I have so many things to blog about regarding my vacation, but one thing that was really memorable for me was this one take off we had at the airport. I experienced probably some of the worst turbulence on this trip and on couple of occasions I straight up thought I was gonna die... first flight from vancouver to japan we were hit with such bad wind in narita that the pilot couldn’t fucking land TWICE and he’d be 200 ft off the ground and he’d like “nope!” and he’d fly back up into the sky. the plane was doing somersaults when we tried to touch the ground. I sharted but eventually we made it out alive. then when I flew back from japan to vancouver, it randomly started storming outside right before we were going to take off. so when we took off the plane was going bonkers and I could see how bad it looked outside and again, I thought I was going to die. once we hit ~10,000 feet the plane evened out and everything else was fine but ma’am? I was scurred. those were “memorable” but those were NOT the good core memories I wanted to remember, but one of the flights were. nobody gave a shit when I watched this, but a couple months back I watched “flight to you” which was a chinese drama that depicted the life of pilots and the career of flight. so there’s a scene where the main pilots would depart for a flight in the cockpit and the crew outside would be doing the final checks for the plane. they give them the clear to leave, and when they do they stand outside and wave goodbye to the plane and I know it’s protocol or something but there was something so sweet about that to me... so on one of my flights from japan to taiwan where I was sitting window I saw first hand the crew outside doing that. so when we left they all stood there and waved and I CRIED. I fucking teared up and all the memories of this drama flooded back, and it wasn’t even a sad show but I think it really gave me an insight into people who dedicate themselves to aviation. before we took off I listened to their soundtrack and I felt so emotional to be there, apart of this journey with these people who have probably been flying for years now. everything felt so sentimental and the intentions of the drama, showcasing all the goodness in those who chose this field really shined at that moment. long story short something about this moment struck a chord with me and made me appreciate the act of storytelling and showed me that this world is filled with humanity and love.
The world’s shared, open interactive communication game ‘Forces of Temptation’ went online and quickly took the world by storm.
There was a perfect ecosystem, a physics engine that was completely close to reality and game instances that opened up dimensions that could be chosen. In particular, the supernatural instances received rave reviews.
Almost everyone thought they were playing a normal game until one day, millions of people saw a dialog box that appeared in the sky.
[Sun.exe isn’t responding. If you continue to wait, the program might respond.] [Do you want to end this process?] [End Process / Cancel]
Novel| Novel[translated]|Audio drama
Comments *contains spoilers**
Per the summary, the game ‘Forces of Temptation’ became a sensation in the online gaming world. Things changed when higher dimension beings intervened and turned the game into reality. All over the world, people began to disappear mysteriously. Turns otu, they were transported into a game where they had to fight for their survival.
The novel has a rather unique start - focusing on a major side character called Li Yinhang. She was returning from her work when all of a sudden the entire bus she was on was transported into the game world. In the pilot level, she met two strange characters - the naive but physically powerful Nan Zhou (MC) and the handsome, half-Ukrainian Jiang Fang (ML). Together, the three of them formed the ‘Li Fang Zhou’ team and worked together to survive the various challenges that the game threw at them.
Li Yingang is one of the few female characters in danmei whom I thought is well-written: she is a normal office worker, but utilizes her experience from dealing with clients to guide her actions and interactions with the MC and ML. She is well aware of her strengths and limitations, and on many occasions made conscious decisions that maximize her survival and avoids becoming a burden to the team. Consequently, the main pairing also trusts and values her decisions, going above and beyond their characters to protect her.
Another thing I like is MC’s naivety. Since Nan Zhou is an NPC that escaped the bounds of his game scenario, he is quite clueless - but curious - about the world around him. He is like an overpowered kid who tries to learn how to act like a normal person, but often ends up being confused over human behaviors (e.g. He voices his sexual attraction towards ML as ‘a need to reproduce’, which is something that can be rationalized and controlled).
As with any infinite flow story, the worldbuilding is extensive. In the novel, the world works similar to an RPG game, with five towns for characters to recuperate and conduct daily activities, and various scenarios or missions that they can go on to earn items and points. I do wish, though, that more emphasis is placed on some of the game mechanics, such as the handicap where characters have to purchase oxygen tanks to ensure that they can breathe.
The best arc is probably the last arc about the characters’ wishes. It is both entertaining and touching. My poor, poor Chen Shifeng who wishes for his inexistence just so that his older brother and lover could come back to life :’). This is also the first danmei I read where the characters are extremely careful about the wishes they made. Usually, when there is an end reward in the form of a wish fulfillment, most infinite flow stories don’t explore the dangers of making these wishes. In this novel, it is pointed out that the higher dimension beings will do all they can to twist the characters’ wishes by finding loopholes in their logic or wording. Hence all the characters had to preface their wishes with clauses and disclaimers to ensure that there is no ground for misinterpretation.
Frankly, I like a lot of the side pairings compared with the main pairing…Li Yinhang and Nan Jixing has such a cute relationship (and yes, I know it might constitute partial-bestiality to ship them together); Yi Shuige and Xie Xiangyu has a spicy enemy-and-lover romance; and Chen Shuiye and Yu Tuisi has such a tragic backstory. There are just so many fun side relationships to read about!
Thing I don’t like
If I have one complaint about this story, it is that some of the arcs can drag for too long, without really progressing the story. For example, the arc where they are gambling against the team with higher dimension being is longer than expected. Unless you like card games, this can be quite boring, especially when the main pairing is pretty much OP and there is no chance for their opponents to win from the start. It reduces a lot of the stakes and makes the whole arc feel too one-sided.
how pathetic are you on the scale from 1 to watching dixin interaction analysis vids where every frame with them together is slowed down and zoomed in and the screen is covered with captions in chinese (which i translate by Google lens)