Edited by RinRin
This wasn’t the first time Shan Ziwei logged off from the game at 2x the speed of light, but it was one of the most severe cases. Even on the second day, he was still reluctant —— or rather, somewhat afraid of playing RPG. Coincidentally, it was the weekend, so Shan Ziwei decisively gave himself a vacation. However, a 200+ year old hypersexual was still a hypersexual. He didn’t have the guts to roam around outside and play around like a perv. He just quietly stayed home and opened an engineering textbook.
In the end, Shan Ziwei studied the entire day. It was unclear whether Shan Ziwei had originally built an exceptionally solid foundation for computer studies, or if he had a natural inclination to excel in computer engineering. Regardless, the materials detailing the new computational revolutions that he’d originally thought he’d need 7 days to cover —— after all, it was 200 years of history —— was completed in a single day. He didn’t feel like it was particularly difficult to comprehend either, simply absorbing the knowledge like a fish in water.
Shan Ziwei reflected deeply. Did two hundred years of lying down straighten out his brain?
A certain hypersexual tasted the sweetness of studying success. As a result, Shan Ziwei couldn’t hold back from studying all day Sunday as well. Only when Monday’s morning light warmed his body did his head finally clear: He couldn’t keep ignoring his profession like this, it was time to continue gaming.
Two days of rest had helped reduce Shan Ziwei’s inner stress. So, Shan Ziwei, who had forgotten the pain after getting rid of the scar, reluctantly put down his book and took out the equipment for RPG.
Before going online again, Shan Ziwei finally couldn’t bear it anymore and opened the quantum terminal to contact Fatty —— Where was the promised game information? It’s already been an entire week, even a graduation thesis could’ve been finished!!
Unexpectedly, the other party was even more confused than him.
“Wait what? The boss said that you wanted to quit the studio, so it wasn’t necessary to arrange the game information anymore. “
After Fatty’s shock, it was Shan Ziwei’s turn to be dumbfounded. “When did I say I wanted to quit the studio?”
“The night you came ah! The boss said that you didn’t want to be MT, so it was very likely that you might break your contract and quit.”
Shan Ziwei thought about his struggles before he entered the game. He did talk to Zhao Qing, but he’d only said he wanted to be a ranged player; he hadn’t said that he wanted to quit the studio.
Fatty, on the other end, also realized that there might be some misunderstanding. He carefully said, “Maybe I made a mistake. Hold on Shanzi, I’ll go consult the boss ——.”
“Apologies, I might’ve not made it clear initially, which led to this misunderstanding.” Shan Ziwei took a deep breath, “I’m not leaving the studio. As long as Ye Ye doesn’t ask me to leave, then I won’t go. You can rest assured that I have no money to break the contract. “
“Oh, oh.” The miniature figure of Fatty projected by the quantum terminal appeared to be a little embarrassed. As though to replace the embarrassment, he quickly patted the fat on his body and said, “Exactly ah, we’ve got cute lolis, mature beauties, and me, Lord Fatty. How can dear Shanzi bear to leave? Just wait three days —— no, two days, and this Lord Fatty will send you the information. “
“Thank you.” Shan Ziwei sincerely thanked him. He really liked people like Fatty; people who are cheerful and easy to chat with. Alright, so the game information will need another two days to arrive. In the meantime, Shan Ziwei took the opportunity to ask a few pressing questions. “I’m entering the game soon. The system notified me earlier that “Story Mode” is unlocked. What is Story Mode?”
“Oh, Story Mode hmm……? Cough, cough, cough! Wait! Story mode!? ” Fatty didn’t notice at first, but when he realized the connotation of “story mode”, the fat on his entire body was nearly shocked off: “You—— What level are you? Don’t tell you’re Level 3 already! “
“…… Level 3. “
“What the fuck! You’re already Level 3!!!” Fatty bounced up like a ball: “How many days has it even been?! And you’re already Level 3?! You ——” Bouncy Ball Fatty sharply inhaled, he looked left and right, stuck his chubby face against the screen and lowered his voice to barely a whisper, “What plug-in did you use?”
“……”
Shan Ziwei was slapped in the face by the dear words “plug-in” that still existed even after 200 years.
