Chapter Text
Shen Yuan died cursing the ending of a web novel he spent years reading, investing in, providing feedback (through scathing comments) and spending ridiculous amount of money on merch for. Over twenty million words, six thousand chapters of constant papapa and increasingly ridiculous power-ups, just for it to end with the protagonist dying sad and alone! Poisoned by his wives! Sure, Airplane had extensively written how heartbroken all the wives (only a few out of three digit harem, the rest didn't even get the memo), but the betrayal of his childhood sweetheart?! Sweet and pure Ning Yingying? It was so OOC for her!
Nothing, he repeats, nothing implied that was how the story would end! All the world building, all the wives, all the regrets, all for nothing!
The protagonist, the supposedly invincible demon overlord, just let himself be poisoned and die. The poison he swallowed shouldn't even be able to kill him! Shen Yuan checked! He had made notes on every poison and venom used in this dog shit novel and the one used by Ning Yingying was barely strong enough to harm a normal demon or an immortal cultivator, definitely not strong enough for an immortal Heavenly Demon! Luo Binghe should have been able to use his blood mites and heal himself without even blinking! Not slowly crumple to the ground in the heap of his expensive, spider-demon silks right beneath his throne, with Ning Yingying pushing a poisoned hairpin into his shoulder as she cried and apologized. It was not what he deserved! He deserved to live his happily ever after with all his wives; or maybe just retire from constant fights for power and focus on his harem.
Luo Binghe deserved much more than to die, surrounded by cold stares of some of his wives with only Ning Yingying clutching to his robes and apologizing, again and again, as she drove the hairpin even further. Luo Binghe deserved his end to be peaceful, extinguishing of a flame, not... whatever this was! Shen Yuan was so pissed, his fingers went flying across his keyboard as he funneled his rage into another comment meant to rip the author's throat.
The author, the wretched sellout called Airplane Shooting Towards the Sky, also seemingly disappeared from the face of the Earth after posting the last chapter, shooting out into space like his name would suggest. He had not responded to any comments nor share any of his thoughts at the end. It infuriated Shen Yuan, he was so pissed off, he couldn't see straight. He was in the middle of a rant, fingers blasting his keyboard with the speed of light. He was sweating, his heart racing as he typed and just right after he managed to hit sent, he realized he couldn't breathe.
And then he died.
Just like that, while posting another angry rant. Lived a hater, died a hater. His heart probably gave up, he couldn't be sure.
It didn't really matter anyway, he supposed, as he looked around. Weird in itself, as he wasn't a believer into anything really. But there he was, clearly dead and yet able to look around. Afterlife looked to be weirdly cave-like. Dark, damp, with eerie wind blowing from who knew where. He half expected the "eerie cave sound" sound effect from Minecraft to jumpscare him, as he stood (? floated?) still.
[Welcome, USER002!]
A robotic voice resounded in the cave and Shen Yuan immediately understood as a little greenish box came into his view.
He had read enough of isekai/transmigration stories to recognize what was happening. Dark, endless space and a light window with text displayed on it. A classic transmigration novel trope. He had read a few because his sister had some really good recommendations. Even if they did have some weird tropes. Shen Yuan could overlook those if the entire series was good, alright. Or if not good, then he at least enjoyed tearing it to shreds on forums.
[USER002 seems to understand his situation, so this System will proceed without needless explanation. ( ╹▽╹ )]
That's to say, while no one could expect something like this to actually be possible, Shen Yuan was ready to assume a new role and new identity. He only hoped to get an easy life.
[System Error code:7301392. USER002 account not found.]
Shen Yuan blinked. What the fuck was that? System error? Since when transmigration System's could get errors?
[Finding new account. New account found. Initiation binding USER002 to the account. 10%]
"What is going on?" he asked out loud, but got no answer, other than a steady rise of the percentage. It felt he was waiting forever, the little numbers sometimes going fast, sometimes slowly. As if this System had bad Internet connection, or something. Shen Yuan huffed and crossed his arms, fingers thrumming as he waites. Once it reached 100%, bright blueish light enveloped him and when he blinked, he found himself laying on the ground.
[Apologies, USER002, due to sudden System error USER002's designated role of "SHEN QINGQIU" was unavailable. Alternative role found - Jade Dragon.]
