ABSML Chapter 27: Born Unlucky

 Previous | Table of Contents | Next

Without chatting too much with Yin Ronglan, Chen Zhan got to work immediately after dinner. After last night’s hype, the online speculation about his game’s ending was getting increasingly exaggerated.

To prevent netizens from running wild with their imaginations, he had to start writing and post an update earlier than scheduled.

..........

At first, my strength was overwhelming, but as time passed, his power gradually suppressed mine.

My wrist throbbed in pain from his grip, and my legs were pinned so tightly that I couldn’t exert any force. His fist was about to strike—I had to react fast!

Neither my hands nor legs could be used. The only part of my body that could still move and launch an attack was…

I took a deep breath, puckered my lips… and prepared to spit on him!

The composure in that person's eyes rippled, and his gaze suddenly became as sharp as an eagle’s. The fist that was originally about to strike my eye socket unfolded.

…The next second, I was slapped across the face.

"Despicable."

He suddenly straightened his body, and a crack appeared in his icy expression.

Having avoided the fate of a black eye, I found this trick particularly useful. I pouted again, and the moment he took a small step back, I swiftly turned and ran away.

The elevator still required waiting, so I gritted my teeth and dashed down the stairs. The advantage of using the stairs was that I could hide at any moment if necessary.

After finally making a safe escape, I realized I was still maintaining an attacking posture. I quickly pressed my lips together, which were starting to cramp, then jumped into a taxi to rush somewhere safer.

..........

As the weather grew colder, Chen Zhan’s sitting posture became a little off. After typing for a while, his legs started to cramp.

Helplessly, he slowly supported himself on the table to stand up, taking small steps to adjust.

Yin Ronglan held a cup of water, his gaze still fixed on the document.

"Your ending is really..."

Chen Zhan raised an eyebrow. "What is it?"

Yin Ronglan took a sip of water with his eyes closed before speaking again, "Unexpected yet reasonable."

Chen Zhan smiled. His hospitality was decent—he rarely played on his phone in front of Yin Ronglan. After publishing his article, he didn’t check the comments either. Instead, he poured himself a cup of tea and sat opposite to chat.

The conversation naturally drifted toward the person he had met in the morning.

Chen Zhan slowly revealed his plan to develop a game.

Knowing that Chen Zhan’s ways of making money had always been unconventional, Yin Ronglan wasn’t surprised. He assured, "I’ll be your first player."

Chen Zhan squinted his eyes with a smile. "Alright, I’ll notify you in advance when it’s released."

As he spoke, he pulled out a small notebook he carried with him and sketched a profit diagram: "I get money from A to support B and C, then let B and C create value to attract investments from D, E, and F…"

After carefully explaining, he humbly asked, "An outsider’s perspective is clearer. Can you see any areas that need improvement?"

Gazing at the diagram, Yin Ronglan absentmindedly tapped his fingers against the cup, the dull sound seeming to make his eyes sway along with the vibrations. "It’s already flawless."

Looking at Chen Zhan, he sincerely said, "No one can do it better than you."

Ignoring the deeper implications in his words, Chen Zhan closed the notebook and began tidying up the table. During the process, he briefly mentioned his upcoming plans: "I may need to go into seclusion for a few days."

The game he was about to launch was heavily reliant on character dialogue, and the script alone would be nearly half a book thick.

Yin Ronglan: "Take care of your health."

Chen Zhan nodded. Working excessively was indeed unwise.

Seeing that Chen Zhan had a sense of balance, Yin Ronglan stood up. "I won’t disturb you anymore. I happen to have something to do as well."

Chen Zhan looked at him inquiringly.

With a smile, Yin Ronglan said, "Training a dog. Since you left its custody to me, I must treat it well."

"…"

Although he already had a plan, Chen Zhan still dared not slack off when it came to writing the game’s storyline. The two brothers responsible for game development were also quite diligent, arriving at his house with their computers the very next day.

Both were tall. Since there was a slight age gap between them, they didn’t look too much alike, but their expressions were both perpetually gloomy.

The younger brother was very interested in Chen Zhan’s writings. His first question was whether Confession was being adapted into a game.

Chen Zhan shook his head. Adapting a novel into a game using Jiang Ying and Lin Chi’ang’s likenesses could involve copyright infringement. Instead, he asked, "Since you’ve followed my writing, do you remember the man in the cap from the story?"

The younger brother thought for a few seconds and nodded.

That incident had even trended at the time—something about a war between obsessive fans and toxic stans.

Chen Zhan: "The game’s background is based on that segment."

Younger brother: "A fighting game?"

Chen Zhan shook his head. "Horror suspense."

The story synopsis was that an obsessive fan and a toxic stan both idolized a young girl group, each believing that another member was dragging their favorite down. As they fervently supported their idols, they discovered each other’s existence. Upon realizing the other’s allegiance, the two fanatics engaged in a deadly struggle.

After hearing the general plot, the brothers fell silent in unison.

The older brother was the first to speak. "Do you have a character design in mind?"

Chen Zhan pulled out a protective talisman he kept at home. "The toxic stan’s design can be based on this. As for the obsessive fan, just design a cartoon character wearing a baseball cap."

Since they all prioritized efficiency, the brothers split tasks—one focused on designing the game’s environment, while the other worked on character illustrations.

Chen Zhan took a moment to log into his store to check the reviews for the protective talisman.

As a customer service system, the platform was highly competent. So far, there had been only two negative reviews—one from someone who simply disliked Chen Zhan and bought the item just to leave a bad review, and another for a particularly unique reason: "Updates are too slow."

After an entire month, the game was finally completed.

In fact, it had been functional two weeks prior, but the two brothers had a perfectionist streak. Even for a simple text-interaction game, they made extensive modifications and improvements during testing.

