I Stole the Godhood of a Steampunk NPC

*Steampunk + Lovecraftian calamity + theological magic // small ensemble cast* *Comments on paragraphs are open. Updates at 11:00 a.m., six days a week, no updates on Saturdays.* Hua Kou was paralyzed from the neck down after a car accident. Then she transmigrated into the steampunk game The Rodent Age, becoming a hidden NPC who had yet to be revealed. This NPC's character profile was downright horrifying [Scholars see her as a subversive who stole the spark of knowledge. The church sees her as a traitor, unfaithful and disloyal. The royal family has listed her as its most wanted killer, codenamed Regicide. Roll up her sleeve and the late-stage corruption on her forearm is exposed. An indescribable presence could tear through her thin skin at any moment, assimilating her into a monster.] Open her eyes and she faces a manhunt from every side. Close them and she risks mutating into a grotesque monster. Hua Kou glanced at her skills and health bar. Compared to before I transmigrated, I'm frighteningly healthy now. And being an NPC is way more exciting than being a player. Fun, exciting, and no need to hold back. * With an expansion update for The Rodent Age, NPC Hua Kou finally appeared before the players. At first, she handed out quests; later, she became a boss for players to challenge. Players from every faction flocked to find her. Player A: Can someone explain why, when I tried to fight Hua Kou, eight hundred NPCs jumped out of a junk pile and chased me across three maps?! Player B: I steeled myself to start the new version, ran into the beautiful and kind Sister Kou, and gave it everything I had. Still couldn't beat her. Player C: Not everything you had. I mean, not everything Sister Kou had. Even all the old-timers' ashes holding hands together couldn't match a fraction of her health bar. The new-version boss is terrifying. Player D: ...Where the hell did I end up? Is this still the story-driven masterpiece The Rodent Age? Player E: No, no, no, you're going the wrong way! Finish the hidden quest and you can join Sister Kou's faction! I'm betting everything on her. I swear, Sister Kou's going to carry me to victory in the next major update!!! * In the Third Era after the Difference Engine's invention, humanity is still exploring the steam technology that can make the world evolve. Unknown calamities can run rampant at any time. Mutation, infection, and famine hang over everything. Here, magic is fused with science, theology hides in plain sight, and the zeal and silence of fundamentalism coexist. The corruption continues. Calamities and the godfolk still wage war, while steam machinery and emerging technology keep turning the world upside down. Everyone races toward a misshapen aesthetic pieced together from fragments. The gears of cities in the sky grind and shriek. The world is a blazing furnace, people are kindling, and an overwhelming force is trapped within it. Hua Kou is no dreamer. She'll make that sinful land come to her. TIPS: 1. Cool girl Coco makes players and NPCs spill their guts and pine for her, literally. I don't think this counts as people making wild assumptions about her, because Sister Kou makes their imagined ideas come true. 2. The male lead is a gluttonous snake who can turn into a human. He'll become whatever Sister Kou likes: an obedient, shape-shifting little snake! 3. There are lots and lots and lots of original worldbuilding details. You don't need to know the genre to enjoy this. Steampunk is so wonderfully free! 4. Updates at 11:00 a.m. Other times, I'll make corrections whenever. Archived 2022.11.06 Theme: Persevere against all odds