Chapter Text
When Airplane Shooting Towards The Sky first announced his intention to create a Proud Immortal Demon Way game, Shen Yuan was (understandably, in his opinion) apprehensive. Considering the direction the novel itself had spun, destroying all of the interesting plot, characterization, and foreshadowing it had begun with, he had little to no expectations for a game created in the same universe. If there was any lingering hope within his heart, Shen Yuan was quick to squash it far down, so he wouldn’t be overly disappointed and crushed later on.
In the end, he was entirely right in his apprehension.
Instead of making a game where the player could explore the open world of Proud Immortal Demon Way, or a game exploring Luo Binghe’s backstory or some of his adventures, Airplane Shooting Towards The Sky created what would certainly gain him the most money—a dating simulator, featuring ten of Luo Binghe’s wives.
Shen Yuan, who often spammed the comments with his complaints of how the novel had devolved into nothing but wife collecting and papapa, was furious. Then, he remembered setting his low expectations beforehand to avoid those exact emotions and therefore forcibly settled himself into a state of calm instead.
It was fine. Perfectly fine! It’s not like he expected anything else in the first place.
#45 Plucking Flowers:
So, you’re not going to play the game, then??? Why are you filling the forum up with all your complaints? Just don’t play the game if you hate it so much!
#46 Peerless Cucumber [Expert]:
Of course I’m going to play the game. Even if it’s obviously nothing but a money grab, they might still sneak some important plot elements in there, I can’t pass that up! Besides, haven’t you heard about the prologue? One-on-one interactions with Luo Binghe prior to his blackening. We haven’t had white sheep Luo Binghe content in years, I need to see how Airplane is going to mess this up
#47 Sha Hualing’s Little Bell:
The Luo Binghe content is only twenty minutes long! Most of the game will take place while Bingge’s in the Abyss! Then, we get to get our hands all over his wives before he can sweep them up… 🤤
#48 Peerless Cucumber [Expert]:
And how is Binghe going to react to us snatching his wives away while he’s gone??? In PIDW, Bingge ruthlessly crushes any opponent so I’m curious how Airplane intends to pull this off without every player getting a ‘Bad End’ as soon as Bingge returns!
It was only because he needed the answers to his endless questions that Shen Yuan lurked in the forums, and followed any updates involving the dating simulator as they were released. At the same time, he stayed caught up with Proud Immortal Demon Way and continued to tell the author off in the comments. In his wildest dreams, Airplane would take some of his advice seriously, and potentially save his trainwreck of a series, or his upcoming game.
But reality wasn’t as nice as his dreams were.
Hearts of the Immortal Realm came out almost a year after it was first announced.
As planned, Shen Yuan bought the game immediately. As the game downloaded, he sat in front of his computer, legs bent under him in an uncomfortable position as he ate the chow mein noodles he’d ordered for delivery. The sweet taste was good—he also liked them salty, but he wasn’t allowed too much salt in his diet, and he’d prefer to avoid his oldest brother’s scathing words whenever he next came to visit and started tidying up after him.
When he was about halfway finished with his meal, his computer dinged, announcing the completion of the download. Leaning forward, Shen Yuan clicked on the application, pulling his chair a bit closer to the screen as his eyes narrowed in both interest and pre-judgment.
The title screen appeared in front of him.
The name of the game was printed across the top of the screen, with the word ‘hearts’ larger than the rest of the title. That singular word was also a bright red, and had two cute little hearts on either side of it, making it pop out compared to the rest, which was written in white.
Down the center of the screen was a list of options, rather typical for a dating simulator.
Resume Game.
Load Game.
New Game.
Gallery.
Settings.
Credits.
Exit.
On either side of that option list was a depiction of one of Luo Binghe’s wives. Shen Yuan knew that the art would cycle through all the wives available in the game whenever he launched it, but at the moment, it was Ning Yingying on the left, with a sweet smile on her face, and Qiu Haitang on the right, who also had a soft, but slightly calmer expression as she stared forward.
Shen Yuan chewed and swallowed one last mouthful of noodles before he put the carton aside, wiping his hands off on a napkin and closing the rest of the distance between himself and his keyboard. Cracking his knuckles and rolling his shoulders, he pulled his mouse within a more comfortable reach, smoothing down his Luo Binghe desk pad with the back of his thumb as he did so.
“I’m just looking respectfully,” he assured the protagonist, laughing at himself as he did so.
He clicked ‘New Game.’
(Art by Moon)
The loading icon appeared. It was the same heart from the title screen, only it was white, and slowly turned red, over and over again as the game loaded. Shen Yuan was proud of his computer setup, and it didn’t take long for the game to load, bringing him to what could only be a character creation page.
Again, this was nothing Shen Yuan hadn’t known about beforehand. Hearts of the Immortal Realm had been promoted as a game where you could create and play as yourself. One of the marketing strategies had been to brag about all the different customization options each player could look through, with the claim that anyone could create their own lookalike.
Shen Yuan took his time, not wanting to rush through the process. He decided to make his character look more or less like himself, since he had the chance. He knew some players liked to make an idealized version of themselves, but at that point, Shen Yuan would feel like he was playing as an OC instead of, well, Shen Yuan. Not that he wanted to romance Luo Binghe’s wives personally, but…
Despite the reality of what the game was, he did want to see himself in the Proud Immortal Demon Way universe, just a little bit! Not to mention seeing himself beside Luo Binghe, the protagonist. Airplane messed up on a lot (a lot) of things, but Luo Binghe was the one speck of goodness that still existed in that cursed novel.
