"Welcome in! What can I get for you today?"
The barista's cheery voice dragged Lin Shuang out of her stupor. She blinked rapidly, eyes darting around. Her mind was still reeling, trying to pull away from the metallic, grinding horror of the truck accident. By all rights, she should've been a mangled, bloody wreck under that semi-truck, but here she sat—perfectly, impossibly intact—in a coffee shop.
A cup of coffee, complete with an intricate rosette of latte art, sat on the table before her. Beside it, the floor-to-ceiling window offered a pristine view of the street.
A sudden, jarring flood of memories forced a cold sweat to break across her forehead. Within a few short seconds, Lin Shuang had mapped out her reality.
The Main God's Game.1 A web novel she'd been reading right before she died.
A mysterious entity—the Main God—randomly plucked people from Earth, forcing them into brutal, monthly survival games. The male lead, Jiang Mo, was one of these players. By the later arcs, he was a "god-slayer" powerhouse, cutting down everything in his path with cold, terrifying precision.
And Lin Shuang? She was a minor cannon fodder character, destined for a short, gruesome appearance in the middle of the narrative.
Because Jiang Mo was so obsessed with the game, he'd never had a girlfriend. A neighbor—Lin Shuang's aunt, who'd helped him out in the past—decided to play matchmaker.
The original plan: Jiang Mo would offer some perfunctory pleasantries and walk out. But the original Lin Shuang was a spoiled, headstrong rich girl; she believed she was the only one allowed to do the rejecting. When Jiang Mo inadvertently triggered her temper, she'd splashed her coffee in his face and stormed off.
Three days later, she'd been selected as a player. During a dungeon run, she'd begged Jiang Mo for help while being hunted by a chainsaw-wielding maniac. He'd refused, and she'd been sawed to pieces right in front of him.
At the time, she'd just thought the name coincidence was a bit weird. But now? Now she'd transmigrated into that exact piece of cannon fodder.
Sigh. Truly, life is just one big, messy sausage, isn't it?2
As she mourned her impending doom, the cafe door pushed open again, followed by a brief, restless stir in the room.
Judging by the timing, that had to be the male lead.
Lin Shuang turned. A man in casual clothes, possessing a sharp, handsome face, was already looking her way.
"You must be Ms. Lin?" Jiang Mo said. "I'm Jiang Mo. Lin Yingnan... No, Aunt Lin told me to come."
During his senior year, when his parents died in a car accident, Aunt Lin had often invited him over. That was the only reason he'd agreed to this date. For someone like him, who'd already survived countless rounds of the game, life and death were abstract concepts—let alone marriage. (I'll probably kick the bucket in the next dungeon anyway,) he thought. (Best not to drag anyone else down with me.)
He sat down, already planning his exit. "Ms. Lin, about us..."
(We're not a good fit.)
Lin Shuang raised her hand, her expression deadly serious. "Mr. Jiang, I think we're a perfect match!"
Jiang Mo: ?
He cleared his throat. "Cough, Ms. Lin, you might not know this, but I'm quite poor. I graduated over a year ago and still haven't found a job."
"No worries. You know, living off your partner is a skill in its own right." Lin Shuang reached into her wallet, snatched a card from the stack, and slid it toward him without even looking.
She flipped her bangs back with a flourish. "Take it. The PIN is six zeros. Spend it however you like."
Jiang Mo: ...
The man's dexterous, knobby fingers pinched the card and held it up to her eyes. He gave a dry, bewildered laugh. "Ms. Lin, this is a student ID card."
Lin Shuang was currently a junior. Her school card happened to be in her wallet with her other cards. She awkwardly raked her bangs back down, snatched the student ID back, and tried to look composed.
"Well, obviously, you can spend it however you like... on campus."
Jiang Mo sighed, leaning back in his chair. "Ms. Lin, you have great prospects. You have better options. There's really... uh, no need to keep a broke guy like me."
What could she do? She'd been dropped into this hellscape, and in three days, she was going into the Main God's game to kick the bucket. If she started training now, how much spinach would she have to eat to gain even a 1% survival rate?
Her only viable strategy was to cling to the male lead for dear life!
Lin Shuang pursed her lips, thinking for a moment before looking up with a pathetic, pitiful expression. "Are you really that dissatisfied with me, Mr. Jiang? Just because I gave you a student card?"
