Great, we're doomed now!

Moreover, her expression at this moment was far from her usual carefree demeanor; instead, it carried a rare hesitation and... determination?

"What's wrong?" Ye Shou asked seriously. "Are you feeling unwell? Or were you frightened?"

"I'm not that timid!"

Chika lowered her head and rubbed the ground with her toes: "I... I just saw today that even though I was scared, I was able to stand up and protect others instead of just hiding behind them—like me."

Ye Shou was taken aback, not expecting this to be the reason.

"Little Shou, do you know? I'm the oldest among all these people today."

She looked up, her eyes flashing with a complex light, a mixture of envy and resentment. "But Kei-chan was so scared, and all I could do was offer words of comfort... And before, when we encountered monsters, when we encountered demons... time and time again, I could only run away, watching you go into places I could never go!"

"Ruri-chan can help you, and Miko-chan can fight, but I... seem to have become a complete burden to you."

Xiao Shou, I need to be able to protect myself at least... at least.

Because I don't want to see you in danger because of me, just like this time!

But what should I do? Xiao Shou, you're so smart, do you have any good ideas, like… ancient Chinese martial arts or something?

Her voice grew softer and softer, and her cheeks flushed slightly, as if she were a little embarrassed by what she had said. But her gaze did not waver; she looked straight at Ye Shou, waiting for his reaction.

Ye Shou's mindset also underwent a subtle change, and he began to take "Fujiwara Chika" more seriously.

Indeed, living in such a world, it is impossible not to seek self-protection.

"It's a pity there's no 'Master Li' in this world, otherwise Bajiquan would still be worth learning... I can teach you a kind of qigong called 'Ripple,' but that will only be good for your health."

If you are truly prepared...

Ye Shou reached out and gently touched Qianhua's face: "Speaking of which, you are indeed lucky—hopefully you can awaken a useful substitute."

"A stand-in?" Chika tilted her head in confusion.

-

-

[The Rules Are Mine, the Outsider]

·outsider

When activating their ability, their presence is reduced to the extreme, but their luck is greatly increased. As long as they do not actively participate in events, they can escape the attention of almost everyone.

• Write the “game rules” on the pages of the book, including background information and level progression.

Substitute your chosen "protagonist" and "enemy" into the game, and give them concepts through text. Add extra attributes (positive or negative) to the target and the items the target possesses.

Generally speaking, whether an additional concept can come true depends on the Stand user's mental energy expenditure.

It can also be further enhanced by the "power of words," that is, by gaining the approval of "readers." The more people see and approve of the setting, the greater the probability that the "fantasy will come true."

• You can write the pages in advance and use them when activating the substitute.

The greater the distortion of reality in a setting, the greater the consumption of mental energy.

The pages close (the substitute is retracted), and all effects are reset to zero.

Chapter 207: How the hell did the crystal get stolen?! (5K)

When it comes to magic, it's all about earth, wind, water, and fire; when it comes to superpowers, it's about flight, lasers, and invulnerability—that's Chika's complete understanding of combat.

With abundant physical strength and a sharp mind, this guy is an outstanding talent in every aspect, but if she had to choose, she would definitely want a Stand with simple and brutal abilities, capable of throwing bricks with great strength.

In her imagination, the so-called "fighting side by side" meant that she would hold a staff, Ye Shou would be wearing armor, and Liu Li would cast a healing spell—a typical warrior-mage-priest combination.

However, what she actually awakened was a support class with no direct combat ability, requiring prior "preparation." To put it simply, she went from being a mage to a bard, which truly disappointed her.

Of course, she always considered herself a strategist and possessed a talent for the arts, so she was quite confident that she could make good use of this stand-in.

I give up!

The girl slumped helplessly onto the table, yelling as if venting her frustration. Luckily, the room was well soundproofed, otherwise her family would have come up to see what was going on.

On the table sat an open book with a thick cover and high-quality paper, looking like a magic book from a fantasy novel, far superior to modern printed books.

The pages were mostly blank, with only four or five lines of text visible. At the very end, a quill pen floated in mid-air, seemingly waiting to continue writing.

Chika tidied her messy hair, then turned her gaze back to the quill pen. Under her control, the pen slowly descended, drawing a classic, majestic holy sword on the paper, and then added some explanations below—

As soon as she finished writing, the handwriting vanished into thin air, as if it had never existed. A slight stinging pain shot through her mind, like she had eaten too much ice cream, causing the girl to clutch her head in distress.

"I shouldn't have bragged to Xiao Shou... It's completely impossible to build!"

Chika pouted, her big eyes darting around, but she couldn't think of a solution. She could only sigh and lean back in her chair.

At first, she was quite excited. After all, after awakening her Stand, she could see things that ordinary people couldn't, clearly perceive the existence of spiritual power, and control the quill pen to write automatically had an elegant and fantastical feel, which perfectly suited her tastes.

After figuring out the effects of this substitute, she thought she could be like a bard in a game, able to buff people with just her words, and naturally become a top-tier support, receiving a large amount of pocket money from the Adventurers' Guild (Ye Shou) every month.

