Ch 1: How To Be A Good Lackey (QT)

PLEASE READ THIS FIRST

We, Hololo translators, started translating because others’ translation works were moving slowly and we wanted to read more novels faster. Now that we have taken on the role ourselves for a couple of years, we have to keep names, terms, and details consistent throughout the whole book, and it has started to feel more like work than pure enjoyment.

Therefore, this translation will not focus too much on smaller details, such as place names or minor terms, so there may be some inconsistencies there. Character names and the main terminology will remain consistent.

Please read at your own discretion, and thank you for supporting our translations.

Love,

Thandar

Translator extraordinaire 😁

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In the autumn of Imperial Year 1631, frost stained the red leaves, and long winds stretched for ten thousand li.

More than four years had passed since the great Emperor of the Empire suffered an assassination attempt. During that attack, His Majesty sustained severe trauma to the brain and fell into a deep sleep, from which he had yet to awaken.

Over these four years, the Empire’s top medical researchers had all gathered in the capital. They labored with total devotion, neglecting sleep and food, endlessly discussing and theorizing about His Majesty’s condition. Time and again they overturned their own conclusions, trying every conceivable method, yet none succeeded in waking the Emperor from his coma.

No one knew why His Majesty remained unconscious, nor why, after so long, he still had not awakened.

To the Empire, the Emperor was not merely a ruler. His very existence also influenced the abyssal behemoths suppressed throughout the Edolia star system. With the Senate currently handling state affairs and the Empire functioning as usual, no one had ever proposed that he abdicate and that a new emperor be chosen, even after more than four years of his coma.

On the day of the incident, His Majesty had been traveling with the Chief of Palace Affairs, Shao Ye, to Ceres to deal with various postwar matters. It was during this journey that the assassination attempt occurred.

Based on the available evidence, the Office of Inspection quickly identified the greatest suspect as Shao Ye, who had accompanied the Emperor. However, after the incident, Shao Ye disappeared.

This only deepened suspicion against him.

Two years later, the Office of Inspection finally found the missing Chief of Palace Affairs on an abandoned planet in the Fourth Star System. When they found him, he was scavenging through garbage. Upon seeing a ship bearing the Office’s insignia land nearby, he even had the leisure to gossip about it with other vagrants.

He had lost his memory.

He did not remember who he was, much less what had happened on the day the Emperor was attacked.

Due to insufficient evidence, the Office of Inspection could not convict him. To uncover the truth of that day, they had no choice but to try to restore Shao Ye’s memory.

They brought in numerous specialists in neurology, psychiatry, and related fields to conduct consultations and treatment. Yet just as they could not awaken the Emperor, they could not recover Shao Ye’s memories. They spent hundreds of millions of star credits on him, but in the end, Shao Ye would only shake his head and say he remembered nothing.

Two more years slipped by like this. The officials in charge of the case grew increasingly desperate, feeling that the matter might drag on indefinitely. At that moment, however, the Senate-funded “Neverland” project achieved a breakthrough. They needed a group of volunteers to conduct testing.

The name “Neverland” was taken from the fairy tale Peter Pan, where it symbolized eternal, beautiful childhood.

The government’s “Neverland” project was essentially a second world, detached from reality yet convincingly real. In its ideal state, citizens could log in with an account and experience an entirely different life.

The volunteers would be placed into Neverland, and their experiences there would be broadcast live to the public. This would both showcase Neverland comprehensively and generate significant profit for the project team, achieving two goals at once.

The volunteers selected for Neverland were carefully chosen. Among them were once-famous actors now fallen from grace, geniuses outstanding in specific fields, and entirely ordinary individuals. The project team would conduct multiple tests on them and determine which world to open each time based on the combined results.

The project team submitted a request to the Office of Inspection, hoping that Shao Ye could join this round of testing.

After careful consideration, the Office approved the request.

Although it had not been confirmed that Shao Ye was the culprit, he remained the primary and only suspect in the Emperor’s assassination case. Over the past two years, the Office had spent enormous medical expenses attempting to treat him. Moreover, according to the project team, the Neverland program might help recover his lost memories.

They could simulate scenarios within Neverland that resembled real life, potentially stimulating Shao Ye’s hippocampus, or even recreating the scene of the assassination. While the chances were slim, it was at least a glimmer of hope.

Shao Ye, however, knew nothing of this.

At that moment, he was in his hospital room, shouldering a fifty-kilogram barbell as he performed squats. His features were sharp, his build tall and imposing. Even during the past two years when he had been scavenging, he had not neglected his training, maintaining an excellent physique. Now, sweat soaked through his white tank top, revealing well-defined, wheat-colored muscles beneath. He wore black shorts, and beads of sweat ran down his strong calves.

