Chapter One: The Uncrowned Player Found a Crown

The Crown settled onto his character's head by itself. Its chill crossed the neural headset and touched his real brow. A moment later, crimson swallowed the interface and alarms thundered through all twelve regions. [GLOBAL EVENT ACTIVATED: HUNT THE WINNER.] [TARGET LOCATED: TWELFTH REGION, CEMETERY OF THE UNCROWNED.] [DEFEAT THE CROWN BEARER TO INHERIT ALL OF THE TARGET'S REAL-WORLD WEALTH AND ALL QUANTIFIABLE TALENTS.] [CURRENT TARGET VALUE—WEALTH: ¥37.52. TALENTS: TACTICAL SIMULATION A+, DYNAMIC VISION B, PAIN TOLERANCE S.] Lin Jin nearly laughed at the miserable thirty-seven yuan and fifty-two cents. Then the player count began to climb. Three hundred and twenty-one. Ten thousand. One hundred thousand. One point seven million.