Apocalypse Lord

Chapter 1 - “Public Beta”

Apocalypse Lord

Author: Light Clear Clouds (Yun Qing Dan)

One line synopsis: hoard, produce, recruit, build.

Length: 79 chapters + 1 Epilogue

Synopsis:

Yun Ling was invited to attend the public beta test of “Apocalypse Calamity.” In the end, she successfully survived a hundred days, and obtained the “Lord Token”, “Life Skill Level Retention” and “S Rank Skill” as rewards.

The beta ended, and she waited with anticipation for the opening of the game. But then the world became the game… …

Yun — life skill player — Ling thought, what could she do? Continue to drag out her ignoble existence.

Intermediate Fishing, Intermediate Foraging, Advanced Sewing, Advanced Cooking. So many life skills in hand. She wanted to hoard grain, produce, recruit troops, build, and turn her land into an indestructible steel fort.

Translator Review: This is a lovely and relaxing “short” story about a woman in a gamified world. Of course some people die (this is a story with MMO mechanics and monsters) but overall it is quite an optimistic story. There is no time travel, there is no getting revenge, there is no betrayal from a significant other, in fact, the romance is close to none. The story is about people persevering in a novel world when facing unknown threats, and in the case of the main character, hoarding her way to success.

Chapter 1 Public Beta

With a crack, the transparent protective shield on the outside of the village suddenly split apart.

Xin Tong gripped her dagger tightly, secretly annoyed — in thirty more minutes, the beta would finish. Why did the safe zone have to be breached at this time?

The protective shield was broken, and the little monsters howled as they charged excitedly.

Xin Tong poked her head out to observe.

Ahead of her to the left, a Minotaur waved its mace, destroying a building in a few blows.

Ahead of her to her right, a player was unable to dodge in time, and was surrounded by a swarm of giant wasps. The tails shot in unison, and the player could only curse before they disappeared from the game.

Xin Tong knew that this player was eliminated.

“VR games have been around for five years, and I have never played a game more interesting and real survival game than “Apocalypse Calamity.” When invited to the beta, the system said if one could survive for a hundred days, the lucky player would receive unexpected and generous rewards. She had to survive!

Thinking of this, Xin Tong used the skill, “Swift Dash” and tried to go through the direction where there were fewer little monsters.

But after a few steps, a skeleton soldier blocked her path. She changed direction to where there were more monsters. Xin Tong gritted her teeth, and chose to fight her way through.

Ambush!

Venom Attack!

Fatal Blow!

She used all her attack skills in one go. The skeleton soldier was instantly killed.

Xin Tong did not stop, and continued to advance.

According to her original plan, she planned to break free of the soldiers chasing her, and survive until the countdown finished. But who knew that along the way, there were monsters everywhere.

Fire elementals, gargoyles, demons…a rich variety of monsters, and each one harder than the last. If she stopped, she could be surrounded, and then she would be finished. Thinking of this, Xin Tong continued to sprint.

There was the sound of a sudden wind behind her back.

Xin Tong’s heart jumped, and she stopped.

Just as she stopped, she saw a long spear land in the soil by her feet. The tail of the spear was swaying as it pierced the earth. It could be seen how much force the throw had.

“In other games, the players team together to fight monsters. In Apocalypse Calamity, it is always the monsters chasing the players,” Xin Tong muttered as she fled.

Time passed in seconds, and she encountered monsters all long the way. If they were just alone, she would kill them, but if they were in swarms, she would hide. But even so, her health points and mana points were dropping significantly.

After running for a long time, Xin Tong was tired and out of breath. Luckily, there were fewer and fewer monsters around her.

Xin Tong thought that she had found a corner that no one was in, and could finally rest. But when she just sat down by a tree, she saw a stone man three meters high appear in front of her.

There was a line of words above its head, [McDonald (Boss).]

Xin Tong was speechless.

Everyone knew the monsters in Apocalypse Calamity were divided in three levels, from low to high, it was normal, elite, and boss. A boss could be worth about seventeen or so normal monsters, and four or five elite monsters. Unless you formed a team, you could not win.

No wonder there were no other little monsters around, she had accidentally entered the territory of a boss…

So unlucky! It was better to be surrounded by normal monsters!

Xin Tong wanted to flee, but she had run too much, and did not have enough energy. On her stats window, there was even a negative state of “-40% movement speed.”

Knowing that she could not flee, she could just grip her dagger and face the enemy head on.

Ambush!

Her dagger hit the stone man, the shock causing Xin Tong’s hand to hurt. The boss moved its arm like nothing had happened, and threw her away.

Xin Tong fell to the ground, gritting her teeth and stubbornly getting up.

Venom Attack!

Fatal Blow!

The attacks were successful, but the boss did not react at all.

At the same time, Xin Tong had used up all her MP, and all her skills were in cooldown. She looked at the time. There were 14 minutes and 23 seconds left. Xin Tong was in despair and thought, the system was a liar! It was so difficult. Who could survive?

As she complained, the boss cast magic.

Time was slow, but right now, it was fast. Countless stone pieces the size of fists hit Xin Tong.

Xin Tong laid down, and avoided most of the attack. Then, she found a direction, and ran away.

While her body had a negative status, and she had low HP, while she felt she could not run away, but…

She refused to sit and die!

Pushing the bush aside, Xin Tong looked, and was choosing a path to flee when she saw a female player resting nearby. In this moment, she did not think more, and unconsciously shouted loudly, “Quick, run! There is a boss behind me!”

The other looked at her in shock, and then shook her head.

Weak! Giving up so quickly. Wasn’t the other letting down herself who had survived until now?!

