(The first three chapters serve as an introduction and prologue; the main story begins with the fourth chapter.)
It was an utterly ordinary day. Clouds in the sky obscured the listless winter sun, causing the already freezing earth to lose yet another trace of warmth.
Zhang Yuan, the owner of this ordinary name, was an unremarkable-looking shut-in. As a graduate student, after struggling with his group project all day and searching through materials at the library, he finally returned to his cramped, barely ten-square-meter studio apartment. He skillfully booted up his long-purchased desktop computer, which was already covered in dust because he was too lazy to clean it, then smoothly opened Dota 2 on Steam—the game also known as "the auto chess launcher."
While waiting for it to load, he plugged in the kettle and poured tea leaves into the teapot. All that remained was a brief wait. Playing chess while savoring tea—what a joy in life, Zhang "Chess Genius" Yuan thought smugly.
Fortunately, nothing annoying happened, such as Seven waiting two minutes for One before disconnecting. The chess match began smoothly. Clink, clank—I'm a robot!
A perfect goblin start! Looking at the entire row of Clockwerk goblins that had appeared on the screen, the pleasantly surprised Zhang Yuan immediately chose the Clockwerk concubine.
Taking another look at the legendary orange-card pool, Gyrocopter, Techies, and Disruptor were all there. Perfect! This game was definitely going goblins! In the first round, the little Clockwerk swung his wrench and knocked the two neutral creeps to death without suspense.
Two gold coins dropped, along with a treasure chest. After casually buying the other two Clockwerks, Zhang Yuan did not open the chest. Accustomed to choosing reward items based on his lineup after the third round, he still had that much patience.
Three rounds later, although he had no Timbersaw, Clockwerk, Techies, and Bounty Hunter had nevertheless completed the goblin synergy and smoothly defeated the enemies in the fourth round. However, as the rounds came to an end one by one, things began to look less promising.
By the seventh round, the three little units had reached two stars. His five-unit lineup, paired with Lina and Razor, had some fighting power, but Timbersaw—the core unit of the goblin faction—still had not appeared.
"Don't screw me over, damn it!" After waiting ages without seeing Timbersaw, Zhang Yuan glanced at the other players' boards and discovered that, aside from himself, there were actually two others aiming for iron goblins. One hunter player had even somehow produced a two-star Timbersaw, placing him on the front line alongside Beastmaster.
"That's my damn Timbersaw!!!" Zhang Yuan's eyes went red.
In auto chess, it was not the hardheaded player you feared; it was everyone else being just as hardheaded and competing with you. Nor was getting lucky enough to fear, because there was often someone even luckier.
Especially in the current version, goblins were already weaker than the foul Smog builds and Shaman builds at the T0 and T1 levels. With more players choosing goblins, the number of goblin cards in the pool was limited to begin with. For a goblin player desperately trying to find three-star units, such competition was simply too brutal.
All the goblin players dying together was the norm. As for a goblin orange-card build becoming invincible in the late game? Anything was possible in dreams. Ninety-nine percent of goblin players chasing golden-core units died in bitterness without even seeing a single golden core.
What should he do? Switch to mages, or keep stubbornly forcing goblins? After hesitating, Zhang Yuan chose a compromise: he would go with retro goblin mages. Goblins would hold the front line, mages would stay in the back, three human mages would complete the Tome bonus, three inventors would activate the Core bonus, and he would develop sneakily. He would decide based on what units he found later and see whether his mage cards or goblin cards were luckier.
It could not be considered a perfect start, but at least he still had a bit of dog luck. After outlasting the other two players competing for goblins, he relied on his economy and barely scraped out third place with a late-game lineup of six goblins and three mages.
Facing the fully formed foul build's supreme demon and the Shaman build, which resembled either Transformers or Barbara the Little Magic Fairy, even the goblin machines with steel bones and iron frames could only helplessly rust and scatter across the ground.
"Not a loss. 666." After praising his own strategy in his heart, Zhang Yuan contentedly left the match. As for the luck involved? There had definitely been none! It had all been strategy—strategy! Thinking about the chess match that had just ended, Zhang Yuan casually sent the card dealer his blessings—and greetings.
After exiting the game, he happened to glance at his desktop. "Hmm? A new email." Zhang Yuan casually opened his inbox, only to be struck in the back by the surprise that followed.
"Baldur's Gate 3?!" When he saw the notification email from Steam, Zhang Yuan was so shocked that his voice cracked. Ever since Larian had hinted that it was accepting Baldur's Gate 3 and released a trailer CG for it, Zhang Yuan, already a die-hard Baldur's Gate fan, had immediately added it to his wishlist.
"What took you so long?" he growled as he clicked the Steam link for Baldur's Gate.
There was no need to say much about Baldur's Gate's classic status. The moment it appeared, it had shaken the gaming market of its era. Its rich content, varied gameplay routes, memorable character creation, vivid character interactions, and dramatic central storyline had practically redefined RPGs of the time, and it continued to exert a profound influence afterward.
Baldur's Gate was rightfully hailed as the game that saved Western RPGs. Even after all these years, Zhang Yuan would occasionally click that nostalgic avatar icon and control the hero Chane Mcha as he strolled across the already familiar land of Faerûn.
On one hand, the game he had eagerly awaited had finally launched; on the other, he was worried about its unknown quality and reputation. As Zhang Yuan entered the Steam store, his heart was as anxious as it had been when receiving a marked test paper from a teacher.
After entering the page, he glanced at the rating: overwhelmingly positive! With most of the weight in his heart lifted, Zhang Yuan demonstrated an essential quality of a true fan: he headed straight for the target—uh, the review section.
Most of the guys in the review section were probably longtime fans of the Baldur's Gate series as well, and most of them were supportive of this sequel.
However, after browsing for a while, Zhang Yuan discovered that Baldur's Gate 3 was still a half-finished product. He could understand the incomplete main storyline and the many bugs still being worked out. After all, it was not finished yet, and it was too early to pass final judgment. But the gameplay of Baldur's Gate 3 still concerned him somewhat: turn-based combat.
Traditional D&D games such as Baldur's Gate and Neverwinter Nights used real-time action RPG systems that could be paused at any time—in other words, semi-turn-based combat. Aside from the equally familiar Heroes of Might and Magic series, the only fully turn-based game Zhang Yuan had heard of was the famous Chinese Paladin, which he had never tried.
Please don't crash, he thought silently. Then he looked at the price: €59.99! For an international student, that was still rather expensive. Even though he really wanted to support an official copy, Old Zhang was not interested in spending a large sum of money to become a beta tester at his own expense.
Maybe he should wait? Perhaps after some time, G Fat would have a change of heart and put a green, loss-leading clearance-sale label on Baldur's Gate as well? The game was not finished yet anyway. It would be better to endure for now and buy it when it went on sale!
Zhang Yuan suppressed the urge to add it to his cart. After closing Steam, he had nothing else to do, so he moved the mouse back and forth across the Windows desktop, deliberately or otherwise stopping over the Baldur's Gate 2 icon.
This story was actually written in my spare time for fellow D&D fans to enjoy together—or at least, I was having a blast. I am not a professional writer, so I apologize that I cannot make any promises about the update schedule. But I will not abandon it! Determined gaze intensifies.
(PS: The first three chapters explain some settings and preparations. You can skim them; if you run into any questions, just come back and review them.)
Before you continue