Running for Godhood

Zhi Wei is a corporate drone working brutal 996 hours at a big company, while also pursuing her passion by performing as an underground idol. One day, she takes the stage with a song, dance, and rap routine. The host holds a microphone to her mouth. “Hello, candidate. Please explain your platform for running to become a god.” Zhi Wei’s perfect professional smile freezes. What election? What god? Isn’t this a talent show stage? Where the heck have I ended up?! - Zhi Wei transmigrates into a parallel future world filled with gods of all shapes and sizes. In this world, after the one and only god perished more than three thousand years ago, humans began holding elections every ten years to choose new candidates to compete for godhood. As long as your platform wins the audience’s votes, you can claim a share of the fallen god’s divine essence and become a new god. Right now, all Zhi Wei wants is to get offstage, but the packed audience is waiting for her to speak. She takes a deep breath. A flash of inspiration strikes, and with a solemn expression, she begins to spout nonsense. “I believe the gods’ areas of specialization are too fragmented, and there isn’t enough coordination. I’ll empower the gods as a collective, build a new ecosystem, create a closed-loop matrix, break through existing barriers, and deliver a coordinated series of initiatives!” “I’ll lead you all in restoring the glory of the one and only god from more than three thousand years ago!” Zhi Wei looks at the audience expectantly: Come on, come on! I’ve spouted enough nonsense. Let me get off the stage already! After a moment of silence, thunderous applause and cheers erupt. “Oh my god! She’s running to become the one and only god, reclaim the fallen god’s divine essence, and save the world!” Zhi Wei: ??? Somebody help me! Shut up already! When did I say that? Is that what I meant?!! - Forced into the race, Zhi Wei somehow becomes the most popular candidate of the election, and the whole world knows she’s running to become the one and only god. …But every day, she wants to withdraw. But withdrawals have been forbidden for more than three thousand years, so all she can do is hope each day that her rivals will beat her. Zhi Wei doesn’t write campaign speeches or platform poems. At every rally, she takes the stage and spouts internet buzzwords, and at every campaign event, she instinctively slips into idol mode when she approaches voters. …And so, more and more people come to believe in her. As countless people look forward to her becoming the one and only god, changing a chaotic, corrupt order, claiming the complete divine essence, and restoring the one and only god’s glory… The highest vote-getter, conqueror who rose from commoner to nobility, steadfast believer, humanity’s last hope, and savior, Zhi Wei, has had a little to drink. She reveals the secret she’s kept buried in her heart to the adjutant she trusts most. Zhi Wei: “Actually, I don’t want to run for god at all.” The adjutant is utterly confused. “But you saved my life and the lives of countless others.” Zhi Wei: “What are you talking about? I couldn’t just stand by and let people die!” The adjutant: “You also refuse to be corrupted by privilege or tempted by wealth.” Zhi Wei: “Because all I want is for someone to beat me so I can run away. If I take their stuff, won’t I just get held accountable?!” The adjutant gives it some serious thought, then asks tactfully: “Your popularity has surpassed that of every candidate in human history. May I ask who you’re hoping will defeat you?” Clutching her bottle, Zhi Wei stares into space, deep in thought: …Am I really that terrifying? - Please enter the temple and shelter humanity, bearing courage as precious as gold and a heart like the sun. Please run to become a god. My ongoing novel is updated regularly! Check out The Novelists’ Extinction Plan in my author’s collection and add it to your favorites~ Love you, mwah! Blurb: Ji Ying is a celebrated novelist. She has a string of secret identities and writes every genre, creating many characters beloved by readers. But the characters she wrote have secretly come to “life.” In the year 2546 of the New Era, the dimensional worlds collapse, and the characters in novels gradually awaken. Everything is false. The world’s foundation is made of words. Those life-or-death adventures have a carefully structured plot. Those friends who would lay down their lives for one another were created according to character profiles. The outline had long ago determined the universe’s course and the fate of its ending. Beyond the universe, there are no stars or celestial light, only a novelist’s fingertips striking the keyboard, and the smile on her lips as she calmly writes a character’s death. For survival and revenge, an interdimensional plan of extermination begins. History will call it the Novelists’ Extinction Plan. The world is both real and illusory; the universe flickers in and out of existence. Only by killing the novelist can the characters truly come to life. Only by masquerading as a character can the novelist survive. Hello, Ji Ying. Please sort out your many identities in each of your novels, and hide yourself within your own stories. - Fu Ye opens his eyes in the chaos. Through line after line of text, between the words, he locks onto Ji Ying’s eyes on the other side of the screen. “I braved countless hardships, only to discover that you were the one who created them.” Fu Ye climbs out of the screen and grabs Ji Ying by the collar as she sits at her keyboard. He chokes back a sob, eyes bloodshot. “Was my story any good? My writer, my creator, my god… my companion, my friend, my love?” Ji Ying presses the Delete key. “Of course,” she says. I stood at the beginning of your story and designed every ending for you. Before I typed “The End,” we had already crossed swords countless times. A pleasure to meet you, protagonist. - Theme: Courage and freedom, kindness and resilience.