Chapter 2: Choosing a Profession

“Please choose a profession, player.”

Su Ning looked up at her game panel.

Priest (Human Bloodline)

• Initial Skill: Healing, restores (Intelligence × 3) HP to a selected target, costs 5 MP.
• Weapon: Unlimited
• Equipment: Unlimited

Chef (Human Bloodline)

• Initial Skill: None
• Weapon: Chef tools
• Equipment: Unlimited
• Special Skill: +3 to dish taste quality

Dark Night Priest (Demon Bloodline)

• Initial Skills:
  • Mana Blessing: restores (Intelligence × 5) HP to a selected target, costs 5 MP
  • Moonlight Curse: deals (Intelligence × 3) damage to a target, with a 20% chance to inflict Corrosion, costs 3 MP
    • (Corrosion: drains HP every second, Intelligence × 1)
• Weapon: Unlimited
• Equipment: Unlimited
• Bloodline Effect: Reduces hostility from Dark-type, Demon, and Hell creatures. When the bloodline is strong, increases damage to Light-type enemies and improves affinity with Dark-type, Demon, and regional creatures.

Su Ning didn’t hesitate. Dark Night Priest. She didn’t yet know what the bloodline did, but it had one more skill than Priest and at least looked useful. Plus, it was a “healer” class—first keep yourself alive, then worry about everything else.

“Beep, selection successful. Player has obtained a novice staff.”

“Please choose your bloodline. Player already has a bloodline; please draw a talent.”

This really felt like a proper game, Su Ning thought. She wondered if choosing the bloodline first had been a mistake.

Looking at the nine boxes of varying sizes and shapes on the panel, Su Ning decided, as usual, to go for the central one—the best choice.

“Congratulations! Player has obtained the Life Expert talent. This talent guarantees a 100% drop rate for life items and increases item quality by 50%.”
“Congratulations! Player has obtained the Food Tasting talent. This talent allows identification of detailed information for ingredients and dishes.”
“Congratulations! Player has obtained the Medicine Analysis talent. This talent allows identification of herbs, potions, medicines, and other details.”
“System friendly reminder: talents are extremely valuable. Please use them wisely.”

After a series of system messages, Su Ning completed the first step of character creation and summoned her character panel:

Player: Su Ning
ID Number: xxxxx
Level: 1
Experience: 0/10
Profession: Dark Night Priest
Bloodline: Demon
HP: 160/160
MP: 80/80
Cleanliness: 90/100
Fullness: 83/100
Constitution: 6
Intelligence: 8
Strength: 3
Agility: 4
Available Points: 0
Bloodline Purity: 5%
Skills: –

Looking at her stats, Su Ning understood why all the recommended classes were healers: high intelligence meant explosive skill potential. She hadn’t exercised much, so her agility was low, her strength even lower—but at least her health was decent.

Opening her backpack, a neat 100-slot grid appeared. She took out the only card inside and examined it carefully. It was milky white, showing on the front: White Novice Staff, with a picture resembling a small wooden stick. The blank area had some raised patterns. The back gave details: a normal novice staff, no attributes, automatically recalled by the system at player level 5.

Su Ning whispered use, and the card disappeared. In her hands appeared the small wooden stick—a novice staff. About the length of a forearm, thumb-thick, finely textured wood. She played with it for a while, then stored it in her backpack. The empty backpack left her wondering if storage slots would increase in the future. The description only said that time stood still inside the storage, and living things couldn’t be stored.

Closing the backpack, Su Ning glanced at the chat window in the lower left corner. Sure enough, with many players online, messages were already appearing in the system.

Opening the chat channels—World and Private—she also discovered a friends list. To her surprise, her parents were already on it, likely recognized automatically by the system using their real-life identities.

She sent her mom a “love” video. Sure enough, her parents were together: Mom chose Human Summoner, Dad chose Human Martial Artist. Su Ning didn’t fully understand what a Martial Artist was, but fortunately, they hadn’t gone on a murderous rampage like in some novels. Her parents were still conservative humans, understandable.

Su Ning didn’t dare reveal she was Demon-blooded yet, so after exchanging safety confirmations, she ended the call.

Looking at Duoduo, still on video, Su Ning noticed that thanks to system protection, no one could see others’ screens. Audio was muffled—Duoduo’s lip movements were like pixelated mosaics. The system was strict.

While waiting for Duoduo, Su Ning studied the system again and discovered the quest panel and shop.

Quests were empty.

The shop required gold, silver, and copper coins (1 gold = 100 silver = 10,000 copper). Prices were high, especially for bloodlines—over ten thousand gold! But simple food and medicines could be bought with copper.

“Su-ge, are you done?” Duoduo’s voice called.

Su Ning turned and noticed Duoduo’s skin had brightened slightly. Her features hadn’t changed much, but she seemed more lively.

“Su-ge, you seem to have changed too,” Duoduo said. She couldn’t explain why—maybe just a feeling? Skin looked better, perhaps.

“I’m a Dark Night Priest, a healer, Demon bloodline. If I changed, it must be the bloodline. You’ve brightened a bit too,” Su Ning guessed.

“Makes sense. I’m an Elf Archer, Elf bloodline. I can apparently learn magic too. They gave me a novice bow and 300 simple arrows. My talents are Precision and Rapid Strike—shoot accurately and move fast. Plus cooking skills. Su-ge, if this wasn’t the Apocalypse Game, I’d be overjoyed about cooking!” Duoduo said with a bitter smile. Before the apocalypse, she was a disaster in the kitchen.

Su Ning didn’t understand why everyone else got survival-focused talents while hers were for convenience. Well, convenience for life… that’s still good.

“Yeah, between Priest, Dark Night Priest, and Chef, I’m glad I didn’t pick Chef—would’ve overlapped with yours. My talents: Life Expert, Food Tasting, Medicine Analysis. The best for survival is probably healing.” Su Ning smiled wryly but believed that as long as she kept herself alive, life would be comfortable later.

“Huo Yang is a Bimon Warrior—high strength, high constitution, novice greatsword. He’s figuring out how to come here. The newbie village exit is blocked; there seems to be a barrier.”

“Then our three professions complement each other. Hope he gets here soon.” Su Ning looked at the lush forest outside the newbie village, feeling uncertain about the future.

“Beep, congratulations to all players for completing initial preparation. Game rules have been sent to player mailboxes. Please read in detail. Newbie village barrier has been lifted; players may now freely enter and exit. The game officially begins.”