Chapter Text
A glare at my phone might never be enough for me to express my frustration.
This is frustrating. The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System is frustrating. I mean, everything is good. The characterization, the setup, everything is good. The transmigrated protagonist is funny, the System has the design of some kind of final boss, no complaint anywhere.
Except for the romance part. Where. The fuck. Is the romance part.
I have spent, like, the entire read trip frowning at post-Abyss arc Luo Binghe. That guy was forceful as hell!! How do you want a romance when one of the characters is so obsessive and forceful?! Shen Qingqiu, my guy, are you sure you aren't having a Stockholm syndrome right there?! Your disciple literally has zero notion of consent!!! What romance is this!!! I mean, seriously, Mo Xiang Tong Xiu?!?
Whatever. Not like I could transmigrate and change the course of everything a la Shen Qingqiu, anyway. You bet I would have tried, otherwise. Preferably without the System wracking everything up, thank you very much. Or perhaps I'd have hacked the System, who knows. I do pretty often do hack free novels and in-game rewards my way, out of utter laziness, after all. Not something a proper citizen would do, but as long as it doesn't involve committing serious crimes, do I fucking care?
No amount of wanting to change the story will do anything, though. SVSSS is pure fiction, and the most one could do is to write fanfics, and those ain't canon. So, bye bye the dream of changing everything.
I cast a quick glance at my clock. 3:33 A.M. Damn, I really need my goddamn sleep. It's been a whole week of staying awake past midnight just for the sake of reading a danmei novel.
I throw my phone to the sides, sighing, and close my eyes. I should still be able to sleep a bit before having to wake up again tomorrow.
—~—~—
The first thing that greets my slowly-opening eyes is blue. A never-ending, empty space the color of blue. A place with lighter blue lines, straight but irregular, woven across whatever space this is, in a perfectly even patchwork of squares.
A place reminiscent of your typical anime-ish depiction of digital dimensions.
If this is a dream, this is a pretty weird dream- hold on a second. Normally, would people automatically think that this is a dream?
I look down at my body, and upon finding that yes, I still do have a body, I proceed to pinch myself as hard as I could.
And fuck does it hurt.
Apparently no, whatever fuckery this is isn't a goddamn dream.
Okay, so what the fuck.
If this is not a dream, then what the fuck is this?! I don't even remember putting on VR glasses?! Last thing I knew, I was in my bed, trying to sleep after my silent fit against BingQiu?!
Suddenly, a screen appears right in front of me.
[We welcome your entrance into the system.] A Google Translate-ish voice speaks up. [This system is based on the developing concept of 'You can you up, no can no BB'. As an Administrator, we hope you can provide your appointed account with the best experience. We pray for your success in bringing the User happiness.]
...
Okay.
What the fuck.
What is this fuckery?! I'm in the role of an Admin, now?! What account am I even the admin of?!
On the screen before me is written something like a chart. It reads:
[The Administrator is to follow the rules:
- Until the User unlocks the OOC feature, the Administrator must ensure that the User stays within the boundaries of their designated character, otherwise a certain amount of B-points must be depleted.
- Certain quests must be completed, otherwise a certain amount of B-points must be depleted.
- The goals of ongoing quests must be attained, otherwise a certain amount of B-points must be depleted.
- The amount of B-points in the User's account must not reach 0, otherwise the User's account must be terminated, or the punishment protocol must take place.
- No other entities than the Users and the Administrator must know about the system's existence until 100% completion of the story, otherwise the User's account must be terminated, or the punishment protocol must take place.
Outside of these rules, the Administrator is to do whatever they deem fit to provide help to the User.]
Wow. Thank you for giving me the bare minimum of clues. I'm pretty certain I've seen the B-point thing somewhere, but until I have more of those damned clues, the point thing is nowhere near helpful.
The guidelines, which had appeared while I was reading the rules apparently concerning punishments, aren't helping either. As far as I could tell, they are just rules restricting the Administrator's (a.k.a my, if I didn't misunderstand the whole thing) moves. Nothing a little hacking here and there couldn't change, if this space and this system are indeed digital in nature. (Hopefully without fucking myself up too-)
Which means I'm pretty much stomping on one spot until an 'User' appears.
Just then, as I uselessly bang my head on one of the two light-blue screens, another one opens, and a digitally-filtered-sounding voice speaks up from it, "Shidi? Shidi, can you hear me?"
