Orchid River Outpost.
Finch had already learned the full story of Lambert and Joanna’s deaths from Liu Xuan. Now, he stared at the broken sword before him in silence for a long while.
“It was my fault that Lambert died. I shouldn’t have pushed the assignment onto him.”
“You weren’t Wendigo’s match. It was right for you not to go. Besides, who could have expected the Destroyers to attack at exactly that moment, leaving no one able to save them?”
It truly wasn’t fair to blame Finch. He couldn’t defeat Wendigo, and going there would only have meant throwing his life away. Handing the mission to someone else had been the sensible choice. Otherwise, Joanna would certainly have died.
In fact, Lambert should have been able to win. Unfortunately, he had switched weapons.
And if one tried to trace the matter back further, blaming those who had talked behind his back and caused him to change weapons seemed rather far-fetched as well.
In the end, one could only say that fate had played a cruel joke.
Finch shook his head. “My father knew from the start that facing those Destroyers meant certain death, but he went anyway to give the others a chance to escape. Completing missions and protecting Orenburg is the duty of the constabulary. I’m afraid of death. I’m not as good as my father, nor am I as good as Lambert.”
He reached into his clothes and pulled out a heavily worn medal, placing it beside the broken sword. “My father gave this to me before he died. It’s the badge of the constabulary captain. Lambert was truly more qualified to possess it than I was.”
When Liu Xuan saw the medal, he knew that he had found what he needed to complete the mission.
He immediately took both items, said goodbye to Finch, and hurried off to see Heg.
It was still the same low hill, and the same little wooden cabin. Heg was still sitting outside the door.
When he saw Liu Xuan approach, he remained silent as ever.
Only after Liu Xuan asked, “Mr. Herg, was your son’s name Lambert?” did Heg suddenly open his eyes wide and stare at him.
“You know Lambert?”
Liu Xuan took out Lambert’s broken sword and the captain’s badge. “I’m very sorry, but your son has died in the line of duty. He died saving others. He was a captain worthy of everyone’s respect.”
Heg froze. It was as though he hadn’t even noticed the badge. His eyes remained fixed on the broken sword.
Trembling, he took the sword from Liu Xuan. He couldn’t say a word, but tears began to fall from his eyes.
A moment later, Heg seemed to suddenly remember something and looked toward the captain’s badge.
“Really... He became a captain? A respected one? Then he must have been happy, right? After all, that was his dream...”
Liu Xuan nodded silently.
A forced smile appeared on Heg’s face. He picked up the broken sword and the badge, then slowly made his way into the cabin.
Liu Xuan did not follow him inside. After quite some time, Heg emerged again, his eyes red.
“Thank you very much for bringing news of Lambert and returning his belongings. He died protecting Orenburg. Perhaps I should allow his legacy to live on. If you’re willing, I can teach you some swordsmanship techniques from now on.”
The moment Heg finished speaking, a notification appeared in Liu Xuan’s mind:
[You have completed the questline. You have been rewarded with a passive skill related to the “Swordmaster” class.]
[You have acquired the passive skill: The Path of Fundamentals.]
[The Path of Fundamentals: The first skill you master will unlock the proficiency system. Increasing its proficiency will improve the skill’s effects.]
Liu Xuan was left with a baffled expression as he read the skill description.
He understood the proficiency system. In many games, the more a skill was used, the higher its level became.
But he didn’t have any active skills. The first skill he had obtained was Giant’s Blood, a passive that simply increased his health.
Liu Xuan hurriedly checked his skill list and discovered that the description of this passive had indeed changed:
[Giant’s Blood (Level 1): Your health is multiplied by 1,000%. (Proficiency: 0/100)]
It now had a level and a proficiency bar.
But a skill like Source of Plague, which poisoned enemies, could at least be explained by saying that every time its passive effect was triggered, its proficiency increased.
How was he supposed to improve a passive like Giant’s Blood?
Just then, while staring at his status panel, Liu Xuan noticed that he had leveled up twice earlier and still had a large number of attribute points left unspent. An idea suddenly struck him.