Before Shan Ziwei could open his mouth, Fatty had already refuted himself. “That’s impossible. RPG’s main server is the central computer. There’s no one in the world who can do anything under the nose of the central computer. But it doesn’t make any sense. How could anyone reach Level 3 in only five days? Even a genius like this Lord Fatty took 9 days… “
Hearing fatty’s irregular ramblings, Shan Ziwei finally realized how extraordinary it was to reach Level 3 in five days. What’s more, the truth was that 2 of the 5 days were actually spent on vacation…
Receiving such a brilliant record, Shan Ziwei was a little frightened. It was as if he was eating not the pie that fell from the sky, but the fodder used to fatten pork for slaughter. He thought for a moment and opened his mouth, not only to reassure himself, but also to explain to Fatty, “I chose 100% pain, double experience bonus.”
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.
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Shan Ziwei lightly coughed to cover the happy smile tugging at the edges of his mouth, and pulled back the original topic that had gone so far off that it was becoming friends with the moon. “Story Mode?”
“Story Mode ah~ It’s almost like asking you to write a novel. They give you a beginning and an end, and then you have to fill in the middle.” Seeing Shan Ziwei’s confused eyes, Fatty simply said, “You will understand after playing it once. The first time you enter the storyboard, the game will explain it to you. I’ll tell you one thing though. In the Story Mode, don’t give yourself some heaven defying plot. The more op you are, the more the system will bounce back and increase the difficulty. As the saying goes, with great power comes great responsibility ~ “
Shan Ziwei didn’t quite get it, but he nodded to show that he understood. He shelved Story Mode for now to ask another concerning question: “Also, what are ‘Card Inscriptions’ ?”
“Card Inscriptions are special titles in RPG. You can think of it like an unique title. They’re derived from the “22 Major Arcana Tarot Cards.” Fatty rubbed his hands together with a face full of longing. “It’s a really good thing to have. It always comes with a heaven defying scenario. For example, that famous Bai Huahua, her Card Inscription is “The Hanged Man”, and she has a scenario where she can revive another person by sacrificing herself. Heavens! That’s a ‘REVIVE’ skill! It directly overthrows the game rules! “
Shan Ziwei was stunned. He didn’t expect that Card Inscriptions were so amazing. No wonder Spring and Autumn always held an attitude of implicit awe towards host. Sometimes he’d even looked like he wanted to beg host for help. At the time, Shan Ziwei had thought that he’d been mistaken.
Fatty wiped away some suspicious saliva from the corner of his mouth. He turned and asked Shan Ziwei, “Where did you hear about Card Inscriptions?”
“…… I’ve seen a player with a Card Inscription, ‘The World’”.
On the screen, Fatty’s eyes instantly bulged.
“YOU’VE! ACTUALLY! MET! A! PLAYER! WITH! A! LEGACY! NAME!” Fatty almost choked on his own spit: “You, a level 3 player, have actually seen a player with a Card Inscription! I’m already at level 8, yet I’m still only at the ‘only heard about it’ stage! “
Shan Ziwei silently moves his hand a little farther away from the communication screen. Fatty seemed to want to crawl over from the other side the hologram and murder him. There were only 22 Major Arcana cards in the Tarot deck, consequently, there are only 22 Card Inscriptions, which were distributed among hundreds of millions of players. It wasn’t too much to say that it was like a drop in the ocean.
On the screen, Fatty was still gesturing wildly. “Speak! What plug-in did you use! To actually be able to meet a player with a Card Inscription!”
“I guess it’s just bad-, uh I mean, good luck. “
“It’s not a matter of luck.” Fatty looked serious. “Realistically speaking, it should be impossible for you to meet an Inscription Player. You’re only level 3! In RPG, you are nothing but a newbie, and Inscription Players are all at the very least level 5 – they’re all high-ranking players. Furthermore, they’re all first-class players! The scenarios attached to the Card Inscription could easily make a second rate player a first-class player, and a first-class player a super first-class player. There were no Inscription Players lower than second rate, because the Card Inscriptions can be stolen. Those third, fourth and fifth rate players can’t hold on to them at all. This makes the Card Inscription equivalent to a status symbol. Those with Inscriptions are all high-ranking play —— er, sorry, went too far off that tangent. “
Fatty gave a dry cough. “Anyway, as an advanced player, an Inscription Player shouldn’t appear on the same chessboard as a novice player like you, because it’s unfair for the novice players. If there were high-level players in a chessboard, the system would take the level of advanced players as the baseline and improve the difficulty of the chessboard accordingly.”
