ACIFITFDB – Chapter 1

Chapter 1: The Genuine First Release…

The air in the office was exceptionally heavy and sticky, carrying the scent of low-quality composite board from the renovation. Rows of expressionless people sat before rows of desks, the sounds of keyboards and mice clacking a constant rhythm, yet not a single word was spoken.

Qin Xian frowned, staring at the computer screen. Unfamiliar files, incomprehensible charts, and over 99 unread messages on WeChat were irritating him.

The computer screen flickered twice, then the page suddenly turned a vibrant red. Thick blood surged across the screen, the taskbar at the bottom submerged in tears of blood, and a ghostly hand emerged from an overturned trash can icon.

Qin Xian jolted backward, his chair sliding several centimeters across the floor with a sharp screech. The sound instantly jolted him awake. In the blink of an eye, everything around him returned to normal.

Hearing the noise, others turned their heads to glance at him. Seeing it was an unfamiliar colleague, they immediately turned back to their screens, continuing to tap their keyboards with numb resignation. Bright sunlight streamed onto the floor, and the air conditioner hummed loudly.

What was happening? Had he been in the Infinite Flow World for too long, making him mentally unstable? He had clearly cleared the game and returned to the real world.

“Hey, Qin Xian? Are you alright? Why is your face so pale, are you experiencing low blood sugar?”

The glasses-wearing male colleague sitting next to him offered a candy. Qin Xian looked up, and the colleague was instantly stunned.

Huh? Did Qin Xian’s hair always grow this long? And was he this good-looking? He vaguely remembered that while Qin Xian was decent-looking before, he always kept his head down, seemed reclusive, and wasn’t particularly noticeable.

But now… his features were refined and carried a cool demeanor. Even his frown was striking, though he appeared unapproachable.

The colleague stammered, “Um, do… do you want candy?”

Qin Xian lowered his gaze, trying to be polite as he had been in the past. “Thank you…”

But what was this person’s name again?

His impression of this job, this office, and all his colleagues here was already quite hazy. He only remembered that this lousy job often involved working from midnight to midnight, paid little, was demanding, and had idiotic bosses. If he hadn’t been desperate for money after graduating from university, he wouldn’t have stayed here.

Forget it, he’d just resign and leave tomorrow.

Qin Xian took the candy from his colleague, popped it into his mouth, leaned back against his chair, and pulled out his phone to slack off.

He had disappeared from this world for two years. He didn’t know how the Main God had managed to place him back two years later so seamlessly that even his colleagues hadn’t noticed any abnormality, and his workstation remained unchanged.

The colleague, slacking off so openly, widened his eyes in alarm. “Qin Xian, what are you doing? The surveillance cameras are on you! Slacking off during work hours will cost you four hundred!”

Qin Xian didn’t even lift his eyelids. “Deduct it.”

“What the heck, that’s four hundred yuan!”

“Four hundred? Doesn’t labor law apply here?”

“…But, uh, forget it. I don’t have the guts to go head-to-head with the company.” The colleague gave him a thumbs-up and immediately turned back to his computer.

But Qin Xian clearly saw that he was just sitting there staring blankly at the screen, typing a few words and then deleting them. A fake pop-up advertisement in the bottom right corner was even playing a TV show.

Clearly, he was a master of slacking off. The display of his computer was even slightly angled, causing a severe glare from the surveillance camera’s perspective.

Qin Xian refocused his attention on his phone. He had only been gone for two years, and he already couldn’t keep up with current internet slang and memes. Even watching short videos felt completely new.

For example, in a video he was watching now, the characters’ fingers stuck together as they moved. One second they were dancing, the next three heads merged into one… He’d heard it was the latest AI technology, but some of the results were similar to things he’d encountered in Eldritch dungeons.

“Everyone, gather in the conference room within three minutes!”

A gruff voice suddenly echoed throughout the entire office. The glasses-wearing colleague beside him jumped, and with a Win+D key combination, switched to the desktop.

“What’s going on? A meeting right before we get off work!?”

“Sigh… you get used to it.”

“I still need to pick up my child tonight.”

