Having lost his composure, Liu-ge decisively opened the in-game top-up mall.

Compared to the flashily complex stores in games operated by Wings of Dream, the mall design in Turbulent Spring and Autumn was clean and straightforward. Upon clicking in, it was divided into just three pages.

The first page was the Monthly Card, priced at 30 yuan. Purchasing it yielded 300 Vouchers instantly, followed by 100 Vouchers and a stamina replenishment potion daily via check-in.

In the game, recruiting a hero once cost 150 Spirit Charms, and Vouchers were exchanged for Spirit Charms at a 1:1 ratio. In other words, a 30-day Monthly Card provided a total of 3,300 Vouchers, equivalent to 22 pulls.

Calculating it like this, a single pull only cost 1.5 yuan?!

Liu-ge bought the Monthly Card without hesitation and said excitedly, “The prices in this game are similar to Millennium Love next door. The Monthly Card is extremely cost-effective. Besides getting 22 pulls, you get free stamina delivered every day. Stamina is probably used for clearing dungeons, which essentially means giving us free materials.”

He immediately clicked onto the second page.

Offered here were various value bundles. Ranking at the top was the “Lord Growth Bundle,” priced at 98 yuan. Every 5 levels the player’s Lord character reached, it would bestow a massive hoard of materials and Vouchers.

Liu-ge calculated carefully and said, “From Level 5 to Level 65, you can obtain a total of 9,800 Vouchers along with a huge amount of cultivation materials. This bundle is also super cost-effective.”

He bought the Growth Bundle and immediately followed up by purchasing a batch of summon bundles.

During the novice phase, many bundles featured “permanently limited-purchase” extra discount prices, offering incredible value. The discounted rates on these bundles dropped as low as 3 yuan per pull.

Currently on the market, most games featuring item or outfit gachas charged 6 yuan per pull, or even 12 yuan per pull. Turbulent Spring and Autumn‘s bundles at 3 yuan a pull were practically a charitable blessing!

Liu-ge swept up all the novice limited-purchase bundles, counted the recruitment orders in his inventory, and said with a smile, “Calm down, calm down. Let’s start with this much top-up and test our luck in the gacha first.”

Upon entering the “Hero Recruitment” interface, the previous “Novice Recruitment” banner had already vanished.

Before him appeared three card pools: the first was “Permanent Hero Recruitment,” the second was “Feast at Hong Gate Hero Rate-Up Recruitment,” and the third was “Oath of the Peach Garden Hero Rate-Up Recruitment.”

Having not yet finished the main storyline, Liu-ge didn’t quite understand the meaning behind these rate-up recruitments.

He clicked into the pools to inspect them. The Permanent Pool featured a total of 12 Sun-rarity cards, including Zhang Liang and Cao Cao whom he had pulled earlier, alongside Bai Qi, Bian Que, Han Shin, Fusu, Jing Ke, Wei Qing, Huo Qubing, Lu Zhi, Sun Quan, and others.

The Feast at Hong Gate rate-up pool featured elevated drop rates for two Sun-rarity cards—Liu Bang and Xiang Yu—and one Moon-rarity card, Fan Kuai. The Oath of the Peach Garden rate-up pool featured elevated rates for one Sun-rarity card, Liu Bei, and two Moon-rarity cards, Guan Yu and Zhang Fei.

Liu-ge asked curiously, “Is the pity system shared across the three card pools? Everyone, don’t rush to pull; make sure to read the rules clearly before pulling!”

Every card pool possessed a detailed description.

Of course, the Permanent Pool needed no explanation—you could pull from it anytime you liked.

As for the two story rate-up pools, would they feature time-limited exclusive characters? Or could they be pulled later on as well?

Liu-ge clicked in to read the pool rules carefully. Prominently written at the very top in bold red text was a sentence: This Rate-Up Recruitment will run from August 25 to September 10. Two weeks after it ends, these characters will join the Permanent Recruitment pool. The pity count for this recruitment is shared with the Permanent Recruitment pool and can be accumulated cumulatively.

