Sacred Calendar, July 7th, 1886. Clear skies.
Berman City, Eastern District.
"Rick, Rick..."
The voice calling his name pulled his thoughts back from a hazy dream to reality.
Rick turned his head and saw a middle-aged man with brown hair wearing a black uniform glaring at him.
"What are you spacing out for? Get moving and start your patrol!"
"Ah, yes, Captain..."
Rick replied instinctively.
After the middle-aged man left, he suddenly felt confused. Wait, who am I? Where am I? What's happening?
"This place is..."
Cobblestone streets stretched across his field of vision. The buildings lining both sides were familiar yet strange—towering spires, steep and complex rooflines, and beneath swaying brass signboards, pedestrians bustled back and forth through the streets and alleys. Their appearances, attire, demeanor, and conversational styles all differed from the impressions buried deep in Rick's memory.
But these differences quickly merged during that brief moment of confusion, and finally, accompanied by the distant sound of steam whistles, Rick understood like someone waking from a long dream—oh, I've transmigrated!
And it was a soul transmigration from birth. Only now, after awakening his past-life memories, did he realize who he really was.
Having merged twenty years of memories, Rick didn't feel any rejection toward his current environment. He quickly sorted out the situation.
The Augustus Empire, an ancient nation that had existed on the Rhea Continent for a thousand years, was now in turmoil due to the emperor's increasingly severe illness over the past year. The imperial heirs were in constant dispute; nobles and ministers all had their own agendas, turning the entire empire into complete chaos.
Good news: Berman City was far from the kingdom's political center, so it wasn't greatly affected.
Bad news: Fifth Princess Casradi had been ordered by the emperor to return to the royal capital and would arrive here soon.
Good news: He wasn't one of Casradi's people.
Bad news: He was one of the people sent to assassinate Casradi.
Berman City's Secretary-General Adler was a member of Grand Duchess Maganna's faction. That iron-blooded Grand Duchess held tremendous influence in the empire, and now that the old emperor was gravely ill, Maganna's ambitions could no longer be contained.
Rick, as one of the forces Adler had developed in Berman City, had the honor of participating in this great transformation. On the day Casradi arrived in Berman City, he would join others in charging toward a bright future—Grand Duchess Maganna had promised that whoever successfully killed Casradi would be greatly rewarded!
As for what the reward would be, Adler hadn't specified, but his operations in Berman City plus Grand Duchess Maganna's reputation had attracted many loyal, fanatical subordinates who weren't afraid to die. Rick was one of them.
"Wait, isn't this the plot of 'Empress Online'?"
The Augustus Empire, assassinating the princess, the iron-blooded Grand Duchess—this plot looked familiar no matter how you looked at it. You couldn't say it was similar to the game he'd played in his past life; it was exactly the same.
Empress Online, a classic R18 role-playing game on S Platform, mainly focused on character development. Though you'd call it R-rated, it had solid storylines and incredibly beautiful character art. Though you'd say it wasn't R-rated, well, it still had solid storylines and beautiful character art.
This gaming experience that combined both playability and... operability... had once attracted widespread pursuit from gaming enthusiasts, and Rick was one of them.
However, when he played it in his past life, the game was already hugely popular. Although he'd read plenty of guides, his game progress was quite limited.
"I remember Maganna's assassination mission on the princess fails..."
Fifth Princess Casradi was the future empress being developed in the Augustus Empire storyline. If this mission succeeded, the game would basically be speedrun.
In other words, if the protagonists succeeded, the fate of the villains who were the assassins was obvious.
And even if they really could succeed, anyone with half a brain would know that everyone involved would probably be silenced.
"Damn, what 'great reward'—do they think people are idiots?"
After understanding the situation, Rick broke out in a cold sweat. He couldn't understand why anyone would be willing to participate in this kind of operation. Sure enough, when your brain gets hot, you can pull off any stupid shit.
The assassination operation was in three days. Casradi would arrive in Berman City by steam train and stay here for one night.
As a small fry, once he got swept up in this grand transformation, he wouldn't even know how he died.
"Maybe I should just run?"
"No good. I already know the plan. Either I'm an accomplice or I defect to the enemy—there's no third option."
What to do?
"Well, might as well patrol for now."
Rick touched the handgun hanging at his waist. As a member of Berman City's Governance Bureau, his current task was to properly patrol this district.
...
6 PM. Rick returned to his rental apartment.
It was a small two-bedroom, one-living-room unit, less than eighty square meters, reasonably priced and completely affordable on Rick's salary.
The entrance was to the left as he entered. Rick changed his shoes and walked straight to the kitchen to start preparing dinner.
Everything proceeded methodically like muscle memory.
During the cooking break, he could even think about countermeasures simultaneously, but unfortunately, by the time dinner was finished, he still hadn't come up with any good ideas.
"Forget it. Worst case, I'll just die again."
In his past life, he'd picked up the bad habit of overworking. On a stormy night, he encountered a big truck on his way home from overtime work. Despite using all his strength, he still couldn't beat it and was reborn into this world where he'd lived for twenty years. No matter what, he'd already made a huge profit.
He'd already died once—what was there to be afraid of?
With this thought, his mind became clear!
He prepared to run away on the last day if things really went south. With his knowledge of the game's plot, he should be able to hang in there. Having figured this out, Rick immediately relaxed. He lay down on the sofa, planning to grab a newspaper to read. Days without phones and games were really torturous.
"Hm?"
"What's this?"
Rick noticed several lines of text had appeared in the lower left corner of his vision.