I instantly freeze.
This sentence. There is one very familiar setup in which this exact sentence is the first thing the protagonist hears upon waking up.
I slowly move my gaze toward the most recent screen. Only for my eyes to be met with two of them. One showing a man waking up in his bed, in an Ancient China setup, the other displaying that same man's information.
[Account: Shen Qingqiu
Affiliation: Cang Qiong Mountain sect, Qing Jing Peak
Binding roles: Luo Binghe's master; Peak Lord
Weapon: Xiu Ya sword
Current B-points: 100]
Okay.
WHAT THE FUCK.
Did I just become Shen Qingqiu's administrator of all things?! In that one System I, time and time again, depicted for myself as a goddamn final boss?! Seriously, you want me to bully poor Shen Yuan?! That man has enough suffering in the original novel, help!!
(And what happened for me of all people to become the goddamn Admin, anyway?! Don't tell me my lack of sleep was my murderer?! I didn't even deprive myself of sleep that long?!)
And please don't tell me I got dragged here because the last thing I did just before this fuckery was to complain about the BingQiu 'romance'?! Unlike Shen Yuan, I haven't even posted any comment at all-
Hey wait a second.
If what I'm in right now is real, then I might actually be able to loophole my way to real BingQiu romance? As in, one without the Stockholm syndrome thing?
It's worth trying, actually.
Pulling myself out of my little panic crisis, I send the information to Shen Qingqiu, a bit like sending a normal mail, effectively interrupting the background sound that is his train of thought.
The reply doesn't lose a second to come. «Fuck fuck fuck, what kind of toy are you?! How come it seems like it's speaking directly into my brain?! Does Airplane Shooting Toward the Sky know about-»
I cut him off, «First of all, calm down. Second of all, you are in the PIDW universe, so no this isn't a plagiarism or anything. Third of all...»
«... I transmigrated.» The now long-haired man finishes off my explanation. (I must say, reading about the poker face he pulled in-canon is one thing, but seeing it in person is another thing entirely. I'd never be able to freak out with a straight face.) «I... transmigrated into a novel I just finished reading. The pitch-black path stallion novel I absolutely hated.»
«Did you now?» I raise a brow, not that he could see it. «Isn't it more that you actually like the characters and hate the plotholes and the untouched potential, that kinda thing?»
«Can you not roast me, please?» The transmigrator groans, internally, of course, «So. Everything would've been perfect if I didn't transmigrate as the goddamn scum villain of the story! Why am I the villain?!»
I shrug. «Well, aren't the villain's actions often the most plot-changing ones? If you died complaining about the plotholes and hating on the villain, then that exact role might be the optimal depart for actually making the novel readable, don't you think?»
«Can't argue here. How do you know about it, though? And I thought for a sec that the Google Translate-like voice would be the official one?»
I sigh. «I'm the Admin in charge of supervising your account and helping you change the course of the plot. What you got just before me was just information from the System, concerning said account. So yeah, it's actually essential that I know about those details.»
«Oh. So you and this System are not the same thing?»
«Indeed.»
Then, Shen Qingqiu glances at the leader of his sect, and mentally sends a 'fuck' his way. Yeah, understandable. I would react the same way if I had my future victim right in front of me, too.
I ought to reassure him a bit.
«If you haven't already noticed it, the story hasn't progressed that far yet. Yue Qingyuan is still alive, so that means you still have some time to avoid that outcome.»
«... Yeah, I know...»
The addition of yet another screen, littered with texts, is clue enough of what has just popped up in the transmigrator's mind. At the same time, the guy hunches over and brings a hand up to support his head.
I can't help but wince for him. It isn't like knowing how everything will actually turn out snuffs out the sympathy for a horrified man, okay?!
Suddenly, a long string of alarm abruptly explodes, resounding in the digital space I'm currently. Clutching my ears and taking a peek at what I ought to call the main screen, Shen Qingqiu too is clutching his head in pain. I'm not the only one, apparently.
There's no need of other means of warning for me to understand. «Oy, bro, no you're not hugging the protagonist's thighs!! The System will punish you if you go OOC before unlocking that feature!!» I manage to yell out, still trying to block the alarm out from my poor eardrums. That's when said alarm chooses to stop just as abruptly as it began.
At the same time, Yue Qingyuan begins reaching his hands out to his junior, eyeing him worriedly, "Shidi, your head still hurts?"
