Anyway, Welcome to a New "Day"

I Told You This Isn't a Life Simulation Game!

Author: Ming Xue

Synopsis:

Congratulations, you had transmigrated.

It was Honkai Impact 3, your favorite, and even the Previous Era. There were girls as lovely as falling flowers, too. Happy now?

I had a feeling I was going to die very quickly...

Be grateful it wasn't Honkai Impact 2. And I'll throw in a cheat for you too. Satisfied now?

To make sure you knew how to use it, let me introduce it first. This cheat could use you as a reference point to rewind time. You could use it to explore all kinds of futures until you were satisfied, though you had to reach an ending before you could rewind... Also, once it began, your original memories would be temporarily sealed away. Consider it a small balancing mechanism.

Why did this feel familiar... A Life Simulation Game?

No, it wasn't a Life Simulation Game... By the way, every time you completed an ending, you could obtain some unique things~ Such as unique traits, upgradeable traits, and so on... These would make it easier for you to reach the next ending~ Of course, after rewinding, you would gain all the memories from that ending as well. You could consider that another kind of reward~

...Wasn't this just a Life Simulation Game?

If I said it wasn't, then it wasn't!

Anyway, Welcome to the Start of a New "Day"

Rustle...

It sounded like pages being turned.

The sound was clearly very soft, yet it seemed exceptionally loud to him, as though it were coming from inside his own head.

Then came a violent headache and an overwhelming urge to vomit, forcing him awake. He instinctively bent over to one side and dry-heaved.

"Cough, cough... What was that..."

Once he felt a little better, the boy wiped his mouth, looked around groggily, then slumped weakly into a corner and muttered to himself.

"I remember I'd just finished lazing around at home and was getting ready to go volunteer... How did I end up here? Kidnapping?"

He recalled his previous memories while speaking softly, seemingly confirming the situation to himself—or perhaps it was simply a habit.

"And... my body... A child? I don't remember hearing about any famous detectives in the Far East. There shouldn't be skyscraper explosions in the news every other day either..."

He briefly examined his suddenly smaller body and pressed at his throat, speaking with considerable resignation...

Ah, right. It seemed he had forgotten to introduce himself. His name was—Xi Wang.

He got it, he got it. The name sounded like it was begging to be mocked, especially because of the homophone. That kind of pun deserved a pay cut!

In fact, there was quite a bit of thought behind it. The two characters had each been taken from the names of the deities Xi He and Wang Shu. It meant that, like the sun and moon, he could exist whether it was day or night, display his brilliance at any time, shine and guide others whenever needed, become another person's light, become hope... Alright, he couldn't keep making this up.

Well... according to his parents' explanation, he always felt the name contained a bit of superstition—or maybe a joke? But it carried the good wishes and expectations of his elders, so he did not particularly dislike it, nor had he ever wanted to change it... Besides, changing it would not be good. If he really did, wouldn't that mean giving up hope in a sense?

Although people teased him about it every time, especially when his name was called out—like Xi Wang from such-and-such class, Xi Wang from such-and-such school—it always sounded oddly amusing. And whenever his parents proudly said, "Our Xi Wang is our family's hope," it somehow became even more ridiculous.

All he could say was that his mom and dad had chosen an absolutely wonderful name~ (said flatly)

Fun.jpg

Well... it was not particularly embarrassing anyway. Better return to the matter at hand.

"Alright... It looked like he could only accept that he had somehow become some organization's test subject? But if a shrinking drug like the ones in comics had really been invented, wouldn't it shake the world? As a successful test subject, he should be getting attention too, right?"

He scratched at his somewhat long, messy hair, which seemed unkempt from having gone unattended for a long time, then wrapped his oversized, tattered coat more tightly around himself. Xi Wang muttered half-jokingly—not to brag, but he had always been pretty good at staying optimistic.

But he quickly dismissed the idea.

"But if that were really the case, this test subject wouldn't have been dumped in a place like this... Did that mean he was a failure? Or did nobody know?"

