Translators: Jouicifer + Rinrin
Editor: Rinrin
Dim white light once again filled his vision and spread across his surroundings. It didn’t disperse like usual and instead stained the entire area a pure white.
In the pure white space, Shan Ziwei felt a sense of weightlessness, because even the ground under his feet was naught but an expanse of white. In the entire space, only he and Gaia held colour.
… Wait, Gaia?
Shan Ziwei stared at the black-robed teenager in shock. Like before, he sat upon an old-fashioned computer monitor, his silver hair blending in with the white surroundings, framing his god-like perfect face.
Shan Ziwei’s first reaction was to check his left shoulder, yet he realised with a shock that his Toybox had disappeared. Immediately, Shan Ziwei’s mind descended into chaos. He turned his head back mechanically, staring at the man-made god with even more intense disbelief – it wasn’t like what he thought it was, was it?
Under Shan Ziwei’s frightened gaze, the silver-haired teen blinked slowly. Words began to appear on the screen below him one letter after the other as if typed out on a keyboard by someone.
[You are about to enter a Story Mode chessboard. In Story Mode, Toyboxes cannot be used, and the system will not actively assign scenarios.]
That was terrifying! Shan Ziwei finally felt like he could breathe again. For a moment there he thought that his Toybox really did have some unspeakable relationship with Gaia. How come his Toybox vanished just as Gaia appeared? So, it was just that Toyboxes were banned in Story Mode.
It seemed like this was the “Story Mode explanation” Fatty had mentioned. He had never expected it would be personally explained by Gaia though. Shan Ziwei focused on carefully reading Gaia’s words. Without their Toybox, players would become blank slates without skills, items or equipment. As for that latter “the system will not actively assign scenarios” clause, it seemed to eliminate the restriction of System Scenarios, but the word “actively” was like grains of sand hidden amongst sugar. How terrible.
“Won’t actively assign scenarios,” Shan Ziwei said contemplatively, “So instead it’ll passively assign them?”
Atop his monitor, Gaia suddenly moved. It reached out with one slender, delicate hand, and gently pointed a finger forward. Spots of blue light surged forth from all directions, following the direction in which the silver-haired teen had pointed to, forming ten Scenario Cards which fanned out in front of Shan Ziwei.
[You will obtain ten special Scenario Cards at the beginning of the chessboard.]
Shan Ziwei subconsciously took one and looked it over. In the past, Scenario Cards all had the RPG logo on the back, and on the front, there was a suit and number like on a poker card, but in the middle, it had an extra picture and description. However, there were no suits or numbers on the font of this card, instead, there was a colourful clown.
For a moment, Shan Ziwei thought he was holding a Joker in a set of poker cards and not a Scenario Card.
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.
[You can use the Wild Card to give yourself any Personal Scenario.]
“Ccs!?” Vtjc Ilkfl’r fsfr kfgf oliifv klat vlryfilfo. “Qtja jybea lo P ulnf wsrfio atf qbkfg ab vfragbs atf kbgiv?”
[Please be specific to whether it’s a skill, equipment or relationship. The Wild Card will automatically match with a similar Scenario Card, becoming your Personal Scenario.]
Vtjc Ilkfl atbeuta obg j wbwfca jcv gfkbgvfv tlr rfcafcmf. “Po P ujnf wsrfio jc jqbmjisqrf rxlii atja, lo agluufgfv, kbeiv mjerf atf fcalgf kbgiv ab yf jccltlijafv, kbeiv atja kbgx?”
There was no response from the monitor, but Gaia, sitting atop it, nodded, confirming Shan Ziwei’s assumption. Immediately, the hand Shan Ziwei was using to hold the Wild Cards began to tremble. These weren’t cards, these were nukes! With these Wild Cards, he’d want for nothing. So long as he had them, he could have anything!
Just as Shan Ziwei grabbed all the Wild Cards into his hands in delight, another sentence was leisurely typed out onto the monitor.
[In Story Mode, whenever you use a Wild Card to assign yourself a Personal Scenario, the game will assign you a System Scenario.]
Shan Ziwei… Now Shan Ziwei knew what that “wouldn’t actively assign” was all about; it was a buy one get one free scheme. He could practically see the System Scenarios anthropomorphize, laughing at him and mocking him. “You don’t want me to appear? Sure, then don’t use those Wild Cards~”
Why was this game always so cruel when it gave players benefits? The hypersexual thought with frustration.
Though he had solved the issue of “the system won’t actively assign scenarios”, there was a new mystery.
“If I never use the Wild Cards, then there won’t be any System Scenarios.” Shan Ziwei asked, “Then, how do I clear a Story Mode chessboard?”
In the past, he had only played Adventure Mode. The game would give him a System Scenario every now and then, and would definitely give a clear condition, a “checkmate” scenario. It seemed, however, that Story Mode didn’t have anything like that, so how was he meant to clear the stage?
In response to Shan Ziwei’s question, Gaia’s hand fell against the monitor, tapping against it lightly. Suddenly, an antique-looking hardback book appeared on the screen.
[You must complete a story.]
The hardback book flipped open on its own, freezing on a set of pages. Shan Ziwei took a close look and found that there were only two sentences on the pages: one was at the left top corner of the first page, like the introduction to a story; the other was at the bottom right corner of the second page, like an ending. The rest was all blank.
[Wang Xiaoming has graduated and is about to enter society to start work.
(Blank)
Wang Xiaoming has become a millionaire.]
