"Is this... an Easter egg?"
Ji Zhao froze for a moment, then caught on. He was certain this Easter egg was meant for him.
Both of those Unique Traits — the "Champion" and the "War God" alike — pointed straight at him.
Here, some introduction to Ji Zhao is in order.
《Life and Death》 was a full-immersion holographic melee-weapon fighting game with a physics engine all but identical to reality, and the most popular fighting game in the world.
And Ji Zhao was the legendary eight-time champion of 《Life and Death》.
He had entered the industry at fifteen and had been competing ever since. Apart from the first two years, which were a struggle and brought him no title, he had taken the global individual championship almost every single year with crushing force — so thoroughly that the organizers rewrote the elimination format for the sole purpose of settling "who was truly second." Ordinarily second place hardly matters; in letters there is no first and in arms there is no second, and nobody cares who the runner-up was. But Ji Zhao's dominance was so terrifying that no one could contest the title with him at all, and so, to keep the runner-up placing worth anything, the format had to be changed — that was the kind of monster he was.
People had many names for him: the Strongest Creature Alive, Monster, God of Combat, the Emperor... but the most famous, the one the public knew best, was of course "War God."
As the figure who had broken furthest out of both the e-sports world and the martial arts world, having his name made into an Easter egg here and there was not especially strange... but this was a wuxia game.
Wuxia and martial arts sound intimately related, yet the connection between them may be thinner than the one between the culture of wine and the culture of the drinking table.
Even granting it was an Easter egg... this power level rather wrecked the balance.
In a single-player game, balance is not especially important, but it cannot be absent entirely — least of all at the very start, where most players enter their own name for a bit of immersion. It is not that name-based Easter eggs are forbidden, but the stats cannot be excessive. Dugu Qiubai gets a small bonus to swordplay, Dongfang Bubai a small bonus to movement technique, and that is about right. Not like this one... this was guaranteed to draw a storm of abuse.
Ji Zhao shook his head to himself.
"Uncle Liu put this computer together for me. Is this game something his people made? Did they deliberately stuff it with stats to flatter me, hoping I'd stream it a while and drive some traffic their way?"
Ji Zhao did not dwell on it and simply played on.
He first steered his character on a circuit of the room, fully upholding the grand RPG-player tradition of plucking a feather from every passing goose and taking the hide off every passing beast — and sure enough, he did turn something up on the bookshelf.
【Obtained: Qi-Nurturing Scripture ×1】
Ji Zhao opened his inventory and moved the mouse to click on the Qi-Nurturing Scripture.
【Qi-Nurturing Scripture】
(The most basic of qi-refining methods; it possesses almost no combat power whatsoever.)
【Training Requirement: Constitution Lv1】
(Anyone who can read can practice it.)
【Training Realm: Not One Aperture Open (15385/150000)】
【Training Formula: 15x+10】
(The training formula gives the experience gained from one full circulation of the heavenly cycle, where x is Constitution. Different cultivation methods use different formulas for gaining experience.)
【Inner Breath Power: D-Lower】
(Affects attack power.)
【Inner Breath Density: D-Lower】
(Affects how quickly inner breath loses power once it leaves the body — that is, the power of ranged techniques.)
【Inner Breath Burst Power: D-Lower】
(Affects the windup and recovery when unleashing techniques.)
【Overall Physique Enhancement: D-Lower】
(Affects the strengthening of the physical body.)
Final experience multiplier: 1.05–1.12
(The higher a practitioner's Comprehension, martial theory, and depth of insight into an internal art, the faster their understanding of that art grows, and the higher their experience multiplier.)
【Internal Art Effect: None】
(Certain internal arts grant a corresponding special effect once trained to a given realm.)
"15,385... so the protagonist already has some foundation of his own?"
Ji Zhao clicked all around it. The Qi-Nurturing Scripture did not even have a "Train" or "Use" option; presumably the relevant function had not unlocked yet and he had to push through the story first.
— Of course, given how crude this game was, Ji Zhao would not have been the least bit surprised if the next second brought up a message reading "The story ends here in the current version. Please await future updates."
He steered his character out of the room. Outside was a courtyard of middling size, with a giant tree at its center that took up nearly half the screen. Beneath it an old man was drilling with blade and spear, his character model twitching along in fits and starts, which looked rather comical.
Ji Zhao walked up beside the old man and hit Enter.
【Ji Zhao: "Better not disturb Uncle Wang's training. I should go see Eldest Sister first."】
Unwilling to give up just yet, Ji Zhao walked his character all over the place, but not a single room could be entered, and he was not allowed out of the courtyard either. With no other choice, he steered the character into the study.
In the study stood a female figure with long black hair... though even through the blurry pixels, Ji Zhao could tell that this little pixel figure's chest was flat and unremarkable, and that the clothes were unmistakably men's wear. Had he not already known her sex, it would have been no surprise to take her for a man.
The Ji Zhao on screen duly supplied a perfectly timed piece of talking to himself.
【Ji Zhao: "Haah... the Ji family has fallen so far that apart from a good-for-nothing like me there is not a single male left. It is inconvenient for a woman to move about in the world, and so Eldest Sister dresses herself in a man's guise."】
【Ji Bei: "What are you muttering about?"】
【Ji Zhao: "Nothing... Did you call me here for something, Eldest Sister?"】
【Ji Bei: "I meant to ask after your health, but it seems there's nothing seriously wrong, so I'll go straight to the cursing... Blockhead! With that half-baked excuse for martial skill, one bark from a stray dog on the roadside would scare you half to death — and you went to defend the walls? If Uncle Wang hadn't been sharp-eyed, you'd have deserved to be hammered to death up on that rampart!"】
The Ji Zhao in the game did not dare make a peep. A voice-over came in, offering the Ji Zhao outside a small explanation.
【Tang Cheng, the Duke of Sacred Might, rose in revolt, and one of his Six Swift Cavalry Generals, the Whip-and-Mace Fiend Liu Wei, led troops to attack Anchun County. Ji Zhao, fearing the city would fall and reckoning that two days spent training in an orthodox Daoist cultivation method left him more than able to handle a couple of farmhands, let the blood rush to his head and went to the wall behind his family's backs, meaning to help hold it... The outcome hardly needs telling.】
On screen, Ji Bei gave Ji Zhao a thorough tongue-lashing, and Ji Zhao listened meekly, not daring to talk back.
After a while, Ji Bei seemed to have cursed herself into a better mood.
【Ji Bei: "Haah... You're sickly and weak, and your aptitude is dull. You are simply not made for martial training. I had you practice the Qi-Nurturing Scripture only in the hope of building up your body — this internal art was never meant for real combat, so don't count on fighting anyone with it... Though I could say all this and you still wouldn't take it in. Stubborn since you were small. And that second sister of yours is sick in the head, going on all day about how 'books cannot save Great Yan' until you lost all interest in study and wanted nothing but martial training. It's a mercy you're a fool and no scholar either, or she really would have made me die of rage."】
Outside the screen, Ji Zhao's expression turned subtle. He wanted to snark at that "it's a mercy you're a fool" line and had no idea where to begin... It really was the kind of thing only a blood sister could say. That fucking stung.
【Ji Bei: "Go and find Uncle Wang. Have him teach you the basics of fighting, and switch you to another cultivation method while he's at it... If the city truly falls, I may not be able to look after you. You'll have to find your own way to survive."】
TL Note: Dugu Qiubai and Dongfang Bubai — legendary swordsmen from classic wuxia novels, the sort of names a player types into a Chinese martial arts RPG the way a Western player might type in "Aragorn."