【In the previous dynasty there was a general named Wei Huo, a man risen out of the jianghu. In his youth he was a simpleton, until at fifteen someone struck him on the head, after which his mind suddenly opened and his martial skill advanced by leaps and bounds. Some years later, when upheaval in the martial world threatened the whole realm, this man put it down single-handedly. He afterward entered court service and quelled the risings of foreign tribes, and for this he was ennobled as the "Duke of Wu'an," a title meaning "one who brings peace to the realm by force of arms."】
【Under the Yan dynasty, the emperor established in every province, prefecture, and county a nominal post bearing that same name — the "Martial Warden" — to be held by whoever in the district stood highest in martial force. So long as the holder broke no laws and stirred up no trouble, he drew a monthly stipend from the government office, with additional rewards for helping the authorities keep order... The post did a great deal to satisfy the vanity of the martial world, and served various purposes for the keeping of public order besides. In any era when the court's name was not too outrageously bad, "Martial Warden" was a fine and honorable thing to be called.】
【The Martial Warden of Anchun County was none other than Ji Zhao's sister, Ji Bei.】
The short scene ended, and Ji Zhao still had not regained control of the character.
【Ji Zhao: "...I never imagined such a thing was going on. It is far too dangerous to be wandering around out here now. I had better hurry home."】
After that the screen went dark, and when it lit again Ji Zhao was back in that middling-sized courtyard... So he had gone wandering for several days and come home having done nothing at all.
Back home, when Ji Zhao tried to go out again, this was the only thing left:
【Ji Zhao: "It's too dangerous out there. Better not go out and make Eldest Sister worry."】
Ji Zhao could only try to pick up some quests at home and cultivate his internal art when he had nothing else to do — but Ji Bei and Wang An were hardly ever there, and Ji Tan stayed shut in her room reading. For three days running, never mind talking to her or taking a quest, Ji Zhao did not so much as catch sight of her portrait!
【The second day of the tenth month, the fifth year of Jianwu.】
Ji Bei made one of her rare trips home and sat down to eat at the same table as Ji Zhao.
【Ji Zhao: "Second Sister still won't come out of her room..."】
【Ji Bei: "Leave her be. She's been like that since she was small, always muttering mystical nonsense... I probably won't be back tonight. The Black Cavalry may be planning an assault, and the magistrate has summoned me to help work out a plan."】
【Ji Zhao: "Mn."】
Ji Bei finished her meal and left again, and Ji Zhao paced a few steps around the courtyard.
【Ji Zhao: "I can't shake a feeling of unease..."】
Ji Zhao's eyes lit up, and he steered the character toward the gate.
【Ji Zhao: "Better not go out and make Eldest Sister worry..."】
"Tch."
Ji Zhao clicked his tongue and could only go back to his room to cultivate his internal art — there was a "Train Martial Technique" option out in the courtyard, but Ji Zhao had not mastered a single martial technique.
Another night passed.
【Ji Zhao: "I didn't hear anything last night... it seems the Black Cavalry didn't attack."】
While Ji Zhao was still puzzling over it, Ji Bei dragged her exhausted body back into the courtyard.
【Ji Zhao: "Eldest Sister, last night...?"】
【Ji Bei: "Last night, at the banquet, Han Yi produced evidence that his younger brother Han Shou was in league with the enemy. Han Shou meant to open the gates in the night and let the Black Cavalry in. Perhaps because that plan was broken, they did not attack."】
【Ji Zhao: "In league with the enemy? He truly did that?"】
【Ji Bei: "Once Han Yi produced the evidence, Han Shou submitted himself cleanly and without a struggle — I wasn't even given the chance to move. Looking at him, there was not the slightest air of a man wronged. But this business of treasonous letters feels wrong from every angle; there is a great deal about it that does not add up. Since he confessed himself, though, whatever I might have wanted to say I could only swallow back down. Han Yi is his brother's inferior in both character and ability, and I can't help feeling... tch."】
【Ji Zhao: "Eldest Sister's instincts are always right. So Han Shou was slandered? But a year ago he came close to winning the post of Martial Warden of Anchun County. He is one of the few real fighters in the city. With a great enemy at the gates, why would he...?"】
【Ji Bei: "You are taking it for granted that he was slandered. In fact I have no proof either; it is only a guess. The treason may well be real — there is no shortage of people in this city trying to treat with the enemy. But grant, a hundred steps back, that it truly was slander: it is precisely because a great enemy stands at the gates that Han Yi was able to do it. Since ancient times, chaos has always been the best cover for getting things done. Besides... take His Majesty, hounded day and night for money and grain. If Fenglin, Wangbei, and Yangu should fall, the Ning will come south and there will be another storm of blood and slaughter. Which of the great clans of the south does not know it? And yet ask them to put up coin and grain, and every one of them squirms... Zhao'er, there are things you will understand well enough once you're grown."】
【Ji Zhao: "Yes..."】
The scene ended, and Ji Zhao was about to push the game forward when a wave of dizziness struck his brain — fiercer than either of the last two. He blacked out without the least power to resist, his head slamming straight into the computer desk, his whole body sliding off the gaming chair to the floor. It was a full twenty minutes and more before he came to.
When he opened his eyes again, the real world had taken on the look of a 1990s 3D game, absurdly crude in every direction, while the picture inside the computer had upgraded once more, into a top-down 3D game with clearer character models still... The "Ji Zhao" on screen, apart from the hair and the eyes, looked exactly like the self Ji Zhao remembered from ten years ago.
A panic he could not hold back rose up in him... He had thought himself long used to storms, able to face anything calmly. Through both of the world's earlier changes, through everyone turning into mindless NPCs, he had accepted reality quickly and settled himself. But now that the world had truly warped, until it looked nothing like reality at all, he realized that he had never truly accepted any of it before — deep down, he had simply not believed it was real.
Why is this happening? Can it be changed back? Did I make it all turn out this way? Can it be saved?
...
Tangled thoughts crossed and recrossed, until a voice sounded behind him.
"The truth. I am now able to tell you all of it."
Ji Zhao whipped his head around. A white-haired man stood behind him, out of place against reality yet rendered in exactly the same style as the character models in the game. From the cut of his clothes, he was the pixel figure Ji Zhao had seen at the hospital.
He tipped his chin at Ji Zhao and said calmly, "If you wish it, I can tell you the whole truth right now... Before that, though, as one who has been through it, I would advise you to hold off a while and keep playing. This run does not mean much, but it can bank you some experience. Look — the time was still running while you were unconscious."