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Chapter 1 — Jī!

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Her body felt as if it had been ripped apart, and acute  pain spread from her waist to her brain.

Ye Nuan struggled to open her eyes, wanting to find out what had happened. Blood flowed down from the top of her head, staining her vision scarlet.

She could no longer feel her lower limbs. Her hearing had just been lost in an explosion. All she could do was open her eyes.

But, even if she still had her sight, her consciousness was rapidly dispersing, blurring at a terrible speed.

Just before she completely fell into darkness, she managed to tell herself —— This is no accident!

*

“Brave adventurer, please accept my blessings.”

Ye Nuan’s vision gradually cleared. She could vaguely see an old and gray-haired elder, with a pair of slender, but clearly non-human ears.

Not waiting for Ye Nuan to completely regain sobriety, the elder repeated the line from before. “Brave adventurer, please accept my blessings.”

Ye Nuan blinked. After fully seeing the elder before her with cleared eyes, she exposed a look of disbelief.

Yí? Didn’t I die?

On the drive home from work, the car suddenly exploded……

How come I appeared here?

Ye Nuan looked around. The surroundings were not unfamiliar at all —— she was right in the middle of a virtual reality game called 《 Second World 》.

The surroundings were familiar not because she had played this game, but rather because she was the Environmental Designer for this game.

—— This game had a plethora of environments, all of which she had personally designed. 

How come I’m inside the game?

Ye Nuan remained puzzled after pondering over this for a hundred times. Opening her mouth, she probed, “System?”

System: 【 Hello, Player Warm Light at Night^[1]. How may I be of assistance? 】

Ye Nuan: “Disconnect.”

System: 【 Command received, executing. 】

A moment later.

System: 【 System is busy. Please try again later. 】

Ye Nuan frowned, suddenly having a bad premonition. She still restrained her temper, however, and repeated her words. “Disconnect.”

System: 【 Command received, executing…… System is busy. Please try again later. 】

Ye Nuan kept repeating her commands, but the system only issued this reply.

She finally had no choice but to accept this fact —— I’m afraid there is no way to disconnect. Her body in reality must have a problem.

She thought back to that explosion; there should be a connection.

Ye Nuan sighed and sat down beside the elder with elongated ears, doing her best to recall memories of ‘her death by explosion.’

She was in the car when the explosion suddenly occurred. The car had only been in use for two years, and she had it inspected for maintenance at regular intervals. There had never been any issues.

Someone must have done something to her car.

In the end, who wanted to harm her? Ye Nuan truly had no clue.

Ye Nuan frowned and finally pursed out, “Disconnect.”

System: 【 Command received, executing…… System is busy. Please try again later. 】

Okay ba. 

Ye Nuan gave up completely .

She didn’t know why she was in this game now .

Could she have impossibly resurrected in the game after dying ba?  That was too weird.

She was more partial to the idea that her body in reality had some issues, so someone uploaded her consciousness to the game.

Was this scientifically possible?

Ye Nuan did not know.

She only knew this —— perhaps, for a very long period, all she could do was spend time in the game.

Ye Nuan was a person who did not admit defeat. Since the path “Disconnect” did not work, then she would try some other method.

In short, staying in place helplessly was not her style.

Thinking like this, Ye Nuan first opened her basic stats and read it over.

『 ID: Warm Light at Night

Level: 1

Race: Elf

Gender: Female

Class: None 』 

Clearly, this was a new account.

She also did not know who gave her this ID, Warm Light at Night, but it unexpectedly had some artistic taste.

Ye Nuan then looked around. Finding a river, she ran over and crouched down by the shore to look at her reflection.

A flawless face — it clearly had been beautified, but the shadow of her actual appearance could still be made out. It was the equivalent of adding a beauty filter on her original looks.

If people she knew in reality saw this face of hers, would they be able to recognize her?

Ye Nuan’s slender ears twitched, and the ears of the person in the water also twitched.

She stood up and called out the ‘Help’ interface. After seriously reading the ‘Player Instructions’ once through, she made a quick decision.

——Since I’m in the game, then I’ll have fun playing the game bei. 

In any case, to her, sitting back and waiting for death was impossible. By comparison, she had more interest in trying to raise her level and make her ID famous. Afterward, she could find a way to gather information in reality by having her friends help, allowing her to get closer to the truth step by step.

Thinking like this, Ye Nuan did not hesitate for long. She made her way to the elder, who was the clan elder of the Elven race, and said hello — initiating a series of novice missions.

Once the entire series of missions was complete, she rapidly ascended to Level 10. Weapons, equipment, medicine, mount — all of these things must be taken.

