Chapter 64 064 Is it possible to win over Duan Lansheng from afar? ...

The system notifications kept ringing in her head. Xiao Ru plopped down on the stone bench and said, "Alright, alright, I got it."

"Xiao Ruo" is not actually her name, but just the name of the character she plays in this world.

It all started with a car accident.

She was very unlucky. During her first summer vacation, she went on a trip with her roommates. The tour bus they were on lost control due to brake failure, crashed into the railing, and plunged off the cliff.

But she was luckier than the others in the car. While everyone else died instantly from their injuries, she was bound to a system. As long as she completed the designated maintenance storyline and romance character quests, she could return to her own world and survive the car accident.

This system is quite considerate; before she transmigrated, it even let her choose which world to go to. Between a futuristic interstellar mecha world, an ancient Eastern fantasy world, and a Western fantasy world of knights, princesses, and dragons, she chose the fantasy world that interested her the most, becoming the female protagonist, Xiao Ruo.

However, her first time traveling through time didn't go smoothly—the system told her that some bugs had occurred in that world, causing the plot to break down and preventing her from landing.

Strictly speaking, her system was an intruder, and in order to retain its various privileges, it had to bypass the original book spirit to guide her to her landing. Therefore, it couldn't find out exactly how the bug that blocked her way and prevented her from crossing occurred.

By then, it was too late to change tracks. Fortunately, that world suddenly and inexplicably reset back to its starting point, allowing for a second playthrough.

That's not important; in short, she landed safely this time.

The system told her that this world evolved from a Mary Sue novel where everyone loves the female protagonist.

Although she hadn't read the novel before, Xiao Ru wasn't worried at all. The system had provided her with detailed information, including the main storyline, personality analyses of the romanceable characters, and strategies for winning them over.

In addition, she also had a mental panel that updated the affection level of each romanceable character in real time. She truly achieved the goal of knowing herself and her enemy, and thus winning every battle.

However, after actually arriving in this world, Xiao Ru's excitement and sense of novelty only lasted for about a month. She was still more used to modern life. This world lacked modern amenities such as flush toilets and televisions, and it was also lacking in many seasonings. It was also filled with terrifying and disgusting monsters and demons, and she was most afraid of these bloody scenes.

The heroine's charm isn't all-powerful; it only works on romanceable characters. The monsters won't show her any mercy just because she's the heroine.

She just wanted to complete the missions as soon as possible, accumulate enough points, and then go home.

In this world, every man is a romanceable character. Even a guy selling sweet soup on the street can be romanced and earn points if she wants.

But Xiaoruo was too lazy to bother with these small fry.

The reason is simply that the rate of return is too low.

In the original story, the more important and popular a character is among readers, the more points she can earn upon successfully winning their heart. Once she has enough points to go home, any excess points can be used in the system shop to exchange for other things, such as money, health, beauty, education, etc.

The passerby selling groceries and the nameless disciples of the Shu Mountain Sword Sect are easy to win over—they're hooked with a flick of the finger and their favorability bars fill up in the blink of an eye—but the reward points are pitifully small, like a mosquito bite. Relying on them, it'll probably be ages before I can go home.

More importantly, Xiao Ruo is a total looks-obsessed person. She can't bring herself to kiss or sleep with men who look average. Now that she's been transported to a world of anime characters, of course she'll choose to date someone she likes.

With this in mind, Xiao Ruo quickly circled three targets she liked.

The first one is Duan Lansheng, a disciple of the Shushan Sword Sect.

The second is Yue Hong, the third prince of Yong Kingdom.

The third is Yue Qi, the crown prince of Yong.

All three characters are quite popular. And they'll all be appearing soon, so she won't have to wait too long and it won't delay her getting home—time in fantasy novels has been ruined by the excessive use of decades or even a hundred years; she doesn't have the patience to waste that much time here.

The first person she approached was Yue Hong.

In Yue Hong's strategy guide, it is mentioned that he values ​​family ties and has a very good relationship with his mother, Consort Xie.

Therefore, following the system's advice, she first approached Consort Xie. By using the "leading the way in the fog" incident, she first made a good impression on Consort Xie.

When she officially meets Yue Hong, all she needs to do is bring up this incident in front of the mother and son, and Yue Hong's goodwill towards her will be won over effortlessly.

Since it was her first time playing a strategy game, Xiao Ru was quite curious about Yue Hong. Therefore, after the incident of him leading the way, she secretly followed Consort Xie for a while, hiding in the shadows, and took the opportunity to meet Yue Hong, who was on his way to pick up his mother and bring her back to the palace.

The character's favorability bar isn't initially displayed on the panel. It only unlocks when Xiaoru meets that person. With Yue Hong's appearance, his favorability bar slowly appeared on the panel.

Xiao Ruo looked closely and discovered something strange.

Each romanceable character's affection bar consists of ten hearts. They are arranged in a row, outlined with light pink dotted lines, and are all uncolored, appearing as hollow centers.

When she has physical contact with these characters, the dotted lines will connect into solid lines, symbolizing that the favorability bar has been officially activated.

After that, for every 10% increase in affection level, one heart will be filled in with pink. When all ten hearts become solid, it means the character has been successfully won over, and you can get reward points.

