My Romance Game Updated – Chapter 2

Nightmare

While Ren Chenxi stared inquisitively at the gaming helmet tossed onto the nearby chair, Ren Muhui was tirelessly searching for evidence that his sister had secretly played his game.

“Ren Chenxi, I knew it! You were secretly playing the game and stealing my money, weren’t you! Did you think I wouldn’t notice such a massive expenditure? I don’t know what a prodigal woman¹ like you did to manage to spend so much…”

“I told you I didn’t spend it!” Ren Chenxi denied firmly, refusing to admit guilt even unto death. This broken game had given her psychological trauma; she simply didn’t want to admit she had ever played it! “Didn’t you say your Goddess’s Favorability Value² was maxed out? Maybe you sleepwalked at night and threw money at her to raise it? Generous guys get the Goddess’s favor easier, right~”

However, Ren Muhui didn’t believe a single word of her explanation.

“Are you kidding me? Goddess Mu³ has more money than me. Even if I won the lottery ten times, I wouldn’t dare show off my wealth to Goddess Mu, okay!”

“…”

Ren Muhui’s words jogged Ren Chenxi’s memory regarding the game’s setting. This wooden⁴ Goddess seemed to be a wealthy young miss⁵ from a powerful family! But because the young miss was relatively low-key on campus, Ren Chenxi had completely overlooked the Wooden Goddess’s family background. No wonder! She had offered sincere attention every day but couldn’t move the Goddess at all. It turned out the Goddess was too rich to care about those “small gifts” Ren Chenxi had handmade herself!

Tsk tsk tsk. Thinking about how that young miss might have trampled on her carefully crafted gifts in private, Ren Chenxi felt a wave of annoyance.

“Since you know the SL Grand Method⁶, why not buy lottery tickets dozens or hundreds of times? Make your net worth exceed your Goddess, then play out a scenario of a domineering tycoon⁷ falling for a wooden… uh, aloof school beauty⁸?”

As soon as she finished speaking, Ren Muhui sighed heavily.

“You think I don’t want to? But this is a holographic game⁹ designed for the most realistic player experience! In the last holographic game I played, I used the SL Grand Method, but after winning the lottery five times, I was invited to drink tea¹⁰, and then it was game over…”

“…”

If they wanted the player to have the most realistic gaming experience, they shouldn’t include save and load functions! Wait, the incredibly realistic world she experienced indeed had no save or load functions! Did this dog game¹¹ target specific players? Did it give her a huge bug just because the player data didn’t match?

Unfortunately, Ren Muhui didn’t give Ren Chenxi time to ponder. He began pestering her relentlessly, asking if she had secretly played the game. Ren Chenxi, having no other option, replied casually, “Don’t you say every day how hard your Goddess is to chase? A Goddess that you, a master of romance, can’t catch—could I, a girl, conquer her in one day? So Ge¹², do you think that when it comes to chasing Goddesses… you’re inferior to a young girl like me who’s never dated?”

“…”

At these words, Ren Muhui froze. He looked his sister up and down in disbelief. They shared eighty percent of the same features, but because she was a girl, hers were more delicate and refined. Even though she was his twin sister, back in school, it seemed… his sister was always more popular with girls than he was?

Ren Muhui felt sour, but his manly pride wouldn’t allow him to admit that his sister was more popular with girls than him, or that she was more likely to… gain the Goddess’s favor.

“Alright, alright, let’s just say I sleepwalked and accidentally conquered the Goddess…” Ren Muhui waved one hand to shoo Ren Chenxi away while clicking the mouse with the other to close the game interface. “Honestly, you stinky girl, don’t you dare secretly play on my save file again!”

Hmph, I won’t play your dog games anymore either. Who knows what strange bugs I’d encounter next!

Ren Chenxi quietly rolled her eyes. However, catching a glimpse of the darkening computer screen, she asked curiously, “Ge, you worked so hard to conquer the Goddess, aren’t you going back in to date her?”

She was curious about what kind of transformation the usually cold Wooden Goddess would undergo after falling in love with someone.

“No way!” Ren Muhui refused instantly. “Stinky girl, didn’t you see Goddess Mu’s terrifying Blackening Value¹³! Go in and date her? Please, I only enjoy the process of chasing the high-and-mighty Goddess until she’s mine. I don’t want to date a deranged¹⁴ goddess with such a high Blackening Value! What if I slip up, get my head cut off, and get planted in her flower pot?”

“…” So Ge, just what kind of frenzied games have you played before to be so terrified of a goddess with a high Blackening Value?

Since her brother refused to enter the game, Ren Chenxi couldn’t stand by the computer screen and observe how the Goddess’s attitude changed after reaching full favorability. She could only feel regret and pity as she slowly readapted to the real world she felt she hadn’t seen in over two years.

She regretted not being able to witness the Iceberg Goddess melting with her own eyes. She pitied… that full 100 points of Favorability Value!!!

