Chapter 1: Use “Narrator” to refer to my name.

Chapter 1: "You may address me as 'Narrator.'"

"You will be killed by the hunter in fifteen seconds. Please avoid."

"..." Standing at the corner, Luo Shengle glanced down at her phone, a flash of panic and hesitation in her eyes. Finally, gritting her teeth, she chose to trust the mysterious person on the other end.

Like a seasoned leopard, she swiftly and silently turned into the alley on her left. Using her small stature to her advantage, she hid among a pile of discarded items, wrapped herself in the prop *Rain-Fearing Invisibility Cloak*, and held her breath while counting down the fifteen seconds.

Tenth second—

The surroundings remained eerily quiet, completely silent. Luo Shengle felt no premonition of danger.

Fourteenth second—

Peering through the gaps between stacked cardboard boxes, Luo Shengle began to doubt the phone in her hand.

Fifteenth second—

A gaunt old man appeared suddenly at the alley's entrance. His eyes, narrowed into slits, swept the area before he chuckled lightly. "Ah... seems I'm a step too late. A little mouse got away."

Luo Shengle didn’t dare twitch a muscle, frozen stiff in the pile of junk, even holding her breath.

Fortunately, the old man didn’t linger. Soon, he locked onto his next target and vanished as silently as he had appeared.

Not far away, a shrill scream echoed faintly.

Just as she breathed a sigh of relief, another message appeared on her phone—

"March 19, 3020. Player No. 42744 has died. 13 players remain in Zone B. Total remaining: 47."

Luo Shengle gripped her phone tightly, her face filled with relief.

In truth, the existence of this phone was common knowledge among players. It was more like a rare urban legend—

Rumors claimed that such phones could randomly appear in any dungeon, dropped at any location. Whoever obtained one would gain a near-clairvoyant ability for that dungeon, allowing them to evade fatal dangers based on the phone’s messages and complete objectives quickly using the intel provided.

On the game forums, some playfully dubbed it the "Future Diary."

To receive such a gift, players only needed to trade it for an urban legend they had personally experienced—though most believed this was merely the stated price. Behind this simple cost, there surely lay its true purpose.

After all, how could something that was itself the greatest "urban legend" only seek to collect other legends?

Luo Shengle had always dismissed the "Future Diary" as a forum tall tale. She never imagined she’d actually encounter it—and that it would save her life.

"Since it takes the form of a messaging app, can I communicate with it?"

After careful consideration, she carefully typed a message: "Hello, thank you for saving me. May I know how to address you?"

On the other end, Yi Fengchu saw this familiar question—one countless players had timidly asked before—and allowed himself a small smile.

Even at ten years old, when he first obtained the phone, he knew revealing his real name wasn't an option.

What if those players tracked him down after returning to the real world? Their methods were numerous.

So, since the age of ten, Yi Fengchu had adopted an alias, one he had never changed. Whenever players probed his identity, this was the name he gave.

But this was the first time Yi Fengchu had encountered an acquaintance in the Gods' Playground. Staring at the familiar face on the screen, a playful impulse rooted deep in his bones made him want to tease her.

So, he replied playfully: *[Aren’t you the ones who call me—‘Future Diary’?]*

She actually got a reply!

Luo Shengle grasped her phone in amazement, but her smile froze the moment she read the message.

This... this silly nickname was only because most players thought you were just a myth! Had they known such a mysterious entity truly existed, they wouldn’t have dared to joke so casually even with a hundred lives to spare.

And now, this very joke had reached the ears of the original subject...

Her body stiffened, her toes curling with embarrassment, but she responded immediately.

Considering the other party might be a powerful being, she answered deferentially: "Apologies for our disrespect. Please forgive us for not yet knowing your revered name."

After surviving so many dungeons, Luo Shengle had long grown accustomed to hiding her true emotions. But she was still a university student who hadn’t even graduated, nowhere near mastering the art of concealing her feelings.

Having known her for two years, Yi Fengchu could easily tell she was embarrassed.

He stopped teasing her and replied mysteriously: *[You may address me as ‘Narrator.’]*

Yi Fengchu found this moniker appropriate. Unlike the "prophet" or "seer" titles players on the forums gave him, he was merely an observer witnessing their lives—stories from the Gods' Playground, quietly preserved, stored away in his memory.

The moment he sent the message, several lines of text automatically appeared above the typing box. He immediately warned her: *[The hunter’s ‘Eye’ will lock onto your location in ten seconds. Leave now.]*

Alarmed, Luo Shengle didn't have time to ask about the hunter’s ability this time. She bolted from the alley.

With the aid of her Ability, her speed far exceeded human limits. The wind whistled past her ears.

