Shapeshifters

In a stormy, rainy night, Banxia takes in a small, battered lizard that crawled into her house through the window. To care for it, she accidentally spends all her savings, nearly leaving herself without breakfast the next morning.

From then on, every morning, she is astonished to find her home spotless and a steaming hot breakfast waiting on the table.

One day, the magical little lizard suddenly disappears. Worried, Banxia ventures into the rain to search for it, only to find a drenched man in a bamboo grove, scales still visible on his ankles.

The man lies in pain among the bamboo leaves, covering his face with pale fingers, his voice low and trembling, “Don’t come near me. Don’t look at me…”

Banxia respects his words and stays by his side, shielding him from the storm all night with her umbrella.

She doesn’t want to see him weep in winter’s cold again. She cannot bear to let him flee, scarred and broken, into a lonely world. In a world where true understanding is rare, without him, no one else could stand by her side.

Tang Qiu, a celebrated award-winning actress with legions of adoring fans, woke up one day to discover she had transmigrated.

She had not only swapped bodies but also swapped “careers,” becoming a lowly cleric a position envied by the masses but actually fraught with extreme danger.

Tang Qiu: “Can I resign?”

Church Priest: “No. Once you have accepted the Baptism of Light, you are a faithful believer of the Goddess of Light for life.”

It appeared that being a cleric was a lifetime binding contract.

Tang Qiu had molded herself into all manners of characters, but this was her first time playing a cleric. Although difficult, it was also highly challenging. She readily accepted her new identity. Yet, just as she was actively plotting how to perform this role to perfection, she never imagined that she was bound to more than just this one profession…

Tang Qiu: “It is truly rare to find a Vampire who enjoys masquerading as a human.”

Lucille: “A certain cleric who transforms and pounces on people every full moon has no standing to make such remarks.”

Tang Qiu smiled. “I don’t understand what you are talking about.”

The conglomerates were hawking goods through bloody livestreams when the second Red Disaster descended without warning, and the workers trapped in the prison mutated en masse.

Wasteland bandits, the low-temperature monster Frostcloak Bruce, moles, dense fog, a cliffside wreck. Everything was taking an increasingly sinister turn.

The pathetic little analyst Sui Xin was scared to death: “Thank goodness, thank goodness. I’m a mole too, and a double agent at that.”

Across the Five Capitals and the four great ruins zones, Tianfu’s Forbidden Wall stood supreme. Those who pursued aristocracy and wealth held lapdogs like deep-cover agents in contempt: the King of Tianfu hated that identity above all. A damned mole would sooner or later be castrated and hacked to pieces!

Sui Xin: “Really?”

The people of the world: “Of course. The King witnessed members of his clan being brutally killed by a mole when he was young. No mole has ever survived under his watch, and no one has ever broken such a curse.”

But Sui Xin did. She chose to keep the King’s eyes closed forever.

The Tianfus of the Five Capitals convened a meeting to hunt down Sui Xin, history’s most despicable villain. At the meeting, one of the most noble and aloof kings in history said, “Sit down. You’re one of us.”

Another king said, “Who is she? Does she think she’s worthy?”

Then the meeting went slightly awry: one or two of the Five Kings were gravely wounded, one was killed, and Sui Xin had no choice but to wash her hands and take the dead king’s seat.

The consortium system includes Hounds, Executioners, Hussars, Cthulhus, Sentinels, deep-cover agents, and Full-Time Ruins Hunters.

The ruins-zone system includes Day Eaters, Night Eaters, Full-Eaters, and Half-Eaters.

Other systems include the Kingdom Thieves system, the cult system, and, most mysteriously of all, the Forbidden Wall civilization that developed in secret beneath the first Red Disaster.

Mutant evolution directions include flight, telepathy, lie detection, limb replication and mimicry, invisibility, control, and transformation into other organisms. The last is caused by some kind of radiation combined with viral mutation, turning people into cockroaches, rats, lions, fish, shrimp, birds, and so forth, but there is always a risk that the creature’s instincts will in turn overtake the person.

A Mutant’s talent is usually limited to a single ability. Only a tiny number of monstrous prodigies can undergo multiple transformations, and most remain flesh and blood. Everyone in this world can be killed by physical or energy damage. The world’s power system is built on martial combat, tactical trickery, and minor magic.

Capital livestreamed my murder; just as it wished, I mutated.