The BUG Deity

Episode 3:Arcade World

“Identity confirmed! Hello, student Chen Xingyu. Do you have any questions?”

“Uh, I...” Chen Xingyu was startled by the sudden electronic voice. He turned to see a barrel-shaped robot, straight out of a sci-fi movie, speaking to him.

“Um, I was a bit startled and suddenly forgot where my dorm is. Could you show me the way?” Chen Xingyu was cautious, fearing that revealing too much might expose him. Since he was a student in this high-tech world, he should indeed have a dorm here.

“Sure, student Chen Xingyu. Please follow me.” The robot, with no hint of emotion, walked ahead, signaling Chen Xingyu to follow.

On a silver-white metallic street, Chen Xingyu was once again startled as the street began to move. But he maintained a calm expression, pretending that this was a common occurrence. Given the situation, it was fortunate that everyone recognized him and mistook him for another Chen Xingyu. Everything was so unfamiliar to him that he decided to keep his words to a minimum until he understood this world better.

Arriving at his luxurious single dormitory, Chen Xingyu was amazed by the opulence. The dorm was enormous, almost like a mansion, with a volume of over a thousand cubic meters.

Click!

The door opened with a soft sound, followed by an electronic synthesized voice.

“Ding! Full body scan, deep genetic and nanometer level, no artificial modification traces detected, identity confirmed. Welcome back, Master!”

The sudden activity no longer startled Chen Xingyu. He realized that this was high-tech—he had thought that retinal scans on old Earth were advanced, but here, it was a full-body genetic scan with an intelligent program. “Uh, in the future, just open the door without speaking if I don’t call you,” Chen Xingyu instructed, stepping confidently into the luxurious dorm that belonged to someone else.

“Understood, Master,” the AI responded, falling silent.

Chen Xingyu, adaptable by nature, explored the dorm with curiosity. After half an hour of discovering everything, he finally felt he had had his fill. Clearing his throat, he asked, “AI, are you there?”

“Master, do you have any commands?”

“Yeah, please change your voice to a sweet, loli tone, and call me ‘Onii-chan’. This basic knowledge seems to be missing from your design,” Chen Xingyu said, noting that the AI had recognized him as the master. He decided to exploit his privileges to the fullest, enjoying the loli voice setting—a feature reminiscent of Japanese anime.

“Onii-chan, got it~,” the AI, demonstrating its high intelligence, immediately switched to a cutesy tone, recognizing Chen Xingyu’s nature.

“By the way, what can I do normally? What should I do after graduation? What is the general background of humanity?” Chen Xingyu asked a series of questions, wanting to understand the detailed background of this world through the AI.

The AI, lacking emotional settings and suspicion, answered all the seemingly trivial questions patiently, helping Chen Xingyu quickly grasp the status and position of the human race in the universe.

This world could be Earth in the thirty-second century or a similar parallel world. What mattered was that it was a highly advanced technological world. In summary, it was a grand era of the universe, where countless unknown star systems had already been explored by humanity, and thousands of alien species had been confirmed and made contact. Humanity’s position as the supposed rulers of the universe faced significant threats.

The universe was filled with various alien species living in other star systems, some of which were indifferent or subtly hostile towards humanity. But for Chen Xingyu, who was still a small fry, these didn’t concern him much, especially since he wasn’t a native of this world.

What excited Chen Xingyu the most was that as an ordinary Earth citizen in the human faction, he could spend his days playing games and living a carefree life. He felt a sense of relief and a tinge of sympathy for his old classmates who had worked so hard. Here, humanity could afford to play games all day.

Of course, it wasn’t entirely a matter of idling away, as playing games was the primary way for humans to enhance their abilities. The most diligent people used games to improve their combat awareness and gain substantial combat experience. This was why the educational system encouraged students to tackle various games, experiencing harsh battlefield environments in the process. The core idea was that playing games could also strengthen players' physical bodies through technological means, allowing them to achieve god-like powers. Although Chen Xingyu didn’t fully grasp concepts like dream influence on reality or energy manifestation theories, he understood that playing games was a path to becoming stronger, akin to a future version of the Master God Space.

The Master God Space, and it wasn’t even a space that wiped out players. Chen Xingyu was thrilled at the prospect of finding a shortcut to becoming stronger. He wasn’t afraid of anyone when it came to playing games.

Moreover, he was particularly excited to discover that many of the games in the system were familiar to him from the 21st century. The system contained countless games, many of which were copies of classic games from his past Earth. For convenience, most of the lower-level games had been directly copied from 21st-century classics. Hence, the game he had experienced, “Castle of Evil,” was based on a game he had played before called “Castlevania.” The demonic language and low-level demons he encountered were pre-set program features.

Although “Castle of Evil” seemed daunting, it was just a low-level game used by the system to train new players. The design and bugs in it were minimal, as there was no need for the system to spend resources on modifications.

This was an opportunity!

In Chen Xingyu’s view, knowing the game’s details and bugs provided a significant advantage. Before diving into more advanced games with higher realism and fewer bugs, he could use the knowledge of game flaws to gain substantial benefits. While others had to rely on luck to figure out the games, Chen Xingyu, with his knowledge of game names and features, could prepare himself better.

Understanding the general situation of this world, Chen Xingyu was eager to start gaming and make a big impact. Before that, he needed to gather his thoughts and confirm his situation. He vaguely remembered the system had mentioned something after he exited the game, possibly asking if he wanted to exit or noting a D-rank score and 2 experience points.

Feeling a bit embarrassed by the D-rank score, Chen Xingyu reflected on how, despite being a professional gamer in his past life and unbeatable at arcade and console games, he had performed poorly. Although the games here were more advanced, the basic principles remained the same, and he shouldn’t have performed so poorly.

“This was just because I didn’t know it was a game. If I had known the name ‘Castle of Evil,’ I wouldn’t have performed so badly,” Chen Xingyu reasoned. His fear of death and sudden environmental changes had significantly affected his performance. Despite this, he had been quite brave and had fought fiercely against the final boss.

Looking at his reflection in the mirror, Chen Xingyu sighed. The person he had inhabited in this world seemed to be a failure, which explained the disdain from others. Player levels represented strength, and now he was at the lowest tier.

However, leveling up was no easy task. Most students were also at the lowest player level but had better game potential and hopes of advancing. A one-star player was considered extraordinary, with strength far exceeding ordinary citizens. But Chen Xingyu’s host was far from reaching even this level, with only three experience points, two of which he had just gained. The disparity between his current performance and the average player's performance was glaring.

Chen Xingyu was frustrated, lamenting the poor game talent of his host, and resolved to make a big impact in the game world. With his knowledge and experience, he was determined to turn things around.

Feeling worn out after the intense experience and gaining a better understanding of the world, Chen Xingyu relaxed and soon fell into a deep sleep, exhausted from the ordeal.