[Three Kingdoms] The Golden Finger's Side Effect: Unlocking the Divine Achievement of Tyrant

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After Liu Mian learned to use the "Huaguo Ancient Books Library" golden finger, he learned how his family members were destined to meet their ends. His mother would die by throwing herself into a well after the defeat at Changban. His father would fall ill and die in Baidi City after the defeat at Yiling. His second uncle would lose Jingzhou through carelessness, his third uncle would die at the hands of his own soldiers, his eldest maternal uncle would bind his face and plead guilty before dying in despair, his youngest maternal uncle would become a traitor, his father's chancellor would fall beneath the autumn winds at Wuzhangyuan, and his sworn elder brother would be sentenced to death...

Even more heartbreaking, he didn't have a part in Romance of the Three Kingdoms at all! Had he become one of Liu Bei's many lost children at a very young age?

But gradually, he realized that something was off. Events didn't seem to unfold exactly as described in Romance of the Three Kingdoms.

Liu Mian: Father, who did you worship when you swore brotherhood with the others in the Peach Garden?

Liu Bei: No wonder you call Yunchang and Yide your second and third uncles. Where did you get the idea that we were sworn brothers? But swearing brotherhood... that's not a bad idea.

Liu Mian: ...Then why don't you go ahead and swear brotherhood? I've set the mood for you already.

Liu Mian: We need to bring Mr. Yuanzhi's mother here from Xudu as soon as possible, or the woods nearby are going to suffer!

Xu Shu: Young Master, the person who just brought you some pastries was my mother.

Liu Mian: ...Wait, Mr. Yuanzhi's mother is right here? Then why did Mr. Yuanzhi leave?

Liu Mian: Mr. Kongming, can you teach me how to borrow the east wind?

Zhuge Liang: Young Master, first finish studying the Book of Han and the Book of Rites that I copied for you.

Liu Mian: And then you'll teach me how to borrow the east wind?

Zhuge Liang: And then we can start studying Shen Buhai, Han Fei, Guan Zhong, and the Six Secret Teachings.

Liu Mian finally realized that Romance of the Three Kingdoms was merely a popular historical novel. Even official histories weren't necessarily entirely factual, let alone a novel written for dramatic effect.

So Liu Mian rummaged through his portable library and, at last, found The Records of the Three Kingdoms, The Weilue, The Spring and Autumn Annals of Han and Jin, The Gazetteer of Huayang, The Book of Jin, and The Comprehensive Mirror in Aid of Governance, all arranged by historical date...

And there were also tempting titles like The Complete Essentials for the Military Classics, Essential Techniques for the Welfare of the People, Commentary on the Waterways Classic, Essays from the Dream Brook, The Exploitation of the Works of Nature, The Yongle Encyclopedia, and The Complete Library of the Four Treasuries...

[You have run out of reading points.]

What a rip-off! Even the author hasn't said a word, and you're already charging me!

There was only one way to unlock reading points, and it was quite special: he could earn them only by achieving "tyrant accomplishments" in real life.

Judging by the Romance of the Three Kingdoms he'd read, compared with the inhuman things other tyrants did, Liu Shan could only be called a cowardly mediocrity. But even that was enough to earn him eternal infamy for "forgetting Shu while enjoying himself in Wei." It was hard to imagine what later generations would say if Liu Mian turned out even worse than Liu Shan.

Liu Mian felt his future was bleak.

But there was always a way forward. Liu Mian soon discovered that unlocking "tyrant accomplishments" wasn't as outrageously difficult as he had thought.

Besieged at Xiapi? Unlock the [Study Abroad in the Enemy Camp] achievement and spend a year as a student at the Cao Wei kindergarten.

Defeated at Changban? Unlock the [Number One Racer] achievement. Who says a donkey can't outrun a tiger-and-leopard cavalryman?

Marriage alliance with Eastern Wu? Unlock the [Connoisseur of Rare Stones, Master of Both Calligraphy and Painting] achievement. It was called a marriage alliance, but was really a hostage arrangement. Only a carefree talent could find a way out.