Ten thousand grass mud horses roared past Shan Ziwei’s heart. No wonder his games were so fking hard, as though the difficulty was set at an advanced player’s level!
Fatty was startled by Shan Ziwei’s sudden change in expression. He said timidly, “If you met an Inscribed player, then that chessboard…”
Shan Ziwei’s expression of being unable to bear reliving his past experiences answered everything, and Fatty’s envious eyes turned sympathetic.
“Bro, you’ve worked hard.”
On the screen, Fatty motioned like he was patting Shan Ziwei’s shoulder and comforted him. “But it’s good as well ah. If the chessboard high difficulty, regardless if whether you pass the stage or not, the experience is always added to the bar ~”
Alright, Shan Ziwei finally understood how he got his heaven defying level-up speed. It’s truly something he’d sold his blood, tears and flesh to trade for.
“According to your current leveling rate, you should be able to catch up with us quickly, and then we can all play together.” Fatty said happily, “What else do you want to know? Ask away. Lord Fatty is here, Lord Bao——”
Fatty’s words cut off in the middle. On screen, Fatty turned to look at something outside the screen, as though someone was saying something to him.
“Er, I’m sorry, Shanzi. Boss is calling me. I’ll give you the information later. I’ll leave first.”
Shan Ziwei answered and watched the projection on the black bracelet disappear. The issue with the game information should be settled. Shan Ziwei let out a gentle sigh. After talking to Fatty, he was much more relaxed. Although he’d been working hard in the game before, he’d always felt like he couldn’t see the goal and didn’t know where the result of his efforts had gone. Now, after hearing Fatty’s words, Shan Ziwei’s heart suddenly felt balanced, and he even had the urge to enter the game immediately and catch up with his friends.
From now on, whichever hand agreed to view the Epilogue will be cut off! Shan Ziwei swore silently. Then he followed his impulse, grabbed the game gear nearby, walked to the nutrient capsule.
[Connected to Quantum Terminal. Begin processing information. ]
[Welcome to RPG. ]
Shan Ziwei opened his eyes on the golden throne and was almost frightened offline again by the white mask inches from his face.
The silver haired doll cupped his face with his sleeves. Its face was stuck very close to his. The doll’s pair of black and white eyes stared at him without blinking. They were like mercury beads in black ink, coldly reflecting Shan Ziwei’s figure.
For a moment, Shan Ziwei felt like he was being swallowed up by the silvery whiteness within.
Sharp Inhale
Shan Ziwei fiercely pushed Little Gaia away and covered his slightly red face. Just now, his toy box had actually bitten him.
To be more accurate, it can’t be described as ‘bite’; it was more like ‘hold’. The silver haired doll pinched his cheek with its soft lips and clamped down hard. Although the temperature was lifelessly cold, it still made a certain hypersexual’s condition act up.
[Sorry]
A text bubble raced over and froze Shan Ziwei in place. He watched as Little Gaia raised its hand and stood with a straight back in front of him.
“……？”
Little Gaia looked at its sleeve covered hands, and shook them vigorously to reveal a small hand buried within the long sleeves.
It was Shan Ziwei’s first time seeing Gaia’s hand. It was as delicate as jade. Its fingernails were also black like its eyes, and exuded an eerie aura. The exquisitely-shaped little hand molded into the shape of a fist, and two onion shoot-like little fingers shot up.
Shan Ziwei stared at the two fingers held up in front of him, then turned to look at the utterly wronged expression on Little Gaia’s mask, and something clicked —— Was this… accusing him for not being online for two days?
Shan Ziwei has never raised a pet before, but at that moment, he accurately experienced the feeling of a dumb owner who had abandoned their little kitten at home, and came back a few days later to be bitten angrily as a result, but then carefully licked again.