"Cough, no." Jiang Mo recalled her sheer audacity when she'd pulled out that card. His heart, which had turned cold and detached from the survival games, skipped a beat. He'd survived so many rounds that his psychological age was far beyond twenty-five; looking at the girl across from him felt like watching a bratty child.
"Ms. Lin is naturally very excellent, but I just don't..." (have that kind of potential.)
"You're excellent, too," Lin Shuang said, deadly earnest, pumping a fist to encourage him. "Believe in yourself, okay?"
Jiang Mo: ...
He sighed again. "Then what exactly do you see in me, Ms. Lin? We don't know anything about each other, yet you're so... so determined to 'keep' me."
"Why call it 'keeping' someone? Mr. Jiang, you're handsome. And since my aunt introduced you, she obviously thinks you're a good person. I trust my elders' judgment."
Lin Shuang's brain was racing. "Besides, I'm still in college. It's the perfect time to show off. Imagine—you taking my card to buy me things, and me bragging about it to all my friends! Think of the status!"
Jiang Mo: (What is wrong with young people these days? I've only been out of school for a year; how am I already this out of touch with her line of thinking?)
"Look, Mr. Jiang, let's be real." Lin Shuang stirred the latte art into a brown mess. "Since my family is arranging blind dates, if I turn you down, there will just be a Mr. Sun, a Mr. Zhang, and so on."
"Instead of wasting time with a dozen other guys, why don't we just start dating? If it doesn't work out, we break up. You've got nothing to lose." She clasped her hands together, looking pleading. "I can give you my student card. Spend away."
Jiang Mo laughed despite himself. After a moment of silence, he gave a helpless nod. "Fine. If you don't mind my situation, then I... suppose I'm willing to swipe your student card."
Lin Shuang was genuinely surprised. "Wait, you actually know how to joke?"
(What's happening?) In the Main God's Game fan community, there was a famous thread: "When the Protagonist Laughs, the Reaper Arrives." It was wildly popular.
(Right. Of course. I'm toast in three days anyway.)
Jiang Mo: "Did you think I didn't know how to joke, Ms. Lin?"
"Because you look like such a serious person," Lin Shuang said, pulling out her phone. "Come on, let's exchange contact info. Are you free tomorrow?"
Summary:
Lin Shuang, having transmigrated into a cannon fodder character, finds herself on a blind date with the male lead, Jiang Mo. Desperate to avoid her fated death in a survival game, she aggressively attempts to secure him as a protector by offering him her resources. Jiang Mo, weary and cynical, eventually agrees to play along, leaving the future of their relationship uncertain as the clock ticks toward her doom.
Trivia:
The Main God's Game is a randomized selection process for survival games.
Jiang Mo has an established reputation in the game community for being dangerous.
Lin Shuang's aunt is the catalyst for the blind date.
Lin Shuang has three days before her scheduled entry into the game.
Translation Notes:
1 ↩ A reference to the infinite-stream survival genre, a popular trope in Chinese web novels where participants are trapped in lethal games.
2 ↩ A loose translation of the idiom 大肠包小肠, which refers to a Taiwanese snack but is used here metaphorically to express that life is chaotic, messy, and unpredictable.
Notes:
• Lin Shuang - A college student who wants to live a life of comfort as a "parasite" to the male lead. A young woman and minor character in an infinite stream game, struggling with anxiety and a desperate need to survive. A young woman who has transmigrated into a character within a survival game novel, struggling to adapt and survive. An outsider who has transmigrated into a cannon fodder supporting role within an infinite stream world. She is trying to navigate her new reality while dealing with the original owner's social ties.
• Lin - A third-year university student who has transmigrated into a cannon fodder role within a survival game novel. She is panicked but uses a facade of bravado and wealth to survive.
• Jiang Mo - A cold, calculating man who hides a predatory nature beneath a mask of playful indifference. A player in the Infinite Stream, detached and highly trained. The male lead of the survival game novel, who masks his cold, aloof nature with a polite and gentle persona in the real world. The male protagonist of the infinite stream story. He is calm, methodical, and surprisingly tidy, currently living alone.
• Jiang - A cynical, survival-hardened former student and game player who has become detached from life. He is suspicious of social interactions and blind dates.
• Lin Yingnan - A friendly, middle-aged neighbor in the apartment complex who is known for her kindness and hospitality. Lin Shuang's aunt, a mother of twins who is eager to play matchmaker for her niece.