A mage's journey begins with a battle mage.

Chapter 1: Astral Plane: Arrival

"Hey buddy? Your gun's so weak, how dare you say you can carry the team?!"

"Don't call me, I'm not feeling well today."

"Yeah, stop barking like a dog all the time."

"I said he didn't say you, right? You see a girl while playing a game and you can't resist her, then you start asking her for a green bubble in the voice chat. Dude, I think you're really starving. There's so much fake stuff online. You believe someone who uses a voice changer and says they're a girl? You can't be cured even if you go to the hospital. Even if you are cured, you'll still be drooling. You should be fined 8000 for online dating and meeting in real life."

Despite the criticism and insults, Jiang Shuzhou continued playing the game seriously. After all, he was different from others; while others played games, he was a game booster.

If these people weren't so incredibly talented, one of them would be completely captivated by a female voice in the game mic and immediately launch into an amazing, bubbly, green bubble-like performance.

Another type is all talk and no action. They talk a good game, but their stats are 0-11. The key is that they become silent after dying, as if the other side not only killed their game character but also their real-life counterpart.

Fortunately, Jiang Shuzhou is a 19-year-old prodigy with accurate shooting and quick reflexes, which allowed him to barely win the match.

"I'm never taking FPS games again. I'd rather take MMOs; everyone there is a big shot, a real boss, and they're all loaded."

As Jiang Shuzhou spoke, he skillfully opened the game boosting group, found the boss, posted the results, and the final payment arrived shortly afterward.

Seeing the boss pay the balance so readily, Jiang Shuzhou felt much better than yesterday.

Jiang Shuzhou was furious just thinking about the boss from yesterday. He spent nine hours processing orders, only to be told by the boss that he was a minor and that his family was demanding a refund from Jiang Shuzhou.

There was no other way, so Jiang Shuzhou refunded the money to avoid trouble. However, after the refund, Jiang Shuzhou gave the boss a big slap on the wrist. He directly used force to unlock the account and started the transfer without even using salt. The account was blocked within minutes.

The boss later planned to complain about him, but unfortunately, he had already been kicked out of the group, since nobody wants to work for someone for free.

Slumped in his gaming chair, Jiang Shuzhou stared silently at his empty 140-square-meter, three-bedroom, two-living-room house.

He was thinking, pondering the meaning of life, and contemplating where he was headed.

Before he was nine years old, he had a family that everyone envied. His father was a middle manager in a large company, earning tens of thousands of yuan a month and his career was booming. His mother worked in the public sector, and although she did not earn as much as his father, she had a lot of free time to spend with him.

Unfortunately, a fire destroyed everything. Jiang Shuzhou clearly remembers that it was a summer day when he was doing his homework at home as usual, and his mother was tutoring him as always.

A phone call shattered the harmonious atmosphere at home.

At first, her mother seemed normal, but after something was said on the other end of the phone, Jiang Shuzhou saw her mother almost drop the phone. She gripped the receiver tightly, as if it were the only thing she could hold onto.

After a moment of silence, his mother told him that his father had gone on a business trip and wouldn't be back for a long time.

It wasn't until two years later that Jiang Shuzhou learned that his father had seen a supermarket on fire on his way home, with a mother and daughter trapped inside.

There's no need to go into what happened next; in short, Jiang Shuzhou's father never returned.

A hemp rope always breaks at its thinnest point, and misfortune only finds those with unfortunate fates.

Not long after, Jiang Shuzhou's mother also passed away due to illness, leaving behind Jiang Shuzhou as a child and 400,000 yuan in compensation.

A series of misfortunes made Jiang Shuzhou taciturn, and his grandparents didn't know what to do until he came across the internet.

The internet became Jiang Shuzhou's second home, playing games became a part of his life, and life seemed to have gained color again.

When he was 16, his loving grandparents passed away. Jiang Shuzhou locked himself in his room for two months, during which time he did nothing but play games and chat online.

Time heals all wounds, and Jiang Shuzhou eventually emerged from the shadows.

With his exceptional gaming talent and diligent practice, Jiang Shuzhou successfully became an outstanding student at the "Homebound University" after graduating from high school.

In short, he didn't get into university.

Repeating a grade is out of the question. Jiang Shuzhou's heart wasn't in school. Since he'd have to work anyway after college, he might as well skip the middleman and start game boosting services directly.

He proved to be right. Jiang Shuzhou earned at least 4000 yuan a month, and sometimes more than 10,000 yuan.

Coming to his senses, Jiang Shuzhou opened the chat group, ready to chat with his friends and boast for a while.

"Hey guys, did you hear? That game officially launches in just one hour!"

"What is this? Can the riddle-teller get out of here right now? Explain yourself clearly!"

"Dude, you're not even paying attention to this? Have you ever even been online? Did the village just get internet access? It's been going viral for the past two days."

"It's about Starbound: Advent."

When Jiang Shuzhou first saw the name, it seemed somewhat familiar, but he quickly remembered it.

Isn't this the game that kept popping up and pushing to me yesterday?

Can a game be good if it spends so much on user acquisition?

With this question in mind, Jiang Shuzhou opened a search website.

I was shocked when I checked. Is this still the 21st century? Where did I come from?

The reason is simple: the promotional material for Astral Descent states that the game uses cutting-edge technology to achieve an immersive experience, which is essentially a complete virtual reality technology.

If it weren't for the official departments and major media outlets endorsing "Astral Descent," Jiang Shuzhou would never have believed it.

"Are all game developers this swollen these days?"

With this question in mind, Jiang Shuzhou opened the game's official website, and the game warehouse purchase interface immediately came into view.

The standard version is priced at 9999 yuan, the deluxe version at 12999 yuan, and the super deluxe version at 19999 yuan.

That's way too expensive.

Jiang Shuzhou thought for a moment, then clicked on the details page. He wanted to see why this thing was so expensive.

First, there's the standard version. There's not much to say about it; aside from being able to play games, there's basically nothing special about it.

Secondly, there's the luxury version, which has a more luxurious interior and looks more comfortable than the regular version. That's about it.

Finally, there's the Super Deluxe Edition, which has a larger gaming pod than the Deluxe Edition and includes many new features.

For example, internal air conditioning, automatic massage, and larger capacity batteries.

What attracted Jiang Shuzhou the most was the free nutrient solution, which was also sold by the official store, but cost 5000 yuan per bottle.

A bottle of nutrient solution that allows you to go five days without eating or drinking sounds like a lie, but that's what the official website says.

What should I do?

A virtual reality game, judging from the promotional materials, seems to be a role-playing game. Whether it's the instinct of a gamer or the intuition of someone who works as a game booster, it all tells him one thing.

This is a golden opportunity, a golden opportunity that can give him a chance to take off.

After thinking for a while, Jiang Shuzhou opened Weibo. He planned to check the situation of several established gaming guilds. After all, compared to individuals, these guilds had more information. Often, whether a game had commercial value could be determined by whether these guilds had joined it.

As expected, many major gaming guilds such as God of War, Dynasty Hegemony, Eternity, and Heaven and Earth have announced their entry into Starbound: Descent.

Seeing these guilds choose to move in, Jiang Shuzhou didn't hesitate any longer and directly bought the super deluxe version for 19999 in full.

Since I've chosen to enter Astral Descent, I can't skimp on myself no matter what. At the very least, I need top-of-the-line gaming equipment.