Why had Ren Suo chosen "Cross My Corpse"? He had considered it carefully.
He knew that the games in the Little World Game Console were all extraordinary. Before playing them, he could only gain a rough understanding of their content from the descriptions—which was basically useless.
In that case, Ren Suo had to use another set of data to evaluate the differences between the games.
In "Assassin's Bloodstained Banquet," he had received an "Extraordinary" rating of 80 points and been rewarded with 15 Merit Points.
In "If You're Strong, Climb 10,000 Meters," he had also received an "Extraordinary" rating of 80 points and been rewarded with 24 Merit Points.
Ignoring the differences in game genres, at the same score, rating, and star-level difficulty, "If You're Strong, Climb 10,000 Meters" did indeed earn more Merit Points than "Assassin's Bloodstained Banquet." At the same time, Ren Suo had clearly felt that the former was more difficult than the latter.
Thus, Ren Suo arrived at an unprovable conclusion: among games of the same star level, the higher the maximum Merit Point reward, the greater the difficulty.
Therefore, although both were two-star games, "Infiltration: Chapter One," with a maximum reward of 100 Merit Points, was more difficult than "Cross My Corpse: Chapter One," whose maximum reward was 80 Merit Points.
Setting aside "Slaughter Dungeon," which Ren Suo had directly given up on because of its terrible cost-performance ratio, the easier "Cross My Corpse" should have been the best stepping stone for him to try a two-star game.
Otherwise, if Ren Suo chose a game that was too difficult to clear, it would mean losing this month's free game. Without earning Merit Points, he might not even be able to afford a game the next time he encountered a discount.
After spending one point to obtain the key, Ren Suo now had only 25 Merit Points. He did not believe that was enough to buy any game—the games from last month had already been discounted by 50%, yet Ren Suo still could not afford them. He could only afford something like the mini-game "If You're Strong, Climb 10,000 Meters."
Even if he encountered more discounts later, they might not be greater than 50% off. If they were only 10% or 20%, Ren Suo might only be able to watch helplessly as they passed him by, waiting until next month's free game refreshed before figuring out how to clear it and earn Merit Points.
"Slaughter Dungeon" was the safest, but had the lowest cost-performance ratio. "Infiltration: Chapter One" was the riskiest, but had the highest returns.
As a proper Xuan Country person, Ren Suo was steeped in the doctrine of moderation to his very bones, so he chose the middle option: "Cross My Corpse."
What? Was Ren Suo too cowardly? Did he not seem like a protagonist?
...After obtaining the Little World Game Console, Ren Suo had still wanted to become a civil servant. Clearly, he was not very ambitious.
His family was not exceptionally wealthy, but they were an ordinary household free of illness and pain. While growing up, he had not been a standout figure in class, but because he had always attended good high schools, he had never encountered campus bullying. Nor had he ever had a girlfriend dump him for being poor and choose a rich second-generation heir instead—he would have needed a girlfriend first.
However, Ren Suo did not think this was cowardice at all. It was caution—well, it meant the same thing anyway.
"Choose Cross My Corpse!"
"The player has selected the free chapter. This month's free chapter for 'Cross My Corpse' is 'Chapter One: Recorded in History.' Game difficulty: 2 stars." "The difficulty of this free chapter is 2 stars. Its exclusive reward is 'Strong Heart Technique.'" "The deadline for playing this game chapter is April 31, 23:59:59. Once the time expires, this game will be automatically deleted."
Upon entering the game, Ren Suo immediately felt the grandeur of a game that offered so many Merit Points and was divided into chapters. Like "Killer," it had an opening CG.
"At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, eunuchs held exclusive power, imperial relatives controlled the court, and aristocratic clans dominated every region. The people throughout the realm could barely survive..."
"In 184 AD, the Yellow Turban Rebellion erupted, shaking the capital..."
"This war, which lasted four years, not only exhausted the last remnants of the Han imperial family's foundation, but also caused powerful figures throughout the land to carve out territories for themselves..."
"In 189 AD, the young emperor Liu Bian ascended the throne, and the conflict between imperial relatives and eunuchs reached a fever pitch. Grand General He Jin died in the Imperial Palace, while Dong Zhuo's army, summoned before his death, entered Luoyang and seized control of the court. That same year, Dong Zhuo deposed Liu Bian, installed Liu Xie as a puppet emperor, named herself Chancellor of State, and monopolized control over the court."
"In 190 AD, the Eighteen Route Lords formed the Guandong Allied Army and fought Dong Zhuo's forces fiercely at Hulao Pass, with neither side able to prevail. Dong Zhuo's army relocated to Chang'an, while the lords each harbored their own ambitions and disagreements before breaking camp and scattering."
Ren Suo watched the ink-wash painting of massive armies clashing on the screen and nodded to himself. "Could this be a strategy game? Like Romance of the Three Kingdoms, where you choose a lord and conquer the realm?"
