Goddess of Life

“Congratulations on clearing the game~”

A cheerful piece of music echoed through the dim room, yet it failed to add even a trace of color to his world.

“Finally cleared it… phew~ ah, my shoulder hurts.”

Ye Yousheng raised his right hand to knead his left shoulder, then stretched lazily, his entire body crackling with the sound of joints popping.

He twisted his neck as well, the cervical bones making a strange noise that made him wonder if he had developed shoulder inflammation.

The heavy dark circles under his eyes, comparable to a national treasure panda, along with the bulging eye bags like marbles, all proved that he had gone without sleep for many days.

At this moment, whether it was his physical strength or mental energy, Ye Yousheng had been completely drained—burned out to the very last drop.

He suddenly recalled a news story he had once seen about a man who died from staying up all night gaming.

Comparing that to himself—having stayed up for three or four nights straight without even a hint of dying—he couldn’t help but shake his head with a bitter smile.

Was the news nonsense, or was his constitution simply abnormal?

Ye Yousheng felt the latter was more likely.

And the culprit behind his current withered state was precisely the game in front of him.

For the past few days, he had been locked in a struggle with this strategy role-playing game.

After 128 consecutive hours of effort, he had finally cleared it.

If he had to give it a rating, it would definitely be negative.

It was absolutely not worth paying money for.

There was nothing innovative about it—outdated art style, overused maze maps, the most generic turn-based system, and even the monsters were borrowed from other games without a shred of originality.

Most importantly, the game didn’t even have sound effects or character illustrations!

Both the protagonist and the monsters were just crude little figures, making Ye Yousheng seriously suspect that the game had been made using RPG MAKER, a tool with zero professional quality.

After all, he himself had that software on his phone.

The main storyline was also painfully simple.

Guided by a goddess, the protagonist sets out to find five legendary items.

Once all the items are collected, he can meet the goddess and have one wish granted.

The plot was nothing new.

But the journey to obtain those five items… to Ye Yousheng, as a player—what they call “gameplay”—was utterly infuriating.

The difficulty was absurdly high.

So high that Ye Yousheng suspected the game was created purely out of malice to vent someone’s emotions.

And this ‘difficulty’ was only in reference to Ye Yousheng.

For an average person… even nightmare mode wouldn’t be enough to describe it.

All along, Ye Yousheng had relied on his innate reaction speed and honed skills to conquer countless games.

If he became a professional player, he could definitely compete on the world stage.

Yet this game’s difficulty made even him laugh helplessly.

His death count had reached an all-time high.

At first, he thought the game was impossible to clear.

That the only way to beat it was by modifying the program.

But after dying countless times, he discovered that within this seemingly hopeless game, there was actually a single path to survival.

Though walking that path was extremely difficult—allowing not even the slightest mistake—as long as he unraveled it step by step like peeling silk from a cocoon, reaching the ending was indeed possible…

And in the end, he did it.

Even he didn’t know how.

Anyway, he cleared it.

The details didn’t matter anymore.

As his tightly focused mind finally relaxed, the game played that same piece of audio again—the only sound effect in the entire game.

On screen, the protagonist gathered all the items, and a “stairway of light” appeared in the void.

That was probably the path leading to the goddess.

Ye Yousheng had no interest in it whatsoever.

Or rather, he had no interest in any game’s story.

He only played games to immerse himself in a virtual world and forget about reality.

Now that he had cleared it, there was no reason to stay attached.

Ignoring the ending, he lay down, a self-mocking smile appearing on his face.

“I actually managed to play through such a trash game… I must be possessed…”

He hadn’t even bought the game.

No one would buy something this terrible.

In fact, he had searched for it online but found nothing.

It seemed the game hadn’t been released on the internet at all.

As for where it came from—it was given to him by a “Little Red Riding Hood.”

The girl looked just like the one from fairy tales, wearing a red velvet hood and carrying a basket.

Except instead of cake and wine, the basket was filled with game discs.

In this era where all sorts of strange things existed, such an outfit wasn’t particularly odd.

Ye Yousheng assumed it was just some marketing gimmick.

Though he did wonder whether hiring child labor was illegal.

Originally, he had no interest in taking the disc.

But seeing the ridiculous title written on it—“The Most Difficult Game in the World”—he took the bait out of sheer boredom.

He had nothing better to do anyway.

Since a game was being handed to him, why not give it a try?

“The most difficult game in the world… still far from it.”

After all, he cleared it, didn’t he?

Closing his eyes in fatigue, Ye Yousheng rubbed them to ease the soreness.

Wasting time like this filled him with an overwhelming sense of emptiness.

Games numbed his present, but they couldn’t make him forget the past.

“What’s the point of living like this…”

He slowly closed his eyes.

He wanted to just die quietly like this.

To him, death wasn’t frightening—it was a form of release.

Clearing the game didn’t bring him even the slightest sense of accomplishment.

Instead, it only deepened his emptiness.

His heart was as hollow as the room around him.

“Do you have a wish you want to fulfill?”

A voice came again from the cleared game—it was the goddess asking the protagonist.

Then a dialogue box appeared, the cursor blinking, clearly prompting the player to input a wish.

Of course, Ye Yousheng wasn’t naïve enough to take a game seriously.

But it stirred memories within him.

A wish…

If possible… how nice it would be to start life over again…

Sealed memories surged like a broken dam, flooding into his mind.

His life had been short—only twenty-one years.

Yet in those twenty-one years, he had lost everything.

