Chapter 7: Setting Seven

Setting Seven: Toy Town (Part 3)

Following the teddy bear’s directions, Shan Ziwei headed north. Along the way, he passed many small houses and trees built from building blocks. The whole scene exuded a cheerful, sweet, and warm atmosphere.

“This Chessboard really has a childlike aesthetic…”

Shan Ziwei mused as he walked around a tower of blocks at waist height. The moment he turned the corner, he was ambushed.

“Bang—”

Shan Ziwei stood frozen in place, his head and face covered in confetti fragments. The culprit, holding an empty party popper, hopped around giggling.

“Hehe~ Hehe~”

Shan Ziwei didn’t bother to settle the score. He stared at the bars in the upper-left corner—just now, a small section of the red bar had turned black, as if stained with ink.

The system promptly provided an explanation: [You have been attacked.]

[On the Chessboard, external damage will cause “Mental Contamination” to you. When a suit’s SP is completely contaminated to black, that SP will continuously decrease and will be directly reduced when attacked. You will also randomly see hallucinations until Spirit Collapse occurs or the contamination is removed. Mental Contamination can be removed through rest, items, and skills.]

…So the combat in this game has two phases? The first phase is to completely contaminate one of the enemy’s SP bars to black. The second phase is to reduce that blackened SP until it hits zero, triggering Spirit Collapse.

While Shan Ziwei was analyzing Role-Play’s combat system, the hopping little monster seemed displeased that he was ignoring it and attacked again.

“Bang—”

Shan Ziwei was hit square on again—another 10% of his Heart SP (Joy) turned black. He wiped the confetti off his face and threw a Reconnaissance at the attacker.

[Rabbit Soldier
Attribute: 2
Type: Pawn
MP: 6/10
SP: (100%), (100%), (100%), (100%)
Stance: Hostile
Description: Always dreams of being chased by Alice.]

Standing before Shan Ziwei was a rabbit soldier straight out of Alice in Wonderland. It wore a cylindrical skirt printed with heart patterns, a ruffled collar around its neck, and clutched an empty conical party popper—clearly its attack method, which had a playful vibe.

Not a melee type. Excellent.

This particular sufferer had always believed melee combat was the most terrifying thing in the world, bar none. He drew his longsword and used Heavy Strike on the rabbit soldier.

“Aiya—”

The rabbit soldier was knocked to the ground. Shan Ziwei didn’t pursue immediately. Keeping one eye closed, he observed the changes in the rabbit’s stats.

The most notable change was in the rabbit’s Spade SP—35% of the bar had turned black. In Role-Play, death was determined by MP hitting zero, and MP couldn’t be directly attacked. Based on the system’s explanation just now, to take down this rabbit soldier, he first needed to completely contaminate its Spade SP to black, which would take about (100 ÷ 35 ≈) 3 Heavy Strikes. Then he’d need about 2–3 more Heavy Strikes to reduce the fully contaminated Spade SP to zero, triggering Spirit Collapse. Then he just had to wait for it to go berserk and kill itself… What a convoluted combat system.

Shan Ziwei had a lot of thoughts in that instant. By then, the rabbit soldier had gotten up and fired its party popper at him again.

“Bang!”

Shan Ziwei was grazed by the shot. He raised his sword, about to go for a “3+3 Heavy Strike” plan, but suddenly realized something and stopped. Instead, he just threw a Reconnaissance at it after each attack.

[MP: 4/10]

“Bang!”

[MP: 2/10]

“Bang!”

Shan Ziwei stood beside the rabbit soldier’s corpse, filled with deep respect.

You’re really attacking with your life, aren’t you…

He glanced at his own bars—95% of his Heart SP, with only 45% contaminated to black. Each of the rabbit soldier’s attacks cost 2 MP and dealt 10% Mental Contamination to him. Even if he stood completely still, it would take at least 18 attacks to cause Spirit Collapse. A measly 10-MP rabbit soldier was only good for looking cute.

As Shan Ziwei paid his silent respects, the rabbit soldier’s corpse overflowed with blue light particles that coalesced into a black pawn piece with a round top. He picked it up and Reconnaissance’d its stats.

[Pawn Piece
Attribute: 2
Type: Chess Piece
Effect: Used for Toy Box trades, Setting Card consumption, etc.
Description: Beloved by Toy Boxes.]

Shan Ziwei had expected something like “Teddy Bear’s Chess Piece” or “Quest Item,” but the description was strangely cryptic.

