Linjiang Jiuting was a well-known, wealthy district in City A. The brightly lit house belonged to the Gu family, an established, prominent family in the city, and hosted a birthday banquet for their youngest daughter.
This banquet, essentially a matchmaking event, drew many rising stars in the business world, including the dark horse of the commercial realm, Liang Mu.
However, the interior was far from as harmonious as people outside imagined. The hall was decorated in a bright and luxurious fashion, while waiters were busy cleaning up shattered glass and red wine spilled all over the floor. Many guests held wine glasses in their hands, staring at a certain spot upstairs and whispering among themselves.
Upstairs.
Inside the room stood two or three young men with gloomy expressions. The only seated man looked disheveled; his suit was rumpled, and more than half of his chest was drenched in red wine. Sitting by the bed with a somber expression, he said angrily, “Why didn’t you help me? I was splashed with wine by that crazy woman! Why did you all just stand by and watch?”
“I think you got what you deserved!” The young man standing at the far side exploded with curses. “Xiao She, are you playing dumb? If you hadn’t barged in and said those brazen words, who would have splashed you for no reason?! You’ve lost so much face; have you ever considered anyone else’s feelings? Do you have any self-awareness at all?!”
“She should have taken a liking to me!” the man said in fury. “What’s wrong with me? She’s just someone who returned after getting a superficial degree overseas; what right does she have to look down on me?!”
“Where do you get off being so thick-skinned?!” Hearing this made the young man even angrier. He raised his foot and kicked the man hard. The man flew into a rage, and the two sides tumbled into a brawl. The surrounding people scrambled forward to break up the fight.
At the same time, a transparent figure sat on the edge of the bed, watching their scuffle with great interest.
Xiao She was struck right in the face by the young man’s fist, leaving his entire mouth burning with pain. He spat out a mouthful of saliva, lunged forward to tackle the young man, and even as he was dragged back by others, he still managed to land several hard punches: “Do you think I don’t know? You look down on me too! Every single one of you acts so friendly on the surface, but behind my back, you all think I’m trash.”
“Bah!”
Reaching out in anger, the young man bellowed: “I’ve always said to your face that you’re trash.”
The transparent shadow was amused by these words. Standing up from the bed, he inspected the angry face closely and tutted with emotion: “This dream sure feels real.”
Pace, the shadow walked back and forth a few steps, watching the crowd chaotically break up the fight. Then, the bedroom door was gently pushed open, and a calm male voice asked, “What are you doing?”
The room fell silent for a moment. The shadow blinked, his eyes lighting up, and in an instant, he floated right in front of the man who had opened the door, saying excitedly, “This character model looks so good.”
The man was completely unaware of his approach. Seeing that no one dared to answer, he frowned and asked once more.
The people who were previously just putting on a show quickly pinned the young man down. Looking at the man at the door with a suit jacket folded over his arm, they smiled awkwardly and said, “It was just a fit of anger; we were all breaking up the fight.”
Leaning against the headboard, Xiao She gasped heavily for air. Unwilling to go along with their narrative, he sneered, “You’re just taking advantage of numbers to bully me. Now you don’t have the face to admit it?”
“You!” The young man was beside himself with anger and tried to charge forward again to strike.
Understanding what had happened, the man held the doorknob with one hand and turned sideways to clear the doorway, signaling them to haul the troublemaker out.
While being hauled out, the young man was still shouting, “Brother Liang, what on earth do you see in him?! He just happens to have a mother who climbed into bed…”
The people around him promptly covered his mouth and joined forces to drag him outside.
Quiet restored to the room. The man placed the fresh clothes he had brought beside Xiao She. His posture was lowered, yet a pair of jet-black eyes appeared somewhat cold. The man gave a cold snort, reaching out to tap something in the air.
Liang Mu looked at the man and said, “Don’t do anything reckless.”
“How would I dare?” Xiao spoke with sarcasm. “After all, you are Young Master Liang. It’s my honor that you have your eyes on me.”
Liang Mu pursed his lips, withdrew his hand, and asked, “What do you want?”
Xiao She laughed. “You’ll find out very soon. What’s the rush?”
Liang Mu closed his eyes tolerantly and said, “I beg you. Tonight is a very important banquet; I cannot…”
“Rest assured,” Xiao She interrupted directly. His smile held a touch of mockery, causing his otherwise handsome face to look somewhat distorted. He said, “I will definitely make sure you perform really well at the banquet.”
Liang Mu’s face turned pale.
At this point, the dream suddenly flickered as if experiencing a poor signal. Looking at this scene, the transparent shadow gradually recalled what dream he was having.
