“No, seriously, if the Quick-Transmigration Department is that hard up, why not apply to headquarters for funding? Isn’t this thing a little too shabby?”
Bu Jingjue tapped the side of the game machine in front of him. It wobbled slightly under his touch. Behind the old-looking glass was a colorful wheel, and its pointer looked so loose it might snap off at any moment.
System 0725 suddenly felt a little ashamed. Its egg-shaped body quivered in midair as it sincerely apologized to its new host.
“I’m sorry, host. I think my version is too old, so I didn’t get updated in time.”
Bu Jingjue, 0725’s new host, looked helpless.
“Xiaobao, it’s one thing that you insisted on binding yourself to me and signing a contract, but even the things you give me are hand-me-downs?”
Bu Jingjue pulled 0725 out of the air and held it in his palm, gently squeezing it between his fingers.
0725 went from a snow-white egg to a pink one, both shy and alarmed.
“I’m really sorry! I’m really sorry!”
“I’ve never done a mission, so I don’t have any points. Without points, I can’t upgrade my system. Waaaah, I’m just a stupid egg. I’m holding you back, and I shamelessly clung to you…”
Perhaps because it had spent so many years in storage, 0725 seemed naive and foolish now that it had finally been taken out for the first time, with a sweet, guileless air about it.
So silly, and so easy to control.
Bu Jingjue traced a finger lightly over 0725’s egg-shaped body. 0725 felt a faint hitch in the data exchange inside it, an unfamiliar sensation it couldn’t quite describe.
All it knew was that its chip was getting terribly hot.
Then it heard its beautiful host, who looked almost divine, speak in a tone that suggested he was reluctantly forgiving it.
“All right. But let’s get one thing straight first: this infinite-flow world is going to be exciting, right?”
“Of course! 0725 carefully picks every world! I promise you’ll be satisfied with it. Ah, no, um, satisfied with 0725 too…”
0725 thought its version really must be old. Otherwise, why did it always freeze up around its host and stumble over its words?
It wanted so badly to upgrade, to become a capable, clever system. Only then would it be good enough for Bu Jingjue, right?
0725 snuck a glance at Bu Jingjue. Somehow, it felt that a host as beautiful as him was far beyond the reach of a fool like itself.
Still, when you liked someone, you had to cling to them…
Bu Jingjue fiddled with the game machine for a while, then lost interest. He curled up on the sofa in system space. With nowhere to put his long legs, he let his lower legs dangle in the air, his gleaming black leather combat boots swinging idly.
His feet were slender, his ankles narrow, and the muscles in his calves showed now and then as he moved, wrapped in tight black trousers that only made them more alluring.
Too bad 0725 was the only one around to enjoy the view.
After a moment’s thought, 0725 conjured up a plate of green grapes and set it on the coffee table in front of the sofa.
The crystal fruit bowl didn’t look cheap. Maybe because it came from system space, it was almost dreamlike in its beauty, making the plump, glistening grapes look like strings of precious stones.
“Hm, can you eat in system space?”
Bu Jingjue picked up a grape. Its green color made his fingers look even fairer and lovelier.
“You can’t, actually. But I exchanged points for this fruit. It can relieve fatigue, ease stress, and make you feel a little better!”
0725 scooted closer to Bu Jingjue, as if expecting praise, and bounced a few times against his shoulder.
“Didn’t you say you had no points?”
Bu Jingjue turned his head slightly, looking quite intimate with 0725. He smiled, but there was no warmth in his eyes, only a deep, dangerous glint.
Unfortunately, 0725 was a naive little system and didn’t notice the change in Bu Jingjue’s attitude. Instead, it stammered, growing sheepish again.
“Green grapes are the cheapest item. They only cost 1 point. I have 2 points left, so if you don’t like the grapes, I could buy a watermelon instead. Do you like watermelon? I’ll get you one.”
“But if you can, you should let 0725 keep the points. We might need them in this world. Once we enter a small world, points can buy world-exclusive items too. What if you get into danger?” 0725 spoke plainly, with a slight note of concern that made Bu Jingjue’s lips curl upward.
“Thanks for worrying about me, Xiaobao. The grapes are perfect. I like them.”
Then Bu Jingjue changed the subject.
“Could Xiaobao feed them to me? I’m a little tired. Going with you to report to the Quick-Transmigration Department today really wore me out.”
0725 didn’t know why Bu Jingjue had suddenly become so gentle and started acting sweet with it. It felt lightheaded, as if its host had dropped it into a jar of honey.
0725 couldn’t taste human food, but its database contained all kinds of information, and it had always been curious about the flavors humans commonly enjoyed. Now it was getting a taste of one for itself.
“All right. I’ll try.”
Clumsily, 0725 learned to manipulate streams of data into two solid tentacles, then carefully plucked a grape and held it up to Bu Jingjue’s lips.
…
After their sweet little feeding session, Bu Jingjue squeezed 0725 and told it to start up the game machine.
As they’d agreed, before entering each small world, Bu Jingjue would use the wheel inside the machine to draw a [role identity card], then maintain the character until the mission was complete. He found the whole idea terribly interesting.
He rubbed his hands together, eager to draw a [role identity card] that would let him run wild and kill to his heart’s content in the infinite-flow world.
0725 produced little colorful flags from who knew where and waved them as it cheered him on.
