores also matched his own assessment and the objective opinions of others.
A bit better than the average person, but not to an absurd degree.
'Interesting. Did Xiao Yi preset this based on what he knows about me?' Fang Zhen wondered.
He was starting to find this intriguing.
"Please select the difficulty of the dungeon world you wish to experience."
"Dungeon World Tiers: Eternal, God & Demon, Legend, Epic, Heroic, Elite, Normal, Nameless"
"Please choose carefully. Forcing your way into a world not meant for you will result in more than just humiliation. It will bring death, and perhaps something even more terrifying."
'Is this a game?' Fang Zhen thought for a moment, staring at the text on the screen.
He had a feeling that the computer from Xiao Yi was more than just a simple gift.
If it were the old Fang Zhen, he would have picked an Elite or Heroic dungeon no matter what. Normal and Nameless just sounded boring.
But after hitting a few rough patches in life, Fang Zhen had become much more cautious.
'Better to be safe than sorry. The system even gave a warning, so no need to act tough. I'll just be honest, pick the lowest difficulty, and see what this is all about.'
Fang Zhen selected the lowest difficulty: the 'Nameless' dungeon world.
"You have selected a Nameless Tier world."
"Congratulations on making a wise choice. In fact, your current Merit Points only allow you to select the Nameless and Normal difficulties."
Fang Zhen couldn't help but chuckle when he read that.
'I could only choose Nameless or Normal? You couldn't have said so earlier?'
'But what are Merit Points?'
As if sensing Fang Zhen's thoughts, a small icon lit up on the computer screen, indicating a help document.
Fang Zhen moved the cursor to click on the help document and read for a while.
The document displayed an explanation of Merit Points.
After reading for a moment, Fang Zhen got the gist of it.
Merit Points were the universal internal currency within this "Dungeon Life" system, a kind of resource.
You could use Merit Points to select the tier of the dungeon world you wanted to enter.
Currently, Fang Zhen's permissions only allowed him to access Normal and Nameless tier worlds. A prompt indicated that unlocking the Elite Realm tier required 300 Merit Points.
As for the higher-level Heroic dungeon world tier, Fang Zhen couldn't see how many points were needed to unlock it.
Besides unlocking world tiers, the description mentioned that Merit Points could also unlock many value-added services.
For example, adjusting one's appearance within a dungeon, obtaining dungeon information, or commissioning custom dungeons.
These were just listed as functional modules, but they weren't lit up yet. Following them were several "???" symbols, suggesting there was still a wealth of content yet to be unlocked.
'Interesting.' Fang Zhen thought the game seemed to have a massive and rich backstory, something that could be played for a long time.
"World Tier locked. Please select dungeon difficulty."
"Hell, Nightmare, Hard, Normal, Easy."
Fang Zhen thought for a moment and chose Easy.
His inner impulse was to try Normal or Hard.
However, the previous warnings suggested this game's origins were not simple. Fang Zhen thought it through and decided to start with the easiest option to test the waters first.
"Generating dungeon..."
"Your selected dungeon has been generated."
"Dungeon Name: Dark Path.
World Tier: Nameless
Dungeon Difficulty: Easy"
"Your profile has triggered a built-in rule. You have obtained a special talent."
"Your talent is: Mystical Proficiency in Symbols & Languages
You will naturally comprehend most of the languages and scripts within the dungeon. Ninety percent of languages and scripts will be interpreted by your consciousness through a mystical ability.
Note: Certain special runes, codes, symbols, and some high-energy languages and scripts are not included."
"Detection complete. External device missing. Please check for the external device."
Seeing the prompt, Fang Zhen immediately remembered the two black, smart-speaker-like objects that had come with the computer tower.
He stood up, walked through the door of the north bedroom, and went into the living room.
Fang Zhen picked up one of the two black external devices.
Suddenly.
Fang Zhen felt a powerful force emanate from the black cylinder in his hand. The force felt like the repulsion of two magnets with their like poles facing each other, combined with the pull of their opposite poles.
Driven by this force, the black cylinder flew out of Fang Zhen's hand and stood upright on the living room's tile floor. At the same time, the other black cylinder also righted itself.
A force field formed between the two cylinders. The next moment, a dazzling white light flashed, and a wide Light Gate appeared in the middle of the living room.
"Holy crap!"
Startled, Fang Zhen took a step back, his heart pounding.
Fang Zhen stared at the Light Gate before him. It was milky white, and in its center, a black vortex spun continuously like a black hole, exuding a powerful force that seemed to pull at his very spirit.
The Light Gate was brilliant and dazzling, mysterious and unfathomable, magnificent and captivating, yet also strange and eerie.
"This... This is..." Fang Zhen's eyes were wide, and for a moment, he was at a complete loss for words to describe what he was feeling.
'What is this?'
'A Tesla coil?'
'A supernatural phenomenon?'
'A portal to another world?'
'Is this what Xiao Yi meant by a life-changing opportunity?'
The emotional impact on Fang Zhen was immense. His mind was in turmoil as all sorts of thoughts, relevant and not, surfaced.
After staring wide-eyed for a good seven or eight seconds, Fang Zhen seemed to realize something.
He spun around and ran back into the computer room.
Fang Zhen rushed to the desk, planted his hands on it, and stared intently at the computer screen.
Just then, a new dialog box popped up within the 'game' interface he had opened earlier.
"The dungeon has been generated. You may enter the dungeon world through the external Light Gate."
"Warning: The dungeon worlds are splendid and colorful, but they are also incredibly cruel. If you die, you will truly lose your life."
"This is the first time a dungeon has been opened. You have one minute to decide whether to enter the dungeon world."
"Once you choose to enter, the Dungeon Life system will be permanently bound to your computer. If you do not enter within one minute, this system will automatically be deleted from your computer."
"The time has come for you to make a life-altering choice."
"The time may be short, but such is life. Opportunities are always fleeting and will not wait for you forever."
"59 seconds,"
"58 seconds..."