Shift! The Side-Character Heroine

This left Zhao Youyue slightly depressed, but she knew that someone who had earned the nickname “Old Thief/Thief” wouldn’t be easy to deal with, whichever realm this Old Thief hailed from, ranging from novels to games. Their steadfastness was akin to their badge of honor.

Their own work was so well-made that it affected many around them, dragging them into the holes they dug. Any delays or sudden changes would greatly affect those who had fallen into Zha Feng’s hole, creating a huge shockwave. The relationship between these Old Thieves and their fans were intense mixtures of love and hate. Why were talented individuals almost always so eccentric?

Of course, Zha Meng was known as an Old Thief, thanks to the various traps he had placed in his games. Because of this, his veteran fans knew better than to remain highly focused, or they might just die from a random trap that was lying about.

For the sake of survival, every chest found in the game should be treated as a mimic [1], or death would be a certainty.

Many first time players were spooked. They were prepared for traps and regular spawning monsters as per usual, only to be eaten up by living, monstrous chests.

Zhao Youyue was prepared for this, because she had experienced it firsthand when doing a speedrun [2] for the game. Due to this, she was able to clearly tell the difference between a regular game developer and Zha Feng, one who carried an ominous-sounding title. In the gaming world, companies and teams are mostly remembered as a whole, but the fact that Zha Feng gained his own reputation, showed just how impeccable he was.

Many did not know who created [3], but knew who was behind . It was the thief – Zha Feng, the bastard who tortured players with the difficulty of his games and their inexhaustible supply of traps. However, players had no choice but to agree that the glory of being on the ranking boards after a life or death battle with bosses, while dying multiple times in the process was really something to be proud of.

To hardcore gamers, series was truly a playable game. Once you start it up, it was too easy to lose yourself in the game. Of course, there were moments when players got so pissed off that they closed the program in rage; only to return to normal the next day.

Zhao Youyue now wholeheartedly believed that this eccentric, deluded game creator had stuck to his own ideas, which was to keep Yan Qingmeng the fairy as the main female character – as stated during the interview. The nameless maiden was only mentioned in passing.

Zhao Youyue was infuriated beyond words. Zha Feng was not any random game creator, but one with reasonable success. Coming across such a game creator rendered bribing useless. He only created such a game, because he was already worth a lot, and could afford creating something different from other game creators.

That was why the phrase, “Nothing is perfect” exists. If only it was possible to enter a world created by a talented game creator, that sounded great, didn’t it? Without the aid of otherworldly intoxication, their work would already be of great quality. However, the creators themselves were highly strong-willed. When Zhao Youyue’s mental suggestions did not suit their ways, they would abort that thought immediately and give up on the project, thinking that it was all random thoughts.

The thought her ideas did not suit Zha Feng’s dark, depressing view on beauty got deeply embedded in Zhao Youyue’s mind.

She quickly affirmed to herself that what she created should have been a perfect fit for Zha Feng’s twisted mind.

I do not get it!!!

Zhao Youyue could only comfort herself with empty words. At least, she learned some sword skills from Su Shi when she became her avatar. Even if it was just a little, it could serve as helpful exercise material.

In reality, Zhao Youyue may be rather healthy and fit, but she did not enjoy exercising much, making her one of those phone maniacs. However, when using Su Shi’s avatar, she grew intimate with Su Shi’s painstaking training. She was a natural sword genius, but she never let it take anything away from the effort she put in training. If not so, she would have never been able to turn sword techniques that were meant for performance and dance into killing techniques.

Zhao Youyue had even resigned herself to the possibility of not even being able to receive a character card. Thus she could only resort to such methods to gaining more from this experience, even if it meant practically living in the lower martial world.

At the same time, Zhao Youyue was preparing herself for the compulsory army training that was coming up. She already knew how tough army training was, making it necessary for her to train her body during the summer vacation and make sure that her training goes without any hitches.

Today was the day Zhao Youyue was going to take part in the entrance exams celebration party, or rather, this was a parting party; although this party was only for her senior batch.

Although the class was split up during the branching out of the streams, the QQ Groupchat still remained. Nobody knew who started it, but word started spreading about a plan for the party.

Of course, participation was by choice. Those who did not do too well would decide not to attend, as they did not think that their presence would be pleasant.

Zhao Youyue’s former desk mate, Jiang Qing had urged her to attend. If not for such incessant urging, she would have forgotten about the party, as most classmates were just passerbys to her.

Jiang Qing did rather well in her entrance exam. Sadly, it was not enough for the passing mark of Jiangnan University. Instead, she got the green light for another university of similar standing. That university was also situated in Jiangnan provincial capital, and was not far from Jiangnan University. Due to this, she could visit Zhao Youyue whenever she wanted. Jiang Qing was not very disappointed with her results, so she would attend just about any gathering party, regardless of its magnitude.

As Zhao Youyue was not feeling very happy, she activated her passerby social circle to sort out her own thoughts, hoping that Su Li would have good news for her.

This tactic proved to be efficient, but it did not work on people like Han Leng.

Ever since Han Leng got his entrance exam marks, he had been eluding Lady Zhao for a long time. Although Lady Zhao had not seemed to have been affected by public opinion and continued to score unbelievable results, Han Leng could not stop thinking that his actions may have bothered Lady Zhao, and may have even caused some misunderstanding between her and others. He had screwed up, big time!

Han Leng guiltily maintained his distance from Lady Zhao, but still stalked her discreetly.

At that moment, Han Leng noticed something unusual. She had a frown on her face, and looked downcast. It was nothing like her usual calm self that carried herself like she was some kind of greater being. This made Han Leng overthink yet again. Was Lady Zhao troubled by him keeping his distance?

TL notes:

[1] Mimics: Chest like mobs that are often found in RPG games and occasionally fantasy action games.They are often depicted to mimic a chest or other items found in games to feed on unwary players, and occasionally smaller monsters and animals.

[2] Speedrun : Online challenges where players compete to see who can clear a certain objective of a game with the shortest time.

[3] : originally (wang zhe rong yao) or Glory of Kings. A PvP game for smartphones. The title used in the story was a pun based on this game, (wang zhe nong yao) which has almost the same pronunciation. The pun was an ongoing pun that regarded glory as pesticide, thus the pun above. The direct translation of the title gives the name, Dead Man’s Pesticide.