Solo Journey

Solo Journey is a virtual-reality online-game novel by Alcohol Allergy (also known as Xian Ge Ya Yi, author of Starlight Reflection). Serialization began on Qidian on March 25, 2008, and concluded on May 17, 2012; the book runs about 1.04 million characters in 216 chapters across ten volumes, including volumes such as "First Awakening," "Wandering," and "The Dungeon." The story takes place in the game world of Farville Continent: Jeffries Kidd (Jeff) has spent countless years as a gate guard NPC, speaking fixed lines and executing fixed commands. A trading mishap accidentally frees him from his programmatic constraints; he can see the name tags above everyone's heads and consult a magic diary that records quests. Awakened, he is neither an original inhabitant nor a player, and must set out on a journey carrying both the rules of the natives and his newfound freedom. He is joined by Bull Million, a minotaur warrior with an absurdly long name; Xian Ge Ya Yi, a nearsighted elf ranger who excels at close-range shooting; and Fei Yin, a money-obsessed but reliable mage. In a ludicrous world where chickens are fiercer than human lives, they hunt wild dogs, besiege bandits, and crawl through mine shafts, leaving chaos in their wake. What moves readers most is the book's warmth and lucidity: the protagonist neither rebels against human violence nor dreams of ruling the world; he simply lives inside the game with his player friends and makes his own choice when the servers shut down. The author wraps questions about existence and life in humor, making this game novel read like a slightly melancholy fairy tale.