Logging Away on a Desolate Planet

(My upcoming novel, GB Her and the Man Moaning Beneath Her, is open for collection in my author's column. The blurb is at the end.)

Blurb One: A seemingly gentle but fiercely possessive ruler of a barren planet × a scheming mermaid with a cool exterior, fair skin, and a slender, supple waist

Yao Shu transmigrated into a crafting game called "Barren Planet Development."

The good news: She had a System, and it was easy to fool.

The bad news: She had to gather resources by chopping wood, or she wouldn't even have a bed to sleep in.

Later, beings of different races began arriving on the barren planet. Yao Shu went from bluffing her way through everything and cautiously keeping up appearances to mastering power and wielding authority.

She bestowed miraculous medicine and forgave those who offended her. She built houses and took in refugees.

She offered aid, balancing kindness with authority, and won the loyalty of beings from every race.

She combined Eastern and Western traditions, cultivating both immortal and demonic arts. The entire barren planet bowed at her feet.

Wen Keer was a prince of the merfolk. As soon as he arrived on the barren planet, he heard all about its ruler and her many deeds.

According to the stories, she was powerful, tolerant, selfless, and generous. She had transformed the barren planet from a wasteland into the prosperous, flourishing place it was now. She was a great ruler.

But could someone explain to him what the chains around him were for? And who was the person who had gnawed and bitten him that night, acting like a ravenous beast?

"You're not going back to your people. You're mine now, so you have to stay home and behave." Yao Shu tugged the chain and dragged him back.

"I want to see my sister... Mm." Wen Keer's tears turned into pearls and scattered across the floor.

Yao Shu held his slender waist and kissed away his tears. "Didn't she tell you she had offered you to me?"

That was the first time she had ever accepted a bribe since becoming ruler of the barren planet.

But what Yao Shu didn't know was this:

He had fallen for her at first sight, pretending to be fragile to win her sympathy.

For her, he gave up his tail, was cast out by his people, and would never be accepted again.

Wen Keer touched the cold chains and gently kissed the bite marks she had left on him.

Blurb Two:

The crafting game Yao Shu played, called "Barren Planet Development," had become real! She stared at the axe in her hand, on the verge of tears.

From the start, she had only one axe. She had to keep chopping, chopping, chopping, until those cartoonish-looking trees turned into "wood" resources, which she could use to craft stools, chairs, tables, beds, and little wooden houses.

Later, as her level rose, the humans and nonhuman beings of another world were unlocked one by one.

She scolded the cultivators, exasperated: "How can cultivators of great Huaxia not know how to plow a field!"

She watched the holy knights and sword cultivators duel and place bets on who would win, then walked over. "I'm confiscating all your ill-gotten gains!"

She watched in dismay as the phoenixes and Vermilion Birds set a whole forest ablaze, then grabbed a few Eastern and Western dragons. "Use your water breath! Put the fire out!"

She watched, expressionless, as incubi and fox spirits competed to see who could seduce more people. "Stop sucking people's life force! Who's going to do the work if you don't?"

Later, she coolly watched vampires and Eastern ghosts throw nighttime parties, merfolk and jiaoren argue over who was the perfect blend of human and fish, elves and mountain and flower spirits turn the hills into their back gardens and hold tea parties every day, and dwarves and tapirs accuse each other of building all the extra houses...

Alive, but spiritually dead. What a beautiful state of mind.

Yao Shu: Since everything's a mess anyway, let's drink it while it's hot.

Reader's Guide:

1. The first few chapters spend a lot of time explaining the System's crafting mechanics. Players familiar with crafting games can skim them.

2. For the first week, only the heroine and the System are around, so there are lots of inner monologues. The other characters first appear in Chapter Three.

3. The male lead is obedient, well-behaved, pure, and fragile (or so he pretends). He's a mermaid and doesn't appear until after the heroine has grown powerful.

----Upcoming Novel Blurb:

A GB romance-focused anthology. I'll write this after I finish and get my current story approved. Feel free to add it to your collection.

1. Ancient Setting: An indifferent emperor × a favored general

A crown prince who has pretended to be a boy since childhood, bears a heavy responsibility, is obsessed with power, and keeps everyone at arm's length → an empress who has reclaimed her female identity and can openly do whatever she wants to people

vs.

A crown prince's companion who is won over by the heroine, willingly offers himself and submits to her, and takes pride in serving → a favored courtier who knows that serving the ruler is like serving a tiger, but is happy to pet the tiger anyway

2. Post-Apocalyptic Setting: An innocent tree spirit × an elite squad leader

A tree spirit who takes human form years after the apocalypse and seems completely oblivious to it. Zombies? Just food.

vs.

An apocalypse squad leader who discovers an ignorant young woman deep in the mountains and worries himself sick over her survival

The young woman tilts her head. "I used my softest branches. Why couldn't you take it?"

3. Ancient Setting: A gentle crown princess × a humble, loyal dog

A crown princess who appears self-disciplined, courteous, gentle, and elegant, but shows her dark side to her puppy

vs.

A loyal puppy who was raised and trained to perform like a dog since childhood, and only became a person after the crown princess took him in. He bears all the darkness she cannot reveal in public.

"Only good puppies deserve to wear a collar."

4. Sci-Fi Setting: A warrior woman Alpha × a CEO man Omega (The male lead has a biological daughter through technology. Skip this arc if that's not your thing.)

A warrior is caught in a shockwave during a great battle and thrown onto a barren planet. After painstakingly hand-building a spacecraft and flying back, she finds her fiance holding a baby girl.

vs.

A CEO whose fiancee vanished on the battlefield. He refuses to declare her dead and keeps searching, until he finally gives up hope and uses her genes to have a daughter.

5. Xianxia: A powerful master × a rebellious disciple

6. Matriarchal Setting: A jealous emperor × an out-of-favor empress

7. Ancient Fantasy: A thousand-year-old snake demon × an upright crown prince

8. Ancient Setting: A powerful empress dowager × a treacherous eunuch

...More to come. I'll write them all.

Reader's Guide:

1. As the title suggests, this is a romance-focused anthology with powerful, assertive heroines. The men have no prior sexual experience. Remember, being favored by these heroines is their good fortune.

2. Mostly sweet, with a little angst here and there, but every arc has a happy ending. Enjoy without worry.

3. I'll include content warnings for each arc, so readers can choose what suits them. I hope every GB reader can find something sweet to enjoy.

4. I may write the arcs in a different order from the one listed here. If I haven't decided what to write next, feel free to suggest ideas.

Theme: Different races living together in harmony, and the heroine's journey of growth