“Toy Box? I think I’ve heard that somewhere…”

He thought about it for a while before giving up. Maybe he was confusing it with “Toy Town,” which was why it sounded familiar.

Before setting off to find the next rabbit soldier, Shan Ziwei noticed a problem. He looked at the pawn piece in his hand, then at his already-full vest pockets, and felt depressed.

System, why is your inventory so small…

“1 unit × 5 quantity” meant each pocket could only hold five identical items. Right now, his two pockets held mirrors on one side and Relationship Setting Cards on the other. If he wanted to put the pawn piece in a pocket, he’d have to take out either a mirror or a Relationship Setting Card.

Oh well—he’d just hold the mirror in his hand.

In Role-Play, a character’s hands also counted as slots. Since the longsword was a one-handed weapon, Shan Ziwei didn’t have to worry about the mirror interfering with combat. After stowing the pawn piece, he continued north. After that first rabbit soldier, more and more appeared—in twos and threes, wearing skirts in different patterns. He could tell their attributes even without Reconnaissance. Shan Ziwei took them down one by one—when there were no melee attacks involved, it was like entering an empty field. He barely had to attack at all; he just let the suicidal little monsters throw themselves at him one after another.

After three rounds of encounters, Shan Ziwei realized the real challenge wasn’t fighting the mobs—it was positioning. His current settings included fear of black/red/white puzzle pieces, and over sixty percent of the rabbit soldiers’ activity area was covered in those three colors. Shan Ziwei practically had to hop around to avoid stepping on them. Accidentally stepping on one was even worse than taking a hit—contaminated SP could be restored through rest, but lost SP could only be replenished through relationship role-playing.

Shan Ziwei increasingly felt that combat was secondary in this game—the settings and role-playing were the real core.

“Bang—”

Shan Ziwei picked up his fifth pawn piece. Now he only needed one knight piece to complete the quest.

Just then, a white rabbit in a suit ran past him.

“Oh dear, oh dear—I’m going to be late!”

The passing rabbit wore a top hat and carried a pocket watch, radiating “chase me, chase me, come chase me~~~” energy.

Shan Ziwei quickly threw Reconnaissance at it.

[Mr. White Rabbit
Attribute: 3
Type: Knight
MP: 100/100
SP: (100%), (100%), (100%), (100%)
Stance: Hostile
Description: Going to be late, going to be late—BOOM~~~]

Type… Knight?

Shan Ziwei remembered the “Type: Pawn” rabbit soldiers and the “Type: Bishop” teddy bear. Were all the NPCs in this game classified by chess piece types? Pawn-type rabbit soldiers dropped pawn pieces when they died. If so, would the Knight-type Mr. White Rabbit drop a knight piece upon death?

Whatever—he’d fight first and ask questions later.

“Don’t get in my way!”

Mr. White Rabbit touched its flattened hat indignantly, pulled out a cane, and swung it at Shan Ziwei. Its movements were incredibly fast—even though Shan Ziwei tried his best to dodge, he got hit on the arm.

“Hiss…”

Shan Ziwei’s eyes welled up. The mix of pain and pleasure was indescribable—how much force could you expect from a rabbit?

Seeing Mr. White Rabbit attack again, poor Shan Ziwei was scared into unprecedented speed and agility by his own condition. He precisely struck the incoming cane.

“Oh no, my cane!”

While Mr. White Rabbit went to retrieve its cane, Shan Ziwei frantically pulled out a mirror and summoned his mirror image. He had to finish this quickly—not just because of his condition, but because this rabbit’s attacks were brutal. That last hit had dealt him 25% Mental Contamination—a quarter of his bar blackened in one go, while the rabbit had only spent 5 MP. This was a completely different league from those cute little rabbit soldiers.

“Mirror Image!”

The white-haired youth emerged from the shattered mirror, quiet and docile as he looked at Shan Ziwei—no trace of the earlier madness that had nearly killed them both.

“Attack Mr. White Rabbit!”

The mirror image moved, attacking alongside Shan Ziwei. It had to be said—his condition was a hell of a motivator. To avoid getting hit by that cane, Shan Ziwei fought like his life depended on it, desperately trying to interrupt Mr. White Rabbit’s attacks. If this were a keyboard MMO, he could have landed a hit on the rabbit’s pinky finger every single time. But the problem was, this was full-immersion VR. This particular sufferer had never gone face-to-face with anyone like this before. Even with the system correcting his swordplay, his instincts couldn’t keep up—he only succeeded maybe one out of every three attempts. Most of the time, he was tearfully trading blows with Mr. White Rabbit, exchanging pain and pleasure in equal measure.