The colleagues listlessly stood up and ambled out of the office in twos and threes. Qin Xian picked up his phone and joined the crowd heading into the conference room. Everyone handed in their phones and took their seats. With the crowd gone, Qin Xian saw the “person” sitting opposite the long table. Qin Xian instinctively summoned his weapon, but there was nothing in his hand.

He calmly lowered his hand and found his seat with his colleagues, continuing to secretly observe the thing across the long table.

It was an abnormally fat person, slumped in a chair and gasping for breath. His excess flesh flowed onto the floor. A section of his belly fat had reached a colleague’s foot, but that colleague acted as if they saw nothing, lowering their head to organize their documents.

Qin Xian looked around. Apart from him, no one else in the conference room noticed anything unusual.

He clenched his fists, his brow furrowed tightly.

What was happening? Had he really not left the Infinite Flow World!? Was this another new dungeon? The damned Main God had tricked him!

“Qin Xian! Lift your head! I just saw it on the surveillance footage. You were openly playing on your phone during work hours. Stand up and reflect on yourself!”

Qin Xian looked up, his dark pupils locked onto General Manager Zhao, radiating killing intent.

General Manager Zhao shivered comically, his words caught in his throat by Qin Xian’s gaze.

“You… you… you’re not going to comply!?!? You’ve gone too far! Pack your things and leave tomorrow!”

He angrily slammed his hand on the table, his fleshy jowls making slapping sounds, leaving marks of sweat or grease on the tabletop.

“Oh, alright.” Qin Xian elegantly crossed his long legs, leaning back and speaking calmly, as if he were the highest authority in the office.

General Manager Zhao’s entire body trembled with rage. He slammed the table heavily, trying to stand up, but his swollen body caused him not only to fail to stand but also to sit down and break the metal chair entirely.

With a loud clang, he landed directly on the floor, his sparsely-haired head level with the tabletop.

The conference room fell silent for a few seconds, then someone snickered. With that as a start, the others couldn’t hold back their laughter.

“Hahaha…”

“You! You bunch of scoundrels… Your performance bonuses for this month are all deducted, completely deducted!!”

Some colleagues immediately panicked and rushed to help the fallen General Manager Zhao. But as soon as one reached out, Zhao grabbed him tightly by the collar.

“You laughed just now, didn’t you? I heard you! It was that mouth that laughed…”

He reached out and directly grabbed the colleague’s cheek.

The colleague, whose face was being held, immediately screamed. General Manager Zhao’s fingernails dug into the flesh of his face. His immense strength caused the skin around his mouth to slowly tear, splattering blood.

This time, the others finally clearly witnessed the terrifying scene. Some screamed in fear, some tried to rush out of the conference room, but the conference room door was locked, and they couldn’t push it open.

Just then, a figure suddenly leaped onto the conference table.

He placed his hands on the tabletop, kicked his long legs, and directly sent a kick towards General Manager Zhao’s face.

With just that one kick, the enormous General Manager Zhao, weighing over six hundred pounds, screamed and fell backward, smashing into the whiteboard, coffee table, and other clutter behind him.

The fat on General Manager Zhao’s body seemed to have absorbed most of the impact. Not long after falling, he angrily crawled up, roaring and scrambling on hands and feet towards the table, stretching his arms to try and grab Qin Xian. Facing such a slow attack, Qin Xian dodged slightly and, with one hand on the table, jumped down. He then kicked General Manager Zhao in the face again.

The sound of breaking bones and muffled screams coincided. The others couldn’t help but shiver.

General Manager Zhao’s face caved in. He screamed, trying to grab Qin Xian’s foot, but Qin Xian’s attack was unhesitating. He lifted his foot and stomped on Zhao’s hands as well, not stopping even as his hand bones made horrifying cracking sounds.

After a few kicks, General Manager Zhao’s massive body rapidly shrank, returning to normal human size.

He covered his head with his twisted hands and rolled on the ground, his nose bridge collapsed, several teeth knocked out, and his face covered in blood, unable to scream anymore.

Qin Xian glanced at him coldly, picked up a nearby vase, and smashed it onto him again. The vase shattered with a bang. He selected the sharpest piece and, holding it high, was about to stab it towards General Manager Zhao’s neck.

