Before transmigrating, Lloyd was just a small-town test-taker whose only real skill besides taking tests was typing on a keyboard.
Later, due to an accident, he transmigrated from Earth into the body of a newborn baby in this world.
Shortly after his birth, his parents in this world picked up Evrore from outside, giving him an elder sister so they could grow up together.
One was a transmigrator and the other was picked up, so they shared no blood relation, yet they had been close since childhood, closer than biological siblings.
Unfortunately, a sudden catastrophe later took away their parents, leaving only the young siblings to depend on each other.
Evrore's appearance and physique were forever frozen at the age of twelve...
Yet this despair-inducing Calamity did not crush the strong-willed elder sister. She took Lloyd's hand, forced herself to smile, and said gently:
"Don't be afraid, Big Sister is here."
Thus, the siblings began their arduous struggle for survival.
At first, they were able to stay in an orphanage, but later, a priest was discovered there. To protect her younger brother, Evrore had no choice but to flee the orphanage with him, then tightly holding his hand, they wandered everywhere in the sprawling City of Brilliance.
To support her younger brother, she worked tirelessly at odd jobs and casual labor: rummaging through trash cans, shining shoes, and making matchboxes. Relying on her tiny hands to earn that meager income, along with the help of some kind-hearted people, she raised herself and her younger brother together.
Lloyd wanted to help share the burden, but he was too young back then. He had no cheat, no special bloodline, and no keyboard...
It was nothing like the ease found in novels; he could only depend on his sister for survival through sheer hardship.
The identity of a transmigrator seemed exceptionally ironic...
To this day, Lloyd refused to recall that period of his life.
It wasn't until he happened to meet the kind Miss Desta by a twist of fate that their lives began to improve.
Lloyd returned to the track of his life on Earth: reading, taking tests, examinations, advancing in school, and finally graduating from university to start job hunting.
Then he discovered that his major was civil engineering...
He would have loved to become a Transcendent, wielding immense power, fighting monsters, battling to protect the world, enjoying the reverence of the world and all kinds of privileges, and living a glorious, successful life.
However, being a Transcendent was not so easy. According to the principle of "with great power comes great responsibility," Transcendents belonged to a high-risk profession.
The monsters they had to fight were exceptionally dangerous! Exceptionally vicious!
They were definitely not bottom-feeders like goblins, skeleton soldiers, or ice-field direwolves that could be slaughtered at will.
Not only did these monsters possess traits like strength, agility, cunning, and ferocity, but they also possessed an unreasonable ability: Mental Pollution.
Any form of contact with monsters—whether researching, fighting, killing, or even observing and hearing the sounds they made—would inflict Mental Pollution.
If one suffered too much Mental Pollution in a short period of time, it would gradually throw a person's thoughts and consciousness into confusion, driving them slowly mad, until they finally plunged completely into the abyss of madness and mutated into an unspeakable monster.
Precisely because of this, monsters were once the true Sovereignty of this world, occupying most of its regions and pushing human civilization to the brink of doom at one point.
Fortunately, humanity ultimately persevered. After paying a heavy price, they established the current mysticism and Transcendent System, regaining their footing bit by bit and entering a stalemate phase with the monsters.
To this day, although monsters still tirelessly attacked humans in various ways and battles of all sizes frequently erupted, the overall situation was improving day by day. The city was growing safer, and the controlled area outside the city was expanding.
At least, that was what the newspapers and news said...
Against this historical backdrop, Lloyd had once abandoned the path of a Transcendent, intending to live a safe and peaceful life just like that, taking care of his sister and finishing out the slacker life he hadn't been able to complete back on Earth.
Yet seven days ago, he encountered a "minor accident"—
While he was out job hunting, a monster suddenly burst out from a sewer manhole cover. Right in front of him, it devoured three people, splashing blood and debris all over him and dyeing him into a crimson, bloody figure.
Although this was a low-probability event and the monster was quickly killed by Transcendents who rushed to the scene, that sudden bloody scene still deeply shocked Lloyd.
This world, it seemed, was not as peaceful and prosperous as the newspapers advertised; he still needed to have a few tricks up his sleeve.
Besides, he still had a sister to protect...
As it happened, this bloody shock unexpectedly earned him an Attribute Panel.
[Ding ~ Madness Value increase detected, Attribute Panel activated.]
After hanging around here for twenty years, he had finally opened his cheat, successfully becoming a complete transmigrator.
Later, Lloyd spent some time researching this gadget and found that it seemed quite powerful. As long as he could acquire Madness Value, he could upgrade his stats and grow stronger step by step.
According to the panel description, Madness Value came from Mental Pollution, and Mental Pollution primarily came from monsters, which meant Lloyd had to come into contact with monsters.
Yet the city was safe most of the time, and monsters were not easy to find...
Just as Lloyd was worrying about this, that black invitation letter appeared in his home mailbox: the Holy Judgment Tribunal sincerely invited him to join, offering him a position called Enforcer.
As a military organization dedicated to dealing with monsters, that place certainly wouldn't lack Madness Value. It was just what he needed when he was feeling sleepy.
Lloyd naturally made his decision without hesitation.
The Holy Judgment Tribunal was not a place just anyone could enter; the threshold was quite high and the assessments were strict. Although fighting monsters meant inevitably encountering danger, the prospects were vast and the future promising, making it a place people still flocked to.
Now that Lloyd had his panel, danger should probably be renamed opportunity.
Of course, as an equivalent exchange, Lloyd had to keep the "minor accident" from the other day a secret, unable to even tell his sister.
The City of Brilliance remained full of song, dance, Peace and Contentment.
With that, Lloyd boarded the tram, transferred this way and that for over two hours, and arrived at the southern suburbs.
This place was desolate and undeveloped, still retaining natural scenery like mountains, forests, and streams.
The Holy Judgment Tribunal was massive, divided into dozens of sectors beneath it to jointly guard this sprawling City of Brilliance. Sector 18, to which Lloyd was assigned, was situated in such a picturesque place nestled against the mountains and by the water.
He continued walking toward that mountain range, which wasn't very tall but wound along like a giant python for a long distance, finally arriving at a valley blocked by heavy iron gates.