Shepherding Humanity

Everyone knelt down in admiration. These masters of faking death had put on such a realistic act!

We all went through the same nine years of compulsory education, so why were they so exceptional? They must have studied in secret!

Meanwhile, a certain player had died and quit the game. After sweating profusely for a while, his convulsions eased up and he tiredly dragged himself onto the forum.

"This may sound unbelievable, but I almost got killed by a game… This game is too realistic! I just died, and it felt like torture. I never want to go through that again."

"Are you an M? Why didn’t you turn down the pain? I thought you could do that in this game?"

"It must be a bug which needs to be fixed. I clearly turned it down before fighting the boss."

This post started a heated discussion.

This was the first bug report. Unexpectedly, in such a realistic game, an error has finally appeared. Soon, other players who logged out after dying also joined in, and said that they went through a similar experience. They had made sure to turn down their sense of pain, but it did not work at all.

"What, you too?"

"And me, I also went through the same thing."

After discussing it for a while, they reached an unexpected conclusion.

Since it was like this for everyone, it obviously wasn't a bug in the system. Does this mean that in this game, every time you get killed by a boss, your sense of pain is forcefully raised to 50%?

When they reached this conclusion, they couldn't help but gulp.

It's too hardcore!

The game’s developer is simply inhumane!

The players hurriedly expressed their opinions:

"I guess it's an in-game setting to keep players from casually challenging the boss, a death penalty of sorts."

The spectators all found this to be very interesting. This game was really realistic! Unlike the other MMOs, this game was a true virtual reality. Party wipes were common in other MMOs, and no one really cared. But in this game, you’d actually experience the pain of death.

This kind of death penalty was truly impressive.

It really was a second world.

"This game has too much freedom, we must discover everything on our own. Hurry up and inform the people inside! Death will hurt like hell!"

"We can't reach them. You can't access the forum while in the game!"

"What are we supposed to do now?"

"We can only… let them experience the pain we’ve endured."

The people’s expressions changed as they had a premonition. The first day of the second beta was not going to be a day of celebration after defeating the boss. It was going to be a day of collective tragedy. There'll be a party wipe, and all the players will be left twitching and convulsing from the pain of death. Both the older and newer players will have to start over again as spores.

At that moment, Xu Zhi was calmly sitting on his chair.

He usually didn't care much about these players, but now, he found that swatting insects while eating was an unexpectedly fun pastime.

This feeling was similar to watching TV while eating a meal.

Slap! Slap! Slap! Slap!

Players stepped up to the plate one after another.

"Guys, I'll show you all a real tough guy!"

Ahhhh!

The sound of desperate, miserable screams continued on and on as Xu Zhi casually swatted each and every one of them.

For him, this was also a natural part of life in the countryside. After all, if ants crawl onto you while you’re relaxing under the shade in your farm yard, you’d also swat them like that, right?

At this time, while the other players were drawing Xu Zhi's attention, the Pallbearer Chicken had quietly crawled into Xu Zhi's lunch box.

"Hehehe, I’ve finally reached this point. Watch me poison you to death."

Akina’s Speedster laughed freely. He led a dozen or so of the creatures he had evolved to wander through the sea of white rice, and bury themselves as deep down as possible.

When they saw this, the players who were rushing to their deaths also stopped, and no longer charged forward.

"After countless sacrifices, our conquest of the boss has finally reached this point!"

"He has successfully entered the lunchbox!"

Countless players wept in happiness.

Though the wails of those players who had led the charge had been fake, they were all star actors who put on a super realistic act! The others couldn’t help but be moved by their miserable screams.

It really couldn’t be helped. They just sounded so miserable.

Not even pigs led to the slaughter would scream so pathetically.

"So you’ve finally entered my lunchbox? You guys have sacrificed quite a lot." Though Xu Zhi was slightly surprised, he decided not to mind it and picked up his lunch box again and resumed eating.

If he wants me to eat him, then I’ll reluctantly play along…

He took one bite after another.

The insects hiding in the cracks of the chair looked on urgently. "Yes, that's right. Eat! Quickly now! Hurry up and eat! Eat Akina’s Speedster’s Pallbearer Chicken, and die from poison. You’re almost there!"

