From Eden

Chapter 1 Arrival

"Oh, It's troublesome, it's offline again."

The dim vision gradually receded as Joshua sighed, unconsciously rubbing his forehead. Muttering under his breath, he complained,

"I should have live-streamed with the studio using a dedicated network connection. The 1-gigabit broadband in the rental house is too unstable; it fluctuates when the viewers exceed 50,000."

Being a full-time streamer is no easy task, even for those who stream the immensely popular game "Eden." While they may have a large following, only a little manage to truly monetize their presence in the streaming world.

"Ugh, I'm 200 hours short on my streaming goal this month. Spent two hours dealing with connection problems and reconnecting, had to restart the streaming software. Looks like another night of overtime and staying up late."

"Eden is an awesome game, but it's a pain when it comes to those ever-updating streaming plugins. They just don't play nice, or sometimes not at all. Doesn't matter if it's Tictalk, Titch, Liveham, or even CLive, all those streaming plugins are useless against Eden's system. Network crashes are basically a daily thing."

Joshua live-streamed for a long time, pouring all his efforts into building his current work environment, which has led to his career achievements.

At the moment, he's likely in the game's cockpit, syncing his consciousness and data through neural connections. It's a lengthy process. Normally, it wouldn't matter, but for Joshua, it was the golden hour for streaming. Missing this time means a significant drop in viewership.

The initial excitement from entering the game has faded as he became more professional. Sometimes, Joshua thinks back to those carefree days in the summer, playing and hanging out with friends without a care in the world.

As life pressures increase, many people gradually stop playing games and turn to reading novels and watching short videos. Even Joshua can't guarantee that he would still love "Eden" as much as before if it weren't for the income from his streaming career.

"Neural connections established, tactile templates activated."

With the neural connection activated, Joshua no longer thinks about trivial matters.

"Eden," which emphasizes immersion, rarely displays visual effects like game interfaces. There are no loading prompts; instead, it gradually releases sensory stimuli to continuously enhance the player's adaptation to entering the game.

That's why every time there is a network fluctuation causing game disconnection, reconnecting takes a long time.

Joshua was anxious, but at the moment he could only follow the progress of the game.

As a veteran player of "Eden" and a master of the "Skyfall Mage" class, he quickly adjusts his mindset and calms himself down, following the official tips to speed up neural connections.

"Empty your mind and gradually sense your own body."

"Start with the fingertips, continuously attempting to move."

"Imprint in your mind the sensation of the airflow brushing against your skin, constantly contemplating and enhancing your understanding of it."

This technique has always been effective, and from the vast expanse of the virtual void, his senses become increasingly sharp and real.

The warm sunlight, the discomfort of ill-fitting clothes, the burning pain on the forehead from a wound, blood flowing out as the veins burst...

"Huh? What's going on? Sunlight? Wound? Ill-fitting clothes?"

Joshua is confused. He vividly remembers exploring the high-risk map, "Ethereal Manor," before getting disconnected. It was completely dark there, with no sunlight at all.

But it's possible that the system's offline protection sent him back to a nearby human colony on a habitable planet. If there's sunlight, it's probably the artificial sun of the "Valkyrie Fortress".

The wound makes sense; other players were likely attacking him. After all, he's a somewhat famous streamer, and it's normal for fans and viewers to want interaction when they see him.

What puzzles Joshua is the ill-fitting clothes.

That's impossible.

His specially tailored "Dream of Heartsteel" mage robe, made from Void Dragon leather, would never fit as poorly as a warrior's armor.

Also, the texture of the clothes on his body feels completely different from the soft and comfortable mage robe he remembers. It's more like the low-quality synthetic material he wore in the early stages as a newbie.

"This is odd. Did one of my viewers play a prank on me?"

As his body and awareness gradually synchronize, even though Joshua's vision is blurry, he regains control of his body. He immediately notices that he is slumped on the ground, with something heavy pressing against him, vaguely resembling a human shape.

Without hesitation, Joshua instinctively tries to push it away. As a level 500 "Skyfall Mage," the sheer level difference alone is enough to push aside a "Magellan"-class interstellar battleship.

But when his hand touches the human-shaped thing, his weak and floppy hand feels a bit of pain as he tries to push it. And damn, it feels heavy and blocking, making his face freeze.

"What the heck is going on? Did I get hit with some 'Weakness' debuff after getting killed six times in a row?"

Joshua furrowed his brow. The thing is pressing right on his chest and stomach, making it hard to breathe. If this keeps up, he's gonna start "suffocating."

He starts shaking his body like crazy, and after a while, he finally manages to shove the damn thing off him.

Thud.

The thing is lying there, face-up. Joshua sits up and takes a glance, and bam, the neural connection syncs up perfectly. His eyes focus, and he quickly takes in the other person's appearance.

Some white dude, tall and buff, rocking a light blue security uniform. But there are no signs of life. The name "Lanny Johns" is written on the badge.

"Seriously, who still wears old-school clothes like this? That's some prehistoric stuff right there. Even the freaking beta version didn't have this crap."

Joshua muttered to himself. It's just a dead body, no biggie. No need to stress over it.

Back when he was grinding materials, he must have crawled in and out of the bloody mess at the "Demon Academy" like a thousand times or something.

He checks out his outfit: rocking the same blue security uniform with a flashlight on his waist. And hey, there's some blood on his forehead and cheeks. He touches it and realizes it's just a minor cut on his temple, nothing major.

"Not only did they hit me with 'Weakness,' but they also dumped me on some random newbie planet. Who the hell pulled this prank?"

Joshua rips off a piece of the guard's clothing without hesitation to stop his bleeding. And hey, he grabs the guard's rubber baton as a weapon while he's at it.

"Who knows where the hell they dropped me? Gotta find a mirror and activate the system."

Joshua mutters to himself and starts moving fast. But as soon as he takes a few steps, he realizes something's off.

He turns his head, squinting in the afternoon sunlight, and carefully checks out the security guard's body, focusing on the badge.

"Lanny Johns, no wonder I know you. Turns out you're from the Blue Star civilization."

Joshua pauses for a moment, then his eyes paired:

"This is the 0.0 version, the newbie planet of the Frost Kingdom players—Blue Star."

"No way, are you kidding me? Didn't Blue Star get blasted by the Galactic Empire in Version 5?!"

"Five years ago, I saw with my own eyes the explosion of the Blue Star. Over fifty thousand people watched that mind-blowing scene on livestream. The planet shattered, the sky crumbled, and it slowly melted into magma under the firepower of the 'Dallas' starship. The civilization was wiped out in flames and radiation, and in the end, the whole damn planet turned into debris, consumed by a massive celestial body..."

"And the craziest part? I blew up that frickin' Blue Star!"