Game Character Slot Creation (2)

Game Character Slot Creation (2)

Notice: One "Rare Character" has appeared among the "characters" generated this time.

Ji Minghuan raised an eyebrow, surprised by his luck today.

"A Rare Character... and it's an Exorcist, the category we know the least about so far. I actually stepped in this kind of dog shit?"

He muttered as he glanced sideways at the third file floating in the darkness.

Character File No. 3

Name: Xia Pingzhou (Rare Character)

Gender: Male

Age: 19

Race: Asian

Class: Exorcist (one of the three major supernatural races; capable of using "Heavenly Drive," condensed from soul crystals, in battle. With every rank advanced, they may form a contract with a demon, allowing their "Heavenly Drive" to evolve)

Rank: First Order Exorcist (Exorcists are divided into three Orders in total)

Heavenly Drive: Chess (SS-rank among Heavenly Drives) (This Heavenly Drive has formed a contract with a demon: Shadow Demon)

Base Attributes: Strength: D-rank; Speed: C++-rank; Spirit: C++-rank

Initial Rating: C++-rank

Background:

You are an Exorcist who retired two years ago.

Two years ago, fresh out of the gate, you joined an Exorcist team. But one day, your teammate—an Exorcist codenamed "Red Light"—suddenly went berserk and slaughtered every other member of the team except you. He vanished without a trace afterward. From then on, whenever word came that Red Light had resurfaced, it was invariably accompanied by news of his inhuman massacres of Exorcists.

After your entire team was wiped out, body and mind exhausted, you lacked the strength to seek out the truth behind it all. Instead, you chose to leave the world of Exorcists and live the life of an ordinary person.

Yet during that time, your family was hunted down by the evil Exorcist codenamed "Jack the Ripper." Their corpses and organs were hung from the clothes rack on the rooftop, swaying in the wind beneath a blood-red dusk.

Your ordinary life shattered. The sight before you plunged you into uncontrollable fury.

To avenge yourself on Jack the Ripper, you spent an entire year exhausting every possible means to investigate the organization where he currently resided—the White Crow Troupe.

The White Crow Troupe was a twelve-person bandit group made up of Espers, Anecdote Envoys, and Exorcists. They traveled across the world, burning, killing, plundering, and committing every imaginable evil...

And your enemy, Jack the Ripper, was currently among them.

Recently, one member of the White Crow Troupe had fallen into the hands of a Rainbow Wing member. They were searching for someone with potential to replace the dead man and fill the troupe's final vacancy.

On this very day, you contacted the leader of the White Crow Troupe through the dark web and expressed your desire to join.

The leader took an interest in your unusual Heavenly Drive and believed you possessed considerable potential. He decided to grant you a probationary period within the troupe. If you performed well during that time, you would truly become a member of this band of evildoers, traveling the world with them and enjoying a journey of supreme wickedness.

Thus, as the twelfth member of the White Crow Troupe, you lay low among them and took the first step on your road to revenge.

This Game Character has the following two "growth paths" available:

Path One: Wild Hunt;

Path Two: Righteous Exorcist.

The very second Ji Minghuan saw the rare file, he completely forgot about the first two characters.

Not choosing this file would be as incomprehensibly stupid as playing one of those card-drawing games, passing up a UR card, and picking an ordinary R card instead. There had to be a reason a UR card was UR-rank. He just needed to trust the system's rating.

There were now three main things he needed to consider.

First was the character background. "This White Crow Troupe... I think I saw them on the Esper Official Website before. Their wanted level on the site is SS-rank, a whole tier above even my Old Man, an S-Rank Wanted Criminal... If my character stays among those monsters, he might not even survive a day. Even so, it's better than choosing either of those first two templates with no real ceiling. High risk, high reward. I'll gamble on it."

Next came the growth path. "Hmm... no matter how I look at it, I should pick the first one. I don't even feel like choosing the other path just based on its name."

