The Girlfriend My Mom Set Me Up With Finally Came to Find Me

Originally titled The Unknown Time Limit.

I'm really bad at writing blurbs. Basically, it's a story about two abnormal kids who were so obsessed with the internet and treated the world like a game that growing up didn't make them much more normal. They muddle through learning about the real world and slowly figure out how to live in it, more or less.

The main story is about recognizing reality, entering it, and even trying to change it a little for the better, rather than destroy it.

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: So you mean your mom used your identity to... find a girlfriend online?

Ji Xun: (silence)

: Used your identity? Online dating? A girlfriend?

Ji Xun: (silence)

: And then this person crossed oceans and showed up in real life?

Ji Xun: (jolts upright) (sighs) (weakly) I really don't want to talk about this.

Ou Li: Is it possible this person knows your mom is your mom, and you are you?

Ji Xun: .

Ou Li: I thought we'd spent countless nights together, that we were each other's dearest friend, comrade-in-arms, and one and only. But she seems not to remember me, and thinks I'm her mother's online girlfriend.

Ji Xun: Is it possible that the internet is virtual, you've changed your secret identity too many times, and I have no idea they're all you?

Ou Li: .

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An engineer with a harmless facade who prefers action over talk, gets things done by jumping in before she knows whether she can, and is a rabbit at heart vs. a super hacker who starts out treating life like a game, a happy factory setting off fireworks, making enemies die of embarrassment when she's unhappy, and later turns into an utterly devoted clingy girlfriend

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Note:

1. Near-future setting, based on current AI developments and predictions about technological and social progress over the next five years, so it's not science fiction.

2. The main story is slice of life, with some major plot arcs woven in.

3. Four to six updates per week.

4. Signing bonus begins May 13. Thank you for your support.

Theme: Love is not an illusion, and neither is being loved.