Who Told You I Am an NPC

[If your account seems abnormal or has unauthorized charges, contact Jinjiang. The administrator says readers must send a private message through the site to investigate account theft.]

Who told you I was an NPC?

I'm a player too!

Yan Yunqing played a city-building game called "Starting Today, I'm the Demon King".

His chuunibyou tendencies led him to gather a group of lunatics as his subjects and build a vast empire.

Then he quit the game.

The game still sent him messages from time to time:

[Your subjects are panicking because they can't find you]

[Your subjects have rioted over their king's disappearance]

[Your subjects want to kill the king!!!]

Fed up with the incessant notifications, Yan Yunqing changed his phone number, and the whole world finally went quiet. Then one day, he received a message announcing an online multiplayer version of "Demon King". The next second, he transmigrated into the game, becoming an undocumented resident in another world.

The good news was that he had not only a player interface, but also an NPC interface that let him give players quests.

The bad news was that the empire he had once built had fallen apart, and his followers and subjects had gone their separate ways and rebelled.

He also seemed to have become the most wanted criminal in the other world.

·

"Return" was an unremarkable game that suddenly launched one day.

Billed as the first fully immersive virtual-reality game with all five senses, it drew countless players eager to make a name for themselves.

A mysterious NPC appeared before the players.

[Holy crap, he sells weapons and can teach advanced skills too?]

[This NPC gives hidden quests about the Lost Ruins!!]

[What the heck, this NPC just beat up the Dragon King. Who is he???]

Looking at the naive players before him, Yan Yunqing smiled as he pulled out a pile of junk left in his inventory from playing "Demon King", waiting for someone to take the bait.

Players: !!!

These stats! These attributes! An early-game legendary item!!! Buy, buy, buy!!!

·

Player forum

[Wait, who exactly is this mysterious NPC?? Has anyone dug into his backstory? Why does he seem tangled up with the top fighters from so many factions? Did I run into the real Casanova in this game?]

Reply 47903: OP, all those top fighters from the factions you mentioned seem to have come from the same place in the past…

Reply 47904: Anyone who's done the hidden quest in the Lost Ruins should know that the Lost Ruins were actually called [The Lost Empire]. The story says it was once ruled by the Demon King, who suddenly vanished one day. His subjects rioted, and over time it became the ruins we see now. The Demon King's guards disbanded on the spot and went on to form the major factions we have today.

Reply 47905: So what do you think the backstory is for an NPC who seems so entangled with the Demon King's former underlings…?

[Coming soon, recommendation 1]

"The Foolish Kid Becomes a Scientific Research Genius" (My Foolish Kid)

(They raise each other at first, then build a technological superpower. Faux incest. You are the rose I planted with my own hands.)

Ji Fan lost his mother at five. When he was seven, his father married a stepmother, and after that, Ji Fan might as well have lost his father too.

At ten, Ji Fan was lucky to get a full meal at home, and he had to endure his stepmother's beatings. So he ran away and began wandering the world.

He survived by collecting discarded items. Every so often, he would come across a “fat sheep” and steal enough money to eat out.

He lived like that for two years, until one snowy night, when he was twelve, he found a “New Year picture doll” beside a trash can.

The child looked five or six, with snow-white skin and big, round, bright eyes fixed on him.

Ji Fan had meant to ignore him, but for some reason, he stopped.

“Hey, kid, where's your family?”

The little New Year picture doll didn't understand. He only gazed at Ji Fan with grape-like eyes.

Ji Fan crouched in front of him. “Why aren't you talking? Are you a mute?”

The little New Year picture doll still didn't answer.

Ji Fan: “Do you not have a family either?”

Ji Fan: “Why don't you come home with me? I'll be your big brother from now on. Then we'll both have family.”

Ji Fan: “If you don't answer, I'll take that as a yes.”

At last, the little New Year picture doll reacted. He opened his mouth and repeated the word haltingly: “Big brother?”

Ji Fan's lips curled into a smile. He scooped the child up. “That's right. I'm your big brother.”

Together, they set off for home, and Ji Fan had a family again.

Lin Yue Bai was a scientific research robot. His purpose was to help scientists create more powerful weapons and unite the universe.

But he had been alive for only a month, and his chip had just finished processing all the scientific data, when the research institute in his universe was bombed by rebels.

Lin Yue Bai perished in the explosion, which was powerful enough to destroy an entire planet.

When he opened his eyes again, he was in an unfamiliar place.

A human with hair covering one eye stood before him, babbling in a language he had never been programmed to understand.

Lin Yue Bai couldn't understand.

But the emotion-recognition program built into him could tell that the human's voice rose when he said one particular word, full of expectation.

Lin Yue Bai repeated that word.

And so the human took him back to a little shack.

Lin Yue Bai found a home on this unfamiliar Blue Star.

He became his big brother's foolish kid.

A hundred years later, people looked back on Lin Yue Bai, the man they learned about in their textbooks.

His life was full of achievements. Hailed as the greatest scientist of the 22nd century, he was the father of humanity.

Only Ji Fan knew that the handsome young man standing at center stage, holding his award, was the rose he'd found on a snowy night and planted with his own hands.

The foolish kid who once knew only how to call him big brother.

[Coming soon, recommendation 2]

"I Think My Neighbor Is a Little Mushroom"

(Shy nonhuman love interest x sunny, cheerful guy)

Yu Xizhi noticed that a new tenant had moved into the house next door, which had been empty for ages.

The newcomer seemed to be an office worker who left early and came home late. Yu Xizhi knocked on his door several times with freshly baked little cakes, but never got a response.

As the days went by, Yu Xizhi gradually realized that his neighbor seemed to be a little mushroom spirit.

Evidence 1: He was never around, liked hiding in the shadows, and even when Yu Xizhi saw him, he wore a mask. He was so shy he looked like he might go hide in a corner and grow mushrooms at any moment.

Evidence 2: Ever since the new neighbor moved in, little mushrooms of all kinds kept popping up in the corners of Yu Xizhi's home.

And one piece of evidence that wasn't really evidence: whenever Yu Xizhi caught his neighbor in an embarrassing situation, time would inexplicably rewind.

Sometimes it went back ten minutes, sometimes an entire day.

Curious about his new neighbor, Yu Xizhi started a little mushroom observation diary.

Bai Xun was a strand of fungus. After growing for millions of years, he gained intelligence and learned to imitate humans so he could blend into society.

But he was still bad at talking to people. Whenever he got nervous, little mushrooms would pop up around him.

He fell in love at first sight with a human.

He moved in next door to that human.

He watched the human from the shadows. His invisible mycelium gradually spread through and took over the human's nest, waiting for the chance to strike a fatal blow.

He heard the adorable human mumble to himself, “Does the gentleman next door not like me?”

A little mushroom popped up as he tensed.

The human smiled and poked his little mushroom. “What do you think, little mushroom?”

“Would you like to have dinner with me, my dear little Mr. Mushroom?”

Before getting together with Mr. Mushroom

Yu Xizhi: Little mushrooms are so cute (clutches his cheeks)

After getting together with Mr. Mushroom

Yu Xizhi: Who said this mushroom was little? This mushroom is amazing, mmph! (mouth full)

Theme: The love and courage you experience are precious