When Zhang Xiaowa clutched his arm, grazed by an arrow, and scrambled through the snow, he finally knew he wasn’t dreaming. The Later Jin cavalryman charging at him with a spiked club was far more terrifying than the internet cafe owner demanding payment.
“Ding! Newbie quest triggered: Survive under the noses of Nurhaci’s scouts (0/1).” The sudden electronic voice nearly sent him tumbling into a cesspit. Even more absurdly, a vision of his imminent death appeared before his eyes: in three seconds, the warhorse would veer left and trample him into a pulp.
Relying on his ability to dodge in advance and the System’s reward, The Eighteen Ways to Play Dead on the Battlefield, this modern good-for-nothing managed to crawl out of the piles of corpses at Sarhu. Only after joining a band of defeated soldiers did he discover just how outrageous the Borderland Survival System he was bound to really was. Every time he completed a historical event, he could earn a martial arts manual, but to claim the reward, he had to train until he mastered it.
“Congratulations, you have obtained The Qi Family Army Saber Technique! Training requirement: swing your saber a thousand times a day (progress: 2/100).” Zhang Xiaowa looked at his blister-covered palms and nearly burst into tears. Then, just as he began earning one distinction after another beyond Shanhai Pass, an even bigger problem arose: the System began issuing epic quests to “change battles destined for defeat,” and the visions of how he would die grew more and more gruesome...
From “Zhang the Runner,” chased by the barbarians, to “Zhang the Seer,” who made Huangtaiji gnash his teeth, this oddball who keeps zoning out in the middle of battle is rewriting the bloody twilight of the Ming frontier with his ability to see the future and his modern-day tricks.