Liu-ge said, “Shared pity—that’s fantastic! Following the rule where a Sun-rarity card is guaranteed within 70 pulls, if you do 30 pulls in one pool without getting a Sun-rarity card, switching to another pool and doing 40 more pulls will guarantee a drop. Furthermore, the characters in current rate-up recruitments will join the permanent pool later, so everyone doesn’t need to worry if you miss them now.”

Launching without immediately dropping limited-time exclusive characters to force top-ups, but instead providing rate-up pools to give players more options for team comps—this design choice was truly commendable.

Liu-ge took a general glance at the rate-up pool characters.

In the Feast at Hong Gate pool, Liu Bang and Xiang Yu served as crowd controller and area-of-effect attacker, respectively.

In the Oath of the Peach Garden pool, Liu Bei was a buff healer. Upon unleashing his skill “Oath of the Peach Garden,” he could heal all allies and grant a “Physical Critical Rate Increase” buff.

His second skill, “Benevolent Ruler,” allowed him to voluntarily consume his own health to heal a designated target. If a player built this character with a max-health focus, his single-target heal from skill 2 could instantly restore a fragile damage-dealer to full health.

As a Sun-rarity card, this support was far stronger than Fan Li, whom the system gave for free.

Moreover, Guan Yu and Zhang Fei in the Oath of the Peach Garden pool were both physical damage-dealers, pairing seamlessly with Liu Bei. Moon-rarity cards were relatively easy to obtain; beginners pulling the Liu-Guan-Zhang trio from this pool could immediately assemble a full physical critical-strike squad.

Understanding the developers’ rationale, Liu-ge remarked, “This pool is designed for beginners to build a team. Novices can head straight for the Oath of the Peach Garden rate-up pool and assemble a physical critical-strike squad!”

However, Liu-ge did not plan to pull from this pool. Closing the two rate-up banners, he went straight to pull from the Permanent Pool. The permanent pool held a larger roster of characters, and he wanted to fill out his gallery first.

Rubbing his hands together, Liu-ge said, “Alright, let me perform a display of skill for everyone—masterful card pulling. A streamer as lucky as me is guaranteed to hit gold on a single ten-pull. Do you guys believe me?”

Countless viewers in the livestream chat spammed: Don’t believe it.

Liu-ge cast a ten-pull into the pool.

A flash of golden light burst before his eyes. He actually pulled a Sun-rarity card on the spot?!

[System: Congratulations! You have obtained the Hero [Han Shin].]

Liu-ge exclaimed, “Holy crap, it actually dropped! My mouth is practically blessed. Next pull, keep ’em coming!”

Another ten-pull went down.

Stars and the moon connected into a cluster, yet not a single sun was in sight.

Liu-ge scratched his head: “Uhh… the blessing failed. The next pull is guaranteed to hit!”

Ten-pull cast—nothing happened.

Liu-ge muttered under his breath, “God bless me, give me a double gold, a double gold—this wave is definitely a double gold! Thank you, @LittleSailboat, I love @LittleSailboat, drop gold for me!”

Another ten-pull went down—nothing happened.

Viewers: “…”

Watching the streamer pull cards was quite entertaining. As Liu-ge pulled, he performed “magic rituals” on the side, chanting strange “incantations” without knowing whether they worked or not.

This time, it wasn’t until his 50th pull that a Sun-rarity card finally appeared.

[System: Congratulations! You have obtained the Hero [Bian Que].]

Liu-ge closely examined the character’s skill description: “This is an insanely strong healer! The skill offers single-target healing with percentage-based health restoration—it should be extremely powerful! Let’s set him aside for now and keep pulling.”

He executed five more ten-pulls in succession.

[System: Congratulations! You have obtained the Hero [Zhuge Liang].]

This wave of 110 pulls dropped 3 Sun-rarity cards in total, averaging one Sun card every 36 pulls. Wasn’t this drop rate pretty high?

The base probability in the card pool was 2%, meaning under normal circumstances, a Sun card would drop every 50 pulls. His average of 36 pulls per card indicated remarkably good luck!

