One night passed.
As the morning sun's radiance appeared from the other side of the horizon, Fang Zheng had finally sorted out the memories in his mind and figured out the cause and effect of things.
First of all, he was indeed dead. This left Fang Zheng speechless. All along, he considered himself to be a cautious person. He always prepared for various unforeseen risks. From a girlfriend breaking up to a company going bankrupt, from a cash flow rupture to a partner absconding with the funds, from a robber attempting murder for money to encountering a drunk driver while crossing the street. Fang Zheng would consider all sorts of risks and possible unforeseen events and make corresponding preparations. He liked this kind of controlled life, where unchanging principles could cope with ever-changing situations. This philosophy of life was what had brought him success today.
But what Fang Zheng hadn't expected was that the world is always so wondrous, full of unimaginable surprises.
Like when he jumped into the river to save someone, he never thought that after successfully rescuing the person and watching them get on the ambulance, he would be struck directly by a suddenly snapped high-voltage line overhead.
What was even more unexpected was that after he died, he woke up in another world.
As for the current body he had resurrected in, its owner's experiences left Fang Zheng utterly speechless.
Actually, the story was not complicated. The small noble family he was residing in had a secret treasure, and not long ago, a group of knights from the Kingdom of the Holy Church found this small noble and claimed that the secret treasure passed down in his family was an evil and ominous thing, demanding that he hand it over. Of course, the small noble was unwilling and directly drove the knights away. Originally, the noble hadn't thought much about it, but little did they expect that on the night they drove the knights away, the knights would raid their manor and start a bloodbath.
This small noble named Williams was merely a junior knight and had never seen such a scene. Naturally, he was scared out of his wits and fled immediately with the secret treasure. He had hoped to seek assistance from other noble families in the city, but upon arriving, he found out that the Kingdom of the Holy Church had publicly announced that the Williams family was colluding with cultists and had been declared enemies of order, with a bounty placed on their heads.
The Kingdom of the Holy Church held a reverent position on this continent, whereas a small noble like Williams was nothing more than a small fry and could not possibly compare. Helpless, they continued fleeing but ultimately couldn't escape the Holy Church's chase, meeting their end here.
If seen from Fang Zheng's perspective as an outsider, it would be easy to think that the Kingdom of the Holy Church was the sort that appeared dignified on the surface but was full of depravity and corruption underneath, playing with boys and girls. However, after absorbing the small noble's memories, Fang Zheng frustratingly discovered that the Kingdom of the Holy Church's arrest warrant... was well-deserved.
Because according to Williams's memories, though they outwardly worshipped the Goddess of Order, they were, in fact, devout believers of a cult named the "Doomsday Sect." This cult believed in the end of all things, claiming that one day everything in the world would be destroyed, even gods would fall, and the God of Destruction would rise again to rule the world. What the cultists aimed to do was weaken the forces of those order followers as much as possible, waiting for the return of the God of Destruction, among other nonsensical tasks.
As expected, the Williams family secretly engaged in many dirty and dark dealings. From Fang Zheng's viewpoint, even without the Kingdom of the Holy Church enacting justice, their actions would be enough to get them executed multiple times under his own world's laws.
How did he get reborn into such a person?
Thinking about this gave Fang Zheng a massive headache. Everyone else who time-traveled either had deep-seated vengeance or the hidden attributes of a protagonist. Why did he reincarnate as a universally despised cultist?
What's even more frustrating was that upon absorbing Williams's memories, Fang Zheng helplessly discovered that not only was he already a wanted criminal in the Kingdom of the Holy Church, but he also couldn't go back to the Doomsday Sect. The reason was simple: according to Williams's memories, the so-called sect secret treasure had been damaged during his escape!
The process of damaging the treasure wasn't worth mentioning. Facing the Holy Church's pursuers, Williams intended to stake everything and activate the secret artifact for a mutual wipeout, but whether it was due to incorrect steps or bad luck, the artifact shattered with a "pop" while Williams was channeling magic into it, causing him to lose consciousness—bringing Fang Zheng onto the stage.
