Chapter 1 I Really Didn't Mean to Time Travel

The day before the game "Immortal Gods" was set to launch, the entire project team was as busy as a pot of popping popcorn. Every person's nerves were on edge, ready to explode at any moment.

Night had fallen, yet the lights in the office building still shone brightly.

The programming department was busy fixing bugs, the engine department was busy optimizing, the art department was still rushing to meet deadlines, the secretary in black pantyhose made three trips to the reception asking why the water delivery hadn't arrived yet—the teapot was about to crack from the heat...

In the midst of this vigorous vitality, where everything strives to bud, at the back row of the planning department near the window, one person was playing a game alone.

This person was named Jiang Cheng, a game balance planner in the "Immortal Gods" project team, responsible for balancing the strength of various game mechanics.

At this moment, he appeared to be playing a game, but in reality, he was not working at all.

Unlike his colleagues who were cramming at the last minute, Jiang Cheng had finished his work early.

He stayed at his desk working overtime for the sake of company unity.

If not playing games, then what? Working?

Jiang Cheng controlled a character in "Immortal Gods," traveling through various scenes of the Immortal Gods, sometimes engaging in combat, sometimes purchasing items, and finally testing the game's balance once more.

The story of "Immortal Gods" takes place in a largely peaceful world.

In this world, the Five Great Immortal Sects ruled the Cultivation World, and the long-term peace allowed Immortal Law to spread to the mortal world and evolve with modern civilization.

Players could choose to enter the Five Great Immortal Sects through examination to embark on the path of Cultivating Immortality. Or they could choose to be an ordinary person, living a life of studying for exams, buying houses, getting married, fishing, farming—a mundane life.

"Yo! Brother Jiang? Playing, huh?"

A person in a suit walked up behind Jiang Cheng, hands behind his back.

Without looking up, Jiang Cheng pointed at the slogan on the wall and said, "President Wang, please don't make loud noises at the workstation, otherwise there's a fine of two hundred."

Generally speaking, rules are for employees, not for leaders.

But President Wang just smiled, unconcerned with Jiang Cheng's insolence.

Everyone in the company knew about Jiang Cheng's temper. He was polite, amiable, but particularly logical.

This behavior might be seen as low emotional intelligence, a lack of flexibility, in others. But in a game balance planner, it's an exceptional quality.

If the game's values and mechanics were irrational and liked to mess around, then this game was most likely at its end.

"Brother Jiang, would you join Little Wang for a smoke?"

"Sure."

Jiang Cheng decided to give Little Wang some face, but as he stood up, he suddenly went blind.

...

Jiang Cheng felt the sunlight was a bit dazzling; the sun seemed far away, an expanse of white, seeing nothing.

A breeze brushed across his cheek, tickling pleasantly.

The heaviness and fatigue of his body gradually disappeared, and his shoulders, neck, lower back, and spine no longer felt sore.

His body felt relaxed, breathing was easy, and his muscles were strong.

Jiang Cheng had the illusion that he had been reborn and returned to his eighteen-year-old self.

As his eyes gradually adjusted to his surroundings, Jiang Cheng strove to open them and saw a young girl wearing a pure white dress, with the rising sun hanging in the sky behind her.

In the morning light, the girl's hair and the hem of her dress fluttered in the wind, her pure face and slender figure, her clear, shy eyes, her cheeks blushed like the evening glow, and as she pinched the corner of her dress, she exuded an air of delicate and timid beauty that was beyond compare.

Why is the sun so big?

Jiang Cheng was born in the countryside, with vast lands and neat houses, and he had seen many sunrises; in his memory, the sun was not so big, it should be smaller than it was now.

What's going on?

Premature solar flaring?

What about the planetary engines?

At first, no one paid attention to this disaster...

"Senior Brother Jiang, Yao'er is only sixteen."

Hearing the young girl's voice, Jiang Cheng reluctantly drew his thoughts back from space to the ground.

The girl before him was beautiful, possibly the most beautiful person Jiang Cheng had seen in his ten plus years drifting through Shanghai.

