[Instance Role]: Werewolf

[Connecting to‌‍​‌‍⁠‌‍‍‌‌‍‍‍‌‌‌⁠‍⁠‌​⁠​ the “Fairy Tale Game” System…]
[Connection complete. Creating character profile — 1%]
[20%]
[50%]
……
[100%]
Ming Shu opened his eyes. A large influx of fresh air rushed into his nasal cavity, causing a momentary wave of dizziness.
As his bodily senses gradually sharpened, he raised a hand to block out the piercing sunlight.
The system notification prompts continued to chime in succession.
[Instance scene arrangement complete.]
[NPCs are in position.]
[New plot prompt detected. Would you like to view it immediately?]
…Plot? Ming Shu was still in a state of confusion, but he hesitantly selected [Yes] on the task panel.
[Plot Prompt]:
[This is a prosperous village where the villagers are hard-working, simple, kind, and loving. However, hidden deep within the dense mountain forests lurks a category of dangerous creatures: werewolves.]
[Werewolves are insidious, crafty, bloodthirsty, and violent, taking pleasure in tormenting the villagers. By day, they hide among the crowd wearing human skin; by night, they summon wolf packs to attack the village. Only on the night of a full moon will they tear away their disguise, transforming into humanoid beasts with fangs, terrifying faces, immense strength, and pitch-black hair covering their bodies…]
There were only these two paragraphs for the plot prompt. When Ming Shu scrolled further down, there was nothing else.
So, this is a dungeon where he has to play through a storyline?
Ming Shu had dropped into this place completely out of the blue. He was a newcomer and did not yet possess the right to choose his own dungeons.
In his past experiences, he had only played the role of background passersby or cannon-fodder minor characters, the kind meant solely to build the atmosphere for a dungeon scene, in order to earn a meager amount of points.
Ming Shu looked around and found himself in the middle of a forest.
Overgrown with weeds, the shadows of the trees shifted with the wind. Brilliant sunlight filtered down through the gaps in the branches and leaves, and a winding path extended from beneath his feet into the distance.
Aside from Ming Shu, there was another figure nearby.
It was a young man who looked to be around eighteen or nineteen years old. He was tall and had a handsome face, he also wrote a dark brown, cloak-style coat.
He held a pinecone in one hand while his other hand carried a coarse, woven bamboo basket, and was looking over in this direction.
Is this a player? Or an NPC?
Ming Shu tried to greet him: “Hello?”
Separated by the distance of a few trees, the young man heard Ming Shu’s voice and walked over.
As the young man drew closer, the corners of his lips curved upward into a smile: “Hello.”
At that moment, the system’s prompt sounded once again.
[Dungeon quest triggered.]
[Ding-dong! Main Quest issued.]
[Quest 1: Please unleash your true nature to your heart’s content and pounce on the villager before you!]
The cold, mechanical voice of the system, paired with a slightly rising intonation, sounded rather bizarre.
Ming Shu was dazed. Unleash his true nature? What true nature?
His attention was drawn by the sudden appearance of the quest, leaving him deeply perplexed and bewildered. His amber eyes lacked focus, making his entire person look a bit dazed.
The young man carrying the bamboo basket imperceptibly sized Ming Shu up before speaking to inquire, “Are you here alone?”
Ming Shu snapped out of it and first closed the system panel: “Yes.”
The main quest consisted of just that single sentence, but if he wasn’t guessing wrong, the “villager” referred to the young man in front of him.
According to Ming Shu’s limited past experience, the young man should be an NPC, the kind specifically stationed at the entrance of a dungeon to guide players into starting the plot.
As for what Quest 1 meant by “unleash your true nature and pounce on the villager,” Ming Shu didn’t understand it and decided to wait and see first.
The young man asked again, “Where did you come from? I don’t think I’ve seen you before.”
This also seemed to be a common phrasing for guide-type NPCs. Ming Shu pointed casually in a random direction.
The young man looked over following his gesture, but quickly retracted his gaze. The look that landed on Ming Shu’s face carried a faint trace of wariness and scrutiny.
A strange face appearing alone in the forest; Ming Shu wore the most ordinary coarse hemp clothes of an unremarkable dull gray, yet he possessed a breathtakingly beautiful face.
Ming Shu was entirely oblivious to this and asked, “Could I trouble you to take me into the village?”
