Player’s Guide to Raising a BUG Angel

Chapter 16: Was This Barrier Made of Paper?

Inside the library.

Mophis felt as if she was about to split apart.

On one hand, she was furious at those LSP players on the forum, so angry that smoke nearly poured out of her seven orifices.

She wished she could pull the server’s cable out and bring peace to the world.

On the other hand, she was utterly baffled by this wave of “trick plays” from the officials, having no idea how to deal with it.

“Repair the barrier… what am I supposed to repair it with, my head?”

She paced irritably back and forth in the room.

She was just a programmer who had reincarnated.

Although she could make use of some code bugs, asking her to repair an ancient magic barrier constructed from the “branches of the World Tree” was no different from asking a phone repairer to build an aircraft carrier.

They weren’t even remotely in the same field, okay!

【Ding!】

【System Alert: Detected大量‘Shattered Pages’ are approaching you. Please prepare to receive and promptly repair the ‘Guardian Barrier’.】

That cold, emotionless official prompt sounded again, like a death knell urging her along.

“Urge, urge, urge! Urge your big ghost head!”

Mophis punched the air with her tiny fists, unable to vent her frustration.

But anger aside, problems still had to be solved.

Right now, there were at least hundreds of thousands of players grinding desperately for the sake of her “crumbling” barrier.

If she delayed too long without any response, their enthusiasm would surely die down.

At that point, the GMs might pull some more dirty tricks.

“Calm down, calm down… I’m a professional programmer. When facing problems, I must analyze problems, then solve problems…”

Mophis forced herself to calm down and began analyzing the dilemma in front of her.

First, this “Guardian Barrier” being near collapse was obviously fake.

It was a “setting” the GMs had forcibly slapped onto her in order to launch a main quest.

Second, these “Shattered Pages” being able to “repair the barrier” was also fake.

Most likely, they were nothing more than quest items with no real function.

Therefore, the key question was: how could she “act” as if she was repairing the barrier, and how could this “repair” process be displayed for the players outside, giving them positive feedback?

“In other words, I need to create the illusion that the barrier is being repaired…”

Mophis’s eyes lit up.

Creating illusions—wasn’t that what she was best at?

She immediately sank her mind into the code, searching the library’s lower-level systems.

Soon, she found the module related to the “Guardian Barrier.”

The code for this barrier was very complex and ancient.

With her current abilities, she truly couldn’t modify its core.

But she did discover something interesting—the barrier’s “visual effects” module.

This module was separate from the core functions and was specifically responsible for the barrier’s external appearance.

For example, under normal conditions, the barrier was completely transparent, only producing ripple-like effects at the points of impact when attacked.

“Got it!”

A bold plan took shape in Mophis’s mind.

She was going to make a “progress bar”!

A giant progress bar that all players could see, representing the repair progress of the barrier!

She immediately began working.

Using her understanding of the code, she bypassed the GM’s monitoring and quietly planted a new piece of code in the “visual effects” module.

The logic of this code was very simple:

Each time the system determined she had “received” a 【Shattered Page】, it would add +1 to a preset variable.

Above the library, it would generate a massive, ring-shaped progress bar glowing faintly with golden light.

The total value of the progress bar would be set at… one million.

It looked more challenging that way.

The current progress would be tied to that variable.

The more pages players handed in, the faster the bar would rise.

When the progress bar reached 100%, it would trigger a dazzling full-screen effect—such as “Holy Light Shines” or “Petals Descend from the Sky”—to announce the “barrier repair successful.”

After finishing all this, Mophis felt like an absolute genius.

This method not only solved the problem of “how to repair the barrier” but also gave players direct feedback, motivating them to grind even harder.

It was simply perfect!

She clapped her hands in satisfaction, then opened the system panel, preparing to accept the first batch of “Shattered Pages” to test the effect.

【System Prompt: Accept 10בShattered Pages’ submitted by Player【Passerby A】?】

“Accept!”

【Ding!】

【You obtained 10בShattered Pages’.】

【You obtained 1בMophis’s Gratitude (Replica)’.】

Mophis glanced at her inventory, where a static photo card printed with her smiling face had appeared, and her lips twitched uncontrollably.

