My Romance Game Updated – Chapter 3

Game Update

When the surrounding darkness finally dissipated, Ren Chenxi found that she was no longer in her small, cozy bedroom. Scanning the area, she felt the environment was vaguely familiar, yet completely wrong. Combining this with the familiar game voice she had just heard, Ren Chenxi guessed she must have entered the game world again. However, the messy, dilapidated surroundings made her doubt herself. When had she ever seen such a broken-down house in the game?

Since she couldn’t tell where she was, Ren Chenxi didn’t dwell on it. Anyway, if she was sure she had entered that damn brain-dead¹ romance game again, she would soon know her current location.

Open map.

With just a thought, the familiar game panel appeared before her eyes. However, when she saw the label for the dilapidated room she was currently standing in on the game map, Ren Chenxi was completely stunned.

Y Province, XX City, XX County, XX Mobile Phone Shop!!!

Wasn’t this the place where she bought a phone before escaping the game? But looking around…

Ren Chenxi surveyed the area again. Finally, amidst the scattered debris of broken glass, wood, and stone, she spotted a few mobile phones buried within. She wondered if the one she had just bought when she left the game was mixed in there. Looking more closely past the scattered devices, she even saw dried black stains on the floor.

What is this broken game doing? She had only been away for three months; what had happened to this phone shop? Right, her bed had been shaking violently just now. Had this place suffered a massive earthquake? What was the in-game time now? Where had the shop assistants gone?

Just as Ren Chenxi’s mind began to run wild, she noticed a new message notification flashing in the bottom right corner of the map panel.

With practiced ease, she opened the mailbox and saw an email sent by the system. In the past, these system emails were either rewards, compensation, or notifications about game updates.

The email informed her that this originally sweet campus romance game had been forced to update due to data corruption. It had evolved into an apocalypse survival game overrun by zombies. The original game title had also officially changed to—《Thump-Thump Boom-Boom Passionate Heart-Racing Black Apocalypse²》~

“…”

After reading the email, Ren Chenxi wanted to curse. However, fearing the game would censor her with a string of “beep-beep-beep³” sounds, she forced herself to hold it in.

How ridiculously corrupted is this dog game⁴‘s data to update a perfectly good romance game into a survival game?! And it’s already a terrifying apocalypse, what’s with the tilde at the end?!

Compared to this terrifying apocalypse survival game, Ren Chenxi would rather continue grinding Favorability Values⁵ with Goddess Mu⁶‘s wooden face⁷ in the romance game! Wait, no. Goddess Mu’s Favorability Value had already been maxed out to 100%! But her Blackening Value⁸ was also at 100%! Recalling the nightmare she just had in the real world, Ren Chenxi involuntarily shivered.

This terrifying survival game is even scarier, okay?!

Since it was an apocalypse survival setting, there were bound to be zombies and other terrifying things. However, to her surprise, when she looked through the shattered glass at the once bustling street, it was completely empty. Did everyone nearby die? Did the zombies wander off to other towns to eat people? Forget it, why care about that? She had absolutely no intention of trying to survive in this updated broken game.

Was this a joke? She had struggled so hard to escape this broken game three months ago. Heaven knew that she, who hated crying the most, had locked herself in her room and cried all night out of pure excitement after finally returning to reality! On what basis were they dragging her back now?

More damnably, this broken game was bugging out again. The moment she summoned the interface, she noticed the option to log out was missing again!

Were her tears of excitement that night all for nothing? And now it wasn’t even that silly romance game anymore! A terrifying apocalypse survival game, plus a Goddess Mu with 100% Blackening Value—how was she supposed to play this? How?!

Ren Chenxi didn’t want to play this bullshit survival game! She fired off a reply directly to the system email, sending her angry protest: I didn’t even wear the Game Helmet⁹, so on what basis did you pull me into the game?!

Since the system email had just been sent to her, she didn’t believe that the guy on the other end—whether a game designer or a programmer—wouldn’t receive her protest.

As a matter of fact, the other party did receive her email and replied quickly: [Detected that the game has bound player data. Therefore, the player does not need a Game Helmet. After the game update, forced entry is enabled. Please achieve the game goal as soon as possible to escape. Game Main Mission: Player Survival Time: 2×22 – 2×32. Game Warning: If the player dies in the game, they will never be able to leave the game world!!!]