"Wait, Shen Qingqiu?! As in, the Scum Villain of Proud Immortal Demon Way?! I'm in PIDW?!" Shen Yuan couldn't believe it. He died reading that dogshit novel just to be thrust into its main villain?! This was the opposite of an easy life!
[Affirmative. (≧▽≦) However due to sudden System error that role was unavailable.]
"Also, what "Jade Dragon"? There wasn't any character named that, I would know," Shen Yuan asked, he had notebooks dedicated to characters in PIDW, he helped edit the PIDW-wiki, he would know if something called "Jade Dragon" existed. There were at least five dragons that Binghe fought, but "Jade Dragon" was neither of them.
[╮(＾▽＾)╭]
"What's that supposed to mean?!"
Blinding light came out of nowhere, and Shen Yuan was send tumbling to the ground.
Dazed, Shen Yuan tried to get up and that's when he realized. The name "Jade Dragon" was literal. He wasn't a humanoid dragon either. His hands had turned into claws and when he reached up to his face, he could feel the plush, elongated snout instead of his flat face and glasses.
He scrambled to get up, feeling a mix of dread and excitement. He had a tail! But not wings, so he was a typical loong, not western dragon. Both showed up at least once in PIDW and were always so cool! Being a dragon was thousands times better than becoming Shen Qingqiu, at least! This way there was no need to die at the hands of Luo Binghe, he could just stay put and live his best life! He ignored the System window blinking in the background.
Shen Yuan after some internal debating, decided he quite liked being a dragon. His body was long, white with two long, deer like antlers. His hands, although not as dexterous as human ones, had giant, retractable claws, just like a cat’s. From what he had seen in a little pond of a cave he was in, he had bright green eyes with slitted pupils and wavy, dark green mane. His face looked like if one crossed a crocodile with a camel, super weird, super off putting. Camels were already off putting as they were. Giving one huge, spiky teeth and front facing eyes, only managed to make it even more creepy. Thankfully, he didn’t need to see his face too often, he could live like this. Probably. Out of mind, out of sight.
Walking was super weird too.
Shen Yuan tried to stand up on his back legs, just like he would for the past twenty years of his life just to crash his antlers into the ceiling and wobble.
"Fuck, shit!" he swore, his teeth rattling from the force of the impact. "Okay, plan B."
So four legs it was.
It felt humiliating, his spine too long and unsteady, his body felt too long. His neck, spine, hell, event the tail were inconveniently long. Shen Yuan walked around the cave, trying to get used to his new center of gravity and how his mile long torso moved. He did step on his tail once and fell into the little pond.
It wasn't deep, but it still left him soaked through and choking on dirty water.
"System, shouldn't you give me some missions? To, I don't know, prove myself or something?"
[Mission: stay inside and cultivate.]
"Not what I wanted!"
He spent what felt like ages, relearning how to walk on all fours. His paws (at least he had adorable, cat like paw beans. Small mercies in this world) were unsteady and he constantly found himself trying to straighten up.
What killed him was learning that he was not allowed to leave the cave.
"What do you mean?!" he raged, staring at the blue System window. "How long do you expect me to stay here!? I was a shut in, but come on! I want to go outside!"
[USER002 is bound by OOC lock. To unlock OOC functions, USER002 must first finish "mission: stay inside and cultivate". (￣▽￣)]
Shen Yuan growled.
"You…!"
So he was stuck in a cave with only a small family of Thousand-Eyed Spiders as a company. He named them all, before they started to multiply rapidly and he lost count as to who was who. He hoped that maybe something, some creature or maybe even a human would find his little cave, so he could learn at least a bit about this world he was thrust into, but nope. Just him and his spiders.
Shen Yuan learned a few things while being isolated - he didn't need to eat (which he was so fucking glad for, there was no way he would be able to cook with dragon paws and eating raw meat? Yeah, no, no thank you. And it wasn't like there was any food in the caves besides the spiders); he could see in the dark and that somehow he couldn't get dirty. Or rather, he could get dirty, but then all the dirt (and mud he used for scientific testing and definitely not because he slipped into a puddle) would fall off him, like water off a duck.
