After plucking five blue stars from the nebula, Shen Qing stood quietly beneath the bronze bell and watched as it transformed into a transparent clock face engraved with a countdown.
The more he looked at it, the more he wanted to complain.
No matter how he viewed it, it was still just a clock.
There were a little over seventeen hours left on the countdown. That should be when the players arrived.
He needed to prepare in advance.
The guidance process could not go wrong, and he also had to get his lines ready.
Most importantly, he had to figure out a way to make the players find the Staff of Life. Otherwise, the rest of the process would never move forward.
After a preparation period that was not exactly long, Shen Qing finally put together a full set of lines for guiding the players. Feeling slightly nervous, he stood to one side of the round table, waiting.
He had guessed that the players would appear on top of the table.
After all, a table this big had to be here for a reason.
As it turned out—
he was wrong.
The moment the countdown reached zero, the five stars flared with growing brilliance, twisting into spinning vortices of light. Then, with a disturbingly inelegant writhing motion, like the maw of some abyssal beast, they "spat out" five figures in red robes.
These five were not solid bodies.
They did not land on the tabletop, either.
Instead, they floated like thin mist between the starry dome and the table's surface, suspended at the same height as the bronze bell. They shouted, flailed, and gestured wildly, as though they could not see the Hall of Benediction or Shen Qing at all.
Shen Qing, however, could clearly see each player's attributes:
Consciousness Power. Faith Value. Strength. Constitution. Agility. Spirit.
Consciousness Power:Increased through one's understanding of the world and strength of will; determined whether one could bear a Benediction. Faith Value:A quantification of positive emotion toward the Benediction. The more one liked and depended on the game, the higher the value; it determined whether one could receive a Benediction. Strength:Affected muscle power and explosive force. Constitution:Affected endurance and recovery. Agility:Affected reaction speed, bodily coordination, and enhancement of the five senses. Spirit:Affected memory, mental power, and concentration.
These four basic attributes would be influenced by the Staff of Life. Once a player's Consciousness Power reached the required standard, they could gain free points to strengthen their stats further.
The five players all had the same starting Consciousness Power: 100.
Their Faith Values, meanwhile, were steadily rising.
Shen Qing nodded to himself.
Looks like they're already accepting me as their guide.
The process his predecessor had left behind was indeed smooth. The game started with character creation. Very reasonable.
And then, very quickly, things stopped being reasonable.
The player on the far left suddenly began licking the mirror, thoroughly licking across the whole surface.
The second player took off his shoes and started frantically sniffing his own feet.
The one in the middle simply stripped off his robe and swung his bare ass around in circles.
The fourth player started plucking out his armpit hair while howling at the top of his lungs, as excited as a baboon on stimulants.
The fifth player was a girl, and comparatively restrained. After taking off her hood and confirming that she could adjust her body, she turned twice in place, then—after noticing no one seemed to be around—blushed and lifted her clothes to tweak her figure...
Shen Qing raised a hand to cover his eyes.
The corners of his mouth twitched nonstop.
This bunch is completely out of their minds.
The players messed around for nearly an hour before gradually settling down. By then, Shen Qing was too tired to remain standing, so he simply sat down and waited.
In that single hour, he had seen more bizarre appearances than he had in twenty or thirty years of ordinary life.
Someone used moles to draw a heart over their chest.
Someone made themselves eight rows of eyebrows.
Someone painted a scar pattern onto their backside.
Someone enlarged every pore on their body and turned them dark black.
Someone gave themselves one large breast and one small one...
At that moment, Shen Qing made up his mind:
From now on, character customization needed a time limit.
Go over time, lose your qualification.
No exceptions.
These people had absolutely no bottom line.
Fortunately, they still possessed at least a shred of shame. Once they finished their ridiculous face-editing session, they all returned to more or less normal appearances.
Then the five of them stepped out from the mirror one after another, transformed into thick mist, and drifted down to the ground.
Shen Qing took a deep breath.
It was time to test his acting skills.
Liang Yongqing was extremely satisfied with his appearance.
In his opinion, this game's face-customization system, precision, and realism were all absolutely top-tier. It crushed every competing product on the market.
The moment he pushed open the door after finishing his adjustments, thick mist instantly enveloped him. When it dispersed, four other players in red robes appeared before him, while opposite them stood a figure dressed in a dark-gold robe carved with mysterious symbols that shimmered faintly with light.