At fourteen, his family of four went on a trip.

But midway, they got into a car accident.

His parents and younger sister died on the spot.

Only he survived.

Because at the moment of impact, he instinctively dodged into a gap.

Relying on his innate reaction speed, he escaped death.

Later, after a series of investigations, he discovered the accident had been deliberate.

The mastermind was his father’s rival—Xiao Yang—and his Xuri Group.

After learning the truth, Ye Yousheng plunged into a vortex of revenge.

He abandoned everything from his past and headed alone to the most dangerous place in the world—the battlefield.

How could a mere fourteen-year-old survive a battlefield?

Perhaps he had simply wanted to die…

But fate played a cruel joke on him.

He actually walked out of that hell alive—and learned how to kill.

After returning, he lay in wait outside Xiao Yang’s villa for five full days.

Finally, he seized the only opportunity.

Xiao Yang entered the villa carrying an unconscious woman and dismissed all his bodyguards.

A once-in-a-lifetime chance.

The moment Xiao Yang approached the woman with a lecherous grin in the bedroom—

He pulled the trigger.

A .45 ACP bullet pierced Xiao Yang’s temple, turning his brain into pulp.

That gunshot released all his rage.

It marked the end of his revenge.

Yet Ye Yousheng felt no satisfaction.

Only that there was no longer any meaning in living.

He had originally planned to die together with Xiao Yang.

But in the end, he didn’t die.

He wasn’t even caught.

With the help of that unconscious woman, he was cleared of suspicion.

And then he returned to this temporary residence, passing his leftover life through games.

Some people are alive—but he was already dead.

Ye Yousheng’s heart had long since died.

A wish?

Did wanting to die count as a wish?

But his deceased parents and sister would never want him to commit suicide…

Shaking his head, Ye Yousheng pressed Enter without typing anything.

A blank wish.

Another voice followed.

“Do you want to change your fate?”

Another dialogue box popped up.

[YES/NO]

“Heh, zero creativity.”

But… changing fate…

Maybe…

“What am I even expecting… something like that isn’t possible…”

Like thinking you won’t win the lottery—and then confirming you didn’t…

Even if he clicked YES, nothing would happen.

The greater the hope, the greater the disappointment.

He firmly believed that.

On the battlefield, he had to live with the tension that he might die at any second.

To survive, he had to abandon all hope—to prevent even the slightest mental slack.

He was absolutely rational.

He would never make choices based on impulse.

So he clicked NO.

And then—the computer froze.

With an “I knew it” expression, Ye Yousheng pressed the power button to restart it.

But the computer didn’t respond at all.

Just as he was about to unplug it—

Buzz~ Buzz~

His phone suddenly vibrated.

With a puzzled look, Ye Yousheng picked it up and answered.

Before he could speak, the other party said first—

“Hmph, that’s not up to you!”

“What?”

It all happened in an instant.

A crimson Little Red Riding Hood emerged from the television, dragged him inside—and he completely lost consciousness.

When he came to, he found himself in a crystal-clear palace.

Chilling air seeped into his bones, making him tremble uncontrollably.

Night stretched before him.

The sky and twinkling stars looked like a grand painting.

The moon was impossibly large and smooth—less like a moon, more like a jewel embedded in the sky.

But what captured Ye Yousheng’s attention wasn’t the scenery.

It was the person before him.

Simply sitting there, her presence overshadowed everything.

Upon a throne of ice and snow sat a goddess who looked down upon all beings.

Her waist-length silver hair was unforgettable.

Her blood-red eyes emitted a faint, cold gleam.

Her snow-white face bore not the slightest hint of a smile.

Cold, proud, unreadable—like a sculpture.

No… if she hadn’t spoken, Ye Yousheng would have truly mistaken her for one.

Cold—untainted by the mortal world.

Icy—yet breathtakingly beautiful.

“Who are you.”

It wasn’t a question, nor an interrogation.

Just a statement.

Yet it made Ye Yousheng feel compelled to answer.

A natural sense of reverence arose within him.

“Answer me.”

Her icy gaze fell upon the stunned Ye Yousheng as she spoke again.

He could tell—this coldness wasn’t deliberate.

It was innate.

Her transcendent beauty left him speechless.

If goddesses truly existed in this world, this must be what they looked like.

His throat felt dry.

He wanted to speak, but couldn’t.

This was the first time he had ever felt like this.

He had seen many beautiful women before.

Some equally stunning.

But never had he felt so flustered.

Swallowing, he licked his cracked lips and finally spoke—

“…My name is Ye Yousheng.”

After forcing out his name, he couldn’t say anything else.

“I am Eve, the Goddess of Life.”

“Why are you here?”

“…”

Why was he here?

He wanted to know that himself.

His mind was in chaos.

Why had he come here?

Who was this silver-haired woman?

Why did she call herself a goddess?

Countless questions flooded his mind.

And her overwhelming beauty short-circuited his thoughts.

“It seems you know nothing either.”

“I…”

The goddess revealed a faint smile.

Even the curve of her lips was perfectly composed.

“Then stay here for now.”

Ye Yousheng was completely captivated.

He couldn’t look away.

He didn’t even want to blink.

That smile lingered in his heart, impossible to erase.

A single thought filled his mind—

If he could obtain her…

No—even just the chance to stay by her side…

He would give up the rest of his life for it.

But what Ye Yousheng didn’t know—

Was that this thought of his would soon come true.

This peerless body—

Would become entirely his.

The Goddess of Life would grant him an immortal body.