PGVCW 2

 

Playing God in Various Catastrophic Worlds Chapter 2

By

siofra

Chapter 2: The Test Papers

Xia Wang’an got her pile of test papers just as she wished.

She affectionately and gently stroked each sheet of paper and each book of past exam questions, feeling as though her entire body was immersed in an ocean of happiness.

In the Great Xia, resources like water and food were severely depleted, but mutated plants that could be used to make paper were a dime a dozen, meaning students in Great Xia were never short of test papers no matter what else they lacked.

For Great Xia students, whether in peaceful times or the catastrophic era, the college entrance examination was a matter of utmost importance. After all, the knowledge tested in the college entrance exam during the catastrophic era could genuinely save lives; naturally, jobs in the catastrophic era also heavily relied on this knowledge.

Xia Wang’an in her past life had studied diligently, burying herself in books and maintaining her rank as the top student in her grade all the way. Every morning during morning self-study, she would receive a loving mutated potato sent by her head teacher.

Typically at times like those, amidst the envious gazes of her classmates, Xia Wang’an would furiously scribble away at test papers while munching on that hard, pitch-black potato.

She was full of confidence regarding the college entrance examination, certain that she would secure an excellent score.

To ensure absolute safety, Xia Wang’an did test papers in the morning, test papers at noon, and test papers at night. Everything was fully prepared; all that was left was the college entrance exam.

Then, she transmigrated one month before the exam.

[Do you have any idea how huge of a blow this was to me?]

[How is this any different from eating without a bowl, taking a bath without water, or sleeping without a bed?!]

Clutching her test papers, Xia Wang’an was moved almost to tears: [Thirty-one worlds, I went to thirty-one worlds over these past ten years, and not a single world had test papers or college entrance exams!!]

A voice sounded inside her head: [Host, you have already told me this sentence one thousand and fifty-one times.]

Xia Wang’an was stunned: [Eh, is it that many times? I just want to express that the people in those worlds don’t value youth education nearly enough! I am condemning them from a standpoint of moral high ground!]

The voice in her head sounded quite helpless: [This sentence has been said one thousand three hundred and sixty-two times.]

Xia Wang’an began to reflect on herself: [007, did I perhaps set up your memory functions a bit too well back then?]

Indeed, just as she had told the recorder earlier, Xia Wang’an had a system, and it was one she had designed herself.

You must remember, when she first transmigrated in her past life, she was only sixteen years old. In Great Xia, she was considered a minor—the kind of age where, should danger occur, she would be placed in the first tier for protection and evacuation.

The most frequent worries Xia Wang’an had back then amounted to nothing more than “the grade’s second-rank student in the next class is only three points away from catching up to me” or “why does After Getting the God of War System, I Slaughtered All the Mutants have such low update volumes”.

Convinced that she was an ordinary high school student with a mild case of adolescent delusions of grandeur, the sixteen-year-old girl was completely dumbfounded the moment she transmigrated.

Bad news: She transmigrated without a cheat.

Good news: She could create her own cheat.

Once she figured out what her ability was, the very first thing Xia Wang’an did was [set up] the system 007.

007 was an all-functional system. It could record maps, organize the various [personas] Xia Wang’an used, calculate [Faith Power], scout the surroundings, and moonlight in services like singing, chatting, and waking up the host.

It could truly be called a multi-purpose system with a 100% cost-performance ratio.

The chuunibyou teenage girl Xia Wang’an forged ahead triumphantly, hacking and slashing her way through various catastrophic worlds. In just ten years, she became an existence approaching a demigod, and 007 definitely deserved a massive share of the credit.

007: [But host, I am free. There’s no such thing as a cost-performance ratio.]

Xia Wang’an: [It was my fault for not paying you a salary before. Now the opportunity has arrived, and I will compensate you right away. Here, this test paper is for you.]

007: [……]

It fell silent for a second, but ultimately obediently started doing test papers alongside Xia Wang’an.

When the Highest Chief arrived, she saw the long-haired girl sitting at the desk inside, earnestly working on test papers.

The scene looked very much like that heartwarming scenario where parents push open a door to find their child studying.

It would probably be even more heartwarming if Xia Wang’an weren’t doing one test paper on her left, another on her right, and a third right in the middle, tackling this one right after finishing that one.

Seeing the Chief look over, Director Fan on the side explained: “She’s doing two papers herself, and the third one is for the system. The system doesn’t have hands, so she’s writing it on its behalf.”

The Chief: “……She’s a child who loves to study.”

“I’ll go in and talk with her.”