Chika is a clever little thing. After researching the Stand ability, she confirmed her development direction, which was to publish her works online to gain "recognition" and in turn support the settings she wrote, making them a reality.

This kind of thing was very difficult in ancient times, but it's a million times simpler in the information age, so she was still very confident, and even boasted that she would give Ye Shouzao a "curry stick" or something.

However, it is difficult to implement in practice, and there are many reasons for failure, but ultimately—

"Nobody watches it at all!"

—Her writings are not recognized by others.

Whether it was her own blog, her light novel submissions, or even the student council forum on the campus intranet, she put in a lot of shame, but received very little feedback. Instead, many classmates suspected that she had developed chuunibyou (middle school syndrome).

She has a large number of Twitter followers and likes, but there has been no significant effect.

Suspecting that text alone was too monotonous, she even drew CG illustrations (which are easily done nowadays with the help of AI in the virtual network), but to no avail.

Finally, she realized what the problem was:

She didn't actually create a story. The exquisite illustrations and intricate settings may seem appealing, but they are the easiest things to forget in this era. Under the onslaught of massive amounts of information, people basically just skim through it without delving into the details, lacking even interest, let alone "appreciation."

In games, bards are a common profession, but in serious Western fantasy stories, this profession is not only rare, but also often involves charlatanism, making it clearly not a profession that ordinary people can hold.

Faced with this dilemma, Chika wisely chose to give up: she knew that she was at most a little talented, and by no means a great writer.

Moreover, you spend so much time and energy creating a recognized work, but the settings in it may only be used a few times. When you need different settings, you have to start all over again... It's all too late!

Furthermore, how exactly do we determine the level of acceptance? There's no quantifiable standard for it.

Likes and views don't tell the whole story. Many works get a lot of traffic but don't really resonate with people. You might read one and not even remember what it was about.

The best indicator of acceptance should be whether people are willing to spend money on it...

In summary, the perfect fit for "The Rules Are Mine" would be an entertainment product with a broad fan base, high general acceptance, frequent version updates, tolerance even for arbitrary changes to settings, and for which most users are willing to spend money!

what is it?

How can there be such an unreasonable and absurd existence in this world, and yet people still find it endlessly entertaining?

"……fall in love?"

A strange thought flashed through Qianhua's mind, and she quickly shook her head to banish it.

At times like these, her clever little brain starts to work:

Those who can accept these conditions are probably only masochists. Where do masochists gather?

At that moment, her gaze unconsciously swept over the latest AmuSphere model on the bedside table, and suddenly a flash of inspiration struck her—

Kira☆!

This is it! This is it!

"Little Shou, Little Shou, I want to be a game designer!"

And we should emulate [Storm Entertainment's] "World of Warcraft"!

"Huh? You don't know? It's that masterpiece that can still run no matter how far-fetched the plot, how much the writers betray each other, or how many faction leaders are sent into dungeons!"

Chika excitedly said into her phone, "We can also develop mecha games and keep releasing new mecha, like deluxe editions, collector's editions, and battle-damaged editions!"

If plastic miniatures don't work, use metal. If assembly models aren't appealing, make one that can transform automatically. They come in everything from life-size to 20cm tall!

For example, team battles, like creating a MOBA game where all the IPs clash.

Characters and equipment from various works can be incorporated, each character has a unique backstory, and the version is updated every month. The stats of new characters and equipment must completely outclass the old versions, so that power-hungry players will be unable to stop!

Inspiration keeps flowing!

I suddenly realized that we could also make an RPG adventure game and invite that guy named Miyazaki to help. That way, no matter how fragmented our background story is or how unreasonable the character's abilities are, we can still call it a game feature and gain recognition!

For example, card games should draw inspiration from classical literature, such as the Three Kingdoms period…

This woman must not be allowed to live!

-

"...That's basically it. Players will comfort themselves by thinking they'll accept whatever's written."

Hehe, gamers are so easy to deal with.

"..."

Ye Shou's eyes widened in disbelief. He never expected his childhood sweetheart to turn into such a scourge. The shock was so great that he couldn't recover for a long time after the call ended.

She...she just mentioned wanting to use the [Power Platform], the largest game store right now...wait, did I...I refused?

What kind of feeling is this...? It's like I've done something irreversible.

Should we stop her?

Regardless of his past or present life, Ye Shou deeply despises the dog's schemes and, for both reason and emotion, he must help Qianhua and prevent her from falling into the root of all evil.

...But when Ye Shou thought about the chance he would have to obtain "Frostmourne", "Moonlight Greatsword" and "Sunlight Gun", he felt that it was not impossible.

Ugh!

The players suffer, and the infamy is borne by a thousand flowers!

"Kuze? What are you thinking about? Why do you have that smug look on your face?"

"Huh? Is there?"

Ye Shou quickly straightened up: "I was a little distracted."

“Let’s be a little serious. We are now representing humanity in contact with aliens, which may be recorded in history books in the future.”

Masaki Keigo kindly offered a reminder, then added self-deprecatingly, "But the first alien I encountered was this kind of guy... This universe is truly full of malice."