Transforming Succubus: Almost Doomsday

Seeing his father's face, Zhou Baiyu hugged him without hesitation.

"Alright, alright. You've run into some trouble again, haven't you?"

Zhou Zeshui was slightly disdainful.

He was an ordinary middle-aged man with a job that most people would consider respectable.

But because he was too laid-back, he had always been stuck in a middling position.

Fortunately, his capabilities were outstanding. Although various unhealthy practices were growing in his workplace, they wouldn't dare touch those few who could actually get things done.

Of course, they also wouldn't promote such people to very high positions.

Upon seeing Zhou Baiyu, Zhou Zeshui didn't give him a pleasant look.

After all, the Zhou family's child was still single at this point, which really wasn't a good look.

Zhou Baiyu said with a chuckle,

"Mom, are you playing games?"

"You have the nerve to come back! Let me tell you, the girl I introduced you to last time, what great qualities she has! She can play chess with you, team up with you in dual-player cooperative games, isn't averse to mobile games, can take you to the rank of King, can help you draw Keqing!"

Zhou Baiyu's mother's surname is Wang, and she has a particularly old-fashioned 1980s Hong Kong-style name, Shufen.

However, Ms. Wang Shufen is not old-fashioned at all. She often organizes games alone with a bunch of unfamiliar college and high school students. She has played through every script murder mystery, escape room, and various board game stores in Linxiang City.

There wasn't a game arcade nearby that Ms. Wang hadn't visited.

Not long ago, Ms. Wang started to learn skateboarding, donning big sunglasses, applying red lipstick, wearing a tank top that showed off her belly, looking as cool as a rebellious punk girl, her energy no less than that of younger people.

Perhaps it was because of his extremely unconventional mother and extremely dull father that Zhou Baiyu's personality sometimes appeared to have a dual nature.

"Mom, this isn't about finding me a girlfriend. I'm too embarrassed to expose you, but it's clear you just want to find a girl to play games with you, right?"

"Nonsense... Zhou Zeshui, control your son!"

"Cough cough, come inside first. Just in time, I'm going to cook," Zhou Zeshui said as he consciously tied on an apron.

The living room of Zhou Baiyu's parents was in a vertically aligned apartment with a total of 86 square meters, decorated quite simply and old-fashioned, with a preference for mahogany furniture.

The coffee table, dining table, and TV cabinet were all made of wood. The furniture and decoration style were Zhou Zeshui's last vestiges of dignity.

In the living room, Ms. Wang, holding the controller, didn't even glance at Zhou Baiyu, completely engrossed in her game.

Zhou Baiyu quite liked watching his mother play games.

As a child, it was MapleStory, Mario, Contra. After starting school, it turned to Red Alert, Age of Empires, and Warcraft.

Latter on, it gradually shifted to today's mainstream games. Back in the day, internet-addicted Auntie Wang Shufen wouldn't let Zhou Zeshui buy a record player. Thus, Zhou Zeshui also denied Wang Shufen a PS5.

Later, she tricked Zhou Zeshui by saying it was a large-sized router. Zhou Zeshui, helpless, could only pretend to believe that it was a router capable of playing games.

"You kid, why did you find the time to come back today?"

"Nothing much, just wanted to see you and Dad."

"You have some conscience. It would be even better if you got a girlfriend. Let me tell you, you're not getting any younger..."

Mrs. Wang opened the floodgates of speech. It turns out, no matter how cool or trendy a mom is, when her son reaches Zhou Baiyu's age, she will start pressuring him to marry.

Zhou Baiyu made no attempt to avoid it.

He once tried to use his strong "Infectious Power" to convince his parents to give up on pressuring him to marry.

Ironically, while his words could influence many people at critical moments of life or death, even persuading succubi, they were completely ineffective against his parents.

The arranged marriage meetings and blind dates never decreased.

Usually, Zhou Baiyu would have chosen to hide, but today he didn't.

Perhaps he really was worried that he might die.

So now, what he saw as the countdown in his eyes was the countdown to his life.

Mrs. Wang Shufen kept prattling on.

Saying things like how, when she was young, she was already playing with three boys at the same time, or how not to judge her husband by his current sober demeanor, for it was only because he had had his fill of fun. When he was young, he dated four girls in his class without any of them finding out about each other...

