Unedited
[Scenario 7: You don’t like sneaking around (00:00:21)]
Taking advantage of the fact that Scenario 7 still had yet to activate, Shan Ziwei futilely continued sneaking for half a minute. Unfortunately, he wasn’t even halfway to the cafeteria yet.
Seeing that he was about to be forced to “not like sneaking around”, Shan Ziwei glanced at the patrolling officer not far off, summoning a mirror image in spite of his conflicted feelings.
Two white-haired young men squatting in the shadows next to each other. Shan Ziwei stared at his docile mirror image. The white-haired young man quietly squatted next to him, head cocked to one side, looking at him for orders.
Black-eyed ones were docile, red-eyed ones were crazy – this was proof that someone who originally wasn’t twisted would become inhumanely so if they did become twisted.
Remembering how each time, it was he who had forced the mirror images into insanity, yet he was about to send one out as bait, Shan Ziwei’s conscience hurt. However, he had no other choice, for this was all he could do.
“Lure the prison guard away.”
The mirror image ran out of the shadows obediently and towards the prison guard. As soon as it managed to catch the guard’s attention, the mirror image quickly ran away in the opposite direction to where Shan Ziwei was. After the prison guard left, chasing after the mirror image, Shan Ziwei walked out of shadows with solemn steps, feeling like he had just witnessed a heroic sacrifice.
The wind whistles and the waters grow cold, once the hero leaves never shall he return.
Currently, Shan Ziwei was walking boldly through the hallways, practically able to hear a tragic BGM playing.
“System Scenarios’, sure, but I can’t even cancel ‘Personal Scenarios’? Doesn’t that mean I can’t even take off the equipment I put on?”
Shan Ziwei stared at the Personal Scenarios tab. As the prisoner’s uniform affected evil and good values, Shan Ziwei had wanted to take it off – maybe then the stance of the prison guards would no longer be “hostile”. Yet, he couldn’t find any cancel button for Personal Scenarios.
Shan Ziwei wanted to ask his Toybox, but Little Gaia was asleep and thus unable to answer.
“I guess I’ll ask Unparalleled Dragon King when I see him. He’s got more experience. Host doesn’t seem like a newbie either, but he doesn’t seem easy to get along with…”
Shan Ziwei thought to himself as he walked down the stairs. Just as he turned the corner, he came face to face with a prison guard that was beating up a prisoner.
[Prison Guard
Type: Three of Diamonds
Category: Knight
MP: 290/300
SP: Spades (100%), Hearts (100%), Clubs (100%), Diamonds (100%)
Stance: Hostile
Description: Eats, sleeps, beats up prisoners.]
Seeing that cute, lively description, Shan Ziwei immediately turned and ran for it. The prison guard threw the barely conscious prisoner to one side and gave chase like a bloodhound that had caught the scent of prey.
“Mi-mi-mirror image!”
Shan Ziwei stuttered with fright as he summoned his mirror image.
“Split up.”
The new mirror image immediately went a different way upon receiving the order. The prison guard didn’t hesitate, coming after Shan Ziwei like he was chasing after true love.
Wh-why come after me! Uncle prison guard, look, there’re all these prisoners here, there must be someone who better suits your taste than I do!
The prison guard gave a wicked smirk: no, thanks.
Shan Ziwei ran all the way around in a wide circle, meeting back up with his mirror image and giving a last resort order.
“Stop the prison guard!”
The mirror image ran past Shan Ziwei and towards the prison guard. Shan Ziwei only heard two clangs behind him before it went quiet. He turned his head in disbelief – wtf his mirror image was defeated already?!
In his shaking vision, there were two people running after him, one behind the other: behind was the prison guard in pursuit of true love, in front was the red-eyed crazy mirror image.
Save meeeeee!!!
Shan Ziwei felt like he was about to cough blood. Mirror image why don’t you go after someone else this time? How does this spiritual breakdown craze thing even work!?
“Hah… hah…”
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
In this epic three-person chase, the mirror image was the first one out due to using up all its MP. The remaining prison guard and Shan Ziwei continued this game of tag. Shan Ziwei was already running the fastest he could, but he couldn’t manage to shake the prison guard off no matter what. Shan Ziwei glanced at his less than half full MP bar and started to worry. The almost 300 MP prison guard could definitely chase him to death with ease, and this mindless running would probably land him in range of another prison guard.
Lf tjv ab olcv j kjs ab rabq atf qglrbc uejgv. Ktf rbjq kjr j qgbpfmalif, yea tf vlvc’a xcbk lo atgbklcu la kbeiv mbeca jr “jmalcu klat olrar” bg cba! Llr Vqjvfr VU bcis tjv tjio ifoa. Po atf rsrafw pevufv jcs jmalbc jr “jmalcu klat olrar”, tf kjr vbcf obg!
