[Sorry, everyone. I've been revising this story back and forth without making much progress, so I can only pause updates for now. Maybe I'll pick it back up someday.]
Short blurb: A kid who's been failing the civil service exam for years accidentally stumbles into a horror game while studying. While everyone else is figuring out how to clear the game, the protagonist is busy building connections, cultivating relationships, and researching who sits where at the terrifying banquet and which boss the fish's head should face.
Full blurb:
Yi Miao has spent years trying to pass the civil service exam, but never made it. She never imagined that while studying, a careless tap on an obscure exam-prep app would drag her and her roommates from their cram school into a horror game called "Making the Cut."
She thought entering a horror game would let her escape the civil service exam, where thousands compete for a single position. Instead, this game's rules are even stricter than the real exam's.
Some of the game's monsters have official positions, while others are temporary hires, like dispatched workers.
Some levels are "reserved-post levels" designed for players who pay in RMB, while others are high-difficulty levels that claim to have "no restrictions" but leave no survivors.
Among the players are diligent "small-town test-takers," as well as gifted players who pose as mentors, exploit bugs to farm coins, and then "make the cut" just before the game timer runs out.
Fortunately, Yi Miao comes from a province where the civil service exam is fiercely competitive. She has several years of experience as a dispatched worker, knows how to navigate social situations and drinking-table etiquette, and understands how to use the rules to her advantage.
In this game, while everyone else is thinking about how to clear each level, Yi Miao and her roommates are figuring out how to build connections and cultivate relationships, who should sit where at the terrifying banquet, and which boss the fish's head should face.
After all, the rules of the game are meant to be broken.
P.S. A female ensemble cast; some characters have room to grow.
Theme: Understand the rules, then break them.
