The Wish Scroll and a Sudden Gender Swap

Su Han glanced at his watch. With twelve hours remaining until his flight landed, he closed his eyes and entered the world of the holographic online game. “Hmm, still some time to wait. I’ll go check out that place first!”

“Nerve connection Other shore,” abbreviated as [Othershore], was a neural direct connection device. It involved implanting an electronic chip between the brain’s surface and the dura mater. Within the machine, countless signal components generated multiple electric fields, directly connecting with the user’s brain. This direct transmission of virtual sensory data to the brain created a virtual space. Visual, auditory, tactile, gustatory, and olfactory senses were all directly relayed to the body via neural signals, making the virtual online world indistinguishable from reality.

Su Han wore a silver ring on the ring finger of his left hand. Since the electronic chip implanted in his brain couldn’t be directly controlled, the ring served as its on/off switch.

Today marked the official launch of “Othershore.” Su Han had pre-ordered the game online and secured his copy before boarding the plane, everything proceeding exactly as he had anticipated.

Upon logging into [Othershore], Su Han arrived at the Newbie Village.

As it was launch day, the Newbie Village buzzed with activity. Crowds flowed ceaselessly, far outnumbering the players Su Han had encountered during the closed beta.

Out of habit, Su Han first opened his inventory. “Oh?” he exclaimed, clearly surprised. To his astonishment, the Wish Scroll he had inadvertently left behind after slaying a monster during the closed beta was still there! Su Han recalled the official statement during the beta: all equipment and inventory items would disappear upon the public launch, and beta players would only retain their operational experience. Yet, while all his other gear and items were gone, this one Wish Scroll remained.

Driven by curiosity, Su Han temporarily left the Newbie Village. Instead of immediately accepting newbie quests, he found a secluded corner and retrieved the Wish Scroll.

As the Wish Scroll gently unfurled, a magnetic voice, impossible to discern as male or female, echoed in Su Han’s mind.

“Young man, what is your wish?”

Su Han shivered at the words. ‘Why is this system so cheesy?’ he thought. Nevertheless, since the system was offering to grant his wish, he hesitated for a moment before replying, “My wish is to reach the pinnacle of all cultivation systems!”

“Sorry,” a female voice responded, sounding like a phone call ending with the recipient’s device powered off. “That wish cannot be granted.”

“Pfft, didn’t you say this Wish Scroll could grant any of my wishes? You can’t even manage this simple thing?” Su Han rolled up the Wish Scroll, a derisive laugh escaping him. ‘What a joke, a colossal joke! If you, a mere system, can’t grant my wish, then what kind of system are you?’

“My goodness, if you reached the peak of all cultivation systems, wouldn’t you be an invincible existence? That’s practically cheating! The supreme system would erase my existence!” The system’s voice clearly conveyed helplessness, but Su Han was not so easily fooled by appearances. He scoffed, “Tch~” and turned to leave.

This tactic was known as [Playing Hard to Get], a skill Su Han had mastered to perfection.

“Wait a moment,” the voice changed again, now sounding like an old river god. “How about this: you can choose one of the four main cultivation systems to reach the pinnacle of the Divine Rank, and the others will all be at Grandmaster level?”

“Well… I suppose that’s not impossible!” Su Han inwardly sighed, acknowledging that playing hard to get had indeed worked. Since the system had left him the Wish Scroll, it clearly had something it wanted from him.

“Tell me, among Battle Qi, Magic, Bloodline, and Mech Pilot, which will you choose?”

Before the system could even finish, Su Han shamelessly interjected, “Uh… if I choose Mech Pilot, will I also get a mech as a gift?”

“You rascal,” the system retorted, “one shouldn’t be so insatiably greedy!” Su Han could almost picture the system glaring at him with a stern, ‘How dare you!’ expression.

“Alright, then forget it!” Su Han shrugged, spreading his hands.

‘Hmph, old geezer,’ he thought internally, ‘you think I can’t outplay you? A mere system is no match for my cleverness!’

“Are you sure? Things like top-tier equipment, ultimate divine pets, or even a gender swap aren’t out of the question!” The intelligent system now sounded like an old con artist trying to sweet-talk Su Han.

“No interest. Equipment and divine pets are only fun if I hunt for them myself,” Su Han declared. “As for that ‘gender swap’ thing, you can keep it for yourself, old man!” With that, Su Han turned to walk away, not even sparing a glance for the Wish Scroll lying on the ground. If he didn’t hurry back, he’d fall behind. He needed to get back to the Newbie Village, accept quests, and level up, lest others gain an advantage.

Just as Su Han was about to leave, the system suddenly called out, “Wait, don’t go! I’ll agree, alright?” it pleaded. “It’s just a divine-grade mech, I’ll give it to you!”

