In a daze, Su Wanli fell into a long dream.
In the dream, she was floating in a dark, hazy chaos, but it wasn’t cold. On the contrary, it felt more like a solid and warm harbor. The air was filled with a faint woody scent, and brilliant sunlight fell from above, making her feel warm all over, as if she could just go on sleeping like this forever…
However, she seemed to have forgotten something.
‘I seem to have forgotten something. It seemed like a completely insignificant task… or maybe, it was a very important one.’
*Click, click.*
Occasionally, restrained and fragmented tapping sounds reached her ears, as if reminding her of something. Not only that, but there were also sounds similar to a joystick rattling…
Although her brain was still foggy, at that moment, Su Wanli vaguely recalled that mysterious “formula.”
‘A, A, A, and then parry…’
‘Ah! That’s right! Those are the game controls!?’
‘Wasn’t I just leveling up with Meng Wange, preparing to challenge the stat-based Boss in that kusoge?’
‘Wake up! Now is not the time to be sleeping peacefully! If I don’t finish the task, heaven knows what the System will make me do to Meng Wange!’
Driven by an amazing sense of willpower, Su Wanli gritted her teeth and took a deep breath, forcibly pulling her consciousness out of that soft chaos. She struggled to open her eyes.
The last sliver of the setting sun was spilling in through the window.
‘Wait, sunset? The evening glow? And this bottom-up perspective…’
“Oh? Miss Su, are you awake?”
‘Am I… lying in Meng Wange’s lap?’
Su Wanli’s eyes snapped wide open. She immediately sat up and scanned her surroundings —
It had clearly been noon before she fell asleep, but in the blink of an eye, the sky had darkened, leaving only half the silhouette of the setting sun on the horizon.
‘How could this happen… the System task was clearly for me to watch Meng Wange and make sure she didn’t fall asleep, but I ended up falling asleep myself during the boring leveling process…’
However, since the System hadn’t notified her of a task failure and the change in the Female Villain Value wasn’t too large, it meant that Meng Wange hadn’t fallen asleep at the same time.
‘Good, that’s good…’
Before Su Wanli could breathe a sigh of relief, Meng Wange turned on the two gaming consoles on the desk and handed one of them to her, saying with a smile —
“Since you’re awake, I’ll leave the final blow to you.”
“Huh? What final blow? Was it the Boss we were stuck on?”
Su Wanli raised an eyebrow and took the gaming console, accidentally pressing an attack button.
“Hey!”
In the game, her character suddenly let out a clear shout and swung a sword at one high-level Goblin wearing a black robe and a skull mask, its body covered in tentacles —
*BOOM!*
The Skeleton Goblin let out an unbelievable roar, and then its entire body collapsed inward, turning into a black sphere that gradually shrank until it completely vanished.
The game screen shook violently. The teammates then hugged each other and closed their eyes as the silhouettes of countless NPCs appeared in the background. Immediately after, a magnificent explosion animation played out —
“…Through everyone’s trust and sacrifice, we finally did it.”
“After thousands of years of reincarnation, we have once again saved the Continent of Erozeal.”
**THE END.**
“…It’s over?”
“Huh?”
The “final blow” Meng Wange mentioned was actually the final blow of the entire game!?
‘How could this happen!?’
‘Shouldn’t I have been the one leading Meng Wange into battle, suffering together, and building a deep bond, finally defeating the Demon King after going through thousands of hardships?’
‘Now, look at this. I only accompanied her out of the Novice Village to level up for a bit, and when I woke up, the world had already been saved by our Priest…’
‘Dammit… there were so many things I hadn’t experienced with her yet. I didn’t even get to show a reliable side of myself in battle…’
‘As a result, I ended up letting Meng Wange clear the entire process of this garbage game all by herself…’
‘I failed. I’ve completely failed. My “Great Plan to Increase the Heroine’s Favorability” has gone bankrupt before it even officially started…’
Looking at Su Wanli’s slightly disappointed expression, Meng Wange thought for a moment. She immediately opened the save interface and pointed her slender finger at one of the save files —
“I’m sorry, Miss Su. Because you mentioned that we had to clear this game today, I took the liberty of progressing a bit while you were asleep. But I kept the previous save files.”
‘So that was it.’
It was a kusoge to begin with, and she had no interest in the process; she only persisted for so long purely to show off in front of Meng Wange.
Now, things had turned out exactly as the System task had intended —
She had heartlessly forced the severely ill Meng Wange to fight alone in a game hell, making the already exhausted girl clear the entire game while she slept soundly nearby…
Seeing Su Wanli’s disappointment grow more obvious, Meng Wange hesitated for a moment. She tentatively curled her lips into a smile and tapped her forehead with a fingertip.
“Miss Su, if you’re worried about me knowing the plot in advance, then just think of it as me changing classes to a ‘Prophet’. After all, a Priest is a class that can communicate with the gods, so it’s normal to be able to predict the future, right?”
After saying that, she pressed her hands together and made a gesture of devout prayer toward Su Wanli.
‘She can even say such chuunibyou-style nonsense with a straight face.’
It seemed that even if Meng Wange hadn’t gained much fun from the game, she had still been somewhat influenced by it.
In that case, there was no point in dwelling on it anymore. As long as she hadn’t left a terrible impression, there would be other chances to play better games together later.
Besides, the starting point was already so low. No matter what kind of game they played next, the experience would probably be an improvement…
‘Alright, enough. The failure ends here.’
The game time was over. Next, it was time for the “Final Plan” she had prepared for so long.
Su Wanli forced herself to perk up and stretched toward the window. Her gaze fell on the page-turning clock on the desk —
7:32 PM.
‘In less than half an hour, it’ll be 8:00 PM, the time required by the System!?’
‘Dammit, I’m not prepared at all! I had originally planned to leave at least 1 hour!’
“Miss Su, I…”
Meng Wange seemed to want to say something more, but Su Wanli didn’t have time to listen. She grabbed the school uniform jacket hanging nearby and rushed toward the door, not forgetting to look back and give instructions —
“Be quiet! Stay in your room, don’t go out, and don’t you dare fall asleep! Got it?”
Before Meng Wange could answer, the door was slammed shut with a heavy *thud*.
—
Meng Wange blinked softly and looked down at the credits still rolling on the gaming console.
‘Could it be… I made Miss Su angry again?’