The figure carried an aura of solemn holiness.
That should be the guide NPC.
The other four had to be fellow closed beta players.
Only five players had been selected for the beta, so his luck was honestly incredible.
After the insanity of what had just happened, the five players all fell temporarily silent.
Shen Qing looked at the five of them, the corners of his mouth twitching ever so slightly. Weren't you all acting pretty wild just now? Why are you suddenly quiet now?
He fixed his gaze on them and slowly spoke.
"Praise be to the Benediction."
After a brief pause, he continued,
"Welcome to the Hall of Benediction. I am a favored servant of the Lord of Benediction, the executor of His will, and the spreader of His divine kingdom. You may address me as the High Priest."
Liang Yongqing instantly got into character.
The setting, the starry dome, the ancient bell, the giant wooden table—together they formed a kind of eerie beauty. It was obvious this game had strong theological elements. The official website had revealed nothing at all, leaving players to experience everything firsthand. The immersion was incredible.
And this High Priest's acting was excellent.
There was a very high chance he was being played by a real person.
The other players were also looking around in all directions. A few of them could not help letting out low sounds of amazement.
Shen Qing, unaware of the exact thoughts running through their heads, continued with his opening speech.
"The divine kingdom has fallen. We are pitiful souls saved by the Lord of Benediction. In the divine realm, we lost our homeland and became stranded within the Ocean of Consciousness. Yet we are still favored. Our kin have found this planet, and here we shall rebuild the divine kingdom, spread the sacred name, and make all who dwell upon this planet praise the name of Benediction."
He paused, then intoned:
"Benediction upon all beings. Let all suffering fade."
As he spoke, Shen Qing interlaced his fingers before his chest and lowered his head slightly.
This was a ritualized gesture he had designed himself, specifically to strengthen the sense of faith and ceremony in his believers.
The five players froze for a moment.
Liang Yongqing was the first to react. He awkwardly copied the gesture and murmured in a low voice,
"Benediction upon all beings. Let all suffering fade."
The other four soon followed.
Shen Qing felt quietly satisfied.
Not bad. They're teachable.
When Liang Yongqing noticed the approving look from the High Priest, he became even more convinced this was a real person playing the role. Testing the waters, he asked, "What's your name?"
Shen Qing gestured for everyone to introduce themselves.
Li Yu had just been stunned by the solemn atmosphere, but the previous player's bizarrely serious question nearly made him laugh out loud.
So he blurted out his in-game ID:
"My name is Jiangnan's Number One Heartthrob."
For a moment, the scene became profoundly ridiculous.
The others introduced themselves in turn:
"I'm Just a Loyal Dog."
"I'm Sunny Heart."
"My name is Huge Muscles All Over."
Shen Qing did his absolute best to keep a straight face. Clearing his throat, he continued guiding them in a loud and dignified voice:
"Death plunged your consciousness into chaos. You drifted too long in the Ocean of Consciousness, until you forgot the mission that belongs to the divine people. Our kin have already landed upon this planet, but they encountered danger and lost contact with us. This land is full of peril. You have been chosen as the second batch of divine people to set forth upon this journey. Your mission is to recover the lost Staff of Life, protect it, and welcome more of our kin. We will spread the sacred name so that more people come to know of Benediction, and in the end, rebuild the divine kingdom."
"First, you must cleanse the chaos from your bodies. After bathing in the holy light of the Hall of Benediction, you will descend near the Staff of Life."
This was a rule Shen Qing had set.
At the start, players possessed no divine power. Unlike him, they could not descend freely wherever they wished. Only after being touched by divine power in the Hall could they be dropped in the vicinity of the Staff of Life.
After finishing, Shen Qing silently walked to one side and stopped deliberately steering the conversation, allowing the players to talk among themselves freely.
At that moment, he noticed that part of the round table's surface had turned transparent, resembling a computer screen. A forum interface had appeared across it—though for now, the players still could not see it.
After studying it for a while, Shen Qing discovered that the forum could only be browsed.
There was no way to post messages.
Honestly, he thought that was just fine.
He had never been a game planner or designer in his life.
Instead of trying to cram endless lore and rules down the players' throats, he might as well let them explore freely. That sounded much more interesting.
Besides, he had already died enough times to have plenty of experience.
At worst, he could just try again a few more times.