Should he take advantage of this streak and pull a few more times?

Liu-ge asked, “Family members, 110 pulls dropped 3 Sun cards. Combined with the 2 cards from the novice pool, I already have 5 Sun-rarity cards now… But I still want to keep pulling! What should I do?”

Viewers spammed the bullet chat one after another:

【Keep pulling! With a drop rate this high, what are you afraid of?!】

【As a streamer, aren’t you ashamed not to unlock the full gallery?】

【Sitting tight to watch Liu-ge pull more cards—let’s see how your luck holds up today!】

【Mengtu next door said she wants a full gallery. You can’t lag behind!】

【I don’t have the money to top up so much, but watching the streamer pull cards feels just as satisfying—keep going, keep going!】

Liu-ge opened the First Top-Up interface and said with a beaming smile, “Everyone, the hands clicking on this top-up screen right now do not represent Liu-ge’s will. They insist on pulling cards, and I can’t restrain them either. There’s nothing I can do.”

Liu-ge summarized, “These hands are no longer governed by logic.”

Gacha games were indeed addictive.

Every time the recruitment scroll opened, seeing the brilliant golden light flash and witnessing a new Sun-rarity hero emerge from the unfurling painting, that thrill was far more satisfying than slaying monsters or defeating bosses!

Perhaps this was the crucial key that made gacha games so addictive?

A player’s emotions rose and fell dramatically.

Pulling the desired card brought pure joy; failing to pull it brought frustration.

Fortunately, this game featured a hard pity system. No matter how bad your luck was, a Sun-rarity card was guaranteed at 70 pulls, and the shop allowed you to exchange 120 recruitment tokens for any hero you desired, at least giving players something to look forward to.

In the absolute worst-case scenario, 140 pulls would net 2 guaranteed pity drops plus 1 exchange card—a total of 3 cards, which was more than enough to assemble a viable team lineup.

Liu-ge took a deep breath and bought out all the 328 and 648 double-Voucher packs on the first top-up screen.

As a high-skill streamer, how could he face his audience to discuss team comps if he didn’t pull a full gallery?

Pull!

Today, even if he had to chop off his own hands, he would pull until every single character was collected!

At that same moment, Lingmao TV streamer Mengtu was likewise getting hooked on pulling cards.

Back when she played the otome game Millennium Love, she had unlocked a 100% full gallery, collecting every single card for all four virtual husbands.

Now that this strategy mobile game required pulling characters to cultivate, she naturally wanted to complete the gallery here as well.

Mengtu generously purchased every bundle in the mall and swept all the first-time double top-up Vouchers clean before diving into the card pools.

Her gacha luck had been great while playing otome games, but she didn’t expect to suffer a total setback this time—aside from the novice pool’s guaranteed Sun-rarity card within 20 pulls, she hit hard pity right off the bat in the Permanent Pool.

She pulled all the way to 70 pulls before a golden light effect finally burst forth.

[System: Congratulations! You have obtained the Hero [Cao Cao].]

Mengtu said helplessly, “Hard pity… my luck is so rotten! Let me try my luck again.”

After hitting hard pity, her luck turned around slightly, dropping a gold card in just 20 pulls.

Except…

[System: Congratulations! You have obtained the Hero [Cao Cao].]

Mengtu froze: “Why is it Cao Cao again?”

Mengtu said, “Alright, stacking duplicate cards boosts attributes, so that’s fine. Let’s continue!”

Another 40 pulls went down, and a familiar golden light flashed.

Mengtu said excitedly, “Family, another gold card! Guess who it’s gonna be this time?”

She eagerly tapped on the golden painting.

[System: Congratulations! You have obtained the Hero [Cao Cao].]

Mengtu: “????”

The viewers in the livestream were dying of laughter:

【Hahaha, another Cao Cao!】

【Tu-jie, Cao Cao clearly loves you—he insists on coming to you!】

【Poor Tutu, what should you do if you keep getting duplicates~】

【Three Cao Caos in a row, 6666!】

Mengtu said helplessly, “Cao-ge, I really appreciate your deep affection, but could you please stop showing up at my place?”

