Shift! The Side-Character Heroine

There were many endings for the main storyline quest. It was almost like a “galgame.” Different choices would lead to different endings. You could even end up being alone forever. You could also end up as one half of an enviable, perfect couple with the first heroine. Of course, that meant giving up the second heroine. As Zhao Youyue had found her own”path to monkhood” gameplay, romance with females would be the least of her concerns – or the concerns of a monk, at least.

She may not be interested in the female characters, but this did not stop those female characters from falling in love with Ah Guang, no thanks to his “monkness,” as such a path would lead him to inevitably helping everyone and everything – and that included these female characters.

Zhao Youyue’s main storyline quest concluded in a rather balanced ending that was neither good nor bad. He did not choose to murder the tyrant of a particular country, leaving people to continue suffering from extreme hardship. Even so, where one tyrant falls, another would rise to take its place. Such was human nature. On the other hand, there were evil spirits of all sorts that roamed about. Of this sort, “Ah Guang” spared no mercy whatsoever.

In the end, Ah Guang chose to remain guard at the doorway where all evil spirits emerged from —— The Abyss Vault. This ‘doorway’ was more like a crack that had opened up on the membrane that separated dimensions. Monsters and spirits had conquered the world on the other side of the crack, and they now had their eyes on Ah Guang’s realm. It was there, where Ah Guang made the noblest of all vows. He swore to never ascend into Buddhahood, as long as this “hell” was not purged of all evil.

Zhao Youyue had taken five days to accomplish such an end. She spent at least twelve hours per day. Throughout her gameplay, she had completely ignored unessential, optional side quests. She had yet to collect many, many other achievements. This spoke of how grand a scale this game had been built upon.

The game did not skimp on CGI-laden cutscenes, and flaunted them at every opportunity they had. The music was even more invigorating. In the end, Ah Guang made such a choice. Many viewers in the live broadcast room commented on the bullet curtain ——

“I’m inexplicably touched. It looks like Lady Ah Yu wasn’t just messing around. I didn’t expect Ah Guang to actually become ‘the’ monk of the generation. He even chose to guard the Abyss Vault”

“Even if it’s just a game, I find it almost impossible to close your heart to that level. I’ve seen so many guides and walkthroughs, and they all taught the players how to achieve a Harem ending.”

“This is truly a good game. After watching Lady Ah Yu’s stream, I’ve decided to get myself a copy and play according to the guide!”

“Zha Feng’s games are all masterpieces. His set of worldview is quite interesting, especially that set up for Samsara Palace. Unfortunately, the skills demanded are just a little too ahead of our current generation”

“That’s how you get players to take things seriously. There’s a degree of reality there. If the game is nothing but a mess of flurries and screen-wide lights and sounds, players won’t feel much. I thought I was watching a fully fleshed-out, impactful, action movie!”

After Zhao Youyue finished playing the game, she even found herself the official novelization of the “Tale of Wuxia” series to read. She found that it was unsurprisingly cliche. Wuxia novels rarely differentiated from one another.

This novelization had been told from the first person perspective, but there was no main protagonist, only a rather extensive lead cast. The first and second heroines within the game were members of this cast. The plot revolved around them, and they told the story through their personal insights and perspective.

Hoewever, Zhao Youyue thought that the heroines had been written rather stereotypically, be it the first heroine Cheng Shan, or the second heroine Luo Siqi.

Cheng Shan was a strong woman. Within this chaotic world, she had been orphaned early in her life. She had been brought up and almost indoctrinated as a suicide, frontline infantry. She carved her path through the martial world with her sword. At the same time, she was immensely loyal to Da Chu – the country she was born in —— She did everything for Da Chu. I would rather die fighting for justice, than live in humiliation!

Even so, those words did little to prevent Da Chu from being wiped off the map. Well, that was rather embarrassing.

This gave way for painful choices and sad endings within the game. If you chose not to save the first heroine, she would almost certainly die for her country. If you saved her, there would be a big side quest that involved reclaiming her country.

The second heroine, Luo Siqi was the daughter of a wealthy family within the Kingdom of Jin, a small country at a corner of the map. She had longed to explore the lawless world since childhood, and was ditsy, innocent, and naive. She got her wish, and entered that hostile world, only to swiftly have her dreams smashed to pieces. The lawless world was truly too dangerous! It was not as beautiful as she had imagined.

Fortunately, the protagonist was within the game, albeit it had to be a protagonist who completed the quest – “the Hero saves the Beauty.” Thanks to the sadistic difficulty level of the game we often get “the Hero failed to save the Beauty” outcome, instead. Sometimes the beauty dies, sometimes we even get a “Hero failed to save the Beauty and himself” situation

This sidequest did not just sit there and allow you to take your time. If you did not go to the Kingdom of Jin by XX year, only going after you think you have sufficient power, you would only find out that the second heroine Luo Siqi had either died for a very long time, or she had been taken to other countries to be a slave of sorts, and her many, many offsprings were already running all over the map!

Some players furiously marked this down as one of “Zha Feng’s bad intentions.” He was practically forcing you to risk your life and conquer this sidequest. How could you possibly wait until you were strong enough to save this heroine?

These generic females aside, the new DLC introduced a new, female supporting character – Ye Honglian. Ye Honglian had once appeared in a previous work, before the “Tale of Wuxia” series. She may be known as the “Deity Honglian,” but she was an evil woman who killed people without a blink. Triggering her sidequest either led the player down her path, or led her to turn over a new leaf, following the noble player’s way...

These female characters had far more screentime, compared to the female characters from many other minor sidequests, which often led to one-night stands. After all, this was a lawless world. You could f*ck around and f*ck just about anything you fancied. Besides, there were brothels scattered throughout various countries, and in varying spheres of influence. Some players would never fail to drop by the brothel first – during each visit to a new country. It was said that after a player f*cks all the prostitutes within the game, he would unlock an achievement called the “Cannon Lord of the Lawless World.”

With so many female characters and large-scale CGIs within the game, it was clear that this was a male-centric game. Of course, female characters were not exempt from love lines either. Of course, those love lines had to be of the girl-on-girl nature. That would be what we call the hidden “Lily line”[1]...

Unfortunately, Zha Feng never provided any gay lines or routes. The game had decided on Zhao Youyue’s behalf that her monk was a downright upright, straight guy. Zha Feng must have been looking down on female gamers, belittling their gamer spirits. In addition to their timid character, they could never appreciate the beauty of his cruel, dark world.

Female players within this game may be just as scarce as he had imagined, but so were the male players. For such a well-made, triple-A masterpiece, it barely covered the cost of its own production. Expecting to profiteer from this? Impossible!

Zha Feng, the idealistic game producer,who had unpopular but stoic pursuits and principles of his own, did not make games for business (mostly because he was rich as it is), but to share his thoughts and opinions with the world. He cared little about how well his games did.

Right now, Zha Feng was in the process of making the second DLC of the game. He was also fixing bugs and flaws in parts of the game, while also preventing cheaters from fleeing from his ruthless bullying

Those who were familiar with Zha Feng knew that this entire DLC would be centered around yet another female character, and players would be able to ‘raid’ her, leaving everyone happy!

Zha Feng practiced a hands-on approach when it came to developing new plotlines. His company had an entire department that dedicated their energy into plot development. He would work closely with this department, leaving them to elaborate on his ideas on Wuxia, even if those ideas sometimes led to his “bad interests”

Translation Note:

[1] Lily line – A concept under ACGN realm, which refers to the innocent, pure love relationship between females, but does not entirely equate to “lesbianism.”