PGVCW 1
Playing God in Various Catastrophic Worlds - Chapter 1
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Chapter 1: Playing God
Under a hazy, gray sky, a circular building hovered mid-air. If one looked closely, a black plaque with golden trim could be seen hanging from it, bearing six large characters: Ability Research Institute.
“Transmigrated?”
“And you didn’t just transmigrate to one world? They were all worlds undergoing catastrophes?”
“You set everything up, including the operation of the worlds, but it has to be something that both you and others can believe in for the setting to become real, right? Got it, noted down.”
“Reborn… um… is this rebirth like the kind in the novel After Getting the God of War System, I Slaughtered All the Mutants?”
Xia Wang’an nodded: “Yes, I also have a system, but unlike Zhao Tiezhu’s, which fell from the sky, my system was set up by myself.”
—Zhao Tiezhu was precisely the protagonist of After Getting the God of War System, I Slaughtered All the Mutants.
“I see.” The staff member wearing a hat in charge of Xia Wang’an also nodded, quickly adding “Companion System (Setting Creation)” to the file.
Afterward, he checked for typos, copied the manuscript content recorded on his optical brain, and projected it to Xia Wang’an:
“Let me sort this out for you: your name is Xia Wang’an, your biological age is sixteen, and you are a returnee from rebirth. You transmigrated at the age of sixteen just before the college entrance examinations, and you crossed into other catastrophic worlds. For the past ten years, you’ve been shuttling through catastrophic worlds, eventually becoming the strongest being in those worlds. Then you died, and after dying, you were reborn. Finding yourself reborn and very happy about it, you came to the state to confess your identity, with the purpose of saving the world, because in your past life, our world was destroyed.”
The staff member delivered this powerfully and in one breath, then looked back at Xia Wang’an: “Take a look and see if the sequence is correct?”
Xia Wang’an glanced at the side of his neck, nodding earnestly: “Pretty much like that.”
Outside the room where the two were located, two staff members separated by a glass partition, who were responsible for finalizing the handwritten records, were completely bewildered the entire time.
Staff member: “……Is it only me who thinks this is a shocking major event?”
The staff member squatted down in a daze: “You are not alone.”
He picked up the recording pen that had slipped from his hand long ago due to excessive shock, and slowly rose back up: “The two of them are so calm that it makes me feel like I’m the one reacting incorrectly.”
“Shouldn’t we report this upward?”
“Logically speaking, we only have collaborative recording permissions; the reporting permission rests with Team Leader Lin.”
With that, he looked back into the room.
In his ear, the stealth headset was transmitting the voice of their dear team leader: “So we need to add a prophetic event, right?”
“It should probably count as a prophecy.” The girl named Xia Wang’an also looked very calm: “Anyway, it’s on one of the days this month—mutants will invade the Western China border, causing massive casualties.”
The two outside who heard the prophecy of the mutant invasion: !!!
A mutant invasion could definitely be classified as a level-one emergency.
“Alright, a mutant invasion. May I ask which specific day?” Team Leader Lin, however, still asked calmly and in accordance with standard procedures, his tone not shifting by even a single pitch.
Xia Wang’an didn’t feel anything was amiss at all.
She hadn’t seen a living person for about three years; Team Leader Lin’s attitude actually made her feel comfortable.
However, she truly couldn’t remember the exact time. Xia Wang’an had experienced mutant invasions far too many times over the past ten years, and had witnessed certain catastrophic worlds perish in mutant invasions more than once, making her long numb to it.
“I only remember it’s this month, because I’m going to the first catastrophic world on the first of next month.”
“Alright, it has been recorded. Please look through it again. If there are no issues, sign your name on the last page. That will conclude our Dialogue and Inquiry. Please rate my service—one point is the lowest, five points is the highest.”
Rating options immediately popped up on Xia Wang’s optical brain.
A rating system—she hadn’t seen one in ten years. How wonderful.
The long-haired girl clicked [5 Points] rather excitedly, a look of expectation on her face: “Can I write a good review for you as well?”
Team Leader Lin, whose expressions and movements had consistently stayed on a parallel line, brightened up. For the first time, he experienced emotional fluctuation; his entire face became vivid, the corners of his mouth curving upward like a cat begging for food:
“Yes, dear. Thank you for the positive review, dear-dear.”
The two outside: “……”
Xia Wang’an, who had just been reborn with the goal of saving the world, clearly valued this opportunity to write a positive review and immediately buried her head to write it earnestly.
The two outside once again: “……”
“……Let’s just report this ourselves.”
A military officer stepped in military boots, walking hurriedly down the long corridor of the Ability Research Institute. She had just rushed back from the mutant battlefield, and her boots still carried a layer of foul, un-dried blood, though this was clearly not the time to care about such things.
