"So you're not actually Liǔ Cháoquè?" Wáng Qígē realized, her reaction seemingly a bit too lukewarm, leaving smile momentarily unable to guess what she was thinking.
"Mm." smile said helplessly, "I don't know how your friend and I ended up swapping souls. My only guess is that we both fell from a high altitude—one of us strapped into a parachute, and the other in a completely unprotected free fall." smile made a joke. Wáng Qígē looked at her, thinking to herself: *She's certainly one of a kind, making suicide by jumping off a building sound so poetic and refined.*
"So since that place is so terrifying, why are you confessing all this to me now?" She was wearing formal work attire with an ID badge hanging from her chest, crossing her arms with a serious expression. "People like you, whose existence is basically possession, wouldn't you usually keep your tail tucked and deny it to the death? Why on earth, a few months after transmigrating, are you suddenly willing to talk?"
When Liǔ Cháoquè had first woken up from her coma, Wáng Qígē had felt uneasy. She kept quiet only to see what this ghost inhabiting her body was actually up to, never expecting this ghostly entity to be so composed, stepping through Liǔ Cháoquè's routine step by step, except for switching tracks to write modern corporate warfare instead.
*Looks like she has a background in finance, writing about a powerhouse female lead with no romantic subplot—must be a female soul...*
Wáng Qígē thought uncertainly.
"I wanted to break free from the influence of my original world and live a proper life in this one. Maybe that was a bit selfish, and I didn't want to bring up my own tragic past to play the sympathy card. I could have even ignored the anomaly of my transmigrating here and lived on as Liǔ Cháoquè. But yesterday, I couldn't keep deceiving myself into thinking she had been reincarnated instead of being forced to live in that living hell in my place." Her hand tightening on the sofa grew slightly tense, her nails painted a vivid red. Meeting Wáng Qígē's assessing and suspicious gaze head-on, she curved her lips into a faint smile. "Perhaps, this is the only difference between me and them."
"I want to save her, even if it means I have to go back to hell."
"Fine, I'll trust you this once." She crossed her legs and extended a hand. "Pleasure doing business with you."
"Pleasure doing business with you."
Both Liǔ Cháoquè and Wáng Qígē had known something was wrong with the game *Starry Sky Covenant* beforehand. What decent game forces purchases and refuses to let you uninstall it once downloaded? The two of them had simply assumed their phones had caught a virus, and trips to the company's offices yielded no answers. Later, when they switched phones, they thought the issue was resolved—only for the game to pull a fast one and spirit someone straight inside.
Because she didn't know whether opening *Starry Sky Covenant* would swap smile and Liǔ Cháoquè back, or if the people inside the game would notice smile's escape and drag her away too—even though she existed merely within Liǔ Cháoquè's shell—cutting off her only remaining connection to that world would mean Liǔ Cháoquè could truly never return.
Therefore, smile, carrying that phone, didn't dare act rashly. She only wanted to find Wáng Qígē, who was exceptionally close to Liǔ Cháoquè in her memories, in search of a solution.
And so smile, arriving with her suitcase, ended up moving into Wáng Qígē's home.
"Isn't your game an Otome Game? For someone from your world, it should be a relatively low-risk game, but I feel like your mental state is terrible. There's this tragic aura about you, like you want to die but can't?" Wáng Qígē handed over a glass of water. The two of them were now sitting in the living room, with two phones placed on the coffee table—one belonging to Liǔ Cháoquè, and the other to Wáng Qígē.
"An Otome Game? Heh, an Otome Game." smile raised her head, draining the glass of water in one gulp, a self-deprecating smile on her face. "For outsiders like you, it really is an Otome Game. Nameless women chasing unknown romance, putting on their best face for those high-quality men, begging for their affection. But on the other side, the one you know nothing about, we struggle, we hide, covered in scars. It's not like the old-school tearjerkers where they rip out your kidneys or your heart, and the men don't even actively harm us—they're relatively friendly, truth be told. But whenever we face them, we always have to follow the plot, climbing mountains of swords and plunging into seas of fire. I searched through Liǔ Cháoquè's memories and saw myself almost swallowed by the flames of a car explosion, ending up in the hospital just to save him. That pain was real; it didn't fade away just because of my detachment. And then two days later, my injuries would recover, and I'd be right back to struggling for the male lead like a normal person."
Listening to smile, Wáng Qígē couldn't help but sigh softly.
"Actually, I don't hate the version of myself who wanted to save people, nor do I hate the choices fate made for me. Because I'm the female lead, and saving someone makes me happy too. But damn it, isn't this an Otome Game? Why is danger everywhere I go with the male lead? I'm an ordinary person too! I can't save everyone, nor can I save those who were never meant to die. I felt my own weakness, my own helplessness. I couldn't stop the arrangements fate made for me, but I couldn't understand what on earth it was trying to do. Dragging so many innocent people down just to make me, the female lead, look grand, majestic, and fearless? Then why didn't I just die? If I had just died, this damned world probably would have gone back to normal, right? That's what I thought, and that's what I did. But I just couldn't die! The closest I ever came to death was when I transmigrated into this world—though it came at the cost of swapping with someone else." She rubbed her temples in exhaustion. "I'll just consider these past few peaceful, serene months as stolen time. It's time for me to go back."
