The Only Player in ‘Child of Stardust’
Chapter 192 - 138: Queen of the Earth

Chapter 192: Chapter 138: Queen of the Earth

Before entering, the scholars first explained the worldview of the game world to everyone.

The story took place in a place called the "new continent," which was filled with various monsters and demons, like black dragons, fire dragons, stag spirits, vampire banshees, lava behemoths, lizardmen, bigfoot, Behemoths... all kinds of bizarre creatures imaginable.

It was similar to "Child of Stardust," patched together by the game company.

And the game’s plot was extremely simple, a classic tale of a hero fighting a dragon. After all, the selling point of this game was not its storyline.

There were many countries on the new continent, and the main story of the game took place in a place called the Strand Kingdom.

One day, at a royal banquet, an evil dragon appeared, wreaking havoc in the capital, and eventually kidnapped the princess.

The king issued a bounty announcement to the world: whoever could slay the dragon and rescue the princess would be able to marry the princess and become the next king.

Thus, adventurers—who were also the players—set out on a quest to fight monsters and level up to save the princess.

And after defeating the evil dragon at the tower, the game’s true boss would appear—the Demon King.

It turned out the princess was the reincarnation of an ancient goddess, with incredibly powerful strength hidden within her. The Demon King sent the evil dragon to capture the princess to seize this power and execute his plan to rule the world.

Only by killing the Demon King would the game reach its true ending. The game company created a total of five endings, including two good endings, two bad endings, and one neutral ending.

To achieve the good ending, players needed to collect hidden items in the game and complete hidden quests. Otherwise, they could only reach a neutral or bad ending.

In addition, according to the civilians and investigators who successfully exited the game world, everyone would receive an in-game system and be assigned a fixed "profession" upon entering the game world.

Professions could not be changed, and everyone had to act according to their profession.

For example, a "chef" could not be a "driver," a "security guard" could not be a "merchant," a "weapon forging master" could not sell medicine, and a "pharmacist" could not sell weapons.

Once someone tried to do something outside their profession, they would be obstructed by an indescribable force. In severe cases, they would pass out on the spot. If they broke the rules multiple times, they might even lose control of their body and be taken over by some force.

In other words, they could only obediently play the role of an NPC.

Profession assignments were related to individual abilities. For example, those who were chefs in the real world were likely to be assigned the profession of a chef. That was why the Control Bureau wanted to gather extraordinary people to enter, as only extraordinary people had a higher chance of obtaining the "adventurer" profession.

Only adventurers could embark on the quest to fight monsters, level up, and save the princess.

And the mastermind behind this level 5 abnormality, the Cyber Demon, became the game’s "Demon King."

If it were to gain the power within the princess, the consequences would be unimaginable.

As for the true origins of the Cyber Demon, the Control Bureau had begun to uncover some clues.

In a safe environment, by repeatedly watching the recorded live game streams featuring the suit-wearing puppet man, a scholar finally recognized him. This suit-wearing puppet man remarkably resembled the first puppet ever shown in a film—Bill.

In the old days, on October 2, 1925, the English scientist John Logie Baird created the first mechanical television capable of transmitting images.

He chose a puppet named "Bill" as the test subject, making this little puppet the star of the first television image in history.

The Cyber Demon bore an uncanny resemblance to Bill.

This was an astonishing discovery. If the Cyber Demon was indeed Bill, then its existence spanned an incredibly long time. However, this theory was quickly refuted because at that time there were no signs of the extraordinary awakening. The Cyber Demon must have been born later.

But there should still be some sort of connection between the two.

·

In the Control Bureau’s medical department, in a vast room, rows of beds were neatly arranged, and the extraordinary people lay on them, receiving the implantation of the "insurance program."

"Wait a minute, I just thought of something."

Chen Guangxi suddenly sat up and looked at the mission leader. "What if I randomly get the ’evil dragon’ profession?"

She was a dragon; the probability of her becoming an evil dragon in the game seemed quite high.

"Then you can just exit directly."

"It’s hard enough to get in, exiting right away would be so boring... uh, I mean it would be a pity not to contribute to protecting the world. Is there any way to help me change my profession?"

"No way." The leader shook his head. If there were a way, they would have already turned a bunch of people into adventurers.

"Alright then." Chen Guangxi lay back down helplessly.

Beside her, Zhou Yuan turned his head and asked, "Aren’t Jiang Wuming and the others coming?"

Chen Guangxi rolled her eyes: "Except for Gu and a few who don’t play games, everyone else went in long ago."

Zhou Yuan was speechless. It seemed that many extraordinary people had also suffered... Hmm... he even encountered a scholar in the Control Bureau before who took time off to play the game. He was probably inside too.

But looking at it this way, it shouldn’t be too dangerous inside. With all the big shots in there, as long as the professions were suitable, they could even manually assemble nuclear bombs. The communication base stations might already be built by now, right?

If it weren’t for the fact that their powers would be sealed upon entering, and they would have to level up from scratch, there might already be a group of strong men fighting at the boss’s lair...

Zhou Yuan let his thoughts wander for a while, and then a large screen slowly descended from the ceiling.

The screen showed a recorded video of a streamer wandering around the streets, looking at the scenery. As the streamer turned around, a suit-wearing puppet man appeared in front of him.

The next second, Zhou Yuan’s vision went dark.

He heard Chen Guangxi’s gradually distant strange cry in his ears:

"Teyvat Continent, activate!"

"What the heck is Teyvat Continent!"

Zhou Yuan complained, and when he opened his eyes again, his surroundings had changed.

Tall trees stood sky-high, and countless dense, ancient vegetation thrived all around, resembling the Amazon Rainforest from before.

In the distance was a towering, sky-piercing colossal tree.

This place was... the Ancient Forest.

"Huh?"

Zhou Yuan was astonished because he discovered that his powers were still intact!

He looked at the system panel, which had several logs refreshed on it at some point.

[Detected a same-engine game system, initiating assimilation...]

[System assimilation complete; enjoy your game.]

[Task "Reality Overturn" updated]

[Second phase task objective: Traverse the Ancient Forest, reach the human city, and accept the main quest.]

Same-engine...

Zhou Yuan realized that "Child of Stardust" and "Monster Hunter" were both developed with the same participation from Spark Technology. So, using the same engine made sense?

He continued searching and soon found the profession he had been assigned.

It was not "adventurer," "investigator," "security guard," or even "scapegoat."

Instead, it was "player!"

"Player identity..." Zhou Yuan scratched his chin, involuntarily breaking into a smile.

This, this was the fourth calamity!

"Since my powers are still intact, why should I be afraid? Watch me clear the Ancient Forest without taking any damage!"

Confidently, Zhou Yuan walked forward. After only a few steps, a deafening roar came from the sky.

Looking up, he saw a giant dragon covered in green scales, with wings, a spine, and a tail full of hard spikes, rapidly flying towards him!

It was the female fire dragon from the "Monster Hunter" series.

Bang!

The female fire dragon spewed a mouthful of scorching dragon flames towards him.