Intermission: The Perils Of Not Reading the User Manual!
[User 0001 has a new tutorial mission available. Would you like to access it? ^(@w@)^]
Shang Qinghua’s hand stilled from where it was shoved in his bowl of sunflower seeds. He’d been in the midst of a 3-hour paperwork binge, sorting requisitions that should have been handed in weeks ago - But noooo, prove you can do your job well, and what do you get rewarded with? More work! - When the system message flashed in front of him. Rather than its usual white text on cool blue, the letters were pulsing a soft warm yellow, and the screen seemed almost more teal… System did you update?! And what’s this about tutorial missions!
“What do you mean a new tutorial mission? You’ve never given me a tutorial mission before!” The seed shells crack in his grasp, tutorial missions? Ha! As if his system would give him something so helpful! B-points, plot adherence, what else is there?! Besides he literally grew up here, what more was there to learn!
[User 0001 is incorrect. This SYSTEM informed User at transmigration of pending tutorial missions. User responded -ahhhhgrawwahhhaaaah- and quite vigorously hit this SYSTEM’S mute button (o///o)]
BS! Not fair! This transmigrator was a baby! How could this one be expected to accept in that state?
[Further more, this SYSTEM has assigned multiple additional tutorial missions on review of User 0001’s activity. Due to User muting tutorial messages, this SYSTEM helpfully made them accessible through the System User Manual! (>OuO)>]
!!!! @$%* !!!! “A system user manual? And what is in said manual?” Shang Qinghua was sure his current face would even give the scum villain Shen Qingqiu pause. Grit teeth was an understatement, and Mu Qingfang would no doubt have much to say about the current clench of his jaw. Pulling all-nighters wasn’t easy, and the system playing him for a fool only made the no doubt impending migraine worse! He’s already been distracted from his signing of… what was it, ah yes more training swords for the Bai Zhan disciples! Of course it was Bai Zhan! Liu Shidi control your brats! Though he was sure he’d filled out this exact form hours ago! How many did you send??
[User could access:]
A secondary window popped up next to the first. It was a dull grey contrasting the bright teal of the first, its letters uniform and blocky, it’s text to speech voice less refined in its intonation. Unsurprisingly, it gave Shang Qinghua the creeps. It was the Windows 2000, to the system’s usual Windows XP!
{Information about preventing plot inconsistency! Information about disabling OOC lock! Information about unlocking the skill tree! Information about Author Permissions of the World State in Current P̷̧͆͋̌Ĩ̵̩͖̜̱̮̓̍̏̾̃͐̚Ḑ̷̩͔͕̑̏̽̔̐̓̎̅̇̓͆͝͝Ẅ̴̗̙̝͙̣̺̼̭̫́̉͑̄̓͆̅ ̸̧̼̞͔̼̳̖̮͙͍̳̥̩̜̇̿͗̏̽̇̽̀͘͜Ḯ̴͕̲̗̫̩̩͍̙̠͕̌̐̉͆́͒̂̚͜͝͝͝͝͝Ṋ̸̡̡̢̡̦̮̀̀̿͛͒̆͗S̷̨̧̛̞̞̹͒̋̒̃T̴̢̫͇̗̜̦̟̎̂̍̇̀̀̄̑͆̽͜A̵̢̡̢͖̤̩̯̗̟͇̝̹̦̓̀͛̃͋̑̇͘N̴̹̺͐̐̃͊́̋̄̅̆͑̀̃̃͋C̴̡̨̧͈̠͓̜͍͕̺͖͈̬̄̎̎͋̏̈́͗͜͝͠É̶̞͓͒͊͌̉ ̵̡̘͖̱̺̫̤̤̬̮͈̈́́̀̿͗̈́̎̍͜ͅS̸̢̫̳͕̱̰̹̲̪̠͕͉͔̓̅̓̅́̆̈́̌̔̑̕͜͝V̷̢̡̫̣̠̩̣̮̮̼̙̝̺̑͑̏̀͋̈̾̂͗͊͆̓͛͜͝͠S̴̳̣̭̐̀S̴̢͖̼̱͕͍̣͈͓̝̬̟̾̃̊̀̏̏̔̒͊̌̓̕ͅŜ̶̳͎̣̯̼́͑͂́͒͛́͠ ̵̞̱̜̫̻̘̩̜̓̐͌͜ͅ0̸̻̦̬̲̞̣̯̈́̋̑͗͊͗̈̉͋̿͑̚͘͜͝͠.̶̛̰͕̠̫͚͓̱̦̊̍̿͝2̴̨̡͙̙̲̫̺̹͎̱̣̟̓́̏͌̅̾͌̐̄̚!} A loud buzzing, crackling emanated from the screen, the final words so badly distorted they were unreadable to him. A peculiar sense of dread engulfed him, like he’d looked upon something not meant for human eyes. The window popped shut with a static hum.
