Sword Mastery was a newly released massively popular wuxia MMORPG. Before its official launch, its promotional budget had already exceeded a hundred million, and the number of pre-registrations reached the tens of millions. After the servers officially went live, due to some BOSS stages being designed with unreasonably high difficulty, players mockingly called it a “prison”.
During the raiding process, wherever one went to do quests, the screen was filled with a sea of people.
Song Fu was controlling her character to gather ore for a quest when she saw the sky in the game world suddenly darken, followed by fireworks blooming… Before she could even appreciate it on her end, the sky brightened again and rain started falling.
A bug?
Song Fu wanted to ask if she was the only one experiencing this or if everyone was, so she prepared to type in the world channel. But before she could finish, the world channel messages were already scrolling rapidly.
【World】All Beauty Brings Disaster: I just hit level 20, and someone’s already dropped the Celestial Phenomenon Instrument?
【World】It’s Tiantian: What’s the Celestial Phenomenon Instrument for?
【World】Alone in the Rain: For flexing.
【World】Bridge Sinks Naturally: It’s for changing the weather, just a cosmetic trinket. No stats added whatsoever, a toy for whales.
【World】Ox Horse: I’ve never even heard of this thing, and someone’s already got it?
【World】Dodo Flash: It’s not something you can just buy. You need to grind for a rare encounter first to get the quest key. I’ve seen someone selling it, already bidding up to 200k. And it doesn’t drop on the first try either; the safe bet is over a hundred attempts.
…
That “over a hundred”—did that mean over a million?
Song Fu was greatly shocked.
She didn’t play games much, so she had no idea that a mere game would dare to charge so much, and even more exaggerated was that people actually bought into it.
【World】Out of Control: They dare sell something with no stats for that price?
【World】Dream Lover: These are young masters and princesses. Spending hundreds of thousands is as easy for them as spending pocket change for us. Don’t worry about their cost-effectiveness.
As if to make things even more chaotic, the sky in the game darkened once more, and the system announcement followed—
“Player ‘Yan’ has used the Celestial Phenomenon Instrument.”
Ah, that was the male lead’s game name.
This time, Song Fu paid attention.
The male lead’s real name was Lu Yan Zhi, and “Yan” was taken from the “Yan” in the middle— a top-tier single-character name that the System said was quite valuable. Song Fu hadn’t understood at first, but later when she entered the game and tried several names only to find them all taken, she got it a bit.
Yeah, that “Yan” character topped several leaderboards, looking all smug and cool.
The female supporting character Song Fu had to play latched onto him because of his money. The System thoughtfully prepared several personality tags for her: vanity, vulgarity, and brainless stupidity. The female supporting character had to be fake enough to properly contrast the female lead’s genuine kindness and beauty.
This plotline boiled down to fluffy sweet romance once again.
The female lead was a freshman. During high school, she had devoted all her time to studying as a model student with almost no entertainment. After entering university, to have more topics to chat about with her roommates, she started playing Sword Mastery.
The female lead unintentionally triggered an extremely rare encounter quest first, then got approached by the top-ranked male lead. The male lead wanted to buy the quest slot from her with money, but she was startled by his offer and rejected it without thinking, suggesting he just take her along to play instead.
So the male lead started mentoring her, they formed a master-disciple bond, and their hearts gradually drew closer during their time together. That was when the conflict arrived.
The male lead’s Romance partner in the game—the female supporting character—was greatly displeased and confronted him with tears, tantrums, and threats…
Song Fu had been puzzled by this part back then. Logically, shouldn’t the female supporting character target the female lead? How dare she throw a fit at the male lead?
The System replied, which was why the female supporting character was so stupid. She mistook the money the male lead gave her out of pity or impatience—which she used to buy outfits—as him treating her specially, when it meant nothing.
Anyway, while the female supporting character was making a scene with the male lead, the female lead overheard by accident. Shocked that it turned out this way, she felt deeply guilty and nearly quit the game. The male lead noticed the absence of the chattering little sparrow by his side and felt inexplicably uncomfortable.
It was at that moment that photos from the male lead’s middle school days—when he’d gained weight from medication—leaked out. The Game Forum erupted in mockery. The female supporting character hypocritically comforted him on the surface that inner beauty mattered most, but behind his back called him a pighead.
The female supporting character’s words were relayed to the male lead by her fake friends. The female lead also noticed the drama in the game and immediately logged on to comfort him. It was then that the male lead was moved by this clumsy yet sincere affection, admitted his feelings for the female lead, and explained and cut ties with the female supporting character.
In fact, the female supporting character was only nominally his Romance partner. They’d paired up initially for an encounter quest and shared no real feelings. Though the male lead had indeed given her plenty of items—all of which she’d demanded—he wasn’t the type to forgive being called a pighead, so he demanded she return them or dismantle the ones he’d gifted.
The female supporting character broke down hard. Those items were expensive, and her resentment toward the main couple grew. On an anonymous forum, she ranted that a pighead like the male lead only had his stinking money to show… But at the offline event, when the male lead showed up to meet the female lead in person, everyone discovered he was actually a super handsome guy, good-looking enough to be called pretty.
The main couple’s romance continued smoothly thereafter. Later, the male lead accidentally discovered that the female lead was the little girl from middle school who’d promised to play games with him but stood him up. Turns out their fate had begun long ago.