Her livestream room hosted many players who had crossed over from Millennium Love.

In otome games, pulling duplicate cards brought pure frustration; after all, card cultivation in otome games was relatively simple, character stats overflowed in late-game, and pulling a single copy unlocked the gallery entry and story content without needing duplicates.

When pulling duplicates from a mixed pool, players’ mentalities would completely collapse.

Carrying over her mindset from the previous game, pulling duplicate Cao Caos in a row caused Mengtu’s composure to crumble slightly. She couldn’t help but complain: “The Permanent Pool has 12 Sun-rarity characters, yet I pulled three Cao Caos in a row. Is this even logical? Holy crap, I actually ran into such a low-probability event!”

Just then, she noticed a message floating across the bullet chat—

【Cao Cao is the core damage-dealer for counterattack teams. Full refinement is super important. Getting three copies right at the start means your luck is insane!】

Mengtu was stunned: “Ah? Pulling duplicates counts as good luck?”

【Stacking duplicates gives a massive boost! Look carefully at Cao Cao’s skills.】

Mengtu hurriedly opened the recruitment tab and located Cao Cao.

[Cao Cao]

Skill 1: Hero of Chaos (“I’d rather betray the world than let the world betray me.” As a hero of chaos, Cao Cao steals 10% of the attack power from the opponent’s highest-damage unit.)

Skill 2: Assassination in Sleep (Cao Cao enters a ‘Sleep’ state. While sleeping, if an enemy targets him, he instantly awakens and executes a counterattack with a 100% critical rate boost, dealing 400% base physical damage to a single target.)

Skill 3: Coerce the Emperor to Command the Nobles (Unlockable. Cao Cao coerces a designated enemy unit, forcing them to attack any target he chooses. Cooldown: 2 turns after use.)

Mengtu’s eyes lit up: “Pulling duplicate Cao Caos unlocks his exclusive skill, right? 666! In that case, getting duplicates isn’t a loss at all?”

The first duplicate card could unlock the exclusive skill.

The second and third duplicates would boost skill multipliers.

If a fourth duplicate was pulled, it converted into universal “Sun Shards,” which could be used to unlock exclusive skills or upgrade skills for other cards. Therefore, no matter how many duplicates were pulled, every single one had value.

This game’s system was fundamentally different from an otome game’s card-nurturing model.

Mengtu rolled up her sleeves enthusiastically: “Since Boss Cao thinks so highly of me by dropping three copies in a row, my main team must reserve a spot for him. Family, let’s keep pulling cards! Today, we’re pulling until we hit a full gallery. This time, let’s change pools and go for the Feast at Hong Gate rate-up pool.”

Mengtu opened the rate-up pool, looked at the characters inside, and said with a grin, “Liu Bang, Xiang Yu—come to mama! I’ll treat you both well.”

Besides Liu-ge and Mengtu, a massive number of streamers were getting hooked on pulling cards.

Across major streaming platforms, more and more people were broadcasting gacha pulls.

At first, many male players couldn’t understand—what was so fun about card-pulling games? Why was Millennium Love‘s revenue so high?

Now that it was their turn, they realized—they couldn’t control their hands at all and desperately wanted to keep pulling!

However, after pulling characters, many players had no idea how to use them.

On launch day, many big-spending whales hadn’t even cleared the main story before rushing to max out the card pools. Afterwards, they stared at the wide array of skill descriptions in total confusion.

How should they build a team? Which character should they raise first?

What offered the highest damage output? Which healer was worth investing in?

Players who had never played this type of turn-based strategy game were completely in the dark.

As a result, many went online to search for guides.

Big whales didn’t care as much, but for Monthly Card holders and free-to-play players, building the wrong team early on meant the cost of switching characters mid-to-late game would be far too high.

Players were ravenous for game guides.