Once she reached safety, her phone notified her again: *[This dungeon’s Zone B has two hunters. One possesses ‘Eye,’ an ability to lock onto enemy locations, with a 20-minute cooldown after three uses. The other can teleport. For game balance, he must wait one minute after acquiring a target’s location before joining the hunt.]*

Reading the dungeon rules displayed on her phone, Luo Shengle began wondering about the true identity of the "Narrator" on the other end.

What kind of being could bypass the game system to see all the rules, then randomly share them with random players?

Their struggles between life and death seemed like just casual comments to this enigmatic figure...

Was this the origin of the alias "Narrator"?

Though Luo Shengle had heard rumors that the Gods' Playground housed not just humans and humanoids but also divine beings closer to the gods—even descendants of the True God—this was her first direct encounter with such an inscrutable, non-human entity. It was impossible not to feel awe.

Through the phone, Yi Fengchu saw Luo Shengle standing frozen, lost in thought. He sent another message prompting her: *[The escape door is in the clock tower at the border between Zones A and B.]*

As a beginner's dungeon, this one had simple rules—no puzzles to solve, no scripted deaths, and with such a vast area, players didn't need to worry about fighting each other. All she had to do was evade the hunters and find the "door" to clear it.

Future dungeons would be far more terrifying.

Yi Fengchu thought of the many dungeons where no one had survived so far and felt a pang of sympathy for Luo Shengle.

In the Gods' Playground, no one could truly accompany her to the end. Life or death depended solely on her own struggle and choices.

Good luck to this friend he knew in reality...

Involving those around him—even someone as desensitized to countless tragedies as Yi Fengchu, who had witnessed endless slaughter since obtaining the phone—made it hard to remain detached.

Senior Luo was just an ordinary university student like him, yet now she was forced to fight for survival in the "Gods' Playground." In recent years, the gods’ reach had grown ever longer.

In a few more years, would the entire world be enrolled in the "Playground Deluxe Package"?

As Yi Fengchu pondered, Luo Shengle was darting through the maze-like alleys, her movements light as a feather.

After watching quietly for a while, Yi Fengchu suddenly spoke: "Is she a wind-type Ability user?"

["Luo Shengle, Ability 'Like the Wind', currently level 3, potential rating level 7, currently no ranking." The phone quickly typed out a line of text.

"Hmm, as a wind-type Ability... this potential rating is quite decent," Yi Fengchu judged based on experience.

"Potential value" refers to the limit an Ability can reach, but it does not represent the limit of its power.

So far, no two identical abilities have ever appeared in the "Gods' Playground," making the assessment of an Ability's strength and level extremely complex. Intensity, traits, and domain are all criteria for judgment.

It could be said that Ability levels often have little to do with strength—higher levels may simply indicate a rarer domain.

Most Ability users within a domain belong to True Gods. Their Abilities may be powerful and aggressive, but their potential values are generally lower than those of special-class Ability users who have no True God above them.

After they reach the threshold of Ascension, the "Playground" will rank them based on their influence over the corresponding domain. When a domain's True God perishes, the first-ranked will inherit the Divine Throne.

—This also means that ordinary Ability users hoping to ascend to godhood can only wait endlessly, praying their god kicks the bucket someday.

But when it comes to outliving True Gods, even those with rankings struggle.

As for special-class Ability users like Yi Fengchu, rankings are determined by their mastery of their scepter. The more showy and spread too thin across domains, the lower their ranking.

According to the phone, they must kill all ranked individuals within their domain and reclaim the complete domain scepter to ascend to the Divine Throne.

Yi Fengchu had repeatedly probed the phone for information about his Ability but only learned that he was a special-class Ability user—nothing else.

Could this moody phone that kept pretending to die be his Ability?

Yi Fengchu studied intently the unremarkable phone in his hand.

"Is my domain machinery or black tech?" Yi Fengchu poked the unresponsive phone. "Or... foresight?"

Seeing the phone continue to play dead, Yi Fengchu decided to provoke it further: "Tsk, not one thing or another. Such an unconventional Ability—if it had a ranking, it’d probably be at the very bottom, huh?"

"......"

Finally, as if unable to endure the insult, the phone shook violently in protest. "Heh, I suggest you treat your golden ticket better. Your attitude keeps pushing me to the brink of running away."

"Ahem, I was just joking. But seriously, if it's not a humanoid combat Ability, why does foresight need to materialize? That just makes it kind of redundant... If you really are my Ability, does this imply I'm hopelessly addicted to the internet..."

Yi Fengchu muttered a few more words, realizing he was truly about to anger the phone, and quickly backpedaled before going too far: "Don’t be mad, I’ll go buy you the most expensive screen protector in the city soon."

With that, he casually stuffed the phone into his pocket and headed out.

But Yi Fengchu didn’t see it—deep in the darkness of the pocket, the phone screen flickered briefly, a line of text flashing before vanishing again.

—"You were once ranked first."]