Wei Xinqian knew he would go out in a situation like this. Of all causes, this was the most probable one. Getting hit by a truck? Impossible, he practically never leaves the house. Attacked by someone? More probable, but the only grudges he had with others were online ones. Overworking himself? Definitely something that could happen.
He had just pulled 3 all-nighters in a row. Of course, he had expected to pass out anytime soon, but he just needed to finish this last bit of work to have the rest of the week off.
Yawning, Wei Xinqian stamped the last document from the huge stack of paper that was on his table and pushed it away to the side.
"Rrrrgghhhhhhh. Agggghhhhhhhhhh."
He rubbed his face deliriously and stood up, intending to go get a drink of water.
What he didn't expect was that all his tiredness would hit him all at once, as soon as he stood up. He just so happened to be standing in the perfect position, where falling backwards would cause the back of his head to slam directly onto the corner of his table.
The pain woke him up in a split second, but it also unfortunately gave him a severe head injury.
"I can finally stop working now, heheh..." Wei Xinqian giggled deliriously to himself as his consciousness fades away.
-
"Ugh, what a good sleep..." Wei Xinqian sits up in his bed, stretching and yawning. "I haven't had such a dreamless sleep in a long time..."
Then it hits him.
"Huh? What happened?" Wei Xinqian jumps up with a jolt, looking around in a panic at his surroundings. "Didn't I pass out after hitting my head? Did someone find me and take me to the hospital in time? Do I get sick leave because of my head injury?" He reaches up and touches his head, finding no sore spot on his head. "Was I in a coma?! How much work do I have to catch up on?!"
...
After receiving no reply to his panicked questions, Wei Xinqian gets up and stretches. Nice, looks like there's no work to do. The last few times he passed out, his assistant was at his bedside waiting to report to him all the work that needed to be done. He sighs and takes a breath of relief. Thank goodness. He can take a well needed break and catch up on all the events and quests in his games that he had no time to do while working.
Judging from his surroundings, it looks like someone found him in time and took him to a hospital. Looking around for his phone, he wonders who managed to find him. His assistant was helping him run some errands, but maybe they got back in time to find him bleeding out.
"Luckily they were there to help me," Wei Xinqian thinks to himself. "I'll have to give them a bonus later..."
Wei Xinqian frowns, patting and feeling around his pockets. Where was his phone? His assistant knows to always bring a phone or electronic device to the hospital when he passes out. Narrowing his eyes, he looks intently around the room, his eyes landing on a drawer with a key on top of it. He walks over, and tugs on the drawer. Locked.
Oh.
He looks at the drawer, then back at the key.
Okay.
He grabs the key and inserts it into the lock. If they didn't want him to use the key, why would they have just left it there for him to find?
Finding his phone in there, he snatches it and hugs it tightly.
"My beloved! How I have missed you so.... I swear, the creators of the games have better given out some good freebies by now! It's been a month since I last logged in!" Trembling slightly from excitement and the feeling of reunion, he unlocks his phone to find a singular app.
…
A singular tear drops down from his eye.
He gently puts his phone back down into the drawer and crawls back into the bed.
...
An anguished scream comes from underneath the bedsheets.
"FUCK! MY GAMES! Do you know how much time and money I've spent on this! FUCK YOUR MOM, FUCK YOUR DAD, FUCK YOUR ANCESTORS! WHO THE HELL DELETED MY GAMES?!"
Sob. Sob. Sob.
The cute system hiding in the phone, waiting for Wei Xinqian to open the app to give him a surprise: .....is it too late to switch masters? Mother save me..... QAQ
After Wei Xinqian screams out all the curses he could think of, he finally starts to calm down and start thinking rationally. For all he knows, he could have been stuck in a coma for a few years, and phones could have rolled out a new update where all the games were somehow.... shoved into one app. Besides, they were just games. It didn't matter if they were gone! It's not like he formed a deep connection with each individual game and had cried over each one or anything. Haha. He takes a deep breath and rubs his forehead, ready to go open and look at his gameless phone. He picks it up and unlocks it again... to find all his games restored.
.
.
.
?? Is this a glitch? Fix your phones you damn scam phone company!
