Chapter 58: Rebinding and Establishing a New Home

Driving to the city center, Huatian arrived once again at the game watch store. After stating his purpose, he attempted to hand over his old game watch, but was told it wasn’t necessary. Then, he took out the new, premium game watch.

Faced with dozens of game watches, he found himself at a loss, unsure which one to choose for binding. The elegant, uniformed staff explained, “Young man, all these watches come with lifetime warranty and replacement. As long as they’re the same model, you can swap as you like. We only need your fingerprint to retrieve your personal save files.

Those game watches priced at ten thousand—the ones you originally used—require that exact watch. Switching to another means starting fresh; either you replay from scratch, or you bring back the original watch to log in again. If it’s unusable or broken, we’re sorry, but there’s nothing we can do!”

Huatian immediately understood, “So, it’s not that a better game watch will make the gaming experience superior!”

But the next sentence made him feel awkward.

“That’s not quite it. With a premium watch, when entering the game…”

“You can repeatedly obtain permanent fivefold coin bonuses and a single bonus to forging experience for free. As for the 100% drop rate, you must log in for seven consecutive days to claim an hour of increased drops. I’m not sure about skill proficiency—whether it’s boosted or not. The ten-thousand-yuan game watch offers no bonuses, just the privilege to play. Considering how quickly players earn money, you could pay off the cost of the watch in a day with a bit of luck! Isn’t that what happened with you? You’ve made enough to buy dozens of premium watches—now you’re venting your frustration!”

“By the way, young man, what level are you now?”

“Me? I’m level 39—almost 40!”

“What? With no bonuses? How could you level up so fast? I’m only level 30 myself. What gear and skills do you have?”

“…”

“Could you not ask so many questions? I’m pressed for time; I need to train this afternoon!”

“Oh, sorry, I got carried away!”

He transferred his virtual personal information to the representative premium watch in the store, preparing to rebind his personal data and fingerprint. The staff hurriedly called him over to explain,

“Log in with your old watch—only to the login interface. Don’t actually go online! Otherwise, the process will fail and you’ll have to wait another day.”

“Then, between the two white jade pillars, a black hole will appear for ten seconds. Walk into it before it disappears and you’ll enter information transfer mode. The process is irreversible; after an hour, it’s considered fully upgraded and binding is complete!”

When Huatian arrived at the site, he found himself surrounded by darkness. After waiting a minute, he saw light ahead and heard a phantom staff member nearby, worried he might secretly log in, say,

“Young man, do you see the luminous hole ahead? It holds your extra rewards. Good rewards can grant great items—a sort of compensation from the ‘Game’s Official Father’ for us civilian players!”

“Well, I’m gone now, back to the real world! May you get something wonderful…” The female voice gradually faded.

Huatian quickly swam toward the light and found eight jade box-like reward chests—apparently, he had to choose and guess himself!

He had thought it would be another strange challenge. He chuckled.

Staring at the reward chests, he made a bold decision: he glanced toward the deepest point in the void, wondering if passing them up might earn him even greater rewards ahead.

He stepped outside the reward range, and the surroundings changed. He found himself in a familiar place, but now only eight white pillars stood—no black pillars. Facing him was a massive bronze gate, inscribed with “Last Chance: Enter and your rewards are gone; it’s not too late to turn back now.”

If leaving now meant losing everything, had he gone too far in showing off?

Well, since he’d already shown off, why not do it again!

Without looking back, he pushed open the gate and stepped through, entering a star-filled realm.

Above him, a sudden voice said,

“You’ve arrived!”

Huatian recognized the female voice—it was all too familiar. She’d once made him dizzy—had she ever done anything to him?

“…Why didn’t you claim those rewards? They represent all eight of your future world-saving mission rewards. If you’d taken them, you wouldn't have to work so hard next time.”

Huatian realized—so those were future rewards for his world-saving quests! Just eight of them—he really had overdone it.

“But…”

Huatian sensed a twist was coming.

“You did the right thing by not taking them!”

He watched her gaze into the starry sky. Though transparent, she embodied a wild, unmoving yet deadly charm.

“Because… Could you stop thinking those odd thoughts about men and women? I can hear you!”

