Land of the Six Clans: Realms Beyond

Blurb: On February 15, Star Year 8899, the full-dive online game Land of the Six Clans appeared without warning on every full-dive device, including officially licensed models, smuggled ones, and even devices whose development was not yet complete. On February 16, the Empire and the Federation issued a joint statement, declaring that Land of the Six Clans was extremely dangerous and its nature entirely unknown. They urged all residents across the stars to suppress their burning curiosity for their own safety. On February 20, Land of the Six Clans topped the popular full-dive games chart. Technicians worked day and night trying to trace its developers, until not a hair remained on their heads, yet they still found nothing. On February 30, Land of the Six Clans topped the popular games chart. The Empire and the Federation, united in agreement for the first time in two hundred years, joined forces with the space pirate organization to search for the game's servers. On March 10, Prince Smith, the most honored physicist in the stars, published a new paper claiming that Land of the Six Clans might have been introduced from a higher plane. (He deleted it himself ten minutes later. Rumor had it that Prince Smith's account had been hacked.) On March 15, Land of the Six Clans topped the rankings on every software platform by a huge margin, officially becoming a game played by everyone. . As a lesser branch of a noble family, Qiao Lan had to work himself to the bone to maintain his dignity. At last, he fulfilled his dream of getting into a top university and received an offer from one of the Federation's ten biggest companies as an outstanding graduate. Yet in other people's eyes, Qiao Lan, who had started fighting his hair loss at such a young age, was still a complete failure. His older male cousin had graduated from military academy as a major. His older female cousin had become an idol and taken the Empire by storm. His younger female cousin was the very picture of a society lady and had been chosen by a duchess as her study companion. His younger male cousin, born just half an hour after him, had smoothly claimed the title of youngest-ever champion of the Interstellar Olympics. On the very day Qiao Lan received his job offer, the boy successfully defended his title and won a second Interstellar Olympic gold medal. In Star Year 8899, after only six months on the job, Qiao Lan failed his probation because he couldn't crack the game software called Land of the Six Clans, which had suddenly appeared on the full-dive devices his company was developing. Having already brought shame upon the Smith family, Qiao Lan wouldn't get a second chance. All he could do was pack his bags and go home to live off his parents. On March 16, Qiao Lan gave up trying and decided to slack off. He boarded a spaceship back to the Empire, climbed into a full-dive pod, and opened the game section he had never paid attention to before. A bottom who talks about slacking off but is honest with his actions x a workaholic king and poor guy from the slums Theme: If one door closes, another opens.