Yet strict, reliable guides regarding character cultivation were hard to find online. Posts written by closed-beta players with titles like “Switch servers immediately if you pull XXX at start” or “XX is the undisputed god among Sun cards” appeared rather unreliable.

Someone on the forums posted: “If you want team composition strategies, I recommend streamer Xia Kucao. Xiao Cao is explaining team-building concepts live. Novices can go to his stream to ask questions!”

“Xiao Cao participated in the closed beta test, so his guides should be legit.”

Consequently, countless beginners flooded into Xia Kucao’s livestream room.

Ever since Xia Kucao rose to fame with Palace Intrigue, he had become a top-tier streamer on the platform, boasting over ten million followers. Every time he went live, his stream easily surpassed one million heat points and made it to the platform’s front-page recommendations.

When Turbulent Spring and Autumn launched, Xia Kucao logged in on his mobile device right away.

The reason he used the mobile client was that streaming on mobile made it easier to look up reference materials and write notes to explain team compositions to his audience.

Seeing Xia Kucao’s stream light up, countless fans instantly surged in.

【Xiao Cao, long time no see!】

【Feels like handsomeness hasn’t streamed since Palace Intrigue ended?】

【Disappearing for so long, what were you up to?】

【Don’t tell me you secretly went on blind dates and got married~】

Xia Kucao said, “I was preparing for exams all of last year, so I didn’t play games much. Long time no see, everyone.”

Preparing for exams? Was it graduate school or the civil service exam? Everyone was deeply curious.

However, Xia Kucao never disclosed his private life, maintaining an aura of mystery.

Having not been seen for a while, the streamer’s good looks remained entirely intact.

Xia Kucao adjusted his camera and said, “As everyone knows, the game was packed upon launch, and the developers urgently added 30 new server sets. I suggest everyone avoid squeezing into the first few servers, as you might face daily queues. PVP is cross-server matching anyway, so which server you choose doesn’t matter.”

He randomly selected the last server, Server 66, and said, “I’ll join the last one—66 is an auspicious number.”

After creating a character and entering the game, he skipped the cutscenes while chatting casually with the audience.

“The story in this game is quite captivating, like watching a movie. I recommend that everyone refrains from skipping it directly, as there are plenty of incredible plotlines ahead. Of course, since I already watched it during the closed beta, I’ll skip it for now to save time and explain team building to you.”

“After clearing Chapter 1, we will hit Level 5, which unlocks the Recruitment System—gacha. At this point, all players receive three Moon-rarity cards provided by the system: Goujian, Xi Shi, and Fan Li.”

“So what should free-to-play, micro-transaction, and Monthly Card players do?”

“We can build a team centered around Goujian as the core to form a Counterattack Team. Looking closely at Goujian’s skills, he can protect two designated allies, redirecting the damage dealt to them onto himself. After three turns, he awakens his counterattack. Therefore, Goujian can bring any two damage-dealers and protect them from dying. Add Xi Shi, Fan Li, and any support unit, and your early-game Counterattack Team is complete.”

“Of course, this is just a low-budget Counterattack Team. The true core damage-dealer for counterattack teams is the permanent Sun-rarity card, Cao Cao. If you can pull Cao Cao from the novice pool or permanent pool, that counts as a dream start for a counterattack comp.”

“Free-to-play and micro-transaction players raising a Counterattack Team can both take hits and deal damage with very low investment costs.”

“If you have money, you can pull another copy or exchange for a copy of Cao Cao to unlock his exclusive skill. Players who don’t want to top up don’t need to unlock it right away either—there will be dungeons to farm Sun Shards later on. Cao Cao’s exclusive skill is primarily used for PVP and won’t affect your ability to clear the main story.”

“In other words, even if you don’t spend a single cent, relying on the cards given by the system allows you to play smoothly right from the start.”

Hearing this, viewers in the livestream room expressed deep appreciation—games where free-to-play and micro-transaction players could thrive were truly rare! In games by Wings of Dream, throwing in thousands of yuan yielded barely a ripple, and spending tens of thousands was required to see any effect; sometimes, when facing “random attribute stats,” you couldn’t get what you wanted even after spending tens of thousands.

