Volume 1, Chapter 17: The King's Tournament

Lin Yi, feeling bored and listless, sat idly as his gaze drifted toward the watch glowing faintly on his wrist.

With a light tap, the watch’s holographic screen expanded, revealing over 99 unread messages from Lin Chuan.

This sudden barrage of messages made Lin Yi’s heart skip a beat. A thought flashed through his mind: Had something happened to Lin Chuan?

Filled with worry and confusion, Lin Yi eagerly opened the messages. However, as he read through them one by one, the expression on his face became quite colorful.

It turned out that every minute, Lin Chuan had sent a message, and the content was identical:

"Brother, is your monster strong?"
"Brother, why aren't you replying?"
"Brother, hurry up and reply!"
"Brother, don't tell me you’re dead!"
"Brother, don't scare me!"
"Brother, your death was so tragic!"
……

Looking at these messages, Lin Yi felt his face twitch uncontrollably, and he was left speechless. His own brother was actually cursing him like this.

He replied irritably in the input box: "Get lost, get lost, get lost! Why do you hope I’m dead? I’m starting to doubt if you’re really my brother! [Angry emoji]" He hit send without hesitation.

Almost the next second after the message was sent, Lin Yi received a reply from Lin Chuan.

When he saw the content of the new message, he felt an urge to cough up blood.

Lin Chuan had written: "Brother, you’re alive! You have no idea how worried I was about you! Hehe."

"Can't be bothered with you!" Lin Yi sent back.

"Brother, don't be like that! Who told you not to reply to me?" On the other end, Lin Chuan clicked send while letting out a sigh of relief, muttering, "As long as my big brother is okay."

The next second, the tone shifted completely. "Hmph! Who told you not to reply to me? If you don't reply next time, I’ll do it again."

Lin Yi, unaware that his brother was already preparing for another message bombardment, typed: "Why were you looking for me so urgently?"

Seeing this, Lin Chuan dropped the playful act and typed: "Brother, it’s too complicated to explain via text. Let's talk over a call."

Seeing this, Lin Yi guessed that what Lin Chuan had to say was definitely serious, so he walked to the city wall before answering the call.

Sure enough, he heard Lin Chuan say with slight gravity: "Brother... practically everyone who leveled up to level two is dead."

What? That was a bombshell right off the bat. Lin Yi said, unable to believe it: "Xiao Chuan, you can eat whatever you want, but you shouldn't just say whatever you want."

"Brother, I’m not lying to you. None of the people on my friends list who were level two or higher have replied to me. Also, if you don't believe me, look at the lobby chat box. Usually, it would be flooded with messages at this time, but it’s much quieter now."

"Besides, our district originally had over 200 million people, and now there are only a little over 100 million. That's almost half gone. There are over 35 districts in total, and the death toll is only going to be higher."

Hearing this, Lin Yi felt his heart tremble. He had assumed the first attack wouldn't be very dangerous, but reality proved him wrong.

A strong sense of crisis, mixed with fear, filled his heart. He said in a low voice: "Do you know what kind of monster strength they faced?"

Seeing that his brother grasped the point immediately, Lin Chuan said with a hint of relief: "Big brother, according to the survivors who were level two, we at level one had to face 20 common-grade monsters, while level two meant 40 bronze-grade monsters, level three meant 80 silver-grade monsters, and level four meant 160 gold-grade monsters."

"If we develop normally, the monsters we face at each level are manageable, but if you 'skip levels' to level up, you're doomed unless there's a miracle."

Lin Yi muttered: "Gold-grade? I don't even have a single proper bronze-grade combat unit. This damn system is a menace."

"But I can't say it's all bad; it did provide warnings. Though, it likes playing word games."

As Lin Yi was lost in thought, Lin Chuan’s voice came through again. "Brother, luckily I had your warning, otherwise the death toll would have doubled."

"Alright, alright, stop buttering me up. Didn't you say your resources were abundant? Hurry up and level up. Also, send some food. I just rescued eight injured women here; I have medicine but no food."

