The day Lin Cuo got the system, he was in the process of transferring his Paradox game save files from Hearts of Iron to Stellaris.
After deleting it three times in the input box, he finally ended up changing the name to the Fourth Galactic Holy Roman Great Ming Imperium.
The time in the bottom right corner of the screen had already ticked to 3:12 AM.
He had Crusader Kings III, Europa Universalis IV, Victoria 3, Hearts of Iron IV, and Stellaris open on his desktop all at once, along with a cross-era conversion mod that Lin Cuo had modified to the point where even the original author would not recognize it.
He had started as an Earl of Hexi family, scheming his way to emperor through arranged marriages and a few less-than-honorable accidental successions; then he converted the feudal empire into Europa Universalis, reforming the bureaucracy, developing trade, and colonizing overseas; next, he transitioned into Victoria, laying railroad tracks, running factories, fostering labor unions, suppressing rebellions, and then raising workers' wages; and finally, he completed full mobilization in Hearts of Iron, exhausting the entire world's manpower before taking the remaining population into space and declaring that the whole universe would share a common destiny from then on.
Just as the save transfer finished, the game launcher suddenly froze.
Five game icons turned gray simultaneously, and immediately following that, a window he had never seen before popped up.
[Complete civilization evolution chain detected.]
[Completed: dynasty politics, modern state, industrial society, total war, stellar civilization.]
[Player's final objective detected: establish a transnational, trans-civilization, trans-world alliance.]
[Load current evolution objective into reality?]
There were only two options below.
"Turn on Iron Man mode."
"Exit."
Lin Cuo stared at that window for a moment, wondering if some malicious mod author had stuffed an easter egg into the launcher.
Immediately after, he watched the exit button turn gray by itself.
You won't even let me quit, so what's the point of asking.
He casually clicked on Iron Man mode.
The monitor flashed white directly. There was no explosion, no electric shock, and no delivery truck crashing in from the twenty-second floor.
Lin Cuo didn't even have time to feel the standard-issue pain of a transmigrator. When he opened his eyes again, only a world map suspended in darkness remained in front of him.
On the map, America was almost connected into a single piece, covered in a deep blue. Europe, North Africa, and western Siberia were painted green, while the Eastern continent was a vast expanse of vermilion.
Lin Cuo's first reaction was that he had entered some heavily modified World War I mod.
His second reaction was that this mod author's geography skills seemed somewhat abnormal.
His third reaction came from the country names slowly floating above the map.
[Holy Britannian Empire]
[E.U.]
[Chinese Federation]
"What the hell, it's Code Geass."
[System binding complete.]
[Final objective: establish a sustainably functioning human alliance across multiple worlds.]
[The first world is a low-difficulty tutorial scenario.]
[Allowing the player to choose a starting faction and undergo character creation conforming to the world's rules.]
Low difficulty.
Looking at the Britannian Empire, which occupied almost half the earth on the map, Lin Cuo wasn't too nervous inside.
This world indeed had plenty of danger, but it possessed one major advantage.
He knew the plot, he knew the main characters, and coupled with the Paradox system, it was practically equivalent to entering a ranked match while running spectator mode.
As long as he didn't start out in too ridiculous of a location, the difficulty was genuinely limited.
Lin Cuo clicked on the E.U. first.
The map unfolded instantly. Paris, Madrid, Rome, Berlin, North Africa, and vast swaths of losing eastern territory lit up layer by layer.
The industrial zones, population, railways, and military strength were quite substantial. Judging solely by comprehensive national power, the E.U. was even much stronger than a certain alliance in his original world.
The Napoleon of this world had won the Battle of Trafalgar, pushed all the way back to counterattack Britain, and forced the queen to retreat to Edinburgh, where she was pressured by revolutionary citizens into declaring the abolition of the monarchy.
Although Napoleon himself failed to secure his throne and ended up on the guillotine, the military achievements he left behind truly allowed the European continent to complete its integration ahead of schedule.
At its peak, the E.U. not only controlled most of Europe, but also extended its tentacles into Siberia and North Africa.
Placed in a modern parallel world, this scale was already a superpower possessing a unified strategic depth, a complete military-industrial system, and a global colonial heritage.
Then, three hundred years passed.
Three executive secretaries, forty representatives, financial conglomerates, factional politics, endless electoral bargaining-anyone could veto, and no one took responsibility.
The front lines were losing while the committee held meetings; Britannian troops pushed westward while congressmen were still calculating the next election votes and military-industrial contracts.
The map looked like a giant, but the national spirits were as red as a critical condition notice.
[Chronic Parliamentary Gridlock]
[Plutocratic Oligarchy]
[Member state alienation]
[Military command fragmentation]
[War guilt shifting]
[Appeasement tendency toward Britannia]
Lin Cuo scrolled down the focus tree.
Three political routes, eight conflicting parliamentary prerequisites, and any random reform required rounding up enough votes in the Committee of Forty first; army reorganization took one hundred and forty days, unifying military commands needed another two hundred and ten days to wait, and there was still a chance in the middle that everything would be voided due to a commander reelection.
"This isn't low difficulty, this is practically joining the Nationalist army in forty-nine."
Napoleon's grand military achievements back then had simply been thoroughly ruined by this group of people.
He clicked on the Holy Britannia Empire next.
A global superpower.
