In her previous life, Xia Wang'an was the type who could effortlessly pull off reading novels during class.
With the looming threat of mental pollution, the people of Xia placed great importance on their own and others' emotional well-being. While studying was essential, entertainment was equally indispensable.
Xia Wang'an, who consistently ranked first in her grade, was the kind of student who made her teachers worry, "She studies so hard without ever seeking any other fun—this is concerning, very concerning."
Compared to her peers, who went out of their way to find joy in everything and often giggled foolishly, Xia Wang'an showed little interest in anything, as if she were born without the instinct for amusement.
If this child were in a TV drama, she’d probably grow up to be a final boss with off-the-charts mental pollution levels.
Faced with countless invitations from teachers throughout her school years—"Come kick a shuttlecock!" "Let’s go watch a movie!" "Try this game, I’ve been playing it for a year and it’s so fun!"—the studious overachiever always responded with indifference.
"Don’t want to play."
"Don’t want to watch."
"Teacher, how come after a whole year of playing, you still lose to everyone?"
The teachers: "..."
Then, in her second year of high school, during morning self-study, her homeroom teacher walked past Xia Wang'an, deeply engrossed in her studies, holding a copy of Dragon Proud Sky Stomps Left Foot on Right Foot, Right Foot on Left Foot, Spiral Propeller to the Sky.
With swift movements, he snatched the textbook from her hands and replaced it with his novel.
"Here, read this for a bit."
Xia Wang'an hesitated, eyeing the garishly decorated cover. "But I need to study..."
"Missing a little study time won’t hurt."
The teacher smiled warmly. "Reading novels is a form of learning too. Don’t worry, I’ve talked to the other teachers—from now on, you can read novels during any main class."
Her slacker deskmate, who had been pretending to study: "..."
His eyes turned green with envy. He quickly raised his hand. "Teacher! I also want to learn through novels! I don’t need yours—I brought my own!"
The teacher, who had been all smiles for Xia Wang'an, turned to him with a different expression.
"Oh~ So that’s why your grades have been dropping so much lately—you’ve been secretly reading novels in class."
The slacker student: "..."
And just like that, he was hauled to the back of the classroom to stand in punishment for the entire period.
While he stood there, Xia Wang'an remained seated, diligently flipping through the novel.
By the time he returned, she was still reading. Seeing her visibly enjoying the story, the slacker muttered, "So even top students like novels," while secretly feeling a sense of camaraderie over their shared interest.
He cleared his throat and spoke in a worldly tone. "Read while you can. This is pretty much the only time in life you’ll get to do it."
Xia Wang'an looked at him curiously. "Why?"
"You’ve got good grades, so the teachers let you read in class."
"But once you start working, no boss is gonna let you read novels on the job."
The slacker patted her shoulder knowingly. "So enjoy it while it lasts."
Fast forward to the present—
Now engaged in [World Salvation], which technically counted as a job, Xia Wang'an watched as record keepers carried stacks of physical novels into her room, placing them on a newly appeared bookshelf.
"We weren’t sure if you preferred physical books or web novels, so we prepared both."
The record keeper she’d met earlier smiled warmly. "We’ve topped up your reading account with 100,000 credits. Feel free to read as much as you like—if you run out, just let us know, and we’ll add more."
A quick note on Xia’s economy:
A single novel typically cost around 10 credits for the full book.
100,000 credits meant Xia Wang'an could buy ten thousand novels in one go.
Staring at her account, she felt like it was practically glowing with golden light.
"So this is what working is like."
The black-haired girl gazed at the six-figure balance in her account and concluded that her slacker classmate’s career advice had been wildly inaccurate.
Then again, considering he’d never held a job, it made sense that he wouldn’t know what normal work was like.
[I promised you before—once we got home, you could read as many novels as you wanted.] Xia Wang'an proudly announced to 007. [Look! All these novels are ours to read!]
Her tone carried the triumphant air of "Behold the empire I’ve built."
007 was an enthusiastic audience. [Wow! So many! Host’s home is just as amazing as Host said!]
Xia Wang'an was even more delighted. If she had a tail, it would’ve been wagging sky-high by now.
[Come on, let’s read together.]
She generously split a screen to share with her system.
The two happily dove into their reading marathon.
The record keeper thoughtfully added, "If you find a novel you particularly enjoy, you can tip the author. Don’t worry about credits—we’ll refill them when they run low."
"Tip..."
As an orphan, sixteen-year-old Xia Wang'an wasn’t poor, but she wasn’t exactly rolling in money either.
Tipping had never been an option for her before.
Faced with this unfamiliar territory, she approached it with great seriousness.
First, she clicked into the website’s instructions and meticulously read every term and condition. Then, with a solemn expression, she returned to her bookshelf, her dark eyes wide as she spent a full three minutes deliberating.
Finally, with utmost caution, she tipped a novel 1 credit.
The book, titled Calmly Cultivating to Immortality, immediately responded with an AI character—a lavishly dressed figure wearing a jade crown, soaring in on a flying sword amid dazzling special effects.
Thud!
The character smoothly dropped to its knees on the virtual screen.
"Thank you, mighty benefactor! This one kowtows to you!"
The watching record keeper: "..."
Calmly cultivating, indeed.
Xia Wang'an’s eyes slowly widened, round with fascination.
Hesitantly, she tapped the tip button again—this time sending 10 credits.
The character promptly knelt again, thud-thud-thud!, knocking its forehead against the ground with practiced ease.
"Thank you, mighty benefactor! This one kowtows to you!"
