One evening, as I usually did, I fired up a match of Three Kingdoms Kill Landlord.
Seeing that my two remaining opponents were merely a Senior Military Officer and a Conferred Military Officer, I aggressively went for the three-times multiplier and pulled out my beloved Sima Yi deck, playing a Cao Mao persona.
"You speak the truth, but since I inherit the elegance of Emperor Wen, I shall likewise emulate his statecraft and stratagems."
Easily taking down one of them in the opening round, the remaining peasant didn't struggle for long before being finished off by a poisoned slash.
"An easy victory, well deserved. I'll take those 600 points with a tear of joy."
After comfortably reaping the beans from my rookie opponent, I exited the game with a sense of satisfaction and went to bed.
Oh right, I almost forgot to introduce myself.
My name is Youying, and I was originally just an ordinary college student from the Blue Star.
Yes, originally.
Because after finishing that match and waking up from a deep sleep, I found myself apparently transmigrated into Teyvat?
There was no helping it; the Grand Narukami Shrine and the Sacred Sakura were far too iconic, recognizable at a single glance.
The spot where I had landed was right in front of the Sacred Sakura. Looking down at the shattered wooden steps beneath me, Youying felt a momentary daze.
Judging by the looks of it, could it be that I had free-fallen all the way from the sky?
Fortunately, however, Youying didn't feel any pain at the moment.
Yet the voice that followed immediately after made Youying feel a sense of impending doom.
"Oh my, I never expected anyone would actually dare to trespass upon the Grand Narukami Shrine in Inazuma. I must take a look at what kind of character this is."
A flash of pale purple light rippled around the Sacred Sakura, forming a barrier that enveloped the entire shrine.
A familiar pink-haired figure appeared before Youying.
It was none other than Lady Guuji, possessing both wisdom and beauty.
*"This is bad, how did I run into someone so troublesome right after transmigrating?"* Youying thought to himself, a sense of foreboding washing over him.
If there were a screen separating them, Youying certainly would have shamelessly sidled up to her and screamed for his waifu.
Yet now that he had been directly transported here in the flesh, he lacked that thick skin and boldness. After all, Youying had just carefully checked himself, and he couldn't sense any trace of the so-called binding system after transmigrating—he didn't even have a Vision.
And what he was about to face was one of Inazuma's top combat powerhouses, the familiar of the Inazuman deity, Yae Miko!
This pink-haired crafty fox could probably turn him to dust with a mere wave of her hand.
Me, fighting Miko? Is this for real?
Setting aside his origins, just the fact that he had smashed a crater right in front of the Sacred Sakura meant Yae Miko was bound to settle accounts with him.
"Oh, this attire... You're not someone from Teyvat?"
Seeing that Youying's clothing differed from the garments worn in Teyvat, Yae Miko felt a momentary surge of interest, and then she gently reached out to grab Youying's arm.
"Yet how utterly ordinary... Not a single fluctuation of Elemental Energy." The simple probing results told Miko that the body of the Youying before her was practically no different from that of an ordinary human.
Such a result left Miko somewhat lacking in interest. In a flash, a trace of electricity flickered at her fingertips, directly stinging Youying into drawing a sharp breath as he pulled his arm back.
"Replying to Lady Guuji, my name is Youying, a native of Liyue, and certainly not some outsider from another world." Youying decided to find a way to disguise his identity first. "As for this attire, I specifically ordered it from Chioriya Boutique in Fontaine out of personal preference. You know how it is, Miss Chiori is always an immensely talented and imaginative fashion designer. However, as for why I landed in this place... I truly have no idea."
"Oh, you know me, and you even know that little girl Chiori?" Miko's face still wore that crafty smile.
"Miss Chiori is quite a famous fashion designer, so of course I know of her. As for the name of Lady Yae Miko, who combines both wisdom and beauty, it is even more so known to everyone across all of Teyvat."
"Such a sweet-talking little fellow." Hearing Youying's flattery, Miko let out a soft laugh.
"The fabricated story is barely passing, but Teyvat simply cannot produce fabric of this material." Miko's fingers gently twitched the corner of Youying's clothes.