“Really?” Su Han exclaimed, overjoyed.

As Su Han rejoiced, a shimmering, seven-colored light curtain descended from the sky, enveloping him. Tiny specks of light glittered on the translucent, cicada-wing-like barrier. With each breath Su Han took, countless pieces of knowledge and memories surged into his mind. This knowledge felt as if it had been there since birth, merging with his existing memories, becoming an innate part of him, ready for him to recall at will.

“Alright, since I’ve granted your wish,” the system said, Su Han could almost hear a smacking sound, “now it’s time for you to grant mine!”

“Wait!” Su Han shook his head like a rattle-drum. “You never said I needed to grant your wish beforehand!” His immediate thought was, ‘I’ve been tricked!’

“You brat, don’t you know about reciprocity?” the system chided. “Since I granted your wish, it’s only natural that you should grant mine!”

“Damn it! Wasn’t this supposed to be free?” Su Han fumed. “Even if I have to grant your wish, wait, you’re a system! Is there anything you can’t do?” Su Han frantically clicked on the logout interface, only to discover… the logout interface had vanished!

“You bastard! You played me!” Su Han sprinted wildly towards the Newbie Village, hoping to hide among the crowds and escape the trouble.

But just as he reached the Newbie Village, a system notification chimed:

[Warning! Warning! The server has been attacked by hackers and is currently experiencing malfunctions. Technical personnel are working on repairs. All players, please log in again at 2 PM!]

[Sorry, the server is about to shut down. All players, please log off immediately!]

[Warning! Warning! The server has been attacked by hackers and is currently experiencing malfunctions. Technical personnel are working on repairs. All players, please log in again at 2 PM!]

[Sorry, the server is about to shut down. All players, please log off immediately!]

[Warning! Warning! The server has been attacked by hackers and is currently experiencing malfunctions. Technical personnel are working on repairs. All players, please log in again at 2 PM!]

[Sorry, the server is about to shut down. All players, please log off immediately!]

The system notification repeated three times. Su Han watched as players around him logged out one by one, a bitter feeling rising in his chest. Everyone else had logged out, leaving him utterly alone in the entire Newbie Village, with no logout button in sight!

“Aaaah!” Su Han roared in a frenzy. “This must be your doing, isn’t it?!”

“Bingo, correct answer! Your reward is—welcome to my world!” With that, Su Han’s consciousness gradually faded…

When Su Han awoke, his head throbbed violently, as if a hammer had repeatedly struck it, leaving it ringing. Not only was it aching, but it was also filled with a jumble of unfamiliar memories.

Su Han stood up and surveyed his surroundings, discovering a dilapidated village strewn with crumbling ruins.

The village’s first impression on Su Han was one of utter desolation, clearly having endured a great catastrophe. Black charcoal and scorched earth bore witness to a raging fire. Yet, as the saying goes, ‘Wildfire cannot burn them all; a spring breeze revives their growth.’ The ruined village was completely overgrown by tenacious wild grasses, making it appear abandoned for a very long time.

Su Han was filled with emotion. ‘It seems I’ve transmigrated?’ he mused. ‘Still, I’m quite looking forward to life in another world. I’ll rise to dominance and conquer this entire world! Hahahahaha!’ For now, however, he planned to leave this place.

The moment he stood up, Su Han realized that this body was not his own, but a girl’s!

“Eh??? How could this be…” Su Han’s eyes grew dim and lifeless, repeating the same phrase like a lost soul: “How could this be… how could this be…” He then erupted, “How is this possible!!! Why! Why have I turned into a girl?!”

A perfectly fine grown man, now having lost his ‘good brother’ who had been with him for so many years—this was truly… an act of utter depravity!

“Waaah! You thieving heavens, come out here!”

“My year-long wait is over, I was finally going to see Xinyan, but why have I become a woman?!”

“You old con artist system, get out here!” Su Han cried out in profound grief, his knees buckling to the ground, utterly drained of strength. The joy he had felt anticipating meeting his childhood sweetheart had been cruelly snatched away, leaving him utterly devastated.

“Why did this have to happen just when I was about to see her!!!” Su Han exclaimed, seething with indignation.

He had made a promise with his childhood sweetheart to meet tomorrow, and he had been so full of anticipation. Why had he inexplicably undergone a gender swap?!

“Could it be… could it really be that I… have to… become a girl… starting today?” Su Han silently closed the character panel.

Driven by curiosity about her female body, Su Han, with a sense of reverence, gazed at her delicate physique with pure eyes. Then, she gently removed her clothes…

“Since I can’t change back, should I just start living as a girl?” Su Han stroked her chin. “Being a girl was something the system forced on me, after all!”