In this crappy dating game, it wasn’t actually as Ren Chenxi resentfully thought, that the Wooden Goddess was too stingy to give her any favorability points. In fact, under Ren Chenxi’s tireless persistence, the Wooden Goddess’s Favorability Value would rise. However, for some unknown reason, whenever the Goddess’s Favorability Value exceeded fifty percent, it would immediately plummet back to below fifty.

It was precisely because of this Favorability Value that could never break fifty percent that Ren Chenxi felt increasingly repressed and hopeless, to the point where she eventually couldn’t take it anymore and ran off to travel to escape reality. However, constantly obsessing over the Wooden Goddess’s Favorability Value led Ren Chenxi to discover another use for it.

The Wooden Goddess’s Favorability Value could actually be exchanged for player Skill Points¹⁵!

Logically, since the Wooden Goddess’s favorability was so hard to raise, Ren Chenxi should have cherished it. But she knew very well that no matter how hard she tried or how much effort she put in, she could not move this Wooden Goddess. Since the favorability would inevitably drop below fifty percent anyway, whenever the Goddess’s Favorability Value exceeded 50 points, the wised-up Ren Chenxi would exchange it for her own Skill Points before it automatically dropped.

Player skills in dating games were mostly things like cooking, handicrafts, music, and other skills used to please the capture target. Of course, there were also skills needed to cope with life and academics in the game, such as studying, sports, social skills, and so on. Players could upgrade these skills using Skill Points or by grinding proficiency.

Back then, Ren Chenxi always rushed to exchange the favorability for Skill Points before the Wooden Goddess’s value dropped below fifty. Watching the Skill Points accumulate, apart from picking a few useful ones or upgrading skills relevant to the current situation, she just randomly clicked on whatever was available. As a result, now back in the real world, Ren Chenxi couldn’t even remember which skills the in-game version of herself had leveled up using the Wooden Goddess’s favorability.

Although she didn’t remember which skills she had leveled up, and couldn’t go back to upgrade them, the habit formed in the game world made Ren Chenxi’s hands itch to exchange the Goddess’s full 100 points of Favorability Value into Skill Points just by looking at it.

Fortunately, having returned to the real world and resumed a normal life, Ren Chenxi stayed home for three months, taking some online commissions, and gradually forgot the shadow of being trapped in the game world. She didn’t know if it was because of the skills she leveled in the game, but Ren Chenxi felt her cooking seemed to have become as good as it was in the game. When looking out the window, she could see scenery further away, and when designing works according to client requirements, her inspiration was endless and her efficiency boundless, resulting in final products that left clients very satisfied.

Only occasionally, in the dead of night, would Ren Chenxi suddenly wake from a dream with a start. Most of these dreams were related to that broken dating game. These dreams seemed to be reminding Ren Chenxi of the time she spent trapped in that game world.

And on this night, Ren Chenxi woke up from her sleep once again. This time, in her dream, she dreamt of her capture target from the game. In the eyes of others, she was the high-and-mighty, unapproachable Iceberg Goddess; in Ren Chenxi’s private complaints, she was the Wooden Goddess, devoid of emotion like a log.

The Wooden Goddess, who always wore a cold face, was smiling at her in the dream with terrifying intensity. Yes, for a face that usually held almost no expression to smile like that… it was horrifying! Even more terrifying was that the Wooden Goddess looked like a water ghost, soaking wet from head to toe. Her usually neatly combed hair was plastered to her pale face in wet clumps. In her right hand, she dragged a long rattan whip covered in barbs, swinging it back and forth as she walked toward Ren Chenxi step by step. As she walked, she spoke in a ghostly tone: “Where did you go? I looked so hard for you… You really are cruel. You finally obtained my heart, only to ruthlessly abandon it! In that case, I have no choice but to dig your heart out so it can be with mine forever…”

Holy crap¹⁶ crap crap crap crap! Her brother, with his rich gaming experience, was right. A deranged goddess with maxed Blackening Value was truly terrifying! Ren Chenxi had no doubt that the moment her brother returned to the game, he would absolutely have his heart carved out by this terrifying, blackened Wooden Goddess! After carving out his heart, she’d probably cut off his head and use it as a potted plant!!!

Just as Ren Chenxi clutched her chest, gasping for breath while praising her brother’s keen instincts, her bed suddenly began to shake violently.

E-Earthquake? Why was it shaking so hard? Ren Chenxi, dizzy and disoriented, struggled to get off the bed. But the moment her bare feet touched the floor, the surrounding environment blurred instantly. Immediately after, overwhelming darkness surged toward Ren Chenxi. Just before she was completely swallowed by the dark, she heard that long-lost yet extremely familiar system voice:

“Welcome back, player, to 《Thump-Thump Boom-Boom Passionate Heart-Racing Pink Campus》¹⁷~”

Fuck!

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The author has something to say:

Secretly digging a new pit, didn’t expect to receive nutrient solution¹⁸ immediately~

Thanks to little cutie¹⁹ Chu Jiu²⁰ for irrigating with Nutrient Solution +30~

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