Whoosh!
As the night wind blew, Seth, who was already lightly dressed, suddenly shivered from the cold.
"Hiss, it's so cold. I'd better go home and wait."
"I hope that lady didn't lie to me."
Back in his rental room, he felt much warmer after wrapping himself tightly in a quilt.
But after waiting for half an hour, he still hadn't received a reply on his phone.
"Damn it, I didn't actually get played for free, did I?"
In a fit of anger, Seth opened the exquisite gift box Vivienne had left behind, wanting to see if he had really been fooled. Was this piece of junk really worth a million?
Upon opening it, he saw that in the center of the packaging was a pigeon-egg-sized bead, dazzling and brilliant like a diamond.
Seth's pupils instantly trembled: "A login connection stone for Omnirealm?"
"An Arcane-tier linking stone?"
Seth reached out to touch it. It felt icy cold, like a block of ice. Before he could take a closer look...
Suddenly, a sharp pain shot through his palm.
Then, the login connection stone flashed with light and vanished into thin air from his hand.
Shit! Did I just use it? This belongs to someone else!
[Ding-dong!]
[Welcome to... Omnirealm]
[Identifying identity...]
[Identification successful. Resident of Level 1 Common Civilization Ashford Prime—Seth McField, age 19...]
[Unique and unchangeable binding complete.]
Hearing the series of system prompts, Seth discovered to his disbelief that he had appeared within a realistic-looking cosmic galaxy.
He pinched his face; the sensation and slight pain were virtually indistinguishable from real life.
An Omnirealm connection stone could never be changed once bound.
Seth had accidentally used someone else's connection stone. Because he had never encountered one before, he didn't know it would trigger upon touch.
What's done was done and could not be undone. He could only apologize to Vivienne when the time came.
[Since the exclusive protective new server for Ashford Prime has not officially opened yet, you may choose to pre-create your character.]
Since it had come to this, he might as well make the best of it and pre-create a character.
Following Seth's selection, another prompt sounded in his ear.
[Based on the culture and history of Ashford Prime, the background for the new server has been created. There are a total of eight mainstream classes...]
[They are:]
-Spiritblade (Mage)
-Shadowveil (Assassin)
-Primal Fury (Berserker)
-Astral Bow (Archer)
-Vanguard (Warrior)
-Harmonic Echo (Support)
-Skyforged (Tank)
-Constellation Array (Healer)
Next, the characteristics and advantages of each different class were displayed one by one.
Furthermore, every model was displayed using Seth's own appearance.
Seth chose the cool and elegant physical long-range DPS class with the highest technical skill cap [Astral Bow].
Ding-dong!
[You have successfully selected the Astral Bow class. Please create a name for your character.]
"Crimson Rider."
Seth used his usual flashy online alias.
[Character name created successfully!]
[Notice! Omnirealm does not allow appearance modification. Modeling will be based on your real appearance. However, you may choose the system-provided illusion mask to protect your privacy.]
Can't modify my appearance?
Seth had originally wanted to adjust himself into a peerless handsome man.
Although he was 1.81 meters tall in reality and his features were decent enough, who would mind being more perfect?
Ding-dong!
[Detected that player Crimson Rider has bound a Celestial-grade Rare Connection Stone]
[You have one chance each to draw a potential and special equipment. Would you like to use them now?]
"Heh!"
Hearing this prompt, Seth felt as if he had been struck by lightning, a jolt running through his entire body.
Ce... Celestial-grade!? The connection stone Vivienne had temporarily left as collateral was actually Celestial-grade?! The odds of this were harder than winning a billion in the lottery!
With an incredibly excited and dreamlike mood, Seth said: "Use them."
Ding-dong!
[Congratulations, player Crimson Rider, on drawing the peerless and unique skill: Soulrend]
[Congratulations, player Crimson Rider, on drawing the special equipment: Voidquiver]
[Soulrend]:
(Unique Peerless Potential!)
(Attacks have a 2% chance to rend the target's soul, causing an absolute instant kill. Every attack on the same target will increase the probability until Soulrend is triggered at 100%.)
(This peerless potential is upgradeable. Current level is 1—0/10000!)
[Voidquiver]
Special Equipment:
(Bound to Crimson Rider, upgradeable! Cannot be dropped, traded, or destroyed.)
-Function 1: (Infinite Level 1 - Essence Arrow. Each Essence Arrow carries 10 points of additional true damage.)
-Function 2: Devour (Every skill book devoured will permanently increase the owner's attributes.)
Incredible! This is absolutely incredible!
The existence of the Soulrend skill allowed Seth to ignore all of a target's defenses and cause an instant kill.
If his attack speed reached its limit and he stacked the probability, even a BOSS would be killed instantly.
This was simply a god-tier potential, and most importantly, it could be upgraded.
As for the Voidquiver, it was also a god-tier piece of equipment that provided infinite Essence Arrows.
This allowed Seth, who was already an Astral Bow, to have infinite output without needing supplies.
Its attached Devour skill, which increased permanent attributes by consuming skill books, was an even more cheat-like existence that would make Seth stronger and stronger.
Ding-dong!
[There are 4 hours and 37 minutes remaining until the Omnirealm Ashford Prime new server opens. Please enter the game after the official opening.]
As soon as the prompt ended, Seth was sent out of the game.
Just as his consciousness returned to reality, Seth's phone rang. Upon answering, it was Vivienne calling.
Vivienne's voice was very impatient: "My people went there with the money but couldn't find you. You didn't answer your phone either. Don't you want the reward anymore?"
He had just been in the game and indeed hadn't heard the phone ring.
Thinking about how he had accidentally used her login connection stone, and that it was a peerless and rare Celestial-grade one...
Seth felt a bit guilty, but he still forced himself to stay calm and said:
"It's so cold late at night; I couldn't just stand there waiting like a fool forever."
"How about this, just take that thing you left with me as the reward."
He thought she would definitely be furious after hearing him say that.
Instead, Vivienne casually replied:
"Are you sure you want to use it to offset the reward? It's only worth 200,000."
Only worth 200,000?
Hearing this, Seth was stunned at first.
But he quickly realized what was happening.
Rare Prime-grade and Celestial-grade connection stones were one in a million, all hidden within Arcane-tier linking stones. Before use, no one knew their true grade.
Presumably, Vivienne thought this was just an ordinary Arcane-tier linking stone.
And an ordinary Arcane-tier linking stone had a market price of 200,000 Universal Credits.
It seemed that although this woman had a cold personality, she wasn't someone who took advantage of others. She even reminded Seth that it was only worth 200,000 Universal Credits.
Little did she know that Seth had gained a massive advantage.
Seth tried to keep his voice calm. He wanted to say yes, but felt it was inappropriate, as it might arouse her suspicion.
A reward of one million, yet only wanting a connection stone worth 200,000...that was too abnormal.
Seth thought for a moment and was about to say: "How about you compensate me another 800,000?"
As it turned out, his phone ran out of battery and shut down directly.
This crappy phone always caught a cold at the critical moment.
Vivienne, however, thought Seth had hung up on her. After hesitating for a moment, she sent him a text message.
"You found my Aurelius, so I owe you a favor. If you need help in the future, you can call me."
...
After charging for five minutes, Seth finally managed to turn on his phone and saw the message from Vivienne.
Well, a favor is a favor then!
The fact was that he had indeed taken a huge advantage of her.
Having obtained a Celestial-grade connection stone, peerless potential, and the Voidquiver, Seth was now too excited to sleep.
He only waited for eight o'clock to arrive so he could immediately enter Omnirealm to explore and turn around his mediocre life of 19 years.