This is a spoiler written by someone else (it's more of a summary than a spoiler) http://lucathia-rykatu.livejournal.com/134205.html. -------
This series is amazingly funny and quirky, but it also have its serious moments. ♥ It's set way in the future where technology is pretty advanced (fax machines can transmit real people and objects instead of paper, haha), but the setting is mostly in an online virtual game with a realism level of 99%. I was very amused by Lan's troubles of meeting people in real life that she knows from the games. She certainly had a more and more difficult time hiding that she's actually a girl (since she plays a guy character).
The manga follows the novels really closely, but it's way less detailed. A group of people have also started translating the novels into English too. I think my favorite thing about this series is all the Chinese references and the way Lan thinks to herself. What other series would have 2 girls and 2 guys fighting over the same person in an online game while an onlooker thinks, "Ah, four people. Just enough for mahjong. They even have a common topic (the person they're fighting over)!"
1/2 Prince novel in Chinese
1/2 Prince novel translations
Haha, darkicedragon, don't read what's inside the cut. =P
Woohoo, super long notes to help me remember the series! Starting from stuff that happens after chapter 30 of the manga...because I can't seem to remember what part is the manga and what part is the novel from the parts where both are available. ^^;;
Oh man, this series sure has squee-worthy scenes. I hope they make it into the manga. XD; Sunshine's flying carpet hasn't been mentioned yet, but I'm sure it'll be in the next manga chapter. I can't wait until Lan's friends show off their powers to protect the castle in the manga. :D
Loved it when Gui met his other students (Jing and Yun) and informed them of their essay scores. XD;
Prince, Gui, Wicked, Fairsky, and Ice Phoenix...in a band to earn money! How did they earn money though...they were too busy running away from the crowd all the time. 0___0;; Eee, Meatbun and Gui's Fire Phoenix getting married? LOL, so Meatbun is actually a "he." Prince's busting into Wicked and Gui's room = priceless. I was also laughing a lot when Prince announced he was going to room with Kenshin and Sunshine. Silly Prince, only you know they're NPCs!
The new character Xi Men Feng (West Gate Wind) is a girl by day, a guy by night (because of a curse...kind of like Ranma?), and has something to settle with Gui! Hilarious character. Poor guy is totally scared of Yu Lian. Forced to take pictures as both a guy and a girl for the photobooks.
...a monster that lets you take pictures. XDDD Photobooks and novels in an online game...
And so, Second Life upgrades so that you actually get dirty, need to take showers, and need to go to the bathroom. Why in the world would you want such a realistic game ??? Having to take showers and go to the bathroom in a game is way too inconvenient and realistic. Haha, but of course, Prince can't handle bathing with actual guys.
Oh my, Fairsky falling in love with Sunshine? Totally saw that coming in the novels, but really, falling in love with an NPC. What will come of this?
The scenes where people find out that Feng Lan = Prince are very well done. ♥ She's practically found out by everyone who knows her personally in real life (one after another!) but the pacing was gradual enough that it was still quite suspenseful. Her parents are the next to confront her in the classical approach of using Lan's name in casual speech. Silly Prince answered to the name anyway. XD; Her parents totally recognized her singing. Jing and Yun asked Prince bluntly if Prince knew "Feng Lan" and when Prince answered no, Yun replied, "Of course no one would say they know themselves!" Hahaha, both Jing and Yun felt so stupid for believing Prince helped them out of the good of his heart. They found out because Feng Lan showed no interest in Prince (usually she would be jumping all over the chance of meeting a hot guy) and they heard from Yang Ming that she's playing as a boy. As for Yang Ming, he found out when Prince got into a temper and ran away. Then it finally clicked. He was sure dense since he knew all along his sister was playing as a guy. XD;
LOL, and what do Jing and Yun do right afterward finding out? Convince Feng Lan to go on a date with Min Ju Wen and Zhuo Ling Bin to see who she likes better. XD;; Man, what dates they were! First, Lan's friends come up with the most ridiculous situation for their professor to help with (something about how Lan was getting pestered by a guy and needed a pretend boyfriend). Min Ju Wen only agreed to help to tell Lan that he's already in love (since he thought she was trying to confess to him). If only he knew Prince was Lan! =P His side of things totally needs to be ficced.
Leng Hu (Cold Fox) is such a cool character. XD; He's ranked third strongest in Second Life. Came to challenge Prince (he just likes looking for strong opponents) but Prince asked Kenshin to fight in his stead instead. In the end, Leng Hu ended up following Kenshin everywhere after getting beaten. Mysterious (ridiculously strong) guy cloaked in black who wishes Kenshin were a girl... XDD
So after Prince runs away, he meets another BOSS NPC, Tian Xian (I suppose his name would be translated as "God" or "Deity")...of course. Another NPC with a conscience. He falls in love with Doll! Things are becoming dangerous...
Ooo, the leaders of the other continents appear to discuss the sudden assassins that have been showing up on all continents.
On a sidenote, Feng Wu Qing (Wind Heartless) really does fall in love with Lolidragon. Wow, the fans were right.