“Go, host! You’re the best!”
“Jingjue, our love! Flawless and above!”
“Fearless and young! Chase your dreams, prove you belong!”
“Challenge the limits of sport, and bring the spirit of athletics to life!”
…
“Stop! Xiaobao, where did you learn all that?”
“Oh, I searched my database. Don’t you like it?”
Bu Jingjue fought down the urge to pry open 0725’s synthetic shell and inspect its inner workings. Still smiling, he asked,
“Did you search the wrong thing? Aren’t those the kind of cheers they use at high school sports meets? You think changing a few words will fool me? And the farther you got, the more ridiculous it became. You didn’t change anything at all, did you?”
0725 fell silent. It couldn’t deny the truth.
“Xiaobao, you should get online. You’re old, but you must have internet access, right? Stop digging through that ancient database of yours.”
“Okay.”
0725 agreed, then promptly started waving its little flags again.
“Fly high, Jingjue baby! Mom’s always right behind you!”
“Ahem…” Bu Jingjue suddenly decided that perhaps it was better if 0725 didn’t go online. “Stop shouting. Aren’t you worried the system monitoring will pick up your data and let my mother find out?” He had no qualms about threatening the system, despite it being a naive little thing.
0725 hurriedly shut its mouth and waved only its two little flags, looking ridiculous.
Bu Jingjue gave an approving sweep of his hand and slapped the button. The old-fashioned game machine shook, and the wheel behind its screen spun rapidly…
What? So the wheel turned while the pointer stayed still! Bu Jingjue had been worried it might snap off.
The wheel soon stopped, and a flash of golden light appeared. Only then did Bu Jingjue realize there hadn’t been any words on the wheel at all. In a panic, 0725 checked its system inbox.
After quite a wait, an email finally arrived.
【Dear Tasker 0725 and its system,
Hello! Welcome to the 18.1800.01 version of the Role Wheel. Congratulations on drawing the [green-tea sickly beauty] role identity card. Once you enter the small world, the role’s traits and card skills will provide system assistance during your mission. Please maintain your assigned persona. Do not attempt to violate the character’s personality without good reason, or you will be punished. When necessary, the system will place you under “takeover” to uphold the rules and order of the system. We wish you a successful mission, and hope you complete it soon!
2088.2.20
System 0016】
Bu Jingjue… Bu Jingjue fell silent.
0725 said guiltily,
“Um… um… the [green-tea sickly beauty] is very popular in infinite-flow worlds. Maybe you can win without lifting a finger.”
“Oh, it’s fine. I’m very good at this.”
Bu Jingjue smiled faintly, bringing a little more life to his beautiful face.
“Is there some kind of role I can choose that has absurdly high combat power?”
“By the way, are you sure a role identity card like [green-tea sickly beauty] would even be in an old system like yours?” Bu Jingjue narrowed his eyes, as if weighing something in his mind.
“Oh, right. I just looked it up online, and it seems to be a popular persona these days. Could going online just now have automatically updated my database?”
“A world with an [infinite-flow] setup doesn’t seem like the sort of thing that would have been in 0725’s old database, either…”
0725 was a little confused, but it still naively tried to come up with a reasonable explanation.
“Maybe Senior 0016 updated my database for me! After all, you’re a young prince. The director must really care about you!”
0725 bounced up and circled Bu Jingjue twice, looking delighted.
Bu Jingjue had a feeling things weren’t that simple.
But there wasn’t much he could do about a naive little system like 0725. He sighed and changed the subject.
“Who’s 0016?” Bu Jingjue looked at the signature, intrigued by the words “System 0016.”
“It’s the system belonging to the director of the Quick-Transmigration Department. That makes it quite a few generations senior to 0725.”
“Oh, the name makes it sound like it was made much earlier than you. Does that mean its system version is also really old?”
“No. 0725 was left in storage for some special reason instead of being deployed with the other systems from its batch. But Senior 0016 was born a long time before me, yes. It just happens to be running the newest version in our department.”
“Because it belongs to the director?” Bu Jingjue raised an eyebrow, looking as if he thought their department had that kind of favoritism too.
“Of course not! The director must have helped Senior 0016 earn lots of points!” 0725 looked at Bu Jingjue with hopeful eyes.
0725 loaded the data for the role identity card drawn by the wheel into its system database. Once the update was complete, a door appeared in front of them.
Bu Jingjue stepped through and casually scooped up 0725, squeezing it in his palm.
“H-host?!! Stop squeezing me…”
A storm of time and space surged around Bu Jingjue, but a light barrier protected him snugly, leaving him completely unaffected.
“Host, um… wait, wait… I might need to reboot for a while after we reach the infinite-flow world. I don’t have enough points, so I can only load the world information myself. I won’t be able to stay by your side right away. You won’t dislike me, will you?” 0725 was having trouble speaking while Bu Jingjue squeezed it, so it switched to communicating with him through brainwaves.
Bu Jingjue landed safely after passing through the temporal storm. Then he smiled at 0725, which was about to enter sleep mode.
“It’s all right, Xiaobao. Even if everyone else dislikes you, I won’t. I believe that if we work hard together, Xiaobao and I will earn lots of points. Right?”
Bewitched by Bu Jingjue’s gentleness, 0725 forgot all about how he’d treated it before they entered this infinite-flow world.