Shan Ziwei cursed the game development team: if it wasn’t for that damned “a true gentleman acts with their mouth not with their fists”, he would –
Act with… mouth… not with fists?
Lightbulb! Shan Ziwei stopped running, whipping out his “Five of Clubs – Art of Lying” and using it.
[Scenario Seven: You’re well versed in the art of lying, blinking and using your words to make others believe your lies.]
Shan Ziwei turned to face the pursuing prison guard. He blinked and yelled, “Stop chasing me! I’m friends with Siren!“
Siren was the poor bastard that had been conned according to the book. They were a really popular prison guard, too.
Hearing Shan Ziwei’s words, the prison guard did indeed stop chasing, because he started beating Shan Ziwei instead.
“Ah –”
Shan Ziwei rubbed the place the baton had hit him, breathing in sharply. His 100 percent pain was no joke, but this was better for a certain hypersexual. His desire was smothered by pain before it had a chance to rise.
“Wait, don’t you know Siren? A prison guard, like you!”
The prison guard completely ignored Shan Ziwei’s words, loyally sticking to his motto of “eat sleep and beat up prisoners”. Shan Ziwei yelped as the baton hit him over and over again. His only comfort was that the prison guard’s attack wasn’t as high as he had thought it would be. The reason his mirror image had gone into spiritual breakdown just now was because it had violated the “don’t use fists” scenario.
However, even with low attack, the prison guard was still an elite mob. If this one-sided beating continued, Shan Ziwei’s Diamonds SP would soon get completely corrupted. Shan Ziwei could only find a gap in the blows to make his escape and continue running for his life.
How come it didn’t work? Shan Ziwei checked Art of Lying’s skill description again as he ran. His MP had gone down just now, meaning that his skill had succeeded, but the prison guard acted like an ordinary, brainless MMORPG mob, only knowing how to fight and not communicate.
… Wait. In the tutorial stage, hadn’t the system said something about only being able to communicate and interact with “neutral” and “friendly” stance pawns?
Where the hell was he meant to find neutral or friendly pawns!? Siren should be friendly, but that prison guard was all the way in that far off cafeteria!
A flash of black and white appeared in his vision and Shan Ziwei slowed down, staring.
–– Actually… weren’t there plenty of those pawns?
Ever since he put on the prisoner’s uniform, he had treated the no longer attacking prisoners as background characters, but now, weren’t they optimal targets?
Shan Ziwei prepared himself and instantly jumped in front of a prisoner that was about to run past him. The prisoner’s eyes went wide.
“You lookin’ to die!?”
The prisoner seemed to teeter on the line between indifference and hate, but Shan Ziwei was looking for someone like him, whom he could communicate with. He blinked and then yelled out in one long breath, not even using punctuation:
“I know a way to escape the prison but Im being disrupted by the guards please can you help me Ill take you with me when I escape!”
Instantly, the prisoner fell onto the other side of indifference.
“Really!? Alright then, I’ll help!”
He rolled up he sleeves and charged the prison guard.
–– And got beaten up bad.
Seeing that the other wasn’t doing so well, Shan Ziwei immediately went and conned another prisoner. The two prisoners went up to fight the prison guard, their level difference made up for in a number advantage. Shan Ziwei sat on the sidelines watching. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to grab some more prisoners, but that his MP was close to drying up. If he continued using skills, that was equal to suicide.
After Shan Ziwei’s MP recovered some, he conned a third prisoner, and the battle was decided. Shan Ziwei picked up the knight chess piece on the prison guard’s corpse and glanced at the two prisoners behind him. The third had been heroically sacrificed in the last battle.
On some level, it seemed he had gained two loyal subordinates that he could order around.
“What are you waiting for? Hurry and get us outta here!”
… Okay, that should be two big bosses.
The two prisoners helped him carve out a path, violent and unstoppable while Shan Ziwei followed after them like a little weakling in need of protection. Along the way, he conned another two prisoners into joining their party – this was the limit of Art of Lying. The skill cost was calculated by person. For every successful recruit, the skill cost would increase. The first time, it cost ten MP, the second time, twenty MP, then forty MP then eighty MP. If he wanted to use it a fifth time, his max MP would have to be raised to at least one-hundred and twenty, or he’d have to kill one of the people he had conned.
With four bodyguards, Shan Ziwei could take down anyone and anything that came in his way. Unfortunately, the conned prisoners wouldn’t actually listen to his commands, just attacking if they were attacked by a prison guard, but a certain hypersexual was very satisfied already. This was completely different from his futile fleeing before.
Shan Ziwei silently pressed his hands against his conscience: crap, he was starting to love being a conman.
Let them happily kill their way to the finish line~
System: haha.
Seeing the cafeteria just across from them and the four prison guards walking towards them, the nerves he thought had already become numb to the pain the system gave began to ache again.