The late Eastern Han had split into Three Kingdoms, with flames of war raging without end. Ren Suo had not only played related games, but also watched plenty of television dramas and comics, so he was naturally familiar with the setting.
However, the next second, the screen's style shifted from weighty history into a terrifying ghostly realm. "Yet when Dong Zhuo led the Western Liang Army away from Chang'an, she not only forcibly ordered the people to leave and burned the city, causing countless casualties, but also looted tombs and dug up graves, destroying every Han imperial mausoleum!"
"Emperor Guangwu of Han used arts capable of spanning heaven and earth to summon meteors from beyond the heavens, annihilate all evil spirits and demons, and reclaim the Han dynasty's realm. Afterward, he adjusted the Central Plains Dragon Vein, using the Great Han Imperial Mausoleum as the formation core and the dragon vein as its channels. Borrowing the immense power of heaven's will, the earth's veins, and humanity's order, he completely sealed the spiritual veins beneath the Central Plains, strangling the birth of all demons at its source."
"Now that the imperial mausoleums have been destroyed, the dragon veins are in chaos, and the great formation has failed, spiritual veins have once again appeared across the Central Plains. Demons are about to revive, and the heroes of the realm will also benefit from the spiritual veins. From this point onward, the world will become like the dark ages of the Shang, Qin, and Han Dynasties, with demons using sorcery to throw the realm into chaos and heroes relying on great power to contend for the common people..."
"But Emperor Guangwu of Han had foreseen this long ago and had already prepared countermeasures."
"At the beginning of the Han restoration, Emperor Guangwu established Yuntai Pavilion in order to preserve the dynasty and the imperial family's inheritance. He dispatched twenty-eight generals to gather cultivation methods that could devastate the world. As the spiritual veins were suppressed, cultivation throughout the realm faded into mortality, and cultivation methods became absurd tales of gods and monsters that gradually disappeared. The cultivation systems of cultivators and demons directly collapsed."
"If the spiritual veins revive, it will mean that the imperial mausoleums have been damaged, the dragon veins are in disorder, and the Han dynasty is in great turmoil. For this reason, Emperor Guangwu of Han sought out the descendants of the Champion Marquis Huo Family, sealed Yuntai Pavilion's cultivation methods within their bloodline, and placed three shackles upon it:
First, they must swear to defend the Han dynasty unto death and must not interfere with political power;
Second, without violating the first rule, they must swear to eliminate demons unto death;
Third, without violating the first two rules, they must continue the family line.
Violating any one of these rules will trigger the curse of the Champion Bloodline, and the shackles will continue to strengthen!"
"Now, as the spiritual veins revive, the descendants of the Huo family, who have concealed their identities, have awakened the talents... and mission hidden deep within their bloodline."
The game CG ended there, and an input box immediately appeared:
"Please enter the family surname: Huo."
The default was the Huo family... Ren Suo thought for a moment, then very naturally changed the surname to "Ren."
"Please enter the name of the first-generation family head: **"
Based on the wuxia novels Ren Suo had read before, he entered "Wo Xing," because that was truly the most domineering name he had ever heard for someone surnamed Ren... When he was in third grade, he had once wanted to change his name to Ren Wo Xing. Then his father picked up a feather duster and told him, "Your name is Ren Wo Xing? Then I, your father, will be Ren Wo Da."
Ren Wo Xing had been beaten into submission by Ren Wo Da, and his renaming plan had died prematurely.
The scene on the screen changed, revealing a green mountain with more than a dozen graves upon it. Three young men were kneeling before the graves, burning paper offerings.
The handsome, sturdy young man kneeling in the middle, Ren Wo Xing, said, "Second Brother, Third Brother, stop crying. The Ren family only has us left now. We must shoulder our responsibilities and complete our mission."
"Mission... mission?!" Third Brother Ren Fei Fan wiped his nose and cried, "Fine, we'll complete the mission, but why did father, mother, grandfather, grandmother, uncle, and all the others have to die so horribly!?"
"Third Brother, think back on the inherited knowledge." Second Brother Ren Chang Sheng sniffled and gradually calmed down. "This is the curse of the Champion Bloodline. Those who possess the Champion Bloodline are born with powerful cultivation talent and flawless bodies. In the era of spiritual vein revival, they can rapidly become powerful Qi Refiners."
"However, a truly flawless body is nearly one with the Dao. We merely approach a flawless body. Once we pass twenty-four years of age, the flawless body will be completed. The instant we come into contact with spiritual energy, it will tear our bodies apart... Not even an inch of flesh or bone will remain, only a pool of blood."
"The Champion Bloodline is both beloved by heaven and earth, and cursed by fate."
Ren Fei Fan let out another wail and burst into tears.
Before you continue