Chapter 10

Edited by Izrate

Edit 2020/03/14: I’m really sorry, guys but I’ve made a mistake with the main character’s name I’m so sorry, everyone >.< the first character of his name “单” is usually pronounced Dan, but a kind reader recently informed me that as a surname it’s pronounced Shan. That’s why his nickname is Shanzi I’m so disappointed in myself, but I hope you guys will continue to enjoy the novel after this blunder of mine QAQ Thank you for all your support, everyone! (His nickname finally makes sense now aaaaahhhhh)

Shan Ziwei slept like a baby, and by the time he woke up, it was already noon of the next day. He first took a shower before he made himself a light lunch – he was used to living alone and taking care of himself from his past life.

The high definition holographic television was broadcasting the noon news. The beautiful female reporter was enthusiastically giving details for this news trilogy: the chairman was very busy, the people were very happy and the people in other countries… oh, wait, there was no such thing as other countries anymore. Under the leadership of the Alliance Chairman and Gaia’s management, the entire earth lived in harmony.

[… in three months, the election for Chairman that happens every five years will begin. Next month, the candidate nominations will begin. Currently, the Chairman candidate with the most support is still our current Chairman Sid. Will he be able to extend his term…]

Shan Ziwei turned off the telly and checked the clock. Yesterday, he had entered the game at seven in the evening and came out after playing for five hours. Right now, it was around eleven AM. To stop people from just exiting the game and immediately going back in to refresh their consecutive playtime, RPG wouldn’t allow a player to log back in until eight hours had passed.

“Looks like I can log in now.” Shan Ziwei grabbed the headphone-shaped gaming equipment. Just as he was about to connect to the Quantum Terminal, he suddenly remembered Xiaopang.

Xiaopang had yet to send over the information he had promised. He was probably still going through it. It was clear that RPG was a very complex game with a lot of information to sort through. Shan Ziwei plugged the data cable into his black ring. While he was waiting, he might as well play some games and get the hang of it. After all, he had to catch up with everyone else. Time was tight.

[Quantum Terminal now connected, loading data.]

[Welcome to RPG.]

As soon as he logged in, Shan Ziwei got a face full of his Toybox.

“…”

Shan Ziwei plucked Little Gaia from his head. The silver-haired doll gazed at him with its head cocked to one side, the mask on its face wearing an expression that said “I’m unhappy, give me a hug.”

A certain hypersexual coughed. Yesterday, he had logged out before he had managed to finish going over things, so he decided to figure out the Toybox system before entering the Chessboard.

“Are my items with you?”

Little Gaia nodded, bowing its little head forwards, like it was expecting to be petted. Shan Ziwei followed the other’s direction and placed his hand on Gaia’s head. A translucent screen appeared with all the items he had obtained up until now: the chess box, bishop chess piece, golden arrows and a Scenario Card he hadn’t seen before. It was probably the stage clear reward that had been mentioned in the completion report.

“Get me that Scenario Card please.”

Little Gaia puffed up its cheeks and spat out a playing card. It was the stage clear reward the system had given him.

[Three of Diamonds – Magic Mirror

Category: Accessory Equipment

Effect: Reflects reality, infinitely reusable.

Description: Mirror~ Mirror~ On the wall~ Who’s the fairest of them all?]

Shan Ziwei stared at “infinitely reusable”. This Scenario Card was practically the soulmate to Mirror Image. Every time he used Mirror Image he had to use up a mirror. With the infinitely reusable Magic Mirror, Shan Ziwei didn’t have to worry about having mirrors to use anymore.

Yet, even with infinite fuel, it was pointless without an engine. His Personal Scenarios had been cleared after leaving the chessboard. No matter if it were skills, equipment or relationships, they were all gone. If he wanted to use the Mirror Image skill in the next chessboard, then he would have to use a “Three of Clubs – Mirror Image” Scenario Card to give him a Mirror Imagine skill Personal Scenario.

What if he didn’t have a “Three of Clubs – Mirror Image” Scenario Card? That was where the Toybox came in. If you gave it chess pieces, it could create previously used Scenario Cards.

“What does it cost to create a ‘Three of Clubs – Mirror Image’?”

[Pawn Chess Piece x1]

Shan Ziwei opened his chess box to take out a pawn chess piece. Little Gaia opened its mouth wide and ate it in one big gulp before opening its mouth wide again and spitting out a “Three of Clubs – Mirror Image” Scenario Card.

