Chapter 111: Artificial Soul 38
In the video cover, he is wearing a mask.
However, the disguise is minimal; after all, he is a well-known gaming streamer who frequently shows his face, and in previous videos, he has revealed all his information. His long-time fans even know his real name.
Kui Xin searched online and quickly found out his true name.
His name is He Kangshi, and the nickname for his video account is a variation of his real name. Fans call him Lao Kang. He has a considerable following on the video website, and when he suddenly deleted his videos and went missing, it sparked a significant discussion. Several old YouTubers he was connected with expressed their surprise in their posts that they couldn’t contact him, and this incident even trended on social media, albeit at a low ranking.
Having such an unfortunate start is unfortunate, but what shocked Kui Xin was that He Kangshi had managed to survive for three weeks in the Third World under extreme information exposure without being found by the Federation. This was simply unbelievable.
Kui Xin temporarily exited the forum and logged into the video website to watch the videos posted by He Kangshi.
The video displayed an extremely dark environment, with He Kangshi wearing a Sun Wukong mask bought from a street vendor, sitting upright at his computer desk.
As he began to speak, Kui Xin noticed that his mental state was very poor, his demeanor was haggard and weak, and his voice was faint.
A barrage of comments rolled by.
“Dead man, you still know to come back!”
“Did something happen to Lao Kang’s family?”
“What’s going on?”
The screen was filled with questions and exclamations that nearly obscured the video. Kui Xin closed the comments and focused on the video content.
“Hello everyone, I am Lao Kang. I’m very sorry for not updating for so long. The reason I disappeared from public view during this time is that I encountered something that shattered my worldview. I fell into danger, and along with me, there are ten thousand unfamiliar player friends in the same predicament. I’m just an ordinary civilian, timid, and my first reaction to something like this is to escape, run as far away as possible. But now I can’t escape. If I don’t speak out about this, the victims could be more than just ten thousand.”
He Kangshi’s video had little editing, the quality was very low, and the footage shook constantly. It seemed he recorded this video in a hurry, using his phone, after hearing news of the third batch of beta testing.
“What I am about to say does not contain any joking elements. I haven’t taken any advertisements, nor am I helping promote this game. I swear on my household registration and Red Scarf that what I am telling is my true experience, as well as the true experiences of those ten thousand victims.”
He Kangshi let out a bitter smile and said in a darkly humorous manner: “What I’m about to tell you, don’t be scared.”
“The story begins on July 36th. On July 36th, I received an internal beta testing invitation from ‘Crimson Soil.’ At that time, I was so happy that I posted about it, saying I would record a video guide for everyone. I thought I was a lucky winner, not realizing I was an exceedingly unfortunate sod out of a hundred million.”
“This game is not a game at all; even if it is a game… it is a game created by a deity. I looked at the official documents, signed my name, and agreed to participate in this game. At midnight on July 37th, the beta test began. However, I did not log into any game but instead crossed over to a real parallel universe, a cyberpunk world!”
“Ridiculous, right? I think it’s ridiculous too. But such ridiculous things have happened.”
“Along with me, another ten thousand players also crossed over. Before the crossover, my fellow players and I entered an internal beta player forum where people from different countries communicated in various languages. At the top of this forum was displayed a line of numbers—survival count.”
“The crossover cycle of the game is a week. After a week in the game, the flow of time in the real world is paused; we crossover at midnight and return at midnight, a seven-day cycle that goes back and forth between two worlds. When I endured a brutal week in the game world and returned to reality, I checked and found that over three hundred players had died; this was just the first week. By the third week, over six hundred died, and the previous week, over a hundred…”
“Here comes the crucial point: the dead are truly dead. There’s no such thing as one world dying while another continues to live. This is a game where resurrection is impossible and where you can’t save your progress—once you enter, you only have one life.”
“You might wonder how I confirmed this. Because there was another player who crossed over at the same spot as me. I was somewhat lucky to have company during that first week, and I and this player agreed to keep in touch in the real world. But an accident happened—he died. Upon returning to reality, I immediately dialed the number he gave me, only to find it was unreachable. I kept calling the entire day, and eventually, his family answered. They told me he had suddenly died in bed the night before, and they discovered his body had stiffened when they called him to get up for meals that morning.”
He Kangshi’s voice trembled slightly at this point, pausing for a while before continuing to narrate.
“What I’m saying is not a joke, nor is it fiction. I hope everyone watching my video fully realizes the dangers of ‘Crimson Soil.’ Once you enter, you will experience cruelty you have never encountered in the real world. You will be forced to kill, and you may be killed.”
“You may even face assassination by the government of the Third World, because when players arrive in that world, they directly replace the souls of people in that world. Simply put, you soul-switch into a parallel version of yourself; although you bear a resemblance to the ‘original,’ you do not possess the ‘original’s’ memories. This can easily blow your cover. If your abnormal behavior raises the suspicions of your Third World family, you will be doomed. If your strange actions catch the attention of the Federation government, they will dispatch super AIs to monitor you, and once they determine your identity as an inter-world visitor, they will undoubtedly eliminate you.”