"Tell me, how did you descend upon Teyvat?"
"Uh... To be honest, I really don't know why I came here. I was originally sleeping at home, and when I woke up, I was right here."
Cold sweat was already beading on Youying's forehead. Knowing full well that he could no longer deceive the pink-haired fox before him, he had no choice but to speak the absolute truth in hopes of saving his skin.
"Is that really all?" Miko looked at Youying with a suspicious gaze. "It seems it's necessary to let you meet that person and have them take a slash at you before you'll speak the truth."
"I beg Lady Miko to spare my life."
"Oh my, oh my, the little fellow was just joking with you." Seeing Youying looking incomparably 'obedient', Miko dropped her stern expression. "It seems you genuinely don't know how you came to Teyvat."
"Your body looks no different from an ordinary person's. If there were anything about you that even I couldn't see through, I suppose you wouldn't be standing before me looking like this."
With that said, Miko waved the Gohei in her hand, using her yokai power to help Youying up.
"However, shouldn't you properly explain why you happen to know who I am?"
"Uh, Lady Guuji can think of it this way: to us, you are much like characters from another world found within light novels."
Youying thought for a moment and decided to explain it this way; after all, if he were to directly tell Miko that they were characters in a video game's plot, he would probably have to explain the history of Blue Star's technological development first.
"I see... Although cross-world light novels in the Yae Publishing House have been increasing lately, I never imagined someone would actually transmigrate into another world," Miko said softly. "Are you that dissatisfied with your own world?"
"Um... It's all right, I suppose," Youying replied. "Still, being able to transmigrate to another world and experience life there has got to be much more exciting and thrilling than living a peaceful life forever, right?"
"Well, now that your origins have been figured out..." Miko flashed a cunning smile. "Let's discuss the matter of compensation for the damage you caused by smashing the steps of the Grand Narukami Shrine."
As expected, this fox's favorite pastime was finding amusement.
"Have mercy on me, Lady Guuji. I've just transmigrate here and I can't even scrape together a single Mora."
"It's very simple. Just sell your services to pay off the debt."
From goodness knows where, Miko pulled out a set of Shrine Maiden vestments. "I actually happen to have a fast way to earn Mora. The compensation and treatment for a Shrine Maiden at the Grand Narukami Shrine are quite generous, you know."
"Uh... I am willing to submit manuscripts to the Yae Publishing House as a writer."
Youying had indeed considered clinging to Miko's thighs and refusing to let go, but definitely not through becoming a Shrine Maiden.
What a joke, he had no intention of pulling a Sima Yi and wearing women's clothing—though his expression of flattery and pleading to that crafty fox earlier bore an uncanny resemblance to Sima Yi during his period of forbearance.
"Endure in action, accumulate strength and wait to erupt!"
Although leaping straight from behind a screen into reality made his previous bravado a bit like Lord Ye's love of dragons, it was still understandable.
Nonsense, for someone accustomed to the stable life of an urban city, having someone capable of turning you to dust with a flick of the wrist suddenly stand right before you—and potentially turn you to dust—wouldn't *you* be terrified?
Yet since he was temporarily safe, shouldn't he start thinking of a way to get close to his waifus—no, I mean, properly hug Lady Guuji's slender, fair thighs.
"You want to submit manuscripts to the Yae Publishing House... Are you certain the novels you write can actually sell?" Miko looked at Youying. "Oh right... You're from another world."
"You wouldn't happen to want to be a plagiarist, would you?" Miko looked at him with a hint of disdain.
"Uh... Can a scholar's borrowing be called stealing?" Youying felt somewhat embarrassed at having his thoughts so abruptly exposed. "If I'm not the original author in Teyvat, then who is?"
What a joke, if he published something like *Battle Through Teyvat* or *Sword Art Teyvat* in Teyvat, he would get rich overnight.
"Besides, I actually used to write, okay?" Youying decided to put up a minor defense against Miko's disdain for his purely plagiaristic intentions. At worst, he could just make a few modifications when the time came.
"Oh? For example?"
"For example, novels about people from our world transmigrating to Teyvat."
"..."