Chapter Text
Ye Xiu had never understood love.
That was, until he met Glory. For the first time, he understood why <For Glory> was his main quest. His entire life had been building up to this point, and now he had finally encountered a game he would never get sick of.
“How long have you been playing Glory?” Su Muqiu was pretty sure that Ye Xiu didn’t even know what the sun looked like anymore. What use was the sun when you had Glory? “If you keep playing for so long everyday, won’t you quickly lose interest?”
(For a second, there was a flash, a brief glance into another world:
“Don’t you understand what it means to maintain the game’s freshness?”
“I don’t need to,” Ye Xiu chuckled, “even if I played for another ten years, I wouldn’t lose interest.”
A world that should have been, a world that will never become.)
Ye Xiu shrugged. “It’s fun, we’ll see how this game develops.” On the screen, One Autumn Leaf sent a horde of enemies flying with a Falling Flower Palm.
Ding!
[<Glory Be> skill upgraded! Can now access the Battle Mage ability <Falling Flower Palm>. Because of nerfs, when used in real life this attack is more like a very powerful high five. When used, flower petals will fall from the sky. Level up skill to achieve full effect.]
“Seriously?” Ye Xiu activated <Falling Flower Palm>, and watched as flower petals drifted down from the ceiling. Great, now his power wanted him to be a shounen hero. The flower effect wasn’t even in the game! “Look, Mucheng,” Ye Xiu said, “they’re pretty, aren’t they?” At its current level, <Falling Flower Palm> had little offensive power, but at least he could use it to entertain.
Su Mucheng smiled, and gently plucked a flower petal out of the air. “It’s very aesthetic,” she murmured, “you’re almost like the male lead in a shoujo anime. Always surrounded by flower petals, even though there are no flowers in sight.”
“Hey,” Ye Xiu knocked Su Mucheng on the head, “I’m a shounen hero. This is my Springtime of Youth,” Ye Xiu said, casually ripping off the anime series of the same name.
“Speaking of flowers, our blossoming friends are here.” Su Muqiu disposed of the remaining enemies, and turned Autumn Tree to face Sun Zheping’s Blossoming Chaos. “Why is Zhang Jiale hiding behind that rock?”
“Because I’ve been traumatized by your friend.” Zhang Jiale explained. “I can’t interact with strangers anymore, it’s nothing personal.”
“Pity,” Ye Xiu said, completely apathetic. Beside him, Su Muqiu rolled his eyes but didn’t say anything. Ah, children…
“I might be able to recover from that traumatic experience if I got a proper apology.” Dazzling Hundred Blossoms did a sad tumble on the ground. Wow, Zhang Jiale was really taking ‘drama queen’ to a whole new level.
“Huh, I wish you luck in finding that proper apology,” Ye Xiu said comfortingly, as if he wasn’t the one responsible for Zhang Jiale’s current state. “Okay, is everyone ready? Let’s enter the dungeon.” Dungeoning was important for increasing the level and equipment of a character, and the strength of Ye Xiu’s One Autumn Leaf was directly correlated to how strong Ye Xiu’s <Glory Be> abilities were. However, Ye Xiu wasn’t playing Glory to strengthen his real-life abilities—in fact, he didn’t even really care that he had, for all intents and purposes, superpowers. And Ye Xiu wasn’t the only one.
“No, I brought you guys all here today to discuss our future outside of the game,” Su Muqiu said. As the only one in their motley crew that cared about doing something with their powers, Su Muqiu was truly fitting of the power <The King>. After all, the chosen names of powers weren’t exactly random, and powers that could be read as titles, such as <The King> or <The Gamer>, had certain roles they were destined to fit. “Would you like to join our team?”
“Why would we do that?” Sun Zheping asked. “We are thankful for the help-”
“Trauma,” Zhang Jiale corrected. Even though they were in different cities, Ye Xiu still felt the force of Zhang Jiale’s glare. He decided he liked the feeling.
“-you’ve given us,” Sun Zheping continued, “but we don’t even know you. We’re thinking of joining a team we’re more familiar with.”
“I’m not talking about a gaming team.” Su Muqiu clarified. “Both of you have superpowers…have you thought about being a superhero?”
“No.” Zhang Jiale, Sun Zheping, and Ye Xiu said at the same time. Su Muqiu wasn’t even asking Ye Xiu, but Ye Xiu declined anyways, because even though Su Muqiu basically controlled every aspect of his life with his creepy power, Ye Xiu liked to believe in the illusion of choice.
