Guo Yun: Plays Ye Shunguang, teammate Ye Shiyuan

Brain storage

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"what……"

A long, drawn-out yawn, carrying the languor of someone just waking up, spilled from the woman's lips.

She lay on her side in bed, her long, reddish-brown hair cascading down onto the cotton pillow, the ends still slightly fluffy from sleep.

Her slender fingers stretched out gently, gliding slowly along the sheets. The delicate touch she felt made her squint her eyes slightly.

Her name is Ye Shunguang, which she used before she transmigrated. Now, with a body exactly the same as her character in "Zero Zone," she has lived in this world called Blue Star for a full 100 days.

At this moment, she stared blankly at the simple white chandelier on the ceiling with her clear red eyes, her thoughts drifting back to her distant past life.

In her previous life, she was diagnosed with ALS at the age of 18.

At first, it was just that his fingers would occasionally become unresponsive, but it progressed to walking unsteadily, speaking incoherently, and eventually he even needed a ventilator to breathe.

The torment of illness had not yet ended when Alzheimer's disease quietly descended, like pouring cold water on an already broken life.

Her memories began to fragment; she would forget what she had just said, and familiar people gradually became strangers. Only her obsession with the game sustained her through those painful days and nights.

She remembered it clearly; that day was the day her junior sister's gacha pool opened.

She used up all the draws she had saved up over the past six months, and after a disappointing pity pull, she finally drew her junior sister's 0+1.

With trembling fingers, I finished the story mode and then spent the whole day grinding dungeons until my body was completely exhausted and I didn't even have the strength to lift my hand.

She was then taken to the ICU by her tearful parents. The monotonous sound of the ventilator gradually faded away, and she slowly closed her eyes with a sense of satisfaction that "she has no regrets in this life".

I thought that was the end, but when I opened my eyes again, I was greeted by an unfamiliar ceiling and a clean rental room.

A mechanical voice suddenly sounded in his mind, announcing the successful binding of the system—[The role-playing system has been activated. Host: Ye Shunguang. Target: Play the role of the same name. Completing tasks will earn generous rewards. Includes features such as daily check-in, system shop, and system space].

The newbie gift pack gave her this healthy body: a taut waistline, powerful legs, and her signature long brown-red hair and red eyes. Even the fluffy brown-red tail from the character design was brought to life.

Two swords were also unlocked at the same time: one was an ordinary longsword suitable for daily use, and the other was the Qingming Sword, which emitted a faint blue light.

The special weapon, the Azure Nether Sword, possesses immense power. It can be unlocked after being bound to a weapon; however, the risks of using it are unknown.

Before transmigrating, Ye Shunguang already knew how many knives this sword had created. Heaven knows if binding with it would cause him to lose his five senses and have his memories stripped away.

Therefore, for the past 100 days, she has kept the Qingming Sword carefully stored deep within the system space, not daring to even touch it.

"Sigh..." Ye Shunguang sighed softly and sat up from the bed. His fluffy tail unconsciously swept gently behind him with a soft arc.

She looked down at her hands, slender yet powerful, no longer trembling uncontrollably like in her previous life. These 100 days on Earth had been the most peaceful and precious time of her life.

This world's blue planet has suffered far more disasters than her previous life's Earth.

The shadow of resource depletion looms over the world. Natural disasters such as wildfires, floods, and earthquakes occur frequently, and news of species extinction is commonplace. There are even records of entire cities being swallowed by floods or burned down by wildfires overnight.

Although Linjiang City, where she lived, was relatively peaceful for the time being, the hazy mist that often appeared on the distant horizon was a trace left by the forest fires in the surrounding mountains; pedestrians hurried along the streets, and everyone's face carried worries about the future; drinking water and compressed food were always the best-selling items in the supermarket. All of this reminded her that this was by no means a paradise.

Fortunately, the system was there. The daily sign-in rewards never stopped, including a constant stream of daily necessities—from toiletries to clothes and shoes, and even her favorite osmanthus cake—but more importantly, those sword skills.

100 days of check-ins have allowed her to collect all the sword moves in both her normal and white-haired forms: from the basic five-slash attack to dodge and counterattack, special moves and enhanced special moves, and finally to the finishing move. Every move is deeply imprinted in her mind, as if she has practiced it hundreds of times.