Gobble, gobble.

Xu Zhi leisurely continued his meal.

"Almost there!"

The players were getting more and more excited.

But in the next second, just as he was about to eat the Pallbearer Chicken, Xu Zhi suddenly stopped moving and mumbled: "I don't know why, but so many bugs have been biting me today. My food is now cold, I'll have to heat it up in the oven."

Xu Zhi got up from his chair and returned to the house.

Players: ????

What's with this sudden need to heat up your food? All the players looked as if they had just been forced to eat shit. When did bosses get so picky? Why was this NPC so realistic? It hasn’t even been that long, is it really necessary to heat your food?

"I guess I just can’t bring myself to eat this idiot raw."

Xu Zhi muttered while ignoring the players’ opinions.

He knew that it wasn’t a big deal. It wasn't cannibalism, and was the equivalent of eating raw chicken-flavored bugs. Didn't other people often eat sashimi and raw steak?

But Xu Zhi wasn't too keen on this type of food. He liked his food well cooked.

He had also asked the Tyranis Hive Mind if it was alright to eat the Pallbearer Chicken after cooking, and received a yes. Akina’s Speedster was truly deranged, and his peculiar toxin was so powerful, it wouldn’t lose its effect after cooking.

Whether he ate the chicken raw or cooked, it made no difference in testing the toxin.

He naturally chose to eat cooked food. He had stomach cancer and had to be careful with his stomach.

"WTF!!! He's even going to cook me?"

When Akina’s Speedster heard this sentence, he was frustrated beyond belief. But he didn’t dare reveal himself from his hiding place in the lunchbox, and could only silently wait for death.

"It's okay! I can still poison him with my dead body. I’ve turned down my sense of pain, so what if I get roasted?" Akina’s Speedster was trembling inside. Though he frantically tried to gather his courage, he couldn’t help but get a vague sense of unease.

Bang!

Xu Zhi put in the lunchbox, and closed the oven door. He set the temperature to the highest possible setting of 280 degrees.

He still remembered the deep grudge he had against this ‘nice’ guy. Everyone else's death was instantaneous, and they did not have to feel long lasting pain. Akina’s Speedster on the other hand will have to face the horror of being roasted alive. He would die a very slow death…

Whoosh!!!

The oven lit up all at once.

Inside the huge oven, it was like the apocalypse had come. The rectangular world turned red with heat, and Akina’s Speedster started shivering within the giant lunchbox. Steaming drops of sweat began to gather on his bright red feathers, and his entire body began to feel really uncomfortable.

"It's fine."

"What an impressive dungeon, there’s even an oven… But I've already turned down the pain, so I won't feel the heat." He kept consoling himself, but he was sweating like crazy. He felt more and more uncomfortable as time passed, and the pain was as if he was being roasted alive…

Waaaahhhh!!!

He suddenly started screaming.

I was wrong!

It's so hot!

This is even more terrifying than the fires of hell!

Soon, miserable screams started coming out of the oven. He sounded worse than all the previous players combined. The misery was simply indescribable.

Sitting on a chair in the room, Xu Zhi scratched his head and smiled brightly, full of goodwill. "Bro, with this, we’re even. After this beating, hopefully you’ll stop spending all your time trying to find new ways to screw me over."

As far as he was concerned, this Pallbearer Chicken faced certain death.

They all needed a painful lesson. It’s not like they’ll suffer any permanent damage anyway. This is the terrible price they have to pay for trying to f*ck with me, the Creator. You really think you can poison me and shit on my head?

He felt that he had beaten them up enough, and was quite done with this boring game. It was time to resume his meal and test the toxin of this new species.

For them, it had been an exhilarating boss fight, but for Xu Zhi, it was just dinner.

Who knew…

At that moment, a resonant phoenix song suddenly started within the scorching hot oven.

A phoenix song?

"I’ve baked him for seven or eight minutes, and that idiot is still alive and screaming?" Xu Zhi frowned. "Could it be? Is this survival of the fittest? He’s actually survived the oven environment and evolved?"

Then, for the first time, a voice laced with surprise came from the Tyranis Hive Mind.

"The first Tyranis hero has been born."