The Legend of a Rebellious Heroine

[I only managed to sign a contract when the story was nearly finished... It won't be paywalled before the ending. I'll revise the story after finishing it, then put it behind a paywall. I can't keep writing the next few arcs, so I'll add a few tens of thousands of words to tie up the foreshadowing and then end it.]

[Supporting women-centered language and readers' freedom to comment!]

As a key member of the reformist faction in the future city, Chu Yao designs a game to select her teammates: the Cowherd is a human trafficker, and the Weaver Girl is the rebel who kills him and his accomplice; the White Snake remembers her true nature and leads her sisters out of Leifeng Pagoda, punishing the ex-husband who betrayed her and the eminent monk who seeks fame; Zhu Yingtai builds up her strength in the underworld and finally sets out on a path where she can shine without relying on love...

This isn't her fantasy. Folklore studies tell her that rebellion is the true nature of legendary heroines, and that the popular versions have been altered.

Fan Gu, who is determined to purge patriarchal contamination, clears the game with a high score and becomes the first person selected.

According to their plan, their team will reform all the male-gaze educational materials and popular literature, and create more women-centered works.

But they gradually discover that things aren't so simple. As the symptoms of "Legend Sickness" spiral out of control among the population, literary debate no longer seems enough.

They must become even more rebellious to survive and get the chance to create legends.

[The Tear-Down faction. All villains, inside and outside the game, die. No redemption, no reconciliation.]

[The entire protagonist team is female. Male characters are either villains or passersby.]

The overarching settings for the game levels all have sources, but the finer details are heavily fictionalized.

Weaver Girl level: Ye Shengtao's adaptation of The Cowherd and the Weaver Girl + "The Man from Xinyu County, Yuzhang" from In Search of the Supernatural (the Chinese origin of the swan maiden type of tale)

White Snake level: the Song dynasty storybook The Three Pagodas of West Lake + the Ming dynasty The White Maiden Locked Forever in Leifeng Pagoda (with characters from Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio and the Kumārajīva legends mixed in)

Yingtai level: the version in which "the King of Hell judges Liang and Zhu" (mixed with Meng Jiangnu and historical women)

Ye Xian level: the Chinese version of Cinderella, from Miscellaneous Morsels from Youyang, written in the Tang dynasty

Monkey Son-in-Law level: the Asian version of "Beauty and the Beast"

Dancing Princess level: the Grimm fairy tale "The Twelve Dancing Princesses"

Mermaid level: Hans Christian Andersen's "The Little Mermaid" + the original tale "Undine's Sleeping Curse"

Willow Spirit level: the Czechoslovak legend of the willow maid

Red-Capped Witch level: Charles Perrault's version of "Little Red Riding Hood" + the red-capped mountain demon from Strange Sayings from the Studio of Consolation

Desert Island Priestess level: inspired by the legend of Iphigenia in Greek mythology

[There are too many plot twists to explain one by one. I can only guarantee that the main characters are all career-minded, and all the spotlight moments go to the female characters.]

As someone who works from eight in the morning to six at night, I can't update every day. Read at your own risk.

I started this story with Chapters 86 and 11, which also contain the most research. Even if you don't add it to your collection, I recommend taking a look. A folklore student stakes her head on this: the account of how the Weaver Girl legend was altered in this story is more comprehensive than most academic papers.

[My plans have changed. I'll wrap up the story after the fifth game level. The Western fantasy portion will be a separate novel.]

[My profile has other female-led stories with no romance and stories featuring women-loving-women. They all have all-female factions, so take a look if you're interested!]

[If you can't handle glacial updates, a protagonist who sometimes goes off the rails, detailed descriptions of villains dying horribly, lots of ruthless infighting, or factional conflicts that aren't lighthearted, please think carefully before reading.]

Message: Tear down the rotten house and exterminate the pests.