Chapter 1: Pitiful NPC: Weak, Pitiful, and Helpless

Tang Danqing opened her eyes on the cold floor of the cramped staff room.

Her head spinning, she watched her vision blur, then slowly sharpen. The game’s surroundings came into focus. Frost coated the walls, and the room was so silent she could hear the game’s NPC breathing. No wonder people called it a full-dive game. The details were incredible.

The blond NPC pinned her against the door with a rusty razor blade, clenched in one grimy, doughy hand. The blade pressed against her throat.

The NPC’s eyes were large, round, and black, their watery shine undercut by a fierce glare.

Even if this was a chibi character, even if her ferocity was somehow adorable, Tang Danqing wasn’t about to let her get away with that.

She needed to make it clear who was in charge here.

The NPC was weak. Tang Danqing caught her limp arm, kicked her away, pried open her fingers, and took the blade. She countered in one smooth motion.

The beginner tutorial was almost too easy. The NPC had no strength to fight back. Tang Danqing lunged forward, pinned her to the floor with a knee on her chest, and held her down by the throat with one hand.

The NPC lay there, looking up at her, shivering with cold.

Tang Danqing was busy reading the quest prompt above her head.

[Beginner Quest 1: Resolve the threat and introduce yourself to your roommate.]

Tang Danqing looked down at the little blond character—and at her own hands. She’d turned into a little dough person too. The full-dive game had a purely animated art style.

She asked, “What’s your name?” Her own voice sounded softened, dubbed to suit the animation.

The NPC’s voice was just as stylized, though hoarse. “Don’t… eat… me…”

Tang Danqing understood. “My name is Shan Qing. Shan as in ‘single,’ Qing as in ‘green grass.’ I’m not here to eat you. From now on, we’re roommates.”

[T/N: Her in-game name is written as 单青. In Chinese, this can be read as Dan Qing (‘Single Green’), making it an exact homophone of her real name (丹青, Danqing – ‘traditional painting’), which is an intentional pun. However, to avoid confusing the reader, we will transcribe her in-game name as Shan Qing (using the alternative pronunciation of the character 单).]

[Quest Complete! Reward: 100 Survival Coins.]

[Beginner Quest 2: Your roommate is about to starve to death. Give her your first meal.]

A new quest prompt flickered into the air.

Tang Danqing pressed on. “What’s your name?”

No rush. The NPC wasn’t dead yet.

Tang Danqing had introduced herself, after all. It was only fair for the other girl to do the same. Besides, she wanted to see what kind of personality the NPC had been given.

Shang You looked at Tang Danqing’s clean, sharp features, her brand-new windbreaker, and her strong, healthy build. She still didn’t know when this person had sneaked in. Had it been while she was unconscious?

Tang Danqing had already taken the razor blade and slipped it into her jacket pocket. Shang You understood one thing perfectly: in her current weakened state, she wasn’t a match for this person.

All the more reason not to reveal who she was.

“I… My name… I’m sorry… I can’t remember…”

Her voice was hoarse and ragged, soft and lacking strength.

Tang Danqing tightened her grip on the other girl’s throat and kept questioning her. “What do you remember, then?”

The NPC looked at her with watery eyes and shook her head.

Shang You knew how badly outmatched she was. She was trying to figure out how to survive.

She didn’t like eating people, but desperate circumstances could leave a person with little choice. There was no guarantee this woman wouldn’t treat her as food.

“I’m sorry…” She did her best to look as weak and helpless as possible, hoping Tang Danqing wouldn’t kill her right away.

Oh. All right, then.

Tang Danqing got it. So the NPC had amnesia.

More precisely, she was a girl who was forgetful, weak, and helpless. Tang Danqing couldn’t tell if she was beautiful—the chibi animation had given her a pair of strikingly bright eyes, though.

Once she realized the NPC’s aggression had only been a mask to protect herself, Tang Danqing stopped picking on her. She let go and sat on the bare bed frame.

The NPC huddled on the floor, too afraid to come closer. She sat against the wall, rubbing her arms for warmth. In the silence, her stomach growled.

Shang You swallowed. Her throat immediately stung as if pricked by needles.

A day ago, she’d managed to collect some ice chips from a burst pipe. She wasn’t in danger of dying of thirst just yet.

But it had been three days since she’d found a packet of biscuits under the bed in the staff room and eaten them.

Was this Shan Qing… here to scavenge food from the hotel, too?

Too bad Shan Qing had arrived late. Shang You had already swept through every room in the hotel, from the 1st Floor to the 22nd, and devoured every scrap of food left behind.

Things had just gotten worse. If Shan Qing realized what she’d done, she might retaliate by eating Shang You. Shang You began plotting the best chance to kill her first.

She regretted not striking when she’d had the chance. She should have gone straight for the woman’s throat.

At least then she’d have had a new warm jacket.

Shang You hugged herself, thoughts racing. Her stomach kept growling, and the pain made her frown. She could only bite down on her ragged padded coat.

Tang Danqing saw the helpless look on her face. At the same time, she opened the Pocket Shop and bought a bowl of yangchun noodles for eight Survival Coins.

A bowl and a pair of bamboo chopsticks appeared in her hands.

Steam rose from the broth, its surface glistening with sesame oil. Fine, springy noodles filled the bowl, topped with a few leafy greens and a scattering of chopped scallions that floated like duckweed on a pond.

