Chapter One: Invincible Hero? Judgment

The weather was bitterly cold, and the gray street lay empty. Li Bin walked alone, muttering under his breath, “What a joke. Just because I tweaked a few work programs, they kicked me out! If I hadn’t been so bored, I’d never have taken that stupid job in the first place!”

“Sir, are you feeling bored?” A voice sounded behind him.

Li Bin turned to see a vending robot, its eyes flickering with a peculiar light.

“That’s right. I’m out of work again,” Li Bin sighed. “So, what have you got for me? Anything new?”

“Of course. There’s a new game called Judgment. How about giving it a try?” The robot let out a mechanical chuckle.

“A game? I don’t know. They’re all the same. Play for a few years, then quit, and you’re even more bored than before,” Li Bin shook his head.

“But at least for a while, you won’t be bored!” The robot did not deny Li Bin’s words directly.

“Fine, I’ll take one.” Li Bin pressed the selection key on the robot, then turned and walked away.

As soon as he stepped into his apartment, his personal housekeeper robot, Kaka, reported, “Master, the game you ordered has been installed. Your account is ready. Would you like to start playing now, or—”

“Leave the game for later, Kaka. How many credit points do we have left?” Li Bin interrupted.

“Three thousand four hundred and seventy points, which should last until the next credit allocation day,” Kaka replied.

“Any way to squeeze some into the game? Otherwise, playing as an ordinary user is mind-numbingly dull.”

“That may not be possible. But during the next credit allocation, you can apply for more points.”

“Apply, you say? Easy for you. Sure, credit points are handed out freely, but just enough for a basic living. If you want more, you need a valid reason. Otherwise, there’s no chance. Looks like I’ll be playing for free while those rich kids get all the perks.” Li Bin let out a long sigh.

“At least you won’t be bored for a while,” Kaka responded.

“There it is again. I’ve heard enough of that line,” Li Bin shouted. But he soon calmed down and headed to his room. “Kaka, start the game for me.”

“Understood…”

“Welcome, vie—”

“All right, enough with the speeches. Just introduce your game,” Li Bin said, waving off the system’s welcome message as he entered the virtual world.

“Certainly. Our game is primarily based on the legendary Heroes of Might and Magic XX from three centuries ago, complemented by elements from Western games like Warcraft and Dungeons & Dragons. We—”

“Heroes of Might and Magic, huh? Let me see…” Li Bin somehow produced a game manual and flipped through it. “It’s a campaign-style game, right? How is time measured?”

“One standard game day—two hours in real time—makes up one round,” the system replied dutifully.

“What about the initial player setup?”

“As a regular player, you can select your race, assign your starting attributes, choose one unique skill and one general skill, and purchase your initial troops.”

“All right, randomize it for me…” Li Bin said impatiently.

“I’m afraid that’s not possible.”

“Why not?” Li Bin was surprised by the response.

“In our game, there are no privileges at the start. All players receive the same choices. Randomizing would be unfair to those VIPs who gave up their status for this,” the system explained.

“Of course, it’s always about the VIPs. Fine, let’s begin.” Li Bin sighed again, already assessing the game’s playability in his mind.

A beam of light shot in front of him as the system prompted, “Now it’s time to select your race. There are 37,229 races in the game, divided into nine major categories: sovereign nations led by humans; the natural faction of elves and dwarves; the barbarian faction of beastmen; the infernal faction of demons; the undead faction; the dark faction of subterranean creatures; the elemental faction; the mechanized faction of constructs; and the free faction of assorted others. As a regular user, you may choose only the main categories; the system will randomize the rest.”

“So VIPs can choose freely?” Li Bin asked, dissatisfied.

“Not exactly. Every race has a set price. They select their desired race by purchasing it,” the system replied.

“I see. Money does have its advantages. All right, I’ll take the undead faction,” Li Bin said helplessly, knowing he couldn’t compete with the wealthy.