Of course, these moves, combined with the practical application of the Ye Shunguang technique that I had previously practiced in my mind, would probably make me invincible, unless a nuclear bomb is used.

She used to practice secretly in the open space of her rented apartment. The sword light made a slight hum as it cut through the air, and the feeling of controlling the power made her feel incredibly at ease.

However, the growth of her role-playing value was frustratingly slow. The system required her to play Ye Shunguang, but although this world was chaotic, social order was not completely out of control. The police were still maintaining order, shops were operating normally, and people were just living more cautiously.

There were no battle scenes in the plot, and no crises that required her help. All she could do was imitate the characters' words and actions, which resulted in her role-playing value only increasing by a few tenths of a percentage point each day. After a hundred days, it would only reach 5%.

"Congratulations! This is truly something to celebrate!"

Thinking of this, Ye Shunguang couldn't help but roll his eyes at the air, his tone full of self-mockery.

She stood up, walked to the window, and drew back the curtains. The sky outside was still a slightly grayish blue. Among the tall buildings in the distance, there were several mottled marks left by the flood – the result of a rainstorm last month, and some areas were still under repair.

Recalling the embarrassing situation when he first transmigrated, Ye Shunguang couldn't help but chuckle.

On her first day after transmigrating, she looked at the fluffy tail in the mirror and felt extremely panicked.

Although this world has anime culture, it doesn't have miHoYo, let alone "Zero". If she goes out looking like this, wouldn't she be mistaken for a monster?

To hide her tail, she wore three thick coats, wrapping herself up like a dumpling. As a result, she was stopped by patrolling police officers as soon as she stepped out of the residential area.

I still remember that time.

"Comrade, please show me your ID. Your attire is a bit suspicious." The police officer's tone was relatively mild, but the wariness in his eyes was obvious.

Ye Shunguang was so nervous that his palms were sweating, he stammered and couldn't speak, his mind went blank, and he almost forgot to take out the identification document given to him by the system.

At this awkward moment, several young people dressed in strange costumes walked over—leading them was a girl cosplaying as a shrine maiden from an anime, followed by boys cosplaying as knights and magicians.

"Officer, it's a misunderstanding!" The girl in the shrine maiden outfit stepped forward with a smile, pointing at Ye Shunguang. "She's from our club. We were supposed to go to the anime convention today to cosplay a new character, but she's hiding the tail prop so no one will see it and spoil it on the way!"

"Yeah, yeah, look at her hair and eyes, the resemblance is so high!" The boy in the knight outfit chimed in, and even gave Ye Shunguang a wink.

Ye Shunguang suddenly realized what was happening and quickly followed up their words, saying, "Yes, yes, my tail prop is too realistic. I'm afraid it will scare passersby." As he spoke, he deliberately straightened his back to make the outline of the tail under his coat more obvious.

The police officer looked at their professional cosplay outfits and then at Ye Shunguang's tail, which did indeed resemble a prop, before letting out a sigh of relief: "I see. You can be a little more careful next time you go out. Everyone's more sensitive these days."

The misunderstanding was thus resolved. Later, Ye Shunguang learned that these young people were members of a local anime and manga fan club who frequently organized cosplay team-building activities.

They enthusiastically invited Ye Shunguang to join the club and even helped her devise a cosplay outfit for her "exclusive character," allowing her to openly reveal her true colors without arousing unnecessary suspicion.

From then on, Ye Shunguang embarked on the path of cosplaying "himself".

Her fellow club members all thought she was cosplaying an original character, and often praised her unique design and perfect accuracy—after all, no one knew that she looked exactly like the original.

During these 100 days, she participated in comic conventions and offline team building activities with the club, and even went to the mountains and forests in the suburbs to shoot "character videos". Her role-playing value gradually increased by 5% through these daily interactions.

"It's a bit slow, but it's better than stagnation." Ye Shunguang stretched out a big yawn, his tail drawing a graceful arc in the air.

She walked to the wardrobe, took out the clothes she was going to wear today—a short black leather jacket, paired with high-waisted jeans, and a loose beige trench coat over it, which was both convenient for movement and could cover her tail if necessary.

In the dressing mirror, the woman with brown hair and red eyes had exquisite features. She couldn't help but say something to herself in the mirror, even though she was already used to this body.

