Wen City, Special Office of the Cultural Bureau.

  The night outside the window was deep, but the office remained brightly lit.

  Knock, knock, knock—

  "Come in."

  A young woman, who had been hunched over her desk, raised her head. Her jet-bck hair was tied into a high ponytail, revealing a delicate oval face.

  A petite, beautiful girl with short hair pushed the door open and locked it behind her.

  The short-haired girl leaned in close to the woman’s ear and whispered:

  "Team Leader Li, Agent Zero has sent word…"

  "He’s gathered intel on the target… Also, after this mission, he’s requesting to withdraw from undercover operations."

  The woman referred to as Team Leader Li froze for a moment before sighing in understanding.

  "Well, Agent Zero isn’t an Apostle, after all. Undercover work like this puts his life at constant risk."

  Team Leader Li undid her ponytail, letting her hair cascade down smoothly. Rubbing her temples with slender, pale fingers, she looked visibly exhausted.

  "Tsk, we’re really short-handed… By the way, have any of the new recruits next door shown promise?"

  The short-haired girl moved behind the office chair, gently repcing Team Leader Li’s fingers with her own as she massaged her temples. "There’s one named Lin Xun. He’s got plenty of gaming experience, and his soul strength meets the game’s requirements. With some guidance, he should be able to enter the game soon."

  "Should we recruit him directly?"

  Team Leader Li closed her eyes in rexation, leaning back against the short-haired girl’s ft chest. "Let’s observe him for a few more days…"

  The short-haired girl continued massaging for a while before finally leaving the office.

  ---

  Late at night, in a shabby rented apartment.

  Lin Xun lifted his hands from the keyboard, nodding in satisfaction at the screen.

  "Good, this plotline didn’t colpse."

  He clicked "Publish Chapter" and called it a day!

  Stretching, his joints cracked loudly.

  "Four thousand words really is the human limit. The ancients didn’t lie."

  After graduating, Lin Xun had joined the ranks of countless corporate sves, enduring the brutal 9-9-6 grind.

  Worn down by life, he resolutely chose to take the civil service exam, applying for a clerical position at the Cultural Bureau.

  Why? Because he wanted to be a scker—a 9-to-5 job with weekends off.

  After breezing through the written exam, he attended the interview this morning.

  And, as expected, the unexpected happened. Judging by the interviewers’ expressions, he’d probably bombed it.

  Fortunately, he had a side gig—writing web novels.

  Though, as a struggling author, his earnings were meager, barely enough to scrape by.

  Lin Xun pulled out his phone and opened a familiar game—Honor of Kings.

  Gaming was the natural follow-up after finishing his writing.

  Sleep? What kind of young person didn’t stay up te cultivating immortality?

  After a while, Lin Xun barely resisted the urge to throw his phone, exiting the game in frustration.

  Every match had been pgued by terrible teammates. Even though he was the MVP every time, he couldn’t carry hard enough to 1v9. The ELO system had ruthlessly handed him loss after loss.

  "Time for a new game. If I py Honor of Kings again, I’ll be a struggling writer forever!" Grumbling, he opened the app store.

  At the top of the game rankings was a title he’d never heard of—The Book of Salvation.

  The Book of Salvation? He hadn’t seen any ads for it recently.

  As a hardcore gamer—well-versed in mobile, PC, and console games—Lin Xun always pre-ordered major releases.

  Without overthinking it, he tapped to download and install, then started the game.

  The screen dispyed a heavy, ornate book.

  Its cover was extraordinarily vish, likely made of pure gold, with dazzling light swirling across its surface. Gems of various colors adorned its edges, and strange, alien script was engraved at its center.

  An invisible hand turned the page…

  On the yellowed parchment, lines of ink text appeared one by one.

  [Preface]

  [There lies a nd called "Gaia," a fertile homend flowing with milk and honey, a divine kingdom said to have been established by a great existence.]

  [Here, the radiance of divine favor is omnipresent.]

  [But at some unknown time, a tome known as The Book of Salvation began circuting in the world. Prophecies of the homend’s destruction spread like wildfire, plunging its people into terror.]

  [They sought to decipher The Book of Salvation, searching for clues to avert the impending apocalypse.]

  [The chapters within recorded horrifying, disparate doomsdays. Ordinary readers would often lose their sanity, descending into madness.]

  [Only those one-in-a-million blessed by the gods could enter the apocalyptic scenarios foretold in the book, exploring their origins.]

  [They were regarded as saviors; they were called Apostles.]

  [And you—you are one of them!]

  [Please create your soul imprint.]

  A text-based game?

  No stunning animations, no moving background music—just lines of simple text appearing one after another.

  Lin Xun was convinced this game had bought its way to the top of the rankings.

  The only interesting part was the promise of "exploring horrifying, disparate doomsdays."

  Suppressing his impatience, he continued.

  [Please create your soul imprint.]

  An input box appeared on the screen—for his in-game ID. Without hesitation, Lin Xun typed in his usual gaming handle and pen name.

  [Swordsmith]

  [Soul imprint successfully created!]

  [Click to turn the page and enter the chapter.]

  The pages rustled as they turned, the thick book seemingly endless…

  [You have entered an apocalyptic chapter.]

  [Chapter 323]

  [In a dipidated church, a weak wandering soul from another world slowly awakens.]

  [Pale moonlight filters through the broken dome of the church, faintly illuminating the heavy, oppressive clouds in the night sky. A bitter wind howls like the roar of demons from the abyss.]

  [New Apostle, feeble wandering soul, Swordsmith—you have awakened.]

  [The church appears to have been the site of a brutal massacre. The scene is one of bloody chaos, with dozens of corpses strewn about, most torn apart like ragged dolls, their forms barely human.]

