“I haven’t had this taste in five or six years.”

Yinglong sighed, quickly picking up her chopsticks and scooping a mouthful of rice noodles into her mouth.

The bone broth mixed with chili, and the noodles were already infused with flavor. The fresh and spicy taste stimulated her taste buds, and the sensation was refreshing and satisfying. She ate five or six mouthfuls in quick succession before finally releasing her hand from the chopsticks to move the mouse and click on the public beta announcement for The Nine Provinces, reading through it carefully, one word at a time.

As an old player of The Nine Provinces, aside from the two years she had been away, Yinglong had spent most of her leisure time immersed in this game. She knew everything about it, and even if she didn’t read the announcements carefully, it didn’t matter much.

But she still took the time to read the nearly 3,000-word announcement thoroughly.

The Nine Provinces was an online game developed by Dream Studio and operated by HuntDog Company. The official marketing called it a “groundbreaking work,” but no one believed it. Yinglong thought it was probably just self-praise from the officials, but she never expected they were actually prophetic.

Who could have predicted that this game would truly become a part of the history of online games?

When the first public beta for the game launched in China, it was still a traditional keyboard-and-mouse experience. After the cloud servers were integrated and versions evolved, it was renamed The Crown (known as Wen Ding in Chinese), passing the most stringent reviews. The game allowed global cloud server connections with no lag, integrated PC and mobile platforms, and by the 10th anniversary, it supported virtual reality headsets, entering the VR online gaming era. It became one of the top three games globally in daily revenue and was considered the biggest IP in gaming.

It collaborated with Hollywood to create adaptations, raked in money from its merchandise, and partnered with businesses like luxury brands, tea shops, and museums. She suspected that if things kept going this way, it wouldn’t be long before a Nine Provinces theme park would be established.

However, that was ten years later.

Right now, The Nine Provinces had just begun its first public beta and had just released its first expansion pack, The Hundred Schools of Thought.

Yinglong carefully watched the short video, which introduced the game’s background.

The emperor of Zhou passed away, and the world fell into chaos as the warlords vied for control of the Nine Provinces. Different schools of thought flourished everywhere, including Confucianism, military strategy, Mohism, medicine, yin-yang philosophy, legalism, diplomacy, and Taoism, all engaging in philosophical debates. Players could choose to align with one of these schools, each representing one of the eight major sects in the game, with additional special careers like thief and assassin, making a total of ten professions. Each profession had unique skills and talents, allowing players to freely choose their development paths, with an extremely high degree of freedom.

As an experienced player, Yinglong already had her mind set on what profession to play and how to excel at it, so she didn’t need to worry.

What she was really searching for was an Easter egg.

Six years ago, a post went viral on the game’s forums. It contained an indistinct recording that vaguely mentioned someone had won one hundred million in-game currency, and it caused an uproar when it was first released. But soon after, the post was deleted from all platforms. Oddly enough, the officials never denied the rumor, leaving the players to wonder whether it was true or not, which sparked widespread discussion.

Eventually, the officials were forced to admit that it was true: a player had indeed discovered the “Imperial Seal” within the game and won a one-hundred-million prize.

There was an online and offline outcry, and rumors ran rampant. Even after Yinglong’s rebirth, no one had ever figured out the full story behind it—why would the game company willingly pay out such a large sum of money and then keep everything under wraps afterward?

Since this incident wasn’t a baseless rumor, anyone who missed this opportunity would be a fool.

One hundred million.

Just thinking about it made her heart race.

Unfortunately, even in the first public announcement of the game, there was no mention of the “Imperial Seal.” She could only flip the page, feeling disappointed, and study the server launch benefits instead.

Every game has its pay-to-win aspects, and The Nine Provinces didn’t require game cards, which drew in many players from the trailer alone. But to truly excel in the game, money was essential. As a poor college student, she could only grab every opportunity to maximize her small advantage.

Exclusive codes were offered with health items and food.

A limited 168-package would grant rare skins and mounts (limited to 888).

Looking at these descriptions, it almost seemed like a “register and get a dragon-slaying sword” kind of pay-to-win gimmick. Players weren’t fools and feared that The Nine Provinces would end up using such tactics despite claiming not to require game cards.

