Volume One: The Lonely Beta Test Chapter Two: Shipwreck

“Second Uncle, how much longer before we can go home?” In the gently rocking ship’s cabin, Lin Feng stirred the food in his tin can as he ate, voicing his question.

“You rascal, it’s barely been half a year! Have the winds at sea blown your brains away, or has the surf smacked you senseless? When have our expeditions ever lasted less than a year? Can’t you check the calendar yourself?” Lin Quan retorted, cracking open a can of beer and drinking heartily.

“Come on, if he were really out of his mind, there wouldn’t be a single sane soul left on this ship! Didn’t you see him handle those massive datasets? His fingers fly over the keyboard like he’s dancing! This boy’s head is sharp as ever!” Li Bao chimed in, pointing at Lin Feng. “If you ask me, he’s just missing his wife back home!”

“Old Li, you nailed it! Right on the mark!” Zhang Meng burst out laughing.

“Honestly, who among us isn’t the same? I only know that when we collect the trash, Uncle Meng, your garbage has more ‘wet wipes’ than the rest of us put together!”

As Liu Wen finished speaking, Lin Feng suddenly choked, spraying mist from his mouth and nose with a loud “pfft!” His face flushed, ears ringing, eyes watering. Zhang Meng, who had just teased him and was sitting directly across, took the brunt of Lin Feng’s “attack,” drenched completely. The cabin erupted in laughter.

Lin Feng quickly gulped some water and recovered, grumbling, “That joke’s not funny at all! Eh… Uncle Meng, you guys take your time eating—I’m heading back to my room! If you run out of ‘wet wipes,’ just come grab some from me. Everyone knows you’re under a lot of pressure; with a face like yours, you need plenty to clean up after every time!”

With that, Lin Feng dashed off.

“Oh, alright…” Zhang Meng replied absentmindedly.

“Wait—no! Old Lin, this kid’s getting cheeky, you need to rein him in!” Zhang Meng, now realizing the jab, called to Lin Quan.

Laughter grew louder, filling the cabin with a thick atmosphere of joy, sweeping away any homesickness or longing for home.

Long journeys in the depths of the sea—endless blue stretching beyond sight; the wind always blowing, never ceasing. Sight, hearing, and smell all battered by relentless elements. Yet the occasional colorful joke outshines any prescription a psychologist could offer.

The old men remained, continuing their heated discussion about “wet wipes.” Lin Feng returned to his cabin, opened his laptop, and started playing a game. Amidst the monotony of life at sea, it was a welcome diversion.

“Saga of Heroes of the Three Kingdoms”—an ancient game, really. Lin Feng’s grandfather used to play it in his leisure time. Back then, Lin Feng couldn’t fathom how his grandfather could be so obsessed with such a relic of a single-player game. But after his grandfather injured his hand and insisted Lin Feng play as his “assistant,” an afternoon of gaming hooked Lin Feng as well. He copied the game from his grandfather. According to the old man, he learned it from his own grandfather—it was a treasured heirloom passed down. He’d heard that large conglomerates were now developing an online version.

To have such a treasure passed down—Lin Feng’s ancestors must have been quite the characters.

Lin Feng’s mastery of the game soon surpassed his grandfather’s. The old man had played for decades, only ever conquering the world on medium difficulty, and was still battling away on higher levels, saving and reloading endlessly. Lin Feng, by his freshman year, had already unified the world on hard mode, and before starting his internship had conquered difficult mode as well, leaving only the final “insane mode.”

His grandfather, after nearly a lifetime of research, had only broken through three stages—evidence enough of Lin Feng’s sharp mind. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have managed to complete all the credits at a notoriously difficult geology university within two years, earning the chance to intern with his Second Uncle’s marine survey team by the end of sophomore year.

Almost as soon as the game was first developed, signs of energy shortages had begun to appear on Earth. By the 22nd century, land, coastal, and continental shelf resources were nearly depleted. The deep sea had become humanity’s last treasure trove for energy exploration. As mankind probed the oceans, mysterious regions slowly revealed their bizarre truths. Those who confronted these truths—most never returned.

Lin Feng’s survey team’s final destination was one such enigmatic area.

...

“Come on, let’s get crazy!”

Lin Feng clicked into the highest difficulty—Insane Mode.

The screen displayed the game’s prompt:

“Please set up your new generals:”

Seeing this, Lin Feng’s eyes sparkled mischievously. “Heh… Second Uncle, you elders always use your seniority to bully me and joke around, and I can’t fight back. Now I’ll name the new generals after you all—so you’ll serve my lordship, galloping at the front lines!”

Having suffered enough from his elders’ banter, Lin Feng turned the tables in the game, making them his loyal retainers. What a grudge!