“Officials… you really know how to make money, huh…”

Even her smile could be turned into a replica and handed out as rewards.

Did these GMs have no shame?

She shook her head, too lazy to complain, and focused her attention outside.

…

Outside the library.

Player【Passerby A】was staring excitedly at the “Wife’s Smile” card in his inventory, ready to go all out farming another set of ten.

Just then, a sudden change occurred!

“Wommmm——”

A faint yet soul-penetrating hum came from the direction of the library.

All players instinctively stopped what they were doing and looked up.

On the ancient spire of the Forgotten Library, a golden halo inscribed with sacred runes appeared out of thin air!

The halo was enormous, covering nearly the entire sky above the library.

At this moment, most of the halo remained dim, with only a tiny section glowing softly.

At the center of the halo, a line of numbers that every player could understand appeared.

【Guardian Barrier Repair Progress: 10/1,000,000 (0.001%)】

The scene fell into deathly silence.

Then, like a tidal wave, an uproar exploded!

“Wha… what is that? A progress bar?”

“Holy crap! It’s the barrier repair progress bar! I handed in 10 pages, and the progress went up by 10!” shouted Player【Passerby A】excitedly, pointing at the sky.

“One million! We need a total of one million pages! Oh my god, that workload is insane!”

“Insane? This is exciting! This means we’re part of a great project worthy of being recorded in history!”

“Brothers! Do you see it? Every ounce of effort we put in—Wife sees it all! Our contributions show directly on that bar!”

“What are you waiting for? Grind! Fill that bar as soon as possible! Restore Wife’s home to safety! Charge!”

If before, the players’ motivation to farm came from their affection for Mophis and desire for rewards—

Now, this massive, straightforward progress bar gave them a powerful sense of participation and collective honor in “building a home together.”

Every player felt like an indispensable part of this grand endeavor.

Their enthusiasm was completely ignited.

“For Wife! Grind like hell!”

“If I don’t farm 1,000 pages today, I don’t deserve to be a member of the Knights!”

“Out of the way! That ‘Wailing Euclid’s Elements’ is mine!”

The entire Western Wasteland became a sea of joy and frenzy.

GM【Pangu】stood in the monitoring center, watching the steadily growing progress bar on the screen and the players below who were acting as if they’d been injected with chicken blood.

A satisfied smile spread across his face.

“Excellent.

The players’ emotions have been fully mobilized.

This main quest is off to a very smooth start,” he said to the staff beside him.

A young GM in charge of data monitoring, however, frowned.

“Chief… something’s wrong.”

“Hm?”【Pangu】turned back.

“This… this progress bar visual effect wasn’t designed by us.” The young GM pulled up the backend code, looking utterly perplexed.

“Our original plan was to let Mophis release a cutscene to display the repair process once she had received a certain number of pages. This simple, crude progress bar… where did it come from?”

【Pangu】’s smile froze.

He strode quickly to the data console and examined it carefully.

Sure enough, in the barrier’s visual effects module, there was a new section of code—one he had never seen before.

The logic was simple, yet frighteningly effective.

Its implantation method was exceedingly clever, perfectly avoiding their monitoring alarms.

Cold sweat beaded on【Pangu】’s forehead.

Only one person could have done this.

“Mophis…”

He muttered, eyes filled with shock and confusion.

She… she had not only altered the quest they had released, but now, she was actively rewriting their official main storyline?

How was that even possible?

How could an NPC possess such high-level permissions?

“Chief, should we… shut down for maintenance immediately and wipe out that abnormal code?” asked the nervous subordinate.

“No…”【Pangu】took a deep breath, his expression turning extremely complex.

“Do not touch it.”

He looked at the screen, at the players whose passion had multiplied a hundredfold thanks to the “progress bar,” and made a difficult decision in his heart.

“Let it be.”

“From now on, this ‘progress bar’ is our official design.

For public statements, say it was launched as a ‘real-time interaction system’ to enhance player engagement.”

“Also,” he paused, his tone deadly serious, “raise NPC ‘Mophis’ monitoring level to the highest tier! I want to know her every move! Every breath, every heartbeat—none of her data must slip by!”