Monsters Are Coming怪物来了

After reviewing the day's earnings, the Origin Altar beneath Qi Sheng's feet glowed.

After a brief spatial distortion, he appeared in his real-world bedroom.

Glancing at the calendar on the wall, he opened the window and, switching to his Emperor's Sign form, flew into the vast night.
Much later, Qi Sheng appeared before a dilapidated cemetery.

It had been untended for years, many of the tombstones overgrown with creeping vines, while a city rail station was under construction nearby.

Qi Sheng's steps halted before a specific tombstone.

The photograph on the tombstone had faded, and the carved inscription was worn and peeling.

Gazing at the tombstone, Qi Sheng's expression grew complex, and he eventually knelt, bowing deeply before it.

He remained in that posture for a long time before rising to repair the tombstone. As he worked, memories flooded his mind.

As a child, he had always fantasized about possessing superhuman abilities, but the moment he truly gained them, he realized he had inherited a heavy burden.

He was eighteen when he first crossed into Monster World.

At that time, Monster World was embroiled in fierce turmoil. The Monster King, Emperor's Sign, had self-dismantled his power, leaving various factions without a true leader, and the world plunged into a chaotic era of warring lords.

The war had raged for millennia before his arrival, and every faction that had once served the Emperor's Sign now coveted the title of the new world's ruler.

Among them, four factions stood out as the most powerful.

These were Yan Ming, master of spatial power; Nine Yin, master of purification power; Guide, master of analysis; and Transdimensional, master of myriad extraction power.

They had once been the Emperor's Sign's most loyal retainers, and after the Emperor's Sign's self-dismantling, each believed themselves to be the rightful successor, seeking to inherit the "inherent origin power" of the Emperor's Sign, buried in Emperor's Mound Village after his self-dismantling, and become the new Emperor's Sign.

However, the arrival of the terrifying Black Tide altered the intensely conflicted landscape.

Monster World was gradually corrupted by the Black Tide's power, its environment and ecosystems devastated, and spatial rifts opening across the world.

At this rate, Monster World would eventually be devoured by the Black Tide.

The Four Retainers ultimately chose to unite against the Black Tide, battling endless Evil Entities.

The protracted war left the Four Retainers increasingly weak, while the power of the Evil Entities grew stronger with the Black Tide's relentless infiltration of the world. Their defeat seemed irreversible.

Finally, the Four Retainers were forced by the Evil Entities to the very edge of Monster World—to Emperor's Mound Village, where the Emperor's Sign had left his inherent origin. They worked together to open a forbidden seal and took refuge within.

Emperor's Mound Village was Monster World's last remaining sanctuary, untouched by the encroaching darkness.

The Four Retainers had initially planned to attempt fusing with the Emperor's Sign's inherent origin, to inherit his power, and use the might of the Emperor's Sign to fight the Black Tide once more.

But at that critical moment, the terrifying Black Tide struck again, enveloping Emperor's Mound Village.

It was at this precise moment that he had crossed into Monster World, pulled into the terrifying Black Tide's vortex, and on the verge of death.

In that dire crisis, the Four Retainers had united to repel the Black Tide and, in doing so, rescued him and brought him back to Emperor's Mound Village.

Their intervention further weakened the already frail Four Retainers, and their bodies, strained by the fight against the Black Tide, developed various ailments.

It was also then that Guide was stripped of his original life form and transformed into a sphere of water.

What the Four Retainers never anticipated, however, was that none of them inherited the Emperor's Sign's inherent origin, which they had sought their entire lives. Instead, it was he, a mere mortal from another world, who became the inheritor of that coveted honor.

Qi Sheng still vividly remembered the complex expressions in the Four Retainers' eyes the moment he inherited the Emperor's Sign's power.

Anger, bewilderment, despair, unwillingness, excitement... a whirlwind of emotions intertwined, but ultimately settled into stoic acceptance. Four figures knelt before him, pledging their eternal loyalty and vowing to serve him as retainers for all eternity.