Eastern Continent - Dong Kai (Eastern Triumph). Only sees money. XD; MONEY MONEY MONEY. Guess who he knows in real life? Yu Lian! Even more shocking is that Yu Lian serves Doll, who's the princess of her country. Ah, so Yu Lian didn't join Odd Squad because she was touched by their story but rather because she was keeping an eye on Doll...this certainly needs to be ficced too.
Western Continent - Sheng Jing Xi Xi (Super Silly). He chases after beautiful things with his wife, who ranks higher than him in the game. They take spots #5 and #9...I think. He wields a HUGE sword. He treats Prince like a young boy.
Southern Continent - Bu Si Nan (Never Dying Guy or...Immortal Guy maybe). Haha, poor buff guy with shoujo looking eyes. He confessed over 3000 times but was always rejected and is the first to mistake Prince for a girl. He never, ever dies. Kind of like a cockroach.
Northern Continent - Bei Fang Yu Zhi Hua (Flower of the North). Well, apparently she has five husbands. They're the first to be assassinated with the HD program, which entirely erased their characters, so she never actually appeared.
Central Continent - Prince!
Man, I wish we got to see more of the other continents other than Central and Eastern. I'd have liked to see the Southern and Western Continents too, and also the Northern Continent before it got infested by NPCs.
Okay, so they find out that the Northern Continent was completely taken over by NPCs, whose leader is called Sheng Ming Zhu Zai (Ruler of Life), whose intelligence is far above all humans. He wants to erase all humans from Second Life. Prince and everyone else start training in determination to finish him off so that they can save Kenshin and Sunshine's existence. Kenshin, however, doesn't want to have to kill other NPCs to survive.
Lolidragon ends up being not just a normal hidden GM, but rather the daughter of the company that released Second Life! She tells Prince that the Ruler of Life was modeled after a real person, her older cousin Long Dian, who is currently a convict. He experimented on real people, putting their consciousness into Second Life, making them into NPCs, and then killing off their bodies to see if their consciousness could continue surviving. shivers The Second Life company didn't want to delete these NPCs' data. Kenshin and Sunshine are such people...talk about freaky.
Lolidragon and the others develop an ND explosion program (a program that deletes the NPC and your character at the same time). Prince offers to install the program to fight the Ruler of Life. Lolidragon agrees and tells him that Prince is the only one who can fight the Ruler of Life anyway. (Something's going on here!) Gui makes a fuss, asking why Prince is the only one suffering. (Of course, they're totally not going to let Prince do it on his own!)
Northern continent, here we go!
Wicked's "dying scene" is so heart-wrenching. ;____; He gave Prince his best sword after Prince lost his Black Dao and activated the ND explosion program. Gui's the next to go. I squealed when Prince recognized Gui even though Gui was disguised as Xi Men Feng (South Gate Wind). I thought the scene was not as touching though...since both of them were disguised as other people. XDD But man, both of Lan's protectors died early. T___T I guess they had the biggest emotional impact...
What really got to me were the NPCs Wicked and Gui erased in their parting shot. Although Wicked and Gui's characters got erased, they're still alive in the real world like Tian Xian said. But the NPCs they erased are gone. Completely. They had their own consciousness too...
Prince bawling his eyes out...what I'd give to be in the heads of all those other people who don't know his gender yet. XD
All rightie, so, final battle with the Ruler of Life! Prince versus Ruler of Life. The Ruler of Life ended up being the one who helped Lan with the gender change, gave Prince Meatbun instead of a drooling dragon for a pet (because Lan likes meatbuns), gave Lan her super strong sword that levels up, and he's even the one who gives her the blood tiara. Ah, so Prince received a lot of special treatment after all! Of course Prince can't kill the Ruler of Life now that he knows he likes him and that the Ruler of Life is also being controlled...by none other than Long Dian, Lolidragon's cousin and the creator of Second Life. (Long Dian created Second Life based on Lolidragon's likes.)
Prince's character gets erased. Everyone agrees to meet in the real world. This chapter made me BURST WITH GLEE.
Gui and Wicked, the first two to get erased, meet up at Lolidragon's place (whose real name is Long Shui Han. She really does have a dragon in her name) to trace Long Dian's IP. They start equipping real life equipment (shoes that boosts jump, armor, laser guns, etc) in preparation to battle Long Dian. Gui comments that no one can actually use things like those in real life. Wicked picks up a gun and shoots consecutive bullseye right after Gui says that. (pats Gui You may be a professor with an IQ of 200, but you're still just a professor)
Doll is the first to come. She looks pretty and refined. :) Yu Lian is of course with her, along with a guy with gold-rimmed glasses (Dong Kai, the leader of the Eastern continent). Yu Lian immediately jumps into the arms of Ugly Wolf even though it's the first time they met in real life. ♥
Doll ends up being super good with weapons. XDD
The next to come is a short, feminine boy who Gui mistakes for Ming Huang (Wicked replies, "You think I wouldn't recognize my own brother?) So who's this mysterious young looking boy?? XD; NAN GONG ZUI. Ahahaha. He's 25 and a police, but he sure looks young. Priceless.