And she also mentioned things like if a man was still a virgin at thirty, he would become a "Magician," asking if he was tired of being a Muggle or something.

The implication was that she disapproved of Zhou Baiyu not having the family genes.

She even doubted whether her own son was still a virgin.

Zhou's mother had no idea that after a seven-day journey, Zhou Baiyu had already been through countless battles, and had even completed the challenge of the non-human mother.

Of course, this involves an ethical question—since I'm using attendant Jiang Xianwu's radish to feed the succubus, does that mean I, the human Zhou Baiyu, am still clean?

Anyway, once mom's chatterbox was opened, she was like a live-streaming host selling products, chattering nonstop.

Every now and then, there would be complaints like "Ouch, how did I die again!"

Zhou Baiyu just listened slowly, his eyes on the game screen.

The game is called Hades.

It tells the story of the son of the god of the underworld who, wanting to see his mother, tries to escape from Hell to return to the surface over and over.

In this story, there are many gods: the storm god, the god of strong drink, the Wisdom Goddess, the god of love, the thunder god, and others...

But these gods are like certain rules, not directly helping the protagonist.

Instead, they offer various services at random.

Zhou Baiyu was just amused at first, but gradually, he began to feel...

Why does this game feel so familiar?

Ms. Wang Shufen, in the process of her non-stop rambling, had died three times because the more she talked, the more carried away she got.

After three starts, Zhou Baiyu noticed... that each start had a different map, and the gods he encountered were also different.

The game had a great sense of diversity and chaos.

And every death, for the protagonist, wasn't really a death at all.

The protagonist seemed to be trapped in an endless cycle, with death merely the start of a new cycle.

"This game seems very despairing. But it's quite interestingly designed, isn't it? Even if you clear the game, you'd still return to Hell, and there's actually no end point?"

"Not exactly."

Seeing Zhou Baiyu ask, Ms. Wang stopped her incessant chatter about urging marriage and getting rid of virginity.

"Actually, no game can go on forever. Game creators make you repeat experiences so that you can reach the true ending. Once the true ending is achieved, the game naturally ends. That's the routine with these pigeon games."

This statement from his mother made Zhou Baiyu suddenly freeze.

In that moment, as if an electric current passed through his body, Zhou Baiyu had an epiphany:

"Yes, that's it! The secret to the endless mode is this!"

"What are you babbling about, you're talking nonsense, right, I was telling you, your Aunt Liu told me she has a niece who's twenty-eight this year... hey, what are you doing, you brat!"

Ms. Wang hadn't finished speaking when Zhou Baiyu, having had a sudden realization as if he figured out a problem and his mind cleared, immediately hugged her and kissed her cheek.

Although she pretended to dislike it, Ms. Wang was actually very happy.

"Time to eat," said Zhou Zeshui, wearing an apron, with a honest and simple smile.

The family quickly sat down at the dinner table, and the task of urging Zhou Baiyu to marry shifted from Ms. Wang's solo effort to a tag-team effort with her husband.

This time, Zhou Baiyu was very cooperative, promising that once he finished up with his current busy period, he would definitely find a girl to talk to.

...

...

For the next two days, Zhou Baiyu didn't return to the transfer station; instead, he led a very normal life.

During those two days, Zhou Baiyu played games with Ms. Wang Shufen every day, experiencing many enlightenments.

At night, he also began using Google Earth to analyze the structure of Linxiang City.

Although the next recruitment scene might not be in Linxiang City, Zhou Baiyu believed that he would return to Linxiang City in some version.

He had to find out, just how long the gap was between version 1.01 and version 1.0.

Time flew by, and on the third day, Zhou Baiyu sensed that the update announcement was about to appear, so he bid farewell to his parents, afraid that his mother's computer would suddenly blue screen and show something it shouldn't.

So Zhou Baiyu went to his own rental building.

Ling Hansu was already sitting in front of the computer like a well-behaved baby, waiting for Zhou Baiyu to arrive.

The two of them proceeded with familiarity, quietly waiting for the "blue screen."

With the last two hours of the countdown remaining, the update announcement with a mechanical texture, resembling the intricate design of a precision clock, finally appeared.