Huaixu, refers to summer, and is also another name for the fourth month of the lunar calendar.
Chu Huaixu's birthday is the first day of the fourth lunar month, hence the name.
He is currently playing a game called "Borrowed Sword".
It is now 2045, and as a young person born in the 2020s, in this era of rapidly advancing technology, all he needs to do is stick that wired patch to his temple, close his eyes, and he can immerse himself in an incredibly realistic game world.
In today's world, web novels about time travel have fallen out of fashion because the act of time traveling itself is no longer considered uncommon.
For many people, these kinds of games have practically become equivalent to time travel.
However, while reality is governed by laws that restrict people's actions, different games have different rules that impose restrictions on players' behaviors.
In some games with high degrees of freedom, you can even marry and have children with NPCs or other players, ensuring that none of the steps are skipped.
Therefore, with the advancement of the gaming era, the "accompanying play industry" has undergone a degree of transformation.
In the early stages, game companionship might have been just playing games together and connecting via voice chat.
No matter how borderline, at most you were just flirting or giving a few breaths over the call.
If you wanted more, you'd have to meet offline.
But by 2045, games have become so realistic to the point where they truly feel immersive. If projected into the Otherworld, and with extremely high freedom, then accompanying play starts to resemble male and female models getting personally involved at work.
Or you could say, it also somewhat resembles the... local companion service that became popular years ago?
Except, with local companions, you travel or take a business trip out of town, and the other party accompanies you locally. Nowadays, the location for accompanying has become the game world.
And Chu Huaixu is a proficiently skilled Brother Muzi in this industry—oh wait, a companion player!
On his own, he moves among various female bosses, earning five-star reviews from everyone, sometimes even managing to eat soft rice hard, a feat that absolutely requires skill.
Luckily, such a person stays on the right path, using his skills for work, diligently being a Brother Muzi.
If he applied this to real life, he'd surely be a scumbag.
At this moment, he's actually got nothing to do and wants to test his luck by opening a number in the game "Borrowed Sword".
"Borrowed Sword" drew inspiration from a large gambling company's blind box sales mentality, and game accounts also have a certain blind box nature.
Every account requires money to purchase.
After "open number", what sort of start you'll get, which newbie village you'll start in, what the early stage newbie quests are... it's all unknown.
Though the game's balance at the beginning stage is quite well done, there won't be any god-level openings, but there's something for everyone, right?
Furthermore, after five years of the game's release, veteran players have discovered some tricks, and some opening scenarios are more favored by everyone.
Moreover, for well-funded gaming guilds, rather than trying their luck with blind boxes, it's sometimes better to directly buy "open-numbered" accounts for strategic planning.
Therefore, some new accounts can be resold for a profit, and "open number" has gradually become popular.
Chu Huaixu has a habit of opening numbers three times at the beginning of every month.
In this aspect, he's always been pretty lucky, earning a bit of pocket money this way.
Most importantly, he has a stable client base among female management in guilds, who are the best buyers, with one woman even treating him like a treasure, and her offers often exceed market prices.
And today, this account should fetch a good price.
Because upon logging in, he was instantly hunted by a scruffy man while carrying large amounts of silver notes, obviously marking him as a "strong mainline type" character.
"The mainline task in the early stage is very clear; many guilds love acquiring such accounts." Chu Huaixu knew this very well.
But who would have thought, as soon as he logged in today, it seemed there was a problem.
— He couldn't log out!
"This can't be right." Chu Huaixu was baffled.
He'd played "Borrowed Sword" for so long, understanding the game's stability inside out.
"Borrowed Sword" was excellently made in every aspect, offering superb gaming experiences, currently topping game ratings.
As for its reputation, how high was it?
Even the 'planner's mom' was still alive in many players' minds.
Unlike some games, where even if the planner had ten mothers, it wouldn't be enough for them to die repeatedly.
This was the first time Chu Huaixu encountered such a severe issue, being unable to exit the game.
Furthermore, many of his game features seemed unusable.
Including some basic functions.
For instance, he couldn't listen to music while playing anymore.
"At least the 'brightness adjustment' is still here."
Earlier, he swiped two fingers upwards, and the entire world became brighter to him, thanks to using the brightness adjustment.
"But why isn't there any 'pain adjustment' anymore?" Chu Huaixu was speechless.
He tried pinching himself hard, then grimaced in pain.
"No way! This definitely feels like 100% pain!" He was utterly stunned.
In "Borrowed Sword," the adjustable maximum pain index was only 8%.
Players generally set it very low, with only some special-taste enthusiasts craving their peculiar needs in-game, setting the pain index higher.
Many people set the pain index nearly to zero.
Moreover, with the high freedom in "Borrowed Sword," as mentioned, you can even marry and have children, truly abundant in possibilities. As such, the legendary "painless motherhood" could indeed be realized within the game.
"But this level of pain is just too bizarre." Chu Huaixu frowned deeply.
The game's set limit is just 8%, which makes no sense.
He glanced at the bearded man's corpse on the ground, involuntarily taking a breath of cold air.
"That means if I wasn't careful earlier and he actually slashed me, wouldn't the pain just be overwhelming?"
"If such a bug appears, how many players would be discouraged?" Chu Huaixu could already envision this.
Next, he checked all his game functions, finding very few still operational.
Even the AI customer service couldn't be reached.
Mind you, this AI customer service was something he had meticulously trained for a long time, already shaped to his liking.
More bizarrely, while Chu Huaixu could check "Time," knowing well that the game's timeline was at Xuan Calendar year 1997.
But now, when he checked the "Time," it showed Xuan Calendar year 1990!
"This is just fucking absurd!"
"Is this game breaking down or what?"
The heavy rain continued pouring as Chu Huaixu, holding his oiled paper umbrella, stood on the narrow path amidst the dense forest, feeling increasingly bewildered by the situation.
After all, he was a game male model who had consumed a vast amount of novels, animations, and film works...
"Don't tell me I've transmigrated into 'Borrowed Sword'?"
He opened his "Character Panel" to check his game character's basic information.
Immediately afterward, he noticed something wrong in the character template section.
His "Template" was bizarrely labeled not as "Player", but as... "NPC"!
In that moment, Chu Huaixu's world came crashing down.
"Damn it! I've worked so hard to cling to rich women, putting my heart into being a male model, being rated as number two on the 'Borrowed Sword Accompanying Play Must-Eat List' by the sisters in the game, yet I still haven't even spent the money I've saved up!"
"I even had Sister Yun's appointment for tonight."
"This slightly mature lady, often separated from her husband, with a marital status labeled 'married yet widowed,' possessing a charming mature voice, didn't sleep last night, sending a voice message to book game time with me for tonight, clearly implying an extended session!"
Chu Huaixu couldn't help but bow his head: "Damn it!"
...
The sound of the night rain was irritating, the night rain was infuriating.
Beneath the oiled paper umbrella, Chu Huaixu's frustration grew even more intense.
He walked to the corpse of the scruffy-faced man, then crouched down slowly.
— And slapped him with a raised hand!
...
(ps: New book launching, please cast your votes~)