"I'm so pretty."

……

After washing up, she heated up a glass of milk, toasted two slices of bread, and sat down at the dining table to turn on the TV. An animated film was playing; the animation was well-made, but the plot was somewhat clichéd.

While eating breakfast, Ye Shunguang glanced at the screen absentmindedly, pondering where he should go to "farm" his role-playing points today.

Just then, the light outside the window suddenly dimmed drastically.

It wasn't the gradual gloom of an overcast day, but rather as if someone had suddenly covered the sky with a giant curtain, plunging the world into a twilight-like darkness.

The animation on the TV screen vanished instantly, turning into static. Then, with a "pop," even the static disappeared, and the entire room fell into a brief silence.

"Hmm?" Ye Shunguang's heart tightened, and the milk glass in her hand stopped in mid-air. She keenly sensed an unusual energy fluctuation spreading in the air, which did not belong to this world and was different from the system's energy.

Almost instinctively, she put down her milk glass, rushed to the balcony, and pushed open the glass door.

Looking up, the sight in the sky made her pupils shrink.

The originally gray sky now seemed to have been torn apart by an invisible hand, with a huge crack running from east to west through the entire sky. Dazzling golden light overflowed from the crack, dyeing the surrounding dark clouds into a magnificent golden-red.

Even more astonishingly, the golden light gradually coalesced into lines of enormous characters, suspended in the sky like divine decrees, clearly visible to everyone who looked up:

[The celestial curtain is opening, randomly selecting participants from various countries to enter the forbidden zone of national destiny.]

The selection mechanism is fair, and the selection scope includes adults aged 18 to 35.

[This excludes pregnant women and those with illnesses, but if someone contracts an illness in a restricted area, they will not be replaced.]

The cold and authoritative voice boomed like thunder, echoing directly into the depths of everyone's consciousness. It had no medium, yet carried an undeniable power.

Ye Shunguang felt his eardrums buzzing, and his mind became clear. The shock brought by the sound was far stronger than the strange phenomenon in front of him.

Almost simultaneously, a semi-transparent blue panel appeared before her eyes, displaying the same text as in the sky, along with an additional prompt: [Selection of participants for the Forbidden Zone of National Fortune is underway, countdown: 00:29:59].

Her original system panel did not disappear; it remained suspended on the other side of her consciousness, with the two distinct and independent of each other.

"A forbidden area for national destiny?" Ye Shunguang murmured to himself, a hint of solemnity flashing in his red eyes.

As a time traveler, she was no stranger to the term "national destiny." In the online novels she had read before her time travel, this kind of setting often meant life-or-death trials and great opportunities.

She never imagined that such a plot, which only existed in novels, would actually happen in this world.

Just as she was pondering, a hurried, mechanical voice suddenly rang in her mind, completely different from its usual calm: [Detection of a sky curtain opening event in this world; forcibly binding all equipment] [Detection that the Azure Nether Sword is not yet bound; binding in progress...]

"Wait... wait!" Ye Shunguang's expression changed drastically, and a strong sense of unease rose in her heart. The thing she feared most had happened! The Azure Sea Sword was too dangerous, not to mention that she had experienced similar suffering.

She had been deliberately avoiding it, but the system was forcibly bound to her because the sky curtain was opened!

She subconsciously focused her mind and frantically opened her system panel.

After 100 days of interaction, she knew the system inside and out. From the task interface to the backpack space, from the sign-in records to the store redemption, she quickly searched through them, hoping to find the button to unbind the account.

Her fingertips flew across the virtual panel, cold sweat trickled down her forehead, and her heart pounded so hard it felt like it would jump out of her chest.

The torment of illness before her transmigration, the fear of death, the joy of being reborn, the apprehension towards the Azure Sea Sword... all these emotions intertwined, making her appear somewhat flustered at this moment.

"Cancel! Cancel the binding now!" she cried out urgently in her mind, her fingers moving so fast they were almost blurry, but no "cancel binding" option appeared on the system panel. The binding progress bar jumped rapidly in her mind, from 10% to 30%, then to 50%, 70%...

Ten seconds, as brief as the blink of an eye, felt to Ye Shunguang as an eternity.