“Superheroes? In this economy?” Zhang Jiale huffed, voice crackling over the microphone. “Don’t be ridiculous.” His way of addressing it was fairly crude, but Zhang Jiale had a point—why would people want to be a superhero? If the movies were correct, every government agency would be after them. And it wasn’t like you could just find a random criminal and beat them up—criminals had rights, too. “Anyways, my ability is less of a superpower and more of a handicap. What can a small puddle of water do to criminals? Mildly inconvenience them as they step around me?”
“There’s not much I can do, either.” Sun Zheping added. “Your powers might be suitable for combat, but the most superpowered thing I can be is a superpowered gambler.” Theoretically, Sun Zheping’s <Lucky Charm> ability would increase the chances of criminals messing up when they dealt with him, but he didn’t have any physical abilities that would allow him to capitalize on those mistakes. Of course, with proper training, Sun Zheping would be truly frightening in close-range combat, but he was too lazy for that. He was already rich, and he could get fame from playing Glory. Why did he need to be a superhero? Morals? What were those?
“The world is changing,” Su Muqiu said, “haven’t you guys watched any superhero movies? X-Men, Avengers, hell, even My Hero Academia? We’re not the only superpowered individuals in the world, and as more superhumans emerge, the world will need people like us to guide them. Come on, don’t you guys have dreams? Who doesn’t want to be a superhero?”
"I had dreams," Ye Xiu muttered, "I wanted to play video games. But then I ran away from home and met you, and now my dream is to go back home."
“Being a superhero is too much work.” Zhang Jiale yawned. “And why are you asking us? You’re clairvoyant, right? I’m sure you can find people with better powers.”
“Don’t be so hard on yourself, your power is stronger than it appears.” Su Muqiu wasn’t even lying to comfort Zhang Jiale—while <Small Puddle> was useless offensively, the ability to move and monitor targets undetected would be invaluable from a surveillance standpoint. Not all superheroes had to be on the front lines, and even if Zhang Jiale found himself under attack… “your power has a defensive component, you know?”
“I can’t even defend myself from a thirsty gamer,” Zhang Jiale said, and if he could he would be glaring meaningfully at Ye Xiu. However, because Zhang Jiale wasn’t even in the same city as Ye Xiu, the most he could do was make Dazzling Hundred Blossoms stare in the general direction of One Autumn Leaf. Meanwhile, due to a long period of inaction, One Autumn Leaf was idle. Ah, it was so hard holding a grudge when the other party didn’t give a fuck.
“That’s true,” Su Muqiu admitted, “but what if I told you that it’s possible to control how much of your body turns to water? Imagine trying to stab someone, and then having your knife pass harmlessly through water. By using your power properly, even you could be a superhero.” At Zhang Jiale’s silence, Su Muqiu continued. “So, how does it sound? We can teach you how to use your power, and then you can be a superhero.”
“I’m in if you’re in,” Sun Zheping whispered to Zhang Jiale. However, as the range of <The King> was truly frightening, Su Muqiu already knew Zhang Jiale’s answer.
“Welcome to the team,” Su Muqiu chirped happily.
[<For Glory: Gotta Catch Them All!> side quest has been unlocked.
<For Glory: Gotta Catch Them All!> progress: 2/6 allies collected.
<For Glory> Main quest has advanced.]
Now that Zhang Jiale and Sun Zheping had joined Team Su Siblings and Friends, it was time for the classic superhero mission.
Ye Xiu, unsurprisingly, was not excited at all. “I’m fifteen years old, this is child abuse.”
“Relax!” Despite his earlier hesitance, Zhang Jiale was very excited for his first superhero mission. “Old Sun is really rich. If it comes down to it, he can just throw cash at the enemy.”
“Yeah,” Sun Zheping’s said, somewhere off-screen. As Team Su Siblings and Friends (TSSF) were fairly low-budget, their main method of communication outside of Glory was Wechat’s video call function. Of course, Su Muqiu promised that TSSF would be getting ‘super cool, awesome equipment’, but so far that equipment was nowhere to be seen. “Anyways, if any child is getting abused, it’s the one we’re kidnapping.”
“Actually, Lin Jie is eighteen years old!” Su Mucheng piped in. “He’s an adult!”
“Kidnapping an adult is still illegal,” Ye Xiu said, but he was ignored.
“Let’s get back on topic,” Su Muqiu grabbed the phone away from Su Mucheng, “Zhang Jiale and Sun Zheping, you two will be doing most of the legwork for this mission. Mucheng and I will be acting as support, and Xiu will do all the complaining for us.”
“Sounds good,” Zhang Jiale said. “Hey, Old Sun, do you have the chloroform?”
“I’m fifteen years old and I’m going to go to jail,” Ye Xiu moaned, “can I undo running away from home? I want to go home.”
Lin Jie was your normal customer service worker. Emotionally dead? Check. Permanent smile plastered on face? Check. Was good at acting cheery even though it had been years since he had last felt emotion? Check.