It even came with lifelike paper cutout people. The paper person was exactly like Shan Ziwei and had “Wang Xiaoming” over its head, standing up on the book. The “Wang Xiaoming at the beginning wore a white shirt, looking innocent, uncertain and young. The “Wang Xiaoming” at the ending wore a clearly extremely expensive suit and sat amidst a pile of cash like he was the king of the world.
[You are the protagonist of this story book, please progress from the beginning to the ending.]
Shan Ziwei looked at the “Wang Xiaoming” at the beginning and end of the story. “So you mean to say, I’ll have to roleplay ‘Wang Xiaoming’, and my ending is to become a millionaire, so the moment I become a millionaire, I pass? Are there any limitations on how I do it? For example, can I go and rob a bank? If I steal a million from a bank, then do I become a millionaire instantly? Or do I have to be a good working citizen?”
[So long as you achieve the ending, no matter the means, it will count as stage clear.]
Shan Ziwei watched as countless more “Wang Xiaoming”s appeared. They were separated from each other, like they belonged to different parallel universes. Some were working hard, some were buying lottery tickets, others were doing some shady business, but they all converged along these different paths to the millionaire version of “Wang Xiaoming”. This was a perfect example of the saying: the end justifies the means.
——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.
Shan Ziwei recalled Fatty’s words, and thought that his description of Story Mode sure was appropriate. Story Mode truly was like writing a story. There was a beginning and an end and the middle would depend on the player. Whether it ended up as Eastern fantasy or suspense was all up to you.
Shan Ziwei was just thinking that there sure was a lot of freedom in this Story Mode for players to go wild, but then a new rule appeared on the monitor.
[Note, each story will have multiple player participants. Players may engage in “identity exposure”. When you find out a character is a player, you can choose to expose their identity as a player. If the character is indeed a player, then they will be removed from the chessboard and you will obtain a clue to aid you in achieving your ending; if the character is actually a pawn, then you will be eliminated from the chessboard.]
Holy crap, so they had to tattle on each other to the system!? Shan Ziwei’s hopes and dreams for story mode shattered. With this rule, which player would dare act out of turn? Not only did they have to carefully roleplay their character to avoid getting found out, they would lose the chance to cooperate with other players as well. What a move by the game dev team!
Gaia, sitting high above, bowed his head slightly, as if asking Shan Ziwei if he understood the rules or not. Both his face and the mask on his head remained completely emotionless, with a lofty, cold aura. He was the image of a god to mortals. Under his bewitching eyes, Shan Ziwei swallowed back all the comments he wanted to make and said, a little intimidated, “I understand…….”
In this instant, a certain hypersexual sincerely missed his own adorable little Gaia.
As he heard Shan Ziwei’s words, Gaia lowered his strangely coloured eyes, his gaze going around to imprint the white-haired young man’s image in his mind. He opened out a palm and firefly-like spots of blue light swarmed out of the monitor, drifting up to Gaia’s hand to form a hardback book exactly like the one shown on the monitor. The teen made a soft throwing motion and the book floated down into Shan Ziwei’s hands like a weightless feather.
[This is your story.]
Shan Ziwei flipped open the hardback book, well, rather than say that he’d flipped it open, it would be more accurate to say that the book had automatically flipped to a certain page then stopped.
[On this day, the witch that lived in the Fairytale Kingdom finally became the Queen.
(Blank)
Because of the Witch’s actions, the beautiful Princess found her true love and home.]
Shan Ziwei hugged the hardback book and thought, What the heck.
Thus, Shan Ziwei closed the hardback book and flipped it open again as if nothing had happened. He still saw the same words: “On this day, the witch that lived in the Fairytale Kingdom….”
Once he’d ascertained that no matter how he flipped he couldn’t flip to another page, a certain hypersexual silently died inside.
He must have gotten the wrong script! Was this asking him to roleplay the witch or the princess?! Fuck! No matter the witch or the princess, they were both female, okay?! Did the game producers have goddamn gender dysphoria or what?!
Shan Ziwei raised his head, face full of despair, but just as he was planning on asking Gaia about the matter, he found to his surprise that the teenager in front of him had disappeared along with the white expanse. Now, he was standing in a grand palace, in what seemed to be a woman’s bedroom.
Just then, sounds came from the door nearby. A palace maid pushed open the door while speaking.
“Your Highness, have you gotten ready yet? His Majesty the King is already——”
The palace maid’s voice suddenly faltered. She stood by the door, eyes wide as she stared at Shan Ziwei in the center of the room, as if she had seen a terrifying ghost.
“Ahhh——！！！”
After a moment of deathly silence, the palace maid screamed and hiked up her skirts as she ran out of the room.
“Guards! There’s a male assassin in her Highness the Queen’s chambers!”
Shan Ziwei, whose gender was male but had to roleplay a female, was shocked silly.
Holy crap, was he going to be exposed already?!
If it wasn’t for Rin I might not have finished this on time 
This is awesome, thanks for the translation!
I like the story he is given
Thanks for the chapter
thank you for the chapter! XDD what a pit
Thank you for the chapter!! I’m loving this story. I wonder if he will have to use a wild card already. Lol Keep up the great work!
LolI guess he’ll need to use his Wild Cards to make himself a witch + queen/woman then? And then get the corresponding System Scenarios?
How did I already forget about the wild cards by the end… 😂
Oooh but I’m really exited for this arc, thanks for the chapter! 💕
The System has found new ways to screw SZ all over again.. 😂😂 is this the forced [ You’re a bottom.] Scenario part?? 🤣
😂😂 Gaia is determined to screw with Shanzi’s world views till they’re completely shattered! I love it 💖