Could it be that as long as his base health changed, Giant’s Blood would take effect and gain proficiency?
With that thought in mind, Liu Xuan tried adding one point to Strength before looking at his skill bar.
[Giant’s Blood (Level 1): Your health is multiplied by 1,000%. (Proficiency: 1/100)]
It worked!
Liu Xuan immediately invested the remaining 73 points into Strength one by one. The proficiency of Giant’s Blood quickly rose to 74/100.
“What about changes in Strength and health gained from equipment?”
He removed a piece of equipment that increased his Strength, then put it back on. After checking the skill’s proficiency, he found that it hadn’t increased.
All right. Repeatedly equipping and removing gear to raise his proficiency was out of the question. It had to come from an increase in his own base health.
For example, investing attribute points into Strength—or perhaps drinking a potion that permanently increased his health—should work as well.
Although he couldn’t exploit any bugs, Liu Xuan was still quite satisfied with this passive.
He gained 37 free attribute points every time he leveled up. With just one more level, he would be able to raise Giant’s Blood to Level 2. He wondered what kind of effect it would have then.
Liu Xuan had each gained a level from killing the Rotting Spirit and Wendigo. After obtaining The Path of Fundamentals, he still had another passive skill available to draw.
He spun the slot machine, and before long, a new skill appeared in front of him:
[Mana Burn: Whenever an enemy takes damage from you, 1% of their maximum mana is depleted.]
This passive... was difficult to evaluate.
At first glance, it seemed highly compatible with someone like Liu Xuan, who possessed multiple damage-over-time effects. For example, the Burning effect granted by God of Fire would trigger many times in a short period as Liu Xuan’s Agility increased.
The problem was that there weren’t many opponents capable of enduring Liu Xuan’s repeated attacks anymore.
Only high-level bosses with considerable intelligence—ones capable of calculating and avoiding the damage from Thunder Aura—could keep fighting him for any length of time.
Still, it was better than nothing.
......
After dealing with Heg’s questline, Liu Xuan set out to handle the other missions on his list.
Fortunately, the remaining ones weren’t difficult. By nightfall, he had completed all the dozen or so missions.
Yawning, Liu Xuan returned to Orenburg. Since the promotion defense battle would begin early the next morning, most people had chosen to return to the city to rest.
When he found Zhang Meng, Liu Xuan slapped the list down in front of him and told him that soldiers could change classes through Heg.
“Holy crap!”
The moment Zhang Meng heard this, he jumped to his feet.
Liu Xuan rolled his eyes. “It’s just a class change. I know you’re a soldier, but you don’t have to get this excited, do you?”
“I’m not excited. I’m saying that was close! You know the general of the unit you brought back today? The one named Russo? He told me I could change classes to Shieldbearer through him. I’d already accepted the quest and was planning to complete it after the defense battle. Good thing I saw this.”
“Shieldbearer? Sounds decent enough.”
“Just look at Russo—he’s missing all four limbs. You can tell at a glance that he’s got no real strength. Now look at Heg—even after going mad, he can still go on a killing spree out in the wild. A swordsman will always crush a shieldbearer!”
Somewhere in a barracks in Orenburg, Russo was feeling quite gratified that, despite his physical disabilities, he could still contribute and pass on his skills when he suddenly sneezed.
“Who’s badmouthing me now?”
s the Eldest Princess, renowned for her cold and aloof detachment, became the most docile of lambs, obeying his every command without question. But when the final move was played on the chessboard, as Gu Chenghan seized everything and ascended on the verge of apotheosis, that very Princess suddenly embraced him from behind, her tone carrying a dependence never heard before: "Wait... you haven't yet... commanded me to love you forever." Gu Chenghan froze abruptly. She... hadn't been hypnotized?! ... [The Eldest Princess's Diary] [When my soul was extracted, becoming the sole spectator outside my own shell] [At first, there was overwhelming fury, until I saw] [How he used my sword to effortlessly shatter my inescapable doom] [How he wielded my authority to eradicate fatal conspiracies I had never even detected] [Like a deity, he rescued me from the deep mire I was trapped in] [If not for those annoying vixens, he and I would be a match made in heaven] [I think I am ill, gravely ill] [My deity should belong to me alone] ... "Hypnosis? Oh, it succeeded, my dear Master." "Only this time, it's my turn to hypnotize you."
