Welcome to the Monopoly Game

[A power-up story about two strong leads. The title and blurb may change, but the basic premise will stay the same.]

[An invasion by a higher-dimensional star system, whose aliens treat humans as NPCs in a full-dive game and try to win them over, only to be discovered by the protagonist and get thoroughly face-slapped.]

In the interstellar era, resources are running out and full-dive games have become all the rage. Humanity is obsessed with them.

After working himself to the bone for three years, Tan Qian was just about to get a promotion, a raise, and the chance to reach the pinnacle of life. Then, unfortunately, he transmigrated into the hottest game on the Star Network, Monopoly, as an NPC.

Countless players tried every trick in the book, spending all day plotting how to swindle money and land out of him.

Tan Qian: ...

A modern-day office drone couldn't put up with this!

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Trending posts on the Star Network forum:

1. I heard Monopoly has a bug. There's an NPC you just can't win over. I've lost several million star coins to him already.

2. You mean the one called Tan Qian?! I tried to swindle his grand hotel from him yesterday, but he mocked me mercilessly.

3. I put rats in his restaurant. That trick worked every time on other NPCs, but with him, I was the one punished by the System! When are they going to fix this bug?

Tan Qian, reading the posts: Thanks for asking. You're just bad at the game.

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Tan Qian thrived in the game and quickly climbed to first place on the Monopoly leaderboard.

The entire Star Network fell silent. Was nobody going to do something about this NPC?

That night, the game company made a move, planning to wipe Tan Qian's game data.

But they found that Tan Qian had left them a letter, written in bold, flamboyant strokes and dripping with defiance:

"You aliens think you're so smart? Don't think I haven't figured out that this world is real."

"Don't think you can treat humanity like your playthings."

Theme: Still thinking about it