However, that was only Lin Jie on the job. Lin Jie off the job was an entirely different person. You could even say that that Lin Jie was normal. After all, that was the thing about customer service—you could only survive in that environment if you learned to compartmentalize. Did that result in the formation of completely different personas? Sometimes, but that was just the way things were.
Lin Jie glanced one last time at the empty store. Ah, finally he was off for the day. He was about to lock up, but a strange buzzing sensation in that ‘special’ part of his mind stopped him in his tracks.
“A new tag?” He murmured to himself. While it wasn’t impossible for new tags to appear throughout the course of a day, it happened very rarely. After all, apart from his strange ability, Lin Jie’s life was so mundane nothing that warranted tagging ever happened. Ignoring the urge to vocalize the words that were flying around in his head, Lin Jie calmly walked to the door. “Is anyone still here? It’s 10 PM, I have to lock up for the day.”
No one answered, and Lin Jie shrugged before turning to the door. To his great surprise, he found that the door was locked. Did the door lock on its own? Lin Jie reached for the key hanging from his neck, but when he tried to insert it into the lock, he found that it jammed. In fact, not only was the lock not budging, the key itself had somehow melded to the lock. Wow, manufacturers these days were so lazy, the quality of their goods were getting downright pathetic. Either that, or he was just really unlucky.
“Hey, are you Lin Jie?”
Lin Jie turned around, only to be faced with a tall and intimidating teenager. The teenager exuded arrogance, and Lin Jie was pretty sure that this was another spoiled rich kid. Ah, what was it about games that attracted rich children? “How may I help you?”
“Of course he’s Lin Jie,” a new voice cut in, and Lin Jie turned around to see a long-haired pretty boy stalk up to him. “See?” Long-haired pretty boy said, holding up what looked disturbingly like a government file on Lin Jie. “It’s him.”
Frantically, Lin Jie reached for his power. The familiar burn of fire crawled up his throat, but before he had a chance to say anything, a wet rag covered his face.
Lin Jie opened his eyes to a cute brown-haired girl wiping the blood off his face. Wait, blood?
“This is so illegal,” a voice said from behind the brown-haired girl. “I can’t believe you forced me to come back to Beijing just for this.”
“Relax,” another voice said. Unlike the first voice, which was obviously spoken by someone in the room, this voice had a faint echo to it, like they were on speaker. “You guys aren’t going to get caught. Besides, Mucheng is there.”
“Hehe,” the girl, probably Mucheng, said. “Why is his nose bleeding?” Mucheng added, gently wiping Lin Jie’s face with a rag. Normally, Lin Jie would be grateful, but Mucheng was probably working with his kidnappers, so Lin Jie couldn’t find it in himself to be thankful.
“Chloroform took too long,” the spoiled-rich-kid-turned-kidnapper explained, “so I punched him.”
What kind of kidnappers were these? “Who are you people?” Lin Jie asked. He mentally grasped around for the right words in his head, and relaxed his shoulders, allowing the familiar tingling burn to coalesce in his mouth.
“Ah, you’re awake.” Mucheng smiled. “I wouldn’t try anything-”
“Never mind, I don’t care.” Lin Jie smiled. They should’ve gagged him, and now it was too late. “<Tag: Failed Kidnapping>!” Instead of the mental ‘ding’ he expected, Lin Jie heard the buzz of an incorrect tag. Wait, if this wasn’t a failed kidnapping, did that mean it was a successful one?
Mucheng’s expression remained serene. “I told you not to try anything.”
“Was something supposed to happen?” The long-haired boy said, peering down at Lin Jie. “Yo,” he snickered, “show us your power.”
Lin Jie gritted his teeth. “<Genre: Action>.” This time, the tag was at least somewhat correct. Lin Jie relaxed marginally, as he felt his head clear up. Good, this was the 10% physical ability boost for the action genre.
“Do you guys hear the music?” One of the side effects of the action genre was constant background music, which increased the physical ability of the protagonist and his allies while simultaneously decreasing the physical ability of any enemy troops.
“There’s always music playing.” The first voice, the one complaining about the illegality of kidnapping, said. “It’s just an action scene right now, so there’s action music.”
“Ye Xiu, we seriously need to talk about your power,” Spoiled Boy said, and Lin Jie mentally remembered the name ‘Ye Xiu’. Great, he had the identity of one of his kidnappers.
“<Tag: Hidden Badass>,” Lin Jie said. With a surge of strength, he managed to jump to a standing position and throw a punch at Mucheng. He heard a mental ‘ding’, indicating that his tag was accurate, but there wasn’t the familiar feeling of a buff. Wait, if he wasn’t the hidden badass, then who was?