Xin Tong could not even take care of herself, and was too lazy to persuade, so she ran on her own. After an unknown amount of time, her stamina reached zero. In the next moment, she was forced to stay where she was in order to rest.

Done for! Xin Tong showed despair.

The countdown was still going.

Ten minutes left.

Five minutes left.

Three minutes left.

The beta was about to finish, but the stone man did not come.

Strange, where was the boss? Xin Tong was very confused.

After resting for more than ten minutes, and recovering some stamina, she carefully walked back.

Not long after, she heard the sound of fighting. She immediately fell into a fighting stance, and carefully went forwards.

When Xin Tong got close, she was speechless. Nearby, the stone man was fighting a player.

Meteor Fall.

Fast Charge.

Heavy Blow.

The boss used all its moves to attack.

But the opponent was hiding behind a tower shield that was as tall as a person, and looked to be unharmed. Even more worrisome, that person held the shield with her left hand, and was taking all kinds of recovery foods from her bag to shove into her mouth with her right hand.

Xin Tong could see that the other’s bag and shield all had a faint purple light.

In Apocalypse Calamity, the equipment/tools were divided into four levels, white (normal), blue (premium), purple (rare), and orange (legendary).

The beta was only a hundred days. This person was not simple to have gotten rare equipment during this time. Much less take out a pile of recovery foods.

If she had enough recovery items, she would have been running around until the countdown ended. Would she have ended up a sorry state as she was in now?

In Apocalypse Calamity, recovery items were rare, and using potions constantly to heal did not exist. Xin Tong was thinking this but then saw the female player keep on taking out items. Most of them gave off blue light, a few purple light, and one with orange light.

With the help of the items, the situation was at a standstill. The boss used all its means but could not kill its opponent.

After ten minutes, the system sent a notice, [100,000 beta players, 10 survived. Congratulations for surviving.]

Xin Tong was speechless.

This one was the one who lost.

Unlike Xin Tong’s anxiousness, Yun Ling knew at the start she could survive. She had set up herself as a tank, primarily adding points to her MP, and had super high defense.

The canvas bag on her back was a rare equipment, and had eight slots, each of which could only hold 99 of the same item at most. Before the battle, she had prepared in her bag more than 200 blue, 30 green, and 2 orange recovery items.

Even more importantly, the opponent was a stone man. This kind of creature was famous for having high defense and low offense. The fights were usually endurance fights.

Bosses were very territorial and would not allow monsters from other races to be on its territory. Due to this, Yun Ling had come here, planning to waste time until the game was finished.

The truth proved her idea was correct. Just like she expected, she easily lived until the end.

As she thought this, the system announced, [You have finished the mission ‘Hundred Days Survival’, please choose three of the following four options as your reward.

1 * Lord Token. After use, you can create your own lands.

Retain your life skill levels.

S-level passive skill “Heart of Nature.” After learning, +200 HP, doubled healing effect.

Orange equipment “Armor of Heroes.” After wearing, +100 HP, -20% damage received.]

“I have four life skills, Intermediate Fishing, Intermediate Foraging, Advanced Sewing, and Advanced Cooking. If I keep my levels, I can create recovery items in mass, create an indestructible fort. That would be interesting.” Yun Ling thought and decided that choices 1 and 2 were necessary.

As to choices 3 and 4 …

“Skills are divided into four levels, C-rank, B-rank, A-rank and S-rank. S-rank skills are equal in value to orange equipment. But in the early stages of the game, +200 HP, and doubling of healing effects would mean stronger survival ability.”

So she selected choice 3.

After her selection, the system notified, [The beta is over.]

[In ten days, at 12:00 on April 1st, 3000, the game will officially open.]

[Players, please prepare in advance.]

Leaving the game, Yun Ling took off the VR full immersion helmet and rose to make a cup of oatmeal. The oatmeal came in a bag and was easy to cook. She would feel full after drinking a cup.

After resting for a while, Yun Ling put the helmet back on and logged onto another VR game.

After playing a while, she found it boring. Being used to Apocalypse Calamity’s style of danger at every step, she could not muster the interest in playing other games.

“I really hope April 1 will come quicker.”

April 1, 3000, Yun Ling went in the morning to buy the necessities for the week at the supermarket. Then she ate lunch early. At 11:30, she sat on her chair, and waited for the game to open.

Because it was not yet 12, so even though she logged onto the game, the screen just showed, “Apocalypse Calamity will open April 1st!”

She did not know what surprises the game would bring players after the public beta.

Yun Ling was full of anticipation.

11:45.

There were two lines of words in front of her, [Player receives 1 * Lord Token. Please follow the arrows to go to your territory.]

The game had not yet opened. How could she follow the arrows to go to her territory?

Yun Ling took off her helmet and planned to take a drink of tea. But when she got up, unexpectedly, she found the arrows were still in her sight, and were pointing accurately at the door.

Yun Ling glanced at the immersion helmet, and then at herself, her confusion growing. She had not logged into the game, so how could she see the arrows? Had she been so tired recently that she was having hallucinations?

She went to the door to get a cup of water. The arrows changed direction accordingly. What did not change was that they were still pointing at the door.

Would it…

Yun Ling had a bad feeling. She took her keys, locked the windows and door, and walked in the direction indicated by the arrow. After walking for seven minutes, on the empty ground behind her building, there was a hand-sized wood token floating in the air.

This was the reward that Yun Ling had chosen — the Lord Token!

Translator Ramblings: There’s quite a few MMO terms that come up. I think I managed to figure out which English terms correspond to which … …

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