The system, who was trembling and clicking aggressively while Wei Xinqian was screaming: Quick, quick, quick, restore everything, restore, restore, restore, wtf, wtf, wtf, why does this lunatic have so many gacha games! Restore, restore, restore...
(7 hours later)
Putting his phone down, Wei Xinqian rubs his eyes blearily. He sighs to himself,"Maybe I shouldn't have caught up with all my games at once... Fuck, why did so many of them have sad storylines…" Wiping a tear from his eye, he recalls the 7 hours he just spent sobbing while going through all his games.
"....Damn."
He cracks his neck and picks his phone up, double checking to make sure he didn't miss a single game, when the app from before captures his eye. He stares at the app, wondering if he should open it.
Raising his hand to click on it, he pauses. "Wait. What if this gives me a virus and I lose all my games? Let me backup all my games first again."
The system, still waiting for him to open the app: !! JUST OPEN THE APP ALREADY!!
-
From the inside of the phone, a cute system was waiting for Wei Xinqian to open its app. It was told by its superiors that this way was the best way to ease new transmigrators into the start of their new journey, and it even added a spinning wheel and cool decorations in the app! So! Why! Isn't! This! Phone! Addict! Opening! The! App!
Every time the cute system saw Wei Xinqian close one of his games, they grabbed their script for their warm welcome and their introduction to transmigration, waiting in anticipation for him to finally open their app! But! Every! Time! He! Has! Another! Game! Why! Why! Why!
After watching him play his games for so long, the cute little system was pissed off. They were promised a high and mighty hard working CEO! So why the hell did they get this phone addict?! They threw the script away, and burst out of the phone!
"I've been waiting so long for you to open the system app! I can't take it anymore! I've been watching you play games for the past 8 hours! Have some consideration for others, WILL YOU!?"
Wei Xinqian, happily playing his game: OvO!?!?! Wtf is this??
.
.
.
The system, covering its face in shame: I'm so sorry.
Wei Xinqian, who threw his phone in shock: Wuuu..... my phone.... my poor phone....
-
(5 minutes later)
"....It's fine. I can get another one. Good thing I just backed up all my games." Wei Xinqian mutters sadly to himself.
After Wei Xinqian finishes mourning the loss of his phone, he realises that the cloud shaped figure who came out of his phone, yelled at him and made him break his phone was still here. Turning his head around slowly, he stares at the creature in silence. "..."
"Hello, Wei Xinqian. I am your system, Riri." The cute system says in a robotic voice which didn't match its supposedly cute title. "Ehm. I am sorry for my previous outburst. Um. I don't know how to break this to you. Cough. But. Um. You're dead. You were supposed to know this soon after you arrived here. But. Cough. But you spent eight hours. On your phone. Cough. And. I didn't want to interrupt your gameplay. I am sorry if this news is sudden. It is my first time working as a system so please be patient with me."
Thinking back, Wei Xinqian realises that when the system had come out of his phone, the system had not interrupted any important gameplay of his. Seeing Riri in a slightly better light now, he replies calmly. "...Oh. Then why does this place just look like the hospital I usually stay at, and not like clouds and beams of light and stuff? Even though you look like a cloud, I guess that might be part of it. And what was that about the 'system app' earlier?"
The system looked a bit confused. "....You're not alarmed by the news of your death? According to my worldbook, it was said that people might have extreme reactions to this information. This place was made to fit what you thought would be the most comfortable when awakened, which is why the surroundings are a hospital that you are familiar with instead of a place that looked like an 'afterlife'."
"Okay. Honestly, I feel like I've accepted my death before it had even happened. The world probably wouldn't miss me that much. I guess the most they'll do after they find out that I died is find someone to replace my job." Wei Xinqian sighs, thinking about his now past life. "They'll probably promote my brother... Yeah, he'll be a fine fit. What about my phone?"
"....Ah, yes, I can get you a new phone, as it was my fault that you broke it. I'll just have to file some documents to submit to my superiors... but never mind that. The system app was an app developed by some more techy systems, to ease new transmigrators into their role as people are used to learning new things from their phone. If you had opened the system app, I would have popped out and given you the information you would have needed to become a transmigrator."