No wonder he was hunted for life!
Fang Zheng could imagine if he were found by the Doomsday Sect and couldn't produce the secret treasure, he would be dead meat. Cults are the same in any world, boasting various tortures that would make one unable to live or die comfortably. Thinking like this, getting caught by the Holy Church might even be better—they would at least give you a clean death with a single sword stroke...
Not only that, through Williams's memories, Fang Zheng learned that this was a world with a very advanced power system. In this world, not only were there magic and knights but also dragons, undead, and various other monsters and entities. Not to mention deities and divine envoys... Unlike the scammy religions in Fang Zheng's world, these cults genuinely had backing up top!
In comparison, although Fang Zheng had some skills, he believed he was nothing compared to magic and those unbelievably skilled swordsmen. As for this body he had reincarnated into? Ha, Fang Zheng already knew that Williams only had the strength of an Apprentice Knight. The Doomsday Sect he believed in hadn't provided him any divine blessings. Unless something unexpected happened, any one of those knights Fang Zheng had seen earlier could beat him easily.
Fortunately, the world was never short of surprises.
Thinking of this, Fang Zheng raised his hand. With his motion, the luxurious, thick book appeared again. Until now, Fang Zheng hadn't carefully inspected the large book that had appeared out of thin air in his hand. It looked as thick as a lexicon, but when held, it was surprisingly as light as a feather. On the pitch-black, heavy cover, a luxurious gemstone that shone with multicolored radiance was embedded at its center, and silvery circles radiated outward from the gemstone, resembling the orbiting paths of planets in the cosmos.
Opening the book, Fang Zheng saw that at the top of the page was his own name. In the center was a groove where a beautiful white gemstone was embedded. Cold frost swirled around the gem's surface, adding a touch of chilliness.
At the bottom of the interface were three options: [Summon], [Enhance], and [Teleport].
This was what Fang Zheng had gained after arriving in this world—the Dimensional Codex!
More importantly, this was the game system that Fang Zheng had designed before his rebirth!
Looking at the familiar cover, Fang Zheng couldn't help but twitch his mouth. He had initially only speculated, but now he was sure—this was the system he developed!
This was a new mobile game still under development, named "Dimensional Codex." In it, the player was a young person, with customizable gender and avatar. According to the game's setting, players would, for some reason, be swept away by time-space turbulence and awaken to find themselves in a brand-new world. There, they would encounter a large book named "Dimensional Codex" and begin their new journey.
In the game, after obtaining the Dimensional Codex, the player would become a "Dimensional Mage." As the name implies, they traveled between dimensional worlds. They could use the Codex to teleport to various dimensional planes to complete different tasks and earn Dimensional Points. These points could be used to summon soulstones that harbored "the power of a mighty soul from another realm" or enhance the power of these soulstones' attributes.
At this moment, what Fang Zheng had equipped was the soulstone he received from his first "newbie summon"—the Lich King Arthas.
As the game's producer, Fang Zheng certainly knew how to use soulstones. There were two ways to use a soulstone. One was simply embedding it in the Dimensional Codex like this, enabling Fang Zheng to receive a permanent buff. This buff would offer Fang Zheng a certain level of enhancement, and unless Fang Zheng used Dimensional Points to enhance the soulstone, he wouldn't gain new abilities and skills, similar to leveling up in a game.
The other way was to fully activate the soulstone's power. When activated, Fang Zheng could use all the abilities of the existence bound to the soulstone, almost identical to the original. Just like in his battle with those knights earlier, he had used the real strength of the Lich King Arthas, rendering the Holy Church's knights fragile and laughable.
Unfortunately, while the activation mode seemed exhilarating, it had many restrictions. First, it would enter a cooldown period after activation, just like a skill CD. Second, the activation had a limited number of uses. For instance, the [Arthas] soulstone that Fang Zheng summoned could only be activated five times in total, and once those activations were depleted, the [Arthas] soulstone would shatter and vanish.
