In the hell of death and darkness, the apocalypse descended. The Mother Goddess on high chose me as the only Messiah she would spare in the mortal world., Li Xianzhen
Surface Story:
"You" have recently been playing a fascinating little puzzle game.
The little girl you control in the game, Li Xianzhen, has to escape a locked room within a set time or interact with the surroundings to solve puzzles. Once you clear a level, the gameplay footage is processed and turned into a comic called Beneath the Black Mirror. It looks so realistic that it even has live comments, forum discussions, and popularity polls for the comic's characters.
The buzz and popularity polls for this fictional comic actually count toward your level score and affect which items and storylines you unlock. And since you're a perfectionist by nature, you end up on the achievement hunter's path of repeatedly saving and reloading.
Understory:
In a highly modernized society with a constitutional monarchy, the royal family is little more than a mascot. Yet, unsurprisingly, its inner workings still harbor the revolting remnants of feudalism.
Little Princess Li Xianzhen is the only child to survive the queen's many miscarriages and births, none of which were ever made public.
But an ancestor of the Li royal family once said, "One who wears the crown cannot be a woman who has shed blood below the waist."
So the king's infidelity and the queen's madness are all her "fault." Naturally, when an accident occurs, her parents and the royal family's decision-makers abandon her in a burning building to die.
No one wanted her to be born, survive, or grow up. She struggles in this loveless, terrifying hell of a world.
Then, on the day she is erased from the mortal world, "God" chooses her from among millions of souls.
"I shall prevail. I am justice. I am truth. I am the Messiah."
Still an amateur wish-fulfillment story.
As usual, there are two protagonists: you, the player and the god, and Li Xianzhen, the character.
But unlike the story next door, this one has three worlds.
The surface world, where you control the character and can see the game, the comic based on it, and the comic's forum. You are omniscient and omnipotent here.
The understory, the world of the comic Beneath the Black Mirror, where Li Xianzhen lives.
The mirror world, where people can see the understory of Beneath the Black Mirror and discuss and vote on it.
In the understory, no one is special except for Li Xianzhen. She has been "chosen," knows she has been drawn into a comic, and can see some of the forum.
Because you chose her, Li Xianzhen believes wholeheartedly that she is the Messiah. She loves all people equally, seeing them as sheep to be shepherded and sacrificed.
Her relationship with "you" is only one-tenth mother-daughter. More than anything, you are a fanatic wielding a flaming sword.
Theme: People should love themselves.
