It was the first day of the Lunar New Year.
Everyone was still immersed in the joy of family reunions and festive celebrations when a boundless darkness suddenly swept across the entire world.
In an instant, everyone lost consciousness and fell into a deep sleep.
When they woke again, a grand and all-encompassing voice echoed in their minds:
Welcome to the world of the Doomsday Chessboard.
Here, all previous orders are broken. You will return to a fair and equal starting point.
Each of you holds a single dice. You may roll it only once per day.
Remember this: your sole objective is survival. Stay alive as long as you can.
Each day, your maximum movement is six spaces. Perhaps, someday, you will meet another player on this board.
Do not worry about the old or the young; everyone begins with identical base attributes.
The Doomsday Chessboard will settle rankings every month and every quarter. Players at the top will earn generous rewards.
Do not attempt to escape the board. Doing so will result in immediate death.
Explore the Chessboard! Here you will find food, pets, weapons, ferocious beasts and even ancient and mysterious curses.
Lastly, enjoy the game!
In the endless void, only the glowing Chessboard ahead shimmered with light.
There were seven spaces in total.
Ethan stood on a hexagonal tile marked with bright red letters: START.
Beyond that, only six spaces lay visible before him. Everything else was an expanse of infinite darkness.
In his hand was a golden dice. It radiated a magical aura, defying all logic and physical laws.
"A survival game… played on a chessboard?" Ethan murmured, staring at the dice.
Last night, he had stayed up until midnight, dozed off out of sheer exhaustion and now, here he was.
The ten rules still echoed clearly in his mind.
It seemed the entire global population had been dragged into this apocalyptic game.
At his feet, a faint golden glow circled his body like a badge of identity, matching the soft gleam of the dice.
The golden dice was about the size of a thumb, its six faces marked from one to six. Around it, an inscription read:
Player's Initial Item: Roll once per day. After rolling, the player will be forcibly moved forward according to the number rolled.
Ethan looked ahead.
A board that could hold the world's population had to be unimaginably vast, yet for now, only the six spaces before him were visible.
And just one glance made his brow furrow.
"Seriously? My luck is this bad already…"
Of the six visible spaces, only the third and sixth looked safe. The other four spelled certain death.
[Space 1: An Arena. Inside, a sabertooth tiger sleeps.]
[Space 2: A debuff curse. Stepping here means you can't roll the dice for three days.]
[Space 3: Coarse grain bread and bottled water.]
[Space 6: A blue-grade skill book.]
The fourth and fifth spaces were a steel spike trap and a corridor lined with Terracotta Warriors.
Survival odds: one in three.
"My first roll can't afford to be careless," Ethan muttered, his stomach sinking like a stone.
Even so, his expression remained calm remarkably so under the circumstances.
Aside from the golden dice, every player had an integrated game interface, featuring:
Chat Channel
Trading Channel
Leaderboard
Personal Inventory
The Trading Channel had two options:
Direct Sale, where items sold at a fixed price, and Auction, which worked like the real-world counterpart minus a hefty 20% service fee.
The Leaderboard displayed three rankings: Combat Power, Progress, and Wealth.
The Chat Channel was split into World Chat and Regional Chat, though for now, only the regional feature was open.
At that moment, the chat window flooded with messages:
"Hello? Hello? Can anyone hear me? I shouted three times already!"
"I'm stuck on this floating board in the void! It's pitch black everywhere else I'm terrified! I've got a fear of heights and claustrophobia. Someone help me!"
"Does anyone know what the hell is going on?"
"All I've got is this stupid golden dice. Nothing else!"
"Why can I see a pack of wolves in the second space ahead of me? Don't tell me if I roll a two, I have to fight them!"
Messages scrolled endlessly, a blur of panic and confusion.
Ethan skimmed the feed, quickly confirming that everyone else was in the same predicament.
There was no way out. If he wanted to survive, he had to trust this dice and hope for luck.
The Leaderboard remained empty for now; rankings would refresh after the first 24 hours.
But one glance at the monthly settlement rewards was enough to make Ethan's heart race.
Players in the top 100 across Combat, Progress, and Wealth rankings would receive food, equipment, and even skill books!
In other words, once this game reached the later stages, the strong would only grow stronger.
But right now?
Ethan had to deal with the miserable hand fate had dealt him.