I Save The World In A Doomsday Text Game

Chapter 177-1: The Inheritance Trial of the Dark Dragon Knight (1)

[You step closer, reading line by line, word by word…]

[This was an epic age brimming with heroes!]

[The evil gods of the stars invaded our beautiful homeland on a massive scale, and countless learned scholars stood alongside the great Omniscient True Knowledge to resist these enemies from the void.]

[With their vast knowledge, the scholars fought on the front lines of the struggle against the starborn, becoming immortal heroes worthy of the annals of history.]

[From childhood, I vowed to become one of the learned, to follow the True God and defend our home. If I could be remembered by history like those great heroes, what supreme glory that would be!]

[With my parents’ hopes upon me, I entered the Academy of Knowledge to study diligently.]

[To become a hero, I worked countless times harder than any ordinary person. In every sleepless night, in every moment of exhaustion and hunger, the rock-solid faith sustaining me was what kept me gathering knowledge without pause!]

[But fate is cruel… Great Omniscient True Knowledge, forgive my dullness. Despite my relentless effort, I still fell behind my peers.]

[The Academy mentors tried to console me: not everyone could receive the favor of Knowledge. They said I should abandon my studies and go elsewhere to offer my faith to the True God… After all, the war to defend our home needed more than just learned scholars at the front.]

[My mentor helped contact the Logistics Academy, hoping I would give up my precious place in the Academy of Knowledge so other, more gifted peers could take my spot.][Reason told me I should follow my mentor’s advice… but I was not willing!]

[How could I accept it? The conviction I had clung to so long, shattered without mercy. Countless days and nights of toil and sweat, burned to ashes. I… How could I resign myself…]

[I argued with my mentor with all my strength, trying to stay at the Academy, but every attempt failed…]

[Until the day news arrived from the front: my parents had died in battle… Of course, they had been drafted into the Oath Legion. Who could survive that?]

[After that, my mentor no longer tried to dismiss me, as I was the orphan of two who had given their lives in sacrifice.]

[But somehow, I suddenly lost all motivation.]

[I stopped studying day and night. The books I once cherished were left to molder in a corner, gathering thick dust.]

[…]

[I took the initiative to ask my mentor to transfer me to the Logistics Academy. My mentor was right, I should relinquish my seat in the Academy of Knowledge.]

[A dullard like me, joining the Logistics Academy as a porter, at least made use of my strong body. That was the best I could offer.]

[The process of leaving the Academy went smoothly. The day after I made my request, I received the formal documents.]

[That night, I felt as if a great burden had lifted. I slept the most peaceful sleep I’d had in years.]

[Perhaps I’d always known I could never become a scholar, but my unwillingness to admit defeat kept me clinging to that absurd dream that would never come true.]

[In my dreams that night, I became the greatest hero of all. In the war against the evil gods, I achieved mighty feats. My people sang ballads of my deeds. Epic poems immortalized my name… What a ridiculous dream.]

[But in the dream, I was not like the other heroes, I wasn’t a scholar wielding rings, books, or staves. I was a giant warrior with a long spear and armor, riding a terrifying creature, soaring through the sky… It was truly absurd!]

[When I awoke, I vaguely heard an old, kindly voice…]

[That voice told me my devotion had moved the True God. If I still wished to dedicate everything in service, I should go to the Bamogo Mountains to seek the legendary Ancient Black Dragon, thought long extinct.]

[If I could win the Ancient Dragon’s recognition, I would realize a dream that was not absurd at all.]

[In a trance, I beheld an elderly man in white robes, his hair pure white. He stood within a grand temple built of shining white symbols, gazing at me with benevolence…]

[…]

[…]

[The rest of the huge stele’s inscription had been blurred by the ages, impossible to decipher.]

???

Just as Lin Xun was engrossed in reading, it felt like a sudden anticlimax, as if a tireless farmer’s plow had suddenly gone limp halfway through.

He felt as though ants were crawling all over him.

“Hellish game, if you cliffhanger like this, you’ll get death threats!”

Lin Xun clenched his teeth and cursed aloud.

Although the stele had no further text, like some shameless author going missing, he could more or less guess the rest of the tale.

The white-haired elder mentioned in the inscription was surely the Servant of Knowledge.

Guided by the Servant of Knowledge, the protagonist must have endured endless hardships, overcome countless trials, and eventually found the Ancient Black Dragon, becoming the Dark Dragon Knight.

At last, he fought far and wide for the Omniscient True Knowledge, accomplishing countless feats, fulfilling his dream.

“…No, if he fulfilled his dream, why would he have died here, perished in this lightless underground abyss?”

Lin Xun frowned. Something about it didn’t add up.

According to the text, the Ancient Hermit Dark Dragon was bound here by chains, and its master had died here as well.

But just from the stele’s inscription alone, he could not deduce how the story ended.

[You carefully examine the stele from top to bottom, and at the very base, you find a few lines that remain legible.]

[You crouch to read…]

[To those who come after: if you, like me, were born dull of wit, with nothing but a strong body and no hope of becoming a scholar; if you possess a will as unshakable as stone, unwavering and resolute, then touch this stele.]

[If you can pass the trial I have left behind, you will inherit my legacy.]

[When you become an existence that can rival the gods themselves, please remember, avenge me…]

[You have finished reading all the legible text on the stele.]

[Would you like to touch the stele to begin the Dark Dragon Knight’s trial?]

Accept the Dragon Knight’s legacy?

“If I pass the trial, will I get to become a Dragon Knight, and maybe be rewarded with a giant dragon?”

Right beside him was the Ancient Hermit Dark Dragon, which should be the Ancient Black Dragon mentioned on the stele.

Lin Xun’s imagination ran wild, picturing how, after completing the trial, the dragon’s skeletal remains would revive, and he’d become an Undead Dragon Knight, or perhaps a Bone Dragon Knight.

He carefully reviewed the stele’s text again.

There were two prerequisites to begin the trial: simply put, first, to be simple-minded and strong of limb; second, to possess unshakable, indomitable will.

He guessed the content of the trial would likely relate to these two prerequisites.

Anyone who didn’t fit them probably couldn’t pass.

The Mage shell obviously didn’t qualify. But the Earth Giant was perfectly suited to the ‘strong of limb’ part. As for resolute will, that depended on the shell’s user.

Lin Xun asked himself whether his will was steadfast. Time and again, when facing those dodgy ads that popped up, he had always chosen to close the tab without hesitation.

It perfectly matched the ‘unshakable will’ described in the prerequisites.

“It’s just a trial, let’s do it!”