[Azure Sea Sword successfully bound]

As the cold system notification faded, Ye Shunguang froze. She stood on the balcony, stunned, feeling a new connection being established between her body and the system space—the other end of that connection was none other than the Azure Sea Sword that she feared so much.

"...Tsk." A crisp click of her tongue escaped her lips, carrying an undisguised frustration.

Her hair suddenly turned white for a moment, then slowly returned to normal, but she didn't notice.

Ye Shunguang raised his hand and rubbed his temples, his red eyes filled with helplessness. The binding was already complete; there was no point in dwelling on it anymore.

She carefully examined the changes in her body. The expected headache and dizziness did not occur, her five senses remained clear, and her memory was intact. The Azure Nether Sword in the system space still lay there quietly, emitting a faint azure light, seemingly showing no signs of immediate action.

"It seems that as long as I don't take it out and use it, there shouldn't be any problems." Ye Shunguang breathed a sigh of relief, and his tense body gradually relaxed.

Those who have faced life and death are always able to accept the established facts more quickly.

"Sigh... Oh well, what's done is done." She shook her head in relief. She had learned not to dwell on things she couldn't change, but to focus on what she could control in the present moment.

Just then, the television in the room suddenly turned on automatically, the static disappeared, and it was replaced by the familiar opening theme music of the evening news.

However, the usually calm opening theme song sounded a bit rushed at this moment, and instead of the usual news anchors, several hosts dressed in formal attire and with serious expressions appeared on the screen.

"Breaking news!" A news anchor's voice boomed through the loudspeaker, carrying a deliberately somber tone. "At 9:47 AM this morning, a celestial phenomenon appeared simultaneously worldwide, with mysterious text and sounds appearing in the sky. Relevant departments have confirmed the event's authenticity. Currently, there is no evidence to suggest it poses any direct danger. We urge the public to remain calm, stay home as much as possible, and avoid crowded places. Relevant departments will continue to monitor the situation and release the latest updates..."

Ye Shunguang turned around and went back to the room, picking up his phone from the sofa.

The moment the screen lit up, countless push notifications popped up frantically from various news apps, social media platforms, and even emergency alerts from the telecom operator. She opened her favorite social media apps, and the homepage was completely flooded with keywords such as "sky screen," "forbidden zone of national destiny," and "sky text."

Click on any post, and within three minutes of its publication, it has already garnered over a million views, with the comment section exploding in discussion:

"Holy crap! What was that in the sky just now? Am I seeing things?"

"The words are real! The sound is real too! My whole family heard it!"

"What exactly is this 'Forbidden Zone of National Fortune'? Is it something aliens are up to?"

"Selecting participants? 18 to 35 years old, I just meet the criteria, will I be selected? I'm a little nervous..."

"Is there anyone who can analyze this? Is it a blessing or a curse?"

"It's both a blessing and a curse."

"Many people in our city have gone out into the streets to take pictures, and the police are already maintaining order!"

"You can't do that! I just got married!"

"Dude, the gacha game I play is releasing a new banner tomorrow, and you're doing this now? I've saved up hundreds of pulls, please don't pick me!!!"

Others uploaded videos of the unusual celestial phenomenon, showing a clear crack in the sky and golden text floating in the air, exuding an awe-inspiring majesty.

The comments below the video refreshed at an astonishing speed, with hundreds of new comments popping up every second. Some people were afraid, some were curious, some were expectant, and some were spreading conspiracy theories, saying that this was a sign of the end of the world.

Ye Shunguang quickly scanned the information, a hint of understanding flashing in his red eyes.

She had never paid attention to the novel industry before, but now it seems that there are no novels about national destiny in this world. This kind of unimaginable phenomenon is completely unfamiliar and shocking to them.

Most people were still in shock and panic, and were unable to calmly analyze the situation.

But Ye Shunguang is different.

As a time traveler, she was all too familiar with this plot pattern of "strange phenomena from the sky selecting participants".

Based on the system's forced binding and the prompts from the sky, she was almost certain that she would be selected to enter the so-called "forbidden zone of national destiny".

"Since we can't avoid it, we can only prepare." Ye Shunguang turned off her phone, her eyes hardening. She walked to the window, looking at the growing crowd on the street and the flashing police lights in the distance, and a clear plan formed in her mind.

...Let's switch to the original skin first!