Based on the contents of the plot prompt, the dungeon map should be inside the village. If he wanted to obtain more plot-related information, he had to enter the village to look for clues.
The young man fell silent for a moment before nodding: “Alright.”
It seems to be going quite smoothly… Ming Shu let out a sigh of relief and smiled at the young man.
The young man’s eyes slightly lowered as he averted his gaze: “Follow me.”
He placed the pinecone from his hand into the basket and walked forward along the path. Ming Shu hurriedly kept up.
Everything here was unfamiliar to Ming Shu. He even had to rely on guesswork to figure out what type of dungeon this was, and it was unclear whether it was a single-player or multiplayer instance.
However, once a dungeon was entered, it was impossible to exit. He had only one path available to him: attempt to clear the dungeon, successfully obtain the rewards, and leave, or fail and accept the punishment.
Rewards and punishments were generally based on the difficulty of the instance. Ming Shu recalled that right before he entered, he had vaguely heard the system mention something about a fairy tale…
Was there actually a fairy tale category in the instance library? Ming Shu couldn’t remember. But compared to titles like “Thriller Night Talk” or “The Death Train,” an instance with the words “fairy tale” in it sounded very peaceful and serene.
Moreover, plot-driven instances were usually relatively simple. One just needed to follow the storyline and avoid going in the wrong direction.
Besides, as a newcomer whose total points didn’t even reach three digits, he wouldn’t be able to enter any high-difficulty instances anyway.
Ming Shu tapped open the other options on the panel, hoping to find any additional hints.
[Quest Completion]: 0%
[Plot Completion]: 2%
[Mall]: Unlocks at 20% Quest Completion
There were also other options like the Map, Character Details, and the NPC Almanac, but almost all of them displayed “To Be Explored.”
Ming Shu scanned the system panel and found the word [Rules] in the bottommost corner.
[Instance 1 Rules]:
1. A successful clear requires a Quest Completion rate above 90% and a Plot Completion rate of 100%. The instance fails if the player’s life points hit zero or if a catastrophic mistake occurs.
2. Players can save their game once per day for free; the time and location of the save are at the player’s own discretion.
3. Main quests are issued regularly with no time limit. Accumulating three or more uncompleted main quests will result in the deduction of 1 life point.
4. Side quests are triggered during the plot and must be completed within the time limit. Failing or timing out on a side quest will deduct 1 life point.
5. Hidden quests require exploration by the player.
6. Completing quests rewards corresponding points, which can be exchanged for items in the Mall (restricted to this instance only).
7. Initial Life Points: 3.
Ming Shu noticed that the rules specified “Instance 1.” Could this be a serial instance?
The initial life points showed 3, which presumably meant he had three lives.
Completing quests rewarded points yet failing them deducted life points.
Ming Shu got a faint inkling that this instance might not be as simple as he had imagined.
He closed the rules and tapped open his Character Details.
[Name]: Ming Shu
[Gender]: Male
[Age]: 19
[Instance Role]: (Appears unusual, requires further confirmation)
There was still only that single entry from before in the quest details, and indeed, no completion time limit was displayed.
Ming Shu read through the content of [Quest 1] once more, but he still failed to find any useful information.

He kept his head down, focused on browsing the system panel and entirely failing to notice that the young man ahead of him had stopped walking.
Ming Shu almost ran straight into him. Looking up, his eyes locked with the young man’s just as the latter turned around.
“Are we there?” Ming Shu looked around, only to find they were still in the woods.
The young man replied, “Almost.”
He was a good head taller than Ming Shu. His slightly lowered eyelashes cast a small shadow, and his pitch-black pupils reflected Ming Shu’s face.
“What is your name?”
Is the actual instance plot about to begin? Ming Shu hesitated for a moment. “Ming Shu. ‘Ming’ as in tomorrow, ‘Shu’ as in comfortable.”
The young man set down the bamboo basket, slipping one hand into his coat pocket while saying in a leisurely manner, “You’re an outsider, right? You need a wooden pass token to enter the village. I just happen to have a spare one here, I’ll give it to you.”
Ming Shu’s eyes lit up slightly. “Thank you.”
His reaction caused the young man’s movements to pause for a brief second. Then, he drew out a wooden token about half the size of a palm, engraved with the words “Xiangkou Village.”