It was the plot of I Must Be Crazy to Aid the Poor.
It was an anti-trope novel he had read before going to sleep. The villain inside, Xiao She, was an absolute idiot. Armed with the ability to bind a system to a chosen individual and issue tasks, he acted recklessly throughout the book, only to be brought to justice on the spot by the protagonist in the end.
To think it was this novel!
The shadow screamed in his mind. He was a rich second-generation heir named Xiao She. He didn’t usually read novels, but with great difficulty, he had recently been following one, only for the author to abruptly stop updating for a whole week, completely wearing out his patience.
He knew how the plot would unfold next.
With a thought from Xiao She, the scene smoothed out again. This cinematic-like experience was immensely satisfying to Xiao She. With rich emotion, he recited Xiao She’s next line: “If you want to get through this banquet smoothly, it’s not entirely impossible.”
“If you want to get through this banquet smoothly, it’s not entirely impossible,” Xiao She followed suit.
Liang Mu looked at Xiao She as if seeing a ray of hope. Even though he knew that what followed might be an even more outrageous demand, he still had no choice but to yield: “What do you want?”
“A grand figure like Young Master Liang,” Xiao She recited this line with dramatic cadence, the most humiliating, disgraceful, and blood-boiling villain dialogue in the entire text: “doesn’t know that when begging someone, one must kneel?”
Xiao lay on the bed, looking at Liang Mu, who was staring back at him. His face bore a gratification born of malice, like someone watching a show: “A grand figure like Young Master Liang surely knows that when begging someone, one must kneel, right?”
Liang Mu’s face grew even paler. He stood frozen on the spot, looking as fragile as a crystal statue. After a long pause, he opened his mouth dryly: “Is this what you want?”
“Of course!”
Liang Mu’s eyelashes trembled slightly, his demeanor appearing fragile and unbearable. Seeing him like this, Xiao She’s heart filled with a twisted pleasure. Xiao She, however, knew that the protagonist was reaching the limit of his endurance.
Even if Liang Mu knelt down, Xiao She, as the villain, would absolutely not alter the task. And after tonight’s kneel, the villain would exhaust his very last point of Character Value, lose the system, and be ruthlessly face-slapped by the protagonist.
However, the author had stopped updating right at this point. Xiao She sat a bit closer with great relish, eagerly anticipating how his dream would complete the scene that followed.
Xiao She, lying on the bed, sneered. With blood running from the mouth wound inflicted by the young man, he watched Liang Mu standing in place, struggling in agony, urging, “It’s just a kneel. What are you putting on an act for?”
He used the back of his hand to wipe the blood from his mouth. The wound hurt so much that he gasped with a “tskkk”, not daring to wipe it again. Putting his hand to the side, he unintentionally brushed against Xiao She’s hand placed by his leg.
Blood slowly trickled from the back of his hand, unexpectedly smearing onto Xiao She’s transparent body. A faint golden glow appeared where the two touched, though Xiao She couldn’t see it. Xiao She, on the other hand, held his breath and focused entirely on Liang Mu’s next move.
He lowered his head!
He bent his legs!
He’s about to kneel, ahhhh!
Xiao was thrilled when a sudden trace of dizziness swept through his brain. The sound of electric static “zzzz” rang in his ears. An uneasy premonition rose in his heart, followed by a strange electronic voice sounding inside his mind: “Beep. Connection successful. Captured host’s stray soul body. Secondary binding with host: Xiao She.”
Xiao She was completely dumbfounded: “…Binding what?”
The static continued to buzz and hum, seemingly due to a poor connection. Blackness flashed before his eyes, and his consciousness arrived in a void space. In front of him floated a tiny glowing sphere, which repeated: “Binding with host successful.”
Xiao She said with difficulty: “Did you bind the wrong person?”
The tiny sphere flew over to his blood-stained hand, turned twice as if to confirm, and then said: “Confirmed correct.”
Only then did Xiao She notice the bloodstain on his hand. He raised his hand and frantically rubbed the tiger’s mouth area, but that trace of blood clung as if glued and could not be wiped clean. The system said: “As the host is a bound soul body, the primary mark cannot be erased.”
Xiao. She was about to faint: “Am I not dreaming?”
The tiny sphere seemed somewhat perplexed: “Small worlds are all real worlds.”
Xiao said: “But I’m not a person from here.” Fearing the tiny sphere would go check some bloodstain again, he hurriedly added: “If you don’t believe me, go check whether that Xiao She over there is missing any part of his soul body!”
