Welcome to Sweet Hell

"Here, you will find the miracle you desire most, and the truth you fear most."

Ye Qingjin stopped breathing in her hospital bed, only to open her eyes beneath another strange and ominous starry sky.

Cold text floated before her:

[Name: Ye Qingjin]

[Status: Physical body in reality: multiple organ failure; projected consciousness: stable]

[Core objective: Survive / obtain the "Source of Life"]

[Warning: Death of consciousness = real death]

Welcome to the Sinking World.

File One:

Title: "Sinking World Player Guide"

Confidentiality level: C

Extract:

"The Sinking World is a miraculous place where wishes come true. Clear stages, earn points, and redeem anything you desire: health, wealth, a new beginning."

"This game is operated exclusively by the Other Shore Corporation. It is absolutely fair. May all your wishes come true."

File Two:

Title: [Insufficient Clearance]

Confidentiality level: A

Extract:

"Anchor point in reality is... disappearing..."

"Warning: Unauthorized... consciousness imprisonment detected..."

"Administrator identity: [REDACTED]"

*

The System told her, "You just need to clear the stages according to the rules and save up enough points to stay alive."

Ye Qingjin nodded earnestly. "All right. I'll work hard to save up points."

Then she turned around and tore the door knocker off with her bare hands. Weighing it in her palm, she said, "Compound chocolate. Not expensive to make."

Everyone else: ??? Why is she reviewing horror-game stages now?

Others were chased by NPCs, screaming for their lives. She ran while analyzing the situation. "Based on the era, the most likely poison here is oleander. The lethal dose is three kilograms, so he probably wouldn't spend that much on this stage."

The NPC: "..."

What the Sinking World thought earning points meant: diligently playing the game, obediently pleasing the audience, bowing and scraping to NPCs, and dying in despair.

What Ye Qingjin thought earning points meant: signing a contract with a female ghost, taking on a boss in a one-on-one fight, dismantling the world's rules and uncovering the truth, testing the game's limits, teaming up with indescribable beings to overthrow the System, and casually recruiting the stage monitor to share the risk...

The System at first: "Proceed step by step. All you need to do is survive."

The System later: "Warning! Player Ye Qingjin is rewriting core rules... Warning! Why is the game world collapsing?!"

A legend gradually spread among the Sinking World's participants:

The girl who looked as though she might die of illness at any moment was the true "unknowable" here.

As for the girl herself, she merely looked at the ever-growing balance of her "Source of Life" points and sighed softly:

"I really just wanted... to live a few more days."

#Strongest Female Lead

#Intelligence-Based Clear

Cover art by @LYRE

★, Coming Soon, Please Add to Your Favorites

Coming Soon 1: After the White Moonlight Leaves, They Go Mad

Jiang Shuyue was the perfect background character at an elite academy, and the "short-lived white moonlight" in everyone's eyes.

Gentle, quiet, and pale, she was the fragile symbol in the memories of the male lead, Gu Yanzhi, there to highlight the female lead's resilience. She was the perfect device for moving the plot forward.

No one knew this was Jiang Shuyue's third time through the story.

In her first run, she played the part of the sickly childhood friend and quietly died when the plot called for it.

In her second, she tried to fight back, only to die sooner and sink into even greater despair.

This time, Jiang Shuyue obtained the "NPC Self-Rescue System."

The System's task was simple: without breaking character, max out every key character's affection and earn an "Immunity from Death" talisman.

And so her third run began.

She gave Gu Yanzhi, a gloomy and cold future tycoon, a trusting smile without a trace of darkness.

She showed Shen Qingci, a gentle yet calculating top student and student council president, just the right degree of admiration and affection.

She gave Lu Huaixu, a hot-tempered, rebellious heir to a financial empire, her unique understanding and attention.

Even Ye Tinglan, the female lead who was about to enter the story and take everything from her, received discreet kindness and help in advance.

Her acting was superb, and she controlled her feelings perfectly, embodying the white moonlight's purity, healing warmth, and fated-to-fade beauty to the fullest.

Affection levels soared, and the System's task was nearly complete.

Jiang Shuyue had planned the perfect solution: before the story began, she would use her accumulated rewards to "cure" her terminal illness, then make an elegant exit under the pretense of going abroad for treatment. She would leave all the turmoil behind and live a wealthy, peaceful life of her own.

She succeeded.

At the grand birthday party Gu Yanzhi had thrown for her, surrounded by everyone's blessings and affection, she gave her final command to the System in her mind:

[Redeem reward: cure terminal illness.]

[Activate plan: in three months, quietly "die" at a Swiss sanatorium.]

System: [Command confirmed. Distributing ultimate reward, "New Life"...]

System: [Warning! Exceptionally intense emotional fluctuations detected!]

System: [Core targets: Gu Yanzhi, Shen Qingci, Lu Huaixu, Ye Tinglan: affection levels have undergone unknown mutations!]

System: ["New Life" program locked by an unknown force! Exit route obstructed!]