Yet, Jiang Cheng always felt she was familiar, as if he had seen her somewhere before.

It wasn't until a strange memory emerged in his mind that Jiang Cheng realized he had transmigrated.

He had become a minor character in the game "Immortal Gods" who shared his name.

The name similarity with the minor character was not a coincidence but an Easter egg. Jiang Cheng was one of the planners of "Immortal Gods," mainly responsible for balancing the game's numerical values. The copywriter who wrote the storyline often couldn't be bothered to come up with names, so they used the names of people they knew instead. His colleagues had long since become used to it.

Jiang Cheng didn't know much about the plot, only remembering the gist of it. If he wasn't mistaken, the "minor character Jiang Cheng" was a pitiful lap-dog character in the storyline of "Lin Yao."

He liked Lin Yao, but Lin Yao had always strung him along, continuously taking his time, energy, and money without ever so much as touching her hand.

Indeed, one didn't need to wait until the later part of the plot; just during the early stages, this "minor character Jiang Cheng" had been thoroughly used by Lin Yao, disappearing into obscurity, never to appear again.

Lin Yao, on the other hand, was the "Plot Leading Lady" in "Immortal Gods" with her own independent storyline. She appeared pure and beautiful, but was born with an enchanting body. In the early stages, her talents were not evident without a cultivation technique. Later, discovered by an Elder of the Hehuan Sect, she switched to cultivating an enchanting technique and rose to fame in one fell swoop.

Simply put, she was a future Enchantress of the Demonic Tao.

In the world of "Immortal Gods," the Five Great Immortal Sects represented justice, while the Demonic Tao was reviled by everyone.

Being too close to an Enchantress of the Demonic Tao brought not only trouble and danger but could also lead to being singled out by the righteous Immortal Sects and blacklisted, thereby cutting off one's path to immortality.

Jiang Cheng liked neither trouble nor danger.

He needed to find a way to keep his distance from the Enchantress of the Demonic Tao.

Jiang Cheng thought silently to himself.

"Brother Jiang, Yao'er just wants to be ordinary friends with you for now..."

"Really?"

"Really, truly. Let's talk about other matters when Yao'er grows up..."

"Then put it in writing."

Jiang Cheng took out paper and pen from his storage bag and handed them to Lin Yao.

He had been wondering how to clear his relationship with the enchantress from the Demon Sect, given that, true to character, Lin Yao was a difficult person to deal with and adept at confusing the minds of pure-hearted male cultivators. He hadn't expected it to be resolved so easily.

"Put it in writing? What writing?"

Lin Yao was obviously confused by Jiang Cheng's words and actions.

He meticulously arranged to meet me in the park to watch the sunrise, not to confess his feelings but to put it in writing?

What kind of new tactic was this?

Given his usual behavior, he seemed like a genuinely honest male cultivator, not the type to use such tactics...

Jiang Cheng stuffed the paper and pen into Lin Yao's hand and said earnestly, "It's nothing complicated, just write down what you just said on the paper, sign your name, and press your handprint, and that'll be enough."

"What I just said...?"

"The 'just friends' part."

Lin Yao suddenly realized.

It turns out he was jealous because I wanted to distance our relationship.

Among the many pursuers of Lin Yao, Jiang Cheng might not be the most outstanding one, but he was still not bad. He was quite tall, with a sunny and handsome appearance.

Most importantly, his academic performance was good, and he had a strong chance of being admitted to a key Immortal Sect university. After graduation, he could join one of the Five Great Immortal Sects as an Inner Sect Disciple and make further progress on the path of cultivating immortality.

Lin Yao certainly didn't want her "favorite" "Brother Jiang" to leave her casually.

Moving like a lotus, Lin Yao fluttered to Jiang Cheng's side as lightly as a butterfly.

Standing there prettily with her little hand clutching the corner of Jiang Cheng's clothing, she cooed playfully, "Brother Jiang~ Yao'er didn't mean that~"

The pouting and coquettish complaints of a beautiful young girl, few in the world could resist them.

But Jiang Cheng just frowned and thought, darn, this enchantress isn't planning to back out, is she?