Love Game Survival Guide

Read

Xia Ran is severely socially anxious.
One day, he played a wildly popular holographic game. In it, as a player, he was tasked with managing a luxurious old mansion.
The mansion’s owner—seated in a wheelchair—was frail, beautiful, and aloof.
A longtime beauty fanatic, Xia Ran fell in love at first sight.
—Hello, I’m your biggest fan!

However, even in the game, Xia Ran’s social anxiety held him back; he could only silently express his affection for his ultimate crush.
The mansion owner was always gazing out at the garden as if he were madly in love with the roses.
That very night, Xia Ran placed a single rose by his bedside.
The next day, the mansion owner glared at Xia Ran with a ghostly pallor. Noticing a slight tremor in him, Xia Ran slipped a pair of red “autumn pants” onto him.
His face darkened even further.
Too timid to speak, Xia Ran simply took his fingertips in his and warmed his hands.
For a socially anxious soul, just being able to look at the one he adores is happiness enough.
That’s what Xia Ran believed.

In the endless dungeon run, the mansion owner—a brooding, formidable presence suspected to be the boss—was someone none of the players dared to approach. After all, the last player who tried to take him down had already been taken out.
Then came a substitute player—beautiful and aloof, exuding the aura of a top dog.
On the first night, she secretly slipped into the boss’s room and placed a poisonous rose (the key to countering him) on his bedside.
Players: “Holy shit!
Right out of the gate, a provocation?”
The next day, the players discovered that Xia Ran was fitting the disheartened boss with red autumn pants.
Players: “Huh?!”
Soon after, they witnessed Xia Ran furtively holding the boss’s hand.
Players: “…”
It was as if a human had tamed the wild dungeon boss.

After clearing the game, Xia Ran never played again.

Two months later, as he pushed open his door, he found his long-missed beloved from the game sitting at the head of the bed—with a pale face seething with anger.
Xia Ran thought, “It must be that I opened the door all wrong.”
Then the mansion owner smiled darkly and said,
“Love me, care for me, then abandon me.
Xia Ran, you don’t really think this is just a game, do you?”
Xia Ran’s eyes trembled.
Or could it be otherwise?