The lights in the ballroom suddenly went dim.

Gu Yanzhi, who was supposed to be onstage giving a speech in her honor, had somehow come up behind her. His cold fingers brushed the back of her neck, and his voice was so gentle it sent a chill down her spine. "Shuyue, when you spaced out just now... were you thinking about how to leave me?"

Shen Qingci approached with a glass of champagne. His gaze behind his glasses pinned her in place, though his smile remained perfectly polite. "I heard your parents are looking at medical schools abroad for you. Why didn't you ask what I thought first?"

Lu Huaixu yanked her away from Gu Yanzhi. His youthful face was full of anger and unease. "Jiang Shuyue, you promised you wouldn't go anywhere!"

And Ye Tinglan, the female lead who wasn't supposed to make her "first appearance" for another week, stood not far away, holding the fateful token Jiang Shuyue was supposed to "accidentally" discover and give to her. She looked at Jiang Shuyue, surrounded by everyone, her expression impossible to read.

Jiang Shuyue stood frozen as the warm lights turned cold.

At last, she realized in horror:

Perhaps the affection she'd maxed out wasn't something she could reset with a single click.

Perhaps she hadn't been playing the role of a plot-required white moonlight after all.

Perhaps the perfect exit she'd so carefully planned had awakened something even more terrifying than the story itself.

They didn't want to remember a symbol that had passed away.

They wanted to imprison a moon that refused to sink.

#All Male Characters Are Chaste

#No Matter How Many Times They Repeat the Story, the Male Leads Only Love Shuyue

Coming Soon 2: The Top Scholar Only Wants to Flip the Table

[Shen Wangji transmigrates into a tragic period romance as the cannon-fodder legal wife. She dies horribly and is remembered with infamy.]

The System coldly presents her with two options:

[A: Follow the original story, endure in silence, support your future husband as he studies for the imperial exams, then wait for him to achieve success and have you ground to dust. Reward: one monument to "Virtue and Good Conduct."]

[B: Turn evil, steal the female lead's story, win over the powerful and unstable Regent, and become a canary in his cage. Reward: one "Beloved Above All in the Harem" aura.]

Shen Wangji looked at the two godawful options and sneered. The System was forcing her to be either a drudge or a caged bird. Either way, it didn't consider her a person.

Shen Wangji: "I choose C."

System: "Where did C come from?"

Shen Wangji had already dealt with her scumbag husband in one swift stroke, changed into his clothes, and taken his identity. Naturally, she was going to sit the imperial exams herself!

And so she disguised herself as a man and became "Young Master Shen." On the road to the imperial examinations, the System refused to give up and kept causing trouble. Shen Wangji ignored it all and focused on her studies.

Then, at the palace examination, she placed third, outshining everyone. But she came face to face with the chief examiner, Xie Yanzhi, the Minister of Personnel, renowned for his severity and coldness and his hatred of "those who took shortcuts."

Xie Yanzhi's gaze was like a knife, as though he meant to see through this "young prodigy." He pressed her at every turn, questioning her background and testing her knowledge.

He suspected she had ulterior motives, but couldn't find a flaw. He disliked her "slick, crafty ways," yet couldn't help admiring her genuine insight into state policy and people's livelihoods. He watched her grow close to scholars from humble families and write dazzling petitions on behalf of the people, while sensing in her bones a defiance that clashed with convention.

More frightening still...

Xie Yanzhi found himself looking forward to their daily clashes, and growing restless over an offhand smile from her.

After much inner turmoil, Xie Yanzhi finally knelt on the cold bricks of the ancestral hall. His back was ramrod straight, but his voice cracked with hoarseness:

"Ancestors, hear me... Your descendant has failed you."

"I... have given my heart to someone."

"It has nothing to do with man or woman, or yin and yang."

"It's simply... him."

He closed his eyes, his voice soft but heavy:

"This path is full of hardship and the world will not accept it. Perhaps... it defies morality and convention."

"But I want only him."

Those inexplicable heart palpitations, those uncontrollable stares, those smiling eyes he traced again and again in the middle of the night... they finally made sense.

So he wasn't going mad.

She had simply captured his heart and soul completely.

*

Later, when the new emperor ascended the throne, Shen Wangji rose to become chief minister, wielding power throughout the court.

"My surname is Shen, my name Wangji. I am a woman who dressed as a man and deceived the emperor. So what?"

"If the law forbids women from taking the imperial examinations, I'll change the law. If history refuses to record my name, I'll make it impossible for history not to remember me."

"The path I walk has never been one granted to me by someone else."

"I want the people of this world to remember: women can stand in court without borrowing another person's name or relying on anyone's favor."

"I am power. I am the right way."

#How Did a Promised Cliche Two-Choice Plot Turn Into Me Building My Own Career?

#Woman, You Should Never Have Had Only Two Choices

There are more upcoming stories in my author page. Take a look, and add them to your favorites if you like them. Love you all~

Theme: Find the meaning of life again through love and trust.