“Hah… hah…” Shan Ziwei was on the verge of tears. “Where’s a shield—please give me a dozen!” QAQ

The mirror image tilted its head, watching its original—whose legs were practically giving out—and silently took a hit for him.

Under their combined assault, Mr. White Rabbit’s bar turned completely black before Shan Ziwei’s did.

“Hate it! Hate it! I’m going to be late—hate it! One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten—all of you! Why do you keep getting in my way?!”

With its Spade SP fully contaminated, Mr. White Rabbit didn’t seem particularly different—just angrier. Even after the mirror image vanished when its summon time expired, Shan Ziwei found the fight getting easier. Mr. White Rabbit’s attacks started missing more often, or it would just stop and mutter to itself, letting its contaminated Spade SP steadily drop.

32%, 31%, 30%…

Shan Ziwei landed the final Heavy Strike on Mr. White Rabbit’s face, pushing it into Spirit Collapse. In that instant, the rabbit’s face split open.

…Holy crap, it actually split open!!

Shan Ziwei watched in horror as the rabbit’s mouth tore open along the line of the sword strike. Mr. White Rabbit seemed to realize it too, immediately raising its paws to cover the gash that was nearly splitting to its eye.

“Huh? Huh? Huhhh?”

Mr. White Rabbit frantically pulled out a needle and thread and started sewing its own mouth shut. Shan Ziwei’s eyes went wide. If Mr. White Rabbit were a plush toy, sewing its mouth shut would be one thing—but it was a completely living, breathing rabbit. Needle and thread through flesh just came off as grotesque.

“Prick, pull—prick, pull—…”

The sound of the needle piercing skin and pulling thread through tissue set his teeth on edge. Over there, it was self-harming and losing MP; over here, he was losing SP from sheer shock. Under such terrifying visual assault, Shan Ziwei’s Diamond SP (Fear) dropped a whole 4%—Spirit Collapse really did turn everything into a complete lunatic!!!

After sewing its mouth shut, the Spirit-Collapsed Mr. White Rabbit seemed to remember something. It picked up its pocket watch and froze entirely.

“…Ah, ah, I won’t make it. I’m going to be late.”

After a long moment, the rabbit—now only describable as cursed—let out a sigh. It turned to face Shan Ziwei and grinned with its bloody, stitched mouth, raising the pocket watch high as if to show him.

And so Shan Ziwei clearly saw the ticking hands of the watch—until they stopped at 12 o’clock.

“BOOM~~~~”

When the explosion happened, Shan Ziwei had no idea what was going on—until his rapidly shortening black bar snapped him back to reality. His Spade SP had been fully contaminated in the blast.

What the hell!

Shan Ziwei wanted to spit at the game developers—the “BOOM” in the description wasn’t the rabbit jumping, but the rabbit exploding!?

Mr. White Rabbit’s final self-destruct was devastating—Shan Ziwei’s Spade SP was cut in half directly, and the remaining half was slowly draining under full contamination. Just as he sat down to rest and remove the contamination, he caught a glimpse of white in the corner of his eye.

“…”

Shan Ziwei mechanically turned his head toward the distant white line on the horizon—an endless sea of rabbits. The explosion had been like a signal for a dam to burst. Countless rabbit soldiers surged toward him like tidal waves.

Holy crap holy crap holy crap!

Shan Ziwei sprang up like a rabbit with its tail on fire, grabbed the dropped knight piece, and ran in the opposite direction.

No, no—this isn’t fair!!! QAQ Isn’t this supposed to be a newbie tutorial? Why is it so brutal?!

As he ran, Shan Ziwei watched his Spade SP plummet through tear-filled eyes. What he needed most right now was rest, but the horde behind him wouldn’t even give him a chance to breathe, let alone rest!

[Setting 5: You are afraid of purple puzzle pieces. (00:00:05)]

Shan Ziwei stumbled and nearly stepped on a red tile.

—System, now is not the time to make things worse, you bastard!!!

His Spade SP was down to 3%. Just as Shan Ziwei thought he was done for, he heard a voice as beautiful as a chant.

“…Light of Healing.”

Warm light enveloped him. Shan Ziwei saw his bar return to normal red and stop dropping. He didn’t have time to thank his savior—because a massive wave of rabbits was closing in.

“Run, run, run—there’s a—”

Shan Ziwei’s voice died in his throat. He stopped in his tracks, staring blankly behind him.

Where were the rabbits?

