In a daze, Lin Bei seemed to have a dream.
In the dream, he was named Lance, living in a world akin to a medieval society.
His parents were scholars studying ancient history, constantly roaming among the world's various ruins. He was left in the care of an old professor.
It wasn't until news of his parents' disappearance arrived from afar that Lance, growing up under the old professor's care, was influenced by the materials his parents left behind and became an ancient history scholar.
However, before Lance could graduate from the academy and set out to find his parents, a letter was delivered to him.
The sender was an old man who claimed to be a butler. He was hunched and gaunt, wearing a pair of battered, round-framed glasses. Although his clothes were old, they still bore a faded hint of past aristocratic splendor.
For some reason, his stiff smile gave the terrifying impression of a zombie that had just crawled out of a grave.
He conveyed a message from a family I had never heard of: a distant noble relative of mine had passed away, leaving behind a huge inheritance and vast lands for me to inherit.
Just as I was marveling at this stroke of good fortune, the peculiar mark on the letter's wax seal filled me with unease.
It was a mark showing a semi-circle divided by five short lines. Despite scouring my memories, I couldn't identify it.
Although I felt uneasy, I opened the envelope for some reason, hoping to learn more about this distant relative and the inheritance.
Then I saw the line: "Our family has fallen…" I remembered. I remembered everything! At that moment, I understood the terrible truth of this world.
He cursed, "Damn! This blasted game won't even leave me alone in my dreams!"
Lin Bei woke up with a start, as if from a nightmare. He found himself not in his familiar room; instead, violent jolting told him he was constantly moving.
By the dim yellow glow of a hanging lamp, Lin Bei could see he was inside a gloomy wooden carriage. Two people were sitting opposite him.
One was clad in full medieval knight's armor, a longsword propped beside him. A cross emblem on his chest indicated a connection with the Church.
The other man wore an old, stiff leather coat. A scarf was wrapped around his neck, covering the lower half of his face. A short sword was tucked into one side of his belt, and an antique-looking short-barreled flintlock pistol into the other.
It's too similar…
The strange dream and the current scene gave Lin Bei a bad feeling. He looked down at his clothes: a medieval-style, fitted coat over a fine linen undershirt, with narrow trousers and riding boots.
He turned his head to the window but saw only pitch blackness. The glass reflected a handsome, black-haired young man with a somewhat delicate, scholarly air.
The light from the carriage lamps penetrated only two or three meters into the darkness, but he could still faintly discern twisted trees and haphazardly placed tombstones by the roadside.
No way! Lin Bei already knew what had happened upon seeing this, but he still forced himself to find the letter on his person, seeking a final shred of comfort.
Upon reading the first sentence, he had no choice but to accept reality.
He had transmigrated, and into the world of a game.
One moment, Lin Bei was an ordinary person playing a game at his computer; the next, he had become Lance, the heir, speeding down an old road in a carriage.
This discovery, however, filled him with immense panic. An indescribable pressure crushed his chest like a boulder, making even breathing an exhausting effort, nearly causing his heart to fail.
If he were truly on his way to receive a noble inheritance, he would have died laughing. Medieval times were chaotic, but inheriting a noble's legacy meant leaping from commoner to nobility in a single step. Then he could just exploit to his heart's content. How could such good fortune actually befall him?
But the problem was that the world of the game he had transmigrated into was characterized by utter despair and darkness.
The main storyline revolved around an Ancestor weary of a life of luxury. After glimpsing the Primordial God beneath the old estate, he began to excavate, explore, and research, directly or indirectly causing many problems in the process.
After witnessing the sealed Evil God underground, the Ancestor began scheming for godhood. He left behind a letter, passing all his troubles to the game's protagonist. The protagonist was then forced to carry out a massacre in the family's name across their lands. Every creature that died on that land would provide power for the Ancestor's ascension to godhood.
Players had to struggle against unimaginable enemies, famine, disease, and the relentless mental pressure, ultimately slaying the Ancestor to prevent the Evil God from descending and destroying the world.
Here, perhaps no one understood better than him that what he had inherited wasn't some noble estate, but a meat grinder that devoured flesh and blood.
This place teemed with enemies, wild beasts, abominations, Aberrant Demons, Bloodlines... all sorts of monsters. One also had to battle famine, curses, plagues, and human nature itself.
In the game, enduring hardships at least offered the chance to restart and accumulate experience and strength. But living for real in such a hopeless world, doomed to destruction, was essentially a dead end.
Thinking of this, Lin Bei couldn't help but clutch his head and tear at his thick black hair.
I want to go home…
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But an inexplicable voice, seemingly from nowhere, swept away his irritation and anxiety, replacing them with an expression of ecstatic joy.
Looking at the panel before him, he realized his 'cheat' had arrived.
Name: Lance Hamlet
Occupation: Otherworldly Retainer
Level: Traveller
Equipment: Empty
Abilities:
[Sacrifice]: Sacrifice enemies to an unknown entity in exchange for gifts.
[Bless]: Consume gifts to bestow Strengthening.
Traits:
[Sanctuary]: Your soul is protected by an unknown entity and is not eroded.
[Ancient Bloodline]: The blood flowing through your veins grants you inspiration far beyond that of ordinary people.
[Heir]: Your status as a noble heir makes you persuasive.
[Innate Talent]: Your powerful talent increases your learning efficiency.
So, my name is Lance now, huh?
Living in the modern era of information explosion, his ability to absorb and process information was strong. He quickly accepted his new identity and extracted key details from the panel.
[Otherworldly Retainer] was an occupation not seen in the game. From the word 'Retainer,' combined with the description of the [Sacrifice] ability, it clearly involved an unknown and powerful entity. This was probably the key to his transmigration and his 'cheat.'
The level quantified strength. In the game, a Traveller was a level 0 novice. Above that were Apprentice, Brave, Elite, Master, Champion, and Legendary.
The difference between abilities and traits was that one type was active and the other passive. Traits could also reflect one's fundamental nature to some extent.
Furthermore, [Sanctuary] and [Innate Talent] corresponded, to some extent, to immunity from mental pressure and doubled experience gain, respectively.
Then there was [Ancient Bloodline], which corresponded to the special nature of Lance's own bloodline.
In a story with a Cthulhu Mythos backdrop, having too high a level of inspiration was not a good thing.
The family's bloodline probably concealed some secret. That was why the Ancestor had exhibited traits beyond ordinary people and, with the aid of the Blood Brew, could even glimpse the Evil God's seal buried deep underground.
However, all this had to be set aside for now. His top priority was to figure out how to survive in this world.