In that case, Fang Zheng would either have to summon a different soulstone or... be left to die.
[Executor: Fang Zheng]
[Dimensional Points: 0]
[Equipped Soulstone: Arthas]
[Received Buff: Undying Ruler (Increased undead creature detection by 50%, undead creature damage by 50%, undead creature defense by 50%)]
[Strength: E (You are no different from an ordinary person)]
[Agility: D (Running faster than others always has its advantages)]
[Constitution: E (When a person is killed, they die)]
[Perception: D (Perceiving six directions and listening to all sounds is basic for you)]
[Charm: D (As long as someone isn't blind, they'll notice your external beauty)]
[Equipped Skills: None]
[Exclusive Task: Curse of Frostmourne]
[This magic sword desires to devour souls filled with pain, and your task is to satisfy its craving—Frostmourne is hungry (Requires the holder to obtain no less than 1000 units of Power of the Soul in the next mission world. Success will grant random rewards +1, failure will result in the curse of Frostmourne on the holder. Countdown 24H)]
"This is really outrageous..."
Looking at this task prompt, Fang Zheng gritted his teeth. He understood that the Power of the Soul mentioned was probably human souls. To complete this task, he had to kill a thousand people... this wasn't the same as killing a thousand pigs! Even if a thousand pigs were lined up for him to chop, he wouldn't finish the job in a day!
But to give up on this task? Ha... Fang Zheng had played Warcraft and knew well how terrifying this sword was. The curse of Frostmourne... it would be a miracle if he could survive it.
What frustrated Fang Zheng even more was that he had no idea how he managed to draw this item because he remembered clearly that he had only completed the main framework and settings of the system. As for the soulstones and other mission planes, Fang Zheng hadn't finished them, and the programming team hadn't started on them. So why was he able to summon a soulstone, and it happened to be the Lich King's?
And this teleportation...
"Sigh..."
Looking at the interface before him, Fang Zheng let out a long sigh. If he could, he really didn't want to complete this task. After all, no one knew to which world the system would send him. But if he didn't go, Fang Zheng knew very well that with his current strength, if the Holy Church came for him, he would be captured effortlessly.
Fang Zheng had considered hiding in the mission world, but he knew very well that he had set a time limit for staying in each mission world. Not only that, like the soulstones, each time Fang Zheng completed a mission and returned, the teleportation function would enter a cooldown period and only activate after some time. Therefore, Fang Zheng could neither hide forever in the mission world nor avoid the Holy Church and the Doomsday Sect's pursuit by continually undertaking missions.
He had no choice but to enhance his strength. Moreover, Fang Zheng had a premonition that if he didn't go to the instance now, he might never get away.
And his premonitions were always accurate.
"Teleport!"
With that thought, Fang Zheng didn't hesitate any longer. He clapped the Codex shut with a "snap" and murmured to himself. Quickly, the thick Dimensional Codex in his hand dissolved into glowing rings that surrounded Fang Zheng. In the next second, his figure vanished, and the rings dispersed into glimmering particles and disappeared without a trace.
"Whoosh... whoosh...!"
Not long after Fang Zheng vanished, a flurry of wing flapping sounds arose. Several pure-white Pegasi descended from the sky, landing at the spot where Fang Zheng had hidden earlier.
"My sister, have you found anything?"
Riding one of the Pegasi, a man dressed similarly to the Silver Knights Fang Zheng had seen before, carefully examined the ground and asked in a low voice. Hearing his question, a female knight on another Pegasus closed her eyes and sensed for a moment, then shook her head.
"I haven't detected any aura, friend. I think the target has already left this place."
"Damn cultist..."
Hearing the female knight's response, the man clenched his fists tightly.
"Not only did he kill our comrades, but he also desecrated their bodies and souls! Such actions are utterly unforgivable. In the name of the Goddess of Order, we will not let our comrades die in vain! Justice will prevail!"
Saying this, the man waved his hand firmly.
"Let's move out, keep searching. That cultist can't have gone far! He must be nearby, spread out and search!"