Fairsky's not all that much different. :3
Cold Fox ends up being...a high school boy! (and the top assassin of the mafia!)
Next chapter, Lan is playing catch up with the rest of the group. Lolidragon mistakenly think Lan's trying to race her until she figures out it's Prince. Lolidragon makes Lan wear a bunch of armor and headgear, so the rest don't immediately figure out that Lan is a girl (they only notice that she's pretty short).
Buuuuuut, while battling a robot outside of Long Dian's location, Fairsky pulls off Lan's headgear (I forgot why. I think...because she was angry about not being able to save Sunshine...wait a minute. Fairsky + Sunshine ??? dies at the pun I should have made the connection earlier.). She is entirely surprised that Prince is a girl!!
Ahahahahahah.
And so, Lan has to explain. Some of them question if she's really Prince, but when she starts pummeling Gui, they agree that it's Prince. Gui is shocked that Prince ended up being so close the entire time. (His own student!) He very cutely resisted the urge to hug Lan because she's his student. XD; He's sad that Wicked knew so much about Lan.
Ugly Wolf already guessed her identity from the time she visited him in the infirmary. Yu Lian already guessed that Prince was a girl. Doll never even had the thought that Prince could be a girl. Nan Gong Zui wondered what Ice Phoenix would think once she found out.
Long Dian escapes with the super computer. The entire WORLD IS IN DANGER. Lan and the others log onto a messed up Second Life (to save Kenshin and Sunshine's data). The NPCs are all running around and you can create a character to look any way you want. A bunch of people create their characters based on Prince, so there's a bunch of Prince running around. T________T;; Lan is appalled, but Gui recognizes her and saves her. Lan is touched but wonders why Gui recognizes her out of all the Princes but couldn't recognize her in real life. Gui replies that he probably forced himself not to notice because of their promise that he wouldn't look for Prince in real life.
...Prince ends up getting killed by Meatbun's jumps since Prince is only level one. XD;
He meets the Ruler of Life and finds out that the Ruler of Life and Long Dian will be merging. Long Dian, who has cancer, has been trying to find a way to extend his life. After merging with the Ruler of Life, the Ruler of Life's consciousness will disappear. Lan doesn't want that, so she plans to save him.
Everyone starts training under Cold Fox for 2 weeks. In the end, Lan, her brother, Lolidragon, Nan Gong Zui, Ugly Wolf, and Yu Lian are strong enough to go, but Gui doesn't pass the test. (professors are physically weak after all...) Kenshin and Sunshine help sneak them to the island that Long Dian escaped to. Long Dian finds out and traps them in an RPG like situation where they have to battle boss after boss. They escape the building and return to the ship to determine how to get into the real base. Lan wishes to contact Gui to make use of his high IQ...Gui then walks outside of the ship. He sneaked along after all. (of course, how could Gui miss the last battle after all?)
Wicked opens the door to the base to find that one of his professors was trapped to help Long Dian research how to merge him with the Ruler of Life. A bunch of other experts are trapped with him. Long Dian appears and the final battle starts. Lolidragon's the first to get hit. Ugly Wolf is out of the scene to treat her by transferring Lan's brother's blood. Long Dian laments that he has nothing now (duh, you just harmed the girl you like). Lan cuts her hair to make herself look more like Prince so that the Ruler of Life might recognize her and stop. Cold Fox's three knives are the only things that can harm Long Dian, but Cold Fox is disabled quickly, and Nan Gong Zui meets a similar fate. Wicked tries to stop Lan. Gui takes a hit for Lan. All this is being broadcasted for the entire world to see. After a bunch of blows and parries, Lan wins by cutting off Long Dian's head. The world rejoices over "Prince's" win.
After this...is the "epilogue." The ten years later thing. XD;
Ugly Wolf and Yu Lian marry. Ugly Wolf moves to Yu Lian's country.
Doll becomes the Queen of her country.
Lolidragon and Lan's brother marry and have cute kids.
Wicked is sadly still single. ^^;; They figure a way to get Kenshin and Sunshine into the real world. Kenshin refuses to go live with Cold Fox and instead becomes the cleaner of Lan's home. Kind of like the real Kenshin in Rurouni Kenshin. XDDD
Sunshine and Fairsky marry.
Rose and Broken Sword marry (both are shocked that Lan is Prince.)
And of course, Lan and Gui marry. Gui ends up being the one who gives birth to their girl. LOL. All because Lan doesn't want to go through the pain. This novel is crazy. XDD What a future world this is where even guys can give birth.
Lan's brother consoles Wicked, saying that if Lan had chosen him, he'd be the one giving birth. XDD Wicked laments that if he had been the one to take the blow for Lan and end up in a one month coma, things may have turned out differently.
Lan's daughter...seems to want to be Wicked's bride. I think he'll fall for her eventually.
Doll and Tian Xian want to marry. Doll deserts her position as queen.
THE END.