[Empress Online game loading complete.]
[You can start the game at any time.]
[Click anywhere to continue]
"A game?"
Rick's eyes lit up.
"Click where?"
Rick reached out and waved his hand randomly in front of him.
A larger virtual interface immediately appeared before his eyes.
"Is this my cheat ability?"
Having read countless web novels in his past life, Rick tried to find options for adding points to become stronger, but unfortunately, there weren't any.
The game interior seemed to lack AI functionality and couldn't answer his questions.
Moreover, the whole thing seemed to really be just a 'game,' complete with a long string of disclaimers.
After the disclaimers, there were familiar healthy gaming advisories. Rick clicked through all this random stuff, and after a while, he finally seemed to reach the main content.
[Start] [Character Information] [Storage] [Reviews]
"It really is Empress Online."
Rick glanced over it, skipping the first option to look at the others.
Character information was empty—you had to create a character first. Storage was also empty. Reviews were available, but there was only one.
[Overwhelmingly Positive: This game is amazing! (Default game review)]
There was also a game tag in the reviews: Development, Adventure, Open-world, Fantasy, Multiplayer, First-Person Shooter, Adult
"What the hell."
It seemed about right but also somehow a bit different.
Rick wasn't interested in these details. Right now, he just wanted to start playing.
Clicking start, the interface moved to character creation.
[Please name your new character.]
"Kaze."
'Kaze' was his name from his past life.
It was just a game anyway; might as well leave a memento.
"Next should be face sculpting."
Sure enough, the interface jumped to a place Rick was familiar with.
Hair, face, body—all kinds of elements were available, even gender could be selected.
[Initial character information will directly affect game content, including but not limited to character identity, talents, etc.]
At the bottom of character information was [Character Information Generation], with attributes below including 'Constitution,' 'Spirit,' 'Magic,' 'Comprehension,' and 'Charisma.'
No explanations, but Rick wasn't unfamiliar with this.
Constitution and Spirit were basic character attributes, representing physical strength and soul strength. Magic was essential for the specific 'Mage' profession in the game. The background of Empress Online was somewhat like a magical Victorian era, with many special professions possessing supernatural powers.
However, changing professions wasn't a necessary factor in this game. Even if the protagonist remained an ordinary person from beginning to end, they could still complete the game.
After all, the essence of this game was still the operability of development. Other content experiences weren't included in the completion requirements. If all else failed, you could play New Game+, New Game++—one operation per playthrough, with different experiences every week.
Interestingly, the face sculpting situation in this game would affect the game's opening. Different appearances would have different initial attributes and identities. This randomness at the start was one of the game's features, though it also caused the game's memory requirements to be seriously excessive, comparable to some large AAA games.
Rick glanced at it, then focused on face sculpting.
"This modeling seems more realistic than the actual game."
Strong build, tackle problems head-on.
After sculpting for a while, a muscle-bound man appeared prominently in the interface.
He nodded with satisfaction, then clicked on character information generation.
Kaze (Male): Constitution 12, Spirit 8, Magic 1, Comprehension 7, Charisma 6
Below the information interface was a simple explanation. Using Constitution and Spirit as examples, normal adults had values between 8-9, about the same for Comprehension and Charisma, but most people had no Magic.
"Not bad."
With rich face-sculpting experience, Rick nodded slightly. In the early game, you feared being mediocre. This kind of extreme attribute was actually easier to develop.
It's just that the name seemed a bit feminine.
Initial random identity tendencies: Gladiator, Slave, Farmer, Soldier, Mercenary, Bodyguard...
"Damn, is it that bad?"
Identity tendencies meant he might be born as one of those professions. If he ended up as a soldier or mercenary it would be fine, but if he became a gladiator or even a slave, the opening would basically be a disaster.
Rick admitted he'd sculpted a bit extremely—
"Perfect, I love it like this."
Change it? Hell no. No changes.
Rick's gaze shifted, somewhat curious about what initial identities female characters had.
In his past life, he'd only played male characters, but actually this game also offered female characters. The romance storylines were basically just grinding, or using props. The visuals were decent, but Rick felt the operability wasn't as interesting as male characters.
He clicked gender swap, and a bunch of the same face-sculpting elements appeared, the difference being each 'accessory' was much more exquisite than the male character options.
Before long, a silver-haired, red-eyed beauty with a somewhat gentle temperament appeared in Rick's field of vision.
"Hey, this is what I want when I get married."
Not bad; this face-sculpting system was pretty realistic.
With this thought, Rick clicked information generation.
Kaze (Female): Constitution 8, Spirit 10, Magic 11, Comprehension 9, Charisma 12
Initial random identity tendencies: Noble, Nun, Teacher, Priestess, Maid, Knight...
"?"
Rick was stunned.
"The difference is this huge?"
This was seriously outrageous, wasn't it?
Never mind Comprehension and Charisma—Magic was an insane initial 11, Spirit was as high as 10, and Constitution was still 8.
When will male characters ever stand up?
"What a shame."
"Maybe I should re-sculpt?"
Rick hesitated. Forget about identity, but with initial attributes this high, he felt like he was getting a raw deal. Big muscle bros were beautiful, but the temptation of stats was equally hard to resist.
Beep beep beep!
A series of urgent knocks suddenly rang out.
"Rick!"
"Rick!"
A deep voice came from outside the door. Rick jumped and quickly stood up.
"Who is it?"
As soon as he spoke, the interface in front of him immediately switched—
[Game information confirmed. Kaze, Female, entering game...]
"Damn! No way?!"