The prison guards expressed: You guys want to NP? 1 vs 1 is the true way to go.
Shan Ziwei watched the prisoners and prison guards go at it, feeling that he was too tired to love again. He couldn’t even run. If he showed any signs of leaving, the prisoners would quit, looking like they were going to do all they can to drag him down with them even if it meant not being able to break out.
Right now, Shan Ziwei felt like he was doing an extremely complicated maths question. He couldn’t help out or command the prisoners, only try to recover as much MP as possible to con another prisoner as soon as one of his died – who would last to the end? The prison guards or his MP?
Shan Ziwei would’ve never thought that neither would the prison guards run out nor would his MP run out, but that the wild prisoners would run out.
“Hah!”
The last prisoner died, taking a prison guard with him. There were two prison guards left. Though they were both on their last breaths, Shan Ziwei couldn’t finish them off. He could only stare as they blocked his way to the cafeteria, seeming to plan on going after him once their corruption recovered.
“Ah!”
Suddenly, one of the prison guards screamed, falling, and revealing the black-haired young man behind him.
“Host!”
This pleasant surprise had come so abruptly, Shan Ziwei cried out the other’s name. The black-haired young man glanced at him, swiftly pulling his weapon out from the prison guard’s body and slitting the other prison guard’s throat with it.
The two prison guards immediately descended into spiritual breakdown, but when they charged at host with a crazed passion, host raised his hand, throwing powder onto the two.
Then Shan Ziwei saw the two prison guards sway like drunkards, collapsing onto the ground, unmoving.
Shan Ziwei stared, tongue-tied. “Wh-what… is that?”
Host silently put his weapon away. His weapon was very unique. It was shaped like a cross, and the four prongs could stretch as they needed, changing between several forms, lance, longsword and dagger. He walked over, holding out his open palm to Shan Ziwei so he could see.
The black-haired young man was wearing black gloves, and a thumb-sized pile of grey powder sat on his palm. Shan Ziwei closed one eye, using Investigate.
[Death Powder
Type: Five of Spades
Category: Projectile
Effect: Kills pawns in spiritual breakdown with a distance of 2 or less.
Description: A powder made from the ashes of criminals sentenced to death.]
“I found it in the production room,” host then said.
“I – “ Shan Ziwei was going to say that he had found something in the library, too, but then he remembered that dumb “conman” scenario. “I think we should head to the cafeteria now.”
However, host didn’t move. The black-haired young man’s eyes were half covered by his hair, but when he looked at someone unblinkingly, his gaze would feel as sharp as a knife. Shan Ziwei couldn’t move, under the gaze of those golden eyes; it felt like he was completely exposed – wait, golden?
Weren’t host’s eyes black!?
As if to prove Shan Ziwei’s memory right, the gold in host’s eyes faded away, returning to black.
“You only have 1 percent Hearts SP left,” he noted.
“Er, well, I ran into some unexpected trouble…”
Shan Ziwei awkwardly laughed it off. The gold in his eyes was probably a side effect from some investigative skill.
Host didn’t press any further. He seemed to only want to bring Shan Ziwei’s lack of Hearts SP up. He took out two Scenario Cards and held them out to Shan Ziwei.
[Ace of Hearts – Love
Category: Active Relationship
Effect: When you express love for them, restore 10 percent of your Hearts SP.
Description: I like you, I like you so, so, so much.]
[Ace of Hearts – Love
Category: Passive Relationship
Effect: When they express love for you, restore 10 percent of your Hearts SP.
Description: You like me, you don’t like me, you like me, you don’t like me… you like me?]
“Choose one,” host ordered.
Shan Ziwei stared at the two relationship scenario cards blankly, the gears in his brain malfunctioning.
“Are… we going to use them on each other?”
Host nodded. “You only have 1 percent Hearts SP left,” he repeated before adding, “You’re at high risk of dying.”
… Thanks for your concern, but do you really not understand what this means?
“It’s just a game.”
Host’s eyes were very dark, to the point where Shan Ziwei couldn’t see his own reflection in them. His voice was deep, like it could drag people down, sinking into the abyss.
“Do you really care that much?”
… That’s right, it was just a game. Who cared?
Shan Ziwei hardened his heart and took the “Ace of Hearts – Love (Passive)” card. The darkness in the black-haired young man’s eyes wavered for a moment, revealing slight disappointment.
[Scenario Eight: You are loved by host.]
As he was surrounded by the speckles of blue light, Shan Ziwei saw host use the other Scenario Card.
Amidst the firefly-like speckles of light that danced around them, host lowered his gaze, eyes on Shan Ziwei, who was slightly shorter than he. The spots of light gave his dark eyes a sheen of blue – an illusion of warmth and gentleness.
“I like you.”
