Don't Pick Up Random Disciples by the Roadside

[Joking blurb: Don't randomly pick up disciples on the roadside. Don't leave the ones you pick up to fend for themselves, or you might end up picking up a wife, too.]

[Official blurb]

After a popular wuxia game went fully immersive, Sang Zhu, who had made a living power-leveling accounts, suddenly found herself out of work.

To make ends meet, she had no choice but to put on a secret identity and enter this martial world as a player.

Drawing on years of power-leveling experience, Sang Zhu ventured into high-level areas ahead of schedule. She learned skills to boost her combat power, gathered herbs to make healing medicine, mined ore to forge equipment, picked up a wealthy client to pay her wages, and then took in a newbie who'd accidentally wandered into a high-level area as her disciple...

Oh, she shouldn't pick this one up.

She walked around the woman whose character's face was almost too beautiful and continued her money-making enterprise.

After running into that woman time and again in the middle of nowhere, Sang Zhu finally couldn't help asking, "How did you find your way to a place like this?"

"My master taught me."

Sang Zhu thought that her master's lessons were pretty strange.

"She loves exploring all kinds of strange places, and she's always teaching me how to glitch my way out of the map."

Sang Zhu: "..." Wasn't that just leading her astray?

"Her favorite thing is pinning people she's made enemies with to the ground, then putting bounties on every one of them."

Sang Zhu: "..." Could someone really be that much of a troublemaker?

"But she abandoned me."

Sang Zhu: "?" Wow, so her master was a scumbag who left her disciple to fend for herself.

"The last time I saw her, she said that when the new game update came out, she'd take me to explore the new dungeon and earn achievements, then we'd go pet the animals and watch fireworks."

Sang Zhu: "…" Wait a minute?

Meeting the other woman's gaze, as if she could see right through her soul, Sang Zhu finally remembered. Many years ago, before she'd started power-leveling, hadn't she picked up a disciple by the roadside?

"So, have you ever met my master?"

[Notes]

The main plot comes first, with romance along the way.

The game is the focus, with real life in a supporting role.

One of the female leads uses a wheelchair.

The other female lead's identity is a spoiler.

[Next novel: The Wasteland Scrap Yard]

[Joking blurb]

Don't pick up defective products on the verge of destruction, or she might grow up to be a little monster who can destroy the world.

Chang Ying: I just want to end up with my big sister. Is that so wrong?

[Official blurb]

As natural disasters ravaged the post-apocalyptic world, Yue Lianheng was exiled to the lower district, where she turned a scrap yard into a shelter.

This mechanical arm could still work with a little fixing, that brain-computer could run again after a few taps, robots could become laborers with a few program tweaks, and then there was an experimental subject, a defective product almost sent for disposal...

Looking at the child's harmless expression, Yue Lianheng casually brought her home, named her Chang Ying, and raised her by her side like a little sister.

Years later, Yue Lianheng became the de facto leader of the lower district. Everyone knew she was ruthless and uncompromising, and that her only weakness was the seemingly helpless little girl at her side.

So someone kidnapped her little sister to use as leverage.

As Yue Lianheng sighed helplessly, Chang Ying easily crushed the kidnapper's wrist and innocently asked, "Sis, can I kill people?"

Later, people said Yue Lianheng had raised a little monster who would destroy the world one day.

Yue Lianheng looked down at the well-behaved little sister in her arms. Who was going to destroy the world? Chang Ying?

"Big sister." The little monster in her arms nipped her collarbone with her canine teeth, still looking perfectly harmless. "Can I do something a little more outrageous?"

"Or you could do a little more, too."

Thesis: Be self-reliant and never give up