There was nothing—as if the ocean of rabbits he’d just seen had been an illusion.

…Wait. Illusion?

—When a suit’s SP is completely contaminated to black, that SP will continuously decrease and will be directly reduced when attacked. You will also randomly see hallucinations until Spirit Collapse occurs or the contamination is removed.

Shan Ziwei dully recalled the system’s explanation, overcome with a profound sense of exhaustion. He was too tired to love anymore.

Could this game even be played for fun… (;3」∠)

A hand tentatively reached toward Shan Ziwei’s forehead. Even in his dazed state, this particular sufferer instantly recoiled, establishing an absolute (no-touch) zone. It was pure instinct—a conditioned reflex forged from years of bloody tears.

“Ah…”

Coming back to his senses, Shan Ziwei looked up at the newcomer. In that moment, he felt as though he were seeing sunlight that had fallen to the ground, leaping and weaving into the radiant, beautiful elf before him. The elf before him seemed to glow with a faint crystalline light, his pale golden hair neatly brushed back behind his pointed ears, crowned with a laurel headpiece. He smiled at Shan Ziwei, his jade-green eyes pure and clear like a summer sky.

“Sorry—I thought you were still unwell.”

Shan Ziwei couldn’t help looking away. It was too dazzling. The elf’s features were already otherworldly, and paired with that unreserved smile, it was practically a human weapon of mass destruction.

So the question was—was this human weapon a Chess Piece or a player?

Shan Ziwei instinctively winked one eye to use Reconnaissance, but nothing happened. If his MP hadn’t decreased, he’d have thought he hadn’t used the skill at all. The only possible reason was that the skill had failed—the target was above his reconnaissance level.

“You winked… are you trying to seduce me?”

…Wait, what?

“Or perhaps…” The elf’s smile dimmed slightly as he touched the massive silver bow on his back: “Were you Reconnaissance-ing me?”

Shan Ziwei looked in horror at the elf who’d noticed his little move, then at the silver bow behind him—adorned with jeweled feather ornaments and clearly highly lethal.

Was it better to shamelessly admit to seduction, or tell the truth and get killed? That was the question.

In that tense, ready-to-snap moment, the elf suddenly smiled.

“Just kidding.” The elf laughed. “You can’t know that yet. If you need a name to call me, you can call me Chiron.”

His smile was so bright and sunny that it left no room for resentment over the prank. Shan Ziwei let out the breath he’d been holding. He dared not test the elf further and sincerely thanked him: “Thank you for saving me just now.”

“It was nothing.” The elf’s smile grew even more radiant. In Shan Ziwei’s impression, elves were supposed to be cool and aloof, like the moon—but this one was as brilliant as the sun, warm and passionate. “It looks like you need help. I’m traveling around—if you need it, I can escort you part of the way.”

Now Shan Ziwei was certain that this elf named Chiron was a Chess Piece. A player definitely wouldn’t say such dramatic, poetic lines. This was probably part of the newbie tutorial’s plot—when the player encounters hardship, a powerful and beautiful elf swoops in to save the day and soothe their wounded soul. The game knew how to handle psychology—a beating and then a sweet reward. The earlier Mr. White Rabbit had been soul-crushing, and now Elf Chiron was soul-healing.

Since it was a Chess Piece, Shan Ziwei was more direct: “I’m heading to Toy Town.”

“Toy Town, huh…” Chiron’s long eyes curved. “Then let’s go.”

Shan Ziwei nodded. Before leaving, he ran into the pocket-space issue again. After weighing his options, he decided the Relationship Setting Cards were more useful to keep on hand, so he put the knight piece in his pocket.

He looked up, about to call Chiron to set off, when he noticed the elf was gazing at him—more precisely, at the Relationship Setting Cards in his hand.

“…So those are ‘Rules.'”

The golden-haired elf raised his gaze slightly and smiled at Shan Ziwei.

“Would you give me one?”

No one could refuse such a request from such a beautiful elf—and Shan Ziwei was no exception. Dazzled by Chiron’s smile, he dizzily handed over all the Relationship Setting Cards.

Chiron extended his slender fingers and, without the slightest hesitation, selected “[A Possessiveness (Active)].”

…Wait. Something felt wrong?

Snapping back to reality, Shan Ziwei watched in shock as Chiron used the Setting Card without a second thought. Dots of blue light gathered around the elf like fireflies, making his flawless face look even more perfect.

Chiron smiled, like a child given permission to play—innocent and carefree.

“I can have you all to myself now.”