[Three Kingdoms] Who Says a Casual Player Can't Be an Empress?

Novel blurb

"Three Kingdoms Strategy" is a highly customizable VR game whose selling point is its exceptionally realistic graphics.

Zhang Zhaoyuan, a fan of life-simulation games, immediately set her sights on its vast, challenging stretches of barren land.

She didn’t know that she had a game System, and that she had been swept by a torrent of time into a parallel Three Kingdoms era. Everything before her was real, not a game.

As a fan of life-simulation games, she was dedicated to staying in Yanmen Commandery, farming, building houses, fishing…

*

But

In a time of chaos, her little paradise stood out far too much. Before the Administrator of Yanmen Commandery could make a move, Bu Dugen, grandson of Tan Shihuai, started scheming.

One dark and windy night, he led two thousand elite cavalrymen to grab what they could and make a quick getaway.

Zhang Zhaoyuan whacked him with a hoe.

[Congratulations, player, on successfully capturing Bu Dugen, leader of the Xianbei tribe. Please assign him a suitable job and set him goals.]

Zhang Liao, who had come by for a drink: “!!”

So young, and already such a heroine!

I’m in awe.

Later, somehow or other, she kept gaining more and more followers. With no farmland left to cultivate or space to build, she had no choice but to expand into the grasslands.

*

Until

Dong Zhuo entered the capital, deposed the young emperor Liu Bian, and installed Emperor Xian, Liu Xie.

Ma Chao eagerly proposed, “My lord, let’s campaign against Dong Zhuo!”

Zhang Zhaoyuan had no interest in vying for supremacy. She picked her teeth with a foxtail grass stem and refused. “No. That crowd is so noisy, it’s unbearable.”

Ma Chao was disappointed.

Their lord was wonderful in every way, except she had no ambition.

Sigh.

Not long afterward, Zhao Yun brought her some news while passing by. “My lord, Dong Zhuo’s horse trampled our newly developed hybrid winter wheat.”

“Outrageous!” Zhang Zhaoyuan sprang to her feet, still holding the foxtail grass stem in her mouth. “Uncle Wen Yuan, grab your weapons. We’re going to make Dong Zhuo answer for this!”

*

Later on.

Standing on Mount Qi, she said to Zhuge Liang, “Chancellor, just tell me which land you like. I’ll conquer it for you to farm!”

Zhuge Liang was exasperated. “I only wish to see the Han dynasty unified and the realm at peace.”

“Your horizons are too narrow, Chancellor. Why stop at unifying the Han? How about uniting fifty-six dynasties? And peace alone isn’t enough. I say we take Gan Ning too!” Zhang Zhaoyuan said, leaning against the railing.

*

After unification.

Ma Yunlu and Sun Shangxiang asked her what had first inspired her to rise up and vie for the Central Plains.

“Didn’t Your Majesty say her lifelong wish was simply to farm and build houses?”

Well…

Maybe it was all the smoke and fighting caused by one stalk of winter wheat?

*

[Reader’s Guide]

The Three Kingdoms era was too harsh, so I wanted to add some lighthearted wish fulfillment. The story is based on Records of the Three Kingdoms, but also incorporates unofficial history. This is a parallel timeline, a parallel timeline, a parallel timeline. Wen Yuan Shu is the love interest, but their friendship forged through life and death is more important than romance. They have only one daughter, who inherits the throne, and the dynasty lasts for at least three generations.

Blurb written at midday, January 22, 2025

>>> Check out my completed novels:

1. [Wuxia Crossover] I Brought a Blind-Box System to the Martial Arts World

2. [Song Dynasty] Qin Shi Huang Teaches Me to Be an Empress

3. I Didn’t Know My Brother Was Ying Zheng

4. I Spent Two Hundred Years Building Infrastructure in Qin [The Fourth Calamity]

>>> Check out my upcoming novel

"The Ancestors Think I’m a Deity"

College student Bai Sushui had just graduated when she was packed off to work at Hengdian, filming web dramas.

The place provided lodging but not meals. The pay was average, but she had plenty of freedom, as long as she played the aloof proprietress.

She could even slack off and write for extra money without having her pay docked.

It couldn’t get much better!!

And

The street scenes outside changed every week or so, keeping things fresh and never boring.

The only thing was

The sets were a bit too realistic, and the actors were all talented. Their performances were so good that she often got carried away and forgot to play her own role, nearly getting her entire paycheck docked.

*

① For instance, the actress playing Wu Zetian had a presence that towered over everyone the moment she appeared. Even when she knelt to pray to the gods, she carried herself with the haughty air of someone who was already the Heaven itself.

“I am not confessing my guilt. I kneel for the people, not to fate.”

“My fate is mine to decide.”

Before she knew it, Bai Sushui had burst into loud applause…

Every actor on set turned to look at her.

Wait, don’t dock my pay yet. Give me a moment to talk my way out of this.

② Or the actor playing Qin Shi Huang, who was nearly two meters tall, with a sword as tall as she was!

His bearing was truly awe-inspiring.

He was about to climb to the top of Mount Tai to pray for rain when she happened to open the door and run right into him.

But an experienced actor was an experienced actor. He paused for a moment, then immediately got into character and called her, “Goddess?”

She fell right into character too, and gave an impassioned performance of a scene about providing disaster relief.

When the improved hybrid rice seeds were handed to Qin Shi Huang, she even saw the veins on the back of his hand swell and pulse with excitement.

His acting was incredible.

③ Or the actress playing Qin Liangyu, who was 186 centimeters tall and powerfully built, wielding a long spear with fierce, sweeping strokes. She moved her spear like a dragon, piercing through eight hundred miles of desert.

Watching her gallop on horseback, Bai Sushui was so smitten she nearly drooled.

Later, when the actress was preparing to fight the Japanese pirates and came to make a prayer, Bai Sushui got permission from her boss and brought her a truckload of armor and plastic weapons.

Qin Liangyu was so immersed in her role that she clutched the crudely made weapon with tears in her eyes and praised it again and again. “What a fine blade.”

Bai Sushui could only think, “Holy crap, I’m impressed.”

…

*

Legend has it that a temple housed the Great Empress, Holy Mother of the Ninefold Darkness. As long as an emperor led the people in sincere prayers, the Holy Mother would manifest and help humanity overcome its trials.

Then, one day, rulers beloved by their people across different timelines would be invited to a grand feast and enter a paradise of immortals.

*

A friend asked Bai Sushui, “Where did you find these friends? How are they so good at cosplay? It’s like you pulled them straight out of a history book.”

Bai Sushui: “I guess they’re probably… too deep into their roles.”

After all, at Hengdian they were doing livestreams where they had to stay in character 24 hours a day. It was kind of pitiful.

[Reader’s Guide]

1. Parallel timelines! Parallel timelines! Parallel timelines! Historical figures include, but are not limited to, Wu Zetian, Qin Shi Huang, Emperor Taizong of Tang, Lü Zhi, Qin Liangyu, Emperor Wu of Han, Huo Qubing, and Xin Qiji…;

2. Historical figures earn their own achievements. The heroine mainly uses divine revelations to silence the critics, then helps them with books and modern products they need;

3. The heroine is a chuunibyou who loves daydreaming. Her identity is never exposed.

Theme: Having fields to farm is the greatest happiness.