Spend money? Better wait until the game opens to see how things go!

After all, who has money to burn?

But without hesitation, Yinglong pulled out a top-up card and added 350 yuan to her account.

Today’s 168 yuan package would become 1688 yuan in a month. After playing for three months, accounts with the same gear but with limited edition outfits and mounts could be sold for an additional 3000 yuan. Ten years later, even the first year’s rare outfits could be worth over 100,000, with a market that’s more valuable than gold.

Note: This isn’t to say that The Crown is an appearance-based game; on the contrary, appearances are the only aspect that can be bought with real money. But being able to profit through appearances showed that the game itself was of a high standard.

To get to the point, the 168 yuan package could only be purchased once per account, so she had to register two accounts to buy both packages. As for why she didn’t buy more… well, her living expenses had run out, and the package was already sold out.

Poor people can only shuffle things around like ants, truly pitiful.

Returning to the game screen, the download progress slowly climbed to 89%.

Ah, The Nine Provinces used to require a client download ten years ago; I’m really not used to this.

Yinglong quickly finished her lunch, swallowing down the rice noodles.

She threw the takeout box into the trash, rinsed her mouth, and poured some tea. Her computer popped up with the “Download Complete” notification.

The game is loading!

She leisurely wiped her mouth and waited for the animation to load.

The burning scroll rolled out, revealing the map of the Nine Provinces. Dark ink spilled into the water, showing the shadow of the emperor’s death. The fires of war broke out, and the sounds of weapons rang out, while the people fled in chaos, marking the start of the tumultuous times.

The ink spread, and the scene shifted to a tranquil village by a stream.

[Please select a server]

Ah, right, before the global servers opened, which server was the most popular? Oh, yes, “Kingdom Conqueror.”

[Please choose your faction]

Yinglong selected the “Medical Sect,” with the representative model being a gentle, elegant woman with long hair.

[Please customize your character]

She clicked on model 2, with long eyebrows, red lips, a high ponytail, and average height. Ten years ago, the character models weren’t as realistic as VR, but they were unique in texture and still full of charm.

[Enter your ID]

Her fingers flew across the keyboard: Yao Shi Ling Long.

This was the ID she registered ten years ago, carrying a strong nostalgic vibe. She had changed it later, but this was the one she felt the most sentimental about.

Since she’s back, let her also be reborn.

Yinglong clicked confirm and officially entered The Nine Provinces.

As a disciple of the Medical Sect, her starting point was the Medicine King Valley, where an NPC stood in front of her. Clicking on them allowed her to take on related quests.

[Medicine King Valley Senior Sister: You’re a new disciple, right? I’m Half Summer from the Medical Sect, and I’ll take care of you from now on! Let’s get familiar with the faction. First, take this letter to Senior Brother doing his morning exercises.]

[Accept Half Summer’s quest?]

Yinglong didn’t even look at the content, quickly accepting the quest, starting the usual beginner process for every account: delivering a letter to Senior Brother, earning 1 point of faction experience, learning how to meditate, then delivering the finished poison medicine to Senior Sister, gaining another point of experience, learning a basic set of martial arts, and finally hunting rabbits.

After defeating the enemies, Senior Sister would give you a bottle of medicine to show you how to recover health and internal energy, commonly known as healing and mana recovery.

Yinglong didn’t care about the plot and quickly completed the tutorial tasks in the newbie village. Her skill bar lit up with two icons.

No need to worry about it. She continued with the main quests. After collecting herbs, grinding, and setting up a training dummy, Senior Sister gave her the most basic equipment.

Rough clothes, rough pants, hemp rope shoes, and a weapon.

There wasn’t much to say about the clothes; they just increased the character’s defense and health in the early stages, ensuring the character could survive a little longer. The weapon, however, was what made The Nine Provinces unique.

Most games restrict factions to certain weapons, and sometimes you see dual weapon classes. But The Nine Provinces was different: the player chose the weapon, not the weapon choosing the player. Players could wear any weapon, but their martial arts skills determined the weapon restrictions. Moreover, players had two hands, so the weapon slots had two spaces: one for the main weapon and one for the secondary weapon. The cooldowns were different for each, just like how people have dominant and non-dominant hands.