"Is there any way to keep both of you from going back?" Wáng Qígē asked.
smile put down her glass and shook her head. "I used to think that was possible, but just as a protagonist is indispensable to a complete novel, in this Otome Game, even though my name was chosen by the player, I am still the soul of this game. Even if any other character in there didn't exist, I cannot *not* exist. A bug might have caused her and me to swap souls, but *someone* has to fill this role."
Dear reader, there is still more to this chapter! Please click the next page to continue reading. The upcoming parts are even more exciting!
"True, I suppose." Wáng Qígē also felt the situation had gotten a bit out of hand. Still, it was far too early for them to worry about that—even with a living game character sitting right in front of her, she had no way to contact the Liǔ Cháoquè trapped inside the game.
"So, smile"—*what kind of terrible name did Liǔ Cháoquè give herself?* Wáng Qígē thought to herself before saying—"let's first try to see if we can contact the Liǔ Cháoquè in the game."
"Shall we give it a try, then?"
The two of them looked at the phone belonging to Liǔ Cháoquè on the coffee table, suddenly feeling a little nervous.
"Should I open it, then?" Wáng Qígē asked, looking sideways. But she saw smile scuttling toward the door like a greased pig, sticking one hand out to gesture for her to go ahead.
*Otome game female lead? Ha.*
Wáng Qígē felt a flutter of panic herself, but she maintained a calm expression as she unlocked Liǔ Cháoquè's phone. And then...
"Fingerprint unlock? Or do you happen to know her gesture pattern?"
"So many file managers... where on earth is the game hiding?"
"It's been so long since I logged in—why does it need a login password? Do you know the login password?"
In the end, a trembling smile was forced to sit back down beside Wáng Qígē.
Waiting through a gigabyte of update traffic, they finally logged into the game, greeted right at the start by a thoroughly normal character interface.
Except for this guy...
"Senior Xie Zigui? How did he end up becoming one of the four male leads?"
"You know this guy?" Wáng Qígē looked with mild curiosity at the refined-looking male figure on screen.
"Mm, I know him. He's someone who usually drifts outside our game—what your world would call a background character. He's the student council president of our school. I've occasionally seen him at school ceremonies, but we never had any real interaction." smile recounted what she knew one by one. "Besides, when have I ever seen this guy look so... warm and dashing?"
At that exact moment, Wáng Qígē accidentally tapped the character's shoulder.
A tingling sensation washed over them as a gentle, endlessly accommodating male voice spoke: "How did you get hurt again? You're not being good~"
***
"Why did you get hurt again?" Xú Wàngchuān looked helplessly at Liǔ Cháoquè as she applied safflower oil to her bruised knee. She had been pushing herself fiercely these past few days, not only sparring proactively with the coach, but constantly picking up bruises all over.
He had no idea what had gotten into her. She was the one who had eagerly dragged him into martial arts class in the first place; now, she was acting completely opposite.
"Come here, let me tell you a secret!" Liǔ Cháoquè beckoned him closer. Thinking she had something important to say, Xú Wàngchuān leaned his ear in, only to hear her whisper: "Actually, I'm the Savior of this world, you know."
Xú Wàngchuān was left momentarily speechless. "Right, you're the Savior. Have you been watching too much television and lost your mind?"
"Hey, listen to me! Haven't there been a lot of cases lately?"
"Yeah."
"And haven't I been involved in a lot of those cases?"
"And what does that prove?" Xú Wàngchuān remained unconvinced.
"Why are you so slow? It proves I'm Conan—no, wait, I'm the protagonist!"
"Are you trying to say that wherever you go, people die?" Xú Wàngchuān said mercilessly, earning a hand clamped straight over his mouth from Liǔ Cháoquè.
"Shh, you can't go around saying things like that, Little Chuānchuān."
Meeting Xú Wàngchuān's accusatory gaze, Liǔ Cháoquè released his hand and very solemnly straightened her clothes. "Anyway, I'm not Conan, people don't die everywhere I go, and it's not like every time I step into a restaurant a giant truck crashes through the wall, or a shopping mall catches fire, or I get mugged just walking down a dark alley..."
And if she really were the Grim Reaper, how did she explain all those male characters? Liǔ Cháoquè kept that thought to herself, mostly because it started treading into the realm of worldbuilding lore.