“Surprise,” Mucheng said, easily dodging the punch. “Do you really think you can hit a clairvoyant?”
A clairvoyant? Lin Jie thought he wasn’t kidnapped because of his powers, because surely people knowledgeable about his powers would gag him first, but if they had a clairvoyant… “What do you want with me?”
“I think you know,” the voice from the phone said. Lin Jie had nearly forgotten about the phone-voice existed, but now that he had so helpfully made himself known…Lin Jie lunged for the phone, only for Mucheng to gracefully pluck the phone from the desk, milliseconds before Lin Jie collided.
“I really don’t.” Lin Jie said, picking himself up from the ground. Alright, so fighting a clairvoyant in close quarters was not a good idea, but he had more than one opponent. “Care to enlighten me?” Maybe, if he got Mucheng talking, he could find a way to take out his other kidnappers and run away. That Ye Xiu kid looked particularly weak, and since he hadn’t been involved with the kidnapping, Lin Jie reasoned that Ye Xiu was probably the ‘brains’ of the group.
The background music stopped. “Huh, does this count as a boss encounter?” Ye Xiu murmured, as Lin Jie began to circle him. Mucheng and the other two seemed content to watch the show, and if Lin Jie wasn’t mistaken, Long-haired boy was even cheering for him to ‘drink Ye Xiu’. What did that mean? “Nah,” Ye Xiu said, “I guess this is just an important character interaction.”
Well, maybe Lin Jie wasn’t the only one with a strange power. “<Tag: Fight Scene!>” he said. Although it wasn’t as strong as the earlier tags, Lin Jie still felt the physical ability buff take effect. Good, so he hadn’t tagged too much…
Lin Jie rushed forward to tackle Ye Xiu, but Ye Xiu was faster. “<Falling Flower Palm>!” Ye Xiu yelled, hitting Lin Jie on the shoulder and causing the latter to stagger back. At Ye Xiu’s current level, the force behind <Falling Flower Palm> was about the same as a punch, but the true strength of the attack lay in the flower petals, which swirled around Lin Jie and prevented him from advancing further.
(“Hey, using special effects to distract the opponent, what a good idea…” Zhang Jiale muttered to himself.)
However, petals weren’t enough to stop Lin Jie. With a deep breath, he reached into the deepest recesses of his power and grasped one of the tags. Usually, he made his own tags, and his power told him if it was an accurate tag for the day’s events or not, but for a tag of greater effect he could tap into the clairvoyant aspects of his power and use a tag from there. However, if he used one of those tags, the tag would absolutely be true, even if he didn’t want it to be. “<Word of God>,” he began, and as soon as the words were out of his mouth he couldn’t control what happened next. “<Tag: Origin Story>.”
…
Wait, what?
Lin Jie was expecting a tag like ‘Strategic Escape’, or, in the worse case scenario, ‘Major Character Death’, but what was a tag like ‘Origin Story’ supposed to mean? Whose origin story was this?
“Now you know what we want from you, right?” The phone voice cheekily said. “Welcome to the Team, Lin Jie!”
[ <For Glory: Gotta Catch Them All!> progress: 3/6 allies collected.
<For Glory> Main quest has advanced.]
[Lin Jie’s power description unlocked!]
(Name: Lin Jie
Power: <Author’s Tags>
Description:
“#the tags are almost as long as the story #maybe the tags ARE the story”
It’s hard to be an author in this economy. Why can’t the story just come out already? You’ve already written the story a billion times in your head, but somehow the Word document is still empty.
It’s your story, but why aren’t the characters acting the way you want them to? Why is the story getting longer? The <Author’s Tags> are the author’s response to these problems. The author may not be able to control the story, but they sure as hell can control how they tag it! Maybe, by tagging the story, the author will gain control over it again?
The user of <Author’s Tags> can control the world like an author can control their story, which is to say not very much. If the applied <Tags> are accurate, there may be boosts to the user and all allies, as well as special effects that match the tag. However, if the wrong <Tags> are used, the readers will lose confidence in the author’s ability to comprehend their own story and the power of <Author’s Tags> will decrease. If excessive <Tags> are used, readers will skim over the story summary and/or get annoyed at the author for taking up space, and <Author’s Tags> will similarly lose power.
Abilities:
- <Tag>: Main ability of <Author’s Tags>. Allows the user to tag the day’s events. Excessive or incorrect usage of tags will cause effect to decrease.
- <Word of God>: There are an infinite number of futures, but the <Word of God> narrows them down to a single most probable future. Once <Word of God> is activated, a <Tag> from that future will be automatically generated, and must be applied. The user has no control over this <Tag>.)