Bestowing a Name: Hellscream!

Too much had happened today, leaving him feeling somewhat dazed.

First, that incredibly realistic game had appeared, followed by the awakening of his hidden talent, [Life Sacrifice Evolution].

Then he had used an ability from the game in reality, Lu Xiang had died a gruesome death, and Zhou Zheng had appeared.

One unbelievable event after another had upended the worldview he had held for years.

In the group chat, the other two had also returned home in a daze.

Cilantro Lover: "Sorry, Shen Xing, Jiayi. This is my fault."

Qin Lang felt guilty. He was the one who had obtained the glasses, dragging all three of them into this and leading to Lu Xiang's gruesome death.

I Eat Eat Eat Eat: "Don't say that. You couldn't have known things would turn out this way."

Shen Xing also sent a message: "Don't blame yourself too much. What's done is done, and there's no point dwelling on it."

"What we need to do now is take this game seriously. Our lives and livelihoods are at stake."

The other two realized this as well.

They couldn't play this game with the same casual attitude as before. They had to treat it as their toughest challenge.

After closing the group chat, Shen Xing put down his phone and stared at the ceiling, lost in thought.

From the looks of it, none of them know about talents. That means I'm the only one who activated a hidden talent.

That's my advantage, and what I'm relying on to survive in this game.

Next, I need to make the most of this talent and keep building up my strength.

Shen Xing put down his phone, put his glasses back on, and entered "Mist Reincarnation."

The scene flashed, and he appeared once more in the center of the dilapidated little village.

There were low black houses, a blazing campfire, and a row of goofy-looking green-skins resting beside it.

The orcs who had suffered minor injuries in the earlier battle had now recovered.

The campfire seemed to have some healing effect. Anyone within the reach of its light could slowly recover health and stamina.

"Boss in wheelchair... back... all... cleaned up..." The mohawked orc hurried over to greet him.

Shen Xing nodded slightly and began considering his plans for future development.

First of all, the game was extremely difficult, as Lu Xiang's defeat in the first wave of attacks had shown.

Even Qin Lang and Xu Jiayi had suffered losses to varying degrees in their first battles.

Without the hidden talent [Life Sacrifice Evolution], he probably wouldn't have fared much better, and might even have done worse.

But even so, he couldn't let his guard down.

After all, Lu Xiang had been killed by an elite lost one that had suddenly barged in. That meant the mist was full of more dangerous beings.

He needed to improve his strength as quickly as possible to deal with those threats.

First, let's take stock of the resources I have.

He opened his inventory, counted everything, and checked the item descriptions while he was at it.

[Soul Stone] ×12

[Food] ×109

[Vinar Silver Coin] ×13

[Broken Soul] ×11

All these materials were important.

The first, [Soul Stone], was the most crucial. It could be used to upgrade buildings, and troops could absorb it to raise their levels.

[Food] went without saying. It was the main resource for recruiting new troops and also served as the orcs' daily rations.

These guys can really fucking eat. I was only gone for a few hours, and they ate 11 food.

Shen Xing grumbled inwardly, then continued down the list.

The next item, [Vinar Silver Coin], was rather special.

It was needed to upgrade buildings, and it was also the common currency of this game world, usable for buying treasures or equipment.

As for the last item:

[Broken Soul]

[Item type: Synthesis material.]

[Item effect: 10 broken souls can be synthesized into one 'Dim Soul,' which has a certain chance of raising the star rating of a common troop.]

I see. Soul stones raise levels, and souls raise potential. Simple enough.

But... resources are extremely important in the early stages. I can't allocate them blindly.

Whether to use them to upgrade buildings or raise my troops' strength first still needs some thought.

Shen Xing considered it for a moment, then suddenly remembered that the middle-aged man named Zhou Zheng had said a text message would be sent to his phone.

It contained the address of China's internal game forum, which had plenty of guides.

Figuring things out on his own couldn't be as fast as reading guides.

After all, those were lessons the people before him had learned by stumbling into pitfalls again and again.

With that in mind, Shen Xing immediately took off his glasses.

He took out his phone and sure enough, saw a text from an unknown number, complete with an encrypted web address.

He clicked on it and found that he needed to verify and link his identity before he could access the forum.

