Chapter 1: A Monster Has Appeared in My Fish Tank
Chen Sui discovered that tiny people had appeared inside his fish tank.
He hadn't eaten any mushrooms — they were genuinely there. Well, not exactly people. To be precise, they were a group of small fish-headed, hunched humanoid creatures: Fishfolk.
About the size of toy soldiers, they were prostrating themselves on the shallow-water landscape of the large display tank, kowtowing as if in devout worship of some deity.
Chen Sui counted them. There were exactly ten.
As an unemployed office drone who kept aquascape tanks as a hobby, this four-meter-long display tank was Chen Sui's proudest creation, only recently completed.
The biological filtration system hadn't even been properly set up yet — there shouldn't have been any living creatures in it at all.
But… this morning, after finishing his morning routine, he had come over as usual to check on his display tank.
He never expected to see something like this.
Floating in the air above the tank was a blinking notification, like something out of a video game.
[362 days until "Azure" connects to the world]
[Lord of Creation (Chromatic Talent): Wherever you pour your heart and soul, life shall begin.]
Connect to the world? As in, become reality?
A game becoming reality?
Chen Sui suspected he'd accidentally eaten rat poison at dinner last night, or that his brain had simply short-circuited — otherwise, how could he possibly be having hallucinations like this?
His first instinct was disbelief.
But once he confirmed that the tiny Fishfolk in front of him were very much alive, Chen Sui believed it.
And even if the part about connecting to reality turned out to be baseless —
This so-called Lord of Creation…
The moment Chen Sui saw it, he remembered.
"This… isn't this the talent I drew when I was playing the game last night?"
A few days ago, Chen Sui had quit his job after being treated unfairly by his company, and his girlfriend had broken up with him on top of that.
He'd been in a foul mood these past few days. A friend, seemingly wanting to cheer him up, had called to tell him that a new virtual reality game called "Azure" had just entered open beta — it was supposed to be a lot of fun — and invited him to play together.
Apparently, its neural simulation was far more advanced, giving players a much more immersive experience.
Ha. It was the year 2149. Thirty years had passed since the first virtual reality game appeared, and every single one released since then had claimed to be "the most realistic."
And yet every one of them was riddled with bugs. Anti-cheat systems were a joke — people were Flying and Escaping all over the place, Little Red Riding Hood was fighting Wu kong, and the gameplay experience was absolutely abysmal.
It made you want to bury the game designers under a mountain with their backsides sticking out.
That said, "Azure" was genuinely a well-produced title. It had been in development and promotion for a long time, and it was one of the rare creature-taming games — capturing sea beasts and fish monsters in a beautiful Transcendent world, embarking on a journey to grow stronger.
With his mood in the gutter, Chen Sui had wanted something to take his mind off things, so he registered an account that very evening.
He drew his talent — and got this so-called Lord of Creation.
However, before he even got to play, Chen Sui received a message from a company with a job opening. He lost all interest in gaming, told his friend he was going to work on his resume, and logged off immediately.
He never expected that when he woke up this morning, this so-called Lord of Creation would have become real.
Inside this display tank —
Artificially constructed hanging mountains and deep ravines stretched across the scene. A misting unit breathed out wisps of haze, and you could reach out and touch those exquisite suspended mountain formations. The style of the artificial rockwork and the colors of the decorative plants complemented each other perfectly.
According to the description of the Lord of Creation talent —
Chen Sui had spent months building this display tank and had sunk a considerable amount of his savings into it. It truly qualified as something he had poured his heart and soul into.
And life had indeed emerged from it — the embryonic form of a tiny world had taken shape.
So Chen Sui believed it completely.
After all, he was a young man who had grown up in the information age of modern society. Accepting something this bizarre wasn't too much of a stretch.
He had no parents, no ties, and nothing holding him back.
Besides — who could possibly say no to a real-life version of a game?
"How do I take care of these little Fishfolk? What do they eat? Can I feed them mealworms?"
Chen Sui stepped closer and noticed more notifications had appeared beside the tank.
[Inventory]
"What's this?"
Chen Sui raised his hand. "I guess I can tap it like a virtual button in a game?"
He reached out and pressed it with his finger.
A pressed-button effect appeared on the button.
"Oh?"
Chen Sui's eyes went wide, his expression filled with wonder.
It actually worked?