Ming Shu took the wooden token, but immediately afterward, a small lump of an unknown object tumbled into his hand along with it.
The object seemed to have been accidentally pulled out by the young man. It looked like an uneven pebble, barely larger than Ming Shu’s fingertip, with its smooth sections glinting with a silvery sheen.
Before Ming Shu could even react, a sudden, sharp wave of pain flared up in the palm that had touched the pebble, burning as if it had been scorched by fire.
“Hiss…” His grip loosened, and both the wooden token and the pebble dropped into the grass together.
Ming Shu looked at his palm. The layer of skin that had just touched the pebble had turned black, though it quickly faded back to normal.
“What is this thing?” He clutched his wrist, looking up blankly.
Right at that moment, the system notifications chimed in quick succession.
[You have been exposed! Please escape from the villagers as quickly as possible.]
[New plot prompt detected. Would you like to view it immediately?]
But Ming Shu had no time to worry about the system prompts. He watched as the expression on the young man’s face instantly turned freezing cold, the depths of his eyes filled with absolute disgust and hatred as he looked at him.
“Wolf.”
A single word spat from his mouth. At some point, a short knife had appeared in his right hand.
No matter how slow Ming Shu was, he could clearly sense the young man’s murderous intent at this moment.
He hurriedly took a step back. “Wait… is there some kind of mistake?”
Ming Shu tapped open the new plot prompt, desperate to find out exactly what was going on.
[Plot Prompt]:
[The villagers have suffered immensely and are preparing to fight back. The initial progress was not smooth; werewolves are at their weakest outside the night of the full moon, but a werewolf wearing human skin disguises itself perfectly, making it extremely difficult to detect.]
The system’s mechanical voice rang in Ming Shu’s ears. Simultaneously, the young man closed the distance with terrifying speed, appearing behind Ming Shu and slitting his throat with the short knife.
Ming Shu had no time to resist at all. The pain and all his sensations were incredibly real, he could even hear the sound of his own skin being torn by the sharp blade.
A massive surge of fresh blood spurted out, drowning the fragrance of the unknown flowers in the forest with a metallic stench.
[Until one day, the village chief’s youngest son, Yuan Chen, rescued a talking mushroom in the forest.]
[To repay Yuan Chen, the little mushroom told him that werewolves are terrified of silver objects, and even the slightest touch would cause them unbearable pain.]
The young man released his grip, discarding Ming Shu onto the ground. Ming Shu could no longer make a sound, and the approach of death caused his vision to gradually blur and scatter.
Before entirely losing consciousness, Ming Shu saw his blood pooling among the blades of grass. The young man’s cold, indifferent gaze swept across his face as he bent down to pick up the fallen piece of silver from the ground.
[Player has lost life vitals. Quest failed.]
[One life point has been deducted. Initiating reload…]
[No save point detected. Initiating instance reset…]
[Instance scene arrangement complete.]
[NPCs are in position.]
Ming Shu opened his eyes once more. Not yet fully detached from the sensation of his recent death, he fell awkwardly to the ground.
His entire body was trembling as he breathed in short, panicked gasps, as physiological tears rushed from his eyes uncontrollably.
It was too real… Everything had been too real. It felt as though he had truly died once, and a faint, lingering ache still throbbed in his neck.
Ming Shu touched his neck, his palm coated in a layer of cold sweat. The sheer terror of surviving a disaster made him feel close to throwing up.
He was merely an inexperienced newcomer. In his past instances, the most he had ever been required to do was look ugly to scare other players; he had never taken on such a dangerous mission.
Isn’t this supposed to be a fairy tale dungeon… Why is it completely different from what I initially imagined?
Ming Shu wiped his face with his sleeve, forcing himself to calm down.
Right before he died, the system had read out a new plot prompt, mentioning that werewolves were afraid of silver objects.
Recalling that silver-gray stone and the burning sensation when it touched his skin, Ming Shu could essentially be certain now.
His instance role was a werewolf.
Therefore, the “unleash your true nature” in the main quest referred to a werewolf’s nature.
The sound of approaching footsteps echoed, and a figure stood before Ming Shu. A faintly familiar voice rang out: “You are…”
Ming Shu looked up, instinctively shrinking backward.
It was the young man who had just killed him.
Because of Ming Shu’s death, the instance had reset, and he was back at the initial starting point in the woods.