The System described this bond in six words: heaven-sent childhood sweethearts.
Invincible.
Song Fu didn’t quite get it, but she was greatly shocked.
The main couple’s romance went off without a hitch after that, in stark contrast to the female supporting character.
She believed she’d missed out on a tall, rich, handsome guy and wallowed in regret and annoyance.
Later, in her haste for quick gains, she got scammed out of her remaining savings by some so-called rich person. Two or three years after graduation, she barely scraped by, nearly penniless.
Song Fu had been in the Small World for some time now, and what puzzled her most was, “Why seal away my emotions from the first quest?” When Song Fu recalled it now, it felt like watching someone else’s story—weird—and unless she deliberately thought about it, she absolutely couldn’t remember. “Keeping it wouldn’t affect anything, right?”
[Those would only dampen the host’s enthusiasm for quests and make it easy to lose sight of the original goal.] The System told her not to overthink it. [The host just needs to focus on the quests. The most important thing is ‘immersion’.]
To that end, the function that popped up an info panel after staring at someone for three seconds had been disabled beforehand—to enhance the so-called realism.
Song Fu greatly regretted the loss of one of her major pleasures.
With a “click”, the door opened, and three girls entered one after another.
The short-haired girl who spotted Song Fu first sighed. “Calculus signed you in again. The teacher went through the roster one by one; we couldn’t help even if we wanted to. Remember what the teacher said—three or more unexcused absences, and your participation grade is zero?”
Song Fu muttered, “That early morning class, I can’t get up.”
“Go to bed earlier and you’d get up. Stop playing that game half the night.” Another roommate offered sincere advice and casually placed a mirror in front of Song Fu. “Take a look at those dark circles.”
Song Fu rubbed her eyes, and the person in the mirror mimicked the motion.
The faces from the two quests resembled her original looks quite closely, with only subtle adjustments in minor details. This female supporting character’s appearance wasn’t top-tier beautiful; with makeup, she could reach an eight out of ten. Her skin had an unhealthy pallor that didn’t reflect light. When Song Fu first transmigrated, she’d studied the face for half a day, wondering exactly how it was adjusted—seemingly unchanged everywhere, yet different in every way.
Song Fu casually grabbed the lipstick and touched up her lips.
Her roommate looked helpless. “When did you buy this lipstick? Planning to eat instant noodles for days again?”
Song Fu hadn’t calculated.
Song Fu wanted to cry.
She’d already eaten them for three days and loathed instant noodles to the extreme.
This lipstick was something the female supporting character had bought before Song Fu arrived. One glance at the balance showed she owed 300 on that loan app. Damn it—with only a thousand in living expenses per month, halfway through and she was already in overdraft.
“I saw the cafeteria milk tea shop hiring part-time. You going?”
Song Fu’s eyes lit up; she was familiar with this. “How mu—”
[Beep.] The System emitted a short warning tone.
Song Fu immediately changed tack. “No matter how much, I’m not going. Too tiring, and it’d mess up my gaming. Plus, classmates seeing me? So embarrassing.”
Her roommate was speechless.
Song Fu wanted to cry too.
A proper gold-digging female supporting character prized face above all; the first thought popping into her head now should be to latch onto a big shot in the game ASAP.
But that damn encounter quest just wouldn’t trigger. What to do!
Song Fu was going crazy as she manipulated her game character to continue the dull gathering quest. Then, with a “boom”, a treasure chest opened.
【Congratulations to player “Fu Guang Luo” for taking the lead and triggering the “Thousand Faces Mirror” legendary encounter.】 The game system’s global announcement followed right after.
Almost the next second, the friend list icon on her game interface lit up with a red dot.
The “Thousand Faces Mirror” encounter quest had been previewed by the officials before launch, with lavish rewards—not just outfits, but rare manuals too. They boosted stats and came with flashy skill effects.
Song Fu clicked on the little friend icon, and friend requests poured in, all asking if she planned to sell the quest rewards and for how much.
Song Fu ignored them and opened the leaderboard, found the number one “Yan”, and sent a friend request.
‘ovo I triggered Thousand Faces Mirror, wanna do the quest together~’
Not even three seconds later, the friend request was approved.
Fu Guang Luo: Hi there.
The female supporting character’s goal was clear: play the long game to hook a big fish.
Fu Guang Luo: The quest is kinda tricky; I can’t finish it alone. Saw you’re number one on the leaderboard, so I added you. Wanna team up?
Yan: Sure.
Yan: I just want the manual. How much?
The game officials wouldn’t pass up money. Completing “Thousand Faces Mirror” gave basic women’s outfits; upgrading quality required farming drops, which cost plenty.
With the female supporting character’s vanity trait, she didn’t ask for money: Can you help me farm the outfit?
Yan: ok.
Fu Guang Luo: Thanks, big bro.
Yan: When do we start farming?
Song Fu glanced at her packed afternoon class schedule, then at the quest list on the left. Without ceremony, she arranged: Big bro, if you’re in a rush, go ahead and gather 300 angelica, 100 astragalus, and 50 forsythia for me first. Got classes this afternoon TT
The other side replied very businesslike with a “good” and went silent.