With a wave of her hand, a large troop of soldiers immediately marched back and forth in neat steps.
The soldiers had a clear division of labor: some stood guard, some hoisted weapons, and others knocked on doors one by one.
“Hello, General Intelligence Bureau. Please cooperate.”
The staff inside the rooms voiced their confusion: “What’s wrong? What happened??”
“Please cooperate, classified matter.”
The military officer ignored the controlled research institute staff behind her and headed straight to the end of the corridor, pushing open the heavy door labeled [Director’s Office].
“Don’t you know what kind of situation Lin柯 (Lin Ke) is in? How could you dare make him a recording team leader?! Such a major matter, he almost let it slip right past!!”
From the inner room came the director’s scolding, along with the deputy director’s stammering explanation:
“He has strong combat power… I figured having him conduct the inquiries would allow him to maintain control if any special situations arose…”
“Now there is a special situation! But what about him? He just righteous-indignantly told me not to worry, saying it was your idea! At our Ability Research Institute, any special situation is completely normal!”
The director was having a complete mental breakdown: “He still thinks a little girl transmigrating, getting reborn, and changing world settings is normal to this day!!”
The deputy director’s tone visibly weakened and faltered: “I—well… what I meant at the time was, seeing ability awakeners who think a hair growing on their head means they’ve atavistically inherited bird bloodlines, those who think blowing bubbles means they’re fish, and ability awakeners who insist on stabbing themselves a few times just to see their wounds recover—those are relatively normal in our institute…”
The military officer knocked on the door, and the voices inside instantly cut off. Soon, the deputy director—who didn’t have many hairs left on his head—opened the door. Upon seeing her, he immediately straightened up and saluted her.
“Director Fan!”
The military officer nodded, signaling him to leave first before saying to the director: “Alright, Old Wang, now is not the time to lecture people. I’ve checked the surveillance; that recorder named Lin Ke also managed a blind cat catching a dead mouse.”
“According to Xia Wang’an’s self-narrative, she lived in various catastrophic parallel spaces for ten years, and her ability to judge normal and abnormal events is practically nonexistent. If the recorder had approached this on high alert, it would have only disrupted her. It was precisely because the recorder maintained a normal state of mind during the inquiry that we were able to gather the maximum amount of information in the shortest time.”
Upon hearing this, Director Wang’s attention immediately locked onto the phrase “lived alone in a different spacetime for ten years”:
“You’ve already confirmed that what Xia Wang’an said is true?”
Director Fan nodded, handing him a paper document: “We were supposed to hold a meeting today anyway. I hadn’t had time to notify you yet before you submitted the report.”
Director Wang hurriedly took the document, flipped through a few pages, and his lips trembled: “Time reversal??”
“Today at 12:31, the percipient [Qiming], who was eating lunch normally, suddenly couldn’t breathe and suffered a cardiac arrest. Normal vital signs only resumed after two hours of emergency treatment. As soon as he woke up, he triggered an alarm. The content of the alarm was that he [perceived] the collapse and destruction of the world, but at the very moment of destruction, time reversed. He doesn’t know the cause of the reversal.”
Director Fan looked calm, but her eyes carried deep gravity: “The reversal time given by [Qiming] is ten years. In other words, for us, the destruction ten years from now is not a future event, but a past that has already happened.”
“After [Qiming] triggered the alarm, we conducted inquiries targeting various ability awakeners in the shortest possible time, but no one remembered what happened in these ten years. Even [Qiming] himself only relied on his perceptual ability to capture that momentary change in the world, and he has no memories of these ten years. But now, Xia Wang’an has appeared.”
Director Wang’s heart beat fast. He slowly exhaled: “So, that little girl is likely the only person in this world who remembers that ten years of time have flowed past.”
“More than that.”
Director Fan projected a surveillance video labeled [September 3, 2338 Martyr Orphanage].
In a pool of blood, a small boy lay quietly. He slowly moved his fingers as if trying to crawl up, but ultimately could only slightly open his eyes, the light in his pupils gradually scattering.
Anyone with even a sliver of experience dealing with the dead could tell he was about to die.
Yet the next moment, soldiers pushed open the door.
The exact moment the door was pushed open, the wounds on the boy’s body suddenly and rapidly healed and vanished, his pale complexion flushing with color in an instant.
—The surveillance footage stopped right here.
Director Wang finished reading it earnestly: “I have an impression of this video. This was a mutant invasion that happened at an orphanage.”
He recalled: “At the time, this child was four years old. He hid a girl two years younger than him in a wardrobe and lured the mutants away himself. After being pierced through the throat by a mutant, he triggered the [self-healing] ability, healing the wounds on his body the moment the rescue personnel arrived.”
Director Fan asked him: “Did this boy ever exhibit the [self-healing] ability afterward?”
