The moon.
This celestial body, only 380,000 kilometers from Earth, had hung high in the sky since ancient times, captivating countless poets and scholars.
Now, Yan Anqing aimed his phone's camera at her, preserving her beautiful image.
"Color adjustment panel, select red."
"Vermilion, light red... which one would be better?"
After a brief consideration, Yan Anqing chose blood red and quickly filled in the moon in the photo, rendering it into a completely different form.
He gently tapped the confirm button.
In an instant, reality changed—the bright jade disk in the sky transformed into a sinister crimson moon!
Everyone on Earth capable of seeing the moon witnessed this scene.
China, India, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Russia, the Philippines...
The twenty-first century was the information age, and news spread at an absurdly fast pace.
Before long, photos and videos of the Blood Moon began circulating in countries such as America, England, France, and Germany, where people could not currently see it with their naked eyes.
The people of Earth fell into an indescribable state of confusion.
Panic, surprise, unease, anticipation...
There was no shortage of such emotions.
Leaning against the window, Yan Anqing rested his cheek on his left hand. His calm, indifferent gaze turned toward the night sky as he silently considered his next move.
"The game's Reasonable Modification feature is far more powerful than I imagined. I wonder where its limits are."
This incident of the moon being stained red came at a particularly interesting point in time.
What exactly did Yan Anqing want to do?
Why was he doing this?
The answer was simple.
He merely wanted to make this world more interesting through magical alterations.
Dyeing the moon red was only the first step in Yan Anqing's blueprint for altering the world.
On the phone screen, Little Panda waddled out on its chubby little legs.
After taking several laborious breaths, it rubbed its round belly and slowly blew out text bubbles.
"Congratulations, player! You have achieved your first achievement!"
"Moon Controller: The moon dances at your fingertips."
"What meaning does the Blood Moon Incident hold? Can your plan proceed smoothly?"
"Current completion progress for Main Quest One: 1/3."
A trace of surprise flashed through Yan Anqing's eyes upon receiving the prompt.
Obtaining achievements was much easier than he had expected.
"Only two more achievements to go."
At this rate, it would not be long before he completely finished the first Main Quest and bound this mobile game to himself.
As someone with mild obsessive-compulsive tendencies, Yan Anqing felt uncomfortable all over if he did not bind this heaven-defying item to himself as soon as possible.
"The first Blood Moon can last half an hour."
"Once the time is up, change it back immediately."
Yan Anqing turned on his computer, opened a browser, and casually browsed the internet, occasionally saving several photos of people.
Turning the moon red was not the goal. It was merely preparation.
Qingqiu City First High School.
Class Two, Year Three.
On the podium, the math teacher swayed his head as he lectured, spittle flying and spirits high.
Below the podium, Yu Hongyi was drowsy, struggling to keep his eyelids open.
Yu Hongyi's parents were a pair of unconventional post-eighties romantics. They had given him this name in the hope that he would grow a pair of rainbow wings and fly toward the heaven of his dreams.
In reality, he had let that name down.
He was 1.59 meters tall and weighed forty kilograms.
Not forty kilograms!
He was thinner than many girls!
Skinny as a rake, human skeleton, goblin, matchstick—those were all his nicknames.
He had no talent for studying, and his grades constantly hovered among the bottom ten.
Nor did he possess any athletic ability. Basketball, table tennis, running, soccer—he excelled at none of them.
Yu Hongyi, unsuccessful in both academics and athletics, was the very model of short, poor, and ugly.
Before evening self-study, he had seen a somewhat notorious delinquent at school corner a girl from his class behind the convenience store, seemingly intending to grope her.
In a burst of hotheadedness, Yu Hongyi had rushed over to play the hero and save the beauty.
There was no need to describe the process. The result was obvious.
He had been thoroughly beaten up.
Yu Hongyi's reputation was ruined, and his self-esteem had suffered a severe blow as well.
Now, during evening self-study, there was not a single spot on his body that did not hurt.
After forcing himself to swallow half a bucket of instant noodles earlier, drowsiness had washed over him like a tide, and he had nearly fallen asleep on the spot.
Sleeping in class was far too disrespectful toward the teacher.
Yu Hongyi greatly respected the profession of teaching and imparting knowledge.
If his grades had not been so poor, he would have wanted to get into a teachers' college and become a glorious people's teacher after graduation.
With that in mind, Yu Hongyi struggled hard against his drowsiness.
The only thing worth being glad about was that the girl was unharmed.
Yu Hongyi closed his eyes, the corners of his lips lifting slightly as he felt proud of what he had done.
Smack!
A piece of chalk bounced off Yu Hongyi's head, helping him wake up.
"Ah? School's over?"
Yu Hongyi jolted to his feet and instinctively wiped the chalk dust from his face.
Seeing the math teacher's face twisted with rage on the podium and hearing the exaggerated laughter of his troublesome friends around him, his heart skipped a beat. He immediately realized what was happening.
He was so ashamed that he wished he could burrow into the ground.
Everything, all of it, stemmed from his overestimating himself and trying to save the girl several hours ago.
Yu Hongyi's face flushed red as he viciously cursed himself in his heart.
But if he had another chance, what would he do?
A moment later, Yu Hongyi sadly realized that, given his personality, even if he knew he would humiliate himself and be mocked endlessly, he would still go save her.
Right was right! Wrong was wrong!
He could not turn a blind eye to the right thing simply because he lacked the ability to do it!
Pathetic Yu Hongyi was exactly that sort of useless person overflowing with a sense of justice.
"Ah! Look!"
"The moon turned red! Has anything like this ever happened in history?"
"A major event! Why hasn't the school declared a holiday yet? Is the principal eating sh—... ahem... sorry, Principal, I didn't see you. I still have homework to do, so I'll be going now..."
"Holy crap! A Blood Moon? Has the Spiritual Energy Resurgence begun?"
"Isn't the end of the world more likely? My family has stocked up on tons of instant mashed potatoes and compressed biscuits!"
A sudden burst of exclamations and discussion came from the hallway.
The math teacher, who had been considering how to punish Yu Hongyi, rushed straight out of the classroom.
Many bold students followed after him as well.
Yu Hongyi felt that he had made a mistake, so it would be better for him to stay where he was and behave himself.
Yet for some reason, all the classmates remaining in the classroom stared at him with terrified expressions.
"Holy crap! Yu Hongyi, are you the protagonist? You really are the protagonist, aren't you?"
"I knew it! A ridiculously kind guy like you, with such a cringe-worthy name and overflowing sense of justice, is the standard protagonist setup!"
"Where did you buy those colored contacts? They're so pretty..."
"Colored contacts, my ass! I watched his eyes change into that bit by bit!"
"Holy crap, Brother Yu, did you reincarnate? Need a leg accessory?"
"What the hell is going on right now? I'm confused."
The noisy classmates discussed it all at once.
Yu Hongyi gradually realized what exactly had happened to him...
Before you continue