Chapter 1: Entering The Game

"Iris scan complete, identity verification complete. Welcome to <<Legends of Celestials and Demons>>, please register your username."

After being momentarily immersed in darkness, Shen Jingbin found herself standing on a floating crystal stage. A pleasant sounding beep could be heard beside her ear that reminded her to proceed with the next step.

"White Clothes Warm As Jade." After mulling over it for a little while, she decided to give herself a fresh and meaningful name. After all, this name was going to accompany her for her entire gaming career.

She had heard that <<Legends of Celestials and Demons>> didn't permit players to change their names. If they really wanted to, they'd have to recreate their characters. However, the basic attributes of these characters would be greatly reduced, and the probability of encountering a fortuitous event in the future would also sharply decline. In other words, the penalty for doing so was severe. This was why most people weren't willing to recreate their characters unless some major event occurred.

"I'm sorry, this name is already in use, please select a new username." The system's tender voice rang out in Shen Jingbin's ears once again.

She lowered her head and thought for a moment before she said, "Tinged Blue and White Flower."

"I'm sorry, this name is already in use, please select a new username."

"Brilliant Peach Blossom."

"I'm sorry, this name is already in use, please select a new username."

"Green Jade Descends Like The Azure Moon."

"I'm sorry, this name is already in use, please select a new username."

"…"

Your mom! She'd rattled off tens of names and every single one of them had been registered, what the hell was going on!

"Notification: In view of you taking an extended period of time to choose a username, would you like the system to randomly generate a name for you? Yes/No." A translucent dialogue box suddenly appeared in front of her eyes. She'd already been worn out by the process of choosing her own username, so she decisively made up her mind to just give up on resisting.

"Yes."

"The system is randomly generating a name for you. One moment please…"

"The system has randomly generated a name for you. Greetings player Nutjob, we officially welcome you to this legendary world. Please select the race and appearance of the character you will use while you traverse the world."

Nutjob…

Shen Jingbin spat out a mouthful of old blood. She suddenly felt the urge to kill someone!

Did you know why she was so careful when she chose her name? That's because her real name was too unpleasant!

Shen Jingbin = Nutjob.¹ After living with this name for more than twenty years, she herself had nearly turned into a nutjob! It wasn't easy for her to play a game with the intention of breaking away from this name. But! Who! Would! Have! Thought!

Could this be the so-called: man proposes but god disposes?!

"Notification: In view of you taking an extended period of time to choose, would you like your race and appearance to be randomly selected? Yes/No."

She'd already been cheated once by the system, so how could she allow it to continue doing so. Shen Jingbin facepalmed as she hurriedly selected "No", before she carefully scrutinized the various races that appeared in front of her, all of which used her appearance as the basis for their virtual form.

<<Legends of Celestials and Demons>> used ancient China as its backdrop. The races of the world were separated into three groups: Humans, Celestials, and Demons. Two sects belonged to each race for a total of 6. Players could choose to join either of a race’s two respective sects after undergoing their advancement.

Humans, who excelled at crowd control and defence, were made up of Daoists and Swordmasters. Daoists focused on control, while Swordmasters specialized in defence. Celestials were skilled at healing and magic. Nymphs handled healing, and Dragonkins wielded magic. And last but not least, Demons boasted high HP and assassinations. Maras had high defensive capabilities, while Liches conducted assassinations.

Shen Jingbin felt that the two sects belonging to the Celestials were too upright and didn't suit her, while the Demons, on the other hand, felt far too depressing as a race. So after giving it some thought, she decided to be a Human and planned to walk the path of a crowd control-based² Daoist.

"Race selection complete, generating player avatar… Generation complete, please modify your character's appearance by selecting whether you'd like to enhance or diminish it's beauty."

"Enhance." Everyone has a love for beauty, so Shen Jingbin would naturally choose to beautify herself.

"The system has determined your Beautification limit to be 1. Note: for the sake of your enjoyment in-game, please do not select this option."

"…" Big sis system, are you sure you aren't making fun of me?

"Then uglier it is."

"The system has determined the upper limit of your appearance's diminishment to be 99, please select the level you'd like to set it at."

"99." Shen Jingbin said without thinking, choosing to make herself as ugly as possible. It'd be far too embarrassing if someone recognized her name, so this was something she wanted to avoid. Since the upper limit for her Beautification attribute was so low, making it very likely for someone to recognize her in-game, she decided to make herself look as ugly as possible instead.

She might as well go all the way with it if she was going to make herself look ugly.

"Character creation complete." The system's notification rang out once again. Following that, a woman who had a bitter expression on her face and wore a set of white novice's clothes suddenly appeared in front of Shen Jingbin.

Pu!

Shen Jingbin suddenly choked on her own saliva. She swore, this was definitely the ugliest face she'd ever seen! The freckles that dotted her character's tanned face was the spitting image of scattered pieces of sesame on a biscuit. One of her eyes was larger than the other, while her eyebrows were sparse and lopsided. It gave her a wretched appearance no matter how one looked at her.

What is that thing? Can I give up on my current character and remake it?

After much effort, Shen Jingbin's self-hypnosis was finally a success. With tears streaming down her cheeks, she prepared to accept the changes and reincarnate into the game world as this ugly village girl, when she suddenly heard an unexpected "Ding ding ding" continuously ring out in her ears.

"In view of you being the first player in the game to achieve a Beautification limit of 1, you've been granted a special reward of an additional 10 points to your Charm attribute."

"In view of you being the first player in the game to achieve the maximum limit of 99 points for your Uglification attribute, you've been granted a special reward of an additional 5 points to your Luck attribute."

"In view of you being the player with the highest Uglification attribute, you've been granted a special reward of an additional 10 points to your Luck to allow you to enjoy the game. We wish you a pleasant gaming experience."

"In view of you being the first player worthy of receiving three special awards, you've been granted the following special rewards: an additional 10 points to your Luck, miraculous stone (1), miraculous wooden board (1). Please be sure to safeguard these items, they may bring about a miracle for you as you traverse the world."

Shen Jingbin was a little dumbfounded. Was her personality so good that she was being blessed by the heavens?

1. Her real name – Shen Jingbin – is a homophone of her in-game name, Nutjob, that reads as 神经病 (shen jing bing) – in Chinese ↩
2. May also appear as CC in the future ↩