Chapter 1: Twisted Three Kingdoms
Noon, July 16th, 2043.
Zhao Rui discovered a new game called Twisted Three Kingdoms.
"An ultra-realistic virtual reality game with a dark Three Kingdoms theme?"
"Three Kingdoms + Soulslike + Sandbox + Roguelike + Virtual Reality + MMO... stacking buffs like crazy here?"
Zhao Rui felt no excitement in his heart and even wanted to laugh a little.
Ever since virtual reality technology had made a major breakthrough, games using it as a selling point had been springing up like mushrooms after the rain.
On the biggest game platform, "Starsea," a dozen or twenty new titles were released every week on average.
However, in recent years, people's enthusiasm for virtual reality games had only declined rather than increased.
For developers, virtual reality games were difficult and expensive to make, and the profit cycle was far too long.
For players, there were also barriers to entry — some games required customized helmets or even gaming pods, costing anywhere from tens of thousands to millions.
Most importantly—
The games themselves were simply disappointing.
Major studios all boasted about delivering immersive experiences, but the actual gameplay was still a hundred thousand miles away from replicating reality.
Among the few critically acclaimed single-player titles, the highest realism achieved was barely twenty percent, and due to excessive bugs, the gaming experience was still poor.
Massively multiplayer online?
One hundred percent realism?
Were studios nowadays really this bold in their marketing?
Were they not afraid of getting fined for false advertising?
Zhao Rui was a gaming blogger — technically skilled, eloquent, and fairly well-known in the industry.
He was familiar with all major developers and recent releases, yet he had never even heard of this new game called Twisted Three Kingdoms.
Even the game's official homepage had the air of a broke studio that could not afford a proper graphic designer.
There were only two options: "Sign up for Beta" and "Game Background."
Might as well check out the background first.
【Welcome to the Twisted Three Kingdoms!】
【At the end of the Eastern Han dynasty, the Firmament cracked open. Outer Gods invaded. An unspeakable Abyss engulfed the land of Shenzhou. Billions of living beings fell into terrible nightmares of endless suffering, trapped in cycles of torment.】
【This world is crawling with terrifying monsters. Even the Legendary Heroes of History you once knew have mostly succumbed to the endless nightmares. They have been either completely controlled by the Will of the Abyss, or grotesquely corrupted into forbidden horrors.】
【Though the land of Shenzhou has been twisted and shattered, a few individuals remain lucid. They struggle desperately against the invaders from the Abyss and the stars. They might become your most powerful allies—or your most formidable enemies.】
【You will assist a great lord who comes from the City of the Stars. Challenge the corrupted heroic spirits, help them die the right way, and purify this polluted and twisted history. Forge legends on this ravaged land.】
【……】
A patchwork of different fantasy elements!
But it did carry a bit of a Soulslike flavor, maybe even some Lovecraftian vibes.
As a deep fan of these genres, Zhao Rui casually signed up for the beta.
In fact, as a game streamer, he was not afraid of a game being bad — he was only afraid of it being bad without any distinctiveness.
As long as it could generate content, anything was worth trying.
His beta registration was successful.
The game did not announce a specific date for the beta test.
Zhao Rui did not dwell on it. He opened his recording software and began his daily work.
…………
The Land of the Stars.
Academy of Lords Across the Multiverse.
Hang Yu was on his way to the principal’s office.
Floating in front of him was an octahedral object shaped like a magic cube.
A voice came from the cube: "Current number of game sign-ups: 135 people!"
Hang Yu let out a long breath of relief. "Well done. Looks like I don’t have to worry about not finding enough people."
He had been transmigrated into the City of the Stars for twenty years ago.
This was a great city floating in the rift between the Abyss and the myriad worlds of time and space, where countless different races from countless worlds lived and thrived together.
Everyone dreamed of entering the Abyss World to become a grand lord.
The Abyss World was a dark dimension beyond imagination.
It corroded and devoured world after world, twisting their time and space, corrupting and polluting all living things.
For billions of years, lords from the City of the Stars had fought and died there, struggling to maintain the fragile balance between the Abyss and the real world.
A week ago, Hang Yu had graduated from the City of the Stars Lord Academy with excellent marks, ranking within the top hundred, and officially obtained the qualification to battle in the Abyss and become a lord.
After activating the lord qualification, every citizen of the City of the Stars would awaken a personal Abyssal Plane.
