Chapter 1: A Resurgence

y can't afford that much gold..." The Storm Angel looked at the Silvermoon Bow, gritted her teeth, and pulled out a green book from her bag. "Otherwise, I'll add this, will that do"Zhang Yi glanced at..."Ding~ Congratulations on defeating the boss [Dark Dragon King·Iguono] (Level 255, 255 Stars Super God Level BOSS) with players [Mucen] and [Ruoxi], you have earned 280 billion experience points!"

As the system's prompt sounded in his ears, the Dark Dragon Emperor, Yiguno, whose massive form towered over everything, plummeted from the sky and fell ungracefully before Zhang Yi.

Bending down beside the BOSS's corpse, Zhang Yi excitedly picked up a golden scroll fragment from the pile of loot. "The last piece! Finally complete!"

As he spoke, Zhang Yi opened his spatial backpack and took out another eight pieces of scroll fragments that were identical to the one in his hand. He merged the nine pieces together, causing them to combine into a complete golden scroll in his palm!

"Ding~ Congratulations on obtaining the 255-star super artifact [Dragon Blood Scroll]!"

Holding the scroll tightly in his hand, Zhang Yi had just turned around after painstakingly acquiring it when suddenly a sword pierced through his chest with a "poof."

The smile on his face froze instantly. Zhang Yi looked at Mu Chen, who was holding the sword that pierced through his body in front of him, his face full of disbelief: "Mu Chen, you..."

"I'm sorry, brother. The Dragon Blood Scroll is still with Rao Rao. I'll take care of it for you." After speaking, Mu Chen pulled out the blood-stained long sword from Zhang Yi's body. Accompanied by a white-robed magic mage girl named Rao Xi beside him, they calmly watched Zhang Yi collapse to the ground with a thud.

"Ding~ You were attacked by player 【Mu Chen】's skill 【Critical Slash】, losing 32.68 million health points. The system detected that you have no remaining resurrection opportunities, you are dead!"

With the last prompt from the system, Zhang Yi, who was lying in a pool of blood, gradually closed his eyes.

Mu Chen crouched down, about to pick up the Dragon Blood Scroll clenched in Zhang Yi's hand, when he suddenly saw that the scroll soaked in Zhang Yi's blood, turned into golden light and merged into Zhang Yi's corpse. Then, Zhang Yi's body turned into a white light and disappeared!

"How could this be!"

Mu Chen stared blankly at the pool of blood on the ground, utterly dumbfounded...

In a rental apartment in Linhai City, a young man suddenly sat up from his bed.

"Mu Chen, Ruoruo, why would you betray me!"

Zhang Yi let out a roar of utter unwillingness and rage, only then noticing the surrounding scene, which seemed a little off.

"This...what is this"

Zhang Yi was startled, quickly scrambled out of bed, and then looked around the small rental apartment that felt both familiar and strange.

Isn't this the apartment you rented when you first got a job after graduation!

As if realizing something, he turned his head to look at the calendar on the nightstand. The date displayed: August 28, 2025!

Zhang Yi was stunned: himself… had been reborn!

Zhang Yi was still a little disbelieving. He rushed to the living room and turned on the TV. As expected, no matter what channel he switched to, they were all broadcasting the same news report.

" “The world gate of [Tianqi] will open in 2 hours and 12 minutes. Players from all over the world, are you ready…”

He ran to the window and opened it. Outside, countless cars plastered with 【Tianqi】 promotional posters were slowly driving down the street, honking their horns. Passersby chatted animatedly, all talking about 【Tianqi】. Even the building above was covered in 【Tianqi】 promotional posters.

Only at this moment did Zhang Yi dare to be certain: he had truly been reborn. After eight years of the apocalypse that began with [Tianqi] in 2033, he was now back in 2025. And more specifically, the time was exactly the day [Tianqi] started!

In 2025, a massively multiplayer online game called "Tianqi" was officially released for public testing. This highly anticipated game was developed over five years by Tianyun Group, a renowned domestic gaming company, in collaboration with over a hundred listed game companies from around the world. Thousands of top-tier game designers from both China and abroad poured their expertise into creating this monumental project, which cost a staggering 300 billion yuan.

Breaking away from traditional gaming, it is rumored that the game "Tianqi" allows players to enter the game world through a special gaming device, experiencing 100% virtual reality and thrilling, heart-pumping game scenarios with their minds.

In addition, [Tianyun Group] has also released a message across all networks stating that players can exchange in-game currency for RMB according to the exchange rate!

Thanks to these two features, when the [Tianyun Group] announced in May 2025 that the open beta test of [Tianqi] would begin at the end of August, it immediately caused a global sensation.

However, what no one expected was that the highly anticipated global open beta of the game "Apocalypse" they had all been dreaming about was about to bring upon the world a catastrophic apocalypse!

Zhang Yi recalled his past life.

On August 28, 2025, the day 【天啟】’s open beta launched, all players who entered the game encountered a shared issue: they were unable to log out, forever trapped within the game.

No one knows how this happened, only that dying in the game means you die for real.

Manankind, welcome to the apocalypse.

Don't think that you can avoid this disaster by not entering the game. Those who don't enter the game will be the first to perish.

It was first discovered by a player who, while completing a mission in the game, found an NPC that looked exactly like a friend of theirs in real life. Moreover, it seemed that almost all NPCs in the game were modeled after people from the real world who had not entered the game. This means that those people may have already been eliminated by the [Apocalypse] system in the real world and then set as NPCs in the game by the system!

In his previous life, Zhang Yi, as a player who entered the game, had struggled through eight years in the apocalyptic world of Tianqi. Unexpectedly, he didn't die at the hands of those powerful alien races and demonic beasts, but rather by the hands of his best brother and the woman he loved most.

After being given a second chance at life, Zhang Yi swore that he would make the dog-man and woman pay for their actions in his previous life!

Look at the time: 6:00 PM, there are only two hours left until [Tianqi] server opens at 8:00 PM!

It seemed as if something had come to Zhang Yi's mind. With a sudden jolt, he quickly put on his shorts and flip-flops and rushed out of his residence. He ran all the way to a nearby convenience store: Lao Li's Convenience Store!

Before the game's launch, there were several sensational news stories circulating online. Zhang Yi remembered one in particular: A certain gamer, while buying instant noodles at a nondescript old grocery store called Lao Li’s in Linhai City, found a [Tianyun Group] god-level talent card inside his noodles!acy with [Wild Wanderer] 8!"Golden light shone —"Ding～ Congratulations on your level up, current level 15…"Oh my god!Hearing the system's announcement about mission rewards, Zhang Yi almost choked on...