Immediately, a panel covered in grid slots unfolded before him.
It was mostly empty, but in the very first slot at the top sat 10 strange-looking eggs.
"What are these?"
Chen Sui tapped one.
A description popped up:
[Strange Egg]
A beginner's gift egg. Upon use, randomly hatches one or a group of Azure-world creatures.
[Hatch / Discard]
"Hm? Hm? Hm?"
Chen Sui's voice rose with each syllable, his interest piqued considerably.
Random Azure-world creatures? So it's basically a gacha pull? And whatever you get shows up in your fish tank?
"Who cares, let's go."
Chen Sui tapped Hatch without hesitation.
The next second, a completely lifelike projection materialized before him. The strange egg wobbled, then — crack — a fissure appeared in the shell, and a burst of gray light bloomed from within.
A chubby, unfamiliar species of fish appeared before him.
[Tun Fish ×1000]
Quality: Poor
An edible fish with mediocre flavor. Can grow up to 30 centimeters.
Chen Sui immediately looked toward his fish tank and quickly spotted the darting fish silhouettes in the water.
"They actually appeared!"
Chen Sui was now completely convinced this was real. The excitement and wonder surging through him reached an all-time high.
Who could possibly say no to a real-life game like this?
"I was half-expecting sea cockroaches or a 'Thanks for playing' consolation prize."
"Not bad though — adding some edible fish means the Fishfolk will have something to eat."
Chen Sui couldn't stop grinning.
"Next one!"
[Boluo Fish ×500]
Quality: Low-grade
An edible fish with decent flavor, but poor reproductive capacity. Can grow up to 15 centimeters.
Chen Sui's smile stiffened slightly, then he reassured himself:
"That's only two. There are still eight left."
[Goodsteed Fish ×1200]
Quality: Low-grade
An ordinary edible fish suitable for domestic keeping.
"Uh… seven left."
[White-stripe Redfin Fish ×1000]
[Waterleap Fish ×800]
[Carpet Seaweed ×(large quantity)]
[Ephemeral Creatures ×(large quantity)]
Nine pulls in a row — all low-grade fish.
What the heck!
Chen Sui felt like throwing something.
Were these drop rates for real? Could these eggs only hatch low-grade fish? Not a single green or blue rarity in sight — this was absolutely ridiculous.
He suspected these eggs were just meant to populate the small world with bottom-tier creatures.
Chen Sui's face darkened, though he wasn't entirely surprised. His luck was so terrible that, even in TFT, someone contesting his comp would somehow end up hoarding all nine copies of his main carry.
"With stuff like this, you probably need a huge volume of pulls before anything good shows up."
Chen Sui found a reasonably convincing excuse to comfort himself.
With odds like these, the chance of hitting the jackpot was probably something like 0.01%. Getting results like this was perfectly normal.
Yeah! That must be it!
Chen Sui looked at the last remaining egg.
"One egg left. Might as well open it. It's not going to be anything good anyway."
With a casual wave, Chen Sui chose to hatch it.
But this time, when the shell cracked open, what emerged was not the gray-white light of the previous nine pulls.
It was a rainbow-colored radiance.
Chen Sui's eyes went wide.
Crack.
The shell broke open.
A multicolored jellyfish burst forth from the egg. This strange jellyfish was surrounded by clouds and was nothing like a normal jellyfish's translucent form.
Its body split and merged continuously — one moment scattering into drifting cloud fragments, the next coalescing back into a soft, white, rainbow-hued jellyfish — as if it had no solid physical form at all.
[Skyroam]
Quality: Divine
A Sky-Roaming Jellyfish that travels alongside clouds and mist. Its very form of existence is the finest masterpiece of the Lord of Creation. Legend has it that any living being favored by it will be lifted upon the clouds and brought before the true Lord of Creation.
A drop? And apparently the grand prize.
Chen Sui's expression turned a little strange.
What was this egg thinking?
Refuses to drop when you want it to, then throws the jackpot at you when you've given up?!
Damn… well played, little egg.
That's just how it goes!
Moments later, a haze of misty clouds rose within the fish tank. Between the rocky mountain formations, a blurry rainbow cloud drifted and wandered…
The entire tank now radiated the spirit of a true miniature world.
Chen Sui spread his arms wide, his expression lost in a kind of delirious joy:
"I am now the god who created this world!"
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Edited by Fat Goose