“I was wrong.” Shan Ziwei gently pacified his cute little pet, “I’ll make sure to log in every day from now on.”
Little Gaia looked at Shan Ziwei, the mask still looked like it was going to cry. It stuck up a finger and pointed to itself. A text bubble floated out of its expressionless face.
[Forgive? ]
“No need to forgive.” Shan Ziwei rubbed Little Gaia’s head. “You’re not wrong. It’s my fault. Next time I waste gaming time like this, remember to bite harder. “
Hearing this, Little Gaia narrowed its eyes, a brilliant smile finally emerging on its mask. Its lips curled unusually high. The evil smile seems to express joy at having done something evil, yet receiving praise from the one it harmed.
After settling down his Toybox, Shan Ziwei raised his eyes to see the little wolf doll on the black-and-white checkered floor. He suddenly remembered that he had not replied to Sha Po Lang yet.
Perhaps because Little Gaia was very happy with how the earlier matter was settled, this time, Little Gaia docily told Shan Ziwei how to use the friend function of RPG. Shan Ziwei walked over and touched the little wolf doll, and found that Sha Po Lang had left him another message. The contents roughly asked Shan Ziwei when he would be online next, so they could play together.
Shan Ziwei checked the status of Sha Po Lang and found that she was currently ‘in game’. Thus, he sent her a reply explaining what had happened in the last chessboard and a time to play together. After that, he began preparing for his own chessboard.
Shan Ziwei said to Little Gaia, “Show me the store.”
There was no way to activate the store function earlier, because he was still in the chessboard. Now, Shan Ziwei could finally check out the legendary ‘store’. Shan Ziwei rubbed his hands together in anticipation. His inventory is already starving for new items.
Little Gaia jumped to the ground, dragged his sleeve along as it ran forward a few steps. Then, it turned around and opened its big mouth with an ‘AWO’, reached both hands inside, and pulled out the ‘shop’. Shan Ziwei stood there in shock as he took in the ‘shop’ that took up a full 50% of his space. It was a real, genuine, ‘shop’ ah! Fuck!
How the hell did such a giant building come out of that little mouth? Shan Ziwei was dumbfounded. He stood shell shocked in front of the store for a good 15 minutes, before finally walking in hesitantly.
He found that the inside of the building was much larger than it had appeared from the outside. However, although there was a lot of space, there weren’t many things displayed. All the items were suspended in mid-air, and everything being sold could be seen with a glance. In short, all the products were SP related potions; there were Spade potions, Hearts potions, and Clubs potions. There were no scenario cards and or any other props. They potions and potions and nothing but potions.
Shan Ziwei dipped his head to look down at Little Gaia, who was walking by his feet. Unwilling to believe the cruel reality he asked: “Is this everything?”
His toy box blinked twice and pushed out a text bubble: [Upgrade].
Shan Ziwei was silent for a moment, then he got to work. First, he bought three bottles of each type of potion. Then, he took out the chess box from his inventory space. The evolutions of the monster from the preceding chessboard had given Shan Ziwei a very intuitive and direct lesson on chesspieces. He also finally understood the true value of the chess set that he possessed. Although he felt sorry for the dead teddy bear, Shan Ziwei was still guiltily grateful for Chilan’s shot.
Reluctant to let the child catch the wolf, Shan Ziwei hardened his heart and took out a rook and a bishop from his set and handed them to Little Gaia.
“Take it and upgrade.”
Little Gaia happily took the pieces and put away the shop. He held the chesspiece like a little hamster, gnawing on them with little bites as though eating a melon seed.
Shan Ziwei took Little Gaia to his usual position and after a series of preparations, he was ready to enter his next chessboard. Looking around, there were currently two floor to ceiling windows that were wide open. One was the window in the 4 o’clock direction, and the other was the window at the 11 0’clock direction that had opened after the system announced that ‘Story Mode’ was available.
Since there was a new game mode, Shan Ziwei naturally wanted to try it. He took Little Gaia and walked towards the window at the 11 o’clock direction and touched the light screen.
The system immediately gave an entry prompt:
[This chessboard is in story mode. Do you want to enter? ]
Shan Ziwei looked at “Story Mode”, and confirmed with nervous anticipation:
“Yes!”
