The Hand of Confession – Chapter 426

Extra

Game World (Part 1)

The child is disobedient

What’s it like to be a Game Administrator?

            

Shen Maomao: Thanks for the invite. I’m in an instance, just finished scaring some newbies by pretending to be a ghost.

Back when Shen Maomao first entered the game, she never thought she’d become such a badass existence like the Game Administrator.

The Administrator’s job was very easy. She only needed to perform basic maintenance on the game, which could be summed up as—pressing a button.

            

The Administrator’s power was immense. The game itself didn’t seem to worry at all that the Administrator would abuse their authority and make a mess of things—after all, the game wasn’t the one suffering. At worst, It could just find a new administrator.

The game worlds were incredibly rich and varied. Some instances had delicious food, and some instances had fun ghosts. Shen Maomao nearly went wild playing, almost forgetting to go home. She only behaved after Lou Jingmo dragged her back for a spanking.

Did Lou Jingmo have any lingering attachments to the real world?

            

Not really.

She wrote novels to make a living, but that didn’t mean she liked it. She didn’t care for fame or fortune, and besides Shen Maomao, there was no one she missed. So, of course, wherever Shen Maomao went, she would go.

Besides, she really liked their current life. As long as the game didn’t perish, they wouldn’t die. It was another form of eternity.

            

Did Shen Maomao have any lingering attachments to the real world?

Yes.

Her parents.

            

But her parents had already forgotten her. When she missed them, she would lead Lou Jingmo out of an instance and become an apiao​¹ in the real world, accompanying the old couple in another way.

“Shen Maomao? Get your ass down here for dinner!” Lou Jingmo’s shout came from downstairs.

“Aooo! Coming!” Shen Maomao typed the final period, sent the message that was dripping with show-offy vibes, then got up and went downstairs to eat.

            

As she set out the bowls, Lou Jingmo raised an eyebrow at her. “Showing off again?”​²

Shen Maomao said, disgruntled, “What do you mean, showing off! I’m fostering a closer relationship with my employees!”

Lou Jingmo’s lips curved into a smirk.

            

Halfway through their meal, a call suddenly came in. Shen Maomao didn’t check the caller ID and just answered on speakerphone.

Amidst the noisy background on the other end, Jinmao yelled in desperation, “Tuzi-jiejie!!​³ Come and deal with this!! Chen Meihan is fighting the black umbrella again! My house collapsed!!”

Shen Maomao was speechless. “Why are you calling me for your own family matters?”

            

“Today’s situation is complicated,” Jinmao said anxiously. “Did you know the black umbrella turned into a kid?!”

“What?!” Shen Maomao exclaimed. One person and one umbrella were already hard enough to handle. Now they’d become two bear children?!​⁴

Jinmao was sobbing. “I’m not raising these two kids anymore! You raise them yourself! I’m not worthy!!”

            

She had no desire to manage those two bear children, so she quickly tried to placate Jinmao. “It’s okay, it’s okay. Find a safe place to stand for now. I’ll be over after I finish eating.”

Jinmao was incredulous. “You’re still going to finish your meal?!”

“Er…”

            

Lou Jingmo held out her hand.

Shen Maomao obediently passed the phone over.

Lou Jingmo’s voice was cold. “You have a problem with that?”

            

Jinmao instantly chickened out. “No, no… You two eat first. I’ll go hide. A lot of people have come to watch the commotion. It’s so embarrassing.”

After the call ended, Shen Maomao gave Lou Jingmo a thumbs-up.

Jinmao wasn’t afraid of her at all, but he was terrified of Lou Jingmo.

            

The two of them unhurriedly finished their meal and slowly got ready to head out.

Shen Maomao donned the cloak that symbolized her status and walked out, holding Lou Jingmo’s hand.

As soon as she stepped out of her home, with a thought,​⁵ she appeared in the instance where Jinmao now lived—it was Chen Meihan’s school instance.

            

Jinmao was now working as an art teacher at the school, responsible for giving new players plot hints and, on the side, helping to look after the two little bosses in the instance.

Most instances in the game were closed after a single use. After closing, they would become self-contained and develop freely, becoming a trivial little string of data in the game. But a portion of them would continue to evolve; the instance’s area would grow larger and larger, the NPCs’ awareness would get higher and higher, and they would even independently develop into a small world—just like Chen Meihan’s instance.

Shen Maomao was quite familiar with this world—after all, she had entered this instance twice herself, and she had come back several more times later to set up a home for Jinmao.

            

The sudden population explosion a few years ago had left her dizzy with work. Besides those who didn’t have a high enough sin value, there were also people whose sin values had been mostly eliminated for reasons like doing good deeds or sincerely repenting and making amends for their mistakes. All these people were resurrected in the game according to the rules Shen Maomao had set, and she had to personally send them to different instances based on their time of death.

Those she didn’t know were assigned tasks directly. Those she knew, she would meet to reminisce and, while she was at it, give them a backdoor pass to visit other worlds during their off-hours.

The ghosts and monsters that used to scare people shitless didn’t seem so terrifying anymore. Now, she could occasionally see them all getting together for a drink after work.

            

In the blink of an eye, they arrived at the scene of the incident.

The building that once shot up into the clouds had been reduced to a pile of rubble. A circle of people and ghosts had already gathered around the ruins. They were whispering and arguing amongst themselves, all there to watch the show—Shen Maomao even heard the “kacha kacha” sound of someone cracking melon seeds.​⁶

Lou Jingmo pointed in a direction. Shen Maomao looked over and found the one cracking seeds.

            

Peng Xiaorui spotted her too and waved excitedly. “Maomao—!” A shower of melon seed shells fell to the ground.

The scene fell silent for a moment. Then, everyone bowed to her in unison and said, “Administrator-daren.”

