2: 100% pain perception? This game designer must be a devil!

The taste of rust.

Mixed with the stench of old mold and some unknown rotting substance, it felt like an invisible hand tightly gripping the nasal cavity.

This was Li Qiang's first sensation upon regaining consciousness.

Not sight, not hearing.

But that nauseating smell.

Immediately after, a cold, hard sensation came from his back.

Even through that thin layer of fabric, he could clearly feel the subtle metal bumps and scratches on the floor.

"Ugh..."

Li Qiang abruptly sat up, his stomach churning violently.

He vigorously rubbed his face, feeling the rough friction of skin against his palms.

It's real.

It's so damn real!

"Holy shit? Which company's holographic technology is this?"

Li Qiang widened his eyes, looking at his calloused hands, then touched the metal floor beneath him: "This tactile sensation... even Tencent doesn't have this technology, right? Am I fucking dreaming?"

"Hey! Pervert!"

A sharp female voice suddenly exploded: "Take your eyes off me!"

Li Qiang instinctively turned his head.

A young girl was curled up beside him.

She was currently covering her chest with both hands, her face flushed red as she glared at him.

Above the girl's head floated several glowing green characters: 【LV0 Rich Woman Hungry】.

Looking at himself.

Holy crap.

A dusty pair of boxer shorts—that was the entire outfit.

"No wonder I felt so chilly..."

Li Qiang chuckled, not embarrassed at all, but instead pushing his luck by whistling: "Girl, we're all cavemen here, what's there to be fussy about? But your skin modeling is really good, did you top up?"

"You!"

【Rich Woman Hungry】 was so angry she wanted to bite someone.

In the shelter, there were five people in total.

Besides the one who looked like a rich girl, 【Rich Woman Hungry】, the remaining three were even more bizarre.

A burly man with the ID 【Overbearing Dragon】 was punching the air, the bulge of his biceps was simply outrageous.

A passerby with the ID 【Only I Am Most Wavy】 was squatting on the ground counting ants.

The most extreme was the bespectacled man called 【Is This Melon Ripe??】.

This guy was crouched in a corner, using his fingers to scrape off a piece of blackish moss and, without hesitation, stuffing it into his mouth to chew.

"Pah."

The bespectacled man spat out the residue, pushed up his nonexistent glasses on the bridge of his nose, his eyes fanatical: "Bitter, astringent, with a slight numbing sensation from trace alkaloids. This taste simulation System... is simply miraculous!"

Li Qiang shuddered.

What kind of demons and monsters are these?

Just then.

That cold mechanical voice sounded again in everyone's ears:

【Welcome to the Void Realm.】

【Newbie Mission Released: Leave the shelter and explore the surrounding environment.】

【Reward: 10 contribution points.】

"Let's go, let's go! The mission is here!"

Li Qiang was impatient, and coupled with these incredibly realistic sensory stimuli, it had long stirred his heart that loved to court death.

What's wrong with being a laborer?

In the game, I am the king!

"Creak—"

The heavy, rusted iron door was pushed open with combined effort.

The piercing friction sound made teeth ache.

The world outside the door instantly crashed into view.

The gray sky, like a moldy rag covering overhead.

The dark red earth was dry and cracked, the silhouette of a ruined city in the distance, faintly visible amidst the swirling yellow sand.

As the wind blew.

The stinging pain of sand grains hitting their faces made everyone hold their breath.

"This scenery..."

【Rich Woman Hungry】 forgot to cover up, staring dumbfounded at this scene: "How many graphics cards would it take to render this?"

"Roar..."

A low growl broke the shock.

Beside the ruins at the shelter entrance.

A figure wearing tattered nurse's clothing was wandering aimlessly, its back turned to the group.

"Monster! There's a monster!"

Li Qiang's eyes lit up.

It was a zombie.

But he wasn't panicked at all.

Anyone who has played games knows that monsters at the entrance of the newbie village are just welfare for players to practice and gain experience.

Commonly known as: one slash, 999.

"Look how scared you all are."

Li Qiang glanced at the cowering people behind him, especially the Rich Woman who was still trembling, which instantly boosted his machismo.

"Just a newbie monster, watch me perform a bare-handed dismantling of a Gundam for you!"

Li Qiang swaggered over.

"Hey, don't go!"

The previously silent 【Overbearing Dragon】 suddenly spoke, his voice low: "Its muscles are tense, that's an attack posture!"

