Shift! The Side-Character Heroine

New Ideas

Of course, DLCs contained male characters as well. Compared to the generic female characters, some male characters were actually rather interesting. For example, take "Li Xiye," who was given the nickname "Pretentious King" by players. This guy was said to be related to the legendary character Li Chungang. Li Chungang had already disappeared into obscurity, acting as the part-time narrator of the game. Li Xiye had received Li Chungang's inheritance. Unfortunately, his sword skills were worlds apart from Li Chungang's.

However, considering the fact that the entire game was filled with poorly-skilled characters, Li Xiye's swordsmanship was contrastively spectacular. Many players found this "Pretentious King" particularly displeasing. They often chose to kill him and steal his treasure. In the end, they only ended up being thoroughly beaten by Li Xiye's superb swordsmanship to the point that they would begin doubting their meaning of life.

Why was this Li Xiye called the "Pretentious King"? This was because he always gave people a "lonely master" vibe.

The officials had introduced Li Xiye as such. He stood alone, in the lawless world, with his superb swordsmanship as his only companion. He was icy-cold, and preferred to wander about like a hermit, away from the thick of things. He was solemn and serious. He treats swords as his life. When he killed, he would kill his foes in a flash of light. He considered killing people as an art of his own.

He often stood upright, marked by his long, spry body. He would often be clad in green, making his blackened sword stand out all the more, where it hung from his hip, with a green backdrop behind it. It was dark, long, narrow, and ancient. Length-wise, it was three feet, seven inches, and weighted 7.13pounds.

When one reaches the realm of the Gods, he would discard his humanity, even against his own will. This was why he felt no remorse, nor did he concern himself over the events of the world.

When one's swordsmanship reaches the realm of the Gods, he would be deprived of all witnesses. This was because those who were lucky to see it would have all died.

When one reaches a certain level of solitude, he could no longer be called solitary. This was because his soul had been unified, and he walked as a crowd in a single body.

Li Xiye seldom spoke. If a player played rather passively, he would end up as friends with Li Xiye. This opened up the avenue for quests that could be cleared together with Li Xiye. As expected, this almost granted players a guaranteed, sleeping victory

However, this guy Li Xiye, who had been given the nickname "God of Swords", while being one of the "Top 10 Masters" at such a young age, only riled players up —— Motherf*cker, Li Xiye has robbed me of my chance to pretend being awesome for once!

Players might find it comforting to know that Li Xiye had not robbed them of all the girls. He only cared about swords Swords were his life. He was the archetypical swordsman within the Wuxia novels. If the Wuxia novelist Gu Long lived in this world, he would probably be called "Ximen Chuixue"[1].

When Zhao Youyue played this game, she considered the character Li Xiye to be rather interesting. He gave people a cold and ruthless vibe, and no one had ever seen him smile before, but he was very reliable. It was most enjoyable to be able to bring him along, slaying demons and monsters together.

Zhao Youyue had forcefully reduced this ambitious Wuxia franchise into a game like "Diablo 2," where one would only be killing monsters without shedding a single drop of human blood.

There was something worth mentioning. It would not have been easy to convince this Hermit-like Li Xiye to tag along for some mindless monster slaying. Along the way, there would be many highly difficult quests that first had to be completed. Sleeping victories did not just drop from the sky.

Some of these highly difficult quests involved the collecting of some orange-rated achievements. That alone spoke volumes of how difficult it actually was to earn this not-so-sleeping victory.

Fenghuo Gaming Company building was located at the highly-priced real estate zone in Shanghai. As the master planner and producer, and also the chairman of the company, Zha Feng was currently immersed in brainstorming for new ideas within the tranquility and privacy of his office.

Zha Feng was in his thirties. He was slightly pudgy, and had above average looks. He carried himself with elegance and nobility that befitted his tycoon family status. For a time, in the confusing void of his youth, he had been without direction nor ambition. After marriage, he acquired a new raison d'etre, and that was —— to make Single-Player Games!

Zha Feng's Fenghuo Gaming Company, not only produced niche, hardcore games like the "Tale of Wuxia" series, but other Single-Player Games that sold rather well. Games such as the "Tale of Wuxia" series were obviously not meant for profiteering, at least in the material sense. They did garner loads of reputation for Zha Feng's company. Every year, during the selection of Single-Player Games awards, his games would almost always get nominated.

Zha Feng put all his heart and soul into each of his creations. He could not care any less about some peers who did not understand his thoughts.

Because he was rich!

With money, he could pursue feelings, love, polishing games to perfection, all while gaining a cult following!

The peace and silence was shattered by one of Zha Feng's assistants who burst into his office, and reported happily to him, "Boss, great news! The recent sales of "Tale of Wuxia 3″ have spiked through the roof!"

Zha Feng looked up, pushing his black frame glasses up the bridge of his nose, and asked dubiously, "What's going on? That series doesn't sell for no reason."

The assistant answered, "Word is out there, where some great streamer on Douyu completed the game after only five days of playing. She did not seem that excited, but her playstyle definitely riled her viewers up, and many of them reportedly bought the game out of impulse"

Zha Feng's face dawned with mild curiosity. After asking for the details pertaining to this anomaly, he got on his computer and started watching Ah Yu's recorded video clip that had been uploaded onto Bilibili.

He did not expect to get glued to the entire playthrough. Throughout the entire process, he found himself rubbing his chin repeatedly, wondering if he had made his game a little too easy. Someone actually cleared his brainchild in such reckless, aggressive fashion?

It was not like he still practiced the art of deliberately injecting 'bad intentions' here and there, mainly because he considered the current difficulty just enough to balance the sales of the game to its cost. He may not be making such games for money, but he did not make them to suffer losses either

This female streamer - Ah Yu had left quite a deep impression on Zha Feng. He had even searched for more information related to Ah Yu. When he learned that she was also a VA, his heart skipped a beat. He might just reach out to cooperate with her in future. The game's female characters certainly needed capable VAs to voice act for them as well.

Ah Yu's beauty went right past his deep, contemplative eyes. He had already long passed the age of being obsessed with beauty. Or perhaps he had fallen out of sync with the worldwide standards of beauty, having been without any for such a lengthy period.

He actually preferred his own female creations

But unfortunately, due to the low number of iconic Wuxia novels in this world, he had been left with little to no templates to refer to. If not, the heroine and sideline plots of his game would most certainly end up being more attractive!

Zha Feng could not deny that Ah Yu's monk gameplay had given him some new ideas. This robust, efficient, minimalistic character build had given him a fresh outlook. At the same time, his noble, steadfast heart and zen-like mentality were surprisingly touching to watch!

Should he create a stoic, female Taoist for the upcoming DLC?

Her tagline would be "I swear that I'm willing to study for another three hundred years, until I've memorized the law of heaven and earth by heart!"

That's right. The female character in the first DLC was an evil female who killed people without the slightest flicker of her eyelids. It made perfect sense to have a righteous, unyielding, divine-like Deity for the second DLC!

Let's have the protagonist raid this Deity, only to have her end up being killed by the plot. Tsk tsk, that would be wholesome. That would be satisfyingly sad, wouldn't it?

All of a sudden, the malicious Zha Feng became intoxicated with inspiration

Translation Note:

[1] Ximen Chuixue - A swordsman character written by the Wuxia novelist Gu Long. Li Xiye is a carbon copy of this character.