After all… a girl’s body felt so soft, so incredibly soft, with such a strange and wonderful sensation!

“But… Xinyan…” Snapping out of her initial excitement, Su Han felt as if a basin of cold water had been thrown over her. She genuinely harbored feelings for her childhood sweetheart, and she wasn’t one to break promises. To miss such an important meeting felt like a betrayal.

“I must find a way to escape this world!” Su Han’s resolve hardened. Her goal: escape this world, leave this place, and return to her original world!

Although she yearned for life in another world, there was no place like home; her own ‘dog’s nest’ was best. And, most importantly, “I really miss Xinyan!”

“However, in my current state, I can’t get out at all. I’m utterly powerless against the Virtual Universe Company!” Indeed, against the Virtual Universe Company, Su Han was utterly defenseless.

The game “Othershore” was one of the enterprises under the Virtual Universe Company. The Virtual Universe Company was founded by the world’s wealthiest Ye Clan, who had invested immense sums to create it, possessing high-tech advancements centuries ahead of the rest of the world. Their ambitions had long outgrown Earth, and their vast influence now extended across the entire universe, with rumors of countless life-bearing planets in the Milky Way galaxy.

It was said that the virtual universe space created by the Virtual Universe Company could perfectly replicate the original universe, and the holographic online world of “Othershore” was part of this virtual universe space. This demonstrated the immense power of the Virtual Universe Company.

Although the immense weight of the Virtual Universe Company pressed down on Su Han, leaving her breathless, she remained firm in her belief: “I must escape from here!”

“Xinyan, you must wait for me! Perhaps it will be one year, two years, or even three. Even if you no longer wait for me, I hope you will remember me. Just remember me years from now, and that will be enough!”

Calming her emotions, Su Han began to formulate a plan for escaping this world. “First, the initial step I need to take is to understand this world!” She clenched her fist. “Only by knowing yourself and your enemy can you emerge victorious in every battle!”

For now, the priority was to gather as much information about this world as possible, striving to find anything that could be helpful.

“Since I can’t return anytime soon, I’ll first grow stronger in this world!”

Out of necessity, with Su Han’s current strength, returning seemed utterly impossible. Could it be that she needed to stand at the continent’s peak before she could tear through the universe and cross back?

Su Han first checked the map in her inventory, learning that she was currently on the outskirts of the Darkmoon Forest. Beyond the Darkmoon Forest lay the Human Empire, Lucybria! She naturally intended to head to human settlements first to gather information, as wandering alone in a forest teeming with magical beasts felt incredibly out of place.

The Darkmoon Forest spanned an immense area, a vast primeval forest with complex terrain, including wetlands, swamps, and cliffs. Legends spoke of magical beasts millions of years old residing within. Any mercenary group, given sufficient strength and luck, could find high-quality magic cores there. The Darkmoon Forest was renowned throughout the entire Aelthas Continent, home to nearly all races of magical beasts. Its outer regions harbored weaker beasts, but the deeper one ventured, the closer to the forest’s center, the more powerful the magical beasts became.

The Darkmoon Forest was indeed a lucrative place! Su Han salivated, already envisioning herself exchanging a sack full of magic cores for two sacks of gold coins.

In the Darkmoon Forest, various mercenary groups, large and small, would undertake quests from the Mercenary Guild to hunt magical beasts in teams, earning rewards upon success. Alternatively, they would form parties to hunt magical beasts in the Darkmoon Forest, obtaining magic cores to trade for gold. Besides magic cores, the hides, fangs, claws, sinews, and even venom of magical beasts were all valuable. High-level demon beasts were practically treasures from head to toe. The magic cores of high-tier magical beasts could even fetch exorbitant prices at auctions.

Therefore, to acquire wealth, one inevitably had to make a trip to the Darkmoon Forest. Of course, if one lacked sufficient strength, entering would only lead to death. In this world where the strong preyed on the weak, might made right! It was precisely for this reason that fearless mercenaries often ventured into the Darkmoon Forest, aiming for high-level magical beasts. However, only a powerful minority ever reaped the benefits. Many weaker individuals underestimated the intelligence and strength of magical beasts, failing to achieve their desires and instead becoming delicious meals for the beasts.

For a novice mage to foolishly attempt to hunt magical beasts deep within the Darkmoon Forest was akin to a lamb entering a tiger’s den, simply offering itself as free food to the beasts. So, if you lack strength, it’s better to honestly wait for death than to go there. Such are the rules of survival in this world!

After understanding the general situation of her surroundings, Su Han calmed herself and tried to use her mental sense to perceive the ring on her neck. Like a storage ring from a fantasy novel, it contained many items. Among them was a divine-grade mech. As her thoughts stirred, detailed information imprinted itself in her mind—the Asura God Mech!

