Chapter 1

"Hey, Lin Han, do you know about that new game? The one called Eternal Kingdom?"

During the self-study class, the teacher helplessly sat at the front, watching the students below who were all discussing something. He didn't know what to say. They were all talking about a game that was about to be released, a game known as the most perfect war strategy game ever—Eternal Kingdom. Thinking about it, the teacher couldn't help but wonder what kind of character he should create. It was said that the elven troops were quite tempting.

"Ah?!"

Lin Han, who had been lost in thought, looked helplessly at his best friend, Zhang Liang, who was looking at him with excitement. He didn't know what to say.

"That's not right, you must know. You're a fan of Heroes of Might and Magic and Warcraft 3, so you must know, right? What race will you choose when the time comes? Human? It doesn't seem to suit you. Beast? That might be good. Actually, I think the Hell race would suit you well, or the Necropolis race."

Zhang Liang completely ignored Lin Han's feelings and started talking to himself. At their age, they were naturally curious about new things, and it was understandable that Zhang Liang was so excited about this new game.

"Class is over!"

The moment the bell rang, almost all the students burst into excitement. In less than a minute, the self-study room, which had over a hundred people, was completely empty. Almost everyone was discussing Eternal Kingdom, showing how much the game had captured their attention.

"Hey, Lin Han, remember to add me as a friend in the game. I'll use the same name, you know!"

Since Lin Han lived alone outside, he didn't return to the dorm with Zhang Liang. As he left, Zhang Liang, who was almost obsessed, didn't forget to remind Lin Han. It seemed he was really deeply involved.

"Click!"

Returning to his small apartment, Lin Han entered the bathroom, turned on the shower, and let the water soak him. Looking at his reflection in the foggy mirror, he suddenly punched the mirror, shattering it. The shards fell to the ground, and his right hand was bleeding, but he didn't feel much.

"It's not a dream."

Looking at the blood flowing from his right hand, Lin Han took a deep breath and muttered to himself. When he woke up this morning, he found himself lying on the bed in his university apartment. The phone on the table clearly showed that it was 2015, not 2017, the year he had fallen asleep.

Had he slept for two years? Most people wouldn't believe it, but it was true. When he walked into the familiar self-study room and saw the classmates he hadn't contacted in a long time, his rational mind told him this was real.

November 21, 2015, was a date that many people wouldn't forget. After two years of development, the super-large virtual strategy game Eternal Kingdom, jointly developed by Ubisoft, Blizzard, and more than ten other major game companies, began global public testing. Using a virtual helmet for real game control, players would play as a lord, starting from a small town and gradually developing to rule the continent.

The appearance of this game completely changed the global gaming landscape. Almost all gamers chose Eternal Kingdom, and some joked that since the game's release, there were almost no dangerous incidents in the city at night because everyone was fighting in Eternal Kingdom.

After drying himself, Lin Han walked out of the bathroom, sat on the bed, and picked up the game helmet. Looking at the eight-digit number on the helmet, representing the purchase order, he felt a mix of emotions. Even if he had chosen to order it immediately after hearing the news, his order was still in the millions.

Plugging the game helmet into the power source, Lin Han lay on the bed, took a deep breath, and put the helmet on. His vision went black, and then he appeared in a huge golden hall.

"Identity confirmed, player Lin Han. Welcome to the Eternal World. Please confirm your game name."

A huge fluorescent screen slowly appeared in the golden hall, and a solemn voice echoed in Lin Han's ears.

"Dark Desecration."

After much consideration, Lin Han ultimately used the name he had used in his previous life. When he confirmed his name, a pair of large white wings and a pair of black fallen wings appeared on the fluorescent screen. This represented the player's faction. In Eternal Kingdom, players were divided into two factions: Light and Dark. In his previous life, Lin Han was a player in the Dark faction, and this time would be no different.

"Player faction confirmed—Dark Council. Please choose your race."

"Necropolis."

"Please choose your appearance."

"Necropolis Black Knight."

