Huai Xu — it refers to the summer season, and also serves as another name for the fourth month of the lunar calendar.
Chu Huaixu was born on the first day of the fourth lunar month, hence the name.
Right now, he was playing a game called Borrowed Sword.
The year was 2045.As a member of the new generation born after 2020, living in an age of rapid technological progress, all he needed to do was stick the wired patch onto his temple, close his eyes, and he would instantly be immersed in an incredibly realistic game world.
By now, the "world-hopping" genre of web novels had gone out of style—because, well, "world-hopping" wasn't that rare anymore.
For most people, this kind of game was practically the same thing as crossing into another world.
Of course, while real life had laws to restrict people's behavior, different games had their own sets of rules that restricted player actions.
And in some highly open-world games, you could even marry and have children with NPCs or other players—every single step of the process fully simulated.
Because of this, as the gaming era advanced to such a level, the "companion player" industry began to change in nature.
After all, in the early days, "game companions" were just people who played with you online—chatting over voice, maybe some light flirting at most.
Even if it got a little suggestive, it was just some teasing or heavy breathing through the mic.
Anything more had to be done offline.
But by 2045, games were so realistic that players truly felt like they were there.If it was a high-freedom world projection, "companionship" started to look a lot like male or female models doing their jobs in person.
Or rather—it was kind of like "local guides" from years ago.
Except now, instead of accompanying you on a trip to another city, they accompanied you in a game world.
And Chu Huaixu?He was one of the best—an excellent "model bro"—no, correction—a game companion!
He moved through the circles of rich female clients, earning all five-star reviews.Sometimes he even got "soft meals through hard effort." That took skill.
Luckily, he used his abilities for work—sticking to the right path as a diligent "model."If he used them in real life, he'd definitely be a heartbreaker.
At this moment, he was actually just bored and wanted to test his luck by creating a new account in Borrowed Sword.
The game Borrowed Sword borrowed its inspiration from major gambling companies' "blind box" sales model—creating new accounts also had that element of randomness.
Each new account had to be purchased.
After creating an account, your starting scenario—where you spawned, what beginner village you got, what your early missions were—all completely random.
Although the developers had done a good job balancing the starts so that none were overpowered, players still had preferences.
Plus, since the game had been out for five years, veteran players had figured out which openings were more desirable.
In fact, for some well-funded gaming guilds, instead of gambling on a blind box start, it was better to buy a ready-made new account with a good opening for strategic reasons.
As a result, some lucky new accounts could be resold for profit—and account creation became quite popular.
Chu Huaixu had a habit: every month at the beginning, he would create three new accounts.
And his luck was always pretty good. He even made a small side income from it.
More importantly, he had a stable client base—female management-level players from guilds.They were his best customers.One of them even treated him like her treasure and paid well above market prices.
So today's new account might sell for a good price.
Because right after spawning, he'd already been attacked by a bearded man and found a large-denomination silver note on his character—obvious signs of a main storyline character.
"The main questline starts clearly and strong. Guilds love these kinds of accounts," Chu Huaixu thought confidently.
But unexpectedly, something was wrong today.
—He couldn't log out!
"That's impossible," Chu Huaixu muttered, completely baffled.
He'd been playing Borrowed Sword for a long time—he knew exactly how stable it was.
It was an excellent game in every respect, with a top-tier reputation and amazing player experience.
How good?Even the developer's mom was still "alive" in players' hearts.
Unlike other games, where even ten moms wouldn't be enough to curse out the dev team.
This was the first time Chu Huaixu had run into such a serious problem—he couldn't log out.
And it wasn't just that.Many of the game's functions suddenly didn't work.
Even some basic ones.
For example, he couldn't play music while gaming anymore.
"Well, at least the [Brightness Adjustment] still works," he noted.
Earlier, when he'd swiped two fingers upward, the world had gotten brighter—he'd used that function.
"But how the hell is [Pain Sensitivity Adjustment] gone?" Chu Huaixu was speechless.
He pinched himself hard——and yelped in pain.
"What the—!? This is 100% real pain!" He froze in disbelief.
In Borrowed Sword, even the highest pain setting was capped at 8%.
Most players kept it much lower. Only a few… "special taste" players turned it up to fulfill their strange desires.
Many set it almost to zero.
And since Borrowed Sword allowed you to do literally anything—even marry and have kids—some people actually role-played pregnancy without pain.
So the mythical "painless childbirth" was completely achievable here.
"But this pain... is seriously messed up," Chu Huaixu frowned.
The game's maximum pain setting was only 8%.This made no sense.
He looked down at the corpse of the bearded man and shivered.
"So if I'd gotten hit earlier... that pain would've blown my mind!?"
"If this bug spreads, how many players would rage-quit?" He could already imagine the disaster.
He checked all his game functions one by one—and found almost none were working.
Even his AI assistant was unreachable.
And that AI assistant?He'd trained it for months until it perfectly matched his preferences.
What was even weirder—he could still check the time.And he knew the in-game year of Borrowed Sword's timeline should've been Mystic Calendar 1997.
But now, it showed Mystic Calendar 1990!
"What the hell is this crap!?"
"Did the game just crash or something!?"
The rain poured endlessly.Holding the oiled-paper umbrella, Chu Huaixu stood on the forest path, feeling that something was seriously off.
He was, after all, a well-read man—he'd seen countless novels, anime, and films.
"Wait a second… did I just transmigrate into Borrowed Sword!?"
He quickly opened his Character Panel to check his profile.
And there, in the character info section, he noticed something strange.
His Template wasn't labeled [Player]——it said [NPC]!
At that moment, Chu Huaixu's world collapsed.
"Damn it! After all that effort pleasing rich ladies, after working so hard as a male model, after becoming the #2 ranked must-have companion in Borrowed Sword, I haven't even spent my savings yet!"
"I even had a session booked tonight with Sister Yun!"
"That woman—married but practically single, a mature lady with a sultry voice—messaged me late last night to book me for tonight! She was definitely planning to extend the session!"
Chu Huaixu hung his head."F*ck!"
The night rain kept falling.Under the umbrella, his irritation grew stronger.
He walked over to the bearded man's corpse, crouched down—
—and slapped him across the face.
(PS: New book launched — please vote for me!)
(End of Chapter)