“The technology level of the Third World is extremely advanced. For ordinary people entering the Third World, it’s like a country bumpkin arriving in the city; everything has to be learned anew, and social rules have to be adapted again. Once you accidentally expose your ignorance, the outcome awaiting you is arrest and eradication. You may die, or you may experience something even more terrifying than death.”
“The Third World also harbors bizarre and dangerous creatures along with various extraordinary abilities. These unknown entities make it hard to guard against… I won’t go into detail about the game rules and the appearance of the Third World; my aim is not to help you understand this game, but to make you stay away from it.”
“Lastly, I have to say something even more frightening. Players will kill each other because we are split into two factions—the Removers and the Proxies. Removers can kill Proxies to acquire all their abilities, and there are also cases of infighting between Proxies. It’s difficult to rely on your companions because your companion may become your death knell.”
He Kangshi paused, “Not playing this game won’t cost you your life, but playing it might. Perhaps my warning will trigger curiosity and the desire to explore in some people, but I must tell you, curiosity killed the cat, and it might also get you killed. I won’t say more; I have relayed the dangers you will face upon entering the game. If you take to heart even a word of what I said, then instantly distance yourself from this game and never play it.”
“Additionally, I know many have learned my true identity, and some powerful people might know where I’m hiding. Whatever, I don’t care anymore. My information has long been thoroughly exposed, so I don’t mind saying a few more words.” He Kangshi seemed to have a “screw it” feeling, but after a few seconds, he hesitated again, “If those in front of the screen have a sense of conscience, don’t spread my real information. I have the courage to stand up, but I am indeed afraid of dying.”
He Kangshi looked into the phone camera, fell silent for a while, seemingly making a decision, and then continued, “There will definitely be people doubting the truth of what I said, so—” He grabbed a water bottle next to him, then suddenly relaxed his hand, causing the water bottle to float in the air.
Through gritted teeth, he made a bold statement: “This is not a special effect; it’s my superpower. If a Remover or someone with ill intentions sets their sights on me… I will make sure they never return.”
After finishing the video, Kui Xin confirmed the view count.
The view count shot up rapidly, and within just a few hours, it already surpassed one million, continuing to grow as new comments streamed in.
Most comments questioned whether what He Kangshi said was real or fake, whether it was some marketing stunt. Some even mocked directly: “If you’re promoting the game, just say so; don’t create such a big hype. Society is such a cesspool, Lao Kang has become so extravagant for money, and the final special effects looked somewhat real.”
Sure enough, comments like “You telling me not to play makes me want to play even more” began to appear rebelliously, and soon the comment section turned into a battlefield.
One highly upvoted comment said: “The internet is truly developed; even all sorts of trolls and eccentric people can come online now.”
He Kangshi must have felt somewhat speechless himself; after having the courage to reveal the truth, the comment section turned into a battleground. After a while, the comment section was locked, and the barrage comments were cleared, but the video remained, its view count still climbing.
Kui Xin returned to the forum and saw the initial post about He Kangshi’s video had been pushed to the top, with a group of players arguing among themselves.
12: ??? Has this guy considered our feelings by saying all this? Don’t forget, there’s a rule that states players can be killed to directly obtain game slots. If this rule is exposed to the public, could some ill-intentioned people hunt us down for game qualifications? His actions essentially announced the existence of players to the whole world!
13: Reject being represented; I think he’s very brave. I don’t have the guts to say such things, but he risked his life to speak up. As for exposure, as long as we stay honest and compliant, the risk should be minimal.
14: Stop with the theatrics; the probability of exposure is either 0 or 1. I don’t want to die.
Some admire him for revealing the truth, while others fear secrets being exposed to the light. Everyone has their own stance and worries, and they argue fiercely in the forum, unable to persuade each other.
26: Initially, the player base was very small, only ten thousand. Even with over a thousand players already dead, that number is still relatively small. To share a frightening statistic, our country sees about five hundred fifty thousand sudden deaths each year—more than you can imagine. If those just over a thousand dead players were distributed among our country, how many would it amount to? A few hundred at most, another three hundred would be the limit. How many would that break down to in each province, region, and city? It’s pitifully few. A person dead is just dead, making barely a ripple. With so many dying every day, not even a single social hot topic may emerge from it. So, with more and more people dying week after week, there has been no alert from the First World.
This Lao Kang stepped up to reveal the truth, which at least makes the people in this world more vigilant and not face danger blindly and unknowingly. Now the mirage in the sky is growing more apparent, and the time it stays is getting longer. I suspect that the merger of the two worlds is an inevitable trend; the sooner we know, the better we can respond to the impending disaster.
I lack the courage to reveal the truth, but I will not blame those who do.
