Chapter 25: The Game is Real
On the way to the village chief’s house, Lu Yunxi finally realized that this idiot thief had absolutely no idea what he had even stolen!
As it turned out, while he was crouching up in a tree, he had accidentally spotted the auntie sneaking out to the back of her yard. Believing she was completely alone, she had carefully washed her cloth menstrual pad and hung it up to dry. Seeing how incredibly cautious and secretive she was being, the thief mistakenly assumed that this cloth belt had to be some sort of priceless, exotic treasure. He simply waited until her back was turned and snatched it.
Learning the truth left Lu Yunxi entirely speechless.
“Of course she treasures it! Do you have any idea how scarce fabric is around here?!” Yunxi barked, a bizarre, menacing smile spreading across her face. “Most people only own one set of clothes at best. Even a simple rag used to wipe down a table is hard to come by—every household gets exactly one! It’s not just rags, either. Firewood, food, and even common kindling sticks are all precious commodities here! Haven’t you ever heard that a broken home is still worth a fortune? If you ever sneak into our village to steal again, I’ll personally sell you off for copper! I’ve been looking for an excuse to replace the old furniture in my house anyway.”
The little thief got goosebumps looking at her terrifying smile. He immediately began weeping, begging for mercy. “Big sister, I swear I’ll never do it again! I had no idea you people were living such a miserable, destitute life!”
“Shut up,” she commanded in a chilling voice.
Before he could utter another sound, they arrived at the village chief’s house.
“Village Chief,” Yunxi announced, tossing the captive forward. “This guy was caught red-handed stealing. How do you think we should handle him?”
The village chief blinked in confusion, staring at the bruised man on the floor and then up at Lu Yunxi. Looking at her dark, menacing expression, he privately thought she looked far more like the villain in this scenario than the battered criminal groveling at her feet.
“Well… this is a bit difficult,” the chief muttered, rubbing his chin as he looked at the thief with embarrassment. He wasn’t entirely sure how to proceed.
After all, this was the first time in all his decades of managing the village that a thief had actually been caught red-handed! While the neighbors were prone to loud arguments and bickering, actual petty theft was practically non-existent in their tight-knit community.
We could escort him to the imperial magistrate’s office… the chief thought. But the journey to the county yamen is long and treacherous. I can’t ask the young men of our village to risk being mauled by a tiger on the mountain passes just to transport such an insignificant criminal all the way to town.
After deliberating for a long time, the village chief reluctantly offered a compromise. “How about this? I’ll lock him away in my woodshed and let him starve for three days. Once his time is up, I’ll permanently drive him out of our boundaries. What do you think?”
Hearing the proposal, Yunxi was just about to nod in agreement when a sudden realization struck her, and she firmly shook her head.
“Absolutely not, Village Chief! These adventurers have been constantly sneaking around trying to plunder our resources. We need to keep a tighter leash on them. We should use this specific thief as a public example to warn the rest of his kind!”
The village chief froze for a second, and then a meaningful, knowing smile broke across his face. The two of them leaned in close, lower their voices to a conspiratorial whisper as they began plotting the details.
“Hey, everyone! Get down to the village entrance right now! The village chief caught a thief and is about to publicly punish him!”
“Why do we all need to go watch? Is the chief asking us to help him beat the guy up?”
The villagers marched toward the perimeter in a sprawling crowd, murmuring in low voices. Noticing a massive surge of locals heading toward the gates, many adventurers couldn’t suppress their curiosity and quickly tagged along behind them.
When they arrived at the village entrance, they found the village chief standing squarely in the center of the road, positioned right beside a tall, imposing wooden rack. By the time the locals settled into place, nearly every single adventurer in the vicinity had swarmed the area to join in on the fun.
The village chief cleared his throat, his voice booming with authority. “Quiet down, everyone! I have called this emergency assembly today because our community has officially apprehended a thief!”
His expression turned deadly serious as his gaze swept across the crowd. “When resources went missing in the past, I chose to let bygones be bygones. After all, the adventurers were new to our land and completely ignorant of our local laws. But a significant amount of time has passed since then, and I have explicitly outlined our boundaries. Yet, certain individuals still possess the audacity to steal? Our village will no longer tolerate these rotten apples!”
Every eye locked onto the chief.
“Therefore, today, I want everyone to witness firsthand the exact consequences of violating our laws!” The chief turned his head, throwing a meaningful glance toward Lu Yunxi.
Sensing her cue, Yunxi moved with practiced efficiency, hoisting the thief up and securing him tightly to the high wooden frame, leaving him dangling in mid-air like a strip of curing bacon.
“This is the official penalty for theft within our borders,” the village chief announced, gesturing toward the hanging criminal. “He will remain bound to this rack for three full days. Throughout this duration, absolutely no one is permitted to offer him a single drop of water or a bite of food! Anyone caught attempting to alleviate his sentence will be hung up right alongside him. Am I understood?”
