Learning to play games, a 40-year-old woman achieves a remarkable turnaround.

After her business venture failed miserably, a mountain of debt weighed heavily on Yuan Baoya's shoulders. Overnight, the merciless butcher's knife of time seemed to go mad and out of control, carving its marks on her face. Her former stubborn spirit was completely worn away, and she seemed to have been drained of all vitality, aging more than ten years in an instant.

The light that once shone in their eyes now resembles two beads covered in thick dust, dim and filled with deep despair.

In an attempt to escape the quagmire of debt, she humbly begged for help everywhere, her former self-respect being trampled underfoot. But reality was like a cold, hard, and impenetrable iron wall. Every attempt to break through resulted in a painful and bloody end. All paths were firmly blocked, and she could not find a glimmer of hope.

Those friends who once called her brothers and sisters are now struggling and adrift in the turbulent waves of life amidst the mask storm. They are too busy taking care of themselves to lend a helping hand. It's like a clay Bodhisattva crossing a river, barely able to save itself.

Yuan Baoya slumped helplessly in the small, dark, and suffocating room, looking up at the dim, flickering light bulb on the ceiling. Despair surged through her like a tidal wave, one after another, completely engulfing her.

She was trapped in a black hole of self-doubt, with the same voice echoing in her mind: "Why am I so unlucky? Will I ever be able to crawl out of this mess in my lifetime? I'm afraid I'll be stuck here until I die."

Back then, Yuan Baoya was also a beloved daughter cherished by her father. However, her father passed away early, leaving behind her and her two children, and the heavy burden of life began to fall on them.

Her subsequent marriage was like a wrecked ship riddled with holes, capsizing at any moment. After the divorce, she was like a lonely and helpless old hen, only able to do her best to protect her son and support her elderly mother, struggling to move forward step by step in this cold and indifferent world.

On her way to find a new job, age seemed like a towering, insurmountable chasm. All the resumes she sent out disappeared without a trace, and interview invitations were extremely rare. After being repeatedly rejected, she became disheartened and gave up, spending her days in a daze, like a sleepwalker, her mind filled with absurd and outrageous thoughts like winning the lottery or getting rich overnight.

Reality was too cruel, and like an ostrich, she buried her head in the sand of fantasy, unwilling to face the bleakness of life.

"How many times in a person's life can they have the chance to leap over the dragon gate and completely turn their life around?" Yuan Baoya counted on her fingers, her face full of bitterness as she recounted the past. "I'm already forty-two, and I'm almost halfway to the ground. Can I really expect a third wind of good fortune to blow my unlucky life in the right direction?"

She often indulged in fantasies, longing for the possibility of traveling back to the past like in novels. She believed she would study diligently, study hard, pass the high school entrance exam, and then enter university, thus raising her starting point in life significantly and avoiding her current miserable state.

At noon, Yuan Baoya dragged her heavy steps home, casually tossing the mysterious game card onto the bedside table as if it were a rag, and then completely forgot about it.

When night fell, like a large quilt covering the world, she fell into a deep sleep as soon as her head hit the pillow.

Just as she was drifting off to sleep, a clear "ding" sound, like the morning bell of a temple, pulled her back from her slumber.

"Welcome to the Fate Transfer Station. Would you like to activate the Perfect Life Game System?" The voice was ethereal, as if it came from the depths of the universe.

Yuan Baoya muttered in her dream, "What game system? Stop messing around, I'm sleepy."

"This system is called the Perfect Life Game System, designed to provide those with the right destiny with an opportunity to make amends for past regrets and cultivate their abilities. I am the 9th subsystem dispatched by this system; you can call me Subsystem 9. Currently, I am only in the initial stage. You need to continuously cultivate, complete various tasks, and earn points to gradually level up. You can also advance based on the points you earn and receive corresponding generous rewards. The higher the system level, the more functions you unlock, and the more powerful and useful it becomes." The voice explained patiently and unhurriedly.

Although Yuan Baoya was still a bit dazed, she became interested and hurriedly asked, "How do I get into the game? Where do I open the login platform? Is there a link?"

"My lord, you only need to fall asleep to log into the game." The system's voice was clear and bright.

"Log into the game while asleep? That means you'll be stuck in the game forever, unable to wake up?"

"The game will ask you to log in when you fall asleep. You can also log out at any time after you enter. The time spent in the game will be automatically compressed and cleverly converted according to the length of your sleep, so it will never affect your daily life. You can play with peace of mind." 9 quickly dispelled her concerns.

"Oh, so you're playing a cultivation and leveling-up game in your dreams?" Yuan Baoya asked, seemingly understanding but not quite.

"Yes."

"Will playing this game have any side effects? Will I wake up with a headache like I'm still hungover, or forget everything I did in the game as soon as I open my eyes? Also, if I don't complete the mission, will I be punished, will they deduct money from my paycheck or something?" Yuan Baoya was full of doubts, like an alert little rabbit, with her ears perked up and her eyes full of vigilance.

"No, the games designed by this system are all positively incentivized tasks. You can choose the tasks you want to do from the task interface, and earn points, get rewards, and level up based on the completion of the tasks. If you fail a task, you will be automatically exited, and you can challenge the task again after meeting certain conditions or after a period of time." The system patiently answered each question.

"That's great! Does that mean we've started yet?" Yuan Baoya was relieved, her tone revealing a hint of anticipation.

"Just one last step and we can start the game."

What's the final step?

"Once you see the interface that appears, click OK to start the game."

"Sure!"

"Confirmed. The Perfect Life Game System is now in operation. Please stay tuned..."

The scene in Yuan Baoya's mind instantly turned into complete darkness, and a voice that seemed to come from a very distant place rang out: Yuan Baoya, please choose which period of your life you would most like to return to?

"That must have been when I first started junior high school. If I went back, I would definitely study hard and improve every day, and firmly grasp the ticket to high school and college!"

"Please keep clicking on the flashing points to gather them into a large light screen."

After Yuan Baoya performed a series of operations, the flashes gathered into a large screen of light. The scene changed, and she was sitting in the classroom of Class 3, Grade 7. In the classroom, Yuan Xiaogu, who had a serious face, was talking about the text in her plastic Mandarin with a local accent.

The classmates around me all looked so familiar yet strange, and they were still very young.

She turned her head and looked at her deskmate. Oh my, it was Wei Li, who was just like her and adorably silly. The two of them were "snack allies" back in the day, often getting together to share spicy strips, popsicles and the like from outside the school gate.

Yuan Baoya was a little confused. This... this is it? She's really back in the first year of junior high?