Content with a small corner of the realm? Unlock the [Rich but Weak] achievement. (This achievement is achieved when the economy under your control grows by at least 33 percent, while your military strength decreases by at least 3 percent.) Nothing to worry about, anyway. His army currently had zero soldiers.

Revive the Han Dynasty three times? Wait! Does that really not deserve a new achievement?

A few things to know beforehand (there are quite a lot of potential dealbreakers for this book):

1. The protagonist is born in 196 AD, and his mother is Lady Mi. (She married early in the year and gave birth prematurely at the end of the year, so the dates still make sense.) He's an encyclopedia-like character who relies on his brains to contend for supremacy. His innate advantages are "precociousness and a photographic memory." Although he experiences many setbacks, failures, and even betrayals as he grows up, he doesn't become a cold political machine. In fact, he often has the idealistic "saintly heart" of someone who cares too much about others.

2. The protagonist is frail and sickly in the early part of the story. His golden finger ability has a debuff that causes him to fall into a "sleep state," so people keep suspecting that he has hypersomnia and narcolepsy. The people of Shu Han spend a long time nursing their little sickly boy. His martial abilities won't improve until he reaches adulthood, and even after that, he only manages to reach an average-to-above-average level by improving weapons. But everyone around him is a top general, so in the eyes of those around him, he's always been a weakling who can't fight.

3. This is a Shu Han-focused story, and not a single member of Shu Han will die! Everyone! Survives! Although it has a happy ending, this isn't a wish-fulfillment power fantasy. The male lead has exceptionally bad luck early on, and is often captured, held hostage, or sent on a marriage mission (though the marriage never happens). As a child, he uses his golden finger to foresee danger, but can rarely do anything to avoid it. He even has a debuff that makes him get beaten up by the enemy before one of his famous generals goes on a rampage. The more famous and capable the general, the worse the beating the male lead gets, haha.

4. Most major events are based on Pei Songzhi's annotations to The Records of the Three Kingdoms, with The Weilue, The Spring and Autumn Annals of Han and Jin, The Gazetteer of Huayang, and other sources as supplements. For some details with no definite historical records, Romance of the Three Kingdoms, folk legends, and even modern retellings are blended together to fill in the gaps. Some characters appear in the novel despite not being mentioned in official histories, but showing up in the novel or folk legends.

Example 1: Liu Bei, Guan Yu, and Zhang Fei did not swear brotherhood in the Peach Garden. At first, they simply called each other brothers, though the butterfly effect eventually leads them to become sworn brothers for real.

Example 2: The weapons and horses of the generals aren't as mythologized as they are in the novel. For instance, the weapons people use are mainly ring-pommeled sabers and horse lances. But I still like the weapons in Romance of the Three Kingdoms, so after the male lead improves ironmaking and weapon technology later on, the butterfly effect will apply there too.

5. The male lead's only mutual romantic interest is Zhuge Guo (with an age gap of about four or five years), but there will be plenty of other characters with one-sided crushes on him. The relationship between the two, as well as their wedding, comes much later than those of other people of the same era, and romance isn't the main focus of the book. Other male and female supporting characters with substantial roles will have romantic interests of various orientations. Some have harems, while others are committed to being single, so the story is tagged as diverse.

6. The golden finger is only a library of ancient books (covering books written before the late Qing Dynasty), and he never manages to read everything in it in his lifetime. So the technological advances only go as far as what's possible in a feudal society. The author believes that an exceptional individual can change an era, but cannot easily alter the inevitable course of history. Although the subsequent history of this world changes considerably, it won't reach the modern Industrial Revolution two thousand years early. And, like all feudal dynasties, it will eventually meet its end. It's worth noting that the protagonist won't forcibly subjugate the neighboring Cao Wei and Eastern Wu.

7. Many recorded events have uncertain or disputed dates, and the timeline has also been adjusted slightly to suit the plot. In addition, the characters speak in a colloquial style, so their dialogue can't reproduce the speech patterns of the late Eastern Han Dynasty. This isn't a book for historical nitpickers! The author's skills are average, so please be kind.

Theme: The great figures of the ages, still alive in our time.