The strange thing about Yue Hong's affection bar is that even though she hasn't activated his affection bar yet, his fifth to tenth hearts are already filled with color, only the first four hearts are empty.

Xiao Ru was puzzled. She found an opportunity to secretly activate Yue Hong's favorability bar and found that the last six hearts were still solid.

This means that even if she maxes out Yue Hong's favorability, she can only reach the fourth heart at most.

The system's explanation for this is that there may still be some bugs in the world of the second playthrough.

At that time, the main storyline was about to reach the point where she was captured by Duan Lansheng and taken back to Mount Shu. No matter how puzzled Xiao Ru was, she could only put it aside for the time being and leave the mortal world.

She didn't expect that the next person she would encounter, Duan Lansheng, would have an even more bizarre affection level.

His ten hearts were all gray. The color was so pale that it was almost invisible. At first glance, it seemed as if the part that stored romantic feelings did not exist.

But if you look closely, you'll find that eight of the ten hearts are actually solid—the color inside is a light gray.

Xiao Ru: "..." I have absolutely no idea what's going on.

However, there are still bugs in the second playthrough. Furthermore, the walkthrough mentions that Duan Lansheng is cold on the outside but warm on the inside, an icy yet secretly passionate individual. She hasn't yet found an opportunity to physically contact Duan Lansheng to activate his affection level; perhaps this is why her behavior is different from others.

Besides, she was indeed stunned by Duan Lansheng's cold and handsome face when they first met. Thinking about his high return on investment, she decided to continue her pursuit of him.

According to the plot, after she is released by Shushan, she will follow Duan Lansheng to the mortal world.

Xiao Ru did indeed do just that. But just as she and the disciples of Mount Shu were investigating the death of Consort Yu, a problem suddenly arose.

Perhaps due to a bug, the individual paths of Yue Hong and Duan Lansheng, which should have been separate, have intertwined. The events of "Duan Lansheng and other Shushan disciples being trapped in the maze" and "Yue Hong being seriously injured and unconscious on the battlefield" also coincide in time.

A choice between two options was thus placed before Xiaoruo.

Alternatively, they could separate from Duan Lansheng and remain outside the maze, prioritizing Yue Hong's survival.

Either enter the illusionary instance with Duan Lansheng, regardless of Yue Hong.

The system said that if she didn't intervene, Yue Hong would most likely die.

Of course, since the overlapping events are the result of multiple factors and not caused by her, they won't significantly disrupt the main storyline. Therefore, if Yue Hong dies as a result, she won't be punished.

After thinking for a moment, Xiao Ruo chose the second option.

After all, Yue Hong's affection bar was already full, with the last six hearts already marked. Even if she tried her best, she was destined not to get the final reward. This character was of no help to her, and trying to win him over was pointless. So why waste her time on him?

Ultimately, these people are just two-dimensional characters. Death is like deleting a few characters from a document. Naturally, she won't feel guilty.

It would be better to strike while the iron is hot, catch up with Duan Lansheng as soon as possible, and activate his favorability.

In hindsight, she made the right choice. Yue Hong is doing just fine without her help, isn't he?

However, things didn't go as smoothly as Xiaoruo had imagined after entering the maze.

Taking advantage of the collision during the fight, she finally touched Duan Lansheng's body. However, there was no sign of his favorability bar being activated.

The system taught her that she could gain Duan Lansheng's approval and trust by starting from the perspective that "we are all fox spirits." She accepted the suggestion, but it felt like casting pearls before swine, a case of offering a warm welcome only to be met with indifference.

No, even a cow might react to the music and moo. This guy is truly impervious to reason.

Yue Hong's favorability bar only shortened at best. Duan Lansheng's favorability bar, however, couldn't even be activated.

This is truly illogical. If he is truly clueless about love and has no capacity for romance, then how were those eight hearts filled?

Is there another way to win over Duan Lansheng from afar? Is there another path she doesn't know about that can influence his heart?

But isn't Duan Lansheng himself already standing here?

...

Xiao Ru scratched the fox ears in her hair in annoyance.

I can't figure it out. Maybe it's just bad luck for her; both roles she chose in a row had bugs.

Moreover, this bug not only affected the romanceable characters, but also spread to the people around them.

For example, there's an NPC named Lu Yuanyuan who is always Duan Lansheng's lapdog in the original novel. But in reality, she and Duan Lansheng seem to have a pretty good relationship, and Duan Lansheng doesn't seem to dislike her as he did in the original novel.

However, she had observed Lu Yuanyuan last night. The other party hadn't exhibited anything inconsistent with her character; she showed no precognitive abilities or outrageous behavior—a perfectly acceptable NPC. She guessed that the change in Lu Yuanyuan's relationship with Duan Lansheng was merely a lingering effect of a bug.

The system was right. There are plenty of handsome anime characters out there, and she doesn't necessarily have to win over Duan Lansheng and Yue Hong. These two aren't working out, and she shouldn't waste any more time on them; she should find someone else as soon as possible.

The third option, Crown Prince Yue Qi of Yong, is a good choice.

...

That day, everyone stayed in the study until dark, and finally decided on the route back to the capital.

The next day, at cockcrow.

Everyone was all ready to go when they suddenly received some unexpected news.

Xiao Ruo has disappeared.

He left only a farewell letter in the room and left decisively.