Earth Online: From the Start, the Fourth Calamity

A new continent appeared out of nowhere in the middle of the Pacific, with a giant gate and a glowing screen standing on it. The whole world went into an uproar! Elite teams from every country went to investigate. They suffered heavy casualties and returned with one absurd truth: our world is a gambling table created by fifth-dimensional gods and demons. Now that the game has reached a stalemate, they want us, their “creations,” to represent them in the “Battleground of Myriad Worlds” beyond the gate for the ultimate showdown. Earth is the final stake. If we lose, everyone gets formatted! When the news broke, the world was dumbstruck. Panic spread, and talk of the apocalypse ran rampant. But plenty of guys were thrilled: “A real-life civilization tournament? Now that’s something I know!” Just as everyone thought this would be a brutal arena for the gods, no one expected Earth to be a bug, and humanity to be the hidden Fourth Calamity! Our gods secretly cheated, giving us the “Divine Soul Activation” buff: unlimited respawns, with all experience retained! The Abyssal demons stood a hundred feet tall, able to flatten a hill with one punch. They grinned down at us “little bugs.” Then they witnessed a sight they would never forget: Humans crushed into meat pancakes flashed white and respawned at full health the very next second! Biting with our teeth, throwing lives at the enemy, using devious tactics on par with mathematical modeling, disrupting them with the spirit of square dancing, brainwashing them through cultural exports… The Japanese tried to steal the first-clear reward, but the moment they reached the gate, the stone gargoyle guarding it sneezed them into dust. And us? We left all our old grudges behind. We had only one goal: win! As the Abyssal Demon Lord dragged his mountain-sized body along, he looked on in despair at the human army that couldn’t be killed, only grew stronger with every death, and even knew how to exploit bugs. His anguished cry shook the dimensions: “