Without much hesitation, he filled in his personal information.

After a few steps, his identity was verified, and a simple forum interface appeared.

Posts were refreshing in a dense cascade across the screen.

"Great news! I finally upgraded my minotaur camp to 'Champion★'! Now it recruits minotaur battle generals with the Earthsplitter Smash skill. This is awesome!"

"Fresh off the press: purple legion treasure [Death Herald's Knell]! It can massively boost undead units' strength for a short time. Selling it cheap for 2.2 million!"

"Help! Have any of you run into a monster called an 'Omen Fiend'? Its skill mechanics are fucking disgusting. It wiped out a whole squadron of my spearmen!"

"Newbie reporting in. I drew a one-star skeleton barracks. Experts, is there any hope for me?"

"So lively?"

Shen Xing watched the constantly refreshing posts and thought that Zhou Zheng had been right. A lot of people had come into contact with this game.

China's internal forum alone was this active; the number of pioneers worldwide was probably even more astonishing.

But they were all discussing advanced topics, full of terms Shen Xing didn't understand.

Then he noticed several fixed forum categories at the top, including [Beginner Section], [Monster Guides], [Real-World Commissions], and [Trading Community].

He clicked on the "Beginner Section" without hesitation.

A large number of featured and pinned posts appeared before him.

They included "A Newcomer's Survival Guide-What to Do in the First Three Days," "A Rundown of the Strengths and Weaknesses of Troops at Each Star Rating," and "The Golden Rules of Resource Planning."

"Nice. This is what I should be reading."

Shen Xing first opened a post titled "A Detailed Explanation of Troop Levels and Potential."

From the post, he gained a general understanding of how strength was classified in the Land of Mist.

In this game, troops and lords shared the same level classifications.

Levels 0-9 were the first tier. They had no formal title and were collectively known as the "apprentice" stage.

Levels 10-19 were the second tier and were known as the "transcendent" grade.

At this stage, lords could begin unlocking genuine supernatural abilities, and troops would undergo a qualitative transformation as well.

After that came the third-tier expert grade, the fourth-tier master grade... and the legendary fifth-tier hero grade.

According to the forum, master-grade powerhouses can fly, burrow underground, and destroy cities.

How powerful must the even higher hero grade be?

Shen Xing's heart surged as he read, and he felt an endless yearning for the world of these powerhouses.

The post also gave a detailed explanation of troop star ratings, otherwise known as potential grades.

Common → elite → champion → chief → overlord. There were five star grades in all.

Each grade was further divided into three stars.

For example, elite★, elite★★, and elite★★★. Once a troop reached the maximum, it could absorb souls to attempt to advance to the next star grade.

The gap between grades was enormous, and each advancement also unlocked different evolutionary paths.

I see. Even the trashiest starting troops can keep evolving by raising their potential.

It's just that some troops have a low potential ceiling and can only rise to champion grade.

Others are born with a high ceiling. They might have chief-grade potential from the start and could even rise to overlord grade later.

Shen Xing nodded thoughtfully, gaining a better understanding of the game's troop development system.

Then he suddenly remembered that he had come looking for a guide to allocating resources in the early stages.

He quickly found what he was looking for among the pinned posts.

"A must-read for beginners! Allocating and planning early-stage resources."

He clicked on it, and the contents appeared before him.

A verified user named Family Hero wrote: "As everyone knows, combat in this game is extremely difficult, and the resources available in the early stages are limited.

"So we must make good use of every resource to maximize our returns."

This passage drew agreement and complaints from a large number of newcomers, who had evidently all been taught a harsh lesson by the first wave of attacks.

Chapter 8: Bestowing a Name: Hellscream!

Family Hero continued: "After the first wave of battle, we need to actively explore the mist. We can't keep hiding in the village.

"Otherwise, when the second wave of attacks arrives, we won't have any room to resist.

"Before that, I recommend using the [Soul Stones] you have to raise your troops' levels.

"Troops are fairly easy to level up early on. One [Soul Stone] gets a troop to level 2, and two get it to level 3. It's very cost-effective.

"I recommend having at least three troops at level 2 or higher before you have a reasonable chance of exploring around the village."