Chapter 1  : Divine Dominion

It was in the middle of Autumn as golden leaves had started to fall.

Whoosh~

As the northern wind howled through the University of Qingyang, a sycamore tree swayed gently in the gale, dropping layers of amber leaves to the ground.

 Rustle…

 Then, there was a sudden sound of rustling.

 A handsome young man not far away held a giant broom, cleaning the leaves of the sycamore tree that had fallen on the streets.

From his orange-yellow apparel, he was apparently an environmental worker—the city’s cleaner.

An elderly walking his bird in a cage walked past the young man, smiling at him gently.

“Hey, Little Feng! Right after class, you’re helping your dad to clean this place up? How is your father?”

The young man’s name was Jiang Feng who was currently studying at the university. His father was an environmental worker, but due to him being disabled and was very sick, he would finish his father’s work for him every day after class.

Jiang Feng stopped as he wiped his sweat. Smiling, he replied, “Hello, Uncle Li. My dad hasn’t been feeling well lately, so I am helping him with his work.”

 Uncle Li nodded pleasingly, saying, “You are a good son, a filial child to your father.”

After speaking with Uncle Li for a while, Jiang Feng continued sweeping the streets near the university that were lined with sycamores.

 Vroom!

 Suddenly, a loud sound of a motorcycle could be heard.

He raised his head to only see two young men riding a motorcycle speeding directly through the leaves that he had just gathered into a pile! The trail of wind left behind scattered leaves everywhere.

Screech!!!

 The motorcycle pulled to a halt, and the rider turned and looked at Jiang Feng while sneering.

 “Haha, isn’t this Jiang Feng? Tsk. Look how hardworking you are, as expected of a high achiever like yourself. Not only are you good at learning, but you are also good at sweeping the streets.”

“Brother Wei, considering he’s cleaned our university’s street so well, should we reward him with something?” said his pillion rider with a sneer, a man with noticeably shrewd eyes.

“Naturally!”

 Vroom!

 The rider sneered and restarted his motorcycle and deliberately went through the other few piles of leaves that were lying by the road. The force of the bike running through them caused a storm of leaves to rustle and fly around. In no time, the recently cleaned street was once again covered by sycamore leaves.

“Jiang Feng, this is the consequence of getting close to Su Ning. Take your time, we’ll be back tomorrow. Haha!”

The youth laughed hysterically before revving his motorcycle and speeding away from the messy scene.

 “D*mn!”

Jiang Feng gripped the broom with tight fists as rage filled him. He was so angry he only managed to grumble that one word.

 Both young men just now were from his major, Wang Wei, and Zhao Yang.

By flaunting his family’s wealth, Wang Wei had been making a big show of himself in the university. Due to him being very close to their major’s prettiest girl Su Ning, and stellar results, Wang Wei had been bullying and humiliating him in the university, even beating him up once. All of this happened just because Wang Wei admired that girl.

His family was poor, and he lacked the confidence that came with a deep pocket. Each time he suffered, all he could do was to swallow it, tolerating in silence.

 He continued to clean the street despite his anger and resentment.

 Clang!

 As he was sweeping the leaves, a soft sound of a tiny piece of metal could be heard beneath the debris. A silver earring appeared before him.

Curious, he bent down and picked the item up as he took a closer look.

 The silver earring was in the shape of a cross, and upon it, two words were engraved.

Divine Dominion.

“This is… a first-generation Virtual Game Terminal for Divine Dominion that had taken twenty years to develop!”

Looking at the two words on the silver earring, Jiang Feng’s heart started beating faster and his sparkled with excitement!

A piece of xenotech developed from the cooperation of scientists from around the world, Divine Dominion was a virtual game that had been developed for twenty years using technology found from a meteorite. It was a highly open-world virtual game with limitless possibility, with up to 98% realism.