The local villagers roared in unison, “Understood!”
The faces of the surrounding adventurers turned an spectacular array of colors—shifting from pale blue to deep purple, as if a palette of paint had been violently upended across their features.
Three days later, in the heat of the afternoon.
Yunxi was sitting across from the village chief in his courtyard, quietly engrossed in a game of chess, when an adventurer suddenly approached them, stammering nervously.
“I should probably step away for a moment…” she murmured, preparing to excuse herself to give them privacy, but the village chief waved a hand to dismiss her concerns. She paused, choosing to trust his judgment, and settled back into her chair.
“Is there something you need?” the village chief asked, turning his head to regard the anxious adventurer with a calm, unbothered tone.
The adventurer closed his eyes tightly, looking as though he were preparing to face an executioner. “Um… Village Chief, regarding that thief hanging out at the entrance… isn’t his three-day sentence officially over today?”
The village chief blinked, a look of sudden realization dawning on his face. He had completely forgotten about the man dangling on the perimeter. “Ah, yes! It slipped my mind entirely. Thank you for the reminder, traveler. If you have some spare time, please head over and help me cut him down.”
The adventurer let out a massive sigh of relief, bowed quickly, and sprinted out of the courtyard as fast as his legs could carry him.
Down at the village gates, the thief—who had been thoroughly baked by the sun until he looked exactly like dried jerky—was finally released from his bonds. The moment his feet touched the solid earth, he burst into hysterical tears, throwing his arms around his friend’s legs and sobbing like a newborn baby.
There wasn’t a single local villager in sight; the clearing was occupied entirely by a crowd of onlookers. Full of profound solidarity, the adventurers looked down at the weeping thief, their expressions thick with deep, traumatic sympathy.
Meanwhile, on the Star Network, breaking updates from the Number One Gaming Company once again completely dominated the trending charts.
#The massive holographic historical MMORPG “Ancient” will officially launch in exactly one month!#
#The closed beta for “Ancient” has officially concluded! What drove the seasoned testers to actual tears?#
#Prominent university history professor publicly praises the Number One Gaming Company for its flawless, absolute respect for historical accuracy!#
The reason Ancient managed to effortlessly capture the collective attention of the interstellar federation was simple: the virtual reality market had entered a period of severe stagnation. Sci-fi and space warfare simulators had oversaturated the industry, leaving this game to pioneer a completely untouched historical frontier.
Every rival development firm was hyper-focusing on the online metrics. In this current climate, standard formulas were failing, consumers had completely lost interest, and corporate profit margins were plummeting year after year. If this experimental glimpse into the ancient world proved to be a massive commercial success, every studio in the industry would immediately scramble to capitalize on the trend, churning out historical imitations to seize a piece of the market share.
As for the avid consumers who had already invested millions into purchasing the premium gaming cabins, they rapidly swarmed the official community forums while waiting for their hardware deliveries, desperate to see if the beta veterans had compiled any baseline survival guides.
At that moment, the discussion boards were a chaotic mess of highly specific, utterly unhinged advice posted by the closed beta survivors:
[Beta Veteran 1]: The realism mechanics in this game are absolute insanity! You have to physically seek out NPCs and manually negotiate for work, otherwise they will literally never assign you a single quest line!
[Beta Veteran 2]: Word of warning: do not trust the local populations blindly! Some of these NPCs are absolute scammers who will trick you into doing grueling manual labor for free! I learned this the hard way: after spending hours completing a structural request, the NPC didn’t pay me a single copper and literally kicked me out of his yard!
[Beta Veteran 3]: When you’re trying to unlock trade skills in the starting village, make absolutely sure you vet your master carefully! Some of these craftsmen will just order you to chop wood and haul water all day long without ever teaching you a single functional skill. Don’t ask me how I know… and keep in mind, once you commit to an apprenticeship, the system locks you out from ever changing mentors!
[Beta Veteran 4]: There is zero interstellar transit or fast-travel network in this world. If you want to get anywhere, you have to physically walk every single meter. Do yourself a favor and dump all your initial attribute points into Stamina during character creation!
[Beta Veteran 5]: If your character enters a state of critical starvation, do not attempt to forage for wild greens or fruits on your own. Stick strictly to the food rations provided by the village NPCs, otherwise you will trigger a fatal blood-poisoning debuff and drop dead instantly!
[Beta Veteran 6]: Wait, your starting villages actually have green mountains and flowing streams? Our server spawned us in a valley completely surrounded by massive glaciers! I literally froze to death within thirty seconds of logging into the tutorial!
Reading through the flood of bizarre, traumatic testimonials, the wider netizen community had an absolutely fantastic time enjoying the digital drama.
