"This is definitely a map of the Great Ming!"
Inside a humble room, Lu Yuan, his head groggy, stared at the massive map before him with absolute certainty.
After all, the borders of the Ming Dynasty were very easy to recognize, very distinctive.
Not to mention, Lu Yuan was a Ming Dynasty enthusiast before he transmigrated.
He could tell with a single glance; this was definitely the territory of the Great Ming Empire.
And from the looks of it, this should be a map from the Hongwu Period.
The Northern Yuan had already been driven back into the desert, the borders newly established...
As Lu Yuan searched his memories...
...he found nothing about Zhu Yuanzhang or the Northern Yuan.
Instead, what appeared in Lu Yuan's mind was a drenched, horrifyingly wretched ghost pouncing toward him.
Lu Yuan could even smell the foul, fishy stench.
The memory flashed through his mind, scaring him into a cold sweat.
HISS...
[Eye of Insight activated]
A cold, clear voice rang out without warning, then fell silent again.
Drenched in a cold sweat, Lu Yuan sat in a Grandmaster's chair, panting heavily.
'What the hell...'
'This doesn't seem to be the Great Ming Empire!!'
'No... this place is called the Divine Ling Empire!'
The current Emperor isn't Emperor Hongwu, Zhu Yuanzhang.
But after searching his memories for a while...
...Lu Yuan felt that this *was* the Great Ming Empire!
Because the founding process, the Experience, and even the prior history of the Divine Ling Empire were all the same as the founding of the Great Ming.
Some events in the course of history were almost identical.
Like Zhang Shicheng and Chen Youliang.
Although their names were different in the Divine Ling Empire, their actions and the final outcomes were no different from what was recorded in history.
There was one more thing.
This was the Hongwu Dynasty!
The current Emperor was Emperor Hongwu, but he wasn't Zhu Yuanzhang. The Royal Family here had the surname Gu...
'What kind of place is this, exactly?'
Of course, what Lu Yuan wanted to figure out most right now was...
'What's the deal with that Water Ghost?'
It was so real. He had clearly seen it with his own eyes.
After searching his memories some more, Lu Yuan was certain.
This body of his had been scared to death by that Water Ghost.
And that's when he had transmigrated.
This body had previously belonged to a Scholar, frail and weak.
'Could it be that he pulled an all-nighter reading the *Spring and Autumn Annals*, went outside, saw things, and scared himself to death?'
Lu Yuan wasn't entirely sure.
He would only be able to find out after his memories had fully merged.
Right now, a flood of memories was pouring into Lu Yuan's head, leaving him no room to think about anything else.
He only knew that he had transmigrated into the body of a Scholar who shared his name.
Four bare walls, a few hens in the yard, and a few bits of broken silver under his pillow—that was the entirety of Lu Yuan's current possessions.
Oh.
Of course, there were also all the books in this room.
'If I sell them as scrap paper, I could buy a few flaky pastries.'
'Not bad. It's not a god-tier start, but it's not a hell-mode start either.'
Just as Lu Yuan was sitting on the Grandmaster's chair in the main hall, waiting for his memories to fully merge...
...the door was thrown open with a CLANG, and an old man rushed in, saying:
"Aiya, the matchmaker already brought the new bride over."
"What are you still doing here dozing off?"
"Let's go, let's go."
Lu Yuan had just opened his eyes when he was hoisted up by an old man with a wrinkled, dark-skinned face and dragged outside.
The frail Lu Yuan was carried along like a little chick.
As the scene before him changed, Lu Yuan got a clear look at his surroundings.
An old village.
Most of the houses were made of adobe, but his own house, surprisingly, was built with bricks and tiles.
However, Lu Yuan knew his family's situation clearly.
The rice jar was already empty.
While Lu Yuan was still dazed and confused, he looked again at the old man who was dragging him along.
There was nothing particularly special about him; he just looked like a standard farmer.
Thirty or forty years old.
But...
[Multiplication Factor: 2]
'Huh??'
