Mystery Paradise: Wishing Power Demon
Chapter 417 - 415: Guidance... is Battle!

Chapter 417: Chapter 415: Guidance... is Battle!

"All of you with weapons, come gather up!" the instructor shouted again, "Your mission is to clear this area of all monsters. Anything that moves is an enemy that needs to be killed. Got it?"

Understood, it didn’t matter who the opponent was, just start a massacre. Lu Ming had already grasped the entire mission design.

Clearly, Paradise knew what the players of 2024 wanted, no lengthy dissertations, no pre-campaign narratives, just straight into the core of VR gaming—the immersive combat experience.

"I don’t like the way this guy talks," someone next to me complained in English.

As they spoke, the person raised their gun and pulled the trigger at the instructor.

In theory, this kind of shooting shouldn’t work, but the next second, the person who tried to fire the gun rolled their eyes back and slumped to the ground. A wave of commotion started to spread through the area.

Ah? Isn’t this NPC protection a bit too much?

"It seems some idiots want to attack me," the other party sneered, seemingly used to this kind of situation, "Wake up, fools. Your mission is to eliminate the monsters, not to slaughter each other! Any attempt to attack your allies will result in your own instantaneous death. Got it? Also, anyone who disobeys my orders will be eliminated immediately!"

"May I ask, what’s your name?" someone in the crowd called out.

"There’s no need for you to know that. Because most of you will be dying soon, and the dead don’t deserve to know my name!"

"Wow, cool," the person retorted mockingly.

Not bad, classic response. This script is passable, Lu Ming thought to himself.

"Now, let’s move out! The system will guide the direction for you!"

Isn’t this... I had just praised the scripting, and now a system comes into play? Couldn’t he have used a less immersion-breaking term? And what’s with this arrow that suddenly appeared? Players prefer the freedom to explore, not being forced to complete a mission!

But Lu Ming also guessed that this was, after all, a trial session, and it was possible that the manufacturer hadn’t provided detailed guidance yet. Therefore, even though the arrow looked incredibly cheap, the realistic visuals were enough to compensate for all the current shortcomings.

And when he left the tented area and stepped into the pouring rain, that sensation reached its peak! Rain pummeled down, instantly blurring his vision; the June rain still carried a hint of warmth. Even as it flowed down his neck and into his clothes, it wasn’t even slightly cold. The muddy ground beneath his feet stuck to his shoes, and each step required extra effort...

This is a VR game?

No, this was virtual reality itself!

Lu Ming could start to understand why beta testers went crazy posting online. After experiencing such a game, could they really get into other games?

He had to admit that the promotional videos he saw online didn’t hold a candle to the firsthand experience.

"Hey, who here is from Jiang City GJ district? Report in!"

Amidst the pouring rain, Lu Ming could faintly hear someone shouting in Chinese.

Not just in Chinese, he also heard a bunch of different languages like commonly heard English... Obviously, all the trial players had the same idea, which was to band together for warmth in this unfamiliar world. After all, the current style of the game leaned towards cooperative combat, and one more person meant more strength.

Lu Ming braved the rain to find that person, "I’m from GJ district, the last one to get on stage. Lu... S station’s up Phantom Lamp."

Compared to his real name, his online alias was much more well-known.

"Er..." the person showed a trace of embarrassment, "My name is Jiang Sisi. You might as well use your real name. After all, some people’s online aliases are just letters and numbers, hard to read and remember."

Jiang Sisi? Lu Ming took a few glances at the person and indeed, they were female. But besides a slight rise in the chest area, it was difficult to find other female characteristics... even her voice sounded very much like a man’s.

"My name is Lu Ming, and the lack of a character customization phase is really a design flaw in this game."

"Right? I feel the same way!" The other person immediately empathized, "With this body, I feel like I could punch a cow to death."

In the midst of conversation, several more people joined, turning the group into a combination of five men and two women. Lu Ming also noticed that they appeared to be in a rudimentary camp, with four watchtowers at each corner emitting a blue glow, connected by barbed wire, beyond which visibility faded.

Seeing that no more people were joining their huddle, Jiang Sisi gave up on the idea of gathering all twenty members from the GJ Convention and said, "Maybe they’ve already teamed up with players from other cities. Let’s head out now, or else all the monsters will be gone by the time we get there."

This comment won unanimous approval from the team.

No one wanted to be just a background character in a game, especially one as immersive as this.

The party followed the arrow signs out of the camp gate and plunged headfirst into the vast fog.

"Wow, this really is Misty Phantom... Isn’t this fog a bit too exaggerated? Does it really fog up when it rains?" A player who called himself DouDou Cat muttered. Even though Jiang Sisi preferred everyone to use their real names, she still insisted on using her username.

Another man named Momo Wolf immediately replied, "With this level of modeling, they’d run out of memory resources just loading the scenery without the fog to obscure our view. The fog is just a pretty excuse; Paradise wouldn’t dare to create a true open world."

The two seemed to know each other well, likely having a real-life connection, as even their online names were quite similar in style.

"I mean... It’s kind of scary!"

"Then you can stay closer to me."

Lu Ming felt goosebumps crawl up at their conversation.

"But speaking of which, what kind of monsters will we actually encounter?" he decided to change the subject.

"Don’t know, but since it’s a global release, it definitely won’t be zombies or fox spirits," Jiang Sisi shrugged, "To be honest, a monster co-op doesn’t mesh well with firearms. It would’ve been better as a player versus player game. I didn’t expect the officials to restrict PVP to such an extent that you can’t even fire at another player."

"It’s just malicious PK they don’t allow; accidental injuries should incur no punishment," Lu Ming replied.

"Why’s that?"

"You heard the instructor, didn’t you? Anything that moves is the enemy... so does that include players seen through the fog?" He recounted how he took two extra grenades, "I always feel like the game’s guidance is full of inducements, encouraging us to break the boundaries."

"Stop guessing wildly," Momo Wolf dismissed the idea, "Do you see this browser game’s guiding arrow? Obviously, this is another game where the designers should be bowing to the art team. If it were up to me, I wouldn’t have gone for such a slapdash mission design... A huge camp with just one instructor commanding everyone, it doesn’t make sense at all. It only shows they cut corners on everything except for combat... if they don’t get the combat right either, then it might as well just be a scenic game set in Netherworld."

"Shh!" Jiang Sisi suddenly gestured for silence, "There’s something ahead!"

"Eh? Besides the sound of rain, what else can you hear..." DouDou Cat frowned.

But soon enough, Lu Ming also picked up on rapid footsteps and breathless shouting—

"Help, help!"

Then two figures burst out of the fog in front of them—their blue waist lamps dispelled the fog, revealing the pursuing monsters in their true form!

They were spiders, enormous mutated spiders... one was big enough to match the size of a car!

And there were more than five of them, with three clustered together apparently feasting on something, while the rest were lunging toward the fleeing figures!