00:15
The dead of night, when all was silent and still.
Li Guanqi stepped out of her room and strolled leisurely down the corridor. The overhead lights, though not overly bright, cast a pale glow just enough to illuminate the path beneath her feet. Her slender silhouette stretched long and delicate, her skirt and hair swaying restlessly in the night breeze.
Soon, she paused before a door.
The stiffness in her movements—especially in her black silk-clad legs—betrayed her hesitation. She seemed torn between knocking and disturbing whoever might be asleep inside.
Just as she wavered, faint footsteps sounded from within.
At that, she tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear, steadied herself, and lifted her gaze, ready to face Gu Ruoxue.
A soft click followed as the door swung open.
Gu Ruoxue stood there, still dressed exactly as she had been during the day—no signs of rest, her attire immaculate, her hair perfectly in place without a single strand out of order.
"Dragging yourself here at this hour—what is it you couldn’t say earlier?"
Her voice was cool, detached, as if discussing some trivial bureaucratic matter. It carried no inflection, no emotion—just the same tone she might use when questioning a client in their club.
"Senior, you seem to have expected me?"
Li Guanqi’s eyes flickered up and down, her meaning clear from the way she took in Gu Ruoxue’s unchanged appearance.
"I don’t need to know whether you’d come. Only why you did."
Gu Ruoxue’s response was cryptic.
At that, Li Guanqi’s head snapped up, but Gu Ruoxue had already turned away, retreating into the room without giving her a chance to press further—let alone an answer.
"Now that you’re here, state your business." Her tone remained measured, revealing nothing.
Li Guanqi hesitated for a few seconds before stepping inside and closing the door behind her, shutting out the cold draft.
Inside, Gu Ruoxue’s desk was cluttered with an open laptop, stacks of documents, and miscellaneous items. She sat in her chair, fingertips resting against her chin as if deep in thought.
"I don’t know what brought you here," Gu Ruoxue said, gesturing for her to sit.
Li Guanqi smoothed her skirt and moved to comply—only for her gaze to freeze abruptly on the papers strewn across the desk. Her pupils contracted slightly.
Within her line of sight, the documents detailed various policy implementation plans, key statistical data, and post-execution reports.
Not just their societal impact, but also critical influencing factors, improvement suggestions—each one meticulously analyzed.
While most their age were still lost in the carefree haze of campus life, Gu Ruoxue had already been boldly conducting social experiments and research—trials that would be near-impossible to push forward in the real world—within this "artificial stage."
The difference between them was stark.
"Speak. What’s holding you back?"
Gu Ruoxue cradled a thermos, took a sip of water, and leveled her with an impassive stare, waiting.
Snapping out of her daze, Li Guanqi finally spoke after a pause.
"I want to invite you to help me awaken Su Cheng’s talent."
Gu Ruoxue ran a finger along the rim of her thermos lid. "I don’t see any strong opposition from the relevant parties. What are you afraid of?"
She shook her head. "No, that can’t be it. If you’re determined to go alone despite the lack of resistance, then the reason must be—"
Her sharp gaze pinned Li Guanqi in place, making her increasingly uneasy. Behind her back, her hands fidgeted unconsciously.
"You want to complete this ahead of everyone else, securing extra benefits for yourself."
Gu Ruoxue had her answer from those subtle tells. "You’re quite the schemer."
At this point, Li Guanqi felt the night’s efforts were doomed. Still, she made one last attempt.
"I just want things to return to how they should be—not this chaotic, frustrating mess."
"How they should be?" Gu Ruoxue let out a soft chuckle and set the thermos down. "Restoring past events to their original state can be called ‘returning to how things should be.’ But doing the same for something that hasn’t happened yet? That’s just willfulness."
Just as Li Guanqi braced for the conversation to collapse entirely, Gu Ruoxue did something unexpected—she pressed a hand to her chest and drew out a sword.
A sword?
A sword!?
No—more accurately, a blade.
Li Guanqi’s eyes widened in shock.
What was this about?
"This blade has a unique effect."
Gu Ruoxue gripped the sheath with her left hand and lightly tapped the flat of the blade with her right. A crisp metallic ring echoed through the quiet room.
"What effect?" Li Guanqi frowned, not quite following.
"Actually, it’s quite similar to your own trait."
"Trait?"
A vague understanding dawned on her.
"It can make the user invisible."
With that, she handed the sheath to Li Guanqi.
"Invisibility!?"
Li Guanqi accepted it with slender fingers, examining it closely. The blade seemed ordinary, resembling an ancient prototype of a war sword—yet not quite.
After a thorough look, she lifted her gaze to Gu Ruoxue.
"Just will it, and the effect activates."
Gu Ruoxue’s reminder came calmly.
Nodding, Li Guanqi focused—
Suddenly—
A faint glimmer flickered at the blade’s tip before it began fading from sight. Then the rest followed—the body, the hilt, her hand, and finally, her entire form vanished.
"Reversing it works the same way."
Another prompt from Gu Ruoxue.
After testing it once more—
"Wow." Li Guanqi couldn’t help murmuring in awe.
"Now your concerns should be resolved."
Gu Ruoxue’s tone remained steady.
