Low-grade ingredients often call for nothing more than the simplest cooking method. After a long day, Master Zhang Kedan was ready to tear open a pouch of nutrient solution and gulp it down, while writing up her reflections on her first day at work:
Impressions from Sweeping the Web’s Demon Lair
Rub electronic candle flames, wave virtual talismans
Capture digital demons, savor life in cyberspace
[The Virtuous System reminds you: Today, you captured 0.5 Heart-Devouring Demons. 100 merit points have been credited.]
“What the hell, how can a demon be half a demon? System, are you ****!” Zhang Kedan snapped. She threw the bag of nutrient solution, which tasted like spotted rash, onto the ground and prepared to fight the System to the death.
[The Virtuous System reminds you: A kind word warms you through three winter months, a cruel word chills you for six summer months... This is warning number 42.]
Zhang Kedan hurriedly checked that she still had 99,958 immunity tokens left, and her heart settled back down.
This story is also known as:
“How Did an Ordinary College Student Who Pulled a ‘Boundless, Ten-Dimensional Heavenly Venerable’ Stunt at a Comic Convention End Up as an Auxiliary Police Officer in a Cyberpunk Otherworld, Forced to Surf the Front Lines and Arrest Illegal Electronic Demons for System Merit Points, Brave a Virtual Demon Lair Despite Being Too New to the Internet, Grit Her Teeth Through Morning Classes, Chant Sutras in Full Dive at Night, Physically Exorcise Demons, and Whittle Down Monster Health Bars the Hard Way?”
Theme: Fight black crime and clean up the online environment