So, Shen Yuan carefully selected his skin tone (making it a little healthier than it was in reality), eye color, eyebrows, nose shape, mouth, hair (longer, to fit the setting, something that went up in a simple bun), and was given the option to select a few accessories.
There weren’t any options to select clothing, since every player started with the same outfit. A pair of disciple robes from the peak you decided on. That’s right—the game started on Cang Qiong Mountain Sect! The player could pick any peak to start on, other than Qing Jing Peak.
Shen Yuan tugged at his hoodie as he looked over the list of peaks, hesitating. Each peak would certainly provide a different, unique experience… For example, if he picked Qiong Ding Peak, he would be choosing the peak ranked at the top. That could be interesting, but Qiong Ding specialized in politics and leadership, and those subjects couldn’t possibly interest Shen Yuan any less.
Martial arts, or even medicine could be better, but…
Shen Yuan’s gaze traveled down the list. It may have been ranked sixth, but the beast peak, Ye Shou, undeniably held most of his interest.
The monsters and creatures in Proud Immortal Demon Way were interesting. Even if they’d been less creative with every update Airplane dropped, Shen Yuan still enjoyed theorizing over them. He liked to think about how they survived in the environment they were in, where they were in the pecking order, why they had this or that feature… and when they made no sense, it just gave him something else to complain about in the comments, so it was a win for him either way.
It certainly felt like a better fit for him than the peak known for alcohol production, so Shen Yuan clicked on it with little hesitation, taking in the brown and blue outfit his character now wore with a critical eye. Then, he nodded in approval.
There were two things left before he could play the game.
The first thing he had to do was generate his statistics—there were three ‘stats,’ one for intelligence, one for charisma, and one for strength. It seemed like they were also given bonus points in specific stats based on the peak chosen. Since Shen Yuan chose Ye Shou, he was given an extra point in both intelligence and strength.
After clicking on the button that randomly generated his stats, Shen Yuan choked, glad he was no longer eating his noodles. That extra point in strength would be coming in handy—Shen Yuan had rolled abysmally in that area! He somehow ended up with a negative one, leaving him with zero strength! At least his other stats weren’t quite as bad. He had a two in intelligence and a three in charisma.
He could work with that, though he still clucked his tongue over the strength score. Whatever. There were meant to be ways to raise your scores, so he could worry about it later on…
The final task he had was to pick his character's age. The selection for age was odd, with only two options—‘shixiong,’ or ‘shidi.’ Shen Yuan deliberated, tapping his fingers against his deskpad, before selecting ‘shixiong.’
Before he dared to hit confirm, Shen Yuan glanced over everything a second time, taking in his character critically. The Shen Yuan on his screen looked as close to his real appearance as he could get it to, ignoring the slight difference in skin tone, height, and hair…
He double-checked his selections, making sure he really had selected Ye Shou as his peak, glaring at his strength stat for another moment, and then finally hit confirm.
The loading heart appeared once more, but only for a moment, before the game at long last appeared in front of him. Shen Yuan subconsciously licked his lips, shifting his weight as he leaned even closer to his screen—where a small, chibi version of his character was digging a hole in the ground, surrounded by other little figures digging their own holes.
As he watched, a figure not far from him fell down, giving up, while another figure in the top-left corner seemed to be digging at a very quick speed. Shen Yuan laughed, smiling to himself. It was already more detailed than he had expected. He’d thought the game would jump straight into things, but it looked like he got to watch a little mini cutscene of his character trying to get into the sect first!
His avatar was digging at a steady rate and paused to complete a small animation of wiping sweat off his forehead. Before he could get back to work, another character in blue and brown approached him. Once that other little chibi figure was next to him, a drawing of a Ye Shou disciple appeared at the bottom left of the screen, her arms crossed and her expression serious. On the right side of the screen, his character appeared, looking nervous.
“My name is Yan Xiaodan,” the NPC greeted him. There was no voice-acting in the game, but Shen Yuan listened as the background music burst into life at last. Currently, it was a gentle, soothing tone, piano mixed with the sound of wind. The name ‘Yan Xiaodan’ appeared at the top of the dialogue box in black writing. “I am the head disciple of the beast peak, Ye Shou. Do you have any interest in animals?”
Shen Yuan’s first dialogue options appeared.
> Yes, I’ve loved animals since I was young.
> No, but I’m willing to learn.
> Not really.
“Why would I pick ‘not really’?” Shen Yuan wondered aloud, shaking his head and clicking his tongue. “I was the one who chose Ye Shou… what would happen if I clicked that?” He considered it for a moment but shrugged it off. He intended to play through the game several times, and he could explore the other options and routes later; for his first playthrough, he would try to be true to himself.
He selected the first option.
Yan Xiaodan’s sprite changed. Her arms uncrossed, and she smiled. “Then my Shizun would like to extend you an offer of joining our peak.”
This time, only a single option appeared.
> I accept.
Shen Yuan clicked it, and both his and Yan Xiaodan’s sprites vanished. Yan Xiaodan’s avatar seemed to reach for his, taking his avatar's hands and leading him off-screen.
The game faded to black, as the music built to a crescendo.
Then, in bright green writing—
[ Welcome to Hearts of the Immortal Realm. Good luck! ]