Echoes of the Old Days

At the beginning of the Great Collapse, a crack split open the sky. A blinding substance called "light" shone through, awakening those who had slumbered and causing an irreversible incursion into the world. Later generations would call this disaster light pollution. If you are fortunate enough to be among the last survivors, be sure to remember the Lighthouse Survival Rules: [Everything beyond the lighthouse is wasteland.] [Anyone who isn't one of us is a monster.] - Li Wei and You E had been at odds for years. Their opposing beliefs had driven them to fight each other to the death, and they spent three days picking apart every word the other said, wondering whether it was true. Their greatest wish was to see the other grovel at their feet as a prisoner. After the final battle of the Collapse, You E, covered in blood, fell to his knees amid the rubble. Li Wei bent down in the dusky evening breeze and gave his dying nemesis a bloodstained kiss. Then he let out a long sigh. "I've suffered because of you for so long." Only he knew how much of that was true and how much was a lie. When the other man died with his eyes still open, Li Wei could barely hide his amusement. Many years later, Li Wei unexpectedly became one of the rare Orderkeepers. Orderkeepers need the comfort of their bonded companions to stay sane. The stronger the companion, the higher the Orderkeeper's mental threshold. But Li Wei's bonded companion still hadn't awakened. One day, he would inevitably fall into chaos, and nothing around him would be spared. By then, the lighthouse was full of stories about Li Wei. They called him a divine messenger, the Orderkeeper with the highest mental score, and said that all the "Awakened" bowed to him the moment they laid eyes on him. After all, he had a face that could make anyone lose their soul... Most of the rumors were true. Only one was false. The day Li Wei came close to losing control and headed to a quiet place to die, countless shadowy tendrils searched the ruins for him. They wrapped around his ankles, their cold, slick touch creeping upward until they clamped down on every vital spot. At the same time, an eerie, tender whisper came from beside his ear. "My dear Commander, I hear you've been telling everyone that you skinned me alive, crushed my bones to dust, and scattered my ashes?" Li Wei's eyelid twitched. The other continued, "But all I remember is a kiss. It clung to me like a bone-deep curse, haunting my dreams. Even from the depths of hell, I crossed endless abysses to find you... Don't you think you owe me an explanation?" Li Wei had never been moved by monsters. "What the hell are you?" "What am I?" By now, the entire area had become a sea of tentacles. Countless black strands coiled in front of him, forming a twisted figure that was both strange and familiar. A damp, sticky voice said, "Didn't you want to be soothed? Come here and please me." "..." Who would have thought his bonded companion, who had never awakened, would turn out to be the nemesis he'd supposedly reduced to dust years ago? The deformed, twisted monster even took advantage of the times when Li Wei couldn't control himself, deliberately leaving him disheveled and filthy, just to see him fly into a rage from embarrassment. "How did it feel?" came a question from beside his ear, pretending to be considerate while being nothing but malicious. "Not bad. It performed best last night." Li Wei casually caught one of the tentacles and lazily kissed it. "That's its reward." "...?" P.S.: 1. Both leads are powerful, with a small ensemble cast. The top is the bottom's bonded companion. The tentacles are only part of his true form, not the whole thing, and he can take human form. 2. A post-apocalyptic wasteland setting with some tabletop role-playing and Lovecraftian elements. There are a great many original worldbuilding details. Coming soon: Old-Time Farm. If you're interested, feel free to add it to your collection: 1. As someone blessed with extraordinary luck, Yu Huai receives an invitation to the beta test of the full-immersion game Old-Time Farm. [Warm reminder: You cannot log out before completing the game. To beat it, you must collect everything, earn every achievement, and reach maximum affection with every NPC.] So Yu Huai abandons his real-life 996 work schedule and starts grinding around the clock in Old-Time Farm. The problem is that the game is set in a resource-starved apocalypse after a series of disasters. There are mushroom forests taller than trees, swamps crawling with tentacles and poisonous frogs, and valleys where giant centipedes fill the sky... [Please choose the location of your farm.] Yu Huai: ...Pick your damn self. Fortunately, his incredible luck is still with him. On the very first day in the game, he gets a ring that boosts his luck. Maybe this lousy game isn't so bad after all. 2. Yu Huai never expected that the hardest achievement in this lousy game would be reaching maximum affection with every NPC. There's the neighborly big brother who seems gentle but is secretly a yandere, the irritable evil dragon living in the valley, the gloomy poet who makes it rain mushrooms whenever he gets angry, and the mermaid who floods his home with pearls whenever she cries... The fastest way to increase an NPC's affection is to give them gifts. Looking at his dirt-poor farm, Yu Huai puts his knowledge of resource recycling in survival games to good use. He gives the pearls that fall when the mermaid cries to the poet who has traveled from afar. He puts the love letter the poet wrote him in his neighbor's mailbox. He gives the rare gem his neighbor gifted him to the evil dragon in the valley... When the day comes that every NPC's affection reaches 99, Yu Huai is so moved he bursts into tears. He thinks he can finally leave this soul-crushing game, but his incredible luck finally fails him. Every NPC he's romanced shows up at the farm. They all recognize the things they treasure most, and each declares, "That was the token of love I gave Xiaohu back then!" Yu Huai keeps his cool. "Listen, I can explai..." Forget it. Might as well just haul them straight to the crematorium. The good news: After the love rivals' showdown, the NPCs' affection is still at 99, and it even seems to be edging higher. The bad news: These twisted creeps lock him in the house, leaving him facing an indefinite period of house arrest. His legs will never close again. P.S.: 1. All the NPCs in the blurb are tops. The top is split into several personas, but doesn't have multiple personalities. His different personalities and characterizations are all an act. 2. This isn't a conventional farm story or a traditional Cthulhu setting. The top is an ancient god, both innocent and evil, whose true form is a giant octopus. He's hopelessly lovesick. Theme: Seek new life in the depths of despair.