Shut Up – This Is a Serious Game

Chapter 1: The Red Land

"This is the Red Land."

"The world is on the brink of destruction, and civilization is in imminent peril. You will play the role of a common survivor in the Red Land, and together with the other survivors, you must rebuild this world."

"You will face countless dangers: the triennial Ice Tide, the raging thunderstorms, the devastating hurricanes..."

"Even supernatural beings, monks, monsters, and ghosts must also be dealt with."

"Do you accept the challenge to embark on a completely different life, to explore a foreign world, and to bring its rewards back to your world?"

"Or will you choose to remain in mediocrity and watch this world perish?"

"Yes, or no?"

After reading this passage, Chen Jiu laughed sarcastically in front of the screen, thinking to himself that the promotion of games nowadays is becoming more and more exaggerated.

Just a few minutes ago, he had received the same link push on all his contacts. Unable to resist his curiosity, he clicked on the link, and what appeared in front of him was this page.

On the screen, there was nothing but a black background and white words, just like those low-quality text adventure games.

The words in the text didn't have any exaggerated boasting such as "100% real" or "all five senses,"  but the description of the game content was still a bit unprofessional.

What would be a truly attractive opening remark?

"War, war has never changed..."

"Time is not your enemy; eternity is..."

"We will be reborn in the cold ocean..."

"All is vanity; all is allowed..."

Only with this kind of style can you have any coolness! Even the most basic things are written so poorly, I guess this game is not much fun either. But the poor writing suggests bad planning, and the fact that they can send so many links to themselves suggests that their publicity team is not bad either. I'm curious to see what kind of situation you are in with such a contradictory product.

Thinking of this, Chen Jiu pressed the "yes" button with a hint of provocation, but there was no change on the page.

"It's just another publicity plan to please the crowd..." He thought to himself, but in the next second, he suddenly plunged into darkness.

......

Opening his eyes once again, Chen Jiu found himself in an endless expanse of snow. He looked around fearfully, unable to decide if he had entered a game world or had he crossed over for real. The only indication that this was indeed a game was the UI in front of him. Was he in the game world after all? Despite the fact that he had not expected this to happen to him, as a regular of online games and literature, he managed to maintain his cool. But if this was a game, then wouldn't the sensations he felt be too real? The cold wind blew away most of his body heat in an instant, and his limbs were already starting to stiffen while his breath became foggy. Looking at the frozen river in the distance, Chen Jiu wondered how the temperature here had dropped below zero.

He was only wearing a thin down jacket! What kind of game is this, where even the beginner equipment is not given? If he were in the north, wouldn't players wearing T-shirts and with the heating on be wiped out immediately?

He didn't think too much; there was no exit button on the UI, so he could only look at what the system planned to let him do. He used his consciousness to control the screen in front of him, and opened his "To-Do List."

Yes, this broken game didn't even set up a task interface, it just simply wrote out what the first thing to do was. Go to Xiahu Village and retrieve the holy item of the Xiahu villagers.

Wow, this is the task right off the bat?

The plan sounds nice, "retrieve", but you said it's a holy item, are they going to give it to you so easily?

What if they don't? Rob them?

Well, that does fit the style of some speedrunners; after all, those grandsons cut down the innocent girls in black stockings with cat ears for the sake of saving a few seconds of cutscene time...

Chen Jiu shook his body to get a clear direction. Not far away from him was a river bay with a village, which should be the so-called "Xiahu Village".

At least it's not as bad as in some games where you have to be born in a shelter in the wild, which is half an hour away from the village where the mission is.

Anyway, let's go to Xiahu Village and see. If the mission fails, just commit suicide and restart. A broken game can't even deny you the save feature, right?

Thinking of this, Chen Jiu struggled forward in the snow. It was his first time seeing so much snow, and he had a real experience of the unpleasant side of "snowing".

Even though it was still snowing in the sky, the village seemed to be wrapped in a barrier, and from a distance, it looked like there was a semi-circular glass cover blocking the snow.

What kind of black technology is this? Cultivation? But even in the most prosperous xianxia world, is it necessary to use a barrier to prevent the snow from falling?

That's a bit too extravagant.

Without hesitation, Chen Jiu felt his body was about to freeze, and he eagerly stepped into the village entrance. Strangely, there wasn't a single person in this densely populated village.

Frowning, he continued forward. Perhaps due to the cold climate, the village was densely packed with buildings that seemed to block the wind.

He followed the winding path, and soon he heard someone talking coming from his ears.

The cold wind was cutting, and the icy tides swelled; the rivers and streams froze over. The villagers gathered and offered a sacrifice of blood and food to summon a peaceful wind to protect their people.

Chen Jiu peered out from the corner of the wall and saw what he expected—the village was holding a ritual. The empty space was filled with people, seemingly worshipping something, but Chen Jiu's view was blocked by the corner.

Aside from the priest's recitation, he could faintly hear people from the crowd on the other side of the wall whispering:

"...The power of the furnace has been weakening; now that it's so close yet it still feels cold, who would dare approach it within a hundred steps before...?"

"Yeah, I don't know if we can make it through this year..."

"We just have to make it through the Ice Tide; at least the next one won't be for another ten years or so..."

From the content of the ritual and the conversations of the believers, it seemed like they were worshipping a deity that could grant them "warmth".

Jishou means September, so does that mean in this world, as soon as September arrived, the surface temperature had already dropped to below 0?

Yes, we must give a salute to the warmth god...

Also, does this village not having snow have something to do with this so-called "God"?

If that's the case, then the things the gods manage in this world are indeed quite meticulous.

Even the toilet has a toilet god, right?

He stuck his head out and looked in the direction where the people were offering sacrifices, and this one glance made him freeze in his spot.

Those people, they were indeed worshipping.

But what they were worshipping was not a god at all!

No matter how little Chen Jiu knew about this world, even if it was his first time seeing it, he could confidently say that.

There was nothing less godlike than what he saw.

It was a huge...

a radar antenna! circular, pointing straight up to the sky, painted in a light gray with a sense of technology.