Chapter 1 : Chapter 1
Chapter 1: A-Rank Forbidden Object
"For God’s sake, am I even still in the country?"
Lin Qi stared at the bedroom in front of him, his mind a complete blank.
As a well-known game concept artist, Lin Qi had been driving home after a grueling overtime session when a heavy-duty truck coming from the opposite direction slammed into him, flattening him like a pancake.
Damned roads. Navigating the national highway in the middle of the night was truly a death trap.
Two heavy-duty trucks had been driving side-by-side with their high beams blinding him, leaving Lin Qi with absolutely nowhere to dodge.
He gazed at the entirely unfamiliar environment and fell into deep thought.
Could it be that a heavy truck really was the official tool for interdimensional travel?
But where was he? Was he even still in the country?
Where the hell had he ended up?
He surveyed the bedroom, which was less than twenty square meters in size.
There was a single bed, a desk, and a chair.
On the desk sat a mirror, an oil lamp, and a sheet of paper covered in cryptic, ghoulish symbols.
To a concept artist like Lin Qi, the tacky, outdated decor of the room was a form of torture.
It was utterly devoid of any aesthetic sense.
He picked up the mirror from the desk and used the light of the oil lamp to see his reflection clearly.
It was the face of a young man.
Blue eyes and blonde hair.
Damn it. In the next life, he had hoped to be born in the motherland again!
How had his entire race changed?
However, as he looked at the face, it began to feel more and more familiar.
"No way. No way. Transmigrating into my own company's game and becoming the very first character I ever drew... how could something like that actually happen?"
Lin Qi was unwilling to accept the truth.
He took another careful look at the mirror.
Damn it, the resemblance was uncanny!
Wasn’t this exactly Isaris Roland, looking a bit haggard after skipping a few hair washes and pulling several all-nighters?
Why did I have to transmigrate into him of all people?
Isaris Roland.
He was a character from the world’s first fully immersive sensory game—[Epoch of the End].
He was also the first character Lin Qi had independently completed and drawn by hand after joining the company upon graduation.
[Epoch of the End] was a game created by a super-AI model.
Lin Qi’s company, Apollo Games Studio, had fed the underlying code to the AI, which then enriched the world-building and main storyline to create the world's first fully immersive online game.
It was also the first game to achieve entry through a sleep pod.
With the gimmick of allowing people to travel through another world in their dreams, the game exploded in popularity worldwide immediately upon its launch.
But of all the people to transmigrate into, why did it have to be Isaris Roland?
As the first character Lin Qi had led the design for, Isaris could be considered a showpiece of his skills.
He had soft golden hair, features that combined the defined structure of the West with the gentle contours of the East, and a truly magnificent face.
(If the readers look in a mirror, they will see it.)
Furthermore, the background story the AI generated after the original art was submitted was quite extraordinary; he possessed the quintessential template of a protagonist.
Isaris Roland was the illegitimate son of the Roland family, the most prominent noble house in Kissmark Town within the Viridian Empire.
His mother was the eldest daughter of the Roland family, Sasha Roland, and his father was an old wandering cowboy.
In short, rather than a tragic love story, it was more like a naive noble lady being swindled out of her heart and fortune by a scumbag.
His mother passed away when he was six or seven years old, and his father was a drunkard who only cared about taking the monthly child support from the Roland family to buy a few bottles of good liquor.
Just a short while ago, his father had also died in an accident. It was while sorting through his father’s belongings that Isaris discovered the paper covered in strange characters.
The original Isaris might not have known what it was, but Lin Qi, as a corporate slave from the game company, knew exactly what it represented.
This was a diagram that could allow an ordinary person to reach the heavens in a single bound; it contained transcendent knowledge!
As long as he could crack the cryptic, ghost-like puzzle, he could jump from being a noble family’s illegitimate son to becoming a Transcendent.
In the game’s original setting, the brilliant Isaris cracked the puzzle, gained the transcendent power from the diagram, and became a Sequence 9: The Matchmaker of the Romance Pathway.
After obtaining power, Isaris encountered one of the four main protagonists who had come to Kissmark Town seeking help.
The fallen princess—Elaine.
The two helped each other resolve the local pursuers targeting Elaine and dismantled the conspiracies other nobles had plotted against the Roland family.
Afterward, Elaine continued her journey through the kingdom while Isaris inherited the Roland family, later becoming a powerful ally for Elaine.
A classic supporting character.
Lin Qi sighed. All of the above was only the first version of the setting.
Because Lin Qi had drawn Isaris too handsomely, the AI, while enriching the background, assumed Isaris must be incredibly strong. It assigned him a super-powered mechanic, making his performance in the story stronger than the protagonist, Elaine.
The man simply looked too powerful.
Under Lin Qi’s artistic skill, that sentence had become a reality.
Moreover, Isaris’s strength lay in his mechanics rather than his numerical stats.
If he were just a stat-monster, it would be easy to fix—they could just nerf his damage. But mechanics were impossible to simply "cut," and redesigning them was a waste of time.
Ultimately, after discussions among the company leadership, in order to highlight Elaine’s brilliance and strength, Isaris was demoted from a supporting character to an "Easter egg" character.
