The Puppet of Yanggu: A Black Water Margin Tale

"DaLang, it's time to take your medicine." The moment I heard Pan Jinlian utter those words, I lost control of my body. Strange directives flooded my ears—"up, down, left, right, this is a punch, this is a kick, this is the jump button…" I had become a puppet. Someone else was pulling my strings. Under their command, I wiped out Ximen Qing, carved up Wang Po, slew Shi Qian, cut down Wang Ying, and butchered Song Jiang like an ant. They even forced me to lie with Pan Jinlian amidst that sea of corpses and blood—excerpt from The Memoirs of Wu Dalang, Marquess of Yanggu County. I had been invited to participate in the closed beta of "Black Water Margin," a game whose hyper-realistic graphics astounded me. I started with the avatar "Wu Dalang," while other players took on roles like "Gao Yanei," "Fang La," and "Prince Duan of Dali." In this supposedly fully open-world sandbox, I ruthlessly manipulated them all. That is, until a sudden shift—my very self was sucked into the game itself. Fortunately, the exit button was still within reach…