Iz: Little Gaia is so cuteee X3
Rinrin: Shanzi, you shouldn’t hand over biting rights so easily….
Iz: He’s definitely digging a pit for himself right now~ > <
Little Gaia, bite me too!!! I love youuuu !!!!!!//>//<//
Thanks so much for the chapter, im so into this!!!!!!!!!
while I was rereading 😆 I noticed that the elf’s name mentioned from this chapter is different from the story arc City of Toys.
City of Toys his name was Chiron and here he was mentioned as Chilan which I recognized as him because he was the npc who shot the teddy bear.
sorry this was suppose to be a main comment
The little Gaia is cute
Thanks for the chapter
thank you for the chapter! I forgot whether the bao guy is with YY’s crazy fiancee or he’s a normal guy on the team…
Was the mentioned boss the woman who picked him up or that guy who wanted to make trouble for SZW? I can’t remember anymore :’D But I’ve to agree to little Gaia’s cuteness >__<
Thx for the ch (ㅅ˘ㅂ˘) (I’m waiting for his son to reappear >3)
We all love Gaia because he’s so small and adorable, but what about later~
Thanks for the chapter! 💕
Pretty sure its the guy who wanted to cause trouble to SZW and the lady’s studio
What kind of toy was little gaia again? I’ve been imagining a plush toy all this time but the description about the hand threw me in for a loop 😂 Is little gaia like a barbie doll or like an annabell/chucky doll or like a zashikiwarashi doll? 😅😅
I always imagined a chibi version of Gaia that Shan Ziwei first saw when choosing his toy box. I think there is some fanart out there that can help give a visual of what he might look like.
Aww Gaia is so cute! Haha kinda like animal crossing guilt trip when you don’t login for a long time
“The evil smile seems to express joy at having done something evil, yet receiving praise front he one it harmed. “ front he —> from the.
BITE HIM M!! BITE HIM HARDER, ON THE NECK! BRUUSES!
Fixed~ Thanks!!
Backtracking, I think it’s pretty definite now that gaia was initially programmed by Shanzi (maybe for gaming practice?) and then evolved beyond his expectations, developing humanlike desires and emotions. (This briefly made me wonder if gaia somehow tweaked his neurochemistry and manufactured the hypersexuality to isolate him from other people, but with how gaia was tweaking his sensory input in game as he learned what affected him, I hesitate to give that idea too much support) We also know the main reason for him to end up a shut-in was his developing hypersexuality, but the specific impetus must have been that disastrous confession. So then thoroughly traumatized he shuts himself in and begins full time gaming. Even Then, as briefly mentioned, the team he isá playing on betrays him and gaia, watching his beloved fall into despair due to these wretched humans, confesses both his love for shanzi and hatred of all other humans (when shanzi takks about how heavy it is to finally be loved like he always wanted). So then I’m thinking this is where Shanzi maybe tries to shut down gaia or whatever to prevent harm to humans from the malicious AI, but instead “gets into an accident” and is “frozen” by Gaia to preserve him, erasing select memories and keeping him in stasis (shanzi was extremely shocked his parents would’ve gone to the trouble to freeze him, and the dean is a shard or avatar of gaia, so most likely it was gaia.) only defrosting and releasing Shanzi conveniently a month after rpg is opened. And its also hinted that rpg was created for a sole player (shanzi), while everyone else is just pawns in the game to help him learn to love and choose gaia(the monster) over other humans.
System: “Dig a pit For MC”
Gaia: “Dig a pit for MC”
Mc: “Dig a pit… Dig a pit.. Oh Wait! What??? “
I think Gaia’s been “biting” him pretty hard already! Shanzi, you’re asking for trouble lol
When raising pets, children and spouses – it is very important to consistently reinforce a ‘no biting’ rule. From personal experience, one of those on that list will be unsuccessful, but you can try.
while I was rereading 😆 I noticed that the elf’s name mentioned from this chapter is different from the story arc City of Toys.
City of Toys his name was Chiron and here he was mentioned as Chilan which I recognized as him because he was the npc who shot the teddy bear.