[Beautiful Girl Masquerade System at your service.]
[Host: Mu Heng]
[Current Identities: Robin, Firefly, Sparkle, Elysia]
[Current Objectives: Songstress (Completed), Iron Cavalry (Completed), Joy (Completed), True Self (11.5%)]
It had been roughly a month since she had transformed into Elysia. Looking at the 11.5% progress, it was clear this identity was progressing the slowest of the four.
"Could it be that I'm misunderstanding something?" she wondered.
But that didn't quite add up. If she were mistaken, why was the 'True Self' progress still increasing daily?
Did this mean the 'True Self' objective wasn't about her acting as Elysia, but rather that her daily actions just happened to align with the definition of 'True Self', leading to this peculiar phenomenon?
"What daily actions?" Elysia racked her brain. It couldn't be basic routines like waking up, eating, bathing, or sleeping, could it?
Apart from those, the only other thing she did daily was "work" at the White Tower. But she couldn't imagine how that could possibly align with the definition of 'True Self'.
"Could it be related to my other 'Selves'?" she mused.
Come to think of it, each identity's objectives were always completed by that identity alone. For example, Robin's Songstress mission—when she only had the Robin identity, naturally only Robin could handle it.
As for Firefly, the System demanded exhilarating combat, something Robin couldn't possibly fulfill. So Firefly had to take care of it herself.
Sparkle's Joy objective, on the other hand, was a breeze. With her innate talent for finding amusement, neither Robin nor Firefly needed to lift a finger.
This meant that, even now, she remained uncertain whether her previous identities could complete the latest System Mission.
Reflecting on what her other three selves had been up to this past month: Robin had held her third concert, but aside from a few days of hectic preparations, she'd mostly stayed home. Elysia had kept a close eye on the System's "True Self" growth, noting a steady, fixed daily increase without any spikes from the concert.
Firefly, meanwhile, had returned to the Dragon Nation and also spent most of her days indoors, chatting with members of her Chat Group or duo-queuing games with Robin. Their perfect coordination made for seamless teamwork—they were absolutely crushing it!
Sparkle and Reward Sister (Jiang Li) continued filming their movie, with nothing particularly noteworthy to report.
Meanwhile, Elysia's daily life remained peaceful and uneventful. After much contemplation, she couldn't find a single common thread between these seemingly disparate events.
No, wait! A sudden realization struck her. There was a connection: every action taken by every version of herself, regardless of the persona, stemmed from her own desires.
Perhaps the definition of True Self wasn't about conforming to a specific role, but simply... allowing her to be herself.
"Ah..." Elysia's adorable little mouth fell slightly agape, her face registering utter bewilderment. Did this mean her entire period of role-playing had been meaningless?
What now? Should she continue the charade, or abandon it entirely?
But then another thought struck her. If her theory held true—that True Self meant being herself—then her True Self had continued to grow even during her performance. Didn't that imply that even pretending to be Elysia was, in essence, an act of self-expression?
That doesn't make sense! How could pretending to be someone else possibly count as being yourself?
Then, she recalled a classic line from Sparkle: "Taking off one mask—isn't that just putting on another?"
Before transmigrating to this world, she was just an ordinary person. After arriving, she rapidly rose to global fame as the top-tier singer, Robin, a transformation that could only be described as a world apart.
So, was Robin, the singer, not truly her?
Clearly, that wasn't the case. She remained fundamentally herself, whether as Robin singing, Firefly fighting, or Sparkle pulling pranks—all these actions stemmed from her own subjective choices. These personas—all of them—were extensions of her core being.
Of course, the System Missions played a role in these endeavors. But her ultimate goal in completing them was to unlock more Identities and find that slim chance of returning home.
From a broader perspective, her current role as Elysia also served that ultimate purpose of returning home. This, too, stemmed from her own subjective choices and could naturally be considered "being herself."
Or perhaps, all this elaborate explanation was unnecessary. A single phrase sufficed: "I am who I am."
As long as she avoided actions she deeply resisted, anything she did counted as "being herself." The System Objective for her "True Self" would progress accordingly.
The 'True Self' mission was undoubtedly the simplest of the four she'd encountered so far, yet paradoxically, it offered no shortcuts. She had to progress step by step, slowly grinding her way through it, with no room for impatience.
This brought her back to her initial question. Elysia lowered her gaze to her hands, a strand of pink hair slipping from behind her ear. Should she continue playing the role of 'Elysia'?
The doubt lingered for less than a second before she made her decision: of course she would!
Firstly, there were the people around her. Whether it was Carolina, Baldy Burke, or anyone in the White Tower, none of them saw her as acting. To this world, she was Elysia, and Elysia was her.
Secondly, from Elysia's own perspective, maintaining the persona was no longer a burden. Over the past month, she had fully acclimated to this body. Thanks to her daily mirror affirmations, she could now effortlessly utter Elysia's signature phrases—praising herself, complimenting others, and leveraging her overwhelmingly cute and beautiful appearance to act coy—without a moment's hesitation. Elysia's trademark charm now flowed naturally, habitually, from her lips.
Emmm, simply put... she was completely immersed in the role, in every sense of the word. Every inch of her was saturated with Elysia's essence, and for her, it was no longer an act.
People change, but had she changed too quickly?
"So, I am me—Robin, Firefly, Sparkle, and Elysia." This must be what they call sudden enlightenment. In the bathroom, gazing at her reflection—a pink-haired girl fresh out of bed, her hair slightly disheveled with a few stray strands sticking up, exuding a laid-back charm—she grinned.
She made a peace hand gesture and chuckled softly. "Well, typical me. Aren't I just adorable?"
Then, humming a cheerful tune, she began washing up and skillfully tied her hair into a low ponytail.
If someone were nearby, they might have recognized the song she was humming as Robin's "Hope Is The Thing With Feathers." But that wasn't surprising; given the song's immense popularity, countless people knew it by heart.