Another thing was that he could fly! And wasn't that cool! Well, it scared the shit out off him at first, as he woke up from a nap floating near the ceiling, good few meters off the ground. It took him an embarrassingly long while to learn how to move his body to actually fly around. Lead with your head, look up to fly up, look down to fly down. Speed is determined by how quickly he coiled his body - in movements very similar to that of a snake swimming. It was very not intuitive to someone who spent years as a human.
In between him exploring the cave and cultivating/meditating under the System guidance, Shen Yuan felt like was loosing his mind out of boredom. He was never the most studious, so having to study constantly? Pain. Pain and suffering.
At some point, System had found some mercy in itself and it propose to him a scenario pusher - he would go to sleep and wake up when the time was 'right'. Whatever that that meant. Shady as fuck, but after spending Heavens know how long locked up in the cave, Shen Yuan was desperate for it all to end.
Shen Yuan stared at the pop-up window and wanted to scream.
"If you could do that the entire fucking time, why did you wait?! I've been suffering for no reason?! Shitty System! Zero stars!" he cried out.
[Apologies. Due to low battery this System works slower. This option had just become available due to USER002 continuous efforts. Keep it up! Accept: "Small Scenario Pusher: Old Dragon Sleeping in its Cave"?
"Yes, yes! Whatever!"
After agreeing, Shen Yuan could feel his eyes grow heavy and he curled up and fell asleep.
There was no dreams, but some fragmented scenes of people walking on him, talking to him just to leave soon after showed up to him. Shen Yuan had no idea how real they were and didn't care, too busy wanting to go back to sleep. He never saw the same face twice.
Shen Yuan had no idea how much time had passed when he woke up again. This time however, the usual sleepiness was gone and he was wide awake. He had no idea what woke him up either. He slowly cracked up one eye open, then another. He moved to sit up, stretching his body, which grew some moss on it. He was even growing a giant cobweb situation in between his paws. Shen Yuan must have also slept through the cave falling on him, as he heard rocks sliding off his scales with the movement.
He heard a tiny, shocked gasp, exactly as System window popped up into his view.
[USER002 unlocked quest “Help Scum Villain Achieve Happy Ending and Live Happily Ever After (>⩊<). Accept? YES/YES]
‘Wait, what?! What happy ending?!’ he raged, his brain supplying him with memories of his lengthy comments, calling for the author to castrate said Scum Villain, calling him a one dimensional idiot, who’s only source of pleasure was harming others. Who perved up on his underaged disciples. Who was supposedly a wide eyed child, no older than twelve that was staring at him, completely frozen in fear.
[USER002 was transported to the story to clear out misconceptions and flesh out the characters, fix plot holes and increase the base IQ of characters. Scum Villain is USER002’s main source of grief, therefore this System allowed for USER002 to personally develop Scum Villains character (ᵔ⩊ᵔ)]
‘You are so full of shit’ Shen Yuan thought irritated.
He couldn’t dwell on it too much, however. His serene cave suddenly was filled with many more voices, causing Scum Villain’s pale face to pale even further, before he dived right behind Shen Yuan. He had no way to react at that, as the voices came closer.
“Where is that rat?” someone’s seething voice came through, followed by another. "I've seen him ran in here!"
A bunch of kids in cultivator attire, swords and all, toppled in his cave, yelling insults and promises of violence.
At that, System, ever the helpful, chimed in. [Save Scum Villain from bullies!]
Shen Yuan sighed, already feeling a growing headache, and growled lowly, the sound echoing loudly. He was in perfect view of the kids, towering over them, imposing, hopefully scaring them enough so that they would leave him and the little scum alone. They did thankfully ran away without any further incentive, screaming bloody murder (Shen Yuan would hate to harm children, even if they were pricks), allowing Shen Yuan to look a bit more into a child that hid behind him.
Future Shen Qingqiu looked nothing alike to what Shen Yuan has seen in fanart or his own imagination. He was tiny, his hair a shortish, disheveled mess, his disciple robes old and way too big on his scrawny frame. He looked no older than twelve, tugging on Shen Yuan's heart strings. His wide open, dark green eyes were looking at him uncertainly, watching his every movement and flinching when the movement was too sudden. The imposing, elegant yet cruel, future Scum Villain was nothing, but a terrified child.
Shen Yuan sighed, because he understood, that even without the System telling him to baby-sit him, he would do so anyway. He supposed he was a mother now.