City A, Taoxing International Airport.
In the first-class lounge, the broadcast was announcing boarding information for an upcoming flight—a flight to a city abroad was preparing to board.
Gu You put down the magazine in her hands, finished the remaining coffee on the table, picked up her bag from the sofa beside her, and stood up to head out.
“Hello, Ms. Gu You. Please watch your step,” the flight attendant greeting her at the cabin door reminded her with a bright smile.
After sitting down in her first-class seat, a flight attendant immediately came over to attend to her. Gu You ordered another cup of coffee and a small cake.
This trip abroad was to negotiate a major project for the company. The business partner was a senior schoolmate she had known while studying abroad, and the other colleagues on the project team had already departed ahead of her.
After returning from her studies abroad at 25, Gu You went to work at her father’s company as general manager.
Over the years, she had dated several boyfriends, but because she was a workaholic who worked day and night, every relationship ended in a breakup. Now 35, she remained unmarried to this day.
Thinking of last night’s argument with her father, Gu Zhihua, Gu You frowned, feeling a wave of headaches coming on. An arranged business marriage by the family—there was no way she would agree to it.
And her father had actually told her that he had a ten-year-old son outside. If she refused to get married again, he planned to bring this son home.
A son??
Hah. What a nice way to describe an illegitimate child.
Her mother, Lin Yin, had only passed away three years ago, and now her father claimed he had a ten-year-old son. Thinking of her mother, Gu You truly felt she had been wronged.
Her mother had built the business with him from nothing, growing it from a small supermarket into the large-scale chain department store it was today. After all those years of hard work, what she received in return was betrayal.
Lost in these thoughts, and having slept poorly the night before, Gu You closed her eyes and quickly fell asleep against her pillow.
“Ding ding ding. The plane is now encountering strong turbulence. Please fasten your seatbelts and remain in your seats.”
The flight attendant’s announcement woke Gu You. She checked her watch—she had slept for nearly an hour. She pulled up the window shade beside her and looked outside. It was pitch black.
The plane hit strong turbulence and shook violently. In the economy cabin behind, several children were frightened to tears. The adults hurried to comfort them, while some people complained that the crying was too noisy.
After a while longer, Gu You saw that the oxygen masks overhead had already dropped down, and a bad premonition began to form in her heart.
Encountering turbulence on a flight was common, but she had never once experienced the oxygen masks deploying.
“What do we do? The engines on both wings have failed, and there’s no way to make an emergency landing now.” First class was very close to the flight attendants’ galley, so Gu You overheard several of them talking.
She never imagined she would die in a plane crash today. So Gu You thought.
The next second, the world began to spin. The plane was plummeting rapidly downward, and the weightless sensation of free fall nearly threw her out of her seat—only the seatbelt was digging tightly into her waist.
Even now, a thought flashed through Gu You’s mind: when an accident really happens, what good is a seatbelt anyway?
She felt a pain as if her eardrums were about to burst. Affected by the lack of oxygen and the air pressure during the descent, her vision grew blurrier and blurrier.
The pain lasted only an instant. After the impact to her head, she lost consciousness, and Gu You had no awareness of anything that happened afterward.
When Gu You regained consciousness, she was standing in a void, surrounded by dark, hazy mist. Directly ahead of her was a door. She opened it and walked through.
“Hello, Host. I am System 888. Welcome to my System Space.”
The moment Gu You stepped into the room, a voice rang out in her ear—a soft, youthful voice that sounded rather cute.
She looked around the room. It had white walls on all sides and was completely empty. She saw no speakers or any other sound equipment.
Gu You asked in confusion, “Who are you? Where is this? I seem to have just been in a plane crash—why am I here now?”
“I am System 888, and this is the System Space. You are now a Soul Body, chosen by the Cosmic Main God to be a Host. As long as you bind with me and complete missions to earn Points, once you accumulate five hundred thousand Points, you can retire.”
“After retirement, you will gain endless life and the ability to travel through time and space. You can come and go freely among the Three Thousand Worlds and live in any world you choose.”
“Then what exactly do I need to do for these missions? How many Points does each mission earn?”
“The clients are all Cannon Fodder from various small worlds who, upon death, had too much resentment to reincarnate. So you need to fulfill the clients’ wishes. Each client’s situation is different, and so are their wishes. The Points depend on the mission’s difficulty—the lowest is one thousand Points, and the highest is ten thousand.”
After listening to System 888’s explanation, Gu You understood the general rules. She calculated to herself: five hundred thousand Points to retire—that would take so many missions.
At the same time, she understood that given her current situation, other than binding with the System, she had no second option.
Her body had already perished in the real world, leaving only a Soul Body drifting about. She wondered whether her father would grieve for her.
He still had a son. She figured her father probably felt relieved, actually. With her gone, no one could stop him from bringing his illegitimate son home.
Oh well, oh well. The past was no longer worth mentioning. Let all these unpleasant things turn to dust and scatter with the wind.
Gu You sighed and said, “Fine, I agree to the binding.”
“Great, Host. Here’s to a pleasant partnership~” The System’s tone sounded quite happy.
“888, can I call you Xiao 8 from now on? Just call me Gu You or Youyou.” The title “Host” felt really awkward—strange to hear. And “888” sounded like “get rich, get rich, get rich” in Chinese—a bit tacky.
System 888 replied indifferently, “Then just call me Xiao 8 from now on. Youyou, do you want to enter a mission now, or rest a bit first?”
“What’s my first mission? Can I choose my missions?” Although Gu You had steered a company for many years, facing this bizarre situation now, she couldn’t help feeling a little anxious about the unknown worlds ahead.
She had never imagined that one day she would bind with a System and travel through different worlds completing missions.
“Tasks are random, and Hosts cannot choose their tasks. Once you enter a task, I will transmit the plot and the original host’s wishes to you. Don’t worry—the first task is a beginner task, so it generally won’t be difficult,” System Xiao 8 explained patiently.
Gu You nodded. “Then what if I fail to complete a task? Will Points be deducted?”
“Failed tasks don’t deduct Points, but if you fail three times in a row, you will face Obliteration.”
What?? Why didn’t you make that clear before binding with me? Gu You silently cursed the System. How heartless—saving the most crucial information for now.
Still, the word “failure” had never existed in her life’s dictionary. Come what may, she would handle it. Just wait and see…
“Alright, I understand. Let’s enter the task now.” The moment Gu You finished speaking, Xiao 8 had already transmitted her into the first task.