He had stayed at the Office of Inspection for two years, and from the moment he learned of his former identity, he had shown no awareness of being a suspect.

At first, he had been timid and submissive. But after learning who he had once been, despite having no memory of it, his demeanor suddenly turned arrogant. He frequently bossed around the Office staff with complete confidence. Whenever they responded with even slight firmness, he would immediately declare that once His Majesty awakened, he would make them pay.

Hearing this, the staff present at the time had been utterly speechless. Listen to that, just listen to that, what a classic disposable character line. In TV dramas, people like this barely survive three episodes.

How had His Majesty ever allowed someone like him to serve as Chief of Palace Affairs? They had heard his background was not particularly impressive.

The staff handed him the contract sent by the Neverland project team. Shao Ye did not even glance at it. He found the text too long, pushed it aside, wiped the sweat from his face with a towel, and then went to the corner to do inverted crunches.

With no other option, the staff member began reading the contract aloud to him. Shao Ye continued his rapid crunches, and it was unclear whether he was even listening.

After quite some time, the staff member’s lips were dry from speaking as he finally finished explaining the contract. Shao Ye, having completed his entire morning workout, picked up his towel, wiped the sweat from his face, and only then lifted his eyelids to glance at the staff member before slowly saying, “I refuse.”

The staff member took a deep breath and forced a smile. “It seems I didn’t explain it clearly enough. I’ll have the vice director speak with you shortly.”

After two years of dealing with Shao Ye, they had gradually realized that he was the type who bullied the weak and feared the strong, unable to endure even the slightest hardship. It was a waste of such a large physique. Fortunately, their vice director had plenty of ways to handle him.

The Office’s vice director, Tang Qichuan, was one of His Majesty’s most loyal followers. Translated on Hololo novels. He held Shao Ye in great contempt, not only because Shao Ye was a suspect in the assassination attempt, but also because, in his view, Shao Ye simply did not possess the character worthy of serving at the Emperor’s side. How could His Majesty have chosen someone like him?

Tang Qichuan entered the isolation room. His face was as cold as frost, his expression stern and humorless. Dressed in a dark blue uniform, the gold buttons on it gleamed sharply under the lights. He walked over, let out a cold laugh, and said to Shao Ye, “If you refuse to participate in this project, then we’ll have no choice but to sell you to Gole Star. They should find you quite satisfactory.”

Gole Star lay outside the Empire’s jurisdiction. Its pleasure industry was highly developed. With a physique like Shao Ye’s, he would likely be popular with people of all ages and genders.

Startled, Shao Ye nearly dropped the barbell in his hands. He looked up and glared at Tang Qichuan, furious. “You can’t do that! I’m His Majesty’s Chief of Palace Affairs. How could you sell me to a place like that!”

Tang Qichuan merely sneered. In his eyes, the only thing of value Shao Ye had left was his body. “Why not? Over the past two years, the money spent treating your brain could have bought three villas in the best district of the capital. Selling you now would conveniently cover the medical costs. At a time like this, do you think anyone would speak up for you? Those people in the Senate can’t wait for you to die. Maybe if you die, His Majesty might even wake up.”

The barbell slipped completely from Shao Ye’s hands. Lacking confidence, he muttered, “Doesn’t insurance cover it?”

Tang Qichuan replied coldly, “The maximum insurance payout isn’t even enough for a single deep brain scan.”

Shao Ye thought for a moment, then cautiously asked, “Then… can I charge it to His Majesty’s account?”

Tang Qichuan almost laughed. “If you could do that, that would be perfect. We wouldn’t even need to interrogate you. We’d just send you straight to prison.”

He lifted his eyes to look at Shao Ye and continued his threats. Shao Ye was never one to stand firm under pressure. Ideas like “unbending under force, uncorrupted by wealth” had nothing to do with him. When he saw Tang Qichuan take out a communicator to contact underground buyers, Shao Ye hurriedly grabbed a pen and, with great humiliation, signed his name on the contract.

As Tang Qichuan left with the staff, contract in hand, they heard Shao Ye call out, “When His Majesty wakes up, I will report this truthfully to him.”

If not for the examination results, they would have doubted whether Shao Ye had truly lost his memory. Where did he get the confidence that His Majesty would still stand up for him after awakening? And even if he reported it, so what? Did he think the Emperor was his personal protector? If it were later proven that he had indeed participated in the assassination, he wouldn’t even be able to keep his life.

The contract Shao Ye signed had been modified by Tang Qichuan. In the original version, the “Neverland” project intended to disclose Shao Ye’s identity. While that would certainly boost viewership, it would also bring endless complications.

