The Last Character Card

This novel will go premium with Chapter 26 on October 27, 2024.

In his previous life, Cheng Yimeng was the strongest player in an infinite game. He spent his entire life as a hero, protecting the world.

Good people get no happy endings. Betrayed by his companions in the final battle, he died, only to wake up in a strange Dragon Palace.

Outside, a monster Dragon Maiden was yelling for him to come out. Inside, his level had been reset to zero, he was back to a blank slate, and there was a hole in his chest.

For some reason, a max-level powerhouse had been reborn in a beginner instance. An off-screen voice even announced in a dramatic tone: [Congratulations on earning the Enemy of All Ages achievement. Players and NPCs alike want you dead.]

Cheng Yimeng checked his HP: 1. Does anyone really need to kill him? He could just die on his own. Luckily, he had received a character card. Looking down at it, he saw his own face on the card.

Oh no, I've become a gacha character!

*

More than twenty years after instance worlds invaded reality, people had grown used to living alongside them.

Until one day, they noticed something strange.

First, a mysterious visitor unified the slums. Then all sorts of people were forced into taking over instances.

A cockroach-like killer who refused to die, a butcher who transformed in the rain, a black cat that walked through dreams...

One second they were causing mayhem in an instance, the next they had vanished right in front of their pursuers.

Even more troubling for certain people, the former number-one player they had killed had returned, looking deathly ill!

He would press forward without fear, crossing mist and darkness with sword in hand to challenge the gods.

All who betrayed him would be punished. All who cherished him would find happiness. And all who had sacrificed themselves would reclaim everything humanity had lost.

This is an ode to human courage.

TIP:

1. The instances and reality merge. The male lead's face is on the cover, please just take a look, I'm begging you. If you won't read the novel, at least look at this handsome guy! (Sharing him with the world) (I really, really love this cover.)

2. Secret identities will be exposed. The story's ingredients: infinite-flow > tabletop role-playing > secret identities.

3. How on earth do you write a blurb!!!!!!!!!!!! Ah!!!!

Coming soon: A Secret-Identity Story Where the Villainous Alter Egos Meet Their Original Selves (Yes, I haven't thought of a title yet)

Ji Xian is an overworked employee in the logistics department of the Special Ability Bureau. Every day, he cleans up his coworkers' messes at work, then goes home and starts another job:

To keep the worldline stable, he plays the villainous versions of his “coworkers” in parallel universes where everyone gets a bad ending, making them fight each other to the death.

Today, he's a tyrant who bathes a city in blood. Tomorrow, he makes a guest appearance as a thrill killer. The day after, he has to hold a leader by the chin and say, “It's time someone else took your place.”

Then one day, a teleportation malfunction sends him to a parallel world. Wearing a blood-soaked secret identity, he stands with his back to the alley entrance and delivers the breakup speech he's rehearsed eight hundred times.

“Even if you saved me, I still won't join you in destroying the world.”

He turns dramatically amid the wind and rain, only to find the person who should have been his “villainous partner” is actually his blond coworker, holding a cup of milk tea.

They stare at each other. His coworker's eyes go round. “...Who? Destroy the world? Me??”

Ji Xian is just about to bluff his way out of it when the World Will's warning finally arrives.

“Ding! No going out of character, okay, sweetie?”

“…”

Thinking of all the coming dark-turning plot twists and angst, Ji Xian feels his heart finally give up.

*

Later, the Special Ability Bureau discovers that their counterparts in the parallel worlds are all villains, and that reality is gradually being corrupted.

Forced to spend his nights exposing the future while wearing various secret identities, Ji Xian spends his days stitching everyone's fates back together until they get happy endings.

The ace of the Operations Division clings to his leg, wailing, “Brother Ji! That psycho who dragged his half-dead partner over a mountain of corpses definitely wasn't me!”

Ji Xian, who just yesterday had performed a partner-on-partner fight in front of him while wearing a secret identity, ruffles his head and declares righteously, “I believe you. It was all a misunderstanding!”

The goddess of the Medical Division angrily asks him to book her a therapist. “There is no way I'd become a lunatic who loves experimenting on people!”

Ji Xian, who just used a secret identity to act out a madwoman attacking the whole world in front of her, wipes away a bead of cold sweat. “Of course not. Everyone in the Bureau knows how gentle you are.”

The Director suffers a heart attack when he sees a familiar signature on a plan to destroy the world. “This handwriting really is mine...”

Ji Xian silently hands him some tea. “You even write that your annual reports are for the sake of peace and ideals. How could you ever become a villain?”

As time goes by, his coworkers gradually realize that before every crisis, someone has already laid the groundwork and resolved potential problems. Whenever trouble arises, someone seems to know what's coming and is always there when called, making them the MVP of the Bureau.

Their trust in a certain logistics employee skyrockets.

He's the hope of the Special Ability Bureau, a level-one psychological counselor, the king of cleaning up messes, and the ancient Egyptian god of smoothing people's hair!

Ji Xian, who has unwittingly become the Bureau's beloved, strategically sips his water as he ponders his next role-playing assignment.

How can he reasonably tell everyone that the mastermind who single-handedly brought about the end of the world in the parallel universe...

Was him?

Theme: People must fight for themselves, even in the face of adversity.