“Undead faction, please wait.” The light in front of him turned silvery gray. Soon the system announced, “Congratulations, you are a Mummy—an undead magic-and-might race, with a bonus in curse magic.”

Within the gray light, a desiccated corpse tightly wrapped in yellowed, nearly crumbling bandages appeared.

Li Bin pointed at the bandages. “Can I change how I look?”

“Your appearance can be modified. However, ordinary mummies are restricted to these yellow bandages. If you complete your racial quest and advance to Greater Mummy, you’ll get snow-white bandages. At the Pharoah level, they become silver, and as a Pharaoh King, they’re golden. At the Grand Pharaoh King level, you may choose any color you like…”

“So what can I change about my appearance?”

“Height, build, maybe add a mask to your face…”

“All right, give me a mask that roughly matches my own features,” Li Bin said, tossing out a few details.

Soon he had adjusted the mummy’s appearance to his satisfaction. The system then prompted, “Now assign your initial attributes. You have two types: 25 points for combat attributes—Strength, Agility, Constitution, Intelligence, Perception, Charisma; and 5 points for campaign attributes—Attack, Defense, Knowledge, Wisdom, and Leadership.”

Drawing on his past online gaming experience, Li Bin distributed his combat attributes to suit a magician’s role.

He then asked about the campaign attributes. Learning that Attack, Defense, Knowledge, Wisdom, and Leadership affected his troops’ attack bonus, defense bonus, magic power, mana points, and the number of units he could lead, he set them as follows: Attack 0, Defense 1, Knowledge 1, Wisdom 2, Leadership 1.

The system gave no further guidance. “Next, select your unique personal skill. You may specify any skill you desire, as long as the system deems it to be C-level or below.”

“I know the undead get Necromancy. I’d like to summon specific special units with it,” Li Bin said.

“That’s possible through advanced Necromancy, so you needn’t choose it now.”

“What about summoning mechanical constructs?”

“Undead constructs? Interesting. Let me check…” The system hesitated. “Approved. Your unique skill is Undead Engineering. Early on, you can summon basic attack constructs. Later, you may summon constructs one tier lower than the mechanized faction’s equivalents.”

“And for my general starting skill?”

“War Machines.”

“Very well, your skills are Basic Undead Engineering, Basic War Machines, and Basic Necromancy. Special note: As a Mummy, your Necromancy has a 1% chance to summon a mummy one tier lower than your own as a bodyguard. Any other questions?”

“No.”

“Now, let’s look at your starting troops.”

A host of icons appeared before Li Bin. “You have five thousand points to spend on soldiers. At present, you may lead three squads of first-tier units and two squads of second-tier units (twelve per squad). You may also recruit up to three heroes, but each costs over five thousand points, so you cannot afford one yet.”

“What about those tents and wagons?”

“Oh, those are mobile settlements, providing logistical support to your forces, but the price is…” The system sounded hesitant.

“I’ll take one,” Li Bin said decisively for reasons unknown to himself. “I want the Graveyard Demon.”

“All right, one Graveyard Demon, two thousand three hundred points,” the system replied.

“Give me two squads of Skeletons and one squad of Corpse Soldiers.”

“Sorry, you lack the points. If you give up the Graveyard Demon, you could…”

“No. Just halve the Corpse Soldiers. That should do, right?”

“That may still be insufficient. After two squads of Skeletons, you can only afford three Corpse Soldiers. This could hinder your development.”

“Three it is. Let’s settle it. What’s next?”

“Design your battle standard.”

“My banner? Make it purple with a white butterfly. Add storm motifs around the butterfly. Call it the Storm Butterfly Banner,” Li Bin said, recalling the legend of a butterfly’s wings stirring up a great tempest.

“Very well. Now, for your final pre-game choice: random resources, random gold, or a random artifact?”

“Random artifact.”

“Excellent. Have fun.”

With that blessing, a beam of silver light swept Li Bin into the game…