Many transmigration novels say that when an ordinary person from Earth arrives in another world, they can embark on a dragon-riding journey of greatness.
But for Xia Lu, that’s complete nonsense—
If he’d known it would be like this, he’d rather not have transmigrated at all!
It’s all his own fault for staying up late every night playing games out of spite.
Now, with supernatural forces at play, he blinked, and he really did transmigrate into his favorite game!
Epic Fantasy Legend
This seemingly average RPG about a hero defeating the Demon King had earned unanimous praise from both the industry and players thanks to its high level of freedom and growth system, constructing a vivid fantasy world: on the Patagonia Continent, the hero who defeats the ultimate threat can always find a second chance in New Game Plus, embarking on a peaceful life.
Do you have any idea how important this is to Xia Lu, who worked hard as a common laborer on Earth?
As an unremarkable worker at a Western restaurant, Xia Lu had thought about saving up money to realize his entrepreneurial dream of opening his own restaurant.
But on one hand, he couldn’t save enough, and on the other, he was afraid of failing as a business owner, ending up as a laughingstock on the internet in some “Brother X Talks About the Restaurant Industry” video, turning around three hundred sixty degrees, then bidding farewell to the world on a rooftop.
So, he immersed himself in this game instead, running a cyber-restaurant to satisfy his dream.
To that end, he became an expert speedrunner, playing obsessively, and even gained a decent reputation on the game forums.
And now… he had actually transmigrated into it?
Looking on the bright side, did this mean he could start a second life and live a leisurely restaurant life?
But looking on the dark side—according to the simplest plot of the game, if the hero couldn’t eliminate the Demon King’s forces in time, then the entire Patagonia Continent would be in chaos, making it unsuitable as a place to open a shop.
Nobody wants a bunch of smelly orc warriors barging in to eat without paying, or one day having a dragon swoop down and burn their restaurant to the ground, right?
Oh well, it’s just a matter of speedrunning the first playthrough, then heading toward a warm and cozy restaurant farming life!
As a speedrunner, Xia Lu was confident in that.
However, Epic Fantasy Legend still had a notoriously unpleasant opening that only hardcore RPG players would enjoy.
That was the brutal Novice Village.
Maybe it was because the game’s developer grew up in an orphanage, but the start of the Novice Village in this game…
Was inside a nest of evil monsters.
According to the outrageous developer’s logic, the rise of the hero began in a nest—a man-eating Manticore with its wings spread descended from the sky above the Novice Village, snatched a group of children to serve as its food reserves, eating one every day.
The Manticore guarded the only exit of the cave, eating when it was awake and sleeping when it was full.
For the children, it was a silent death sentence, watching one of their own die every day…
But to be fair, the hero being able to stand out in such an environment showed why he was the one destined to defeat the Demon King in the game’s setting!
Besides, Xia Lu here was a veteran speedrunner—just a mere Manticore, watch me take it down in one blow!
Speedrunners already knew the strategy.
A Manticore, this big cat with bat wings and a scorpion tail, didn’t have much of a brain.
It just liked eating people.
The clothes and equipment left behind by its victims were always dumped in the cave and ignored.
The hero just needed to not cry or run around recklessly, calmly loot the packs and gear to get the starting weapons left by predecessors, conserve strength, then figure out how to deal with the Manticore and escape.
But first, he had to make sure he wasn’t the unlucky one who got eaten—according to the outrageous developer’s design, the Manticore’s activity was random.
Sometimes it would choose the hero as its food early on, resulting in a game over that forced the player to reload a save.
But now that he had transmigrated in, with no ability to reload, he’d better just lie low for now.
What was the Manticore’s situation now?
Was it full and asleep?
Or had it slept enough and was about to get up and eat?
Xia Lu couldn’t be sure, so he quietly sat in a corner of the cave, observing the situation.
The first thing to enter his ears was the sound of terrible crying.
That was unavoidable—what child wouldn’t cry after being captured by a man-eating monster?