*I'd rather not get struck by lightning.*
"Usually, a protagonist faces trials and tribulations during their school years. For people our age, either you walk into a romance novel—which I have no interest in—or a passionate shonen manga. I just happened to pick up martial arts, and you're the one who dragged me into it anyway. Maybe we'll even end up competing in tournaments later on, which fits the bill—except my lazy, slacker nature just doesn't have that kind of fiery passion."
"Fair enough." Xú Wàngchuān nodded. "Hey, stop letting your imagination run wild. Even if you really are the protagonist, why try to be some kind of Savior? Saviors never have an easy time of it. You're probably just stressed out lately and running into too many things. Why don't you move back into the dorms for a few days? There's no way the exact same kind of trouble happens twice."
Thinking back to that neighbor incident right at the start of the plot, Liǔ Cháoquè shook her head with fierce resistance.
Xú Wàngchuān recalled the faint scent of blood drifting from next door upon waking up one morning, and decided that living inside the police compound was far more secure after all.
With that, he dropped the subject.
"Anyway, I feel like I have to do something. Even if I'm not the Savior, I'm still one of the ordinary masses, and my basic sense of kindness won't let me turn a blind eye to certain things. Take that fire from before, for instance—if I had just been a bit stronger, a bit faster, a bit more resolute, maybe that older sister wouldn't be in the ICU right now," Liǔ Cháoquè said.
"You actually did well enough. You aren't a firefighter, nor have you undergone specialized training. The human instinct for self-preservation makes people terrified of entering a burning building. The fact that you went in to save someone and made it out safely is already incredible. You're brave, but you have to protect yourself too."
Xú Wàngchuān sighed. "Put yourself first, and then help others within the limits of your abilities. I don't want to see your black-and-white portrait at a memorial service, nor do I want to find your lifeless corpse. Savior or Reaper, stop beating yourself up and accumulating scars. You're still a fine college student; the weight of the world doesn't rest on your shoulders, and nobody is going to blame you for anything."
"I know." Liǔ Cháoquè tugged at the corner of her lips. "I know my limits."
"Alright, Great Savior. Since that's how it is, I'll have to work hard too and earn the spot of your golden partner—can't let you run off and steal all the glory." Xú Wàngchuān clenched his fist with a cheerful smile. "I'm the one who brought you into the martial arts circle, after all, so don't underestimate me."
"Alright, let's work hard together!" Liǔ Cháoquè squinted her eyes in a wide smile.
The two bumped fists, locking eyes as a flame burned within both their gazes. Perhaps in the future, they would become comrades who could entrust their backs to one another; perhaps they would stand as equals, weathering hardships side by side. But for now, it was time to keep working hard.
***
"What's going on? The plot has already updated to chapter ten?" Wáng Qígē looked at the game progress, which was still lingering on chapter four, feeling a brief wave of despair. She looked over at smile, tugging at the corner of her mouth, feeling a bit embarrassed herself. "Do you think you can clear the levels on your own?"
"Haha, this..." The smile on smile's lips was becoming difficult to maintain. Her hands trembled slightly with self-doubt and uncertainty. "Can I really?"
If she played this game, would it feel like a game character staging a coup d'état?
"Why wouldn't you? It's a game with you as the protagonist anyway. You can make your own choices instead of just choosing passively. Granted, the choices a player can make are extremely limited—you can only pick one out of four options—but for you, it's still a massive step up." Wáng Qígē patted her shoulder earnestly. "Have fun, and if you run into any trouble, remember to call me. I'm going to go make dinner."
smile's pupils reflected the screen before her, her gaze focused and resolute.
Fifteen minutes later.
"smile, dinner's ready!"
"Oh, right." She put down her phone. On the screen, the player name had been changed to Sī Màn.
Back in the game.
"What the heck? Who gave me this annoying name? I'd rather be called smile, at least that's a foreign name! Phonetic puns should cost points!" Liǔ Cháoquè found out she had been renamed during roll call.
Because the name sounded somewhat similar to smile, it didn't sound too strange when others called out to her.
She only found out when the teacher called on her to solve a problem during class, switching from calling her smile to "Student Sī."
She had thought it strange—foreign names were usually just a single word, didn't they usually have both a given name and a surname?
Pulling out her ID card, she discovered she actually had a full name now.
Though she would have rather kept being called smile.
After pushing past the awkwardness, Liǔ Cháoquè started tinkering. She hadn't gone to the civil affairs bureau to change her name; whoever secretly took her ID card to change it couldn't possibly have bypassed facial recognition.
Furthermore, when she pulled out her high school graduation certificate, the name on there had changed too, meaning it wasn't the handiwork of anyone inside the game.
Could it be that the game world and the real world were connected? Surely the game developers hadn't programmed a bathroom break feature into it, right? Had she just suffered a massive social death?
*Ahem, overthinking it.*
Since the real world could still affect this side, could she make a wish and get some kind of Golden Finger? Saving people every single day was draining her physical stamina beyond its limits.