Sha-Ming

> Say somethin' wrong and I might get targeted by the Gnosia, end up getting' wiped out, right? Look, I don't want to stand out. You feel me?
>
>

A young man whose sole priority is ensuring his own survival. Hates standing out. Faithful only to his own selfish desires, he is generally disliked and avoided by the female members of the crew.

## Appearance

Sha-Ming has dark hair that varies in shade from dark green to black. He has grey-yellow eyes and piercings in his right ear. He wears a pair of blue-tinted goggles with a magenta band above his forehead, and yellow half-rim glasses.

He wears leather survivalists’ clothing, consisting of a black zipper jacket with purple inner sleeves that are capable of detaching into a vest. His pants are similarly lined with purple inner sleeves and unzip above the knee into a pair of shorts. He wears gold and silver necklaces, and two black belts varying in size. His hiking boots are thick-soled, and interlocked by zippers as well as laces.

## Personality

Fickle, perverted, and foul-mouthed, Sha-Ming has little to offer in terms of outward amicability- unless, of course, you're a female (or nonbinary, to an extent). His conflicting nature outweighs his initial vanity, however, as he develops a quick distaste for those he deems as capable of abusing their power, then going out of his way to annoy or frustrate those he dislikes through noncompliance. If he deduces that things might turn sour for him, contrarily, he's not opposed to begging for his life to be spared at the expense of others or his dignity.

Sha-Ming does not mix with the rest of the crew, with his pathetic nature and fanatical crush on Setsu earning him a mixed bag of opinions ranging from outright hatred to pity. However, beneath his difficult exterior lies a strong moral code that he adheres to no matter how desperate things become. His upstanding morals are especially noticeable surrounding intellectualized animals- particularly Otome, to whom he expresses genuine concern for her well-being... through a barrage of cold remarks.

Oddly, as Gnosia, Sha-Ming is one of the most actively benevolent enemies, stating on multiple occasions that he'll be 'gentle' with the remaining humans, and urging the player to eliminate Otome since to him, choosing her would be an act of mercy. Similarly, he expresses a notable regret for becoming Gnosia, as it's implied he unwillingly has flashbacks of his difficult childhood. In his Gnosia defeat ending, he is reluctant to eliminate the player out of concern that he'll be 'all alone again', indicating that he has an aversion to loneliness that could also be linked to his childhood.

## Playstyle

**Max Abilities:**

* Charisma 29
* Intuition 6.5
* Logic 6.5
* Charm 34.5
* Performance 40.5
* Stealth 49.5

Sha-Ming's sole priority is surviving and that shows through quite effectively in his stats. His Stealth is maxed out - the highest in the game - making it unlikely that he'll be targeted by the Gnosia. It also means that he can talk as much as he wants without really standing out, and in combination with his surprisingly high Charm it's difficult to get him put into cold sleep. Worse, when you *do* manage to vote him off he'll rush to use Grovel, potentially letting him live to see another day.

Grovel isn't the only skill he makes frequent use of. Small Talk is a favorite of his, and he'll often try to cover himself by asking someone to Let's Collaborate. He's particularly fixated on female characters and will regularly come to their aid or Seek Help. If he's the Guardian Angel, he's more likely to protect female characters. Unfortunately for him female characters tend not to be fond of him by default, and if you're playing as a female yourself he isn't necessarily even the greatest ally. Sha-Ming values his own survival above all, so he won't hesitate to throw you under the bus if he thinks it'll keep him from getting put into cold sleep. Still, if you don't have any better options there's no real harm in saying yes so long as you bear his treacherous nature in mind. He can't detect a lie to save his life, so if you're a female character playing as Gnosia and he's a human he can make for an easy ally to string along.

This also applies to when Sha-Ming himself is Gnosia. He doesn't really care about his allies and plays more or less the same way as always. He seldom fake claims roles, and when he actually does have a role as a human it can be difficult to get him to Step Forward. Even though he has high Performance he prefers not to take chances, making him a difficult enemy to spot. Be wary of him by default when you're playing as a human since it's all too easy for him to slip under the radar.

Offensively speaking he isn't bad, either. His Logic is horrendous, but his Performance helps him knock down people's Amicability. His Charisma is decent enough, so when he *does* speak up he'll usually get at least another person or two to agree with him. Typically he'll just spend the loop piggybacking off of others until he has little choice but to speak up, at which point he can do a decent amount of damage. Therefore if you aren't on the same side it's a good idea to try and get rid of him early; if you don't do it yourself, no one else will.

## Trivia

* Sha-Ming was named by combining the first and last characters of the mangaka Hiroaki Samura's name, whose appearance the developers based Sha-Ming off of.
* Sha-Ming is associated with the Western zodiac sign Pisces.
* An ending scenario was planned where if Sha-Ming and a male player character were the last surviving humans, Sha-Ming would try to convince the player to undergo a sex change. If the player agreed, their gender would be changed to female for the remainder of the game. This event was scrapped, but unlike other scrapped events some text of this event is present in the game's files. While other unused text was translated, the localizers didn't touch this one and it was removed altogether from the Steam release.
* Sha-Ming was voted the 3rd most popular character at the 2022 Dengeki Indie Game Awards.

## References

1. ↑ https://gnosia-game.com/
2. ↑ https://www.reddit.com/r/Gnosia\_/comments/stkzz2/gnosia\_character\_stats\_dump/3%83%AC%E3%82%A4
3. ↑ https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/286621-gnosia/79335155
4. ↑ https://steamcommunity.com/stats/1608290/achievements
5. ↑ https://tcrf.net/Gnosia#Cut\_Sha-Ming\_Event
6. ↑ https://dengekionline.com/articles/137888/