Hearing about this, Wei Xinqian thinks of an important detail. "...Transmigrator? ...So I don't have to work anymore? Transmigrating means I just go into different worlds and I can relax there?"
"Nope. In fact from now on, you must work twice as hard! Finish your tasks, beat the world, move on to the next one, and repeat! No time for rest!" Riri beams cutely, shooting smiley face emojis and sparkles out of their cloud shaped body, not knowing what impact their words would bring.
Meanwhile, Wei Xinqian stands silently with a flabbergasted look on his face. ".....Can I refuse?" I'm dead now, just let me be dead! Why do I still have to work! He shudders thinking about what his future would be like as a transmigrator. More all-nighters? More days without his precious games and phone?
"You can't refuse. Even though you'll have to work hard, this does not go unrewarded! If you had opened the system app, you would have found a spinning wheel with one spin as the prize for finishing your first unofficial task - finding your phone!" Riri, after seeing how crazy Wei Xinqian could get about his games, enthusiastically started to promote the wheel of prizes. "You can get skills that you can use in day-to-day life, cool and unique items that can't be found in the real world, even special golden fingers like being able to see the percentage of someone's affection for you! Even if you get items you aren't interested in, you can earn tons of cash by selling them. So what are you waiting for? Spin the wheel and officially start your new life!" Riri spins around happily, wildly spraying confetti and small balloons around the room.
!!!
Hearing about this special gacha wheel, Wei Xinqian's eyes widens in delight. He did love his games in general, but the part he finds the most fun is trying to get new characters and weapons. He likes the satisfaction he feels when he finally manages to get something good after spending hundreds and hundreds of dollars on in-game currency. Now, he doesn't even have to spend cash to spin a wheel anymore! All he had to do were some tasks in a world. The prizes were also things that he can use in his daily life. If he gets some good things, he could be OP, and breeze through worlds easily. Then he could spin the wheel even more!
He had already experienced the life of 24 hour work days. How hard could some tasks be? Hahahahaha! No amount of work could defeat him! Who cares about relaxing, for the sake of gacha!
Grinning happily in delight, Wei Xinqian exclaims, "I want to spin the wheel! How does it work? Since this place clearly doesn't follow the laws of science or whatever in my world, can the wheel just appear in front of me? Like a holographic screen or something? What are the prizes I can get this time? Will there be different prizes every time? What are examples of the tasks that I will receive? Is it one spin for every task?"
Happy with his now enthusiastic host, Riri opens the system shop. "Usually, the wheel would be installed in the app that was on the phone. The wheel can also appear in front of you as a giant holographic screen. However, most hosts prefer to keep everything on their phone, as they find it more convenient to be able to do things on the app while in public when in their worlds."
The system mentally prepares to put themselves in debt to buy their host a new phone. It would later have to write a long letter to their superiors explaining how they managed to already put themselves in debt before the host even entered the world.
Mentally, Wei Xinqian decides that he must have the giant holographic wheel every single time he spins it. Its spin must be 100 times more satisfying than the small ones on the tiny screen of his phone!
Riri continues to patiently reply to all his questions. "As for this time, since this is a 'starter package' for an unofficial task, the things you get will of course not be too good, like skills where you can control people's minds for a short time period. However, to motivate transmigrators, the higher-ups also have removed all possible 'bad' items from the wheel for the starter package such as 'A pet bee that flies around your head and follows you around. For every 5 hours passed with the bee flying around your head, there is a 1/3 chance that it will spawn a jar of honey that tastes delicious. The bee is visible to everyone.' Skills, buffs and items like these will appear on future wheels so you can feel the joy of getting an SSS skill and the pain when you get an F-rated item. The prize pool will be the same for all future wheels, and it is possible to have duplicates. However, it is extremely rare for that to happen, as we have thousands and thousands of things in the draw. On the off chance that that happens, you can choose to keep, gift or sell it to other transmigrators."
After Riri's long rant about prizes, Riri proceeds to disappear into thin air.
...???
"Riri? Where'd you go?" Wei Xinqian looks around, confused. "Hey, you still haven't talked about what would be on this wheel! Am I being scammed again?"
