003 The Arrival of the Legendary Hero: Twitch, the Plaguebringer!
When the available population reaches five, you can summon your race’s hero through the Altar. The first time you summon a hero, it requires no resources—just five population points. The Altar not only summons heroes; when your hero or lord falls, the Altar can resurrect them. This means that as long as you have enough resources, your lord and heroes can be revived endlessly. However, as their levels increase, the resources and time required for resurrection become increasingly outrageous.
Yang Jie opened the system panel and selected the Plague Altar.
“Dear player, would you like to recruit your first racial hero?”
“Confirm!”
“It’s time to witness a miracle!”
Without any unnecessary hesitation, Yang Jie decisively hit the confirm button on the system panel.
In that instant, a billowing cloud of dark green smoke spread out...
Within the haze, the outline of a short rat-man gradually took shape.
“Hehe, I just hid myself!”
A hoarse, sharp voice echoed in Yang Jie’s ears. He felt an uncontrollable urge to open his eyes wide to see through the murky green mist.
“No way, could it be...!”
“Be sneakier, even sneakier!”
Yang Jie knew this voice well—it was none other than the legendary hero of the ratfolk!
The Plaguebringer—Twitch!
A hunched rat-man, about one meter tall, appeared in Yang Jie’s sight, sneaking out of the mist with a golden hand crossbow in his grasp. Clad in a dark green coat, he exuded a distinct, pungent odor.
“Hehe, I’ve found you, my great chieftain!”
“Welcome, our great hero Twitch!”
Yang Jie, overwhelmed with excitement, gripped Twitch’s bony hand tightly.
“To serve you is my honor, great chieftain.”
With a sly grin, Twitch performed a unique salute to Yang Jie.
Hero Name: The Plaguebringer—Twitch
Rank: Legendary
Hero Skills:
1. Deadly Venom
2. Ambush
3. Toxic Barrel
4. Venomous Eruption
5. Greedy Instincts
6. Trap Setting
Ultimate: Full Firepower
Players who have played League of Legends are surely familiar with Twitch. His arrival perfectly compensates for the ratfolk’s lack of early-game firepower. Greedy Instincts can help players locate rare resource deposits, Trap Setting is an excellent early hunting skill, and as for the ultimate, Full Firepower, there’s hardly any need for elaboration!
In Tower Defense and Civilization, heroes can only learn their ultimate at level ten, while all other skills improve in proficiency as the hero levels up. In other words, even at level one and with no equipment, Twitch has already learned all his skills except the ultimate.
A hero’s level is critical in the early game; later, strength depends more on gear and synergies.
This time, fortune truly smiled upon him! Yang Jie knew the odds of drawing a legendary racial hero at the start were only ten percent. For most players, even getting an epic hero would be quite lucky. Of course, among the vast player base, there are always a few blessed with extraordinary luck.
...
In a newly built human camp, a burly, square-faced lord anxiously tiptoed forward, sweat slicking his palms as he nervously rubbed the creases of his shirt.
Suddenly, the King’s Altar blazed with radiant light, soaring to the sky...
A tall, valiant female hero strode down the altar’s steps, her eyes deep and cold. She wore silver mail and carried a finely wrought rapier in her right hand, a silver cloak draped over her left shoulder, and her short burgundy hair added to her allure.
With a model’s confident stride, she approached the stunned, heavyset lord.
She drew her silver sword, lifted it above her head with strong, slender arms, and knelt on one knee, displaying utmost devotion.
“The Peerless Sword Maiden, Fiora, pledges supreme loyalty to my lord!”
...
On distant ruins, a female hero with a two-meter-long bow slung on her back and clad in a black hooded cloak stepped gracefully from the Dark Altar in stiletto heels. Her crimson eyes glowed ominously, radiating an aura of darkness and terror. Beneath the hood, her alluring figure flickered in and out of view.
“I, Sylvanas, the Windrunner, Dark Ranger—have returned!”
...
Deep within a dense jungle, a group of trolls gathered beside the Storm Altar, swaying their arms in an oddly rhythmic dance.
A dazzling crimson flash erupted, and a towering, muscular troll with a burning spear strode steadily down the altar steps. The spearhead blazed with red fire, its heat palpable even from afar.
