Across the icy plain, a carriage was speeding forward. A five-man knight patrol closely followed behind it.
Seeing the pure white snow on the roadside gradually disappear, faintly revealing the black earth beneath it, the lead knight reined in his horse, a look of disgust on his face: “The Forsaken Land.”
Golden badges shone brilliantly on their chests—the glory belonging to the Church of the Gods, and the reason their Holy Order of Knights considered themselves superior.
The captain of the knights nodded, the words uttered beneath his cold helmet also carrying a chill: “However, we will not stay here for long.”
He turned his horse around and headed toward the carriage surrounded by the knights: “Lord Eugene, we will reach your territory shortly.”
The quiet carriage finally had its curtain lifted by someone: “Good.”
The feeble sunlight of the icy plain fell upon this face, making the pale skin all the more crystal-clear and outlining features that were excessively flawless.
Leaning against the carriage, the young lord had an appearance so perfect that it was simply like a divine statue that ought to be worshipped at the center of the Holy See.
This was not the first time the captain had seen the lord, yet he still couldn’t help feeling dazzled against his will.
However, he quickly looked away, gripping the longsword at his waist, his lips pressed into a cold arc.
Because those divine features were paired with hair dyed by the dark night and pupils kissed by the devil—he was an extremely filthy black-haired and dark-eyed man!
His beauty was nothing more than a temptation of the devil.
The captain deeply hated his own momentary wavering just now; this ill-omened child should have been killed long ago.
The newly appointed lord also seemed to sense the murderous intent, lowering the curtain in time and hiding deep inside the carriage, with only a few soft coughs ringing out.
Eugene had just seen the scenery outside, and his heart had already turned half cold. At this moment, leaning inside the carriage and being jolted every which way, he could only forcefully endure the urge to vomit.
One minute ago, he was still rolling up his sleeves, preparing to thoroughly enjoy the recently booming Western Fantasy magical continent hegemony game.
However, just as Eugene finished paying, everything went pitch black, followed by hearing an electronic voice ringing in his ear: [The King System has been bound, please host begin the magical hegemony journey of the Western fantasy world as soon as possible!]
Eugene: I want to call the police, there’s a system kidnapping a player!
Soon he realized that a matter even more terrifying than being inexplicably kidnapped by the system was that this system was also a shoddily made piece of junk product.
Not long after the electronic voice sounded, an extremely piercing static current noise rang out, and the darkness before his eyes was also covered by one red pop-up window after another: [Warning! Warning! Error occurred! Error occurred!]
Eugene!
Could it be that he was going to become a transmigrator who died in the middle of crossing over?
The misfortune within misfortune was that, after a period of spinning head over heels, Eugene recovered his eyesight and found himself lying inside a bumpy carriage.
Cold wind continuously leaked in from the gaps of the carriage, bringing with it not only the cold, but also the sound of horse hooves outside, the clanking of armor, and an indescribable mixed odor of fragrance and stench.
Just as the captain told him they were about to arrive at his territory, Eugene instantly bolted upright, hurriedly glanced outside, and judged his starting situation based on his scanty memories of the game.
We’re done for.
He really had transmigrated into the game he just bought, and what he transmigrated into was the only hellish starting scenario.
In this start, the lord had black hair and dark eyes, born ominous. If it weren’t for a good royal father who spent a huge sum of money to buy back a life for him from the Church, he would have long been sent to the stake and burned to death.
It would have been fine with a royal father protecting him, but unfortunately, by this starting time period, the royal father had already passed away, and the one who successfully ascended the throne to become the king of the Stind Empire was the lord’s older brother—an elder brother who had envied his younger brother for being deeply favored since long ago. Therefore, after this elder brother ascended the throne, he simply dismissed the lord with a baron’s peerage, enclosed his territory in the Northern Territory—the bitterest and coldest place at the extreme northern border—and demanded that the lord leave the imperial palace immediately. The Church, constrained by the previous agreement with the royal father, did not directly send the lord to the stake, but hypocritically dispatched a few knights to escort him, or rather, monitor him to die in the Forsaken Land.
The formidable enemies in the distance were the Church and the king.
The problems right before his eyes were extremely harsh natural conditions, utterly disobedient subordinates, and a disconnected golden finger.
Eugene looked at his own slender arms and legs, and began to ponder whether it would be better to just dash his head against something and die right now.
A line of blood-red characters suddenly suspended in front of his eyes, and a mechanical voice synchronized in his mind: [The system has finished rebooting.]
Eugene was stunned, followed by a burst of wild joy erupting in the depths of his eyes, and lowered his voice: “Little System!”
System: [The host only needs to silently recite in your heart to communicate with me.]
Eugene let out a breath: [Little System, Big Brother System, you inexplicably kidnapped me here, now that the reboot is finished you should give me some compensation, right?]
System: [The system’s cheat functions are damaged, please let the host strive on your own.]
Eugene almost failed to catch his breath: [How do I go back?]
System: [Please let the host patiently wait; you can return to the original world after the game ends. It is known that there are only two possibilities for the hegemony game to end: 1. Conquer the continent and clear the game. 2. Regime collapse, lord’s death, game failure. Based on the current starting scenario, the system suggests that the host choose the second route. Please strive to accelerate the downfall of the country!]