With a poof! and some smoke, Riri appears again, and says with an embarrassed voice,"Cough. Haha. Sorry about that. Not used to human interaction. I forgot that I threw my script away when I came out to talk to you, and I forgot the rest of my speech. I just had to go grab it from the trash can real quick."
Wei Xinqian: ...Seriously?
"Ehm. Cough. So! The items on this wheel will include potential items that can benefit your character in the next world, such as a 'cheat' for your future where you can get the information of what companies will succeed and fail, so you can decide whether to invest in them or not. Items where you receive 'cheats' in worlds can be kept, however they will not be of any use in any other worlds."
"Wait," Wei Xinqian interrupts. "You mentioned that I could sell things to other transmigrators. Could I sell these items as well? Would people be interested in buying them?"
"Ah, yes!" Riri nods. "They can be sold after you are done using them, as some hosts like to collect information about different worlds for fun."
Wei Xinqian understands their mindset. Even though he mainly buys merchandise for his favourite games, he still likes to occasionally buy things from games he doesn't play. His reason for this is 'What if I decide to start playing this game in the future? Buying the merch now is more convenient.' He doesn't know if worlds could be repeated by different transmigrators or not, but if you're rich enough, then maybe it's good to take precautions and buy information just in case you enter a similar world to one that someone else has already entered before. Maybe he could also become a collector later on.
Riri continues on. "Any items that are not limited to a world like potions can be kept and continued using throughout other worlds. Upgrades to any kind of skills and talents like getting better at composing music can be won and your proficiency in these talents will be kept throughout all future worlds. These upgrades can increase your skill in the specified subject from 1 to 5 levels, with 10 levels being the maximum proficiency. These upgrades do not have to be used if you think that they will not help you, and they can also be sold."
"After they've been used, can I still sell the levels to other people? Like taking my levels off and transferring it to theirs?" Wei Xinqian wants to try out anything he wins, even if they might not be beneficial to him, as he wants to try everything he wins in the gacha. Maybe the skill would also seem good at first but wouldn't be useful to him, in which case he would prefer to make more cash off it to buy different items then keep it.
"It's similar to that arrangement. Once the upgrades have been used, they can still be refunded and sold again, however the original upgrade level available will be decreased by 1." Riri smiles, happy that their host was so engaged in learning about the wheel. Hopefully he'll keep the same mentality when learning about his worlds and tasks.
"Skills that are like golden fingers are also available, like being able to see everyone's feelings about you. These are also able to be sold, however it is recommended to keep them as they are the rarest out of anything you can receive. There are only around a thousand skills like these out of the thousands and thousands of potential prizes in the wheel, so most people are not willing to sell them. They will largely benefit you as you can complete your task with more ease. There is an equal chance of gaining all items, unless you finish a world in which case there is a special item given to you where it can increase your chance of getting items of your choice. Of course, these are only examples and are not the only things available in the wheel."
Riri reads off their script diligently, giving off the impression of being a serious and focused system. "Does this tell you all the stuff you need to know about the wheel?"
"Okie dokie." Wei Xinqian's head starts hurting after hearing and watching Riri talk so much about the prizes as they read off the script floating in front of them. "Tell me about the tasks and world stuff after I spin the wheel."
With a whoosh, Riri flies up into the air dramatically and summons a phone. Dropping it into Wei Xinqian's hands, "Alright, open the system app from your new phone and click on wheel of fortune."
"Wait." Wei Xinqian looks up at Riri floating above his head. "You said that we could have a giant wheel in front of us instead of it being on a phone, right?"
"Yep!" Riri lit up with excitement. All their system friends said that their hosts chose to only spin the wheel on their phone, complaining about them being phone addicts and being on that damn phone all the time. They didn't even want to try it out or see it! They can't wait to tell all their friends about their new host who finally chose to have a giant wheel... but of course, leaving out the part where their host was probably a larger phone addict then all of their hosts.
"Great! Please open the giant wheel for me. Riri, send me some luck!" Putting his phone into his pocket, Wei Xinqian rubs his hands excitedly, and starts to do strange motions, actions and gestures with them.
"....Ehm. What are you doing?" Riri asks confusedly while scrolling through their control system, trying to find the buttons to activate the giant wheel. Wow, he's kind of weird. Maybe they shouldn't tell their friends about him.