“…”

This reply made Ren Chenxi break out in a cold sweat.

Thinking carefully, if this game could forcibly pull her in without a Game Helmet, it was already beyond the authority and ability of programmers or even normal humans, right? Furthermore, if she died in-game, she could never leave. Something with the power to trap her here… Did I hit a ghost¹⁰?!!!

Combining this with her last experience of being trapped, was this her second time encountering the supernatural? No wonder her brother could use the SL Grand Method¹¹ to cheat in the same game, while she wasn’t even given an exit option! To escape, did she have to complete the mission like last time? But chasing Goddess Mu in the romance game for two years had nearly depressed her. Now she had to survive ten years in the apocalypse? Complete it my ass!

Suppressing her inner fear, Ren Chenxi refused to give up and sent another email to the entity, whether human or ghost: Player data binding error. My name is Ren Chenxi, not Ren Muhui. My gender is female, not male!

Back when she stole her brother’s game to play, she noticed upon entering that the character profile listed her brother’s name and male gender. The surrounding NPCs addressed her by her brother’s name and treated her as a man. In other words, during her previous entrapment, she had lived in the game world using her own face and body but under the identity of her brother.

Of course, to avoid NPCs spotting anything amiss right away, she had decisively cut off her long hair. Since it was in-game, it wouldn’t affect her real hair. When she returned to reality, her hair remained untouched. So now, having been dragged back in without a helmet, wearing her pajamas and sporting messy long hair, she looked every bit a girl!

This time, the reply wasn’t as quick. Ren Chenxi waited with anticipation, only to receive: [Player information corrected.]

Then, she watched helplessly as the player name changed from Ren Muhui to Ren Chenxi, and the gender from Male to Female…

So, this entity that could drag her into the game could also correct her name even though she was playing on her brother’s account… Ren Chenxi broke into a cold sweat again.

It really is a ghost, isn’t it! Or maybe some kind of Game Lord God¹²? This made her want to play this bullshit survival game even less!

Ren Chenxi persistently sent several more protest emails. However, the thing—be it human, ghost, or God—simply replied with a “Game Update Big Gift Pack” and then ignored her. Watching her emails sink like stones in the ocean, the sliver of hope she held onto finally sank completely.

Dammit, she really was trapped in this dog game again! And looking at that arduous mission, she would likely be trapped here forever!

Forget it, I’ll just lie flat¹³! With her delicate body, pampered by peace and good food, how could she survive in this bullshit game? She probably wouldn’t last the first day before becoming rations for some zombie!

Ren Chenxi’s eyes reddened. She hugged her knees, squatting in the dim, dilapidated mobile shop. In a fit of despair, she thought she might as well let a zombie bite her so she could turn into a mindless, unconscious zombie herself. That way, being trapped in this broken game wouldn’t be so hard.

That was what she thought. However, when she noticed a red dot on the minimap in the top right corner creeping toward her location, her survival instinct kicked in. Terrified, she shot to her feet and subconsciously backed up two steps.

Before the update, Ren Chenxi could also summon the map, but it only showed her location and place names; there were no red warning dots. With her extensive MMO experience, she was immediately certain: in this updated game, red dots meant enemies!

And the enemy of humans in the apocalypse—that had to be a zombie! The zombies are actually here!

No way! Even if I don’t want to play this dog game, I don’t want to get gnawed on by a terrifying zombie for nothing!

Seeing the red dot getting closer, Ren Chenxi hunched over and began to hide behind the shop’s rear counter. But just as she moved carefully step by step, a sharp pain shot through her foot.

“Hiss—”

She let out a small gasp and only then realized she wasn’t wearing anything on her feet!

Damn it. If I had known earlier when the bed was shaking, I should have slipped into my slippers before getting off! Blame my bad habit of not wearing slippers at home! If I ever get the chance to go back, I will definitely wear slippers properly!

Only… who knows if I’ll ever have the chance to go back…

Ren Chenxi bit her lower lip hard, enduring the stinging pain in her foot, and continued to move carefully behind the counter. However, perhaps because the zombie smelled blood, the red dot on the minimap suddenly sped up, heading straight for the broken mobile shop she was in!

Crap! Did the zombie spot me? Am I going to die here on my very first day of apocalypse survival?

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