Turbulent Spring and Autumn was exquisitely produced and gifted cards right at the start, offering great friendliness to players without deep pockets. At the very least, the main story wouldn’t wall you off, allowing you to enjoy the game just as happily.

Xia Kucao continued, “Of course, players who don’t want to play counterattack comps are recommended to pull from the Oath of the Peach Garden rate-up pool. This pool is very beginner-friendly; the combination of Liu Bei, Guan Yu, and Zhang Fei forms the archetype of a perfect Physical Critical-Strike Team. Once Liu Bei applies his buffs, Guan Yu delivers single-target crits, and Zhang Fei follows up with pursuit attacks, taking out an enemy every turn with extreme smoothness. As you cultivate them, upgrading Guan Yu and Zhang Fei to Sun cards in the late-game turns them into a viable competitive team without wasting resources.”

Someone in the stream asked:

【What if I pulled Zhang Liang from the novice pool?】

【I pulled Zhuge Liang from the novice pool—holy crap, I don’t even understand his skills!】

【I pulled Bian Que. I heard he’s a super strong single-target healer?】

【How do I use Han Shin? Streamer, please advise~】

Xia Kucao opened a document and said, “I’ve created a table for the novice pool heroes, along with several team composition pairings. Everyone can take a look.”

Xia Kucao pointed his cursor at the damage-dealers in the chart: “There are many damage-dealing heroes. Outstanding area-of-effect attackers include Bai Qi, Xiang Yu, and Huo Qubing; single-target burst attackers include Han Shin and Wei Qing; Jing Ke is an assassin who kills squishy targets; Cao Cao is a counterattack damage-dealer…”

“All Sun-rarity damage-dealers are worth cultivating, and many Moon-rarity cards can be raised initially and upgraded later.”

“As for healers, Bian Que is the undisputed god! If you pull Sun-rarity Bian Que, he is a mandatory raise.”

“A team consists of 6 slots. Normally we run 1 main DPS and 2 sub-DPS units. In the early game, I recommend raising 3 damage-dealers, while the remaining 3 slots go to healers and supports.”

“This game has a massive roster of characters, and Moon-rarity cards can be upgraded to Sun-rarity later. Unless you’re a massive whale, don’t pursue a full Sun-rarity team in the early game—that will be exhausting, whereas raising Moon-rarity cards offers much higher cost-efficiency.”

“Team compositions include the Cao Cao/Goujian-core Counterattack Team, the Bai Qi/Huo Qubing-core AOE Team, the Han Shin + Zhang Liang Control-Burst Team, the Jing Ke-core Assassin Team, the Liu-Guan-Zhang Critical Single-Target Team… Later on, there are also Water Attack Teams, Burn Teams, Bleed Teams, Lightning Teams, and so forth.”

“Your mindset in the early game must remain patient. Assemble one team to clear the main story first and unlock resource dungeons. Leave Arena PVP research for later—as long as you keep playing, you’ll eventually acquire everything.”

Listening to Xia Kucao’s explanation, players felt as if a brand-new world had opened up before them.

Turn-based games could actually be played like this?!

Novel character concepts, a diverse array of skills, rich team composition strategies…

This was vastly more interesting than standing still and taking hits!

At launch, there were 12 Sun-rarity cards in the Permanent Pool and 3 Sun-rarity cards across the two Rate-Up Pools, totaling 15 Sun cards.

The number of Moon-rarity and Star-rarity cards was practically endless.

To truly master this game, players needed to invest time to understand the usage of every single character.

As a long-term service game, the developers provided generous welfare rewards.

Free-to-play players could thrive, and purchasing a Monthly Card allowed players to accumulate massive hoards of resources—just as Xia Kucao said, characters would enter the exchange shop to be redeemed with pull tokens. Given enough time, everyone would eventually own what they wanted.

Upgrading and awakening one’s favorite characters, watching them grow stronger step-by-step—that sense of accomplishment was unmatched.