I Can Move the Progress Bars of the Big Shots' Lives

Please add my upcoming historical danmei novel, After Faking My Death as an Undercover Agent, to your favorites. The blurb is at the very bottom! ovo

Li Shuang transmigrates into a cultivation world full of overpowered chosen ones. Unfortunately, he is diagnosed with a useless spiritual root and can only become a menial disciple in an immortal sect.

He accepts his fate for three years, until a System called "Classification Tags" suddenly awakens in his mind.

From then on, Li Shuang sees a tag above everyone's head.

As he sweeps the grounds in the sect, he sees tags like "scumbag," "female lead," "chosen one," "love-struck," "reborn," and "transmigrate into a book" hanging over the heads of cultivators coming and going.

Li Shuang looks into a water mirror and sees the words "background character" above his own head.

"..."

The background character decides to keep sweeping.

Not long after, disaster strikes the sect. One formation after another collapses, and its core flees among thousands of flying swords, impossible to find.

Li Shuang sees a "terrible luck" tag over the shy senior disciple beside him. A percentage progress bar has appeared beneath it.

He adjusts the bar and watches the senior brother's luck soar from 10% to 100%.

"?" Li Shuang urges him, "Senior brother, why not randomly grab one of the swords in front of you and give it a try?"

The senior brother blankly grabs a sword. The wandering formation core easily falls into his hand, the formation stabilizes, and it instantly holds back a thousand troops.

Li Shuang pats his chest. At last, he can go back to sweeping in peace...

Who would have thought that the next day, the senior brother would show up before him, offering all the rewards he'd received and bowing deeply. "Thank you, senior. I understand what you mean. I absolutely won't reveal anything about you!"

Li Shuang: Wait, what senior? What do you mean, reveal something? What do I mean?

-

Li Shuang had thought the tag System was just a pretty but useless gimmick. Who knew that the more he used it, the more spiritual energy his useless spiritual root would gather, letting him reach Foundation Establishment and form a core?

Yet when outsiders examine his spiritual root, it's still just a completely useless root.

Unable to explain it, he keeps playing the useless menial disciple, secretly cultivating with the tag System.

Until one day in a secret realm, just after picking a spirit herb, someone blocks his path.

The person has the tag "darkened chosen one."

Li Shuang drops the herb and tries to run. Then he sees his reflection in a pond and discovers that the tag above his own head has changed from "background character" to "darkened chosen one's sidekick."

He slides back on one foot, changes his expression, and shouts, "Boss! I risked my life to get the spirit herb you wanted!"

Chosen one: "???"

[Upcoming Novel Blurb]

Zhuang Youheng is invited to beta-test a survival game.

The mission is simple: as an undercover agent in the villain faction, survive by the protagonist's side for three years.

The difficulty rating, however, is [High Risk].

Zhuang Youheng: "?"

Slack off at work and coast along for three years without getting fired.

That's high risk?

When the protagonist tells him to deliver a secret letter, he dutifully delivers it.

What? The undercover agent is supposed to secretly pass information back to the villain faction?

No way. He won't work even one extra minute.

The protagonist is ambushed by enemies and left gravely wounded and alone, with only Zhuang Youheng by his side.

He pulls out a dagger sharp enough to cut through iron, finishes hunting, and invites the protagonist to have barbecue with him.

Protagonist: ?

He does whatever the protagonist tells him to do, but drags his feet whenever the villains ask him for anything.

After successfully surviving, Zhuang Youheng says, "Being an undercover agent is incredibly easy."

-

Wei Xuyan knew Zhuang Youheng was a spy before they ever met.

At first, he didn't take it seriously. He planned to wait for Zhuang Youheng to slip up, then kill him as a warning to the others.

But Zhuang Youheng did nothing.

Even when Wei Xuyan was at death's door, with his life hanging by a thread, Zhuang Youheng shared his hardships and never betrayed him.

He seemed entirely sincere.

Wei Xuyan didn't believe him.

Perhaps Zhuang Youheng had some other scheme.

Wei Xuyan waited for the day Zhuang Youheng would show his hand.

But he never got to see it.

Zhuang Youheng died saving him.

He staggered a few steps and held the lifeless man in his arms, refusing to let go. His fingertips brushed skin that was steadily losing its warmth, and everything swam red before his eyes.

Zhuang Youheng, Zhuang Youheng...

He would rather Zhuang Youheng had been a spy with ulterior motives.

-

Three years passed in a flash. Zhuang Youheng died taking an arrow meant for Wei Xuyan, completing his mission and making a clean exit.

Just as Zhuang Youheng's consciousness was about to fade...

Wei Xuyan raised a hand as if to touch him, then suddenly stopped.

A spy, stubbornly rooted in place and impossible to remove or get rid of, had died.

Perhaps Wei Xuyan felt relieved, too.

As Zhuang Youheng waited to return, the official error message finally arrived: [Sorry, the game we actually wanted to test was a romance game set in the same timeline.]

Zhuang Youheng: [?]

Theme: The people I meet make me a better version of myself.