Immediately after, she received two system notices.

System: 【 Player Warm Light at Night — Congratulations, you have completed the Novice Village Trial by Fire. You can proceed toward the next village to change classes. 】

System: 【 Trial by Fire Reward has already been issued to your inventory. Please take note and check. 】 

Ye Nuan raised a brow.

There was an extra reward for completing the novice missions?

She opened her inventory. Sure enough, she found a gift pouch labeled ‘Novice Trial by Fire Reward.’

She withdrew the gift pouch and opened it. She absolutely hadn’t expected there to be an egg inside.

Ye Nuan poked open the details for the egg and read it over.

『 Name: Ideal Pet Egg

Instructions: Hold the egg in both hands to begin incubation. Incubation Period: 1 minute. 』 

This seemed like a pet egg that could be hatched?

But Ye Nuan was little concerned about the prefix ‘Ideal.’ It kept making her think there was some hidden mystery.

Don’t blame her. Although she drew the environmental design maps for the game, she never thoroughly looked into the game.

After all, before today, she basically had no time to play games. How could she learn anything about it?

Of course, she did not feel any regret about this. When all was said and done, she also could not have foreseen such a mysterious, fantastical event.

Forget about it, forget about it. Let nature take its course.

Thinking like this, Ye Nuan cradled the egg in one hand and used the other to cover the top before closing her eyes. In her mind, the appearance of her ideal pet was gradually sketched out.

She felt that the prefix ‘Ideal’ was definitely not added casually. There must be a secret. As a result, she gave it a try, to see whether this egg could possibly satisfy her ‘Ideal.’

Her pet — must be soft and huggable.

But always carrying it could be tiring ba?

If it could also carry her, that would be good……

Hold on, did she want to carry it, or have it carry her?

Couldn’t it go both ways?

If she could not disconnect from the game, what would she do about sleeping at night? Just go to sleep right in the game?

She recalled how this game had hotels, but she did not know if it had a quilt……

At once, Ye Nuan leaned more this way the more she thought about it.

When she realized her mind was wandering, she wanted to fix her thoughts, but it was already too late.

With a light ‘ka’ sound, a crack appeared on the egg in her hand.

Ye Nuan took off her hand and worriedly eyed the cracked eggshell.

She simply did not dare to recall what the hell she had been thinking just now.

For a whole minute, she could not decide on what she wanted her pet to look like.

Must be soft and cute, could be carried in her arms, must be warm and reliable, could protect her from danger……

Ai, if she had known earlier, she would have thought about it clearly before starting the incubation.

While she was wistfully thinking, there was another ‘ka’ sound. The eggshell cracked a bit more.

And then a third, a fourth……

The tiny  egg trembled in Ye Nuan’s palm. The thing inside struggled, wanting to come out, but it looked to be a difficult endeavor.

Ye Nuan patiently watched, but in the end, she could not restrain herself. She reached out to help it —— Carefully, she traced a crack with her fingernail and lightly broke it off from the rest of the eggshell. A part of the eggshell broke off quite smoothly. 

After a hole appeared, the entire egg very quickly changed into white specks of light akin to the stars in the sky, dissipating into the air and thoroughly exposing the original form of the thing inside.

It was a square-shaped……handkerchief?

No, was there such a thick handkerchief?

Ye Nuan stared blankly at the ‘handkerchief’ resting in her palm. She really could not connect it and ‘pet’ together.

She tried to poke at its small body with her finger.

“Jī!” This square-shaped, thick but soft, ‘handkerchief’ issued out a cry that obviously did not belong to a ‘handkerchief.’ It then used two corners on one side to serve as legs and the two corners on the other side to prop itself up.

—— It stood up!

Ye Nuan stared blankly at it, completely having no clue as to what sort of reaction she should have.

After a while, she remembered something and opened its basic information.

『 ID: Quilt

Level: 1

Race: Unknown

Gender: Unknown

Specialization: Magic

Explanation: Warm Light at Night’s pet 』 

Ye Nuan: “……”

Quilt?

You must be fucking joking.

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Footnotes:

^[1] 夜有暖光 Yè Yǒu Nuǎn Guāng | it’s a play on words, sounds like it has MC’s name in it

啊 (ah) 吧 (ba) 呗 (bei) 啦 (la) are all particles in Mandarin that usually denote 1/speaking style 2/mood.

啊 (ah) — usually indicates approval or agreement, occasionally surprise/doubt

吧 (ba) — indicates a suggestive tone, similar to ending a sentence with ‘right?’

呗 (bei) — indicates a lack of enthusiasm, as if there is no other way

啦 (la) — sing-songy way to end a sentence

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