Zhang Yuan still could not let go of the new Baldur's Gate game as he clicked into an old Baldur's Gate WeiDU collection. Looking at his save files, he suddenly had no interest in clicking on any of them.
"Men are always fickle." Zhang sighed. For a moment, he did not know whether to keep playing or go back and play a few rounds of auto-battler.
Why not create a new character save? With that thought, Zhang Yuan clicked on a new game while considering which class and build to play this time.
But after looking through them, he found that he had already played these classes and schools of magic to death. There was no freshness left at all. Sigh. If only there were a class that could summon those auto-battler pieces.
Wait. There isn't one, but why don't I try making one myself? There are quite a few experts on San Da Ma and Tieba who develop their own MODs. Zhang Yuan suddenly got a new idea.
Once the thought came to him, he acted on it! Among the four great gods who protected Baldur's Gate, Sarevok and Shadow Keeper were naturally the best known, but DEBUG and DLTCEP could not be ignored either. In particular, most Charnems had no use for DLTCEP's divine power at all. To veteran MOD developers, however, it was a sharp tool for weaving their own fantasies.
As a computer science major, Zhang Yuan was not intimidated. After downloading and installing the software, he read through its instructions while searching for tutorial videos made by other experts. Before long, he had completely forgotten about playing the game.
Only after truly getting started did Zhang Yuan discover that things were not so simple. It was not enough merely to add a new school and summoning spells. The crucial question was: what was he supposed to do about the summoned creatures?
This was not some all-purpose Warcraft editor where he could directly set any model and import its appearance. To solve this problem, he had pulled out several handfuls of hair over the past two days without coming up with a suitable solution.
After thinking it over, he opened the auto-battler and created a single-player room, browsing through the diverse pieces in an attempt to find similar substitutes in the world of Baldur's Gate.
The result was naturally unsatisfactory. How could the differences between two entirely different worldviews and completely different art styles be solved so easily? They were even from entirely different dimensions—2D and 3D.
Zhang Yuan had been fired up for a moment, only to find himself completely stuck, and he grew embarrassed and angry. He frantically clicked the DLTCEP window like a madman. "Damn it, transform for me! Transform! Transform! Transform into Baldur's Gate 4: Chess Skills!"
Before long, whether because it was too old, because the multitasking load was too heavy, or because too much dust had accumulated from a lack of cleaning, the overburdened computer monitor went black and the power cut out. The computer died on the spot.
Still abusing the keyboard, Zhang Yuan angrily hammered the innocent device, then stood up and viciously jabbed the computer's power button with his left foot.
Perhaps the computer had leaked electricity, or perhaps it was simply some other unknown cause. This time, Zhang Yuan himself closed his eyes, kicked his legs, and collapsed onto the floor of his home.
Lifting his heavy eyelids slightly, Zhang Yuan saw a thread of dim, murky light. After struggling and gasping for quite a while, he finally managed to pull himself upright, only to discover that he was no longer in his tiny apartment.
He looked around. Wisps of obscure, incomprehensible chaos qi flowed around him like smoke or ocean currents. They gathered like a vortex, stirring up waves, then dispersed into nothingness like wind in the blink of an eye.
Zhang Yuan was no longer merely dumbstruck. He resembled a rooster being strangled, his mouth hanging open as he turned his head like a hippopotamus struck by lightning, examining his surroundings.
This unprecedented scene not only gave him an intense sense of unreality, but also stirred up a deep fear of the unknown in his heart.
Afraid that the ground beneath his feet might also be made of those chaotic clouds, Zhang Yuan hurriedly looked down. To his surprise, the ground beneath him looked quite sturdy. He jumped a few times. Hmm? It neither shook nor collapsed.
Only after his heart relaxed did Zhang Yuan have the presence of mind to examine his surroundings carefully. The ground covered an area roughly the size of a basketball court, floating amid the chaotic mist like a city in the clouds from a fantasy.
Zhang Yuan cautiously approached the edge of the flat ground, afraid of falling off. To his surprise, the chaos that looked like mist actually had substance. Like the padded walls of a karaoke room, it gently yet firmly resisted the probing of his fingers.
Seeing that there was no result, Zhang Yuan turned back toward the ground and was surprised to notice a detail he had overlooked. The marble-like platform was divided by more than a dozen lighter-colored lines into a chessboard pattern, like crisscrossing fields. The more he looked, the more familiar it seemed. Zhang Yuan suddenly realized: wasn't this the auto-battler chessboard?
When he saw the eight circular stone platforms at the other end, he became even more certain. Could it be? Have I been chosen by the so-called auto-battler system?
Zhang Yuan had spent years roaming Qidian and had seen his share of things. System stories, cheat-ability stories, extreme-path stories, and so on were all familiar to him.
Yet after examining his surroundings for a long time, Zhang Yuan could not find any supposed supreme god or old grandpa. Instead, he unexpectedly found a stone the size of a chicken egg in the center of the chessboard. He picked it up and looked closely, only to realize that it was not a pebble, but something familiar to countless TRPG players.
A twenty-sided die! This core item of D&D and many tabletop games had just fallen into Zhang Yuan's hands.
That doesn't make sense. Auto-battler isn't an RPG, and it isn't its ancestor Mahjong either. Why would it use dice?
After a moment of doubt, Zhang Yuan remembered the scene before he had passed out. Could it be? Could I really have combined Baldur's Gate with auto-battler? Can I actually take this cheat ability to Faerûn and act justly—or run rampant?
Zhang Yuan was overjoyed, then felt deeply gratified and began praising DLTCEP. "You've finally become a mature editor. You even created the cheat MOD yourself."
Since he was already here, he would make the best of it. As a battle-hardened and well-informed man, Zhang Yuan could not be bothered to dwell on pointless conspiracy theories. Body snatching? Fishing for bait? Whatever.
To say nothing of the fact that he had contributed greatly to the cheat's completion himself—namely, by opening the program, crashing the computer, and force-restarting it—there was not much anyone could gain from his hundred or so kilograms of flesh.
No matter what happened in the future, grasping the step before him was the most important thing. Zhang Yuan had never forgotten the trial Charnem encountered in Baldur's Gate on the road from Athkatla's sewers to the abandoned temple. We crossed the river of time over the bridge called life, and the most important step we took was the one right in front of us.
After spending his entire youth in mediocrity and muddleheadedness, Zhang Yuan would never give up this cheat ability, no matter what.
Just as he was thinking this, the die in his hand began to tremble on its own. A bright light projected into Zhang Yuan's pupils. A pop-up window appeared before his eyes:
DLTCEP Auto-Battler System activated. Beginning automatic binding. Yes? No?
Zhang Yuan hurriedly waved his fingers, trying to click the buttons in the pop-up window, but it was useless. The window projected into his eyes was like a mirage. Aside from air, he could not catch anything.
Wait. Could it be controlled by thought? Zhang Yuan concentrated and silently repeated, Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes!!!! The pop-up window suddenly jerked as if it had been poked in the chrysanthemum, then vanished without a trace.
While Zhang Yuan waited anxiously, the die began spinning on its own. A horizontal beam of light shot out from it and scanned him from head to toe. Then a new window popped up:
Owner: Zhang Yuan Race: Human Identity: Auto-Battler Courier Class: None Age: 24 Alignment: Lawful Neutral Strength: 12 Dexterity: 8 Constitution: 12 Intelligence: 14 Wisdom (Perception): 10 Charisma: 9 (PS: The attribute template above follows the 3rd Edition D&D rules and differs somewhat from Baldur's Gate 1 and 2. By the way, capping attributes at 25 is kind of ridiculous.)
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