The floating screen hovered silently for a while without a response. It quietly adjusted its angle and floated down in front of the host, who was crouching on the ground holding her head.
[…Feeling your strong unwillingness, we hereby launch the ultimate gift of this game — The Wish Gift Box]
Catching the keyword, Wen Qian immediately lifted her head and carefully read through this Letter from the Creator to the Player.
In summary, it said one thing: seriously complete the game’s main storyline, and you will receive a mysterious grand prize.
She couldn’t help but feel a flicker of hope — maybe she could still go back?
Whether or not she could return, coming to this world was already a fait accompli.
With the help of the beginner tutorial, Wen Qian reviewed her current character profile.
This body was the new game account she had just opened.
Because it was a newly created account, nothing had been set up yet; the system simply copied her own physical data.
In the game, at character creation, the system randomly generates a background identity and affiliated school.
Trying to calm down, Wen Qian recalled the student ID she found in her pocket — it seemed her randomly assigned academy was Saint Thorn Royal Academy.
As for her identity — Wen Qian glanced at the identity panel she had previously ignored.
Seeing the three big red-stamped words: “Poor but Excellent Student,” Wen Qian felt as if the sky was falling!
What kind of devilish start was this? She’s already a game character, and yet couldn’t she have been assigned the daughter of a wealthy family or a scholarly household?
At least a middle-class family would do — why was she a poor but excellent student?!
[Beep — Player doubt detected, system in judgment mode —]
The red stamp on the character panel slowly disappeared. Wen Qian couldn’t hold back her excitement.
She hadn’t expected the system to be this considerate — it could re-judge her status. That was good.
Her smile had just appeared when the next second, it froze into a mask.
[Judgment complete. Intelligence points insufficient. Poor but Excellent Student title revoked. New title issued. Please claim in mailbox.]
Opening the empty mailbox, the title “Impoverished Student” was glaringly obvious.
Wen Qian expressionless, thought, what had she just said? Retract it!
Seeing her title changed to Impoverished Student, Wen Qian subtly felt as if her intelligence had been insulted.
This feeling became even clearer when she looked at the stat panel showing a long list of single-digit numbers.
[Name]: Wen Qian (Level: 1)
[Identity]: Student
[Pre-career]: Not yet unlocked (Unlocks at Level 5)
[Stamina]: 80/100 (Decreasing ↓)
[Intelligence]: 2
[Strength]: 1
[Agility]: 1
A long string of single-digit stats glowing red, so pitiful it was almost tear-inducing.
The game’s initial stats are randomly generated, with 10 as the highest and 1 as the lowest.
Yes, Wen Qian’s stats were, in a certain sense, the ultimate display of bad luck.
Though in a reversed sense.
Silently, Wen Qian slid down on the sofa. At this moment, whether or not she was transmigrated or in a game no longer mattered.
Haha, for someone with only 2 intelligence points, what was there left to struggle for?
The system panel quietly flickered before Wen Qian’s eyes, trying to get her attention with a red dot on the mission bar.
“Don’t bother me. I’m thinking,” Wen Qian said expressionlessly. “Someone with 2 intelligence points can’t even read.”
[…Detected player’s Chinese proficiency at 50%. Awarding reward, please claim in mailbox.]
Catching the keyword, Wen Qian sprang up incredulously.
“What do you mean 50% proficiency? I’m a native Chinese speaker! Are you joking with me?”
The system said nothing but threw out a piece of extremely obscure Classical Chinese text from somewhere.
[Please translate the entire text within three minutes. Upon completion, a new intelligence assessment will be conducted.]
“Three minutes? You’re doing this on purpose, right?!” Wen Qian choked, stunned by the system’s dirty trick.
Forget it, no point arguing. She opened the system mailbox and claimed the 50% Chinese proficiency reward.
[Reward received. Intelligence +1]
After claiming the reward, Wen Qian casually opened the mission tab — that string of red dots on the mission bar was very tempting for a player not to click.
[Beginner Mission — Achieve a grade B or above on the school entrance exam (Clear requirements: Intelligence 10+, Stamina 50+)]
[Clear rewards: 100 gold coins, 20 experience points, Intelligence +2, Random attribute points +2]
“Intelligence needs to be 10?” Wen Qian’s voice rose. “Who balanced this game? I only have 3 intelligence now!”
“What happens if I fail the mission?” she couldn’t help but consider the worst case.
[Failing the mission will result in losing the ‘Poor but Excellent Student’ title. As a student admitted under this title, losing it will trigger expulsion.]
Wen Qian’s face stiffened. What was this? Expelled as soon as school starts?
Since this game’s background was campus-based, she dared not imagine what would happen if she got expelled.
Would it be an outright mission failure?
Thinking about this possibility, Wen Qian immediately sat upright, opened the game’s mission panel, and decided to grind her stats well before the school entrance exam.
At least she had to get her intelligence points back!
Before entering the school, most of the missions were still grayed out and unopened. The only mission lit up caught Wen Qian’s attention.
[Weekly Mission — Read Books (0/10)]
Wen Qian stood up, looked around, and fixed her gaze on the school bag by the bedside.
The cramped room made even the bed feel tight, so naturally there was no bookshelf or anything like that. Fortunately, Wen Qian had only graduated, not mutated.
She hadn’t forgotten that there should be books inside the school bag.