"Thank you, Senior."
Li Guanqi bowed slightly, the sheath in hand, her eyes alight with excitement. With this, she wouldn’t have to worry about running into the Ji Family’s guards—her movements would be far smoother.
"No need."
Gu Ruoxue shook her head. "This isn’t purely for your sake. It serves my purposes as well."
Li Guanqi assumed she meant precautions against the Ji Family’s master and servants, but that wasn’t it.
To expedite results, Gu Ruoxue had employed drastic measures in her experiments—especially as their investigation into Su Cheng’s case neared its conclusion. Soon, incidents would erupt across various regions. Ending this farce swiftly and applying the findings to reality was the priority.
Li Guanqi hesitated briefly. "Then I should act now—find the right moment to awaken Su Cheng’s talent."
Gu Ruoxue gave a slight nod. "Mm."
With that, Li Guanqi vanished from sight and turned to leave.
Then—
Thud—
Crack—
Smack—
Before even stepping out the door, Li Guanqi stumbled around, bumping into things and nearly tripping over herself.
She dropped her invisibility, her face flushing with embarrassment as she glanced at Gu Ruoxue.
"Without your body as a reference point, this is bound to happen. You're still unfamiliar—it'll take more practice."
"Thanks for the reminder."
Li Guanqi vanished into the darkness again. This time, she moved smoothly, pushing the door open without hesitation and striding toward the archery range with steady, determined steps.
Unlike Gu Ruoxue.
The truth, the ending—
She still didn’t know.
And so, she would keep searching.
ut it can buy an entire year of absolutely perfect training results! Su Yu stared at his empty wallet and decisively opened up various online loan platforms. “Borrow a thousand bucks! Recharge my vitality!” Boom! His vitality broke a hundred points, shattering the limits of the human body! “Borrow ten thousand bucks! Recharge my combat skills!” Boom! A basic punching technique so common it was everywhere instantly maxed out, revealing the ultimate assassination technique of Five Elements Unity—Inner Force! When a rich kid hired assassins for a midnight ambush, aiming to break both of his legs, they instead ran headfirst into a monster—a human-shaped tyrannosaur, brimming with dragon-like vitality. With just two fingers, Su Yu snapped a steel staff reinforced with alloy. Staring at the killer’s stash of stolen cash—a staggering quarter-million dollars—he showed a corporate-sincere smile: “Thanks for the pre-exam gift pack, Mr. Zhao! I’m gonna go re-invest this!” Three days later, at the National Martial Arts College Entrance Exam, while everyone else struggled just to reach the passing line, Su Yu threw a single punch—and more than a thousand vitality points literally detonated the entire arena!
ing gift was a patch of barren land, and disciples were all picked up along the way. He spent fifty years diligently building three "ramshackle little sects," thinking he could finally live a carefree life relying on his disciples. But right at the fifty-year mark, he was suddenly swept away by a spatial rift and exiled to the Chaos Desolation, the Disorderly Ruins. There was no spiritual energy there, only slaughter. Relying on the cultivation feedback from his disciples, Gu Changyuan hacked his way through a sea of blood for eleven hundred years. When the system finally fished him back out, he discovered the ramshackle little sects he'd built back then had developed a rather... unusual style. Hold on... I vanished for a thousand years, so how did my ramshackle little sects become holy lands?!
] [Lone Wolf, No Male Gaze] [Protagonist is pursued early on; extreme protagonist-stans, stay away!] The "Carnival Paradise" descends and slowly devours the real world in the form of a game. By chance, Zhu Yan awakens the talent [Roleplay], becoming one of the first beta players. He thought he could develop safely, but after clearing the first instance, he is branded by humanity as the chief culprit behind the game's spread—a traitorous villain. A villain? Who would ever... become one! He'll be the villain! From then on, Zhu Yan is not only a player but also a lackey for the Carnival Paradise. Between the straight path and the crooked path, he chooses the con. With his left hand, he dons the villain's mantle, staging scenes within instances, infuriating players who decry him as a despicable traitor, all while the game happily promotes him. With his right hand, he joins the non-human organization "Fangcun Mountain," which opposes the Carnival Paradise, transforming into a mysterious player who slaughters game bosses, earning cheers of "Long live the expert!" from fellow players. Gradually, Zhu Yan rises to become an S-rank human player in Fangcun Mountain's archives, while also being the Carnival Paradise's certified top game Boss. But when the final war erupts and both major factions place their hopes in him— Players tag his various aliases: "Experts, this offensive depends on you." The Carnival Paradise's supreme Boss throws an arm around his neck: "Bro, you're the iron, I'm the steel; you can't let me down again!"
d intelligence to keep the plot moving, and sometimes even the protagonists are forced into absurdly dumb decisions. Why does the A-list celebrity heroine in urban romance novels ditch the top-tier movie star and become a lovestruck fool for a pockmarked male lead? Why do the leads in historical tragedy novels keep dancing between love and death, only for the blind healer to end up suffering the most? And Gu Wei never expected that after finally landing a villain role to stir up trouble, she’d pick the wrong gender! No choice now—she’ll just have to crush the protagonists as a girl!