After all, Shao Ye had been the Emperor’s Chief of Palace Affairs. If anything unexpected happened during the broadcast, or if he said something inappropriate, it could stir up massive turmoil across the star network. For this reason, Tang Qichuan firmly demanded that the contract be revised.

The first phase of the Neverland project would include six volunteers in total, Shao Ye among them. Their identities had not yet been revealed, though there were rumors that two of them were leading figures in academia, though no one knew their fields.

Shao Ye had no interest in any of that. According to the contract, this would be more like a single-player game. All volunteers would enter the same world setting, playing the same role with identical backgrounds and resources. However, their names, appearances, and physiques could be chosen freely. The volunteers would not interact with each other at all, at most being compared by viewers during the broadcast.

On second thought, that didn’t sound so great either.

Tears streamed down Shao Ye’s face like noodles as he anxiously counted on his fingers how many carefree days he had left, while simultaneously increasing the intensity of his training by two levels.

It was too late to sharpen his mind now. He could only rely on a strong body to face the coming storm.

Since its inception, the Neverland project had attracted immense public attention. As soon as news of its upcoming launch was released, it sparked widespread discussion. At this very moment, someone claiming to be a project leader posted on a niche anonymous forum, revealing that the completion of Neverland was not only the grand opening of a new era, but that after a series of precise calculations, the project’s technical team had also placed a special virtual character within the game world, one embodying all forms of goodness and beauty, designed to attract and gather powerful wandering consciousnesses from across the universe. In other words, during the first phase of the broadcast, whoever obtained this embodiment of goodness and beauty might very well be interacting with His Majesty’s consciousness.

At first, no one paid much attention to the post. After all, it was an anonymous forum, full of trolls and lunatics, and ever since Neverland was announced, all kinds of outrageous theories had appeared. People lazily replied that it wasn’t as interesting as the “Human Purge Plan.”

The Human Purge Plan was the most famous conspiracy theory surrounding Neverland. Its proponents claimed that the project was actually a tool used by the Senate to eliminate potential criminals. Anyone detected with criminal intent in their brain would be erased in advance. In later updates, even those idle parasites of the Empire who spent their days indulging in pleasure would also be wiped out. Many users later commented that the original poster had been overly aggressive and downright insulting.

The matter truly gained traction two days later, when a modeler with millions of followers shared a screenshot of the post on his star network account as a joke. Not long after, it was censored by the system. Undeterred, he posted it again, only to have his account rewarded with a three-day suspension, and all related discussions were deleted.

But the more something was suppressed, the more rebellious netizens became. A vast online army mobilized, and within half an hour, the deleted post from the anonymous forum had been reposted all across the network, igniting widespread debate.

Originally, most people had treated it as a joke. But seeing such heavy-handed suppression, they began to suspect that there might be some truth to it.

The situation was eventually settled by an official announcement from the Senate. It stated that the original poster was not a project leader, but merely a temporary worker who had spent two months doing odd jobs on the project, and had already been dismissed.

As for the relationship between the Neverland project and His Majesty, the announcement neither confirmed nor denied it, leaving it open to interpretation.

At this point, some people remained convinced that this was nothing more than a shameless publicity stunt by the Senate, and that once His Majesty awakened, they would face consequences. Others believed the Senate wouldn’t dare go that far, and that there might be some truth behind it.

Regardless, before the grand broadcast had even begun, it had already attracted massive attention, with over ten million reservations.

Shao Ye, however, felt no joy at all. He truly did not want to be a volunteer. He had already lost his memory once, and now he was about to lose it again inside a game. What if he came out a fool? Would His Majesty still let him serve as Chief of Palace Affairs? The thought filled him with anxiety.

In late October, under the guidance of staff, Shao Ye arrived at the Neverland construction base in the outskirts. He lay down in a luxurious game pod, closed his eyes, and the world before him sank into darkness. His final thought was—

Could His Majesty’s account really not be used?

Even though his memory had not yet recovered, for some reason, it felt like it should be possible.

Author’s note: Because the story includes livestream elements, as well as “face-slapping” moments and CP shipping among netizens, it wouldn’t make sense without forum-style posts and bullet comments. But I didn’t want to interrupt the flow of the main narrative, so I decided to place them in the author’s notes instead. Readers who don’t like them can simply skip the notes. CP discussion threads will appear in the comment section, and everyone is welcome to participate. Each world will have about two or three CP threads for easy access. The latest threads will be pinned, and older ones will be archived in highlights for convenience.

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Thandar: MC is a dumb beauty. He’ll grow on you eventually lol