Confidently opening the bag, Wen Qian’s expression froze — it was empty except for a single pen.
Though this was her game character, this character was supposed to be a student, right? And yet the school bag had no books?
As Wen Qian stared in disbelief, a pale green item description box slowly floated above the bag.
[A reasonably spacious old school bag. P.S.: Its owner hasn’t put anything in it except a pen yet. Maybe after the school starts and new books are issued, it will show its use as a school bag.]
Wait — new books will be issued at school.
Suddenly realizing she hadn’t been to school yet, Wen Qian’s expression stiffened. Could it really be today…?
The founding emperor’s work was only halfway done before he abandoned school.
Wen Qian had no choice but to give up on finding books in the bag and carefully examined her residence, trying to find any stray knowledge hiding somewhere.
From the entrance hall to the balcony stove, Wen Qian didn’t find even a scrap of paper.
The house was as empty as a model home, showing no sign of anyone living here. It was so simple and sparse that the space still looked cramped visually.
Wen Qian belatedly realized that this was likely the player’s initial starter house in the game.
The game scene had turned into reality with too much difference, which made her overlook this fact.
The starter house in the game had the same layout, but with the chibi-style three-heads-tall characters, the small space gave a warm and cute feeling.
Put in reality, this size only made people feel pitiful to the point of tears.
After going back and forth and not finding a single book, Wen Qian finally gave up.
She collapsed onto the bed, eyes vacant: “This is too much. How can a student’s home not have a single book? Even if it’s a game character… game!”
Wen Qian flipped over and sat up, suddenly brightening up like she had discovered a new continent.
Right, this is a game — why should she find books by herself?
Opening the system panel, she clicked on the mission tab, and the “Read Books” mission bar reappeared in front of her.
Her gaze locked onto the book icon on the mission bar, and as she suspected, there was a small magnifying glass at the icon’s bottom right.
Clicking the magnifying glass, a string of illusory directional arrows instantly appeared on the floor — the same arrows that had earlier guided her back home.
The arrows led all the way outside the front door.
Going downstairs, Wen Qian’s mood was very different from when she first came.
When returning from the school gate, she had just hurried along, paying no attention to the nearby shops, so naturally she had missed their oddness.
Now, having understood why she came here, Wen Qian had somewhat given up on resisting — since she’s here, she might as well just live.
She followed the arrows on the sidewalk and paused slightly when she saw a noodle shop beside her.
Isn’t this the shop from the game?
In the game, the streets, residences, and schools are divided into several zones — she hadn’t expected them to be right downstairs in reality.
With a curious mindset to see how the game’s scenes would be realized in the real world, Wen Qian turned around and pushed open the noodle shop’s door.
“Welcome!” The chubby noodle shop owner smiled and said the same fixed line from the game.
Wen Qian marveled at the familiar cream-colored tables and chairs inside, the small blackboard at the counter showing today’s special noodles.
The shop usually had two or three NPC customers sitting inside, but Wen Qian paid no attention to the faces looking down and unclear, only carefully watching the owner.
The owner looked exactly like in the game, only now a three-dimensional figure instead of a two-dimensional one.
Even the idle motions of looking down and doing something were the same.
The noodle shop owner didn’t seem to mind the new customer, busily going about after greeting her until Wen Qian came closer, then he spoke again.
“What would you like to eat? Beef noodles are on special today.”
Oh, another fixed line from the game.
Wen Qian suddenly became curious if these NPCs that appeared in the game would trigger other dialogues now that they were real people.
She tentatively asked, “Boss, have you always run this shop here?”
“Yes.” The owner nodded, then suddenly showed a somewhat troubled expression. “Sigh, I’m the only one in the shop; it’s really a bit too much for me to handle. Today, the assistant who delivers the flour got hurt…”
A very obvious question mark appeared above the noodle shop owner’s head.
Hearing the owner’s reply, Wen Qian couldn’t help but be surprised. For a player, seeing familiar game NPCs suddenly become real and able to talk to you is quite surreal.
It made her feel like the game had truly turned into reality — after all, this owner was the first NPC from the game she had encountered.
Until the noodle shop owner went on talking.
Seeing the question mark above his head, Wen Qian twitched her mouth.
Such a familiar tone of speech, such a familiar mission marker.
Just running into someone who wants to ask you for help — this is way too game-like…
Wen Qian consciously clicked the question mark above the owner’s head, and a green frame suddenly popped up.
[Side Mission — The Noodle Shop Owner’s Troubles]
[For a noodle shop, flour is indispensable. Today, Boss Chen has encountered a small difficulty…]
[Please help Boss Chen retrieve flour. Mission reward: unlock food [Beef Noodles], +20 money, +10 experience]
“Boss, I’ll help you get it.” Wen Qian hadn’t forgotten she was currently penniless.
“Then this is all yours!” The owner immediately showed a grateful expression.
Looking at the mission pending on the backend interface, Wen Qian opened the map and changed her route from finding books to finding flour.
In the corner, a boy slightly frowned, lifting his head to look at Wen Qian’s departing figure, a faint flicker of doubt flashing in his cold eyes.
From the girl’s initial conversation with the boss, they seemed unfamiliar. But if they were strangers, why would the boss mention the flour to her, and why would she help the boss get flour?
…Strange boss, strange girl.