There Must Be Something Wrong With This Game!

"Hahaha, you’ve got to see this game. It’s a buggy mess from the moment you launch it. The developer should donate his barren brain to science, just so everyone can see how a person can survive this long with nothing up there."

"Whoever made this game must be an octopus from outer space. They actually expect humans to perform eight-key inputs simultaneously."

"The idea of having to sing to charge up your power isn’t half bad, but damn it, you could at least enable the microphone! How am I supposed to sing for you? With my mind?"

After roasting a dozen or so games, Madam Ye lay back, utterly satisfied. She said blissfully, "You’re still the best, Duan Fei, you rascal. I could never find this many bizarre games, no matter how hard I looked."

"Practice makes perfect, that’s all."

Madam Ye, a once-renowned game developer, had ridden the wave of the new era. Dozens of her games became massive best-sellers, allowing her to amass a vast fortune and build a gaming empire.

Moreover, she had a unique vision and incredible fortitude. She’d initially refused buy-ins from other investors and, despite being cornered by corporate behemoths, carved out her own path. She established her own gaming platform, ultimately transforming herself from a pawn into a queen.

In their post-hoc analyses, other economists discovered that Madam Ye’s intuition was terrifyingly sharp, bordering on precognition. She always managed to make the right choice at the perfect time, creating one business miracle after another.

Recently, however, Madam Ye had been admitted to a sanatorium, supposedly due to a cerebral hemorrhage. The younger members of the Ye Family immediately began fighting amongst themselves over inheritance rights, plunging the entire family into turmoil and chaos.

But what no one knew was that Madam Ye was faking it.

"I don’t have many years left anyway. It’s a good chance to feign illness, get some rest, and see who in the family is capable and who should just be shuffled off to a do-nothing job." Madam Ye said this while munching on fried chicken wings Duan Fei had bought for ’Crazy Thursday,’ polishing off a whole pile in seconds.

"You’ll probably outlive me, ma’am," Duan Fei said with complete sincerity.

"That’s what I love about you—so honest!"

"So, have you spotted any promising successors?"

"I have. It’s a shame some people aren’t living up to their potential."

Madam Ye glanced at Duan Fei and Jinghong, the corners of her mouth lifting in a mischievous smile.

Leaning back on the reclined hospital bed, Madam Ye said, "Duan Fei, watch the door. Don’t let anyone in. I was just letting loose, and now I’m a bit tired. I want to have a heart-to-heart with Jinghong."

"Got it."

Duan Fei grabbed a stool, sat outside the door, and pulled out his phone. He logged into a forum and started browsing, checking for update details and notes for Summoners.

Inside the room, however, the atmosphere had changed completely.

In front of Duan Fei, Madam Ye was like a child in an old woman’s body—eager to eat, to play, to take a fluffy white cloud for a walk, and to say hello to every little teddy bear that passed by.

But in front of Jinghong, her direct descendant, she became the family matriarch. "How have things been lately?" she asked coolly.

"They’ve been fine."

"And with Duan Fei?"

"Everything is under control."

Madam Ye shot her a sharp glare that made Jinghong flinch. She lowered her head and said, "It’s the same as always."

"So, no progress then?"

"...Yeah."

"The women of the Ye Family are cursed with difficult lives. It was the same with me and your grandfather. We belonged to different factions, but we fell in love at first sight. Stalking, deception, kidnapping... I tried every trick in the book..."

With a long sigh, Madam Ye continued, "But... he still didn’t fall in love with me."

"...So you were the villain in that story!" Jinghong couldn’t help but exclaim. "Then what happened?"

"I bought his company, stormed in as a domineering CEO, and relentlessly teased and harassed him. Finally, on a dark and windy night, I spread his legs... no, I mean, I opened his heart."

"Based on that sentence alone, I think you could have gotten a few years in prison."

"Things were more... barbaric back then. Everyone was doing it. My point is, to achieve great things, you can’t be concerned with trivial matters. You understand what I’m saying, right?"

"Don’t worry. I understand perfectly."

"Good. Now, tell me what’s been going on at the company."

The old woman and the young one talked for two hours.

During their talk, Madam Ye held nothing back, passing on all her experience and techniques to Jinghong, leading to several eye-opening realizations for her granddaughter.

When they finished, Madam Ye nodded. "Alright, I understand. I’m tired. You two can go home now."

"Yes."

As Jinghong turned to leave, Madam Ye reached out, wanting to stroke her hair.

But just as her hand was extended, she felt a pang of awkwardness and sheepishly drew it back.

The women of the Ye Family were all tsundere.

This trait was practically a Curse, preventing any of them from properly expressing their feelings to those they loved. Eventually, it would warp into something unhealthy.

This was true even with immediate family, causing their relationships to grow stiff and often end on a sour note.

It was true of her daughter, and it was true of her granddaughter.

With another long sigh, Madam Ye said, "Alright then. Be careful on your way home."

"Mm."

Watching Jinghong leave, Madam Ye got out of bed and walked to the window.

She watched Jinghong and Duan Fei walk away, nestled close to one another. The sweet sight reminded her so much of her younger self that a smile bloomed on her face.

She returned to the bed, settled back into her previous position, raised her right hand, and snapped her fingers.

Something shattered. The strange atmosphere that had settled over the room vanished in that instant, and everything returned to normal.

The clarity in her eyes faded, and they slowly grew cloudy until she looked exactly like an old woman on death’s door.

Just as her physical body became vacant, the Divination Master awoke in a city within the Abyss.

She stretched languidly. The vibrant, energetic body filled her with such joy that she had the sudden urge to slap her belly and break into a belly dance.

There wasn’t an ache in her body, and her mind felt exceptionally clear. Best of all, since her identity here was the Divination Master, she could shed her real-world persona and do whatever she pleased.

She could lie with impunity, ride her beloved giant crab on tours across the land, use the Abyss’s system to issue vague and ambiguous prophecies, and get all cuddly with her adorable granddaughter.

’How did I never realize how great the Abyss was before?’

The game was still undergoing maintenance. The entire city flickered, disappearing and reappearing. The facades of some buildings had been stripped away, revealing a core of raw data and black, worm-like creatures slithering between the digits.

These worms were Scouts from the Abyss, the vanguard of its corruption. Any area they locked onto would soon be overrun by the contamination, transforming into a massive source of pollution.

Throngs of administrators floated in mid-air, constantly restructuring the game. They worked to eliminate as many of these worms as possible while reinforcing the game’s inherent order and laws.

Some distorted areas were corrected, even as some normal areas began to warp anew. The battle between the administrators and the Abyss unfolded here, a constant push and pull. Time itself was dilated to a 24:1 ratio, meaning one full day inside the game was equivalent to just one hour in the outside world.

’Twelve more days...’

After a moment’s thought, the Divination Master draped a sari over herself, commanded her giant crab, and headed toward the administrators’ headquarters.

To see her adorable granddaughter again as soon as possible, it was time for the Divination Master to make her move.

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