He cautiously poked his head out and examined the dim alley. One side of the alley was a solid wall, and together with the buildings on both sides, it completely shut the alley off from sunlight. Only the side leading out to the street and the sky directly overhead showed any light.

As for the possibility that he had escaped from a laboratory, while it was possible, he did not consider that direction for the time being. On one hand, he had no memory of it. On the other hand...

"This thing... however he looked at it, it wasn't something an ordinary person would run into, right?"

He blinked and repeatedly confirmed the strange words floating at the mouth of the alley, along with the semi-illusory light screen hovering before him, glowing continuously to announce its presence.

The words at the alley entrance were not written in a language he knew. He could not recall seeing any similar variation either... Was it some sort of new script? And although he had never learned it, he could unexpectedly understand its meaning—welcome to the start of a new "day."

At first, Xi Wang thought it was some kind of fluorescent advertising sign across the street. Only after looking carefully did he realize that the words were floating at the alley entrance.

Combined with the information displayed on the light screen hovering beside him... Xi Wang's expression became a little strange.

"Don't tell me he had transmigrated..."

He reached out and repeatedly tested the area around the light screen, eventually confirming that the thing truly existed in a semi-illusory state.

"Alright, it looked like he really had transmigrated..."

Xi Wang sighed, summarized his situation, and reluctantly accepted reality.

While he really did like other worlds, Xi Wang had been quite satisfied with his own life. He could live comfortably just by collecting rent each month. The rest of his time was spent staying home or going out with friends, volunteering elsewhere, exercising occasionally, and traveling whenever he had the time...

Other than his parents having left him, his relatives being distant, and the fact that he had never had a girlfriend, he did not seem to have any regrets.

Xi Wang knew very well that being this "ordinary" was already the life most people longed for. It was also his parents' greatest hope for him before they passed away—to live steadily, remain healthy, treat others kindly, have a few close friends, do what he liked, and live out his life without major illness or disaster.

Not to mention that, as the only child in his family, he had enjoyed a fairly happy childhood and school life. That was practically the life of most people's dreams.

So although he liked those grand, fantastical other worlds, he had never yearned for one... Though he had dreamed about them before.

"So did this count as him going missing, or dying?"

He scratched his head again unconsciously, his thoughts jumping to a question that transmigration stories more or less always brought up.

"If he went missing, that would probably be difficult to deal with... Death... Uh... Would they be able to find a body? He didn't remember dying..."

"He only hoped those relatives wouldn't take this chance to come snatch his property... They had no feelings for him and never kept in touch, but they sure would be eager when it came to taking his assets."

Just thinking about those people annoyed him.

"But his little cousin was still studying. She was about to graduate from university, and it hadn't been easy for her to leave their hometown. He should leave her some tuition money... He seemed to remember asking a lawyer to handle it... Mm, he could sell the rental properties to the tenants at a discount when the time came. They had rented for many years already, and their child was nearly in high school, right... As for the assets, part could be donated, part could pay his little cousin's tuition, and part could go to those brats. They had been playing together since high school, after all... Sigh, they'd even said they would go on a road trip during the holidays. That probably wasn't happening now."

"And Uncle and Auntie too. He hadn't been able to visit them today... Ah, he'd stood them up. He hoped they wouldn't keep talking about it..."

"He had promised the little ones he would go see them too... He hadn't bought the snacks yet, but he probably didn't need to now. He just hoped they wouldn't quarrel... When Mothers scolded them, they would blame it on him again..."

He babbled to himself while carefully recalling his past. To his surprise, he realized he had already arranged everything. Other than the things he had promised but failed to do because transmigration was an uncontrollable circumstance, everything else had been taken care of.

Although preparing in advance for his own sudden departure felt a little strange, especially for someone as young as him... it also showed that he had foresight!

"As expected of him!"

Xi Wang felt a small burst of pride. (Though he had no idea what there was to be proud of.)

"So now..."

His gaze returned to the light screen before him. He stared at it for a while, then finally sighed and accepted the reality that he had been forced to leave Ideal Land.

"Let's sort out the information he had so far."