“We observed him for two years; normal falls and scrapes didn’t auto-heal, so we deduced it might only be usable when life hung by a thread. Such cases aren’t uncommon among ability awakeners, and since we couldn’t possibly harm the child just for testing, we had no choice but to terminate observation.”
Having answered, Director Wang asked in confusion: “Does he have anything to do with this matter?”
Director Fan: “The girl who was hidden in the wardrobe back then was Xia Wang’an. She was only two years old at the time.”
She switched to another surveillance video, also set in the kindergarten: “Look at this.”
—”There’s a child here!”
A soldier in a protective suit cautiously aimed his weapon around the room first, then opened a cupboard and discovered the little girl hiding inside, hurriedly lifting her out with care.
He said to his companion behind him:
“It’s a girl, uninjured.”
In the surveillance footage, a tiny young Xia Wang’an with two small braids was held in a soldier’s arms. She sniffled, raised her small hand to point toward the reading room door, her childish voice very firm:
“There’s still someone inside.”
“He’s not injured either.”
Immediately, a soldier cautiously pushed the door open, and a voice came from inside: “There’s a boy, uninjured, but he passed out.”
Another soldier asked strangely: “There are no wounds on this kid, why is his clothes covered in blood?”
—The screen went black.
Director Wang was completely stunned: “So, back then, the boy didn’t trigger the [self-healing] ability.”
“It was a two-year-old Xia Wang’an who used the [Setting] ability,” Director Fan spoke the words he hadn’t voiced. “She [set] it so that the boy was uninjured, and the rescue personnel believed her words. Therefore, the moment the rescue personnel opened the door, the boy changed into the state of [being uninjured].”
Director Wang blinked, suddenly recalling: “That’s not right—both children were tested back then. The boy indeed had ability fluctuations, but the girl had none.”
“That’s another issue,” Director Fan opened another test report for him to see. “Xia Wang’an still doesn’t register ability fluctuations now. We suspect that just as she can ignore the setting of [world barriers] to shuttle through various worlds, the detector’s setting for [detecting fluctuations] is also ineffective against her.”
“This child can truly change the world.”
With that, Director Fan checked the mechanical watch on her left wrist: “Time’s up.”
As soon as her voice fell, crisp children’s singing rang out in both of their earpieces:
“Little rabbit be good, open the door wide, open it quickly, I want to come in…”
Director Wang exhaled, unsure whether to be joyful or shocked: “Special-level event mobilization order…”
“I used to think I would only hear it at the moment of the world’s destruction.”
Director Fan: “But now, it rings to save the world.”
At the same time.
Beneath the gloomy sky, another military officer blasted away a roaring, lunging mutant with a single cannon shot, wiped away the staining blood on his face indifferently, and was about to press forward when the sound of a nursery rhyme suddenly echoed in his earpiece.
His figure stiffened, and his originally calm and indifferent pupils trembled slightly.
The adjutant jogged up from behind: “Sir, do we continue the advance?”
The military officer looked ahead. A batch of small carrion-eating mutants flew across the barren land, emitting harsh, hoarse sounds. Everywhere was ruins and dead silence, completely bearing no resemblance to a place that had once been a human home.
“All units listen! Fall back to your original positions!”
—In the Central China District, an important meeting was underway. The elderly person sitting at the top was speaking when their movement suddenly paused.
“Meeting suspended. Other matters will be discussed another time.”
The others were extremely confused, wanting to ask the reason, but could only watch the elder’s retreating figure leave in a hurry with a solemn expression.
Accompanying him were several meeting attendees of relatively high rank and status.
—On a car heading toward East China, a white-haired elderly woman signed document after document.
“Chief, the special-level event mobilization order has already been issued.”
Someone beside her reported: “The Ability Research Institute has also dispatched troops for protection, and all districts have entered level-one alert status.”
“Good.” The elder paused her pen for a moment, massaged the bridge of her nose, and asked: “What about the Western China border?”
“People have already been sent. There will absolutely be no problem.”
Hearing her subordinate’s affirmative tone, a trace of relief surfaced in the elder’s brows: “Is [Taibai] the one who went?”
“Yes, [Taibai] has already reached the Western China border. She is our country’s only level-nine ability awakener. With her there, you can rest easy.”
—At the Western China border, a woman dressed in Tai Chi attire sat on the roof of a car. She was in her early thirties, wore a pure white mask, her hair held up by a hairpin, and a tile reading [Fa / Law] hung from her waist.
A voice came through the earpiece: “Boss, why’d you run all the way to the Western China border?”
“On a mission.”
“What mission? How long are you staying?”
“Clear out mutants. Don’t know.”
“Boss, aren’t you usually very precise at calculating mission times?”
The woman looked out at the quiet, barren land ahead: “I mean, I don’t know when the mutants are coming.”