The speed at which Toyboxes created Scenario Cards far exceeded what Shan Ziwei had expected. He thought for a moment before deciding to create the Scenario Cards he needed depending on what the chessboard was like after he entered it.

“That’s about it.”

Shan Ziwei placed Little Gaia on the ground. He hadn’t even managed to stand back up when he saw his Toybox running over with its little short legs, long sleeves dragging, and lunging forward to hug his lower leg, once again becoming a quiet and beautiful leg accessory.

Seeing Little Gaia like this, Shan Ziwei’s heart melted. He picked Little Gaia up and placed it on his shoulder. It was an inorganic doll anyways. So long as it didn’t move around too much, it wouldn’t trigger his hypersexuality.

Little Gaia emotionlessly clung to Shan Ziwei’s shoulder, its long sleeves hanging while the mask on its head smiled an exceptionally happy smile.

Shan Ziwei walked towards the window at the one o’clock direction. The other floor to ceiling windows were all locked. Only that window was open wide, revealing a screen of light.

[The current chessboard is in Adventure Mode. Enter?]

When Shan Ziwei touched the screen of light, the system notification popped out. Shan Ziwei took a deep breath to try and calm his nerves.

“Yes!”

A gentle light filled his vision, and when the soft light faded, what appeared in front of Shan Ziwei was a dull grey room.

This is… a prison?

The barred windows and exit, the cramped bed spaces and toilet, they were all clear indications of Shan Ziwei’s current situation. What made him most anxious, however, wasn’t the room symbolic of crime and punishment, but the people in the room.

An official chessboard was different from the tutorial stage. This was no longer a single player game. Including Shan Ziwei, there was a total of four people in the cell, and the identical t-shirts and shorts identified them all as players.

[Scenario 1: You are a conman.]

Shan Ziwei looked over his first System Scenario, and the other players were all silent as well, clearly considering their respective first scenarios.

That was when a red-haired young man spoke up.

“Hey, let’s all introduce ourselves, just to get to know each other. We’ll be working together to clear this chessboard, after all.” Seeing that he had everyone’s attention, the redhead became even more enthusiastic. “I’ll go first. I’m Unparalleled Dragon King. I’ve cleared five chessboards so far. Just now, the system gave me a ‘robber’ scenario.“

Once Unparalleled Dragon King finished introducing himself, he blinked at the girl to his left. “Your turn.”

“Ah! Yes!” The girl stuttered, panicky. She had a pair of very eye-catching breasts. “I’m called Rice Lover. I’ve only cleared the tutorial chessboard so far. Just now the system said I… said I…” Here, she flushed, “I’m a, a rapist.”

Everyone descended into silence for a minute. What the hell was this scenario?!

After Rice Lover introduced herself, she looked to Shan Ziwei on her left. Shan Ziwei stifled the urge to run away from human contact and social interaction, and introduced himself in accordance with the format everyone had been using.

“My in-game name is GShanzi, and I’ve only just cleared the tutorial stage as well. Just now… the system…”

The more Shan Ziwei said, the more hesitant he got, because he realized that when he was introducing himself, his Diamonds SP (Fear) and Clubs SP (Sorrow) were falling.

D-did something go wrong? He was a little nervous but not to the point where his emotions were out of balance!

––Could it be that he had violated the System Scenarios?

Shan Ziwei stopped talking and the moment he did, his Diamonds SP and Clubs SP stopped decreasing.

“What’s wrong?” Unparalleled Dragon King asked.

Shan Ziwei glanced at him slowly saying, “Just now the scenario… the system gave me… was ‘murderer’.”

“You’re just a murderer. She just got rapist. Why do you seem even more embarrassed?”

“…”

No one could understand Shan Ziwei’s current pain. He glared at the unmoving Diamond SP and Clubs SP. This didn’t feel good at all.

–– So, being a conman meant that he was no longer allowed to tell the truth?!

Unparalleled Dragon King and Rice Lover didn’t take Shan Ziwei’s strange behaviour to mind, both looking towards the last person and waiting for him to introduce himself.

“Hey, it’s your turn.”