e vast world of cultivation, where he becomes the master of the Heavenly Ruins Sacred Hall, a dying old man with barely a tenth of his former cultivation remaining. He is immediately confronted with a deadly crisis: his subordinates have rebelled, and his protectors are forcing him to abdicate. At the critical moment, the system descends from the heavens: [Ding! The host has been detected facing a life-or-death crisis. The system is now officially activated!] [As a gift, you have received the Supreme Beginner’s Pack and awakened the ultimate cheat: ten thousand years of pure cultivation essence every second!] Yin Tianjue: “Wait… ten thousand years of cultivation every second? That’s six hundred thousand years a minute, and in one day… I can’t even calculate it. Either way, I’m already invincible!” You’re a peerless prodigy rarely seen in ten thousand years? Sorry, I gain ten thousand years of cultivation every second. You’re an undying ancestor who has guarded a sacred land for countless ages? Sorry, I gain ten thousand years of cultivation every second. You’re the strongest chosen one, blessed with heaven-defying destiny? Sorry, I gain ten thousand years of cultivation every second. From this day forth, I have only one thing to say: “I gain ten thousand years of cultivation every second. Now, how exactly are you supposed to deal with that?”
nd fell into a coma while saving his younger sister from an out-of-control car. He became a vegetable. No one knew that his consciousness had crossed into a world of cultivation. Over the course of sixty years, he began as the lowest kind of mine slave, struggling to survive amid mountains of corpses and seas of blood. By sheer chance, he eventually obtained the complete memories of a fallen Immortal King. Alchemy, medicine, formations, feng shui, physiognomy, artifact forging… Every great inheritance of the cultivation world was now his. But when he opened his eyes again, he discovered that ten full years had passed in the modern world. To pay for his treatment, his father had sold the family’s shop and house, leaving himself covered in lasting injuries and illness. His mother had cared for him day and night, and more than half of her hair had already turned white. His younger sister, who had been only fifteen back then, was now twenty-five. To help repay the family’s debts, she had been forced to lower her head and put on a smiling face in places of glittering lights and endless revelry. Only then did Chen Xuan understand that what he had lost was not merely ten years. He had lost the life his entire family was meant to have. The good news was that he had brought back the memories of an Immortal King’s entire lifetime. The bad news was that his soul had returned alone—his cultivation had not come with him. Spiritual energy was scarce, resources were depleted, and the modern world still had firearms, surveillance, capital, and laws. If he wanted to protect his family, break free from everyone’s control, and become truly invincible beneath the heavens, he would have to start all over again.
] This is a dark fantasy-themed dating simulation game. The main gameplay involves containing various monster girls and investigating the truth of a world shrouded in mist alongside your companions. However, due to his love for the dark and bizarre atmosphere, Luo Wei ended up turning a dating game into a detective mystery game. Women? Women only slow down his quickdraw! To Luo Wei, the female leads in the game are more like tools to perfectly clear levels and squeeze out rewards. For Luo Wei, flirting with every girl he meets and then discarding them is standard procedure. Worried about characters losing affection points? No need. With his maxed-out charm stat, Luo Wei is practically a "human incubus." A little psychological manipulation and those points come right back. It's a bit scummy, but the paper cutout heroines in the game won't actually come at him with real cleavers. However... Luo Wei has transmigrated. He's accidentally entered the second playthrough of this game. His past actions have caused all the girls to transform into terrifying yanderes. Due to the game's setting, most of the heroines he once contained are "troubled girls." Obsessive, twisted, mentally unstable, all aggressive yanderes... The type who will kill you if they can't have you... Luo Wei wants to cry but has no tears left. "I really just want to survive..." In short, this is a story of battling wits and engaging in a love-hate relationship with yanderes.