He raised a hand and lightly tapped the air with his index finger. There was no corresponding sensation, but a point of light did appear on the screen where his finger pressed—the result of his earlier testing. He could use this light screen like a touchscreen computer.

Dragging downward stretched the light screen, revealing an area below marked Record Board.

"Pretty convenient~"

After testing it briefly and confirming that he could write and erase whatever he wanted in that area, Xi Wang nodded in satisfaction and began recording the information he had obtained.

He no longer needed to worry too much about his original world, but whether he counted as dead or missing over there remained a question mark—although he might never know the final answer, what if? Maybe he could return one day, right?

The place he was in now was probably not the future or the past. Modern or near-modern... did not seem likely either. Judging by the writing, it should be another world... He had no idea where he had ended up, but since there were modern-looking buildings here, he could rule out the medieval kind of setting. Maybe it was the near-future sort?

Anyway, knowing that this era was close to his original world's era was quite helpful. It would save him from making a fool of himself. He would have to learn everything else later.

When he woke up, he had felt intense discomfort, along with that sound of pages turning. He did not know whether it had triggered the transmigration, but it was something worth paying close attention to if he had the chance.

As for the words floating at the alley entrance and the light screen he was using now... he would tentatively regard them as his cheat. He did not know what the floating words were for, but this light screen...

"..."

Xi Wang paused, then dragged the light screen upward. Two other sections came into view. The topmost was marked Event Board, and it contained a message stating that he had transmigrated. Tapping the message opened a small window that recorded in detail all the actions he had taken to confirm the matter of his transmigration. Naturally, it was all written in that unfamiliar script whose meaning he could understand.

And Xi Wang was certain that before he had confirmed that he had transmigrated, there had been no words displayed there.

"Would confirmed events appear here? He wondered if it had any other functions..."

The middle section was marked Traits, and it contained two traits:

Record (Gold): ???

Effect: After each ending, there is a chance to extract part of your experiences/traits/achievements and convert them into permanent traits.

■■ (Blue): Currently unavailable.

It looked very useful, especially since the effect of the Record trait revealed quite a bit of information. However, both the contents of the light screen and its overall layout felt very familiar to Xi Wang.

"...A Life Simulation Game?"

Xi Wang was very familiar with this sort of layout and trait style. It was exactly the format used by text games like Life Simulation Game. Did this light screen exist to display that?

Combined with the effect of the Record trait... did it mean the trait would be retained in the next simulation? Was it really a Life Simulation Game? But shouldn't that effect exist by default? Why did it need to be listed separately? Or was this some version he had never played? And the other blue trait was actually hidden. Could it contain some special information?

As for why this simulator had not given him an initial point allocation stage... it should be because it had directly locked onto his current condition, skipping that step entirely.

That was Xi Wang's guess. Although he was eighty percent sure, he still wrote down Initial points based on one's own condition? on the Record Board, complete with a question mark. After thinking for a moment, he added another question: What counts as an ending? He should be able to get a definite answer to that later, so there was no need to worry too much.

"And also... there was no Start button."

Xi Wang frowned and shifted his gaze toward the floating words beside him: welcome to the start of a new "day."

Did this thing replace the Start button? And... a day? Just one day? Why were there quotation marks?

Combined with how the Event Board had previously only displayed things he had confirmed, it left him puzzled.

If he were only going to experience a day, there should be no need for quotation marks. And in that case, this simulator should not be called a Life Simulation Game. It should be called a One-Day Future Simulation Game. Besides, it was still unknown whether this was even a simulator, and he did not know whether he would return to this point in time...

"Everything was unknown... This was really troublesome. He truly wasn't used to a new environment."

After thinking it over several times, he seemed to have done nothing more than sort out his current situation. He had also concluded that he possessed something that seemed to be a simulator and might be a cheat. Everything else would have to wait until he obtained more information.

"Alright, no matter what, he had to live well in this new place too~"

He patted his still-childish face, habitually erased everything he had written on the Record Board, and encouraged himself in a cheerful tone.