Divinity ‘Great Sage Equaling Heaven’ tears out his hair in offense!

Divinity ‘The One Who Fights in Front’ no longer thinks you’re very wise.

“Huh?!” I cry out in anger, staring at the blue screens in front of me. “I swear, something pushed my hand!”

Observer ‘Socrates’: Jia Li literally what are you doing. You had Sun Wukong.

Observer 'Hedgehog1938': LMFAO NO WAY SHE JUST FUMBLED THAT HARD

You have received a new review!

0.5 / 5: Wu Peijin is an absolute idiot when it comes to her decisions. Not only is she hypocritical in who she saves, but she can't even make rational decisions during chapters.

You have received a new review!

5 / 5: Wu Peijin is SO bad at this that it's seriously the most entertaining thing i've ever seen LOL

I could hear Yue burst out laughing in the back of the car, clearly finding my disastrous error to be funny. “What happened to being an fortune teller?”

All of a sudden, the Azure Dragon appeared in the center of the car with a small blue flash.

[What’s with all the commotion here? This is a no-risk scenario, and you still manage to blow up my system with messages.]

Many observers are leaving to watch a different broadcast.

Fuck! If I wanted to grow in status, I needed as many cheerleaders as possible.

“Can you please let me reselect my sponsor?” I desperately pleaded with Chang. “There must have been some other interference; something pushed my hand, and I made an accidental selection.”

[If something interfered, I would have been alerted. There’s no godly interference this early in the scenario.]

I buried my face into my hands and groaned in sheer frustration. Where the hell was karma? Influencing a disciple’s decision like that should’ve been immediate sentencing.

Editor’s Pen activated!

Allow disciples to make edits to their sponsors if there is still time left in the scenario.

Whatever, if Chang couldn’t fix this, then I’d solve it myself.

System Error: Edit cannot be processed.

“What the fuck?” I cried out angrily, waving my hands around me. “How can you call this a system when sponsor selection and my skills don’t even work! Can’t you open up an error ticket?”

[I-I’m sorry but I’m a new moderator, so I don’t have the authority to open up tickets.]

“Are you kidding me?! You're not even a new moderator! At the start of this you said you worked on other planets before! What the hell happened to all of those?!"

[A-All the disciples there died, so my boss moved me!]

Without processing his words, I continued scolding the dragon. "How can you criticize humans for working their monotonous jobs when you can’t even do yours?! You’re the equivalent of a minimum wage customer service worker!”

Chang’s blue skin flushed a deep purple as he nervously looked around the car, surprised at the angry outburst. We were now centered on a bridge above a deep bay.

[Haha, you see, I’d love to help, but I’m actually getting a call to the metro station, so I need to go. I wish you luck, though!]

The dragon vanished with a poof and a swish of his pointy tale through the air. “Ugh,” I groaned, bashing my head repeatedly onto the car horn. This sucked. I was just as unlucky as my original pest control life.

Time left: 4 minutes 39 seconds

I looked over at the readjusted blue screens now that the gods were forced to shift their offerings to different party members. I had to put together a team fast, since my original plan wasn’t working out. If more class types were needed, there would be some characters in the next few arcs to recruit.

“Yang, you should pick Sun Wukong as your sponsor. We’ll find a healer later.”

Fucking Yang! If he wasn’t so nice and virtuous and perfect I would’ve murdered him already. Damnit, I really wanted Sun Wukong.

“As for you, Yue, pick the Bull Demon King. It’ll be advantageous to have both of them in one party,” I ordered, facing Yue. “And… he’s a very fitting sponsor for you.”

Before Yue could give a snarky remark, I looked over at Amelia. Both Artemis, Athena, and the Abyssal Kraken of Black Seas had shifted to her.

This was a significant moment—both Artemis and the Abyssal Kraken of Black Seas could provide a beast controller to the team, with the Abyssal Kraken of Black Seas providing a vastly superior water advantage, but Athena was one of the strongest Greek warriors.

“Amelia, don’t pick a sponsor yet. Let’s wait till you have another opportunity, alright?”

Demon ‘Abyssal Kraken of Black Seas’ feels slightly sad.

Divinity ‘The One Who Fights in Front’ seriously regrets trusting you.

I really had to give it to social media influencers. It was only more of a misfortune that there was no block or report feature. I’d try Editor’s Pen, but I’ve had enough of my awful skills.

“Were none of my sponsors good?” Amelia frowned, her eyes tearing up again.

“Huh? No, that’s not what I meant!” I grabbed her and squeezed her face, dramatically fake sniffling. “You’re perfect, don’t worry about a thing.”

The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

Yue fake gagged in the back before letting out a surprised yelp as Wei punched the side of her leg.

Chapter #3 - Sponsor Selection has concluded!

You have completed the first arc.

You have earned the achivement “Beginner’s Luck.”

I hated my younger self a bit more with each passing hour.

Please head over to Futian Station immediately for the next arc which will commence in 23 hours and 59 minutes. Outdoor air will become more toxic with each passing hour.

You will now be marked by a specific color and symbol for your party. These will remain private until the next arc.

“Futian Station?” Wei repeated, his head tilted a bit in confusion. “Isn’t that pretty far?”

“It’ll be fine since we have a full day. Right now, we should focus on our skills and get some more stars,” I grumbled, trying to mask my indignation, “If we’re going to the underground station, it’s probably going to be some dungeon arc.”

Observer ‘Socrates’: Jia Li, don’t piss off the observers

Motherfucker.

Observer ‘Socrates’: We all have spiritual power, Jia Li. And there’s a lot of us.

At that little blue notification, my blood immediately ran cold. If they ever found out I was the infamous author, I’d be seriously screwed the moment they decided to work together.

