The Beloved NPC in a Xianxia Battle Royale

Lian Yuan is an NPC in the wildly popular full-dive xianxia game Ascension.

Thanks to his heartbreaking highlight scenes, the frail beauty Lian Yuan was voted the number one tragic, beautiful male character and unattainable dream lover of the year, by a mile.

He has countless adoring players. They shower him with rare treasures, silks and brocades, and god-tier weapons, sending cartload after cartload of gifts as if they cost nothing. All just to raise his near-impossible affection level and earn a chance to cuddle up to him.

His peaceful life ended with a hacker attack.

Data was altered, the program crashed, and all kinds of bizarre, terrifying ghosts and monsters appeared one after another. In an instant, the once-relaxing xianxia game became a horror-themed death escape.

There are only two ways to get out alive:

1. Everyone enters a free-for-all and fights each other until only one player or NPC remains alive in the game.

2. Find the final Evil God boss, the virus itself, and eliminate them.

To stop the players from slaughtering one another and keep the whole world from collapsing, Lian Yuan, the selfless saint, devotes himself to finding the Evil God's true form. Following the clues, he traces the trail to the most suspicious candidate.

But rather than feeling relieved, Lian Yuan is deeply troubled.

The person in question is none other than Lu Qingzhou, the top swordsman on the server, who accidentally clicked the wrong button a few days ago and became Lian Yuan's in-game partner.

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Trapped in the game, Lu Qingzhou has mixed feelings, having received one good piece of news and one bad one.

The good news: Thanks to his tireless efforts (and a few tricks), he finally won the beauty's heart and became partners with the server's most beloved NPC, Lian Yuan.

The bad news: He has just realized that the game's final Evil God boss seems to be none other than Lian Yuan himself.

Hotheaded, lovesick young top x Unfeeling, frail, beautiful tragic bottom

[Premise written in January 2024, screenshot saved]

[Content warnings]:

1. A huge number of original character and world-building details.

2. Includes horror, folk horror, rules-based horror, Lovecraftian elements, and more.

3. The bottom is the story's center, and everyone has strong feelings for him, both love and hate. Plenty of people are deeply closeted.

4. A little ensemble cast.

Theme: Cooperation is the key to victory.