"Tch, coward."

Li Qiang didn't even turn his head, directly giving the middle finger.

A few steps.

He was already standing behind the female zombie.

Up close, he could even smell that suffocating stench of decay.

"Tsk tsk, this modeling is amazing, even the maggots in the wounds are moving."

Li Qiang not only didn't run, but instead, courting death, reached out to poke the zombie's exposed spine: "Beauty, don't be shy, turn around and give me a smile? Add me on WeChat?"

At this moment.

Su Mu, who had been lurking behind the scenes watching the screen, silently covered his face.

"Idiot."

The next second.

The female zombie moved.

No stiff turning motion, no red attack warning circle.

Its neck twisted at a bizarre 180-degree angle!

That face... was no longer human at all.

Its mouth split open to the ears, teeth hanging with unknown bits of flesh, turbid yellow eyes fixed on Li Qiang, who was close at hand.

"Holy..."

Li Qiang's curse hadn't left his mouth.

"Crack!"

A bloody maw, without warning, clamped onto his neck!

The sound of the windpipe shattering was clearly audible in the dead silence of the wasteland.

Blood.

Warm, sticky blood, gushing out like a fountain!

Even splattering onto the face of 【Rich Woman Hungry】 several meters away.

"Ahhhhhhh—!!!"

A scream pierced the sky.

Not the flat "ugh" sound from games.

It was a heart-wrenching, Soul-trembling wail!

Pain!

Indescribable, excruciating pain!

Li Qiang felt as if his neck was being crushed by a meat grinder.

The bursting sensation of blood vessels being torn.

The choking feeling of air rushing into the trachea.

And those pain signals, rushing madly along the nerve endings to the brain, enough to drive someone insane!

"Sa... save me..."

Li Qiang struggled desperately, his hands clawing wildly, nails digging deep into the soil, but he could only make a "hissing" sound of leaking air.

His vision began to blur.

Darkness swallowed from all sides.

Until the last bit of consciousness faded, only one thought remained in his mind:

Fuck your game!

This is murder!

"Thud."

The corpse fell to the ground.

Dissolving into countless white points of light.

Deathly silence.

At the shelter entrance, the remaining four people were as if petrified, faces pale, bodies trembling.

【Rich Woman Hungry】 touched the blood on her face, warm, stinking.

Her legs gave way, and she collapsed to the ground.

Three seconds.

Only three seconds passed.

At the resurrection point inside the shelter, a flash of white light.

Li Qiang's figure reformed.

"Ugh—!"

As soon as he landed, he knelt on the ground, retching violently.

His hands tightly clutching his intact neck, his whole body as if just fished out of water, sweat mixed with some suspicious liquid, flowing down his pant legs onto the ground.

He pissed himself.

He was truly scared pissless.

That despair of near death, that bone-deep pain, was simply unbearable for human nerves.

"Re... report to the police..."

【Overbearing Dragon】's face was ashen; as a Retired Soldier King, he could distinguish between what was virtual and what was real killing intent: "This isn't a game! This is an anti-human execution ground! I want to log out!"

"That's right! I want to complain! I want to sue this company into bankruptcy!"

【Rich Woman Hungry】 screamed with a sob in her voice.

Just as everyone was looking for the logout button.

A low laugh suddenly squeezed out from the throat of the man kneeling on the ground.

"Heh..."

"Heh heh heh..."

Li Qiang slowly raised his head.

The eyes originally filled with fear were now bloodshot.

It was a look... like a hungry wolf seeing meat.

Madness, greed, and a hint of post-survival frenzy.

He staggered to his feet, legs still trembling, but the corners of his mouth uncontrollably stretched to his ears.

Casually picking up a piece of rusted iron with sharp edges from the ground.

His tongue licked over his dry, pale lips, tasting a hint of salty, metallic flavor.

"That hurt..."

Li Qiang looked at his trembling hand, muttering to himself.

"It really fucking hurt!"

He abruptly turned around, looking at those teammates who were scared stiff, his voice hoarse but carrying an excitement that made scalps tingle:

"This pain sensation... this tactile feeling... this isn't a game."

"This is giving me a second life!"

"Brothers, what's there to be afraid of?"

He raised the scrap iron in his hand, pointing it at the wandering female zombie outside the door, eyes burning with flames called "revenge":

"Dare to come out with me and kill that bitch?!"