After setting up the new generals, Lin Feng browsed the system’s list of monarchs: Cao Cao, Liu Bei, Sun Jian… all the famous figures of the Three Kingdoms. But Lin Feng chose none.

The original characters had established factions, giving a huge early advantage and attracting historical figures to join. But Lin Feng thought that wasn’t “insane mode” enough.

“I’ll go with a new monarch—gotta vent some frustration,” he muttered.

[New Monarch]: Lin Feng
[Strength]: 79 points
[Intelligence]: 89 points
[Troop Type]: Cavalry
[Skill]: Subvert

Skill description: During battles, there’s a chance to persuade a certain number of enemy troops to turn coat. Success rate and number increase as the character grows.

When assigning attributes to the new character, Lin Feng fiddled with the distribution for a good while. For balance, the highest random stat was capped at 95, and strength plus intelligence couldn’t exceed 180.

When the new monarch’s special skill appeared as “Subvert,” he stopped right there. This skill was rare! Imagine—two armies facing off, and a skill cast turns the enemy’s ranks chaotic, fighting amongst themselves. With luck, you could win without a single casualty, absorbing the enemy into your own.

“That’s a brilliant skill, a perfect zero-cost operation, ha ha…” Lin Feng exclaimed excitedly as he gazed at “Subvert.”

“Please choose your faction’s location.”

A list of cities appeared before Lin Feng’s eyes.

“Le Lang!”

“Damn, why does picking Izumo as a birthplace make me an East Islander? Curse this system—can those East Island creatures be labeled as human?”

Lin Feng had originally wanted to start in Izumo, wipe out the island factions early, then march into the Central Plains. But upon entering the game, he found himself saddled with an East Islander identity. Disgusted, he quit and restarted, picking Le Lang as his birthplace.

Le Lang was the nearest port to the East Island in the game, the perfect base for launching an invasion after early development.

...

As someone with Huaxia blood, everyone should know the East Islanders’ ancestors committed atrocities against Huaxia. Even erasing them from the earth wouldn’t soothe the pain. Lin Feng’s intolerance, even in a game, was not surprising.

As a hot-blooded patriot, this was perfectly natural. Lin Feng and his team had often encountered “harassment” from East Islanders during surveys in certain waters. But today’s Huaxia was nothing like before; Uncle Sam’s hand had retreated to the far side of the Pacific. East Islanders now resorted only to sneaky, petty tricks.

...

“Xiao Feng, hurry, bring all the data into the ‘Shenlong’! Quick!” The cabin door suddenly burst open, and Lin Quan called urgently.

“Don’t just stand there, pack up!” Seeing Lin Feng freeze, Lin Quan spoke as he strode over in three quick steps, grabbed Lin Feng’s collar, and yanked him backward—chair and all sliding away from the desk. Lin Quan closed the laptop, wrapped up a small lockbox under the desk, and dragged Lin Feng toward the door.

He gave Lin Feng no time to react, pulling him straight toward the ‘Shenlong.’

“Second Uncle—what’s…”

“Listen to me!” Lin Quan cut him off, running as he spoke. “Something’s happened, time is tight, there’s no time to explain! You must protect the data in this case. Get inside the ‘Shenlong’—no matter what happens, don’t come out. And…”

From the cabin to the ‘Shenlong’ was barely twenty meters. In a crisis, people can cover that in a flash. Amidst the rush, Lin Quan managed to give Lin Feng seven or eight instructions! Lin Feng could barely keep up, moving like a puppet, letting his uncle pull him along. Deep down, he knew Second Uncle was protecting him.

“Hiss… pfft…”

As soon as the ‘Shenlong’ hatch opened, Lin Quan shoved Lin Feng inside, strapped him into the seat, put the control helmet on his head, leaned in, and cupped his face, saying, “Xiao Feng, piloting this is easy for you, just like playing a game. This is all your uncle can do.”

He pressed the start button, then, as if relieved of a heavy burden, sighed deeply and dashed for the hatch.

Now Lin Feng realized what was happening.

“Second Uncle, this capsule could fit ten people, you…”

Before he could finish, Lin Quan had closed the hatch from outside and disappeared around the corner.

“Uncle…”

Inside the ‘Shenlong,’ Lin Feng watched helplessly as a massive wave, thirty or forty meters high, surged from afar and swallowed the survey ship, then crashed toward the ‘Shenlong.’

The world spun—he was tossed as if inside a rapidly revolving Ferris wheel. An outside observer would have seen the seawater form a vortex, with the ‘Shenlong’ spiraling down its center—not sucked, but driven—to vanish at the bottom.

Soon, the sea was calm and empty. Nothing remained on the boundless surface—except a single cloud in the sky, shaped eerily like a human face, curling its “mouth” into a ghostly smirk.