She Is Playing a Game with the Gods

Dear readers, after careful consideration, I've decided that starting today, updates for this story will be irregular.

I love this story very much. I love the characters and the setting. I've kept telling myself that I mustn't let my readers down or betray this book.

But lately, constant insomnia, anxiety, writer's block, nightmares, and even all kinds of physical symptoms have made me realize that I've fallen into a vicious cycle. The harder I try to write, the less I can get done. The more I want to give up, the more miserable I become.

So I've decided to give myself, and the readers waiting for updates, a break. I agonized over this decision because I used to update every day. How can I keep breaking my promises to this book? It's already paid content, so how can I? Is this fair to my readers? Even if there's only one reader, I should write for her to read. But I've figured it out: being truly "responsible" and "not letting people down" means not putting out garbage.

So from now on, dear readers, you can check the update indicator to see whether I've posted anything.

Thank you, everyone.

Please add my upcoming novel, After I Hand Over the Cosmic Superstar System, to your favorites. Scroll to the bottom to read the blurb.

When Huo Xi was thrown into the apocalypse, she had only two things with her:

An empty farming space with a third of an acre of pumpkins growing in it, and an electronic contract that the useless System had slowly forced on her:

"Notice of Your Inheritance of a Cosmic-Level Bankrupt Company."

The System announces her debts in a mechanical voice: [Faith points: -infinity. We recommend immediately launching the faith-harvesting plan based on slavery.] You are allowed to borrow 100 faith points.

Well, when you're already drowning in debt, what's a little more?

She immediately borrowed the faith points right back. "I found the loophole in your company." Money? Only an idiot would pay it back!

While Reborn A tramples on human decency with ten thousand tons of supplies, Huo Xi opens a "Scam School" for the poor in a shipping container:

"This is a zombie-proof shield." (She paints the walls with glowing moss.)

"Our company offers ability-awakening services." (She secretly pours potential-enhancing potions into the drinking water.)

"Want a star destroyer? Memorize the core socialist values first." (She builds a holographic projector by hand.)

Every day, the System pops up warnings:

[Do not use chili powder to fake holy light.]

[Please stop teaching your believers to make up company history.]

[You have triggered your 99th violation...]

Until one stormy night in the apocalypse, the mechanical voice that was always calm suddenly trembles:

[There are only three jin of potatoes left in the storeroom. Don't trade them for a child's dance.]

Huo Xi smiles softly through the rain. "Finally learned to care about resources?"

She gains believers in countless little worlds: the apocalypse, the interstellar era, ancient times...

Later, when the true god descends to destroy the world, she tears up the so-called divine decree and raises an eyebrow at the empty air. "Time to settle the accounts."

A being that should never have had a physical form appears with a sigh. Her made-up employee handbook from years ago still lingers in its streams of data.

"I've told you, you can't call yourself a god..."

Blurb for After I Hand Over the Cosmic Superstar System:

Blurb

Yan Qing is an actress on the 10,086th tier. Just before she was about to go home and farm, she got bound to a system.

System: [Do you want to become a cosmic superstar?]

Yan Qing: "I do!"

System: [Do you want to flourish in film, television, and music?]

Yan Qing: "More than anything!"

System: [Do you want to reach the pinnacle of life?]

Yan Qing says excitedly, "Yes, yes!"

System: [Due to insufficient system energy, the Host must raise the money to film a debut project!]

Yan Qing: "..."

Yan Qing smiles faintly and promptly turns herself and the System over to the authorities.

Sorry, she's really broke.

The entertainment industry of the Interstellar Empire has always been placid and dull. Actors try every trick in the book to get famous, and publicity stunts are everywhere.

But at some point, the actress Yan Qing, who always funds her own productions, gradually overturns everyone's expectations...

She stars in The Storm of the Three Kingdoms, a war-and-strategy blockbuster set in the era of cold weapons, featuring a character with eight hundred schemes for every person. Audiences watch with their blood boiling and cry out that they're useless by comparison.

Then she takes an endorsement deal for fertilizer from an interstellar agricultural company, which throws in high-yield seeds as a bonus.

Audience: "..."

She stars in The Way Out of the Mountains, a poverty-relief drama that brings audiences to tears without even trying to tug at their heartstrings.

Then she immediately endorses thermal underwear from a traditional interstellar brand, looking utterly content in her long underwear on screen.

Audience: "..."

She stars in The Harem, a jaw-dropping drama about palace intrigue, rivalry, and shutting one's heart to love. Audiences can't get enough of it.

But then she takes an endorsement deal for an essential home medical device for the elderly, in the kind even a fool can operate.

Audience: "..."

She sings distinctive music, sometimes elegant and refined with harmonious melodies, sometimes lilting, fresh, and unconventional. She dances graceful classical dances, her movements enchanting and elegant, leaving audiences dazzled.

But without hesitation, she endorses an established agricultural machinery company's agricultural drones, grinning as she sits on an interstellar planting machine.

Audience: "..."

Those dramas and endorsement deals aren't completely unrelated, but they're about as far apart as they could be...

Even so, Yan Qing and her dramas gradually become popular throughout the Interstellar Empire, making her a superstar in high demand.

There are even some naive interstellar citizens preparing to establish a country with a new system, just like the one portrayed in Yan Qing's dramas...

Yan Qing originally thought that after handing the System over to the government, all she could offer the country would be the various advanced medicines rewarded by the System. But when she learns that the money she earns in the interstellar world can be used to shop online for interstellar goods, everyone's eyes light up...

The country gives her everything a superstar should have, and even things a superstar doesn't have.

"Cultural exports alone can make our country strong and our people prosperous. Xiao Yan, let's make you a star, a superstar!"

Theme: Put people first