On the other end of the earpiece: “……Ah???”
The woman urged: “Hurry up.”
“Coming, coming, I’ll play Eight of Bamboos.”
The image projected from the roof of the car was precisely a mahjong table.
As an [Eight of Bamboos] tile was discarded, the woman’s eyes lit up, and she immediately clicked the screen to operate: “Pong!”
In the earpiece, the crisp nursery rhyme continued to play Little Rabbit Be Good:
“……Not opening, not opening, I won’t open it, mommy hasn’t come back, I won’t open for anyone……”
Ahead of her lay the silent, barren land carrying a strong, scorched stench where a mutant invasion could erupt at any second.
Behind her stood the drab, rather unappealing small apartment blocks where residents—either just getting off work or preparing to go to work—were busy bustling about.
She wasn’t sure if the mutants would come, nor was she sure if the prophecy would come true, and even less sure whether these residents knew how to play mahjong or how good their skills were.
But she would keep watch along this border line, without moving a single step.
The state believed in her, and Xia Wang’an was very happy, the corners of her mouth curling up slightly.
Director Wang, watching this scene through the glass, let out a sigh of relief and instructed a white-haired person who had just put on their work uniform beside him: “She seems in a good mood; the conversation should go smoothly.”
“This operation’s code name has been set as Operation [Salvation]. In other words, the person inside is the savior. You must follow her lead when you go in, understand?”
“Understood.” The new recorder straightened his clothes—this was also part of his experience; clean attire made the other party feel valued.
“The Chief is on the way here. Until then, it’s all up to you.” The director was still somewhat uneasy.
He instructed in fragments: “Remember, satisfy all her requests. Xia Wang’an has lived in other worlds for ten years, and her mental state is currently uncertain. Even if it sounds bizarre, just think in your heart that she is the savior, and she can have whatever she wants. The moment she asks, trigger the emergency call immediately, and someone will instantly take action to bring whatever she wants.”
“Rest assured, I’ve been a recorder for thirty years; what kind of scenes haven’t I seen.” The new recorder was full of confidence: “No matter what request she makes, I will only agree to it without changing my expression.”
He straightened his body, gave a military salute, forced himself into a relaxed state, and only then pushed open the door and walked in.
“Hello, I am…”
He first stated his identity, then explained the state’s level of importance attached to Xia Wang’an, chattering on at length, while Xia Wang’an’s focus remained solely on the very last sentence.
—”Can all requests be granted?”
The girl’s eyes lit up.
She looked quite expectant. The new recorder felt a weight lift from his heart; for this kind of thing, you don’t fear her having many requests, you fear her having none.
He expertly put on a calm and gentle smile on his face:
“Yes, you can have whatever you want.”
Whether it was a lavish feast to stuff oneself every day, a high-ranking military post, or those precious rare vegetables.
Even if Xia Wang’an said right now that she wanted a close-up look at a mutant, someone would sprint out of the base at a hundred-meter dash speed, break the legs and pull the teeth of some fierce mutant wandering outside, and drag it back for her to see.
The new recorder maintained a gentle and steady smile, looking toward Xia Wang’an. As a recorder of thirty years, he was already prepared to smile and agree to any request from the other party.
Xia Wang’an handed him a notebook with an expectant face: “I’ve already written it down.”
The new recorder took it with a smile, but froze the moment he saw the contents on it.
Xia Wang’an completely failed to notice his facial expression and continued talking: “During these ten years of transmigration, the thing I couldn’t stand the most was that every single world lacked them.”
“Especially since I was right with them before my transmigration. I was just touching them at the time, hadn’t even picked them up yet, when bang, I transmigrated.”
Xia Wang’an grew more mournful and indignant as she spoke: “Just a bit more—just that little bit more, and I would have had them in my hands. You know how important they are.”
The new recorder: “……That, that is indeed very regrettable.”
“Right?” Having found agreement, Xia Wang’an grew happy, the corners of her mouth curling up even higher: “Every single day of these ten years, I’ve been missing them.”
She urged: “Can you hurry up? I can’t wait anymore.”
The new recorder: “……Alright, I’ll arrange it immediately.”
He tapped his stealth headset: “Emergency call, emergency call.”
“The savior wants test papers. Repeat, the savior wants test papers.”
“Please immediately arrange a set of Five Years of College Entrance Examination, Three Years of Simulation to be urgently delivered to the special-level confidential room. Repeat, please immediately arrange a set of Five Years of College Entrance Examination, Three Years of Simulation……”
Translator’s Note:
Hey everyone! AkKNovel translated this novel almost a year ago, but there are only 4 chapters listed on NovelUpdates, so I’m officially picking it up right now. I translate as I read. Have fun!
This is a donttellmewhattodo translation. Welcome to my corner of the internet.
— Siofra
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