The game featured both survival and puzzle-solving modes. Players could choose to play as the obsessive fan or the toxic stan.

There were multiple endings. Since it was a horror suspense game, one inevitable outcome was the toxic stan being successfully killed by the obsessive fan.

The protective talisman doll was modeled after Chen Zhan, and its in-game death scenes were diverse and gruesome. While the younger brother worked on these death scenes, Chen Zhan stood by calmly, offering many feasible suggestions.

"You have the strongest psychological endurance I’ve ever seen," the younger brother sincerely remarked.

Chen Zhan simply said, "Players will spend money unlocking different death scenes for this paper character."

The younger brother’s perspective on the little game character changed instantly.

As promised, before the game’s release, Chen Zhan informed Yin Ronglan in advance.

When Yin Ronglan received the message, he was repeatedly reviewing documents. Work had piled up, and these past few days, he had been even busier than Chen Zhan.

After looking at the remaining work, he decided to use his ten-minute break to play a game.

The release date shown indicated that the game had only recently launched. Perhaps due to a lack of promotion, it still had no clicks.

Yin Ronglan clicked on it. After a brief loading screen, the first interface appeared—without any unlocked options, he could only choose Survival Mode.

A message popped up on the screen, introducing the game’s background. As he read through it word by word, he couldn’t help but curl his lips slightly.

It was indeed Chen Zhan’s style.

Without hesitation, he chose the “Toxic Solo Fan” character.

The little figure that appeared on the screen, along with its protective talisman, was almost identical to the real thing—only its expression was even more sinister.

Aside from the narration, the game was almost entirely filled with different choice options. Yin Ronglan picked a few at random, and before he knew it, the story had progressed to the point where a sasaeng fan (obsessive stalker fan) deliberately orchestrated a "coincidence" and suggested co-renting an apartment.

Yin Ronglan selected "Agree."

In the next scene, the little figure on the screen had dinner and then fell into a deep sleep.

Suddenly, his phone screen went black.

A line of white text stood out—

"You have been force-fed one bottle of 'Xiangxi Green Tea' and suffered an intelligence debuff."

"You were then forcibly fed ten more bottles of 'Xiangxi Green Tea'—you have successfully been drugged to death."

“……”

After playing through the game, there was only one feeling—he had died in such a frustrating way that he wanted to restart and try again.

Yin Ronglan retried twice and finally summarized a pattern: Every time a product placement ad appeared, he had to be careful. If he made the wrong choice, he would die instantly.

Pressing his temples, he noted that the advertisers Chen Zhan had collaborated with covered a wide range of industries, and the ways to die in the game were even more diverse.

As the first game tester, Chen Zhan called him that afternoon to ask about his experience.

Yin Ronglan: “The ad placements are very unique—memorable, to say the least.” After a pause, he added, “But since Xiangxi is a beverage, aren’t you worried about the potential negative impact?”

A light chuckle came from the other end of the phone: “In the game’s setting, it only has an intelligence-reducing effect, not actual toxicity.”

Previously, Xiangxi’s livestream promotions had advertised it as a drink that could “cure brain issues.” In contrast, the game’s design had the exact opposite effect, which ironically made it more amusing.

Knowing that Chen Zhan always had his own ideas, Yin Ronglan didn’t say much more.

Chen Zhan didn’t linger on the game topic and instead shifted the conversation to everyday matters: “How’s the training going?”

Yin Ronglan was momentarily dazed, recalling that last time they parted, he had mentioned training a dog.

In reality, all he had done was provide three meals a day and take it for a run in the yard morning and night.

“It’s fine.” His answer was vague.

Chen Zhan: “How fine?”

Yin Ronglan replied calmly: “Compared to before, it eats much faster now.”

There was a brief silence on the other end before Chen Zhan finally spoke again: “That’s quite an improvement.”

That same evening, Chen Zhan promoted the game on his social media. Since it was a low-budget production, it was free to play, though unlocking later storylines required separate purchases.

The target audience for such a text-based game was mostly female players, but since Chen Zhan himself was a traffic magnet, he also attracted a fair number of male players.

A subordinate had recently been promoted to Executive Assistant, and every day at lunch, he and the project manager would gather to play the game.

To be honest, guys generally preferred action-packed games, but Chen Zhan’s game intrigued them because they just wanted to see how many creative ways they could die—it was oddly satisfying.

“I played as the sasaeng fan and almost reached a happy ending,” the project manager said regretfully. “But at the critical moment, a nightclub owner suddenly appeared as the toxic solo fan’s friend, triggering a ‘brotherhood attack,’ and I got wiped out.”

Not far away, Yin Ronglan, who had just walked past, paused in his tracks… Friend? Brotherhood attack?

The next moment, he heard the project manager continue: “Maybe it’s just my imagination, but that nightclub owner character looks a lot like the boss.”

Hooked by that comment, Yin Ronglan spent money to unlock all the storylines. However, since the game’s progression was based on player choices, even after replaying as the sasaeng fan and trying multiple options, he couldn’t trigger the same ending.

Some things couldn’t be obtained just by spending money.

Since the game had only been out for a day, no online guides existed yet. The next morning, Yin Ronglan went to the office early, intending to ask about it, only to find the cafeteria buzzing with lively discussions.

“The nightclub owner got me too.”

“Frustrating—I deliberately chose different options in the middle, but I still got ambushed by the ‘brotherhood attack.’”

“Maybe we should try another character next time?”

“Did someone leave the window open? Why is it so cold?”

As the chatting employees looked around, they unexpectedly noticed a figure standing by the elevator…

Their boss, as calm and composed as ever, but with a storm brewing deep in his eyes.

______

T/N: Please support my ko-fi page for more update 🌸🌸🌸