In reality, whether she talked or not would not affect the upcoming plan, but the Chief stepping forward at least demonstrated the high importance she attached to Xia Wang’an.

The world’s destruction in ten years was already a confirmed fact; right now, the single glimmer of survival for Great Xia lay before them. Xia Wang’an was currently the sole hope of the entire world. Forget merely meeting in person—at this moment, even if the Chief were asked to lay down her life, she would gladly do so.

Had Xia Wang’an known this, she likely would have replied: What on earth would I want with your life?

Of course, she didn’t know, so she merely looked with mild curiosity several times at the Chief—whom she had previously only ever seen on the news—before beginning to explain her own plan.

If Xia Wang’an wanted to save the world, she obviously couldn’t just talk empty words.

She had a concrete plan.

“The plan is like this: the more Faith Power I collect, the stronger my ability becomes. Therefore, at the start, my abilities are very weak.”

Xia Wang’an thought for a moment: “Have you ever played video games?”

Standing in the back and responsible for recording, one of the young recorders looked left and right. Seeing no one else had played, he raised his hand: “I’ve played Beast Battlefield.”

Xia Wang’an’s eyes lit up: “Yes, exactly that game! My ability is just like Kriez in Beast Battlefield. In the early stages, it’s so weak that a stray bit of gunfire can take it out, but as long as you survive and grind to the late game, you’re basically in an invincible state.”

She pointed at herself: “I am equivalent to Kriez.”

Xia Wang’an felt she had made a stellar analogy and sat up straight with a trace of smug pride: “Not gonna lie, I think Kriez and I are alike in every possible aspect. Maybe this is what you call fate.”

The recorder looked at the girl—still wearing a strawberry-red polka-dot nightgown, with flowing long hair, a quiet demeanor, and a pretty yet slightly childish face—and then recalled Kriez: a green-faced, fanged, glowing-red-eyed supreme boss who always appeared in a state of absolute madness, roaring maniacally while scooping up and hurling anything within arm’s reach.

He: “……”

After repeating she is the savior, she is the savior in his head multiple times, the recorder put on a standard smile and chimed in: “Indeed, what a remarkable coincidence!”

Finding her views validated, Xia Wang’an was naturally pleased and continued: “My ability upgrades require other people to believe in my settings. The more people who believe in me, the stronger my power becomes. I call this kind of belief ‘Faith Power’.”

“When enough people believe in me, I can change all settings. For instance, I once transformed an ordinary world into a magical world.”

“However, in the early stage when I am weak, there is very little I can do. Without any initial abilities, it’s very hard for me to sustain certain settings. For example, in a certain catastrophic world, if I set myself up as having a healing superpower, I have to actually heal a few people first before those people will truly believe it.”

“If my Faith Power is sufficient, not only can I transmigrate myself, but I can also bring items and other people across with me.”

“Therefore, I need the state’s help to act as my backing, allowing me to utilize multiple personas in a short period to gather Faith Power, grow strong at the fastest speed, and change the operating parameters of this world before it gets destroyed.”

The young recorder nodded repeatedly as he listened, thinking the plan sounded remarkably solid.

The Chief, however, mused for a few seconds before fixing her gaze—frail with age yet resolute and kind—on the young girl sitting across from her:

“Wang’an, you mentioned in your initial record that your ability doesn’t just require others to believe it in order to function; most importantly, you yourself must firmly and unwaveringly believe in these settings.”

“Over the course of ten years, how many identities have you set for yourself?”

Xia Wang’an was taken aback.

Meanwhile, 007 was already broadcasting in standard Mandarin inside her head: [As of now, the host has set 1,098 identities for herself.]

It even sounded a bit proud: [The host herself couldn’t keep track, so she relies entirely on me to help remember!]

The elder wore casual clothes. Rather than a monumental figure leading the destiny of an entire nation, she looked more like an ordinary grandmother facing a young, tender child.

“The ability report is already out. Your ability dictates that to deceive others, you must first deceive yourself. Every time you prepare a new identity for yourself, you need to genuinely believe you are truly that identity. These identities crowded inside your body act like distinct personalities. In the end, you might even lose track of who you are.”

It was akin to dissociative identity disorder in mental illness. If Xia Wang’an established multiple settings for her personas, then every single one of those settings was a genuine “Xia Wang’an,” all sharing a single body.

It was like a patient with schizophrenia, yet far more severe than that.

The fact that she was still sitting here safe and sound, clear-headed and fluent in conversation, already felt like a miracle.

