Nan Chuan is deaf, and she transmigrates. She's very happy with her new life.
Her hearing is back, she has plenty to eat and drink, and she doesn't have to do a thing.
It's wonderful! Even in her wildest dreams, she never imagined anything this good.
Until a group of people in bizarre costumes show up in front of her.
Strangely, she can't hear them speak.
Having lived with hearing loss for many years, Nan Chuan uses her lip-reading skills to uncover an astonishing truth: she's transmigrated into a game, and these people are players.
In the game, any player who collects all 151 cards can have any wish granted.
Nan Chuan is an important NPC in the game.
Players flock to her, desperate to complete her quests and get the cards she holds.
Learning all this, Nan Chuan feels fate has a cruel sense of humor.
Before she lost her hearing, she worked on a game project that became a global sensation.
Her job was... game designer!
Nobody in the world knows better than she does how to make players do her bidding!
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Before long, players of the metaverse game Persona are discussing her excitedly:
Player A: What's with that NPC called Nan Chuan? Her very first quest asks for ten billion gold coins?
Player B: That's easy! I have to build her a brand-new floating fortress!
Player C: She wants me to purge the Abyssal creatures, too! I could get killed!
Player D: And this is only the first quest... Just imagine what comes next.
Player E: Can't be helped. She's holding Card 151, "Star's Origin"! It's the hardest card in the whole game to get!
Nan Chuan, after hearing all this: Is that so? Then I guess it's reasonable to make my quests even more outrageous.
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One day, Nan Chuan, who's been winning by making players do all the work, discovers
that even an NPC like her can collect cards.
Nan Chuan's eyes light up. Well, well, looks like there's work to do.
Why not let her be the game's first player to clear it?
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Watching Nan Chuan rise higher and higher, the other NPCs finally realize something: Shouldn't we learn from what she's doing?
[Notes]
1. The game's tech tree is unusual, with magic and cannons existing side by side, and some elements of cosmic horror.
2. The idea of clearing a game by collecting cards was inspired by Greed Island from Hunter x Hunter.
3. There are 151 cards in the game, a reference to Pokemon Red and Green.
4. The title Persona pays homage to the Persona series of console games.
The cover is a commissioned piece ordered from the artist Pesca in 2019.
Theme: Be yourself
