‘I was careless.’
‘This game is way too realistic.’
She should have been more alert when she drank that bowl of sweet oyster porridge in the morning.
A game capable of simulating taste could hardly be expected to neglect clothing details.
They say the first time is awkward and the second time is easier, but even in a different body, she could never get used to wearing a skirt.
‘…I can’t get used to it. I just can’t!’
Incite High School’s uniform consisted of a dark blue blazer paired with a knee-length pleated skirt.
She awkwardly tugged at the hem of her skirt. Her legs felt chilly, and her entire body felt uncomfortable.
Even if she started over a hundred times, she probably still wouldn’t be able to accept wearing a skirt.
She couldn’t help suspecting that Ms. Dong had put her into this game just to see her wearing a skirt and soothe the heart of a mother who had only a son and no daughter.
Su Nianyao looked at the golden sign of this elite high school. Sure enough, no Mary Sue story could begin without flaunting a little wealth.
Still, the allure of money was irresistible. She should hurry up, casually choose a character to romance, log out, and find a way to make Shen Guoqiang and Ms. Dong switch her to a management game!
With that thought in mind, she hurried onto the campus, eager to get the story moving.
But she hadn’t expected to overlook this character’s early-game setting of being constantly bullied. When a pure little flower protagonist entered an elite high school, how could the classic unlucky encounter possibly be missing?
The reason a classic was a classic was that it never failed to appear.
“Su Nianyao, stop!”
Three girls blocked the middle of the path. The leader had a high ponytail, a face full of freckles, and two uniform buttons deliberately undone. She was the textbook example of a school bully, radiating an unbearably cocky attitude.
Su Nianyao stopped. Her eyes brightened slightly as she looked at them, like a complete novice exploring a new world. She was now intensely curious about every female character who approached her.
[Xiao Ai, check the Affection Ratings.]
[Okay, Master:
Unimportant High Ponytail: Current Affection Rating -30
Unimportant Lackey A: Current Affection Rating 0
Unimportant Lackey B: Current Affection Rating -5]
The moment she heard the word “Unimportant,” half of Su Nianyao’s face fell. When she heard the Affection Ratings, the other half fell as well.
She stared expressionlessly at the brats, then lifted her foot and continued walking. Staying there any longer would be a waste of time.
“What kind of look is that?” High Ponytail snapped, irritated by her gaze and speaking in an aggressively hostile tone.
“It’s just the look I’m giving you.” Su Nianyao couldn’t be bothered to waste words and turned to slip away.
“Stop her!”
The next second, the classic bullying combo came into play: hair pulling, clothes yanking, and nail scratching. The three-piece routine unfolded right on schedule, executed with the familiarity of a well-rehearsed performance.
‘Classmates, could you at least bully people with some originality? Even when copying homework, people know to change the question numbers, but you lot never change anything.’
Su Nianyao tried to fight back, but her punches were about as intimidating as cotton balls, earning her an even fiercer beating.
[Xiao Ai, what’s wrong with this character’s stats? Aside from Intelligence being 10, why is everything else 0?]
[Master, a character’s initial stats are related to the condition of your real body.]
‘Has my real body really become this useless?’
‘How am I even a patient in a vegetative state? Even an actual plant is stronger than me, right?!’
Su Nianyao quickly covered her head with both arms. It really hurt. How long had it been since she last felt pain? During all those days lying in bed, only her hearing had occasionally worked.
Although the experience was somewhat novel, this fragile girl’s body couldn’t withstand a one-against-three fight. Fighting head-on was nothing but a waste of energy. It was better to keep her head down and endure it.
She clearly remembered that there were still romance missions waiting for her.
‘Save some energy.’
Just then, an arrogant yet casual voice sounded from behind her.
“Yo, look what I found! Ganging up on someone on the first day of school? Hmm… three against one. You must be pretty capable, huh?”
Su Nianyao froze.
‘A hero saving the beauty this quickly?’
‘But why does that voice sound like a girl’s?’
‘Is this an opening where girls help girls? Then it’s not so bad.’
She looked up, and the first thing that caught her eye was something with an absurdly bizarre art style.
A long bamboo back scratcher.
Smack, smack, smack.
Three precise strikes landed on the backs of the girls’ hands. The force wasn’t particularly strong, but it was enough to make all three release their grip immediately.
A girl stood against the backlight, her uniform jacket hanging open and her tie loosely dangling. Her presence was off the charts. One glance was enough to tell that she wasn’t someone to mess with.
With a turn of her wrist, she spun the back scratcher like a pen before casually hooking it onto Su Nianyao’s collar and pulling her right up beside her.
A faint, sweet scent of cream and strawberries drifted through the air.
“Idiot.” The girl glanced at the three bullies, a playful smile curling at the corners of her lips. “There are cameras here.”
Su Nianyao’s pupils contracted slightly.
‘This character model is way too good-looking!’
‘The textures, the details… She’s on a completely different level from those three girls just now. One look is enough to tell she’s an important character.’
[Character: Jiang Tang. One of Incite’s four major plutocrats and the legitimate young lady of the Jiang family.]
[Jiang Tang is indeed an important character! Let me reveal a little secret to Master: Jiang Tang is the one who bullies you the most during your later high school years.]
‘Oh, so she’s not on my side.’
Su Nianyao immediately withdrew her enthusiastic gaze.
‘An important character from the later high school storyline appearing on the first day must be foreshadowing something. And there’s probably an even bigger conspiracy behind it!’
‘Also… carrying a back scratcher around at the beginning of high school? What kind of bizarre behavior is that? Seriously, don’t tell me her character setting is that of a crazy chuunibyou girl!’
Jiang Tang put away the back scratcher. Her gaze lingered briefly on the red marks on Su Nianyao’s face, and she frowned slightly.
“Tch, come with me.”
She turned and walked away, showing no concern whatsoever about whether Su Nianyao followed.
“Su Nianyao, you’re finished! Jiang Tang isn’t someone you can afford to provoke!”
The three girls left their threats behind before slinking away.
Su Nianyao remained where she was, straightening the collar that had been pulled askew. Suddenly, she felt an intense gaze fixed on her.
She jerked her head up, but all she saw above her was a remarkably realistic blue sky dotted with white clouds.
‘Was that an illusion?’
[Won’t Master check Jiang Tang’s Affection Rating?]
‘What’s there to check? Even Unimportant High Ponytail had a negative rating. The rating of such an important bully must be negative all the way to the horizon. Instead, Xiao Ai, confirm something for me: this really is an ordinary romance game, right?’
[Yes! Love is everything, and everything is love. Please enjoy conquering the romance routes to your heart’s content, Master!]
‘Then there won’t be something like getting killed when a negative Affection Rating reaches its maximum, right? Wouldn’t that even violate censorship rules?’
[Xiao Ai suggests that Master explore the story personally rather than approach it with preconceived notions.]
‘…Are you changing the subject?’
[What is Master talking about? Xiao Ai doesn’t understand. Xiao Ai will work hard to level up and serve Master better.]
‘Something’s wrong.’
‘There’s definitely something wrong with this game.’
‘If a maxed-out negative Affection Rating really can get me killed, what happens if I die? Can I still log out of the game?’
‘I’m in a vegetative state, and this game doesn’t even have a logout button…’
‘Wait.’
‘Am I really playing a game?’
‘Could I have already died and transmigrated into a game NPC?’
‘Or has my consciousness already been uploaded to a database?’
‘Or am I not a player at all, but actually an AI undergoing a Turing test?’
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