“Here. Eat,” Tang Danqing said, holding out the bowl and chopsticks.

The air was so cold that Shang You didn’t smell the noodles until the bowl was right in front of her face.

Her eyes widened. She stared at the bowl as if she were seeing a hallucination.

Then she snatched it with both hands.

She wolfed down the noodles, balancing the bowl on her knees.

Shang You had thought about it. If Shan Qing wanted to kill her, she could just do it. There was no reason to poison her food—and certainly no reason to waste a whole bowl of freshly made noodles.

Where had Shan Qing gotten them? And how were they still hot?

Shang You watched her as she ate, but it didn’t slow her down in the slightest.

Halfway through the bowl, Shang You suddenly stopped and looked at Tang Danqing, who had been watching her eat.

“I feel a lot better… Do you want some?” She set the bowl down on the bed frame beside Tang Danqing, offering it up.

[Quest Complete! Reward: 150 Survival Coins.]

[Beginner Quest 3: In extreme cold, staying warm is essential to survival. Find a heat source for you and your roommate.]

Tang Danqing had just finished the second quest. She was browsing the Pocket Shop and getting ready to tackle the third when the NPC stopped eating.

The NPC didn’t seem to dare eat more than half. She was even trying to ingratiate herself.

The NPC was weak, pitiful, and helpless. JPG.

She was already tucking her tail between her legs? Tang Danqing instinctively reached out to pat her head, but her hand seemed to hit a block of ice. She hissed and snatched it back. Even her hair was freezing.

Tang Danqing quickly checked her forehead with the back of her hand. It was a miracle she didn’t have a fever.

After spending so long in the game, Tang Danqing was starting to feel cold herself. Even her thick windbreaker couldn’t keep the chill from finding its way in.

“Go ahead and eat. I’m not hungry.” Tang Danqing tapped the bowl with her fingertips. It rang softly, urging the NPC to finish it.

Only then did the NPC pick up the bowl. She quickly licked it clean, leaving not a drop of broth.

As a roommate, Tang Danqing checked in on her. “Are you full?”

The NPC hesitated. “Mm… I’m not hungry anymore…”

Tang Danqing opened the Pocket Shop and traded ten coins for a box of ham sandwiches. She handed it over. “Have these when you get hungry.”

Then she bought a pack of dark chocolate for twenty-five coins and gave it to her. “If you get dizzy or weak, eat some of this.”

Finally, she glanced around the bare staff room. “Call me if you want some water.”

In this weather, bottled water would freeze solid soon after she bought it.

“I’m going to see if I can find somewhere to keep warm.”

With that, Tang Danqing pushed open the staff room door and left.

The NPC remained where she was, staring blankly after her.

Where had she gotten the sandwiches and chocolate? Had they appeared out of thin air?

And that hot bowl of yangchun noodles…?

As soon as Tang Danqing left the staff room, she walked through the living room, the master and second bedrooms, the dining room, and the study. From the businesslike decor, she could tell the place had once been a suite in a luxury hotel.

In real life, she’d stayed in suites of this size a few times while traveling. They were nice when someone looked after you: elegant rooms on a high floor, with a view over the city and all the people below.

Without anyone around, though, the place was just an abandoned shell. Its vastness made it feel even emptier and more ominous.

Through the frosted floor-to-ceiling windows, Tang Danqing saw gray smog hanging over the city and snow blanketing the ground. Thick drifts covered the old buildings. So this was what the apocalypse looked like.

Even as an animation, the scene made quite an impression.

The increasingly bitter cold also made the game much less enjoyable.

In the Pocket Shop, heat patches cost ten coins each, torches cost twelve, fire starters cost eight, small hand warmers cost eighty, a wood-burning heater cost two hundred and came with a modest amount of fuel, and a high-powered space heater cost eight hundred and needed an electrical outlet.

There was a saying: you got what you paid for. Why buy cheap junk? Heat patches and torches looked like they’d barely help at all.

Tang Danqing hadn’t come here to suffer. If a game was worth playing, it was worth spending on. She had 207 Survival Coins left, so she went straight for a wood-burning heater at two hundred coins.

A squat brazier appeared before her, its black, box-shaped fire chamber perched on four legs. Some of the firewood inside was already burning, red embers crackling beneath the grate.

Tang Danqing held her palm over it and felt the heat slowly rise. Not bad.

The heater was small, though, and seemed just big enough for one person. Oh, well. For two hundred coins, what more could she ask for? At least it came with a bag of firewood and two fire starters.

[Quest Complete! Reward: 300 Survival Coins.]

[Congratulations! You have completed all Beginner Quests. You now have a normal roommate relationship, know how to buy food to fill your stomach, and have learned how to keep warm. You have what it takes to survive here. Now keep improving your quality of life!]

[Achievement Unlocked: Welcome to the New World.]

[Achievement Reward: 100 Survival Coins.]

[Main Quest added. Side Quests added.]

Her Survival Coin balance had been scraping the bottom of the barrel, but now it was back over four hundred. Things were looking up—and she had a heater to sit by.

The early game was the perfect time to build up a home base.

Tang Danqing returned to the staff room and called out to the poor little NPC inside.

“Come on. You must be freezing. Get over here by the fire. I’ve got the heater going.”