Ten crisp, flawless kowtows in rapid succession.
Xia Wang'an blinked. She tapped 50 credits next.
"Thank you, mighty benefactor..."
Her eyes sparkled. She tried 80 credits.
"Thank you, mighty benefactor..."
Sitting up straighter, she went for the maximum—100 credits.
"...This one kowtows to you!"
Seeing her enjoyment, the record keeper quickly signaled the others to top up her account again, ensuring she wouldn’t run out of credits mid-fun.
When she finally paused, he seized the moment to chat.
"So you enjoy tipping?"
Xia Wang'an replied wistfully, "So this is what tipping feels like."
No wonder her slacker deskmate had always sneakily spent his allowance tipping livestreamers. It was fun.
"If only other worlds had tipping too. So convenient."
The record keeper was about to say, If you like it, we can implement tipping systems in other worlds, when the black-haired girl cheerfully mused:
"That way, I wouldn’t have to go through the hassle of breaking their legs every time just to make them kneel."
The record keeper: "..."
He had absolutely no idea how to respond to that.
What kind of terrifying villain-like existence were you in other worlds?!
Fortunately, Xia Wang'an didn’t need him to respond. Though it was a pity, those things were all in the past.
Xia Wang'an always looked forward in life.
For example, right now, she had already lost interest in the little avatar she had just tipped 1,000 points to and moved on to tipping other books.
For a while, the room was filled with voices saying, "Thank you, big spender!" and "We bow to you, boss!"
Xia Wang'an played like this all afternoon.
And that afternoon was enough time for the government to top up her points while also locking onto her favorite genre of novels.
—"Cultivation."
Xia Wang'an's tipping records from the afternoon were displayed on the big screen, and among them, the xianxia (immortal heroes) genre had received far more tips than any other.
"Although Xia Wang'an has stated that she enjoys all these novels, our research shows that among all the books she’s bookmarked, cultivation-themed stories have the highest follow-through and completion rates."
Most people in Xia weren’t unfamiliar with the concept of cultivation.
Even during peacetime, xianxia dramas were plentiful, and after the Cataclysm struck, when the government strongly supported entertainment projects, cultivation novels became half the landscape of the fiction world.
After all, cultivators had the concept of "bigu"—being able to survive without eating—a setting that was practically irresistible to Xia’s people, who often suffered from hunger.
No need to eat and never go hungry, no need to bathe yet remain clean, immense combat power, room for growth, and a complete, self-contained system.
Most importantly, in the world Xia Wang'an had once altered, magic had always been part of the legends there. People already carried that spark of belief in their hearts, which was why she had been able to completely rewrite the world’s rules.
And in Xia? Who hadn’t dreamed of cultivating during their rebellious teenage years?!
While everyone was still enthusiastically discussing, the Premier’s light device lit up. She opened it and let out a heavy sigh of relief.
"Everyone."
"Just now, a large-scale invasion of Aberrants appeared at the western border of Hua. They’ve been intercepted by Taibai at the boundary. Reinforcements are on the way, and the battle is expected to conclude by 3 a.m. tonight."
The room, which had collectively held its breath at the mention of the Aberrant invasion, also sighed in relief.
"The prophecy came true."
"It’s 7 p.m. now. Thankfully, we had this prophecy—otherwise, if the Aberrants had invaded suddenly at this hour, most people would’ve been at home…"
The "Salvation" plan had already begun, and Xia Wang'an’s prophecy had come to pass. With that being the case, what was there to hesitate about?
Xia Wang'an, having finished her evening routine and settled in bed with a book of practice questions as light bedtime reading, received an inquiry from the government.
"Setting up cultivation?"
Xia Wang'an blinked in surprise, then her eyes lit up with keen interest.
"Yes, but you currently have an ordinary human constitution, and initially, you can only travel to other worlds alone. Wouldn’t it be too difficult for you to play the role of a cultivator?"
The recorder watched the black-haired girl before them, noting how she actually seemed excited by the idea, and couldn’t help but show a trace of concern in their gaze.
The more the recorder thought about it, the more worried they became, and they reassured her, "If you don’t want to proceed with this setting, that’s fine too. The government will respect your decision."
"I want to do it," Xia Wang'an said, her eyes sparkling. "Cultivation? That’s an easy role to play."
"Right, I also think it’s very difficult—wait, what?!"
"Wang'an, you need to think carefully. Didn’t you say that during your first trip to the Cataclysm world, aside from your clothes, everything else was blocked by the world’s barrier?"
No companions, not even a weapon—and now she had to play a cultivator?
How was that even possible?
"That’s exactly why it’s easy."
Xia Wang'an recalled her experiences from over a thousand past role-plays and shared her wisdom with the recorder: "Do you know what’s most important when playing a character?"
The recorder frowned in deep thought. "Profound, unfathomable wisdom?"
Xia Wang'an shook her head.
The recorder pondered again. "Then… peerless martial prowess?"
Xia Wang'an kept shaking her head.
The recorder’s brain worked at high speed. "I’ve got it! Heaven-defying luck!"
Xia Wang'an: "How did you still not guess it?"
"It’s the outfit."
The recorder: "…"
"The outfit?!"
"Exactly." Xia Wang'an spoke with the confidence of experience.
"From what I’ve learned, as long as I dress ethereally enough, they’ll believe it themselves."
"So just help me make a set of clothes that look sufficiently celestial and elegant."
As she spoke, her excitement grew.
"Time to play an immortal again. So fun."