The effect of a reset was identical to reloading a save. The young man at this moment shouldn’t remember what happened previously.
Yet Ming Shu still remembered. This “villager,” who had been perfectly friendly to him a second ago, had raised a knife and slit his throat in the very next.
The interval between his death and re-entering the instance was too brief, leaving no time for Ming Shu to adjust. As his vision brushed past the young man’s hands, he forced himself not to reminisce, his voice trembling: “I…”
Seeing his state, the young man set down the bamboo basket in his hand and dropped into a half-squat.
This posture brought the distance between him and Ming Shu even closer. Ming Shu held his breath, retreating a bit further back until his spine pressed against the tree trunk behind him.
On account of his features, Ming Shu looked younger than his actual age, appearing around eighteen or nineteen.
He was very beautiful, with delicate and refined features. His fair face was still stained with tear tracks, his hands tightly gripping the fabric of his clothes, and his eyes were ringed with red as he stared at the young man in a panicked and anxious flurry.
During their first encounter, Ming Shu had been ignorant and fearless, acting casually and showing not the slightest hint of defensiveness despite appearing alone in a dangerous forest.
But now, he was plagued with panic, his face written entirely with fear and cowardice, a sight highly deceptive to others.
He looked like he had just experienced something deeply unpleasant. The young man frowned slightly, softening his tone to be even gentler: “Don’t be afraid. I won’t hurt you.”
Ming Shu’s eyelashes fluttered slightly, but he didn’t speak.
“Why are you here alone?” the young man asked. “Where is your family?”
Ming Shu didn’t know how to answer. He still harbored wariness toward the young man, so he merely shook his head in silence.
A reaction like his made it seem as though he had suffered a severe fright, to the point where he couldn’t even manage to speak.
The young man asked again, “Did you get separated? Or…”
This place was a considerable distance from the village. Wild beasts occasionally roamed nearby, not to mention the mysteriously behaving werewolves.
Ming Shu had an unfamiliar face; he might be an outsider who had come from somewhere else and just happened to pass through here.
However, there was no blood on his body, leaving it unclear what exactly he had encountered.
Ming Shu still shook his head. The young man looked up at the sky, contemplating for a moment.
“It’s getting dark soon,” he quickly made a decision, tentatively reaching out a hand to touch Ming Shu’s arm. “The woods aren’t safe. I’ll take you back to the village first, alright?”
Not long ago, it was Ming Shu who had requested the young man to lead the way; now, it had turned into the young man actively seeking Ming Shu’s consent.
Ming Shu stared at the hand the young man extended. Each long finger was distinct, and a layer of rough calluses coated the edge of the palm and the pads of its fingers.
It was the owner of this very hand who, upon confirming his identity, had killed him cleanly and without remorse.
If he walked with the young man again, the other person would most likely use a piece of silver to test him once more.
But if he refused, would it cause the young man to notice other anomalies?
Ming Shu didn’t want to die a second time. In his eyes, either choice was fraught with danger.
Seeing him remain silent, the young man withdrew his hand and reached into his coat pocket as if to grab something.
Ming Shu’s already fragile nerves tightened again, only to see the young man pull out a small, clean handkerchief.
The young man reached out once more, gently and slowly wiping away the wet trails on Ming Shu’s face.
Ming Shu froze for a brief moment, finally realizing that perhaps because of his reaction upon seeing the young man this time, the other party had misconstrued something.
He had appeared in the guise of a weakling, and the young man’s attitude toward him had altered accordingly.
Ming Shu quietly opened the system panel; the [Character Details] had already been updated.
[Name]: Ming Shu
[Gender]: Male
[Age]: 19
[Instance Role]: Werewolf
He was a werewolf. Main Quest 1 certainly couldn’t be done right now: the “villager” before him was not one to be trifled with.
In the absence of other clues, blending into the village and acting according to circumstances was his best option. And since Ming Shu was a werewolf, he needed to disguise himself.
This moment seemed to be the perfect opportunity. Ming Shu slowly took the handkerchief from the young man and bit the bullet, nodding his head.
Author’s Note
The story has officially begun! Updating two chapters today.
The fairy tales in the instances are original and very simple. The male lead is a split-personality/fragmented gong; there is more than one fragment in each instance. The NPCs who like the shou are all fragments of the male lead. The amount of screen time varies among the fragments, and there will be shura field drama!