The moment Divine Dominion was announced, sales of other games stalled were subsequently removed from the market. Whether in toilets, on the walls, dinner tables, or on the television, Divine Dominion commercials were everywhere. They even went as far as to print its name on toilet paper! The new fad spread throughout the world like a wildfire.

The media had even started reporting that from then henceforth, all disputes between nations, even border disputes, and stakes, will be moved into the game. This would allow the players to fight for their respective countries.

Thanks to that, all patriotic youths became staunch followers of the game, swearing to give it all up for the pride of their country.

There were many who pursued this game, but only some received the first batch of the game terminals.

 Huaxia Games, the game’s distributor, stated that only twenty million units would be sold in each country. As such, each game terminal would be sold at a whopping 38,888 yuan.

 Driving the price up higher was the fact that, even before the game terminals were officially sold, some wealthy individuals had booked it at a higher price. Now, a terminal was almost worth fifty thousand yuan a piece in the black market.

A child from a poor family like Jiang Feng would never be able to get their hands on it.

He would have never thought that by simply sweeping the streets, he would be able to obtain a game terminal worth fifty thousand yuan.

“Why would there be such an expensive game terminal here? Could it be that Wang Wei dropped it just now?” Jiang Feng speculated as he held the silver earring.

 “That’s fine. If it was his, then let it be compensation for bullying me.” Jiang Feng played with the silver earring said.

“I heard that the world in the game is even more authentic than reality and it has since opened a currency exchange system. Since I can earn some money, should I try it back home?”

Being an avid gamer, some of this time away on studying was spent on gaming in cybercafes. As soon as he thought that he could play Divine Dominion, he felt excited. He even sped up his speed on sweeping the floor.

Beep-beep.

Maybe he was getting too excited when he reached the junction and he didn’t look at his surroundings. Suddenly, an expensive car drove by. Before he could react, the car crashed into him and sent him flying. As he was dazed, he looked at the shocked beautiful woman inside the expensive car, the blood on the windshield, and his eyes slowly closed.

His blood coated the silver earring in his pocket, and the silver earring was greedily consuming his blood.”

Ding! Obtaining identity, please wait…

 Ding! Identification complete. Binding the Monster Transmutation System. Please wait…

 Ding! Binding of the Monster Transmutation System complete. It has been detected that the host is dying, performing first-aid, please wait…

Ding! The host’s physical health has been restored. Removing the negative impact of binding the system…

 …

 As the voice stopped, the previously already unconscious Jiang Feng opened his eyes slowly.

 “You have to hold on, the ambulance is almost here. Please don’t die… don’t die…”

As he opened his eyes, a beautiful woman was weeping, and mumbling something as she knelt next to him.

‘I didn’t die?’

 Jiang Feng looked at the beautiful woman in front of him and looked at the familiar street as he questioned himself.

 “Hm?”

 Then, he saw something that can only be described as supernatural. The blood that was on previously on the ground and on the car began to flow and returned to his body, and the woman’s car was also starting to repair itself.

It was like nothing had happened.

 Even more surprising, the beautiful woman that was crying suddenly stood up. She stared at him angrily and said to him in a scornful tone, “So you’re trying to stage an accident. Let me warn you, my car has a video camera, and it has recorded the entire duration that you tried it. Do you think you can blackmail me? You’re dreaming!”

While he was looked down by the woman, he was getting into a bad mood. But looking at how he was laying in front of the car, it did look like he was trying to stage an accident. He did not say much as he stood up and left.

 “He looks cute, but to think that he’s someone like that. How disgusting.”

 The woman mumbled as she stepped on the gas and left in her expensive car.

Jiang Feng curled his lips and wondered: Did he hallucinate because he was too excited before this?

 Suddenly, he remembered something. He quickly reached out into his pocket, and a silver earring appeared in his palm.

 Seeing that the silver earring was still there, he smiled excitedly. He cleaned the leaves and returned home. As for the car accident, he was treating it as a hallucination caused by his excitement and a sudden lack of oxygen to his brain.