【"Mnh..."】
Suddenly a speech bubble popped up beside the male figure on screen, labeled with the two characters "Ji Zhao." The female figure with the long black hair closed the book in her hands and turned to look at him.
A moment later, Ji Zhao opened his eyes and glanced blankly left and right. A dialogue box appeared above the female figure's head, labeled with the two characters "Ji Tan."
【Ji Tan: "You're awake."】
【Ji Zhao: "Mn... I'm awake."】
"..."
Ji Zhao stopped clicking the mouse and let the conversation sit right there.
He felt a bit ball-achy... "Ball-ache" was rather antique slang, honestly a little embarrassing to trot out, but at this precise moment he truly could not find another word for his mood, because this dialogue really did leave a man with nothing to say.
You're awake.
Mn, I'm awake.
What kind of genius could write dialogue like this? Did it not strike anyone as stiff, not even a little? Wouldn't a simple "Mn" have been enough? Was the next line going to be "You should not have woken" and "And yet I woke all the same"? But this was not the Peak of the Forbidden City — it was an ordinary bedroom!
If this had been an online game, Ji Zhao would have let it slide; he could skim past any amount of brain-dead dialogue. But this was clearly a single-player wuxia game, and people who played those usually held the writing to an extremely high standard. He would not have minded in the slightest if there were no character portraits at all — but to pull something this cringeworthy with the script...
Ji Zhao sighed and carried on anyway, in the spirit of "well, I've started playing already."
【Ji Tan: "Do you still know who I am?"】
【Ji Zhao: "Second Sister... why do you ask?"】
【Ji Tan: "The physician said you took a blow to the head and might forget things once you woke. As it stands, at least it hasn't come to the worst. I was rather hoping you'd be like Wei Huo, the Duke of Wu'an, in the last dynasty — knocked on the head and suddenly awakened to his gifts. Clearly that isn't happening... Eldest Sister is furious. She wants you in the study once you can walk."】
【Ji Zhao: "I understand..."】
【Ji Tan: "Can you move? Is there anything you can't remember?"】
【Ji Zhao: "I can move... As for things I can't remember, nothing comes to mind for the moment."】
【Ji Tan: "Good. I'm leaving, then."】
With that, Ji Tan turned and left the room.
【Ji Zhao: "In any case, I should go and see Eldest Sister first..."】
Afterward, a line of gold-glowing text appeared in the upper right corner.
【Main Quest: Go to the study and find Eldest Sister.】
Below that golden line, in a size smaller, were the control prompts.
【WASD to move, Enter to interact, C to view character attributes, B to open your inventory. All other functions unlock as the game progresses.】
Ji Zhao pressed C on reflex, opening the character attribute panel.
【Character: Ji Zhao】
【Comprehension: 9+3】
(Affects the training speed of martial techniques, the rate at which Martial Attainment grows, and the difficulty of creating or modifying martial techniques and cultivation methods.)
【Constitution: 6+3】
(Affects the training speed of cultivation methods.)
【Martial Attainment: 17】
(Your grasp of the principles of martial learning, and the foundation of everything else. It affects a whole series of important attributes in real combat: critical rate, critical damage, accuracy, evasion, killing intent, breath recovery, the windup and recovery of techniques, overall damage bonus and damage reduction, the training speed of cultivation methods and martial techniques, the difficulty of creating and modifying techniques, and so on. It can be raised through daily training, study, sudden insight, and similar means.)
【Common Traits: Constitution Lv1, Comprehension Lv1, Adversity Lv1】
【Unique Trait: None】
【Overall Rating: Unranked】
(Overall Ratings run from high to low as follows: Absolute, A, B, C, D, and Unranked. Every grade except Absolute and Unranked is further divided, from high to low, into Peak, Upper, Middle, and Lower.)
A standard opening template. Ji Zhao paid it no mind and was about to close the panel when he suddenly noticed, in one corner of it, an option reading "True·Ji Zhao" — greyed out as a whole, all four of its corners bound in thick chains.
"What's this...?"
Curious, Ji Zhao clicked into it, and another panel unfolded.
【Character: True·Ji Zhao】
【Comprehension: 25+65】
【Constitution: 17+3】
【Martial Attainment: 8429】
【Common Traits】
【Comprehension Lv7】: Gain 65 additional points of Comprehension.
【Constitution Lv1】: Gain 3 additional points of Constitution.
【Innate Lv1】: Maximum inner breath raised by 5%.
【Crush Lv8 (7+1)】: When an enemy's Overall Rating is lower than yours, gain 13%–39% increased damage according to the size of the gap, along with damage reduction equal to half that amount.
【Godspeed Lv6】: The movement speed of your action bar is increased by 60%.
【Duel Lv6】: When both your party and the enemy's party consist of one person alone, or when every other combatant present can be fully subjected to "Crush" by you and by the strongest enemy, all attributes are increased by 37%. Barring a special Unique Trait, this trait cannot be triggered at the same time as "Peerless."
【Peerless Lv6】: Gain an 11%–39% increase to all attributes according to the number and strength of your enemies. Barring a special Unique Trait, this trait cannot be triggered at the same time as "Duel."
【Martial Might Lv7】: According to the difference in "Martial Might" level between you and your enemy, applies a corresponding "Attribute Suppression." The suppressed party cannot bring their full strength to bear.
【Adversity Lv6 (5→6)】: For every 1% of health you lose, gain 0.4% increased damage along with damage reduction equal to half that amount.
【Unique Traits: Eternally Burning Champion's Soul, Descent of the War God】
【Eternally Burning Champion's Soul: An obsessive hunger for victory is carved into your very soul.
The increased damage gained from "Adversity" and "Crush" is doubled. When Adversity or Crush stands below Lv6, it is raised to Lv6; when Adversity or Crush stands at Lv6 or above, it is raised by one level, and may break past the ceiling of Lv9.】
【An enemy you defeat in a "formal battle" is branded with the "Beaten Foe" mark. When you face an enemy bearing the Beaten Foe mark, you may fully trigger the "Crush" effect regardless of your current Overall Ratings.】
【An enemy who has defeated you in a "formal battle" is branded by you with the "Nemesis" mark. When you face an enemy bearing the Nemesis mark, your health may be treated as 0% in order to fully trigger "Adversity."】
【Each person may bear at most one mark, settled by the result of the most recent formal battle.】
(You are never beaten twice; where you have won, you will win again.)
【Descent of the War God: Some people come into this world to learn the martial arts, and every martial technique in this world was created so that you might learn it.】
【Your Martial Attainment rises more easily; martial technique experience gained is ×3.】
【Your "Martial Might" inflicts greater Attribute Suppression.】
【In real combat, your martial techniques calculate damage and trigger their effects as though their training realm were one stage higher.】
【In real combat, your Overall Rating is calculated one full grade higher when determining "Crush" against an enemy.】
【You will "absolutely" never have "Crush" triggered against you.】
(Hmph hmph... come and witness the War God without peer under heaven!)
【Overall Rating: D-Upper】
(You cannot make bricks without straw. No matter how mighty you are, this frail body is not enough to sustain any high-intensity combat.)
TL Note: The Peak of the Forbidden City — the rooftop setting of the most famous duel in classic wuxia fiction, where two swordsmen trade exactly this kind of clipped, portentous dialogue before trying to kill each other.