  [As you look around, you find only three retively intact bodies.]

  [The shell of a Guardian Knight—a robust young knight. Ferocious cw marks tore through the cross sword he used to block and the chest pte of his armor, gutting him. Clearly, he did not die peacefully. Compatibility: 88%]

  [The shell of a Bck-Robed Priest—an elderly priest with a hunched posture, clutching a prayer book tightly to his chest. His lips were stained crimson, and the ground before him was spttered with what appeared to be his own organs. His insides were likely hollowed out. Compatibility: 79%]

  [The shell of a Choir Sister—a young, beautiful nun. The lower half of her body was covered in blood, filthy and defiled. Her face was twisted in despair, two trails of bloody tears streaking down her cheeks. Her tragic state reminded you of a saintess rescued from a goblin cave. Compatibility: 72%]

  [Apostle, please choose the shell you wish to possess. Of course, you may also refuse and continue your exploration in your feeble wandering soul form.]

  Why does this game’s description text sound so sarcastic?

  Lin Xun frowned slightly, deep in thought.

  "Right now, this is probably the initial css selection," he mused. "Starting by possessing a corpse is a pretty novel concept. But what does ‘compatibility’ mean…?"

  Judging by the text, he guessed it might refer to how well his soul aligned with the body.

  In games, Lin Xun always leaned toward mage csses. The three corpses before him—knight, priest, nun—likely corresponded to warrior, mage, and healer roles.

  Without hesitation, he selected the Bck-Robed Priest.

  [Your soul’s compatibility with this shell is below 80%. Possession failed.]

  Of the three corpses, only the knight had compatibility above 80%, reaching 88%.

  "You give me three corpses to choose from but only let me pick the melee css? Even zombies would take one look at this game designer’s head and sigh in disappointment before walking away."

  With no other choice, Lin Xun reluctantly selected the knight.

  [The feeble wandering soul has possessed the shell of the Guardian Knight.]

  [You have taken control of this unfamiliar body. Fragments of the knight’s memories remain within.]

  [These memories are fragmented, but you glean a glimpse of this world’s background.]

  [The gods said, "Let there be light," and so there was light. The children of the gods lived and multiplied within its warmth, and the light became their faith.]

  […The emergence of the Corrupting Blood Sun tainted this faith. The eternal sun in the sky was stained by a corrupting force, turning a sinister crimson, as if soaked in blood. Walking beneath the Blood Sun, even the most devout followers of the Divine Light would degenerate into grotesque demons.]

  [Divine edicts ceased to appear. The gods had abandoned their children… The ancient kingdom’s state religion—the Church of Divine Light—fractured. As a Guardian Knight of the White Moon Church, purging the corrupted followers of the Blood Sun was your creed. But tonight, the victory belonged to those fallen believers.]

  [The fragmented memories end here.]

  "This is getting more interesting. According to the knight’s memories, the apocalypse in this world was caused by the sun being tainted by something unknown. Sunlight… maybe radiation? It mutates people into monsters." Lin Xun stroked his chin, deep in thought.

  [Unlike your feeble wandering soul, the knight’s robust body fills you with tangible physical strength.]

  [You clench your fists, surging power coursing through your limbs. You feel invincible, unstoppable.]

  [Brave Apostle, will you push open the church doors and explore the origin of this apocalypse?]

  It seemed the body he’d possessed was quite powerful—a decent start.

  Though he hadn’t gotten his mage, Lin Xun was at least somewhat consoled.

  Eagerly, he tapped to push open the doors.

  [The howling wind had died down at some point. The eerie creak of the doors opening pierced the silent night.]

  [The noise caught the attention of a certain monster…]

  [Outside the church doors, a grotesque creature turned abruptly, its crimson eyes locking onto you.]

  [You were attacked. The grievous wounds on your chest and abdomen left you defenseless.]

  [In your dazed state, you noticed the deformed monster seemed to be wearing church attire, a gring red sun embzoned on its chest.]

  [You died!]

  The phone screen dispyed a rge, bloody word—DEAD.

  ???

  Lin Xun stared at it, certain the word actually spelled "NOOB."

  What happened to "invincible" and "unstoppable"?

  No css choice, an instant death upon opening the door—even Hidetaka Miyazaki knew to give pyers a starting gift. This game was downright sadistic.

  "Just a masochistic high-difficulty game, huh? You think I’ll give up that easily?"

  For some reason, the challenge excited him.

  Muttering compints, he continued pying.

  [Your first death has earned you the favor of The Book of Salvation.]

  [You have obtained ‘Soul Page.’]

  [You open your eyes to find yourself reborn as a wandering soul in the ruined church. The scene is identical to before, with one exception—the knight’s corpse is gone, leaving only two intact bodies.]

  "Wait, is this item the starter pack?"

  Lin Xun noticed two new options on the screen:

  [Inventory] and [Reshape Shell]

  [Would you like to reshape the ‘Guardian Knight’ shell?]

  [Reshaping this shell consumes 1 Soul Strength. Current Soul Strength: 2/2.]

  [An Apostle’s Soul Strength recovers by 1 every 12 hours. Use it wisely.]

  As a seasoned gamer, Lin Xun immediately understood—spending Soul Strength to reshape a shell was like using a revive token.

  He didn’t rush to reshape the knight. Instead, he opened his inventory, where the newly acquired ‘Soul Page’ was stored.

  He checked the item description.

  [Soul Page]

  [A blessing bestowed upon new Apostles by The Book of Salvation. Using it unlocks the Apostle’s soul talent.]

  "Ah, the thrilling blind box moment!" Lin Xun was pumped.

  Just as he was about to use the item, he felt something in his hand.

  When he looked down, his hair stood on end, goosebumps erupting across his skin!

  GacticNovels