Troll chieftain Jiang Yuan, his face adorned with tusks, nervously approached the imposing hero.
“Great hero of the trolls, may I ask your name?”
The powerful troll lowered his gaze, his expression cold.
“Huskar, the Sacred Warrior.”
...
West of the Northson Plains
On the western slope of Horseshoe Highlands
Once all ten rat burrows were complete, the Tech Well was finished soon after. With twenty ratfolk pounding away, the speed increased twentyfold.
Yang Jie opened the system and selected the Tech Well icon.
“Acquired skill book: Intermediate Traps. Cost: 500 tech points.”
“Learn immediately!”
Yang Jie, holding two skill books, chose to learn them at once.
Trap Mastery is a core skill of the ratfolk tribe. On average, ratfolk live about sixty years, stand between 1.2 and 1.4 meters tall, and weigh around fifty kilograms. Compared to other races, “frail” hardly suffices to describe them, and their particularly short legs mean that even by the feudal era, the ratfolk lack any cavalry units.
Yet in Tower Defense and Civilization, all races are finely balanced. There are no overwhelmingly strong hidden or legendary races; success depends entirely on a player’s strategy and ability to leverage strengths while compensating for weaknesses.
No one knows the ratfolk’s shortcomings better than Yang Jie. But he is equally aware of their strengths. While the ratfolk struggle on open battlefields, exploiting complex terrain for cunning defense is the hallmark of the Andes ratfolk, and Trap Mastery is their signature.
A flash of white light—both skill books dissolved into countless motes and entered Yang Jie’s body.
“All ratfolk within the tribe acquire the skill: Intermediate Traps.”
This skill book benefits the entire ratfolk tribe, not just Yang Jie. From the moment he absorbed it, every tribe member became an expert trapper.
With the system, he continued unlocking skills...
“Spend 100 skill points to begin learning Basic Logging Efficiency. Duration: three hours.”
There are two kinds of skills: those learned directly from skill books, and those akin to tech research in real-time strategy games, requiring time and often prerequisites to unlock.
For example, after researching Basic Logging Efficiency, a new tech icon—Woodcraft—will appear on the system panel. Completing Woodcraft unlocks even more technologies, such as Wooden Wheelbarrow, Watchtower, Reinforced Structures, and House Renovation. This branching progression is commonly called the tech tree.
After assigning simple tasks to the tribe, Yang Jie led Twitch and two of the sturdiest ratfolk out of camp to begin leveling up.
They descended the slope outside the camp onto the Northson Plains, intent on training and gaining experience.
The plain had few trees but was lush with grasses, making it a paradise for herbivores. There were some carnivorous dinosaurs, but since players were under protection at this stage, Yang Jie wasn’t concerned. His current targets were ground fowl and wild rabbits, with the hope of finding a solitary boar.
As a closed-beta player of Tower Defense and Civilization—a game famed for its sandbox freedom—Yang Jie was well aware of the Jurassic Park version’s later developments.
After the six-month protection period ends, carnivorous dinosaurs will launch relentless attacks on player territories day and night.
Therefore, during this preparatory phase, it’s vital to suppress the numbers of carnivorous dinosaurs near the camp. But direct confrontation is out of the question.
As a veteran, Yang Jie’s method was both simple and effective: disrupt the ecosystem around Horseshoe Highlands!
Unable to deal directly with the carnivores, he would instead hunt their prey—starting with wild rabbits, then boars, and once the tribe grew stronger, even large herbivorous dinosaurs.
By keeping the population of herbivores on the Northson Plains extremely low, the carnivorous dinosaurs, finding little to eat, would naturally migrate to other players’ territories.
But reality proved otherwise. Simply hunting would not disrupt the ecosystem in the short term.
Given his tribe’s current growth rate, even if every worker did nothing from dawn to dusk but hunt rabbits across the vast plains, it would scarcely make a dent. The ecosystem of such an expansive plain could not be broken so easily or quickly.
Yang Jie knew an even more effective method—burn the entire plain to ash.
With the vegetation gone, the herbivores would migrate away. Once they left, so too would the carnivorous dinosaurs. However, though effective, this method would devastate the environment, causing long-term harm. Unless there was no other choice, it was not an option to consider.