Great Ming: Summoning Players of the Fourth Calamity from the Start

In the eleventh year of the Chongzhen era, the Prince of Yan is defeated, and Li Mu is rescued and brought back to Yangjia Village after being gravely wounded and falling unconscious. Just as he thinks he'll rot in this chaotic age, the Apocalypse Summoning System from Another Plane arrives.

Five hundred Fate Points, twenty-three consecutive draws: several beginner players, ten mops, thirty bottles of beer, and only on the final draw does he get eight hundred jin of millet. Li Mu watches the modern people who seem to have sprung out of the ground, licking and fondling the earthen walls. A vein throbs in his forehead. This is the trump card he's supposed to use to overthrow the Ming Dynasty?

Bandits from Black Wind Stronghold storm the village to steal its grain. Li Mu slits a man's throat with one stroke, then summons the players to fight. These "heavenly soldiers" fight without fear of death. They revive on the spot after dying, and even as they're dying, they hug their enemies and shout, "Quick, stab him!" The bandits wet themselves in terror, and more than twenty of them are wiped out. The players begin competing frantically to outdo one another: some scrape saltpeter from the latrines to make explosives, some cut bamboo and weave giant shields, and others hang captured bandits from trees and take turns beating them.

Standing at the village entrance, Li Mu's lips slowly curl upward. The Prince of Yan, the Jurchens, the Ming Dynasty: your end has come. Starting with just twenty-three players, he'll steamroll the whole world.

This novel and its characters are entirely fictional. Any resemblance is purely coincidental. Do not imitate.