Shan Ziwei’s heart skipped a beat. Though he knew that this was just the other trying to help him, his head still became a mess. To cover up the fact that he was blushing, Shan Ziwei stuttered out words of gratitude, “Th-thank you, let’s hurry up and head to the cafeteria now!”
After that, Shan Ziwei quickly walked forwards, looking like he was fleeing.
“You aren’t happy, being loved?”
Shan Ziwei froze, stunned. Host’s words were like a soft hammer, coming down on the place he once cared most about.
He wasn’t happy… being loved?
He was.
How could he not be?
Once upon a time, he had wished that someone would like him, would love him like that. He dreamed that there would one day be someone who didn’t find him disgusting, disdainful. He just wanted someone to like him, to stay with him.
Then, one day, his dream became a reality, and then he realized that those feelings were so much heavier than he had ever dreamed.
–– If everyone else on this world was gone, then would you like me?
“Hey – What’re you guys doing standing in front of the cafeteria?”
Unparalleled Dragon King’s hollering interrupted Shan Ziwei’s thoughts. He turned his head to the right, seeing Unparalleled Dragon King and Rice Lover walking towards them.
Seeing him look over, Rice Lover trembled and hid behind Unparalleled Dragon King.
… He had a feeling that he was doomed to be forever alone.
Unparalleled Dragon King looked at Shan Ziwei, then at host, then came up to Shan Ziwei.
“How come you guys aren’t going inside?” Unparalleled Dragon King suddenly started acting nervous. “There isn’t like a final boss in there or something, is there?”
“Er, no… we just got here, too.”
“Then let’s head in together,” Unparalleled Dragon King rushed them inside, “Time’s almost up.”
Seeing that there were only two minutes until Scenario 6 was set to activate, Shan Ziwei took the lead, pushing open the metal doors of the cafeteria.
“Clang!”
Shan Ziwei didn’t think that the heavy-looking cafeteria doors would actually be so light, causing him to put too much strength in opening them. The metal doors slammed against the walls and rebounded. Shan Ziwei hurriedly grabbed them before looking into the cafeteria.
Amidst the rows of rectangular tables and benches, the first thing Shan Ziwei saw was the prison guard sitting across from the doors. He wore a black prison guard’s uniform, his skin white like the most expensive of pearls. He didn’t look like a violent supervisor, a prison guard, but like a young nobleman. The prison guard had one long, slender leg across the other, holding the book, Rusalochka. His long hair cascaded down his back, such a dark blue it was almost black.
Shan Ziwei was shocked. Though the prison guard had long hair and a beautiful face, there was no dying it: he was a man.
This wasn’t Siren, this wasn’t Siren, this wasn’t Siren – if this was Siren then he (his character design) was a gay man! Wtf!
Hearing the door open, the prison guard looked over. Seeing Shan Ziwei, he pulled his police hat down a little, giving them a wickedly beautiful smile.
“You’re here.”
Thank you so much for the chapter!!😍😍😍😍
Thanks for the chapter~ ( ^ ♡ ^ )/
Did he think the game would give him a female prison guard? Hahaha, I thought he knew already how rotten that game is lol And what’s up with Host? Why was he so disappointed?
Thx for the ch (ㅅ˘ㅂ˘)
There are so many potential Mls
jokes on you, they’re actually the same person
ooo I have not thought about this possibility
Thank you for the chappie! (๑•́ ∀ •̀๑)
I’ve been thinking since he was introduced that Host might be an avatar for Gaia the way the elf likely was. Considering how Gaia isn’t reacting with vinegar, my suspicions deepen.
ML would be so happy if Shanzi chose the active card (◕︿◕)
Did we just get a foreshadowing from Shanzi’s life before the coma? The summary did say ML set the “pieces” for the chess game (ohohoh did you get it?)
Thanks for the chapter! (((o(ﾟ▽ﾟ)o)))
host being disappointed that szw didn’t choose the active card… ml?????? hehe
thanks for the chapter （＾∇＾）
Thank you for the chapter 🍪🍪🍪🍪🍪
I get the feeling host and perhaps siren are also Gaia . And obviously the elf from before. Gaia can be anyone and everyone for our mc 😌
Thanks for the hard work love the story ^_^
Host and Siren about to fight for GShanzi’s affections😂😂😂
Host is too nice with him. That’s suspicious.
Thanks for the chapter!
“I think that the little mermaid simply didn’t love her prince enough, because she watched her prince make his choice, rather than becoming her prince’s only choice.”
Doesn’t sound so ominous at all, lol
Ooooh~ I have a theory about mirror image. It’s basically a part of Gaia because it’s made by the game (remember that one time it patted him on the head?) and whenever it goes crazy it’s actually Gaia going crazy because he thinks Ghost is going to leave him (like in the past)/betray him (like with that girl)
Hmm that sounds like MC had an obssessive lover before the accident
These pre-accident snippets of Shanzi’s life are intriguing, can’t wait to see more!