Game designer Sun Xiaowu works himself to death from overtime, then opens his eyes to find himself a little monkey on Flower Fruit Mountain. Just as he’s questioning his monkey life, a translucent panel pops up before him with a ding: [Player System successfully loaded].
Missions, dungeons, parties, skill trees... It’s clearly the framework for the Journey to the West game he designed before he died! Sun Xiaowu is ecstatic. “A gamified Journey to the West? Doesn’t that mean I can exploit bugs to farm gear?”
He takes the monkeys to grind the [Wolf Valley Dungeon], uses game tactics to toy with the Demon King of Chaos, and even accepts a hidden mission to [Repair the Water Curtain Cave Formation]. But when he “borrows” equipment from the Dragon Palace in the Eastern Sea, Ao Guang’s icy gaze sends a chill down his spine. Is this Dragon King NPC’s intelligence a little too advanced?
When Heaven launches its first raid on Flower Fruit Mountain, Sun Xiaowu uses game tactics to win by a hair. At the victory banquet, he drunkenly opens the system log, only to see a line of tiny text: [Observer No. 07: Test subject “Sun Xiaowu” has passed the Phase One adaptability test].
The chill sobers him instantly. So all the gods and Buddhas in Heaven are real, and the “game system” he believed in is nothing but a chess game set up by some powerful being. He is a chess piece, and Flower Fruit Mountain is the board.
“To hell with your observer.” Sun Xiaowu smashes his wine jar, fire burning in his eyes. “This time, I’m taking Flower Fruit Mountain down a path of our own, even if we have to flip the whole board!”