Finally, he gave the Heavenly Drive type one last look. "I've never played chess, but once I load the Character Memory, I'll gain all his skills. I won't need to waste time learning it deliberately."

With that thought, he stopped hesitating.

Ji Minghuan moved the index-finger cursor through the darkness and held it over the file. Light wrapped around every inch of his fingertip.

It looked like he had smeared blood across his thumb and pressed it onto a demon's contract to forge a pact. The words on the file changed from dim to bright, radiating an interwoven black-and-white glow like a taiji symbol.

Character File No. 3—"Xia Pingzhou"—has been selected. He will make his debut in the real world as your second Game Character.

Please select one "growth path" between "Wild Hunt" and "Righteous Exorcist."

He moved the index-finger cursor and clicked Wild Hunt without a second thought—having a badass name already meant it had won half the battle. As for how it actually performed, he could only find out after entering the game.

Growth Path No. 1—"Wild Hunt"—has been selected for this character. A unique Character Development System has been generated.

Please wait. Your second Game Character—"Xia Pingzhou"—is being generated in the real world, and his existence is being made "reasonable"...

Preparing to enter Tokyo, Japan... The final countdown will begin shortly.

3...

2...

1...

The moment the number in his pupils reached zero, Ji Minghuan's vision was swallowed by sudden light.

Cicadas chirped in his ears. He opened his eyes to a clear blue sky, while stifling heat rushed over him. A dark-green JR train rattled away along the tracks by the street.

When he lowered his gaze slightly, he saw the city's landmark—Tokyo Tower.

In his memories, the Library at the Welfare Home had contained quite a few travel magazines.

Ji Minghuan used to have plenty of free time, and he had read many of them. He still remembered one travel magazine containing a written introduction to the radio tower, along with plenty of pictures.

The book said that Tokyo Tower only gave off white light in summer. During spring, autumn, and winter, its lights were orange-yellow.

The real sight was even more magnificent than the one in the book. Tokyo Tower stood silently beneath the Sky Curtain, like a giant raising a torch high overhead, blooming with white light in the dim world.

He looked away and surveyed his surroundings. This seemed to be a street near the Shiba Park District.

The morning cleaners had swept the streets spotless. Rows of cherry trees stood on either side; spring, their blooming season, had long passed, leaving no petals in sight and only bare branches overhead.

He seemed to have just stepped out of an Izakaya. The vending machines along the road and the signs beside it were all inscribed with unfamiliar Japanese.

A white-collar worker in a suit passed by him with his head hanging low as he looked at his phone. His briefcase accidentally bumped against Ji Minghuan's trouser legs. He nodded in apology, muttered, "Sumimasen," and hurried away.

A pitch-black crow perched atop the Neon Light sign for Shiba Park Station, its eyes lowered as it silently watched him.

A fine drizzle suddenly began to fall from the morning sky.

Raindrops as large as beans traced graceful arcs before landing on the tip of his nose.

Ji Minghuan sniffed the rusty scent carried in the rain, then silently turned his head and looked at the Izakaya's glass wall.

The glass reflected his figure. He wore a hooded sweatshirt and stood around 178 centimeters tall, with neat short black hair, sharp blade-like eyes, and strikingly heroic features.

Staring at his reflection, he tugged at the corner of his mouth and thought, Tokyo... this seems to be my first time truly going abroad.

Just as he was thinking that, a series of Task Panels with interwoven black-and-white backgrounds suddenly appeared in his pupils.

Main Quest 1: Reach the meeting location and successfully pass the White Crow Troupe's admission test.

Main Quest 2: Find the location of Jack the Ripper, the evil Exorcist who killed "your family."

Main Quest 3: Search for clues regarding "your former teammate," the berserk Exorcist—Red Light.

"It's time to get moving." Ji Minghuan shrugged. "Hopefully this character's potential won't be any lower than Black Cocoon's. Otherwise, it wouldn't deserve the title of 'Rare Character.'"

Note: The White Crow Troupe was inspired by the Phantom Troupe from the Japanese manga Hunter x Hunter.