First-tier industry, leading KMF technology, colonies spread across the globe, rich military combat experience, and astonishing reserves of resources and Sakuradite. As long as the birth location was suitable, even if he did nothing and rode the momentum of the national strength, he could still stumble into a decent ending.
Then Lin Cuo opened the imperial family tree, and the interface expanded downward another layer, then another layer, and was still expanding.
Charles zi Britannia sat high at the very top, and beneath him were densely packed imperial princes, princesses, collateral branches, relatives by marriage, military supporters, and mutually hostile court factions.
The system thoughtfully indicated the number of the emperor's children.
Lin Cuo took one look and directly collapsed the family tree back up.
Over a hundred children.
Behind every prince and princess were maternal clans, the military, and chaebols. The emperor openly preached social Darwinism, encouraging his children to compete against one another; on the surface he was busy conquering the world, while behind the scenes he was still pushing a grand project preparing to drag all of humanity into a collective consciousness.
Aside from that, there were the Geass Order, the World of C, immortals, the tradition of patricide, and a bunch of psychic ability users who might trigger at any moment.
Being born as an ordinary noble might get one used by the royal family to manage colonies.
Being born as a prince might mean getting killed off by brothers and sisters first.
Being born as a child favored by Charles was an even higher level of danger, because it meant he would very likely be dragged into that bizarre Ragnarok project.
Lin Cuo closed the Britannia interface without hesitation.
"Whoever loves to go can go."
Finally, only the Great Han Federation remained; the moment the system map expanded, Lin Cuo finally revealed a smile.
A massive population, vast territory, sufficient resources, and its own KMF industry and Sakuradite technology.
Although warlords were divided and the Great Eunuchs controlled the court administration, the biggest problem with this type of country was simply that its power had not been organized.
More importantly, the system was completing its technology tree synchronization.
Gao Hai mass-production lines, Sakuradite power, KMF joint drives, linear railguns, land combat command systems, railway transport, air forces, wireless communication, heavy industry, and experimental high-performance frame technology were incorporated one by one into a unified interface.
Among them were even the experimental specifications for the Shen Hu.
The Great Han Federation's original biggest problem was that advanced technology was scattered across various military districts, research institutes, and secret projects controlled by the Great Eunuchs, remaining mutually incompatible with one another.
Now the system told Lin Cuo precisely what he possessed, what he lacked, and what prerequisites each technology needed for further development.
The focus tree truly could not be considered strong, featuring a row of negative modifiers at the start that sent a person's blood pressure soaring.
Great Eunuch dictatorship, warlord separatism, unbalanced industrial development, and imperial edicts failing to leave Luoyang, but that did not matter.
A player was most adept at finding that single turnaround route amidst a full screen of red modifiers.
Lin Cuo quickly found a core focus that required two hundred and seventy days.
[Purge the Inner Court and Rebuild Central Authority.]
Requires emperor trust, Royalist support, and at least one directly subordinate military district.
Completing it could weaken the Great Eunuch faction, unlock central military reorganization, financial unification, and national industrial mobilization.
Lin Cuo read it twice, and a rough outline had already formed in his mind.
Endure at the start, win over Li Xingke, and control a directly subordinate army.
Deal with the Great Eunuchs in two hundred and seventy days, then find a way to contact Lelouch, pull Rakshata over to handle research, try as hard as possible to poach Lloyd, Cecile, Kallen, Li Xingke, and Suzaku-recruiting as many ace pilots as could be managed.
Britannia's roster was very strong, but he knew the plot and also carried a system; everyone cheating was equivalent to nobody cheating.
It was only necessary to clean up this bunch of dragging dead-weights in the Great Han Federation, and what remained would merely be a matter of population, industry, and time.
"Invincible across the world might be a stretch, but fighting Lelouch should be relatively unproblematic."
Once the faction was determined, the system entered character creation.
The familiar Crusader Kings III interface appeared before him.
Lin Cuo's first action was to drag the age to sixteen, just reaching adulthood, ensuring a long enough lifespan while keeping system point consumption low.
Then he began adding traits.
Genius.
Herculean.
Handsome.
Four-star management education.
Diligent.
Ambitious.
Calm.
The creation points in the upper right corner of the system soared all the way, quickly exceeding the limit, and the entire number turned a glaring red.
[Current character creation points: 846.] [Iron Man mode achievement eligibility will be revoked.]
"I've transmigrated for my life, who still cares about achievements?"
Lin Cuo clicked confirm, but the system did not respond.
[This system does not support disabling Iron Man mode.]
Lin Cuo had no choice but to downgrade genius to intelligent, delete the most expensive physical traits, and lower several attributes by a few points, finally managing to control the points within the allowed range.
Next was the background; ordinary commoners definitely would not do.
In an environment like the Great Han Federation, without family background and the military, even knowing the entire plot, it would still be very difficult to walk up to the Son of Heaven, and pure nobility was not suitable either-under the watchful eyes of the grand eunuchs, doing anything was inconvenient.
Lin Cuo shifted his gaze toward the northwest, toward the Hexi Lin Clan, a noble family that had guarded the passages of the Western Regions for generations.
His father had served as the Protector General of Anxi and the deputy commander-in-chief of the Hexi Military Region, dying two years ago in a border incident that could not be clearly explained; the family lacked deep roots in Luoyang, yet possessed quite a few supporters in the west.
Nominally, Lin Cuo inherited the title of the Duke of Liang and held traditional influence over parts of the military in both Hexi and Anxi.