novelraw Chapter 2 Pain Feedback
Chapter 2 Pain Feedback
A slight tingling sensation came from the spinal nerve connection points—this was the game pod establishing a connection.
"Loading Dungeon: Home Reset..."
"World coordinates anchored... Consciousness channel stable..."
"May your efforts to restore the world go smoothly."
Perhaps because they were at the boundary between reality and the game, the last sentence was somewhat unclear, and Chen Huai didn't hear it clearly.
The next moment, a strong sense of weightlessness and the shifting light and shadows engulfed him.
boom.
My back slammed solidly onto something; it wasn't too hard, but it was definitely uncomfortable.
Chen Huai groaned and opened his eyes.
All around were towering trees with incredibly thick trunks and canopies that blocked out the sun, exuding a slightly oppressive vitality.
As a seasoned planner, Chen Hai's first reaction was to assess the environment. It was incredibly convenient for planting anything or cutting down trees to build houses, but…
"Where am I? What happened to the dungeon?"
Logically, the player's awakening point should be inside the dungeon, and the player should not be able to reach the surface before completing the initial construction task. So where did he come from?
"Location error? Loaded coordinates offset?"
But it doesn't matter. After all, this is Gaia's first self-developed game, so it's normal to have some bugs. If there were no problems, what would be the point of having him as a tester?
Just wait a bit and then contact the technical support team.
Chen Huai propped himself up, his palms sinking into the soft grass:
"The plant effects are so detailed?"
He looked down and saw dense wild grass beneath him, its leaves unusually large and thick, the veins gleaming with an unhealthy dark purple luster in the sunlight.
This wasn't any kind of landscape plant model he was familiar with, but it was very clear... just like the real thing.
Gaia's computing power is terrifying. The games that the technical department made in the past, although they claimed to be completely realistic experiences, were not this realistic. The cost of rendering this effect is extremely high. Even the most popular action games do not have this capability.
"But do life simulation games need this kind of detail? It's not worth the resource consumption."
He stood up, brushed off the decaying leaves, and prepared to begin his work as a tester.
"Should I go back to the dungeon first before the rest of the story begins?"
Chen Huai said this and opened the game panel. There should be a route guide for the main quest.
"First, determine the location. According to the settings, the dungeon entrance should be nearby... something seems off."
ID: Chen Huai (Superhuman)
Occupation: Child of Nature
Genetic Level: LV1
Power: 18
Physical condition: 16
Agility: 15
Spirit: 30
……
He glanced at the panel, but hadn't had time to examine it closely.
"ah--!!!"
A piercing scream, filled with pure terror, suddenly erupted from the depths of the dense forest to the right, instantly shattering the silence of the woods.
Chen Huai's body stiffened, and he turned his head abruptly.
Then came more chaotic shouts, the rough roars of adult men, the crisp sounds of metal clashing, and... a low hiss, as if it were some kind of wild beast.
"Story event triggered?"
Chen Huai made a judgment almost immediately:
"A guided encounter? It seems 'Gaia' has added a little 'appetizer' to this life simulation game to increase the initial tension."
He was relieved; having pre-set events meant he was indeed following the correct "testing process."
Without bothering to check the panel any further, he immediately strode toward the source of the sound.
As a tester, it is his responsibility to experience and record all preset events.
In a relatively open depression in the forest, four men dressed in disheveled clothes were leaning against a huge rock.
They carried rudimentary weapons: a machete, two sharpened wooden spears, and a crude shield made of metal sheets and wooden sticks. Scattered on the ground were several worn backpacks and a few metal parts that looked like they had been dug out of the ruins.
Their opponent, or rather, the one slowly approaching and driving them into a corner, is a "big cat".
Describing this creature as a "big cat" is a bit of a stretch. Although its appearance shows the basic framework of a large feline, its size is completely beyond common sense.
Judging by sight, its shoulder height is definitely over 1.5 meters, and its body length including its tail is probably close to 4 meters. Standing there, it resembles a male lion, but it is more slender and agile than a lion.
Its grayish-brown fur is interspersed with dark markings, and there is a prominent tuft of black bristles at the tips of its ears, making it look like an enlarged version of a lynx Max.
It moved forward slowly, its amber vertical pupils coldly locked onto its prey, a threatening low growl emanating from its throat, and its tail swaying slowly but powerfully.
The four men were clearly terrified. Although they were all adults and looked like scavengers or hunters who often worked in the wild, their resistance was as fragile as paper in the face of this giant beast.
"Cutout animation, this is definitely a cutout animation."
Chen Huai confirmed it in his mind again:
"Well designed. The model and motion capture of this beast are top-notch, and it's incredibly imposing. Next, I should step in and trigger some mechanism to chase it away or lure it into a trap."
He could almost picture the next scene: he would appear, attract the cat demon's attention, create a thrilling scene using the environment, and then the cat demon would retreat. The NPCs would be extremely grateful and become his first "villagers," guiding him to nearby resource points or directly to the dungeon entrance.
A very standard RPG start.
However, he didn't recall any such creature being in the game's lore.
But seeing the big cat about to pounce on them, Chen Huai didn't have time to think. He immediately cleared his throat, stepped out from behind the tree where he was hiding, and entered the depression.
Hey! Over here!
He shouted, trying to get the cat demon's attention, while gesturing to the men that they should "quickly take this opportunity to do something."
The "big cat's" ears instantly turned towards him, its huge amber pupils contracted, and its cold gaze fell on this newly appeared "prey".
It stopped pressing down on the four people, and its massive body slowly turned around.
When the four men saw Chen Huai, their eyes gleamed with a sense of relief, but more than anything, they were filled with astonishment and anxiety.
"Don't come any closer! Run!"
The man with the machete shouted, but Chen Huai took it as a line from the script.
"Alright, it's time to pounce on me, with a slightly intimidating roar, and then I'll run along the pre-set 'dodge route' to that clump of deformed bushes that looks like it could easily collapse..."
As Chen Huai slowly moved sideways to attract the cat demon to turn around completely, he quickly scanned the environment with the eyes of a tester, looking for "designed interaction points".
The "big cat" moved.
Its massive body unleashed a speed completely disproportionate to its size, like a gray-brown lightning bolt. In almost the blink of an eye for Chen Huai, the figure carrying a foul stench had covered a distance of more than ten meters. A giant claw, the size of a fan and capable of crushing cow bones, swept down towards him with a suffocating force!
"wrong--!"
Chen Huai's pupils contracted sharply, his calm analysis as a tester instantly overwhelmed by an instinctive sense of crisis.
He used almost all his strength to roll backward.
He jumped a full five meters away, completing this difficult move in less than a second. I don't know what his character is supposed to be, but his explosive power is terrifying. In reality, even with his tech-geek physique, he couldn't do this move even if he worked himself to death.
However... even so, it was not possible to completely avoid it.
"laugh--!"
A sharp pain came from my left shoulder blade.
The giant claw that was originally heading for his head only grazed his back, but even at the edge of the claw, the destructive power was astonishing.
Chen Huai's clothes were torn as if made of paper, and his skin underneath felt a burning pain.
The immense force lifted him off the ground, sending him tumbling and crashing into the trunk of a tree. The impact felt like his internal organs had shifted, and his vision went black for a moment.
He fell to the ground, coughing violently, and tasted blood in his mouth.
A persistent, burning pain shot through his left back, and he could feel warm liquid rapidly soaking his tattered clothes.
"Damn! This is a 100% pain feedback mechanism?!"