To be honest, Unparalleled Dragon King’s tone wasn’t all that amiable, but Shan Ziwei could understand his state of mind. This was a natural feeling of rivalry that appeared when one male saw another outstanding male, especially with a female present. In RPG, everyone was basically beautified due to the virtual character appearances, thus you usually wouldn’t see anyone ugly in the game. Yet, the word ‘handsome’ wasn’t nearly enough to describe the person Unparalleled Dragon King was unhappy with.

How do you put this? He was a black-haired young man that made people’s hearts burn – men with jealous anger and women with desire. His layered dark hair was a bit long, partially covering his eyes and making him seem somewhat melancholy. When he heard Unparalleled Dragon King speak, he merely raised his head and glanced up at the redhead before turning away and starting to search the room, ignoring Unparalleled Dragon King completely.

Basically, that was a refusal to cooperate.

“You…”

Unparalleled Dragon King was pissed but thinking back to that cold gaze he had been given, he swallowed the rest of his sentence.

“Whatever, ignore him then. He doesn’t understand the meaning of teamwork. This game isn’t meant to be played alone.” Unparalleled Dragon King harrumphed before saying to Shan Ziwei and Rice Lover, “It seems I’ve cleared the most chessboards, so I have the most experience. You guys should follow me for now.”

“A-alright.” Rice Lover raised her hand and asked, “What do we do now?”

“Chessboards will usually give us scenarios to guide us. If there are no scenarios, then that means we haven’t found the clue that will trigger the next part of the storyline. These clues are usually hidden in our environment.” Unparalleled Dragon King glanced at the black-haired young man who was still looking around the room and reluctantly said, “Let’s check around us first and see if we can find anything.”

So, the three of them split up to search for clues in the prison cell. The cell wasn’t very big, split into two basic areas: the bathroom and the beds. The bed area was comprised of two bunk beds. The black-haired young man was looking about the bathroom while Unparalleled Dragon King and Rice Lover both went for the bunk on the right. Shan Ziwei subconsciously avoided them, so he approached the bunk on the left. Standing in front of the ladder, he noticed that each bed had a name tag with each person’s name on it. From right to left, bottom to top, they were Rice Lover, Unparalleled Dragon King, GShanzi and host.

Host? Shan Ziwei stared at the name tag on the top bunk. That black-haired young man was called host?

He didn’t know whether or not this guy was a narcissist or arrogant or whatever, calling himself “host” . But, it was just a game name, and naturally people could choose whatever made them happy. Dragon Lord of the World, Long Aotian. , etc. etc. Names like that were everywhere.

Shan Ziwei looked through his bed sheets while listening to what was happening on the other side. Unparalleled Dragon King was trying to flirt with Rice Lover, “Hey, beautiful, let’s add each other as friends. Then we can game together~”

“Ah… I don’t know how to add people.”

“It’s easy. Just let your Toybox out to shake hands with my Toybox.”

When the word “Toybox” was brought up, Shan Ziwei suddenly realized something – it seemed like no one had noticed his Toybox, and he couldn’t see anyone else’s either.

Shan Ziwei turned his head to look at the Little Gaia on his shoulder. The silver-haired black-robed doll seemed to be sleeping soundly, and Shan Ziwei couldn’t muster the heart to disturb him.

So Toyboxes would only be able to be seen by and interact with others if the player allowed it? It seemed they also had the ability to add friends…

Shan Ziwei felt something hard and paper-like under his fingers. He drew it out. As he expected, it was a Scenario Card.

[Two of Clubs – Prisoner’s Uniform

Category: Full-body equipment

Effect: Evil + 2, Good – 2

Description: The person who designed this must be a zebracon.]

The description, as usual, was completely out there. Apart from this Scenario Card, Shan Ziwei didn’t find anything else. He got off the bed and realized that the other three were all standing together already. Unparalleled Dragon King stood to one side, annoyed, while Rice Lover was looking at a piece of paper in host’s hand with a slight blush.

Seeing Shan Ziwei approach, host flipped his hand around and offered him the paper.

Shan Ziwei carefully accepted it. The piece of paper was covered in oil stains and bits of rice, like someone and shoved it into their food.

[Wait for my signal, we’ll break out of prison together.]

“This is…”

Before Shan Ziwei finished, the lights suddenly went off and a wailing siren was heard throughout the prison.

[Scenario 2: You have broken out of prison. (Checkmate)]

In a new chessboard now hahaha

Next up, Scenario Eleven: Prisoner and Prison (2)