The Impostor Player (Infinite)

[Three instances left! The cover is an illustration from the story] An evil god descends, using a game to select divine heirs and grant them supreme divine authority and favor. People bow down and sing his praises, eager to become players. They cede land and submit, while countless factions compete for supremacy. But none of this has anything to do with you. You're an office drone, stuck in the most lowly job. Your coworkers look down on you, your boss dumps work on you, and your employer sends you on business trips. Nobody thinks you're anything special. Until one day, players break into your residential complex to compete for treasure and climb the rankings. They've earned the favor of the gods, have top-tier equipment, and are wildly popular. They launch the security guard into the sky with a rocket, then break into every home to loot it. They descend like gods, sweeping through like a storm, certain they'll win this round. Then they get wiped out in your home. * When the high gods are struck down by you at sunset over the Solar River, they suddenly remember your name. A name that died long ago. "When the evil god invaded and the mortal world fell, a hero came to our aid and turned the tide. They split the stars and set the snow ablaze, clad in white as they cut down the red moon." "But despite giving it their all, they were ultimately outmaneuvered by Heaven. They died embracing each other in that dark, snowy night..." #Between filth and splendor lies the spring they never got to see.# * Third-person narration. A completely rational, highly intelligent bottom who falls from the divine altar × a late-blooming, shameless old rogue (top). The top is nonhuman. * Bonus scene: Every time they go to bed together, the top has to work hard to maintain his human form. He knows the bottom has a cleanliness obsession, and is sure his monstrous appearance would probably disgust him. But the top gets carried away and can't stop himself from reverting to his true form. His slick tentacles find their way into every opening and leave the bottom utterly overwhelmed. Alcohol clouds the mind. The top realizes it always happens on days when he's been drinking. He'd always thought he had a high tolerance. Human alcohol tastes no different from plain water to him, but to preserve his pure image, he decides to give up drinking. He quits, and it works. He stops changing. At last, he spends a wonderful night with his darling while looking perfectly human. But the good times don't last. After only a few nights, the top transforms again. His thick tentacles are everywhere, and his darling even starts crying. Afterward, the top is ashamed and begins to question his life. He quit drinking, so why is he still transforming? And he keeps transforming every so often. His darling doesn't really blame him... but the top is still troubled. He goes everywhere seeking medical advice, completely unable to figure it out. He even suspects someone has poisoned him. He's an otherworldly monster and can't taste alcohol, and so many people like his darling that someone might well want to kill him and seize his position! The more the top thinks about it, the more plausible it seems. So one day, he pretends to leave, then sneaks back invisibly to investigate. And sees his darling, expressionless, pouring a lethal dose of alcohol into the dinner he'd prepared for him. * Weibo: @FengFengFengFengTu Blurb dated 2024.05.15. Please don't steal the premise. Reader's guide: 0. No livestreams or on-screen comments. The main plot and romance run through every instance, so skipping is not recommended. 1. Bottom is the protagonist, in control of the situation and at the peak of intelligence. 2. There are many long-running foreshadowing details. Please don't post spoilers in chapter comments. Thanks! 3. Others also have unrequited feelings for the bottom. 4. This is a fictional world. Please don't imitate the game behavior in real life. ★Check out my next story, The CEO Hid His Giant Tentacles★ I'm a romance game designer. The System assigned me one job: make players spend, make them spend, and make them spend hard! I worked diligently until retirement. As usual, I should have received a generous pension and one husband of my choice. But the System clearly wanted to welch on the deal, and even extended my contract by another thirty years. So I blew up the System. Following the turbulent current of collapsing space, I rushed into the game, ready to snatch a husband and make a getaway. I found the man of my dreams. I remembered that the design department had an unreleased Super SSR CEO. His voice was more seductive than any previous character's, his lifelike qualities were better than any previous character's, and his art and design were more stunning than anything that had come before. The kind you couldn't get without spending millions on pulls. Just look at that face! Those pecs! Those long legs! It had to be him! Perhaps because he hadn't been fully designed yet, the CEO was still asleep. Tsk, even an XXXXL can't contain that shape, huh? (blushes) I touched him, and touched him again, until my hand found a mass of tentacles behind the CEO. The tentacles slowly coiled around my arm. So smooth and enthusiastic. ...? Is this a new skin I haven't seen before? (Surely) Time was short, so I stuffed him into a sack, hoisted him over my shoulder, and ran. Ha! Stupid System, you owe me wages and held up my retirement. Bye-bye! * Meanwhile, in the infinite-horror world next door to the romance game world The players were crying and wailing. They were trapped in a certain-death scenario. The evil god's full-screen annihilation was about to emerge from that pitch-black bronze door. No resurrection item, teleportation device, or invincibility skill could help. It was the most terrifying calamity in the history of gaming. The kind the System itself couldn't handle. Then the players cried for ten minutes. And cried for another ten minutes. They'd already written their last letters. The evil god's room was eerily quiet. Finally, a fearless warrior pushed open the door. The room was empty. All that remained was a huge hole in space-time in the wall, and a trail of damp marks left by dragging tentacles. "So where's that huge evil god?!!" * #Third-person narration# #A designer returning to her old job × a CEO who, for some reason, has tentacles# Theme: I hope the legends of all living beings won't come to an end with the passing of time.