'What is this?!!'
Seeing this, Lu Yuan instantly sobered up a little.
He blinked and looked again. He hadn't seen wrong.
There was a line of text right above the old man's head.
[Multiplication Factor: 2]
The text glowed with a faint white light.
'This?'
'What is this?'
'My system?!'
'Right...'
'A system did show up just now.'
'But...'
'What does this mean?'
'Multiplication Factor?'
'The drop rate for killing monsters?'
'Is he an NPC?'
'Or...'
Lu Yuan had a feeling that wasn't it.
But Lu Yuan really couldn't figure out what this system meant.
The system had only muttered that one line earlier and then had gone completely silent.
While Lu Yuan was in a daze, his mind a complete mess...
...he was finally dragged by the old man to the front of the village's ancestral hall.
The place was already packed. The old and young of the village had all brought out their small stools and were sitting and waiting.
And as Lu Yuan looked at the crowd...
...a line of text glowed above everyone's head.
[Multiplication Factor: ...]
Some were high, some were low.
The low ones were directly [Multiplication Factor: 0].
Completely dim and without light.
The higher ones were [Multiplication Factor: 2].
Or [Multiplication Factor: 3].
The only [Multiplication Factor: 3] in the entire crowd belonged to an old man sitting right in the middle.
Following his memories.
Lu Yuan knew this person was the village chief.
Li Guanghan.
In the entire village, his word was law.
Lu Yuan still didn't quite understand this system.
He just knew that as the Multiplication Factor increased, the color of the text above their heads would change.
Those with a Multiplication Factor of 0 had text that was a dull, dim gray.
Those with a Multiplication Factor of 1 and 2 had a shimmering white glow.
The village chief's Multiplication Factor of 3, however, gave off a faint green light.
While Lu Yuan was still completely bewildered...
...Li Guanghan suddenly looked at Lu Yuan and asked:
"Why did you take so long to get here?"
Before Lu Yuan could speak, the old man who had dragged him there grinned and said:
"Heh, this kid was dozing off at home."
"He was all groggy and about to fall asleep when I got there."
Someone in the crowd chuckled.
"Did he get too excited last night knowing his new bride was coming today and couldn't sleep?"
Some of the old women around them giggled.
But as soon as they spoke, they were shot a glare by their own husbands, who said:
"Don't talk nonsense."
Seeing her husband glare at her, the woman didn't dare say more. Besides, she also remembered what had happened a few days ago.
For a moment, everyone fell silent.
Li Guanghan seemed to have guessed something as well, and said:
"Go take a seat. A few days ago, you ran into some evil spirits and were afflicted by bad luck. This time, we'll pick a good wife for you to ward off the misfortune. Maybe your health will recover faster."
Lu Yuan: "???"
'Wait a minute...'
'I really did run into a ghost...'
'That scene wasn't something this body's previous owner imagined...'
'From the sound of it, the original owner of this body really was scared to death by a ghost?'
Of course, what surprised Lu Yuan the most was...
...that when talking about running into ghosts, these people seemed to be discussing a very ordinary matter.
This left Lu Yuan completely bewildered. 'Just what kind of world is this?'
After Lu Yuan found a place to sit, the village chief, Li Guanghan, turned his head to the side and said:
"Bring the young women in."
At his call, a line of women came out from around a corner.
At that moment, Lu Yuan wasn't looking at the women; he was just staring at the ground in a daze.
He was rapidly searching through the large swaths of newly integrated memories.
But a dazzling, rainbow-colored light in the corner of his eye caught his attention.
When Lu Yuan looked up...
HISS...
'This?!'
'What is this now?!!'
He saw an exceptionally beautiful woman with a large [Multiplication Factor: 9] marked above her head.
And this text glowed with an incredibly brilliant, dazzling rainbow light.
Although Lu Yuan didn't know what his system did, he could tell with one glance that this must be the highest possible Multiplication Factor.
'But...'
'Can someone please tell me what the hell this Multiplication Factor is?!!'