Script in Hand, Drama Queen at My Side

This book updates whenever I can. I won't abandon it, but updates are extremely slow.

Blurb:

In 2050, an acting simulation game called Dreamweaver took the world by storm.

As the most advanced full-dive game on the market, it lets players experience acting as if they were really there, from fighting for scripts to wrap parties.

Lin Zhi, an introvert who had dreamed of becoming an actress since childhood, was chosen as one of the first players. She decided to use this opportunity to make her dream come true.

[Scene 1: Set of a modern urban drama. Lin Zhi plays the male lead's eight-year-old sister, who got lost.]

The male lead is incredibly wealthy, and the female lead is loaded. The whole show has a glamorous, high-class feel.

But Lin Zhi doesn't understand why she's supposed to be living it up in a mansion and moving the plot along, yet has ended up on a pedestrian bridge with a beggar, shivering in the cold as they perform for money.

Then the "director" announces that the finale is here, and the male and female leads approach in a luxury car worth tens of millions.

Lin Zhi thinks: Is my good life finally about to begin?

But they walk right past her and crouch in front of a ragged old man.

"Grandpa, it's time to go home."

Lin Zhi is stunned. So the old man who'd been tricking her is her grandpa? The script never said that!

[Scene 2: Set of an ancient tearjerker. Lin Zhi plays the female lead's maid.]

The female lead is a delicate young lady raised in a sheltered household, and the male lead is the aloof leader of a demonic cult.

Because the maid gets the directions wrong, bandits kidnap the female lead.

Because the maid talks too much, the bandit chief's wife slaps the female lead.

Because the maid is too kindhearted, villains sell the female lead to a brothel...

After reading the script, Lin Zhi thinks her character is universally hated. But if she wants to be a good actress, she has to do her job conscientiously and play the role well.

But then...

Before she even has a chance to stir up trouble, the "delicate and fragile" young lady nips every hint of misfortune in the bud.

The young lady can lift a cauldron, argue circles around a crowd, and fight eight people at once...

As for Lin Zhi, the little maid, she's just flipping through the script and questioning her life choices.

It clearly says: Follow the script!

Could her script be different from everyone else's?

[Scene 3: Set of a hot-blooded fantasy drama. Lin Zhi plays the male lead's childhood friend, who dies young.]

Lin Zhi thinks: Hey, maybe this time I should forget the script and improvise?

But before she can even meet the male lead and become his childhood friend, the plot fast-forwards straight to an hour before her death.

At this point, "she" is deeply in love with her childhood friend and is about to be kidnapped and killed by his enemy.

Lin Zhi, with tomato sauce dripping from her mouth: ...So that's it for my part?

The "director" waves a hand, and Lin Zhi is ejected from the game.

The next day, Lin Zhi leaves a review for the game.

Among all the lengthy rave reviews, her one-star review stands out like a sore thumb.

[Don't give me the wrong script.]

The game developers take this sole negative review very seriously. They immediately contact Lin Zhi and promise that nothing like this will happen again.

This time, Lin Zhi picks up her new script and, seeing that the crew members are just as conscientious as she is, happily devotes herself to acting.

But before long, the game receives a second negative review, also from Lin Zhi.

[May I ask if I'm the only normal person among all the players?]

Reading Guide:

1. The female lead has no romantic pairing. The story is divided into two parts: The Only One Who Read the Script and The Only Normal Person in the Whole Cast.

2. I apologize for all the illogical settings and plot points. The full-dive game is just a framing device. I don't know much about gaming, and my writing skills and knowledge are limited, so it's all based on my own imagination.

3. The female lead is an ordinary person who's reserved on the outside but has a busy inner monologue. Don't expect too much from her. Read for fun. It may not be exciting enough, so please bear with me.

4. The blurb was written on November 3, 2022, and has been saved.

5. I'm currently focusing on the book next door, so updates on this one will be slow.

Currently serialized next door: Reborn, and the Whole Sect Is My Enemy

Short blurb:

[This is a world that follows the will of Heaven, from its birth to its demise.

There is one person at its center, the absolute protagonist. Everyone exists because of her and lives for her.]

At the moment Chang Qing learned the truth, she understood only one thing:

The vast world had nothing to do with her. Everyone in her sect was a stranger.

Whether it was her stern and impartial master, her gentle and considerate master's wife, her aloof yet warmhearted senior brother, or her lively and cheerful junior brother, everyone in the sect was an obstacle in her way.

And she herself was merely a stepping stone for her junior sister.

Given another life, this time she wants to live for herself.

Full blurb:

Chang Qing is a female cultivator, an ordinary and utterly unremarkable disciple of the Chuan Yun Sect. Orphaned at three, mute at five, with her meridians severed at eight and her face ruined at ten, she thinks she's simply unlucky and blames no one. To her, living an ordinary life is already a blessing.

Her junior sister, the same age as her, is lively and adorable, blessed with extraordinary talent, and the darling of the whole sect. She alone says in front of everyone, "Chang Qing is my senior sister and my friend."

Though Chang Qing likes to keep to herself, she doesn't reject her junior sister's closeness. She's always been good at going with the flow.

That is, until the sect's disciple tournament. Demonic cultivators slaughter their way through the arena, staining the Ascension Platform with blood. Her senior brother accuses her of colluding with demonic cultivators and betraying the righteous path. Her master glares at her and casts her out of the sect on the spot. Meanwhile, her junior sister, the person closest to the current leader of the demonic cultivators, weeps as she asks, "The sect has always treated you well. Why would you do such a thing?"

"You're the one who told him everything," Chang Qing says simply.

In the end, she and her junior sister are both locked in prison.

But Chang Qing never expected that the ruthless, unpredictable demonic cultivator would be such a hopeless romantic.

He sets a trap for her, and she has no choice but to fall into it. Her guilt is thus confirmed, and her junior sister's innocence is cleared.

In the demonic cultivators' territory, Chang Qing suffers endless humiliation, wishing she were dead. When the demonic cultivator happens to see her wretched state, he laughs and says, "You dared to envy Ruan Lin. This is what you deserve."

Chang Qing closes her one remaining eye and clings to her last breath. Suddenly, she remembers the cultivator who brought her into the sect. He once told her, "What you have or lack is all determined by fate. Don't grasp at what you can't have, and don't fight against it."

But are the hardships she's suffering now also ordained by fate?

She refuses to accept it.

The moment her core shatters, Chang Qing breaks free of fate's restraints. Looking back on her short life, she finally realizes that it wasn't because she took the wrong path.

All her suffering was predestined.

Heaven does not love all living beings. It loves only one.

Theme: Chase your dreams and never stop running!