[Equipment Details: Bound. Usage Level Restriction: Level 1. Durability: 100 Description: The legendary mech of the Asura God of the Demon Realm. Trait: Enchantment. Other information: Unknown.]

As Su Han’s consciousness observed, a crimson mech appeared in her mind’s eye. It was entirely scarlet, so red it seemed to drip with fresh blood.

The Asura God was a mech that shimmered with a blood-red luster all over its body, standing over twenty meters tall with shoulders more than eight meters wide. Its overall form was slender, and its shoulder armor was divided into three layers: the first was the broadest, with its tail end curving upwards; the middle layer was smooth and slightly shorter than the first; the lowest layer of shoulder armor was slightly recessed, clinging closely to the sides of its mechanical arms.

Unlike the typical metallic texture of most mechs, its primary body resembled an artwork sculpted from rubies, the most beautiful shade of blood-red. At some of its sharp edges, faint black electrical currents flickered across the mech’s body. In the sky, an anomaly appeared: a vast sea of blood. The mech radiated a magnificent glow from its entire form.

The Asura God Mech stood there in mid-air, emitting a pungent, bloody odor, accompanied by an endless aura of slaughter and a dense scent of death.

Su Han regarded the mech before her without excessive surprise, instead thinking: ‘This is my strongest trump card, but unfortunately, I can’t use it yet, so I’ll have to temporarily ignore it. Once I gain strength, it will be a powerful life-saving asset!’

“To leave this place, the first thing I need to do isn’t to grow stronger, but to survive. Only by surviving can I gather as much information as possible!” she thought. “On the foundation of survival, the next step is to grow stronger! Only by growing stronger can I thoroughly understand this world and delve deeper into its mysteries!”

Su Han remembered playing the closed beta for about a week. Although the game and this world weren’t identical, their worldviews were largely consistent. Back then, he had barely managed to level his mage to the Archmage rank, only to be utterly crushed by another beta player. Indeed, that player had only been using an advanced mech at the time. Since then, Su Han had realized that Mech Pilots were the most powerful profession.

The Mech Pilot system was the most formidable among all systems. Only a very small number of humans could become Mech Pilots, but even becoming one was useless without a mech. For example, if you were an Emperor-grade Mech Pilot without a mech, you would still be utterly defeated by a novice mech; if you were an Emperor-grade Mech Pilot but only possessed a novice mech, then no matter how high your Mech Pilot rank, your actual combat strength would at best be that of an intermediate Mech Pilot.

Conversely, a novice Mech Pilot with an Emperor-grade mech could briefly soar into the ranks of advanced Mech Pilots, demonstrating the immense importance of a mech. However, the materials for manufacturing mechs were not only rare but also incredibly expensive, meaning very few could afford to buy or build them. This contributed to the scarcity of individuals in the Mech Pilot system. Of course, the most crucial factor was talent; only a select few with powerful innate talent could operate mechs, otherwise, having a mech would be utterly useless.

Therefore, Mech Pilots were difficult to train, mechs were hard to build, and the Mech Pilot cultivation system had a sparse number of practitioners. While the Mech Pilot system was small in number, its members were exceptionally powerful, which was why it stood as the foremost among the four main systems.

However, mechs were of no immediate use to Su Han, so she temporarily set aside the Asura God Mech and proceeded to check her profession and attributes.

[Nickname: Izaros Gender: Female Current Profession: Mage. Rank: Mage Apprentice. Main Profession (Sealed): Divine Mech Pilot, unlocks at Tenth-Tier Bloodline. Sub-Profession: Legendary Sword Saint (Unlock Level: Knight Tier reaches Heaven Tier). Special Profession: Pupil Technique Practitioner (Currently sealed, requires initial bloodline activation.) Race: Destructive Dragon Species, Dragon Girl: (Busty state will transform into a flat-chested loli when magic power is depleted. At this point, magic can only be restored through kissing or physical contact!)]

[Attribute: Copy (Can replicate the opponent’s attributes for a short period.)]

“Wait, I accepted turning into a Dragon Girl, but what the hell is this ‘transforming into a loli when magic is depleted’ thing?! And ‘only restored through kissing or physical contact’?! Goddammit!!!” Perhaps because her bloodline hadn’t been activated yet, she didn’t have dragon horns on her head? Su Han touched her scalp. “Good, good~”

“But, what’s infuriating is that my main profession is sealed! I have to reach a certain realm to unseal it!” Su Han sighed helplessly. “It looks like I’ll have to go to the Darkmoon Forest to grind levels. Might as well make a trip to Lucybria while I’m at it!”