At fifty, Li Qinglian can't fit into her daughter's world, nor can she join her coworkers in their campaign to marry and have children.
She always seems to be drifting on the outskirts of things. It's been so long since she traveled that she's afraid to go far away. She has no close friends who share her interests. Talking to young people makes her uncomfortable, because they might dislike her if she says the wrong thing. Her hometown is far away in the countryside. Loneliness seems to be the defining color of a middle-aged woman.
She once did everything she could to be a good mother. Now her daughter is grown, and she's grown old too. No one needs her anymore, and she has nowhere to go.
But the world says
[Dear Ms. Li Qinglian, the world needs you.]
[Congratulations on being selected. You are the savior.]
*
The Hive World: Diamond-shaped coffins hang from the dome, while cryogenic pods holding human bodies drift across the skyline. Fully armed guards seem to have been waiting for her for a long time...
The Underground World: Living beings have no eyes. A dense web, invisible to human eyes, stretches across the ground. Li Qinglian must learn to fly...
The World of Color: The scenery is so vivid it looks like something seen after eating poisonous mushrooms. Humans with multicolored skin hide from something in spacious little houses...
Li Qinglian works hard to learn new things, study her superpowers, level up, fight monsters, and collect gear.
She gradually gets used to finding locations in the real world that let her travel to other worlds.
Until one day, the other [players] come looking for her
"Are you Ms. Li Qinglian, ranked first in the Hive System's kill leaderboard, rescue leaderboard, mythic gear leaderboard, and superpower leaderboard?!"
A bunch of youthful, handsome, energetic kids clamor to make her their big sister.
Huh?
Is she the only one with a "Savior System"?
Li Qinglian doesn't dare speak. After holding it in for a long while, she sits at home at the same dining table as her daughter and slowly says, "...Actually, your mom is pretty amazing too."
*
At the very end, Li Qinglian travels back in time.
She meets her younger self and her mother.
Back then, her mother was only fifty, too.
So fifty isn't old after all. A fifty-year-old mother can be so young.
She wants to go further back, further back still.
*
Reader's guide
1. This story is entirely fictional, so don't read it as real. It features travel through both time and worlds. It has some dungeon and infinite-world elements, with apocalyptic, cyberpunk, alien, Lovecraftian, and other themes.
2. The protagonist isn't perfect and will gradually grow. The story begins and ends when she's fifty. She may briefly become younger or older when the plot calls for it, but don't worry about that.
3. The story's original inspiration was the bond between mother and daughter, and the world. So this isn't just a wish-fulfillment story about killing monsters and leveling up. The heroine makes friends and searches for points of entry between worlds, with some everyday moments in the style of a road story. The pace isn't fast, and there are flashbacks.
4. There is a team.
5. There is a male lead. He doesn't appear much, but fifty-year-old women can have young admirers too.
Theme: The world is vast. Don't let yourself be trapped.