"Race confirmed. Player data confirmed. Player Lin Han, appearance—Black Knight, name—Dark Desecration, Dark Council Necropolis Lord, entering the game."

The solemn voice changed to a pleasant female voice, and the scenery in front of Lin Han suddenly changed. He jumped from the golden hall to a dark Necropolis town. The black land, the pale skeletons, everything proved that this was a town of the dead.

"Attention, a group of monsters is entering your town's range. You must defend against three waves of monster attacks. This will greatly help your future development."

Just like his memory, every player would encounter three waves of monster attacks when they entered the game. This was not only a test but also a way for the game to help players adapt. In Lin Han's memory, after completing the defense task, players would receive an evaluation, and the higher the evaluation, the better the reward.

"Since that's the case, I won't hold back!"

Looking at the skeletons surging outside the city, Lin Han smiled. Since he had been reborn, he wouldn't be a silent player like in his previous life. This time, he would carve out his own territory, and this time, he would make the entire game tremble for him!

"Battle ended. You gained 14 experience points, 21 gold coins, 1 unit of wood, 29 experience points for your Skeletons, 15 experience points for your Skeleton Archers, and 3 units of bones."

"Finally, it's over."

Exiting the battle space, Lin Han finally breathed a sigh of relief. Every lord who built their castle would be attacked by three waves of wild monsters within the first 10 minutes of entering the game. Each wave would have more monsters than the previous one. However, the system would provide some troops to each lord when they entered the game, or Lin Han suspected he wouldn't have been able to defend against even the first wave.

"Task completed. Your castle permissions are fully unlocked. You gained 1000 gold coins, 10 units of resources, and a building blueprint—Bone Land. Your defense task evaluation is A, and you gained an additional reward—building blueprint—Bone Training Ground."

"Sure enough."

Seeing the extra blueprint in his backpack, Lin Han was delighted. Although the initial defense battle was very difficult, the rewards were also good. For many new lords, the reward would be 10-100 gold coins or a few units of resources. However, for Lin Han, a reborn player, this task meant at least a special building blueprint.

"Bone Training Ground: A special Necropolis building blueprint. Prerequisites: Large Cemetery, Main Camp, Bone Land. It can train ordinary bone troops into more powerful troops, but it will consume resources and troop equipment."

Lin Han remembered that before his rebirth, very few people had this blueprint. The reward required at least a B+ evaluation in the defense task, which was not easy for a new player. In the entire game, in the Asian region, there were probably fewer than 100 players who could achieve a B+ evaluation.

As the prompt ended, Lin Han appeared in a huge cemetery. Behind him, a floating cemetery-like building glowed green, and the ground beneath his feet turned black, spreading further.

"Attention, you are on the Necropolis special ground—Rotten Ground. You gain 10% movement speed and 3 additional health points per second."

Rotten Ground was a special terrain for the Necropolis race. Each Necropolis building would corrupt the surrounding ground into this terrain, and Necropolis buildings could only be built on Rotten Ground.

Walking to the Large Cemetery, a green light shone from the floating cemetery, and Lin Han began to rise, entering the Large Cemetery. In the center of the Large Cemetery, a green light ball continuously jumped, which was the heart of the Necropolis town. The Necropolis buildings relied on this, and upgrading the town heart would unlock more Necropolis buildings.

However, upgrading the town heart was not easy. Besides requiring a large amount of resources, one must first obtain a higher-level town heart. In his previous life, after two years of battles, there were only a few players in the entire game who had an 8-level town. At that time, 8-level town players were basically top-tier figures, each a guild leader who could dominate a region in the game, and only they had the resources to upgrade their towns to level 8.

However, in this life, there might be one more 8-level town player. Although Lin Han didn't have a large number of players supporting him, in his previous life, as an ordinary player, his greatest hobby was browsing forums. He remembered all the hidden rewards, tasks, treasure chests, and even heroes that appeared on the forums. Unfortunately, when the tasks were announced, they were mostly completed by others. But in this life, these tasks were yet to be discovered.

"Give me the detailed information about my town."