The 'scum villain' ignores the Sect Leader's question in favor of crying out in his brain, «What the fuck?! The System thing has already let me transmigrate directly into Shen Qingqiu and replace him, why does it bother with those details?!»
«Who knows. Anyway, you have to stick to Shen Qingqiu's character until you can unlock the OOC feature, or the System will automatically deduce points from you. And just another warning, you do not want to reach 0 B-point.»
«And what happens if I do?»
I sigh. «Account termination. You get deported back to your original world.»
Shen Qingqiu internally frowns. «My original world? But I'm...»
«Already dead there.» I finish off, «Yup. If your B-points fall to zero, you die.»
The man winces, then lifts his head and gazes around him in search of his future favored student. "... Where's Luo Binghe?"
Yue Qingyuan pauses, eyeing his shidi with a confused look.
Then, just before Shen Qingqiu could go too far in his secret elation, the Sect Leader says, "Shidi, don't be upset." He then sighs, "I know you don't like him. But that child has already made a sufficient amount of effort and hasn't made any large blunder. There's no need to punish him again."
I don't even need to look at the screen to see dread creep up in the novel reader. "... Out with it, where is he?"
The Sect Leader stays silent for a long time, then says, "After stringing him up and hitting him, haven't you always shut him inside the woodshed?"
I couldn't fault Shen Qingqiu for passing out.
~~~~~
«Before you make any mistake, I'll drop a little clue on the original Shen Qingqiu's past here: he wasn't as well-off as you think.»
The current Shen Qingqiu blinks a bit in confusion, and then internally frowns, «He wasn't? And how is that 'clue' supposed to help me in any way?»
I sigh, «You will understand later in the plot. This is one of the plotholes the author discarded for the sake of his novel's popularity.»
«Wow wow wow, you can't just tell me something about the villain's past and then let me hanging there!!" The transmigrator attempts to protest.
Unfortunately for him, this is something he'll have to discover by himself. Though I don't know if he will be able to, what with the one detail I intend to change potentially activating a string of falling dominoes. Well perhaps the whole sewer thing will still happen, who knows.
Just as I was thinking of how exactly to get Shen Qingqiu to enact that change, the horrendous alarm blares up, sending a notification my way. Having already read SVSSS, I don't even need to open the mail. «Shen Qingqiu would never take the initiative to see Luo Binghe, dude, so OOC warning right there!»
The poor man groans, «Fine! Then I'll send someone to bring him over, that should be okay, right?»
The alarm comes to a blissful stop, and I can't help the relieved breath that escapes my lips.
I really will need to stop referring to the original novel at one point, though. This is still the beginning, so no big change yet, so I can still base myself on SVSSS, no problem; but at one point, my own guidance might diverge everything from the original course of events, and I've seen what Shen Qingqiu's mistake led to. I do not want to make the same mistake as him if I want to transform the whole 'Stockholm syndrome/obsessed forceful aggressor' thing into an actual healthy romance. Healthy BingQiu has always been my fanfic OTP, and nothing will stop me from actually having it become reality!
Lost in my thoughts, I nearly don't hear the PIDW reader call out for Ming Fan, though it ultimately isn't worth paying attention to. Nor really is Shen Qingqiu's inquiries about the functioning of the System, I just have to recite the guideline the mechanic has provided me with.
No no, what's worth paying attention to is the moment the main love interest finally walks in. And oh boy does he look absolutely wretched.
«Just for you to know, he's 14 years old.» I unhelpfully provide.
I seriously don't know how the man can keep his utter poker face while having an absolute panic attack inside and waxing poetry at the boy's good looks at the same time. Seriously, not a day into this and I already have to go through Shen Qingqiu's fangirling. Why am I surprised? Do I even want to bet about the Luo Binghe merch Shen Yuan potentially had in his bedroom?
Whatever. Mo Xiang Tong Xiu had made the potential of this all into a heavily unhealthy relationship; I have to find a way to fix this mistake. That includes: teaching Luo Binghe about consent (consent is the sexiest thing in the world, thank you very much), and have Shen Qingqiu actually falling in love with him because I can't bear the crumbs of imagined love on his side anymore. Or the Stockholm syndrome, I hate the Stockholm syndrome trope.
Hopefully, being stuck together in the Endless Abyss will do it. Now, how to convince the Shifu to jump in along with his disciple might be the main problem.