The method of modification was simple; they only needed to change a few words in the AI’s settings.
The "Stupid Isaris" failed to gain power from that mysterious diagram.
The modified plot then centered almost entirely around Elaine. Isaris changed from her combat partner to someone she merely rescued.
An illegitimate son without transcendent power naturally had no chance of inheriting the Roland family. He followed in his father's footsteps and became an old cowboy who spent his days bragging in taverns.
In the early stages of the game, players could meet him in Love’s Tavern in Kissmark Town. He was always muttering incomprehensible things about almost becoming a Transcendent, filling the tavern with a cheerful atmosphere.
Please, anything but becoming an otherworld version of a laughingstock!
Furthermore, in the mid-game, to advance the plot, this handsome Easter egg character was scripted to die during a plague.
So, what should he do now?
Having figured everything out, Lin Qi fell into deep thought.
Am I currently the brilliant Isaris or the stupid Isaris?
He looked at the cryptic scribbles he couldn't understand and his own haggard face in the mirror—exhausted from several days without sleep—and took a deep breath.
Why the hell am I the stupid one! Damned AI!
He forced himself to calm down and organize the information he knew.
Right now, he held a life-changing superpower in his hands, but he couldn't use it.
It was as frustrating as waking up and finding yourself back in kindergarten; you wanted to reward yourself, but you could only fire blanks.
Run!
He had to run. From the current situation, Elaine had not yet arrived at Kissmark Town. He still had a few years to live. He could flee to another city or even another country to see if he could escape that future plague.
As for this scrap of paper, he would take it with him. On the off chance that Einstein's spirit possessed him one day, he might crack it.
Having it was better than nothing.
With that thought, Lin Qi quickly began to pack the items in the room.
However, he froze the moment he opened a suitcase beneath the bed.
These were the belongings of Isaris’s father, the boastful old cowboy. The paper recording the transcendent power had been found here.
Lin Qi stared at the revolver in the suitcase before it dawned on him. Was there really anything wrong with an old cowboy owning a gun?
This wasn't his original world anymore; he was overreacting.
"Sigh, I really need to adapt."
Lin Qi reached out and pulled the revolver from the suitcase. The moment his hand touched the weapon...
A translucent blue screen suddenly appeared before his eyes!
[Forbidden Object detected! Energy levels sufficient.]
[Attention! Fan Benefits System successfully activated!]
[Character Panel activated!]
Name: Isaris Roland (Lin Qi)
Race: Human (Viridian Kingdom)
Identity: NPC (Easter Egg Character)
Level: 3
Experience: 0/120
Health: 39/50 (Hunger, Mental Fatigue)
Stamina: 37/50
Primary Class: None
Sub-class: Artist LV3
Attributes: Strength 7, Speed 6, Endurance 8, Intelligence 6, Faith 0
Special Attributes: Charm 9, Willpower 3, Luck ???
Skills: Roland Secret Sword LV1, Alcohol Appreciation LV4
Combat Power: 5
[Evaluation: A handsome little loser. Aside from his looks, he is utterly worthless. He couldn't even beat a stray dog. Trash.]
...
He got the distinct feeling that he was being looked down upon by the system.
Lin Qi noticed a back button in the upper left corner of the panel. After clicking it, he arrived at the panel's home page.
[Fan Benefits]
- Exposure Equals Profit: Appear in important CGs and main quests. Basic popularity will be settled based on screen time and importance.
- Performance Equals Bonus: Highlight performances, aesthetic execution, and emotional resonance can bring massive tips.
- Interaction Equals Empowerment: Grants the ability to log into the player forums and view CG bullet chats. Performance strategies can be adjusted based on this ability.
...So how am I supposed to run away now?
Lin Qi's fantasies were completely shattered. Doesn't this system basically mean I have to go out and hog the spotlight?
Isaris was turned into an Easter egg character precisely because he hogged the spotlight, and now I have to go and do it again?
But then again, since I’m already here...
If Lin Qi had to spend his entire life as an ordinary person in a world filled with transcendent powers, he wouldn't be satisfied.
If he wanted to enjoy life and enjoy the world...
Then he had to become strong first.
In Lin Qi’s previous life, the people who enjoyed the world were the wealthy. How could a corporate slave ever enjoy life without constantly worrying about survival?
In this world, the definition of the strong was power. Only by mastering transcendent power could he stop worrying about his future.
Fine, let's do it.
Lin Qi looked at the revolver in his hand and silently called up the item panel.
Name: [Judgement]
Type: [Revolver]
Grade: [A-Rank Forbidden Object]
Ability 1: [Desired Accuracy]: As long as you imagine the bullet hitting the enemy when you fire, the bullet will strike as intended.
Ability 2: [Perilous Enchantment]: When there are three or fewer bullets in the cylinder, you can enchant them with transcendent power, and the bullets will deal critical damage.
Price: Using this weapon will amplify your inner emotions, leading to irrational behavior.
Description: Fate never gives gifts; it only delays the explosion of the price.
Looking at the panel, Lin Qi was completely stunned. The revolver in front of him was actually an A-Rank Forbidden Object!