“So uh, picked up any malware lately?” It was said with the all the dread that only a man facing his imminent demise could scrounge up! Completely ignoring him, the system continued.
[Tutorial Missions Available:
(Completed) Transmigrated and All I Got was Anxiety! Reward: Mellowdust Prescription, User Name Change.
(Tutorial) Welcome to your Authorial Debut! Reward: 500 B-points.
(Main) The Frozen North. Reward: Always Warm Socks.
Two of a Kind! Reward: System Chat. (Currently Unavailable)
(Tutorial) What is a Self Saving System? Reward: Disabled OOC Lock. (Alternative Route Chosen)
(Tutorial) System Archival Update Tutorial. Reward: A Cool Cape, ARCHIVAL Glasses.
NEW QUEST! (Main) The Archivist Assistant! Reward: Access to the ARCHIVIST, Access to the ARCHIVES.
NEW QUEST! (Main) A bug is a bug i̷̪̩̕š̸̢̳̜̣̻͓̖͚͕͕͉̜̖̼̄͗͛͑̋̓̀̉̀͝ ̸̢̱̥̬̙̞̭̞̹̫͜͝ã̸̡̻͊̇̄̍̆͑̔̏̇ ̷̨̳̱̼̹̙̺̙͙̖̞̫̥͍̄́͗̄̃̕b̸̤͇̼̘̭̉̆̈́̃̀̒̈́͛u̸̻̥͍͎̦̅̈̐̀̈̋͐̈́́̿͝g̶̦̹̬̞͍̗͉̀ͅ. Reward: 10 000 F-points.]
“What the hell are these rewards, and what the hell are F-points?” Shang Qinghua has lived most of his new life in fear, it truly is an old friend in that one regard. Ever present; the fear of being found out a traitor, the fear of dying to Mobei-Jun, the fear of not having enough B-points and simply boop, gone, back to a carcass. It’s exhausting, it’s constant, every win and point and eked out bit of happiness danced tumultuously on a wire, hanging thousands of feet above the clouds. One beat out of tune, one misstep, the sudden slack of the wire… no Shang Qinghua.
Now a new fear made manifest; the system is acting strange. The system that arbitrarily decides whether he’s here or not, isn’t behaving the way it should. Archives? F Points! Tutorials? It felt wrong, out of place, like looking at one of those ‘guess the difference’ puzzle games, and realising the picture is of your childhood room taken from the closet door. Or something like that. Maybe he should go back more towards ‘heaving flesh more pebbled than the path they trekked to get there’ type metaphors..? Or perhaps back to filling in the requisitions for… Thousand Night Honey for Qian Cao Peak, Mu Shidi that stuff isn’t so easily bought! Hmm, wasn’t this form…?
[F-points are a new reward point type for specific missions! Like B-points for being a bad-ass, Satisfaction points for helping others, F-points are Fix-Points. They can be used to bring stability to plot changes and purchase helpful items you can’t get from the B-point shop! As for the rewards, well User 0001 only needs to complete the mission to find out! (>///<)]
Stability to plot changes? So, he can change things… But why now? Was it the update, or something else? This bad feeling inside… the more he thinks about it, it only grows stronger. His eyes flick to the corner of the room, the shadows on the wall. A perfect copy cast from the potted plant in front of it, only slightly hazy at the edges. His eyes flick again, to the light coming through the window. It’s morning, the sun having only risen four hours before, yet the dawn casts gentle rays through the gauze. Dust moats float silver in the soft gold.
[Shang Qinghua has one more mission available. Would you like to access it?]