"I'm done for, out of 20 treasure chests, most were just gold coins, and there were barely any food or potions," Lin Yi complained.

Before he could finish, Lin Chuan said meaningfully: "What... what did you just say... eight women! Brother, you’re quite the lucky one. Looks like I’ll have a sister-in-law soon. Don't worry, the food is on its way."

"Get lost, get lost, get lost! I'm hanging up if there's nothing else!" Lin Yi said impatiently.

"Brother, I understand. I won't disturb your enjoyment." Lin Chuan hung up immediately, the corners of his mouth curling up. "Brother, you wanted to scold me? Not a chance."

Lin Yi was speechless, a wave of irritation rising within him. "Lin Chuan, you bastard, is that the kind of person you think I am?"

Just then, the system’s cold voice echoed in Lin Yi’s ears.

"Remaining Kings, congratulations on surviving the first wave of attacks. I will now announce the Kings who performed exceptionally well over the past few days."

"At the same time, the Castle Ranking is now open. You can check your ranking on the homepage; the top 10,000 will be published. Rankings are based on your overall performance over these days and will refresh every month. Rewards will be granted this time."

"Rewards are as follows: Top 10 will receive an Epic-grade item, resources required for upgrading will be halved, and the frequency of NPC appearances will increase."

"10th to 100th place will receive a Diamond-grade item and increased NPC appearance frequency."

"100th to 1,000th place will receive a Platinum-grade item and a Gold-grade treasure chest."

"1,000th to 10,000th place will receive a Gold-grade treasure chest."

"The purpose of this ranking is to motivate more Kings to participate. The rewards have been automatically placed into your watch’s storage backpack."

"One more thing: when over 80 percent of the Kings reach level two, the King’s Hegemony Tournament will begin. It will use a random matching system based on strength to plunder enemy resources."

"Rules: Matched Kings will lead their summoned warriors to attack the opponent's castle. The time limit is 3 minutes. Victory or defeat is determined by star ratings, with a maximum of three stars."

"50% destruction equals one star, destroying the castle equals two stars, and 100% destruction equals three stars. [Note: If the opponent’s castle is not destroyed, you only get one star. If the star ratings are the same, the one with higher destruction percentage wins. If both are the same, the one who used less time wins.]"

"Note that after the tournament begins, rankings will be based on this. Each win will grant you a certain number of trophies; the more trophies you have, the higher your rank and the stronger your strength."

"There are nine ranks, from low to high: Bronze Cup, Silver Cup, Gold Cup, Platinum Cup, Diamond Cup, Star-Struck Cup, Titan Cup, Master Cup, and Legend Cup. Each rank has three sub-tiers, which you can check for yourselves later."

"Rest assured, during the tournament, you can design defensive formations within your watch. Only the buildings originally in your castle count; those built by NPCs later or obtained through rewards do not."

"You can also deploy NPCs as defensive combat units. NPCs participating in defense will not disappear if they die in battle. After it ends, they will automatically revive, losing all memory of the event, as if it were just a dream."

"Once completed, your castle will appear as a city within a tournament space, arranged according to your castle’s formation, and you will appear outside the opponent's city."

"That is all for now. Good luck!"

Lin Yi sat there, his eyes somewhat dazed, the system’s words echoing in his mind. Time passed second by second. Only after a good while did he recover from the shock and begin to slowly digest the information.

"Hegemony..." Lin Yi muttered to himself, an indescribable feeling welling up inside. The word was both foreign and familiar; he had seen similar plots in countless novels and films, but experiencing it himself felt so surreal.

However, he had no more time to ponder what all this meant.

Because it was clear that if he wanted to have a place in this hegemony and eventually achieve victory, he had to increase his strength as quickly as possible.

Otherwise, the only outcome awaiting him would be being mercilessly crushed by others. Thinking of this, Lin Yi took a deep breath and secretly made up his mind: no matter how difficult the road ahead might be, he would give it his all!