So I'm the Fourth Calamity

[First Instance: The Heartless Nut and the Lamp Genie, Complete]

0

System: Esteemed player, what do you think of the game Moyang?

Xiuyu: Thanks for asking. I won't give you an opinion until I get my beginner's long sword back.

System: Feedback received. Is there anything else you'd like to report?

Xiuyu: Explain to me what it means that after being mixed with the blood of dragons, elves, beastfolk, vampires, succubi... players are still pure humans?

1

Moyang is a game from a small studio that hasn't gotten its publishing license yet. Xiuyu was invited by an online friend to take part in the beta test.

The game offers incredible freedom.

The locals are lovingly modeled, and they speak beautifully, too.

Xiuyu quickly went from casual dabbling to playing day and night, starting a life of clearing out monsters and gathering resources in this world called Moyang.

But as the game's story progressed, Xiuyu gradually realized something was wrong...

In the real world, he pulled back his bedroom curtains and saw a crystal moon just like the one in Moyang hanging high in the night sky.

The moonlight was cool as water, falling softly beside the scales at the corner of his eye.

2

On the day the blue moon rose, its light brought gray gates to the continent of Moyang, each leading to another world.

Beyond the gates were worlds devastated by calamity. Disasters from other realms swept across the entire continent, and Moyang's skies, land, and seas were taken over by three great calamities.

Fortunately, not everything that came through the gates was a disaster. Beings from other worlds also taught humanity how to fight the mutations.

They built new shelters in the spaces between heaven and earth, and even began entering the gray gates of their own accord to clear out the sources of the disasters.

Everything seemed to be getting better, until an all-A-rank team of Awakened was wiped out inside a gray gate.

They sent out one message before they died:

The Fourth Calamity ■■ is about to awaken.

3

Ever since a certain bizarre investigator appeared out of nowhere, the number of posts on the forum had doubled.

#Which online friend talked Xiuyu into cosplaying a speed bump on the highway? Come out and face me!

#Has someone been stealing in town? I went for a walk, and now my pockets are emptier than my face. They could at least have left me my shoe lifts...

#Oh my god, Xiuyu usually just digs up roadside trees, but how did he manage to dig up the elves' Mother Tree?

#Your investigator has no sense of honor at all. He opens with "pardon me," so I thought he was going to apologize, then he slashed me clean through with one stroke. And what do you mean your knife is named Pardon Me? (This post was deleted by moderator [Jianyuan].)

4

Xiuyu's friends were invited to his wedding.

As they clinked glasses, someone sighed, "If love lasts forever, what does it matter if we're of different phyla, classes, orders, families, and genera?"

Another voice weakly pointed out, "Is it possible that neither of the people getting married has anything to do with phyla, classes, orders, families, or genera?"

At that, everyone at the table sobered up.

Player shou × weapon gong

Content warnings:

The shou is shown purely from the player's perspective in the early and middle stages, and is chaotic neutral. In the early and middle stages, he is beginning to look human (meaning his personality).

The gong has two fragments, one sword and one blade. In the early and middle stages, he is beginning to look human (meaning his appearance).

Theme: Wealth and rank gained through unjust means are like floating clouds to me.