“…”

“Because if you’d claimed them all now, it would mean starting immediately—your growth isn’t enough yet; you’d surely die. When you naturally reach the tenth reward, it’ll be the true life-and-death trial—a test of survival against outsiders, and this time, you might actually die!”

“Senior, are you the one Little Black Dragon spoke of?”

“Yes, I am the ‘her’ Little Black Dragon mentioned. Across billions of years, I’ve witnessed countless lives—glories rising and fading, achievements amidst ruins. Each time someone emerges, another falls, sometimes due to the powers behind them. Life springs forth, and in the end, death sweeps the world.”

“You can think of me as the ‘Game’s Official Father’ you just heard in reality. As for your real-world game, it’s the root of all this. You must use all your time to grow stronger, understand the original cause, and leaving Phantom Wave Star is only your first step. Whatever it takes, you must find the true Mystical Cloud Continent and use the power of time to solve the answers you uncover. The current outsider is just a minor trouble. His father was once the weak new leader of a small race—how did he grow so powerful? There’s an incredible cause behind it! You need to find out!”

“These words are your greatest reward and goal. Since this is our true first meeting, I’ll give you—this. Afterward, we won’t meet again; if we do, it means the beginning has come. You might wonder why I chose you—it’s because in the game world, you spoke of the second matter: Little Black Dragon’s mother came to your side, and you are the only one to witness her descendants. There’s another matter… In short, the fate of the planet depends on you; we cannot intervene.”

After she finished, the dazed Huatian found himself back in the real world.

“Young man, you took your time in there! You weren’t repeatedly choosing rewards, were you?”

“(⊙o⊙), ?? The rewards were so shocking—I feel my strength has changed dramatically!”

Huatian looked at the reward in his hand—she couldn’t see it and was greatly surprised! It had actually followed him into reality.

Both had spoken of the real game world—departing and seeking! Grow strong!

“Young man, all done! Your new game watch is bound and fingerprinted. You can check it now or head home to play.”

Upon hearing this, he pressed his fingerprint, logged in, and found his save file unchanged. He quickly exited and drove home.

At this time, in the Shuidu household, the first and second floors had just been finished. Half of the renovation workers had left.

The plumbers and carpenters were still working on the third floor. Huatian’s father, penguin-like in demeanor, marked out a large area in the yard, planning to bring the family’s animals here after returning to the village.

Because his father was in the hospital, the family’s yellow dog, white wolf, and black cat had lacked food. If Huatian hadn’t disliked raising wolves and dogs, after the two elders left home, a month passed—he’d once left the cat, dog, and wolf together unmonitored for a month, and they’d all survived.

The reason was, before leaving, Huatian’s father always stocked the mountainside with extra food, letting the wild animals, rabbits, chickens, ducks, and sheep roam, so their offspring could be hunted. Otherwise, the parents would have already returned to bring the animals home—after all, with twenty years of raising old dogs, cats, and wolves, there was deep cross-species affection. As they enjoyed comfort, they wanted the animals to share in it.

When Huatian returned to the villa, the renovations were complete. The workers and deliverymen gathered their tools and left after exchanging greetings, giving Huatian a warm farewell.

His mother and father pulled him aside, sharing their plans. Huatian listened—they intended to bring their beloved old dog, wolf, and cat here—not for their meat, but to reunite the family.

The elders knew what was on his mind. Last time he returned, he’d caught rabbits and wanted to cook their young for himself.

They told him: “Isn’t chicken, duck, and lamb good enough?”

He replied: “I’m tired of it—I want a change!”

Huatian quickly said, “Fine! I welcome them, and promise not to eat them… But Mom, Dad, I’ve asked the boss before—our team urgently needs a Paladin and a Berserker Shield. Could you choose these two?”

He asked anxiously, worried about imposing on them—if they didn’t want to play, he’d feel guilty, especially with anyone showing interest.

He then explained in detail what the Berserker Shield and Paladin roles entailed.

“No problem, since your lady boss requested it—I already call her Little Yun. It’s our first time playing, so defense and healing sound good!”

“Son, I want to choose too. If she becomes our little daughter-in-law, I must support your happiness—and for my own, too—ouch, ouch, ouch!”

“You—don’t force things like this. Enough. Son, what’s happened these past months? If it’s just an ordinary relationship, she wouldn’t give such a big gift! I think if it was just a hospital incident, we’d forget it after a meal!”