He, in turn, bore the burden of the Four Retainers' fervent hope, promising to use the Emperor's Sign's immense power to save Monster World and dispel the endless, terrifying Black Tide.

In the years that followed, he first merged with the Emperor's Sign's inherent origin and fell into a slumber that lasted 300 years.

He then spent another hundred years learning under the guidance of the Four Retainers, who taught him to comprehend the Emperor's Sign's various abilities and understand the intricacies of Monster World.

But to truly become the Emperor's Sign God, he needed to venture beyond Emperor's Mound Village, explore Monster World, and contain the lost Primordial Power of the Emperor's Sign.

This process, however, proved incredibly arduous. Beyond possessing the Emperor's Sign's inherent origin, he had no other power enhancements. The Emperor's Sign's body could not be strengthened through any cultivation method; power could only be gained by containing Primordial Power.

At the time, his strength barely surpassed that of Monster World's weakest creatures, and with Evil Entities rampaging outside, his progress was agonizingly slow.

The Emperor's Sign's inherent origin held immense attraction for Evil Entities, and the Four Retainers believed that if higher-tier Evil Entities discovered him, disaster was inevitable.

Thus, every time he ventured out, he had to continuously expend Sacrificial Power to mask the Emperor's Sign's aura on his body.

Each outing incurred a significant expenditure of Sacrificial Power.

During this period, he contained the Owl-Headed Fiend, Gargoyle, and Black-Scaled Serpent, and his strength gradually increased.

But to the Four Retainers, this pace was still far too slow. The Sacrificial Power expended on each excursion vastly exceeded the gains from hunting and containing Primordial Power. They had already poured their remaining divine power into Emperor's Mound Village to protect it from the Black Tide's destruction and could offer no combat assistance.

At this rate, before he could grow strong enough, Emperor's Mound Village would fall as its Sacrificial Power reserves dwindled.

Just as the Four Retainers despaired for the future, Qi Sheng proposed an idea.

This plan was the genesis of the Challenger Plan, also known as the Player Recruitment Plan.

The Four Retainers each wielded different Rule powers.

He had Guide, master of information power, create the Challenger Plan's data system, which allowed Challengers to read the data information of anything they saw in Monster World.

He had Yan Ming, master of spatial power, build the reception system. This system could bring Challengers from different worlds into Monster World and return their consciousness when they chose to exit.

He had Nine Yin, master of purification power, create the purification system, which could cleanse Challengers of mental trauma or other negative statuses incurred in Monster World.

And he had Transdimensional, master of myriad extraction power, build the growth system. This system could help players extract the life force of defeated monsters, integrate it into their bodies, and make it part of their strength.

These four systems, combined with Emperor's Mound Village's territory trait of Flesh Reconstruction, made the Player Recruitment Plan feasible.

To achieve this goal, the Four Retainers spent 50 years continuously refining and modifying them until the Challenger System was finally complete.

By then, Emperor's Mound Village's Sacrificial Power pool held only just over 10 million Sacrificial Power, enough to sustain the village for at most another ten years.

Moreover, the maintenance cost was still rising with the intensifying Black Tide, having increased from an initial 500 Sacrificial Power per day to 1000 Sacrificial Power per day.

The Four Retainers entrusted him with the decision, and he made his choice.

He would gamble their remaining Sacrificial Power on a future. He instructed Yan Ming to expend Sacrificial Power, using spatial power to search other planes of existence in search of beings who could be recruited as Challengers.

Throughout the years of cross-dimensional searching, Qi Sheng's consciousness remained by Yan Ming's side.

He witnessed countless planes of existence corrupted and devoured by the terrifying Black Tide, all life withered, with only endless Evil Entities rampaging across the lands.

Just as the Sacrificial Power was on the verge of depletion, Qi Sheng spotted a familiar place.

It was a pale blue planet.

As the images of the planet zoomed in, though it had changed greatly from his memories, he was still certain.

This was his former home.

In that moment, Qi Sheng smiled widely.

He knew he had succeeded. The Challenger Plan had finally found its purpose.

(End of Chapter)[/spoiler]