Except for the resilient hero himself.
Especially the girls.
The village girls were innocent, pure farm girls who had never seen such a scene.
They cried until they had no tears left, unable to resist, and were eventually taken away and eaten by the Manticore.
The boys’ situation was a bit more complicated.
Some of the simpler, more honest ones would try to sneak away or attempt to defeat the Manticore, but it turned out that without protagonist’s plot armor, they only became the Manticore’s special toys.
But the most vicious bunch would conserve their energy.
When the Manticore woke up to hunt for food, they would kick a companion out, just to live one more day at a time.
For the hero to be mixed in with these human-skinned beasts was truly a feat.
Since he already knew this group was a mixed bag, Xia Lu wasn’t too keen on sticking with them either.
He could only observe quietly, keeping an appropriate distance from everyone.
Xia Lu listened carefully and seemed to hear the Manticore’s snoring.
At least it was asleep for now.
Alright then, I’ll make my move.
Xia Lu thought to himself, then shifted his legs.
Fortunately, the clothes on his body were quite comfortable, and moving felt like there was a breeze around his lower body.
He didn’t seem to be hungry either.
Well-fed, well-clothed, and pampered, preserving his strength seemed to offer a greater hope of survival.
Except for a pair of eyes, watching him from the shadows.
Xia Lu had to think for a moment.
Damn, were there bad people in here too?
Xia Lu’s mind was in a mess—he knew that when the Manticore imprisoned children as food reserves, there was another problem.
There wasn’t enough food or water in the cave.
The children could eat their fill at home, but the Manticore wasn’t their parent.
Whether the food reserves were alive or dead didn’t matter at all.
So, driven by hunger and thirst, some of the stronger boys would take risks and raise their fists against the weaker ones.
Drinking the blood of their own kind, eating the flesh of their own kind.
Like a living hell!
That developer was inhuman!
Who knows how many newbies this hardcore game scared away back then!
That was Xia Lu’s last complaint.
He broke into a run, wanting to get to the corpses and loot the packs before danger arrived.
He absolutely could not become a fish on the chopping block!
He tried his best, but he couldn’t run fast, and his voice was unbelievably weak and soft.
Strange.
He wasn’t hungry, so why was he making such strange sounds?
Was it an echo?
Now wasn’t the time to worry about that!
Xia Lu spotted his target.
In a dead-end of the cave lay three adventurer corpses.
Over the years, they had turned into a pile of bones.
What remained were the weapons.
If he could just pick that up, he’d be saved!
Xia Lu panted, making a milky, soft sound.
As a speedrunner, the best early-game weapon he knew of was a greatsword, both offensive and defensive.
The hero was born with immense strength, and even as a child, he could wield a two-handed greatsword, turning the Manticore into a plush toy!
Scrape—the tip of the greatsword made a terrible screeching sound against the ground.
For some reason, when Xia Lu picked up the greatsword, he felt an indescribable heaviness.
Instead, he fell flat on his bottom…
How could he not even be able to swing this sword?
What was going on?
Was he going to die?
The owner of those eyes had already caught up.
“Xue La—”
It was a boy, calling her name, reaching out a hand with fingers covered in mud to pull her up.
Huh?
Seeing that the other party meant no harm, Xia Lu re-examined everything about himself.
A pair of small, white hands, only slightly stained with dust…
A sky-blue, pure girl’s dress…
And the strange sounds he had accidentally made earlier…
No!
This wasn’t the transmigration I wanted!
As for the small questions earlier, they all now had answers—
Moving with a breeze around his lower body was because he was wearing a cute dress!
Panting while running and being caught up to were also because, after transmigrating, he had become a girl!
Naturally, his delicate wrist strength couldn’t wield a greatsword.
Simply put, he hadn’t transmigrated as the hero at all!
He was a cannon-fodder NPC maid!
And he called her Xue La.
This name, Xue La… where had he heard it before?