Even with death approaching, Eugene’s mouth remained stubborn: [What if I conquer the continent?]
Through the gap in the carriage, he saw the goose-feather snow gradually beginning to drift outside.
Conquering the continent with a land of bitter cold…
The small flame of ambition in the depths of Eugene’s eyes went out with a whoosh: [Sys, I’ve only watched a few promotional videos and know very little. How do I start the first step to ruining the country?]
The system was very satisfied with his wise yielding to circumstances: [The host need not worry. The system has successfully retained part of the cheat database, which can synthesize a game guide to provide sufficient assistance for your journey of ruining the country!]
The Forsaken Land.
Large flakes of snow fell, pure white and flawless.
Abel stared at this snowflake fusing bit by bit with fresh blood, and then his gaze moved upward, into the distance, and further away.
He saw large tracts of flowing blood, severed limbs and arms, and food scattered in various places.
Some belonged to them, and some belonged to those damned upper-class people, but victory belonged to them after all.
Before the most terrifying winter punishment sent down by the gods began, he finally led his compatriots to kill the fellows in the castle, hanging their corpses on the tall tower spires so that they could forever remain high above.
Abel showed a smile for his own humor.
“Abel!” A dwarf’s rough and booming voice rang out.
Unlike his free compatriots, his beard was left with only a short little bit, tied in a messy and ugly knot, and his body, which should have been strong, was left with only a thin handful of bones, a handful of bones covered everywhere in wounds. This was the fate of non-human slaves captured by humans.
“We’ve sorted out everything in that room!” The dwarf happily patted a dragged-over chest, a flush of excitement rising on his cheeks, “There’s a lot of beer! And blueprints!”
As a race naturally fond of crafting and drinking, nothing could excite him more.
Abel nodded with a smile: “Are there books?”
When he was still a freeman, he had read some books, and it was the things he once learned from books that gave him the courage to act during this period of time.
The dwarf wasn’t very familiar with human writing, but he recognized books, and rummaged out several rolls of parchment from the chest.
Abel had sharp eyes and spotted a small letter sandwiched among the parchment rolls at a glance; the sealing wax on it clearly came from this country’s council chamber.
He had an ominous premonition in his heart: What was written in this letter that hadn’t been unsealed yet?
The reason he incited the others to strike earlier was because this territory was far away from the center, and the castle only had a housekeeper and some servants, without a single person of peerage and status at all. Even if they all died, no one would notice or care about their riot here.
However, if they had just killed someone who had always been connected to the center of power, what awaited them would be a devastating disaster!
Abel took a deep breath, took the letter with a stern expression, unsealed it, and quickly skimmed through it.
“Big Beard,” he looked at the dwarf, “The gods are going to send down trials upon us once more. Have everyone quickly pack up their things and come here to listen to me.”
Half a day later.
The God of Light closed his eyes, the sky gradually darkened, and the icy plain of night carried an unsettling aura.
Eugene finally finished browsing the strategy guide given by the system, shrinking the system’s communication window into a small red ball, and moving it to the lower right corner of his field of vision.
Although he always felt that this small red ball looked like an eyeball staring at him, he still endured it.
“Lord, we have arrived.” The captain’s voice mixed with ice dregs came in through the curtain.
“Good.” Eugene lifted the curtain and caught sight of the center of power of the regime he was about to rule—a drafty stone castle standing tall amidst the wind and snow.
Well, at least the area wasn’t small, and it even had three floors.
Sighing inwardly, Eugene got out of the car, and before he could stand steady, he was hit full in the face by the oncoming wind and snow.
Although the knights had already dismounted, they didn’t make the slightest move, looking coldly at him as he staggered backward.
Fortunately, someone supported him with one arm, timely propping up a black cloak to block the blizzard.
Eugene heard a slightly hoarse voice ring out: “My Lord, I am your housekeeper Abel. After inheriting my father’s position, I have served your family in this castle for twenty years, and have finally awaited your arrival. I hope to continue handling all affairs for you on the territory from now on.”
In the game settings, nobles often handed over remote territories to housekeepers to manage, and every start was also standard-equipped with a housekeeper who doubled as a game-guiding NPC.
Most of the time, players only needed to give orders to this NPC, and all kinds of work in the territory would be arranged in an orderly manner by him, with government decrees also executed extremely quickly.
However, this starting guide NPC clearly wasn’t living very well. His sideburns were gray, his skin had layers upon layers of wrinkles, and his body was slightly hunched, extremely tall and thin. The filthy formal wear draped over him was empty, almost like a walking skeleton.
Eugene had no way to read his thoughts from this skeleton’s face: Was it indifference or disgust toward himself, this ill-omened child?
“Good,” the delicate lord nodded very politely, as humble as could be, not at all like the king’s youngest son who had brought knights along, “I’ll be troubling you from now on.”
The housekeeper slowly revealed a smile filled with hidden meaning, his green eyes resembling a beast wandering at night: “I will certainly serve you well.”