It was not purely a coincidence—
Or perhaps it was due to some other unknowable reason—
Hang Yu discovered that the Abyssal World he had awakened was actually a dark, altered version of the Three Kingdoms.
According to measurements, its depth had reached the astonishing level of the Eternal Night Layer!
The City of the Stars classified Abyss danger levels from low to high as:
- Glimmer Layer
- Twilight Layer
- Lightless Layer
- Dark Evil Layer
- Eternal Night Layer
- And the forbidden, unknowable layer.
This Three Kingdoms world had already sunk into Eternal Night.
It had sunk far, far too deep.
This not only meant a high degree of pollution and corruption, but even time and space were likely twisted and distorted.
Most of the beings within had fallen into madness, and the world was overrun with deep-level terrifying monsters, even some indescribable forbidden evil gods of legend.
Although risk and reward went hand in hand — the deeper the Abyssal Plane, the greater the potential rewards —
Not everyone had the ability to explore the deep Abyss.
The City of the Stars was home to thousands of races from various worlds, among them beings powerful enough to move mountains and fill seas with their own strength. When such mighty upper races became lords, the retainers and servants they created were equally formidable.
Hang Yu, however, was merely human.
The human race was one of the weakest lower-tier races in the City of the Stars.
Throughout the city's billions of years of history, there had never been a single case of a human lord successfully conquering an Eternal Night Layer Abyss. Because of this, the investment deals Hang Yu had originally arranged all collapsed.
He had no choice but to apply for a loan from the academy as his startup fund.
Fortunately, the heavens never truly seal off all paths.
During his awakening ceremony, Hang Yu obtained an Abyssal Relic called the "Heavenly Dao Cube."
Abyssal Relics were rare items that could, with an extremely low probability, appear during the awakening of a City of the Stars lord. Acquiring one was akin to winning the lottery.
Even so, most Abyssal Relics were unimpressive in effect, offering little more than minor enhancements and not enough to be decisive.
But the Heavenly Dao Cube was different.
This relic had no recorded history and its rank was completely unknown. It could establish a link with other worlds, summon souls from those realms, grant them undying and immortal characteristics, and convert them into retainers for the territory.
After many days of adjustment, Hang Yu had successfully connected to Blue Star and was preparing to summon players from there into the twisted, dark Three Kingdoms world by creating an online game.
This was the source of his confidence!
Hang Yu arrived at the principal’s office.
The space was as large as several football fields, filled with countless treasures glittering and piled high into mountains.
Lying atop a mountain of treasure was a dragon at least three hundred meters long.
The dragon's scales were dark gold, its body bore three heads and eight wings. Every scale was as large as a washbasin, covered with mysterious patterns and runes that radiated an overwhelmingly powerful aura.
This was the principal of the City of the Stars Lord Academy.
An Ancient Nether Dragon!
Even amidst the multitude of races in the City of the Stars and the Abyss, Ancient Nether Dragons were among the top-tier upper races.
The Dragon Principal was not only the head of the Lord Academy, but also a super lord of at least the eighth rank, commanding millions of Nether Dragon citizens who had conquered one Abyssal Plane after another.
"You have ultimately decided to venture into the Abyss and become a lord?" the Dragon Principal said. "Although your results are excellent, no human lord has ever survived in a plane of such depth. Even my race would hesitate to challenge it easily."
Hang Yu nodded. "This student still wishes to try."
The Dragon Principal sighed regretfully.
An Abyssal World at the Eternal Night level — its degree of distortion and madness was beyond imagination.
Not to mention a lower-tier race like humanity, even upper-tier races had a low survival rate there.
"Here are two thousand Abyssal Magic Crystals — one thousand from the loan you applied for, and another thousand as my personal sponsorship." The Dragon Principal no longer tried to dissuade him. "Accept them. Please act within your limits. If the pioneering does not go well, you can always return to the academy. We will write you a recommendation letter so you can join a reliable lord’s service."
"Thank you, Principal! This student will do his utmost!"
"Go! May the Will of the Stars be with you!"
Hang Yu happily accepted the two thousand Magic Crystals as his startup fund, along with the Lord's Token that would allow him to enter the Abyssal World. He immediately bid farewell to the principal and made his way to the teleportation tower.
It was finally about to begin!
At this moment, Hang Yu felt a surge of excitement.
Once he entered the Abyss, returning would not be easy.
But he did not hesitate at all.
Without delay, he activated the teleportation and descended into his own territory.