At first, Shen Maomao found this title a bit cringey, but the thrill was real, so she eventually just decided to be shameless about it.

            

She scanned the crowd, gave a faint nod, and asked in a deep voice dripping with show-offy flair, “Where’s Liao Shi?”

Peng Xiaorui ran over in a few steps. “Probably inside breaking up the fight? Why are you here? Are you not busy anymore?”

Shen Maomao said, “Clean up your trash.”

            

Peng Xiaorui turned her head and saw the melon seed shells on the ground, almost indistinguishable from the ash. Tears immediately welled up in her eyes. “Ah, this… ah, this…”

Shen Maomao walked past her and into the ruins.

Dust swirled everywhere, yet not a single speck could get near Shen Maomao or Lou Jingmo. She stepped over the shattered glass covering the ground, passed through a wall that was half-destroyed but still standing strong, and saw Jinmao, covered in dirt, squatting in a corner with his head in his hands. On a small mountain of ash, two tiny figures were tangled up in a fight.

            

The moment Jinmao saw them, it was as if he’d seen his saviors. He rushed over excitedly, his eyes brimming with tears. “You’re finally here! Please, do something about them! They’re about to tear the sky down!”

Shen Maomao waved a hand, blocking Jinmao and preventing him from getting close. “Don’t. You’re too dirty.”

Jinmao: “Wuwuwuwuwu.”

            

Shen Maomao cleared her throat. “You two, stop it.”

Her tone wasn’t particularly authoritative, but the two fighting children couldn’t help but stop. They were each grabbed by a large, opaque hand and left dangling in mid-air, kicking their legs helplessly.

This was the power of the Administrator. She had absolute control over everything within the game worlds, including the life and death of every person and monster.

            

Shen Maomao was no tyrant. She looked at the two identical little girls in the air and asked, “What’s the situation? Which one is Chen Meihan?”

The one on the left said, “Me, me, me! This shameless thing, it turned into me! It’s infringing on my portrait rights!”

Shen Maomao looked at the girl on the right—and what do you know, the little black umbrella’s transformation was pretty convincing!

            

As if sensing the surprise in her eyes, the little black umbrella gave her a shy smile.

Though they had the same face, the little black umbrella looked like a shy and adorable well-bred young lady,​⁷ while the Chen Meihan on the other side was buzzing and fussing like a grasshopper.

Shen Maomao’s heart was biased all the way to the Pacific Ocean. “Little Umbrella, you’re amazing. You can even turn into a person now.”

            

Little Umbrella gestured a few times with its hands.

Shen Maomao: “You can’t speak?”

The little black umbrella nodded, looking at her with pleading eyes.

            

But unfortunately, Shen Maomao never interfered with an instance’s development. How the little black umbrella evolved was entirely up to her own efforts. So, Shen Maomao could only give her an expression that said she was willing to help but unable to do so.​⁸

The little black umbrella lowered her head in disappointment.

Chen Meihan was baring her fangs and brandishing her claws.​⁹ “Change it back right now! I don’t agree! Do—you—hear—me—I—don’t—agree—!”

            

Shen Maomao dug a finger in her ear. “Quiet down, you’re too loud.”

Chen Meihan: “Wuwuwu, they all say once you have a stepmom, you get a stepdad…”​¹⁰

Shen Maomao: “…Stop trying to claim kinship. I don’t have a daughter like you.”

            

Jinmao spoke up faintly from the side, “I say, you two jiejies, can we change the house back first? The people outside are all watching us make fools of ourselves.”

Shen Maomao coughed dryly twice. “Alright, everyone disperse. Go back to your posts! You’re all too idle, jumping at the first sign of excitement!”

The surrounding crowd dispersed in a hubbub, leaving only Peng Xiaorui, who was bent over, tearfully picking up melon seed shells.

            

Once everyone was gone, Shen Maomao raised a hand. The entire building turned into a string of green data, then reassembled into the shape of a building, and finally solidified, enclosing the few of them inside.

Jinmao was so moved he started crying. “My home! It’s back!”

Shen Maomao set both the little black umbrella and Chen Meihan down. The little black umbrella hid behind Shen Maomao in fear.

            

“Look how you’ve scared the poor child,” she said.

Chen Meihan was so angry she shoved her face in front of Shen Maomao’s. On it were three clear, bloody scratches. “Look!! Look!! It scratched me! That green tea bitch!​¹¹ All it knows is how to act pitiful! Shameless!”

Jinmao said, exasperated, “You two have been fighting for years. Is it really necessary? If you keep fighting like this, I’m giving up on you. You can take care of yourselves!”

            

Chen Meihan pouted, aggrieved. “I’m obviously the boss! I’m the boss! It’s already been killed by players once!”

Lou Jingmo let out a disdainful scoff.

Chen Meihan felt insulted and wanted to lunge at Lou Jingmo to fight her to the death, but then she glanced at Shen Maomao’s smiling face. In the end, she just curled into a ball on the ground and burst into tears. “Waaaaah! You’re all bullying me!!”

            

Shen Maomao sighed, feeling a major headache coming on.

Lou Jingmo said, “A disobedient child is probably just spoiled. A good beating will fix them.”

Chen Meihan’s wails instantly grew louder.

            

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The author has something to say:

I have a full schedule of classes every day now, I’m so busy I could spit blood (??`」∠) I finally managed to squeeze out 3k words, so I’m posting this first. I’ll work on the second half tomorrow.

Thank you all for your companionship over the past year! Love you all! Making a heart sign!

            

About physical books: A lot of people have been asking about physical books lately. sy is illegal,​¹² and as for official publishing—who wouldn’t want to be published!! But my writing still lacks maturity, so it’s probably a long shot, sob sob sob. Thank you all for the love.

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