Placing his hand on the town heart, Lin Han gave a command. A green virtual screen appeared in the air.

"Castle name—Dark City, Castle race—Necropolis. Castle level: 1. Resources: 1432 gold coins, 10 units of level 1 wood, 10 units of level 1 ore, 10 units of level 1 stone. Special resources: 27 units of bones. Buildings: Level 1 Large Cemetery. Troops: 23 units of Skeletons, 20 units of Skeleton Archers."

This was everything Lin Han currently owned. Every lord player would start with 25 units of Skeletons and 20 units of Skeleton Archers, which were the Necropolis troops. Other races had different troops.

Eternal Kingdom offered a wide variety of races for players to choose from, and the game's races were divided into two opposing factions: the Holy Light Alliance, consisting of the Human, Night Elf, Elf, Tower, and Fortress races, and the Dark Council, consisting of the Necropolis, Beast, Dark Elf, Swamp, and Hell races. The two factions were located on different continents, and they would periodically engage in battles. Players and NPCs would join these battles, and defeating enemies would grant large amounts of experience and faction reputation. Faction reputation could be used to exchange for high-level troop blueprints or building blueprints, so each faction battle was very lively, with many players fighting for these blueprints.

However, this issue was not Lin Han's concern for now. The first faction battle would begin about a month after the game's public testing. Before that, Lin Han had a lot of time to develop his troops.

"Build Bone Land, construct a basic wall, and build two Wraith Towers."

After estimating his resources, Lin Han began to issue commands.

"Construction in progress. Bone Land will be completed in 2 minutes, the basic wall in 3 minutes, and the Wraith Towers in 5 minutes."

A cold prompt sounded, and a group of skeletons appeared on the Large Cemetery. These skeletons began to disperse around the Large Cemetery, building the structures Lin Han had ordered.

"Now, it's time to start planning."

After confirming the construction time, Lin Han began to clear the wild monsters around his castle. These monsters were few in number and could provide some initial resources and experience, though not much. For Lin Han, who was just starting, even one unit of resources was worth fighting for.

However, these monsters were not Lin Han's main target. While clearing them, he was also looking for certain special things, such as wild monster nests.

Wild monster nests were special structures that randomly appeared in the wild and were fixed in place. Generally, there were many of these nests in the wild, but the troops they could recruit were of low level and in small numbers. However, if a player could find several of these nests, they could provide a decent source of troops.

"Found it."

After defeating several groups of skeletons, Lin Han finally saw a large cemetery. This was a special terrain where the Necropolis race's attributes would be enhanced, and there would definitely be a wild monster nest in this terrain.

However, for the current Lin Han, entering this large cemetery was not a wise move. Generally, a large cemetery had many monsters, and the monsters' respawn rate was fast. Most importantly, the safe range of the monsters was 50 meters. Once within 50 meters, the player would be pulled into a battle space. If several monsters respawned around Lin Han, he might be caught in a series of battles, which he couldn't afford at his current level.

"Attention, you have entered the Skeletons' hate range. You have entered the battle space. You have no battlefield skills. Enemy troops: 15 units of Skeletons, 15 units of Skeletons. Your troops: 23 units of Skeletons, 20 units of Skeleton Archers."

Lin Han's luck wasn't good. Just as he hesitated, a skeleton respawned near him, and he was immediately dragged into the battle space.

The large cemetery terrain was similar to a small outdoor dungeon, with a large number of monsters. For example, the skeleton group Lin Han encountered had 30 units, while the skeletons he had encountered on his way were 2-7 units, and occasionally 10 units, which were quite rare.

"Skeleton: Necropolis 1st level 1st tier troop, the most common undead soldier in the Necropolis race. Although fragile, their numbers are their greatest advantage. Damage: 1-3, Defense: 1, Health: 15, Movement Speed: 1 meter per second, Attack Speed: once every 3 seconds. Special Ability: 1. Bone Body [The bone body of the Skeleton has a chance to dodge ranged attacks, with a 33% chance to dodge each ranged attack]."