“Don’t, Qin Xian! You can’t actually kill anyone!!” an urgent voice rang out.

Qin Xian turned his head and saw the glasses-wearing colleague, who had been sitting next to him, had left his seat and was standing beside him, trembling.

Seeing that he had stopped, the glasses-wearing colleague continued urgently, “Killing is still against the law. You might go to jail for this, it’s not worth it!”

Qin Xian’s eyes gave him a cold glance. He turned and continued to stab viciously with the shard. The shard pierced General Manager Zhao’s neck, creating a wound so deep it exposed bone.

“Ah!! Someone’s been killed!”

The colleague’s scream sounded, but Qin Xian, who had just killed someone, calmly stood up, casually tossed the blood-stained shard aside, and walked towards the others.

His murderous aura terrified the colleagues in the conference room, who surged towards the door, frantically trying to open it and escape.

“Ahhh! Don’t kill me, don’t kill me!”

“Help! Someone’s dead! Someone open the door outside!”

“Hey.” Qin Xian called out speechlessly, but no one paid him any attention.

He sighed and slammed the ashtray on the table onto the floor. With a bang, the colleagues jumped and looked over, huddled together in fear.

Looking at his colleagues, who had cowered like quail, Qin Xian sneered and pointed behind him, saying, “You guys take a look for yourselves if that thing is human.”

A bold colleague peeked over. On the floor lay the corpse of General Manager Zhao, now swollen, his skin covered in lividity and emitting a foul odor. Maggots were even crawling from the wound just cut on his neck, looking nothing like someone who had just died.

The stench immediately assaulted everyone’s eyes and noses, and the sound of vomiting filled the entire office.

Qin Xian silently stepped back, watching the surrounding world slowly blur, as if it were disappearing.

This was it, the dungeon was cleared?

After a moment of dizziness, Qin Xian opened his eyes and found himself still sitting at his workstation. The time on the wall showed 6:00 PM.

He looked around. The other colleagues also came to their senses, but their expressions were confused and dazed, clearly having no memory of the events that had just transpired.

What was going on? Was this reality or a dungeon?

Qin Xian frowned, sensing his surroundings, but that monster from before seemed to be the source of the anomaly.

With his skill level, he should only encounter high-difficulty dungeons. But the eldritch entity he had just encountered was practically beginner-level, something ordinary people could beat to death with a few blows…

Could there be some sort of trap?

Author’s Note:

———————-

Pre-order: “Help! My Strong and Beautiful Teammate is Actually the Game Boss! [Holo]”

Synopsis: In 2045, China’s truly holographic game was launched.

The physical sensations were almost indistinguishable from reality, the landscapes were grand and breathtaking, and the cultivation experience was extremely realistic, even the NPCs were like real people.

Jiang Zhige opened his eyes and looked down at the illusory yet real world beneath his feet. He knew clearly that he had once been a cultivator who had broken through the void. But now, he was the hidden final boss of this game.

In the past, cultivators could not enter the mortal world. But now, in this interesting world, why not play a game with these mortals called “players”?

————

Mu Hucheng, as one of the first players to enter the game, began exploring and leveling up, looking for people to form a team.

While fighting monsters above his level, he encountered a player wearing novice gear, who was both beautiful and powerful, staring at his tiger ears.

Mu Hucheng immediately smiled: How about it? Want to touch them? Add me as a friend?

The beautiful cultivator smiled and accepted the request, joining the team to clear all sorts of dungeons.

However, during one particular dungeon, the settlement screen took a long time to appear.

Just as Mu Hucheng was about to contact the GM, he saw his beautiful teammate slowly walk to a high position. A terrifying aura suppressed the entire scene. Jiang Zhige drew his sword and pointed at them, smiling faintly: “Because, only by defeating me, will this dungeon be considered cleared.”

——-

Tropes/Cuteness:

1. The protagonist (Shou) is the strongest, and no one can restrain or threaten him from beginning to end, including the “game world” and the human world. The gong (Gong) is also a top expert in the game. Su Su Su protagonist!

2. The gong’s game character is a demon, a tiger, with round tiger ears usually, and can transform into beast form! This is the author’s favorite trope, and most of the author’s works feature this!