Xia Wang’an blinked, gripped her test papers tighter, and still maintained a cheerful expression: “There are certainly those risks, but I have the system helping me keep records, so it’s totally fine~”

007 chimed in inside her head with sweet flattery: [That’s right, I’ll always stay by the host’s side!]

The elder looked down at Xia Wang’an’s hands clutching the test papers, sighed inwardly, and said softly, “We won’t use this plan. The state will come up with a new one.”

A new plan that could save the world without requiring multiple personas, ensuring Xia Wang’an wouldn’t turn into a lunatic.

Xia Wang’an came to an understanding: “I get it. That’s fine too—if you push a single setting to its absolute peak, you can also harvest massive amounts of Faith Power.”

The elder smiled and nodded: “Let’s go discuss what setting to use. You get some rest, and just tell them whatever you need.”

She walked out and glanced back, seeing that Xia Wang’an had already resumed working on her test papers. Her pen never stopped moving, and a happy smile consistently hung on her face.

As the door closed, Director Wang asked, “Chief, why didn’t you ask classmate Wang’an what caused the world’s destruction?”

“She doesn’t know the answer.” The elder shook her head: “She talked about the destruction of many worlds just now, but she never mentioned this world’s destruction.”

“Did you forget what was written in the record? Although she can freely shuttle between various worlds, she needs to anchor coordinates.”

Director Wang had a sudden realization: “You mean, classmate Wang’an didn’t anchor this world’s coordinates in her past life?”

The elder nodded: “When she was passively dragged into the first world in her past life, she wasn’t even clear on her own abilities yet—how could she possibly have marked any coordinates? I suspect she got lost right from the very beginning.”

Director Wang nodded: “She’s also a pitiful child. Rest assured, although the [Salvation] plan hasn’t officially launched yet, we’ve already mobilized a massive amount of troops to ensure classmate Wang’an is thoroughly protected.”

Just as he was speaking, Director Fan walked over, handing her a paper document with a solemn expression: “Classmate Xia Wang’an’s psychological evaluation results are out.”

Mental evaluations were a mandatory component of annual physical examinations for all Great Xia citizens. Following the onset of the Great Cataclysm era, people not only had to face barren lands, the eternal absence of sunlight, shortages of food and water, and the threat of mutants, but they also had to monitor mental pollution.

There were many causes of mental pollution; the majority came from being tainted by mutants after battle, while a small portion originated from self-induced contamination. Individuals suffering from mental pollution would grow irritable and chaotic, with combat power spiking alongside their pollution values. Even if temporarily pacified, they easily went berserk, harming others and themselves.

In fact, during a certain year, the strongest combat asset of a small base became polluted, slaughtered everyone in the base, and then committed suicide.

Even though he was already dead, the instrument used to measure mental pollution at the time still spiked off the charts to 981.

Following this major incident, the state stopped concentrating all its resources solely on military infrastructure, carving out a portion to fund entertainment facilities, novels, audiovisual media, and games, striving to maximize spiritual happiness for citizens and minimize the probability of psychological pollution.

Generally, as long as a score did not exceed 100 points, the mental state was considered normal.

Exceeding 100 but staying under 200 required consultation with a psychologist.

Exceeding 200 entered a slightly dangerous state.

Exceeding 300 meant a risk of going berserk at any moment, requiring assistance from an ability user with [Pacification] abilities to alleviate it.

If it exceeded 500, it reached the baseline pollution level of a mutant, with a high probability of mutating into a mutant itself; at that stage, [Pacification] would no longer have much effect.

The highest recorded mental pollution score in history belonged to an ability user whose power was [Synesthesia]. His ability could interfere with mutants, but he was also extremely susceptible to mental pollution. During a battle, this ability user lost control, and with a mental pollution score as high as 3,000, he slaughtered nearly all living things in sight.

Sixteen-year-old Xia Wang’an had undergone a mental evaluation just last month, scoring a very healthy 60 points.

Yet now, her psychological evaluation report was stamped in blood-red letters: Super-Hazard Class!!!

5,124 points.

Director Wang—who had just sworn an oath to protect Xia Wang’an—sat frozen: “……”

To put it simply, given Xia Wang’an’s current pollution value, she could rip a mutant apart with her bare hands and stomp Kriez underfoot.

If she felt like it, she could even forcefully grab Kriez’s green, tiny-fanged giant palm and drink wine together in jovial celebration without a single issue.

Yet… yet how could this be possible? 5,124 points! And she was still able to maintain normal communication without losing her mind!

Director Wang couldn’t help turning his head back, only to see the long-haired girl happily working on her test papers. Noticing his gaze, she looked up, blinked a pair of clear eyes, and then curved her eyes into a sweet smile.