"I'm doing my ritual for luck when spinning the wheel. If this was a game with characters and stuff, I would have probably done something with them. Hey, since you're technically part of the transmigration 'game', could you fill in the part of the 'character' for the ritual? It's no big deal, I just need you to stand at the corner of the room and stare at the wall while I spin the wheel."
"....Okay." Finally finding the button to activate the function of the huge wheel, Riri floats over to the corner of the room. Riri also wanted to watch their host spin the wheel, but they had to listen to their host's instructions. QAQ.
From the corner of the room, Riri starts to explain how to use the wheel. "Click the button on the middle of the wheel. The wheel will start spinning and will come to a slow stop after, and you will receive the prize that the arrow lands on. Riri wishes you good luck and a lucky spin!"
"Okay, let's do this!" Wei Xinqian looks at the giant golden wheel in front of him, eyes shining in delight and excitement. He reaches out and clicks the button.
Immediately, the wheel starts to spin, spinning so fast that it looks like a blur. Golden sparkles spray out and spread around the room, and exciting music starts to play as the wheel spun. Wow~ this was so cool!!
Wei Xinqian waits nervously in anticipation as the wheel starts to slow down, the holographic screen zooming into the part of the wheel with the arrow. He could see the names of different prizes like 'Football Frisbee', 'Animal Communicator', 'Money Maker', and 'Lucky Hit'. Crossing his fingers, he closes his eyes and aggressively prays to the gods of gacha that he would get a good item that could be useful to him.
He watches as the arrow on the wheel clicks past one item after another, until it finally comes to a complete stop. His heartbeat speeds up, and he prepares to receive the prize.
The wheel had landed on an item called 'Robot Worker'. Confetti and fireworks shoot out, and celebratory music plays. A piece of paper shoots out along with the confetti and lands on Wei Xinqian's hand.
Leaving the corner that they were in, Riri appears next to their host again. "Wow, host! You won a robot worker! It'll definitely help you in the first world that we go to!"
Looking at the piece of paper that appeared in his hand after the wheel spun, Wei Xinqian reads off of it. "Robot Worker that will do paperwork and documents. Limited to 10 pieces per hour. Good for helping in harsh working conditions. After using Robot Worker for a duration of time, it will upgrade and increase the amount it can do. Level 1/10."
Wei Xinqian was satisfied with this prize. If only he could have had this in his original life, then he could have spent more time doing stuff he actually enjoyed... like playing games. And sleeping. Smiling at Riri, he asks them, "What's my job as a 'transmigrator'? And more importantly, what's my first task?"
Riri's heart was moved, seeing Wei Xinqian so motivated to start working. He's come so far from when they first met eight hours ago.
Riri happily explains to Wei Xinqian,"In general, a transmigrators job is to go into different worlds and do the job of their system. I am a Give Scenes system! Our job is to go into different worlds of mediocre stories, and try our best to help the world by giving the side characters an actual life as they were only briefly mentioned. You just need to 'give more scenes' to the side characters! An example of a task is 'Meet up with side character and establish a connection with them.' They won't be too detailed as you should be following your own ideas and path to help the character. The body you enter will be suited to the current skills and talents you have, so for example if you manage to upgrade your art skill to a high level, you have a likely chance to become an artist in the next world."
Oh, so there probably wouldn't be useless skills. Wei Xinqian decides that even though the skills wouldn't be useless, he would still try his best to trade skills upgrades with others to get a job that he would be interested in doing. Like being a streamer.
"The original books would have mostly only focused on the main character, and disregards a lot of world building and side characters. As the expansion of plot gets more detailed it causes more readers to actually come to read it as world building is better, there is more energy and power given to the world and systems! So as you finish more tasks and worlds, I will also grow more powerful and be able to help you out more. So host, work hard and let's grow powerful together!"
Riri starts to fly around the room in excitement. "The original story, information and tasks of the first world will be given once you enter~ so, would you like to enter the first world now?"
"Yes, let's go to the first world!" Wei Xinqian mentally prepares himself to start being a hard worker again. For the gacha pulls!
[World No. 1: The Rich CEO Saved Me from My Life of Debt! loading...]
[Loaded!]
[Preparing for transmigration...]
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