Black Tech Internet Cafe System

Panda Novel

The opening cinematics of Dark Souls 3 had a vague introduction, but the plot was easy to understand. The ancient Lords of Cinder woke up from their tombs since they shouldered the duty to rekindle the fire.

However, these Lords of Cinder didn’t want to fulfil their duties. At this moment, the accursed unkindled who couldn’t become Lords of Cinder woke up from deep sleep and came out from the tombs of ashes, following the route that the Lords of Cinder took. They must return these lords to their thrones.

This was the basic storyline of Dark Souls 3.

…

As for the destiny of the Lords of Cinder and why they didn’t want to take the glorious thrones of lords, it was easy to understand when the players saw the words ‘cinder’ and ‘link the fire’. They would have to burn themselves up to rekindle the fire.

The origin of linking the fire could be traced back to the very ancient times (as shown in Dark Souls 1).

Fire brought everything to the world, and the creatures that first discovered fire had gained extremely great power from it. These creatures were the first group of gods in this world.

However, fire would eventually die out, which would mean the end of the world. To stop the invasion of darkness, Gwyn, a Lord of Cinder, the first god who had gained the golden lightning power from the first flame and was the leader of the godly race, chose to burn his powerful soul to maintain the fire.

That was why not everyone could link the fire. Each Lord of Cinder had to be one of the top existences of the world or even… a god.

…

Containing the power of the first flame, these beings were the most powerful existences. Some of them were powerful gods or existences more powerful than gods.

The unkindled ash, as the name indicated, were not strong enough to rekindle the flame, and thus were existences who were as lowly as ash.

These were the characters that the players controlled.

It was why the old words said, “Ash seeketh ember”.

…

Therefore, Dark Souls was totally different from any game that the shop had previously released, either in the world views or the battle styles.

When facing an existence who was countless times more powerful than you, you could only rely on battle skills that could even subdue gods and the moderate growth in strength that you obtained during the process.

The only thing that you could use to help you battle to the end was probably the rusty weapon that you had when you climbed out from the tomb.

You must rely on these things to kill the gods.

…

“Mingxue said that this game is super difficult…” Sala and some elves were talking about the game.

The other newbies in Mr. Fang’s shops obviously hadn’t realized this.

“Difficult?” Leidon and other saint-level masters sitting nearby said in amusement, “I think it might be only difficult for average people.”

We’re saint-level masters, and raiding instances in World of Warcraft was quite easy!

Elf Queen Kellybel also thought,  I’m close to the pinnacle stage of saint-level; how can a mystical realm be difficult for me?

“There are grave goods? Gemstones?” Kellybel felt that it was cheating to be given such good items at the beginning of the game. Therefore, she chose to take nothing.

After choosing to be a sorceress, she entered the game.

…

The Cemetery of Ash was located in a desolate valley. Besides the players, there were only a few deserted corpses that lost their mind, which was the inevitable fate for the unkindled.

At this moment, Elf Queen Kellybel was dressed in a slightly dirty white robe with a small round shield in one hand and a slim sword that looked like a décor piece in the other hand. Obviously, elves liked these kinds of swords.

Due to her current low level, she didn’t have magic spells, but elves could cast spells as well as fight in close-range.

Disturbed by her steps, a mindless deserted corpse lunged at her with a snarl.

Kellybel cast the initial sorcery, Soul Arrow, and pierced the corpse’s chest with a streak of pale blue magic light. Then, she killed it with a clean sword slash.

“Simple!” She was still uncomfortable that her strength was reduced to that of an average person.

Putting down her virtual reality headset, she looked around and mumbled, “Who said that this game was difficult?”

“It’s simple in the beginning.” Having finished his instant noodles at the counter, Mr. Fang was walking toward his computer. He glanced at her when passing by and said, “This is the tutorial for new players; it teaches you some basic controls, and there is a boss for new players. It’s simple.”

“Is it so? I have to fight my way to the later stages if I want to challenge something difficult?” Kellybel looked displeased, wondering why she couldn’t directly skip to the more difficult stages…

Anyway, she had to find the easy boss for new players first.

Walking out of the Cemetery of Ash, she saw a narrow mountainous path. The terrain was simple but very dim.

If she didn’t venture to the branch paths, she could easily find the path out of the cemetery. The tall and thick city walls and the huge stone arch gate guarded by a few deserted corpses formed the portal leading to the outside world.

Walking through the gate, Kellybel saw a big round square. In the center of the square was a giant wearing heavy armor which appeared to be made of neither gold nor stone. Right now, this giant was half-kneeling.

Even when half-kneeling, this giant was much taller than her.

It was silent as if it was dead.

However, the black tentacle-like things on its back seemed to be moving.

“Sir, I can go out after defeating this thing, right?” Seeing Mr. Fang sitting not far from her, Kellybel put down her virtual reality headset and called out to him.

“Right! That’s Iudex Gundyr,” Mr. Fang called out.

Many years had passed, but Mr. Fang still remembered the full name of the boss in the tutorial.

“How do I fight it?” Kellybel looked at it. “Should I pull out the sword from its chest?”

After asking that question, she slowly pulled the coiled sword from the giant’s chest with all her strength.

The giant seemed to recover its senses and slowly stood up. Kellybel could see its pitch-black and distorted demonic face and the black and cold eyes behind the grey helmet that seemed to have come from an abyss.

When it lifted the huge halberd that was almost six meters long, the warrior who seemed to have come from the ancient times and had survived many horrifying battles came back to life.

Kellybel’s heart lurched.

Gurdyr was nimbler than she expected and brandished his huge halberd, creating whistling sounds.

Looking down at her slim sword that was as small as a tooth pick, her ragged sorceress’ robe, and the small round shield which had been smashed to an unrecognizable shape, Kellybel was petrified…

With a scream, she ran toward the gate that she walked through but found that it was sealed by magic!

She hammered at the gate wildly!

Gundyr bent its knees a bit and leaped up into the sky like a cannon ball. Then, it struck down its 6-meter-long halberd with vicious force!

Boom!

…

– Ten seconds later –

A cold corpse lay on the ground, and a line of bloody words appeared on Kellybel’s screen: [You died.]

…

-Ten hours later-

Having played games for an entire day, Mr. Fang stretched and stood up to get something to eat.

He glanced at Kellybel’s screen when walking past here. “??? You’re still in the novice village?”

Kellybel was at a loss for words. While gritting her teeth, she turned her head and glared at Mr. Fang with murderous spirit.