Yue sat up in the back of the van, running her fingers through her silky ink hair. “You seem to know a lot about this world, Peijin. And, you’re definitely not a fortune teller.”

Disciple Yue has activated 'Profiling!'

Her left brown eye glowed an orange hue as she stared at me, almost resembling Yang’s eyes in the sun, while reading an invisible blue screen in front of her. “What’s ‘Scathing Reviewer?’ How do you have a skill that isn’t equipped?”

My face flushed bright red as I realized she could already view everyone’s profile. I was hoping to gain that skill soon, but Yue beat me to it. “H-hey!” I protested, waving my arms in front of myself. “Should you really be so invasive of your party leader?”

"My party leader? You kidnapped me!"

I let out a dramatic sigh, slumping back in my chair. "Whatever, fine. I lied about part of that."

Yue let out a satisfied huff and crossed her arms. "Then how do you know so much?"

Suddenly, my phone buzzed in my pocket, and I removed it with sweaty hands. That same notification appeared again, sounding off despite me dismissing it previously.

I skimmed the popup without opening the message, and the attachment title was “Scathing Reviewer.” Who was HolyMapleSyrup, and how could they have sent me a skill? Not to mention a skill that sounded detrimental to its user more than anything.

“Peijin, are you going to answer?” Yue cooed in a mocking tone.

Wei turned to Yue, responding in my place. “There’s no need to interrogate Peijin. She’s already saved us, so let’s just trust in her.”

Yang seemed more skeptical, eyeing me from the passenger’s seat while still holding onto Amelia. “How do you know so much about this world, Peijin?”

“I read a lot of novels,” I said, my face twisted into an embarrassed expression. I was ashamed to admit such a truth in front of someone as admirable and stellar as Yang, so I excluded the fact they were actually web novels.

“Like Shakespeare?” Yang asked.

“What? Why the hell would I read Shakespeare?”

“Nevermind,” Yang responded with a strange look of satisfaction with my response. "But you're still lying."

"Am I on trial for a crime or something? Look, we can host a slumber party and play truth or dare when we get to the station."

I approached the top of the bridge that was drawn over a large, glistening lake. Thankfully, I fully refilled the gas tank, so we would be fine for the rest of the trip. “If the air outside is going to be toxic, we should all buy ‘pigeon’s lung’ from the store,” I said while swiping through the store, my eyes flickering between the blue screen and the road.

It appeared first in Yang’s hands, and he quickly attached it to his mouth. “Are these actual pigeon lungs?” he mumbled, looking grossed out.

“I really hope not,” Wei gagged, covering his face with a spare hand.

Laughing, I continued to drive, breathing through my own pigeon lung attachment. “If it’s a dungeon, then we’ll probably have a good chance to level up our skills and get some weapons. But some skills will probably be unlocked later.”

“Peijin,” a sharp voice called out from the backseat.

“What?” I groaned when I heard Yue’s voice.

She finally seemed to get used to the set up and was much less tense, even leaning in toward the front of the vehicle. “Do you think we’ll be alright, and that whatever this is, it’s just temporary?” Yue quickly added on, “I’m only asking because you know a lot.”

My face remained unfazed despite my surprise at her words. It surprised me to realize that even though these were characters I’d created, characters as psychotic and insane as Yue, they still wanted to return to their own normal lives.

Did they have lives before this, though? After all, they were just characters. Did they just randomly appear today and think they had existed?

Before I could ask, a loud crash resonated a few hundred feet behind me as the bridge shook unsteadily, debris and dust blasting the car forward.

“Agh!” I cried out, squinting my eyes to try and see through the sudden dust. I slammed on the gas and swerved the car toward the side of the bridge. Everyone let out a loud shout, their bodies slamming into the sides of the car. Yang gripped onto the ceiling while Wei tightly held onto Yue and the passenger seat.

Hindsight activated!

A giant blue sea serpent with red accents around its face was crashing down onto the bridge, chomping through every vehicle. Its bright orange eyes suddenly darted over to stare at our van as it lunged.

“Everyone get out!” I cried out, “Put your stars into agility and run to the station! Protect Amelia, and I’ll catch up later!”

Yang picked up Amelia and threw her over his back, turning back for a moment to make sure everyone was following suit. The car doors slammed shut as everyone quickly evacuated, the panic obvious in their frantic movements.

I however, stayed in the car, my knuckles turning white while I gripped the steering wheel.

“Peijin!” Amelia cried, reaching out a feeble hand toward me as I drove the car back toward the serpent, trying to buy them some time.

My eyes glowed an icy blue deep from my skill, and I was analyzing the situation. Had anything like this happened in Surviving my First Run? If anyone didn’t make it past the sea serpent, they were presumed dead by both me and the readers.

What a short career I led here.

I looked in the rearview mirror, my vision blue once more with countless numerical and written possibilities scribbled all over the serpent—yet this time, I couldn't dodge.

The sea serpent snapped its sharp teeth forward, gripping onto the trunk of the vehicle and crunching it with its teeth as if it were nothing more than a soft, malleable plastic.

I opened the door and jumped out of the van, rolling on the ground as I watched the vehicle get devoured. Thankfully, my physique level prevented me from getting any injuries—I tried to quickly get back on my feet before sprinting down the bridge.

Damnit, damnit, damnit! I seriously did not want to die! If I died now, I’d become a ghost and forever haunt this goddamn system. I swore it on Sun Wukong.

The serpent stared at me for a moment before slamming its head down just beside me; the bridge erupted from the impact and crumbled, causing me to fly off and fall toward the black waters.

Ha, so that’s how it was when you weren’t the protagonist.

I looked up toward the sky and the open jaws of the sea serpent lined with horrific teeth as I tumbled backward toward the rippling water, reaching up as the wind battered into my back.

[https://i.imgur.com/LUHLWr9.png]