1: Chapter 1: Hell from the Start

At three in the morning, the back of the gaming chair was pressed into a deep curve. Lin Fan had a cigarette in his mouth that was almost burnt down to the filter, his fingers tapping rapidly on the keyboard.

On the screen, Los Santos was brightly lit, and the roar of supercar engines vibrated through his headphones until his eardrums felt numb. Controlling Franklin, he was crouching on the roof of a convenience store, aiming at a security guard loitering by the entrance—this was his third robbery tonight. To save up enough money for that supercar he’d been dreaming of, he had pulled an all-nighter.

"Damn! This guard's movement is like he's using cheats!" Lin Fan cursed, his fingertip suddenly slamming down on the left mouse button.

The bullet from the silenced sniper rifle accurately hit the guard's shoulder, and the man let out a muffled groan as he fell to the ground. Just as he controlled the character to vault off the roof, ready to rush into the convenience store for a looting spree, the laptop at the corner of the desk suddenly emitted a sharp static sound.

The screen instantly turned a deathly white, and crackling electric sparks began to spew out from the gaps in the keyboard, carrying the smell of burnt plastic.

"Holy shit!" Terrified, Lin Fan scrambled to pull the power plug, but a burst of blinding white light suddenly exploded before his eyes.

A strong sense of vertigo hit him. Before he could even cry out, his consciousness was swept into a vortex, plunging into total darkness.

...

After an unknown amount of time, Lin Fan was woken up by the noisy sound of car horns.

He snapped his eyes open. The blinding sunlight made him squint. In his ears was the sharp sound of tires rubbing against the ground, along with the distant sound of police sirens—not the processed sound effects from headphones, but a sound so real it was piercing, exploding right next to his ear.

"What the hell..." He sat up, rubbing his throbbing temples, about to complain about whether he had fallen asleep in an internet cafe. But when his gaze swept over his surroundings, his whole body froze instantly.

Rows of skyscrapers pierced the clouds, and massive billboards flashed with neon lights, printed with Los Santos landmarks he knew all too well—the Ferris wheel at Vespucci Beach was slowly turning at that moment, casting mottled shadows on the ground.

On the streets, stretched Lincolns and modified supercars roared past. Scantily clad hotties leaned against lampposts, puffing clouds of smoke, while a few thugs in baseball caps walked by with their arms around each other's shoulders, speaking English peppered with slang.

Lin Fan instinctively felt his pocket and pulled out an unfamiliar flip phone. The time displayed on the screen was 8:00 PM, and the carrier logo next to the signal bars was one he had never seen before: "Los Santos Telecom."

A chill crawled up his spine to the back of his head. He tremblingly raised his hand and looked at the clothes he was wearing—a washed-out gray hoodie, jeans with a hole at the knee, and canvas shoes with worn-out soles.

These weren't his clothes.

What was even worse was that he was currently sitting on the steps in front of a convenience store, and the sign of this store was the very one he had been about to rob in the game!

"No way..." Lin Fan swallowed hard, his heart pounding as if it were about to burst out of his chest. "I... I traveled through time?"

He jumped to his feet and stumbled toward the glass door of the convenience store. Looking at the snacks and drinks on the shelves inside, and the cashier behind the counter who was yawning—everything was exactly the same as in the game, yet terrifyingly real.

"Beep beep..."

Lin Fan instinctively pulled out the flip phone from his pocket, wanting to call an Uber to quickly escape this godforsaken place. But when he searched through all the functions on the phone and couldn't find even a trace of a ride-hailing app, he completely broke down.

"This shitty game doesn't even have Didi!" He couldn't help but curse, his voice tinged with a sob. "I want to go home! My mom is still waiting for me to eat breakfast!"

His wailing caught the attention of several thugs nearby.

Three burly men in black tank tops turned around with malicious smiles and slowly surrounded him. The bald leader had a tattoo of a menacing snake on his arm, and his gaze scraped over Lin Fan's body like a knife.

"Kid, what are you yelling about?" The bald man grinned, revealing a mouthful of yellow teeth, and reached out to pat Lin Fan's shoulder. "Looking at you, are you a newcomer?"

Lin Fan trembled all over and quickly took two steps back, waving his hands frantically. "No... nothing, I was just talking to myself!"

He looked at the three thugs in front of him, his mind racing—this was a random event in the game! You could settle it by giving money; if not, you'd get a beating!

But he searched his entire body and couldn't find a single cent, let alone a coin.

Seeing his pathetic state, the bald man's smile vanished instantly. He grabbed Lin Fan by the collar and slammed him hard against the glass door. "Kid, you playing me? No money? Then hand over everything you've got!"

The cold glass dug painfully into Lin Fan's back. Looking at the bald man's distorted face, he swallowed and tried to reason with him using his identity as a gamer: "Brother, let's talk this out! I'm a player, you're NPCs. Can't you give me a newbie benefit? Let me go this once, and when I've leveled up..."

"Player? NPC?" The bald man froze for a moment, then, as if he had heard the biggest joke in the world, he exchanged looks with his two lackeys and burst into a fit of loud laughter. "Is this kid an idiot or something?"

Before the laughter died down, the bald man's fist slammed hard into Lin Fan's stomach.

"Ugh!"

Intense pain surged through him. Lin Fan curled up on the ground, grimacing in agony. He finally realized that this wasn't a game—getting hit really hurt!

"Damn it, you dare play me!" The bald man stepped on his back, his tone vicious. "Search him! See if this idiot has anything valuable on him!"

The two lackeys immediately crouched down and rummaged through Lin Fan. Just then, a cold mechanical voice suddenly rang out in Lin Fan's mind.

[Ding! Host's vital signs detected to be under threat. System "Los Santos Survival Guide" officially activated!]

[Newbie Mission Issued: Rob the Convenience Store (0/1)]

[Mission Requirement: Rob all the cash from the convenience store's register within ten minutes.]

[Mission Reward: Basic Combat Mastery.]

[Failure Penalty: Severely beaten by thugs, unconscious for three hours.]

Lin Fan's head buzzed.

System?

Before he could digest the news, he was kicked hard in the back.

"Kid, still trying to hide things?" The bald man's voice was full of anger. "I see you won't talk until you see the coffin!"

Lin Fan lay on the ground, looking at the three menacing thugs, then at the convenience store door, and listening to the system's countdown in his head. A look of despair appeared on his face.

Rob the convenience store?

That's a felony that starts with a three-star wanted level!

But seeing the bald man's fist raised again, he grit his teeth.

Being severely beaten and unconscious for three hours, versus being wanted by the police...

It seemed like with the latter, he might still have a fighting chance?

A flash of ruthlessness crossed Lin Fan's eyes. He suddenly scrambled up from the ground, pushed aside the two lackeys in front of him, and charged toward the convenience store door.

"Kid, you're asking for death!" The bald man roared and chased after him with his lackeys.

Lin Fan rushed into the convenience store, slammed the glass door shut behind him, and didn't forget to lock it. Looking at the pale-faced cashier behind the counter, he swallowed. His voice trembled, yet carried a hint of desperate determination.

"R-robbery! Hand over all the money!"

The cashier looked at his trembling hands and then at the three angry thugs outside the door, an indescribable expression appearing on his face.

Little did Lin Fan know that his trembling declaration of robbery had been captured perfectly by the surveillance camera at the entrance of the convenience store.

The distant sound of police sirens seemed to be getting closer.