The tiny sphere had always satisfied the host’s wishes. Upon hearing this, it flew over to the paused Xiao She, who was lying on the bed with a distorted face, and emitted a red beam of light to scan him up and down. It seemed to encounter some difficult problem: “Confirmed complete…”
“So it’s not me, right?” Xiao She breathed a sigh of relief. “So hurry up and unbind me; I want to go back.”
The system stammered for a while. Xiao She said: “…Unbind me this instant.”
“It cannot be unbound,” the tiny sphere said at lightning speed to prevent the dark-faced man in front of it from smashing it to pieces. “Because detached soul bodies dissipate very quickly! That’s why we directly capture and bind them! There is no unbinding function!”
Xiao She: “Then you had better provide me with a solution.”
The tiny sphere shivered very vividly, then said: “There has never been a situation like this before… However, our system can fulfill most of the host’s requests. As you can see, the original body chose a very excellent person to assist. Would you like to try adapting to this life? Regarding the unbinding, we will give you a response later.”
Having managed a company, Xiao She naturally knew all about such boilerplate phrases as “responding later.” He burst into an angry laugh and directly interrupted the tiny sphere: “You need to realize that I was living very well originally and didn’t need any so-called assistance at all.”
The tiny sphere fell silent. Xiao She continued: “Furthermore, I know about the Character Value, and I also know you hid some settings without telling Xiao She.”
The tiny sphere looked at the man before it in utter shock. It stuttered: “You… you… How do you know?!”
Xiao She had no interest in answering its question. Reaching out, he pinned down the tiny sphere that was flying all over the place and merely said: “Therefore, quickly report up to unbind.”
The tiny sphere was almost scared to tears, squirming back and forth under his hand. After a moment, it said with a bitter face: “Headquarters rejected it.”
Xiao She frowned: “Why?”
“Because… because a problem occurred with the soul inside Xiao She’s body,” the tiny sphere explained. “He fell into a deep sleep, which is why I mistakenly thought you were his detached soul.”
Xiao found it hard to believe that the insufferably arrogant villain just a second ago was completely gone the next second. He instinctively exerted a bit more force. Hearing its newly replaced metallic shell make a “creak creak” sound, the tiny sphere was practically crying out loud: “It was precisely because he fell asleep that a problem occurred in the world, automatically capturing and dropping you in. It’s not entirely my fault!”
Xiao, she asked in a cold voice, “Are you saying that I have to handle the remaining mess for him?”
“N-No, not necessarily,” the tiny sphere said. “As long as you don’t reveal your identity, you will have the highest degree of freedom going forward. As long as you guarantee survival, we will do our utmost to find out the reason, and then you will be able to leave.”
Xiao’s voice turned completely icy: “Am I working for you guys for free?”
“No, that’s not it!” the tiny sphere said hastily. “The world wouldn’t capture a healthy person for no reason. You must have had some glitch due to emotional excitement in your sleep, leading to being captured. Cooperating with us is also a way to preserve your own body.”
Could it be that he got too excited while reading and suffered a brain hemorrhage in his sleep?
Xiao released his hand, his expression extremely foul: “You’d better not lie to me.”
“How could I!” the tiny sphere said immediately. “We are definitely acting with one hundred percent sincerity. You are already my host, and my programming does not allow me to lie to you.”
Xiao knew this point; it was precisely this feature that allowed the villain to do whatever he pleased in the early parts of the novel. He reached out, flicked the tiny sphere away, clapped his hands, and said: “How long will you guys roughly take?”
The tiny sphere said: “Um… this, we can’t be sure either.” Seeing Xiao She’s expression grow increasingly violent, it immediately added: “But we also need your help! As long as the Character Value is raised back to +50, the original body will wake up on its own. You don’t need to worry!”
Xiao She: “If I remember correctly, is it currently at -99?”
The tiny sphere: “Yes…”
Xiao She closed his eyes in endurance: “Send me out.”
The tiny sphere was somewhat surprised: “You aren’t angry?”
Xiao She let out a cold laugh: “Is being angry useful?” Seeing the system fly back sheepishly as if to let him vent his anger, he reached out and flicked its forehead once more, his tone softening slightly: “Since an agreement has been reached, there’s no need to be angry.”
The tiny sphere was moved to tears: “You really are a good person!”
“…That’s hardly necessary.” Xiao was somewhat speechless. Before he could open his mouth again, waves of familiar dizziness hit his brain. He was completely resigned to the tiny sphere’s instant-cast ability and could only knit his brows to overcome it.
And when he regained consciousness, he saw Liang Mu’s knees dropping straight down toward him.
Xiao scrambled off the bed, extending his hands to stop him:
“Don’t do that!!”